It seems that the difference between decisions that individual geeks make regarding their own personal mail, and the decisions that ISP anti-spam staff make regarding their entire system, has grown even wider than ever before.

Unfortunately, there are many who still argue for or against any particular point of view as if the thought process they use when deciding the rules for their own personal mailbox apply equally to decisions made by providers of e-mail services to end users.

To put it more simply: the way a particular hobbyist geek makes decisions ain't the way anyone who runs a real service makes decisions, and it wastes all our time to argue about both in the same thread.

I agree that in the current climate, Howard Dean needs to remember that everything he says will be taken out of context and plastered all over the news networks before anyone in his office even realizes what he said. But if we're going to attack him, let's check the actual quotes.

And for those who've already seen the actual quotes and/or don't care, take a look at what the RNC was sending out about Democrats during the last election:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000546.html

"The tide is turning. Public support for the war is down, as are the President's ratings. Anti-war Democrats are back. Military recruiting is hitting a wall. The US strategy of Iraqization is failing. ...The bad news is that the good news is so recent. For six long months, the media and the Democrats have given the President a free pass, and the anti-war movement has floundered. The war is not over -- we should remember that the Vietnam War continued for seven years after President Johnson was forced to resign."