Bidlack for Congress

Bidlack does believe in the Invisible Sky Pixie, but he is not the obnoxious sort who imposes his beliefs on others.

Hey PZ. When are we gonna crash these polls on Sara Palin. Currently, Sarah Palin is ahead.

www.sarahpalin.com

The 5th congressional district is Colorado Springs. Mr. Bidlack has a snowball and hell problem in his quest. In fact he may be the only democrat in El Paso and Douglas counties. This is where James Dobsonfly and his minions (focus on the hellgramite) rule.

The problem is the CO-5 is a safe repug district. No Dem is going to win it, ever. It is great that he is running and keeping them relatively honest, but it one of those campaigns that is doomed from the start.

I'd love to help but unfortunately, I live in CO-4. Or fortunately as the case may be, because we have a legitimate chance to dethrone musgrave.

I plan on voting for him, though as others have said he's a snowball in hell facing an uphill battle on fourth and long with two outs in the bottom of the ninth with .8 seconds showing on the clock inbounnding the ball at mid-court as a dem in CO-5.

I'd be more supportive, but I was distracted by his ruggedly handsome looks and nicely trimmed hair. It was all I could do not to stare at his cleavage.

Brownian,

And He's single too.

...but a Canadian vote for him? Oh, whoops! Wrong thread!

*can a Canadian

I tried to kill the submit, but wasn't fast enough (curse this metal body!).

For those saying CO-5 is a safe Republican district, you are wrong. Lamborn is polling neck and neck with Hal right now. Lamborn is a career Bush rubber-stamper, and if you go and read what's being said in papers you'll see that voters are unhappy with him.

Note too that Hal is retired Air Force, was at the Pentagon during 9/11, and has had an extraordinary career. He has a real shot here.

He announces his rationalism and scepticism where on the campaign site exactly?

Extremely OT, But it looks like someone has brought a lawsuit against God for "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27201871/

He's running in the most conservative district in the state...Home of Focus on the Family and Ted Hagard. I wish him all the best though.

I guess this means we'll soon be seeing ads from the CO RNC saying, "Hal Bidlack is supported by Godless Liberals and Militant Atheists! His friend, Christ-defiler and Immoral Evolutionist PZ Myers, called him, 'a good guy'. Does Hal Bidlack want to outlaw CHRISTmas and Send Christians to Atheist Concentration Camps?"

From his website:

"Defending the Constitution means defending all of it. It means defending speech, even if one disagrees with it. It means defending one's right to believe or to not believe in God."

As a Colorado Springs resident I will definitely be voting for Bidlack. True, this is home to some of the worst of the religious right and is overall very conservative but he's running a good campaign at the right time. His military background and emotional Pentagon 9/11 story go over quite well here. He doesn't speak much about his skepticism while campaigning (so far as I know) and thats fine. People here would just confuse it with cynicism anyway. He was on Shermer's Skepticality just the other day though if you listen to that podcast.

Ahh, CO-5. Home Repugnant Home.

Do you know that in those parts there often isn't even a Democrat listed on the ballot for some of the local offices? It's a race between a Republican and a Libertarian.

I guess this means we'll soon be seeing ads from the CO RNC saying, "Hal Bidlack is supported by Godless Liberals and Militant Atheists! His friend, Christ-defiler and Immoral Evolutionist PZ Myers, called him, 'a good guy'. Does Hal Bidlack want to outlaw CHRISTmas and Send Christians to Atheist Concentration Camps?"

They do that in Colorado Springs even if it isn't true. This doesn't make any difference.

It's a little more involved than just Pharyngulizing a poll, but you can contribute to Hal's campaign at bidlack2008.com.

There's something Bidlack has going for him that hasn't been mentioned here, yet.

He isn't Lambourn. Lambourn is such a right-wing tool that he makes Musgrave look reasonable sometimes. His campaign strategy back in 2006 paid off, too. In District 5, you can win by buying airtime and just repeating, "JAY FAWCETT IS A LIBRULLLLL". That's how Lambourn won.

I have already voted for Hal by mail. Lamborn is terrible.

PZ, may I suggest a post rallying support for the two Texas Board of Education candidates trying to unseat two of the current creationist members?

Laura Ewing http://www.ewingfortexas.com/
Dr. Edra Bogle http://bogleforquality.com/

(HT: John Kingman)

Hal had my vote early. Tough town for freethinkers but we are making headway - just need to reduce the Focus fundies to a noise level.

I also met Hal at TAM6. I really respect him. He was just interviewed on the lastest Skepticallity podcast. It would be awesome if he wins.

I wish I could vote for him, but I'm in CO-1. He sounds like a great candidate.

I recall that Dobson moved Focus on the Patriarchy from California in the '80s or '90s. Is Colorado Springs a similar case to the Treasure Valley of Idaho where the politics were skewed by tons of disaffected right-wingers moving from California?

I'm in co-3, but I sent his campaign $20. Since I can't give him my vote, I sent $20 to his campaign.

You can learn more about him from the last Skepticality podcast. As a veteran of the USAF, like Bidlack, I'm here to tell you that Bidlack is a very righteous guy.

I've been urging all my rationalist friends to send Bidlack and Kay Hagan donations. To paraphrase Tarvuism . . . it's so easy (to give)!

I live in this district and we have his sign on our fence. Tomorrow the Obama sign goes up beside it. And I know I am not the only Democrat in this precinct, because I see someone else on the roster when I got to vote. (My husband is registered R so he can vote in the primaries, and at least try to keep the nuttiest of the nuts off the school board. I should probably do so, but have been able to bring myself to it.)

#2: sometimes it's best to leave polls alone. The obvious is lame, often enough.

#29: rationalist friends? Define 'rational' - quantifiably.

There aren't any Nobel prizes for rationality or skepticism. Wonder why.

Ah, yes, Hal Bidlack. The guy who thinks he can be a Skeptic of Faith without being skeptical about faith.

I'm sure he's a great guy but his constant mantra of wondering why the skeptical community won't work with religion kind of turns me off. Well, Hal, it's the same reason we're not willing to suspend skepticism about Bigfoot to make common cause against Alien Abductees; being a skeptic means you don't get to pick and choose which bullshit you're going to set beyond criticism.

The Denver Post (the "liberal newspaper" when compared to the Rocky Mountain News)endorsed Mr. Bidlack but also endorsed Ms. Musgrave (by the way the name musgrave comes from 2 latin words; "mus" which means "rat" and "grave" which means "dead"). In Co-6 which is my district the endorsement is for (R) Coffman over (D) Eng, the ony other republican endorsed. In the senate race the oxymoronic liberal Boulder democrat Mormon Mark Udall was endorsed as well. If you live in the 5th or 6th congressional district and you want to find some liberals you'll find them at St.Andrew United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch (a shameless plug).

Even if you're not able to vote for Bidlack yourself, consider helping his campaign get the word out. Anyone can contribute here:

http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/19300