However, and since I won't work outside between 11 AM & 4 PM because of my blue skin:

I already have a political manifesto. It's called the Bill of Rights. As an American citizen, it's my privilege and my obligation to support and defend it with my best efforts, and to respect those who also seek to do so, whether or not I agree with their political philosophies. It's also my duty to speak up whenever I see my fellow citizens and especially the officers of my country, on the local, state or national level, acting in ways that undermine it.

Insofar as this newborn Manifesto coincides with the Bill of Rights, I agree. Insofar as it does not, I either disagree with it or ignore it.

Its signatories speak for themselves alone. I'm glad they took the time to think about what they believe. I have already thought about what I believe, and I seriously do every day.

The Bill of Rights has an enormous advantage over this new Manifesto: it has specific provisions which are nevertheless timeless and broad. It has appropriate applications for the world because it deals with individual people and their individual value as human beings. It gives me a political and legal version of the Golden Rule through which I may look at the world, and in its last amendment reserves everything not earmarked for government to the people, reminding us that the people are what it's all about.

The Bill of Rights does not have to bother to define itself through the specific terms of political science. It defines itself by delineating the rights of the people. As such, it is not only applicable to current events, but also transcends them.

Two side notes:

-To continue to draw a parallel between liberalism and support for Stalin is just stupid, and I will say once again that I am insulted by it. Some on the political left have sided with Stalin, but that doesn't mean that everything the political left has done or supports is Stalinist. To feel the need to say so specifically in a manifesto gives unnecessary credibility to people who have spread this smear. Some on the political right have sided with the Klan, yet we all know American conservatives who don't consider sheets to be appropriate eveningwear and who were horrified by the murder of Emmett Till. I would even venture to suggest that these conservatives are in the majority. I would appreciate a reciprocal understanding of liberals and the left. There is nothing "New" about this.

-The day that George W. Bush is ever declared a liberal by people who know what it means is the day I convert to Islam.