As a Western Pennsylvanian I certainly understand your pain, with just our local legislators voting themselves a back-door, midterm, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, pay increase i'm sure many fellow Pennsylvanians are considering thier options for next election cycle. During the '04 Senate Race Jim Clymer (a man whom I am sure most media outlets didnt publicize or discuss) garnished 4% of the vote when facing Specter and some no-name DUmmie whose name i can recall right now. That 4% translated into 250,000 votes if i am not mistaken; the 3rd most voted for candidate in the state for the Senate. Many so-called "Conservatives" on the FR scoff at the notion that a 3rd party could EVER stand for anything more than the Republicans have; because we all know how great the Republicans are and to vote your prinicples over your "favorite" political party would be unheard of. Many people i've talked to say it's wishful thinking to believe that a 3rd party could ever amount to much in the national forum but i feel that the day is coming when it will very much be the norm. What makes this country GREAT is the free-flowing transfer of Ideas and Thoughts. Our educational systems promote such a concept but why not our political? My sediments are that they have been limited up until this point; thanks to the birth of the internet (I'm excluding talk radio only because it is as SUBJECTIVE as the newspapers and MSM can be. Any man who hangs on another man's word like Limbaugh's or Hannity's is foolish; it undermines free-thinking as long as those who listen do not question the host.) ideas and thoughts have been exchanged at lightning fast speeds allowing for more than the typical "Democrats Bad, Republicans Good" rhetoric. As a college student, I see this type of questioning (albeit at a slow pace due to the liberal strangle hold on the institution itself) beginning to grow. My thoughts are, if you always vote principle over politics, regardless of whom wins you are doing the right thing. This is not a political system in which either one or the other big party wins or loses, while the trend may have been such for the past 100 years or more it certainly doesnt have to be that way.