BJ,

If you'd listen to what we say and write instead of making it up in your mind or absorbing it from your right wing whack job radio entertainers, you'd already know it. I have the same values I've always had, but I seem liberal today because so many conservatives and the Republican Party have moved so far over the edge. I'm a fiscal conservative and have always been a social liberal.

Social liberalism is kind of a conservative attribute if you agree with the conservative thought that the government should stay the hell out of people's private business or affairs.

I believe, consistent with the Constitution, that the federal gov't's first responsibility is national defense. Note: that is defense, not offense as in unprovoked invasions of sovereign nations ala Bushco. Somebody attacks the US and the natural, logical, legal, moral, and ethical consequence is to kill 'em. Pretty simple. How's that for liberalism? Defending strategic minerals abroad, like oil for instance, is not Constitutionally defensible. It is, however, defensible for reasons of lifestyle maintenance or greed or avarice or any number of lower human attributes. I don't care; just call a spade a shovel, and stop the sugar-coating; it's intellectually insulting.

I believe that reducing Constitutional protections of citizens is treasonous. Ergo, Buscho and every Congressman and Congresswoman who voted for it is a traitor of the US. I try to keep these things as simple as possible so that even conservatives may understand them.

When conservatives support gov't intervention in people's private lives and reductions in Constitutional protections, I can only conclude that they are stupid beyond belief or are agents of the Devil.

Sg