Jean-Luc Picard said it best in "First Contact" RE the "Borg"...

[Yollam]

I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. Weve made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And *I* will make them pay for what they've done.


Democrats and progressives in the United States have done the same for over 25 years now. We've let them push ever further to the right, with tax cuts for the rich, slashing the social safety net, and with every subsequent year, the so-called "center" is defined as being another step to the right, so much so that schemes like privatizing Social Security or a "flat tax" are no longer seen as far-out right-wing fantasies, but "serious proposals". ENOUGH ALREADY.

I propose that we draw that line, and stop letting them tell US what the "center" is, dammit!

[Swamp Rat]

1. The "center" is irrelevant. You will be assimilated.

OBEY

[tocqueville]

8. resistance is futile.

[LuCifer]

2. AFUCKINGMEN!

Couldn't have said it better!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SET PHASERS FOR KILL!!!!!!!!

[tatertop]

3. Make it so; engage; get her done

[jrd200x]

4. Quite Right Number One

Dump Bush like Number Two

[Cleita]

5. And don't forget to flush.n/t

[The Traveler]

6. "And if a my chest were a cannon ..."

You forget how the scene ends. Black girl/first warpship engineering officer brings home to Picaard the barreness of revenge and the utter importance of life.

It is in that spirit that Piccard sets self destruct and heads down to the Borg owned engineering section to rescue Data and, almost unexpectedly, the day.

Your moral is not incorrect, merely incomplete. It is far more important to bring water to those on fire than it is to bring vengeance to those slimy bastards. We got people hurting hard in this country, and we gotta help them.

[ContraBass Black]

7. When Picard said that, he was going Ahab.

I don't like the example.

[Yollam]

9. He was right about the need to stop retreating, though.

He saw the need to take a step back for a moment, but he came back and took them out in the end. He didn't fall back and draw another line and then another until he was backed into a corner.

And even after 5 nightmarish years of outrage after atrocity, elected democrats as a group have yet to show ANY of that fire. They think it's still business as usual.

[Yollam]

10. The constantly rightward slide of "the center"

I'm so sick of being told that liberals (LIBERAL = MODERATE, SLIGHTLY LEFT OF CENTER & PRO-ESTABLISHMENT, *NOT* RADICAL, NOT ANTI-BUSINESS) like Ted Kennedy or Russ Feingold somehow represent the "left". They just happen to be two democrats who have stubbornly adhered to the traditional MODERATE liberalism of the past, rather than embracing the right-leaning faux-democrat, quasi-republican ideas that gained popularity in the 80s and 90s. But the fact is, despite the lack of an active political left in the US, the ideas and principles of democratic socialism ('the left') and Marxism/Leninism/Maoism ('the far left/authoritarian left) still exist and are put into practice all around the world, to the chagrin of ultra-right-wingers like the current administration.

Put it another way, Bushco are every bit as far to the right as Brezhnev or Kruschev were to the left, but are not quite so far to the right as to be a counter to a Stalin. That's why I object to moderates like Ted Kennedy being described as though they were on the other end of the scale from Bush. They are left of center, but only ever so slightly. And pro-war thugs like Lieberman are definitely to the right of the center, if you define the spectrum as ranging from democratic socialist on the left and Bushite republican on the right. (Any further to the right or left, and you are in despot territory.)

Here's how I see the spectrum:


Stalinists. Maoists & other left-wing despots mainline communists democratic socialists progressives/greens labor democrats/old-line liberals mainstream democrats right-wing "DLC" democrats libertarian/moderate republicans right-wing republicans Italian-style fascists and monarchists Nazis & other right-wing despots


On this scale, mainstream democrats are the CENTER. The fact that there is no political left in the United States is beside the point. The mainstream of the democratic party is the CENTER of the political spectrum, with totalitarian left and right at either end. right-wing democrats are RIGHT of center, and all republicans are FAR RIGHT WING.

Get it?

[crickets]

13. Yes!

What a relief to hear someone else who sees the political spectrum in a similar way. A hearty progressive/green/labor democrat salute to you.

[darkmaestro019]

11. It always makes me cry when he gets to "This far, no further!"

edit: i've used that one a time or two to describe how fed up I am. Thank you for your excellent taste. : )

[SeattleGirl]

12. Let's hear it for the Captain!

That man knew what was what, knew right from wrong. Damn, sometimes I wished I lived in the time of the Great Captain Picard.

[Yollam]

14. Separated at birth?

Can you tell which being in the pictures below has been assimilated?