Sugar Land

Our neighbors in Harris County no longer need coffee to wake up in the morning. All they have to do is look at the morning newspaper and follow the latest development in the District Attorney e-mail scandal. That will wake you up. This story has been on the front page, above the fold, every day for two weeks.

For those wondering if this will ever end, I hope not.

I just read the Bob Herbert piece about a 16 year old girl in Nacogdoches, Texas, whose battle against cancer max-ed out her parents' health insurance policy. This story will make you want to cry.

It's not just the millions of Americans without health insurance who go without medical care.

It's not just the millions of Americans who lose their jobs and discover that COBRA health coverage is 10 times the price of their old coverage.

Today, reporters are feverishly investigating which presidential candidates tip their waitresses and which do not. Oh. My. God. It's Tipgate. Is that the best that the press corps can do? Osama bin Ladin is still loose---six years after 9/11, American armed forces were ordered into an unnecessary pre-emptive war, the credit markets are groaning under the weight of U.S. debt, 43 million Americans don't have health insurance, an American city drowned when the levees broke, and all we want to know is whether the candidates are poor tippers. How can a poor man stand such times and live?

On January 26, 2003, the three women known as the “Dixie Chicks” were riding a wave of popularity. They were one of the hottest acts in America, and their status was confirmed that afternoon in San Diego, when they sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.

Why is it that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and all of those other talking heads can be painted into a logical corner and still seem to win every argument? The answer is simple: they don’t fight fairly.

You, my Democratic friend, have been doing this all wrong. You think that the way to argue and persuade is to take a well-reasoned position, marshal your evidence, quote honest statistics, use logic, and gently challenge your opponent’s position. If you do that when arguing with a Republican, you will lose---again.