Discourse like this benefits us all.

^^^ Absolutely.

Let me add that it's easy to forget that operating a computer can be a mystery to those who didn't grow up with the technology. Once you're over the hurdle of getting a computer and getting online, then you need to figure out how to frame a proper Google search, and then develop the skill to tell bullshit websites from legitimate ones.

This can be harder than it sounds, since uneducated and/or inexperienced people tend to believe everything they read, especially if it comes from what seems to be a reliable source. There are lots of people who wouldn't know the difference between the Washington Times and the Washington Post, for instance.

This skill is easy to take for granted since we've been doing it for so long it is second nature, but for poor folks living their lives in rural areas without a computer and net access, this is as foreign as it comes.

I really don't want to stereotype the state, so i am speaking from personal experience.

I spent some time there with a girlfriend that had family down there, we went to a Family Reunion right around the summer of 2003. We drove into a town that was basically carved into the side of a mountain.

I felt stupid because when i got there, her family still used an outhouse and the water running into the house was from a well. It reeked of sulfur and wasn't always clear. They had one phone between the three houses that were within a mile of one another and one television from about 1974, that got about 4 channels, not clear either. I was naive enough to believe that in the 2000's that this didn't exist anymore.

The whole time i was down there i was kind of in culture shock. I have four desktop computers and a laptop, cable connections, air cards, cell phones and PDA's are a part of my everyday life, i am a tech geek. I was frowned upon because of my tattoos, asked if i was gay several times and it was just assumed that i worshiped Satan. I mentioned "Bluetooth" and was looked at like i was insane.

They don't worry about college in this little town. They don't worry about anymore education than the "damned Yankee government" requires. I can't tell you the number of times that her grandmother said "I only got a sixth grade education, and i am fine!".

I am pretty sure her grandfather hated me, not for anymore reason than i was from a "big city". The feeling was just about mutual because the word "nigger" poured from his lips ignorantly in just about every sentence he used. They don't do white collar work. They're basically blue collar to the bone and have no desire to change that.

While i am sure things in the bigger cities of West Virginia are different. There are plentiful amounts of people living in the hollers and the hills that are perfectly happy with how they are living life. They're basically cut-off from society and don't care and really have no desire to change. They're family roots run deep, and they stay very close together in their beliefs and keep the family extremely close.

About two weeks after we got back from the Family re-union the girl who grew up there and i was dating, broke up with me because "Her grandparents didn't like me", even though she lives roughly 6 hours away from them, she still held onto the fact that she needed to impress her family with who she was dating. So even though she didn't live there anymore, her ideals still centered around keeping the family happy.

It's a different world in some places, and i am sure that is true in more places than just West Virginia. Change comes very, very slow to places like that.

Oh, I understand. I too have found myself in similar situations, where for the life of me I couldn't understand what they were even saying.

I guess that's why I used "Hopefully".

Hopefully, whatever shitty school the government forces them to go to has some internet connection. Anything that can expose them to the outside world.

Unfortunately you get into the small southern cities of Ohio and it's the same way. There are also cities like that in Kentucky, PA and Indiana that i have personally been to.

Life outside their beliefs and the edge of their town just doesn't exist. It's quite frightening actually. You try to enlighten them and they just see you as an outsider with a marred opinion on how life should work.

I think there are parts of every state like this, just not to the degree there are in West Virginia. I've been to some scary backwards parts of Florida too, as i am sure you have.

This video saddens me. Especially the "The USA should be run by someone FROM the USA" lady. Face palm city.

That would include lots of non-American people.

Nice to see the ridiculous rhetoric is still a viable substitution for actual intelligent discourse when it comes to politics.

Before you cream yourself in glee you might actually want to spend a minute actually reading Don Cazayoux's political platform. He's FAR from a candidate lefties should be patting themselves on the back as a great upset. He's pro-life, against gun control, pro-war on terror (and from the phrase 'bring our troops home with honor' I suspect pro-Iraq), seemingly pro-Patriot Act and against amnesty for illegal immigrants. All of this would have taken you three minutes to find out ... but no it's way easier just to read "Democrat" and assume this is a massive victory.

What's most distressing is how many Democrats have their heads up their asses. You can't assume that negative views on Iraq will equal a win, if that were true Kerry would have taken the Presidency four years ago when the war was at its most violent and most unpopular. But he didn't, probably for the same reason the Democrats are likely to lose this time too: he assumed he had it locked up and forgot to actually run for President. Not only are the Democrats NOT reaching out to independents and moderate Republicans, they're making such a show about tearing each other apart they're risking losing a chunk of their own party's vote. The dirtiness between Obama and Clinton is making the Dems look ridiculous and turning swing voters off while McCain is smelling like a rose.

Can somebody take Mike Huckabee's fucking gun away from him because apparently he doesn't know how to handle one. You never point a gun at something you don't intend to shoot.

The GOP just can't keep that bigotry in check. It's leaking through like cracks in a dam.

The joke is bad enough, but something else he said made me think. All these people calling for less government regulation and oversight . . . . it's starting to make me wonder what they are wanting to get up to that is illegal under federal regulations

Are you always this wrong? Obama's been grabbing independent votes like crazy and he's running an honest-to-god 50 states strategy, and it's one that the DCCC has been emulating.

Also, only trolls use the (exceptionally loaded) phrase "pro-war on terror". Democrats aren't against the war on terror. They're against a war on terror headed by an incompetent administration.

I don't know. In case of Mike Huckabee, it just seems to be a weird allegiance to his anti-government ideology. Much like the Paultards, they seem to grab hold of specific examples of government waste and inefficiency and spread it over any and every argument of more vs. less government like better.

Mike Huckabee isn't that deep. Government bad. Jesus good.

I am against the "war on terror". It's a ridiculous notion, pandering to people scared of their own shadows and being used to curtail rights and freedoms. Little to none of which is making us any safer.

Of course, I'm not a Democrat.

(And I am specifically against the ludicrous concept of the war on terror. Such minimal additional precautions as are appropriate for maximal +safety/minimal -convenience are of course more than welcome.)

As a Louisiana voter that identifies himself proudly as liberal, I can tell you that while Don Cazayoux may not be my ideal representative, he's as good as I can realistically hope for. It will take 100 years before the kind of candidate I consider to be ideal will ever have a shot in Louisiana. The fact that Don Cazayoux won as a Democrat down here is stupendous in and of itself. At the very least, a representative who is registered with the Democractic party, will be far more likely to represent my views than any of his Republican counterparts.

Citation needed. In 2004, the war was only a year old, and though Bush's support was waning, it was no where near the abysmal levels it is at now.

False. Kerry was a wooden and unpersonable candidate, just like Gore. Kerry and Gore also fell into the trap of fighting the non-issue battles that the Republicans choose. Obama has shown every indication so far, in his campaign against Hillary of not stooping to her ridiculous shots unless absolutely necessary. He doesn't allow his opponents to choose the battles.