Kos has a post up on the Republicanization of Texas, aka, "the affect of blatent partisan redistricting". While all gerrymandering stands justly accused of partisan corruption, Delay still managed to make his stand out by doing it in an off year, in 2003, just a couple years after a redistricting already favorable to Republicans, breaking the at-least-one-restraint of redistricting only every 10 years.

Lebanon is mourning the loss of the politician assassinated yesterday. Most people think Syria did it. But the powerful family of the slain Christian politician seems to be doing a good job of keeping the thoughts of angry revenge tamped down enough to prevent outright chaos. Nowhere in the major news outlets (CNN , MSNBC , ABC , CBS , Fox ) do I see the story about the outgoing congress leaving much of their spending appropriations work undone even though there is an AP story about it that was on Yahoo News. (link ) Last month was the mostly deadly month for Iraqis thus far. (link ) I think this is a decent article about Pelosi and "San Francisco values."

Firstly, let me thank Ender for all the work he did setting up this new version of Swords Crossed.

I'd like my first post here at this new Swords Crossed to be about the purple nation logo. The source art I assume is from the widely spread purple images of the 2004 election . Here is one for the 2006 congressional race provided by this guy at Princeton .

My belief in relativism gets bogged down in esoteric epistemology, often, when it comes to debate, but of course, there is a much simpler and practical aspect of relativism, a perspectivism, which really merely points out that, given Argument A, there are N sides (not 2) to the issues it raises. The sides are not entirely without limit, of M proposed sides of an argument, some can be rejected due to:

• logical inconsistency
• lack of supporting evidence
• manipulative arguments, disingenuous sides of the argument
• contravention to local law

These and other criteria can reject a side of an argument from public consideration... but one will still end up with a set of sides greater than one. The Purple Theory of American politics would -- should -- be that proper solutions pull the best ideas from each side, and is always informed by the concerns represented. It is not with a spirit of compromise we do this, just to be nice or get along, though that's nice, it's from a belief that the strongest ideas, the best national ideas, are made from all points of view. The "full view" is all the N sides. Any "expert" in the debate would and will know all N sides, and be able to present them.

A very sobering look at the way Islam is changing the character of Great Britain that should be a shrill sound of warning to all free Nations that want to remain that way.

From Paul J Cella's The once Merry England. The decline toward dhimmitude. :

In the streets of London the signs read: “we are all Hizballah now.” In the august corridors of the House of Lords, two peers come to blows when one dared to utter a word about Israel’s right to self-defense. In central London a mosque is being built that will be the largest in Europe, auguring what sort of capital that great city will soon be. A local Muslim activist, after disrupting a press conference, is promptly invited on the BBC to give his assessment of things: Home Secretary John Reid is a “murderer,” Blair an “an enemy to Muslims and an enemy to Allah,” and finally, Britain “doesn’t belong to you, or to the Queen, or to the government, but to Allah. He has put us on earth to implement shari’a law.”

Mike, feel free to edit this one, if you feel like adding something.

This is an open thread, so what's up with you guys?

UPDATE by Mike P: OJ's book deal and Fox Interview are cancelled. Iraq and Syria are talking. (link ) A Lebanese Christian leader has been assassinated. (link )And breaking news is that Filmmaker Robert Altman, who made the movie M*A*S*H, has died.

So what are your plans for Thanksgiving? I've been busy wrapping up work details the last couple of days and haven't had much time to blog.

Rangel has promised to reintroduce his bill calling for a national draft, a bill previously soundly defeated in the House. The bill would also allow non-military fulfillment of service requirements. Some perceive his call for national service as an anti-war statement rather than a genuine legislative proposal, and Rangel himself hopes that his bill would make going to war a more difficult and solemn decision.

"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," said Rangel, a Korean War veteran. "If we're going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can't do that without a draft."

Bush arrives in Indonesia . Pentagon offers some interesting options on Iraq .

Dems haven't done much yet :) This is an open thread.

This is the quote that will go below the Swords Crossed Site Title up top, and to the right of the Map. Do we want to keep the old one which was:

"The world continues to offer glittering prizes to those who have stout hearts and sharp swords." - E.E.Smith

Or we can keep taking suggestions and see if we like anything better.

Also any other thoughts about the look and any initial problems can go here.

This is an Open Thread.

This is the Sunday Open Thread. First of the new SC.

Welcome to the new and improved (but not yet completely finished) Swords Crossed.

To sign in: all of you who currently have SC accounts, should still have them. The password will not work so you have to use the "Request new password" link on the bottom of the logon block.

If the email you used to originally sign up is inactive or you forgot what it was - use the Contact Us button at the top (under the graphic) and tell me the email address you would like to use. The contact form will send me an email, I will change the email on your account, and you will be able to request new password.