My man Howard
Give the DNC Chair to this man
Where does a dream go after you've dreamt it?
If you look at my very first blog posts back in January, 2003, you will see that one of my dreams was to see Howard Dean as president.
One overblown scream and 3 million surplus GOP votes later, the essence of my dream is still floating out in the ether, awaiting fruition.
I want to see Howard Dean get the DNC Chair, if that's what he wants. I couldn't imagine anything more healthy and reviving for a nearly self-destructing Democratic party. (Eleanor Clift agrees).
Like Dr. Frankenstein, I want to see lightning-energy zapped into the veins of the decapitated party once again, so that I may cry out with fervored joy, "IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!"
We could use some fervored joy right now.
*photo credit ABC News
Related story: Alternet- Take a Chair, Any Chair by Joshua Holland"..the right's activist base is busy getting things done. And we, once again, turn to a national leadership that's so busy navel-gazing and avoiding an ideological debate that it is unable to offer a compelling alternative to an extreme conservative agenda and too spineless to get in there and fight the dirty, no-holds-barred brawl this country's polity demands. It's time for liberals to lead and the Democratic Party bosses to either follow or get the hell out of the way..."
Monday Headlines
I think you'll enjoy Jay Rosen's piece titled Writer Says Media is Election's Big Loser: 21 Times.
Professor Juan Cole is an expert on the Middle East and I have come to fully trust his judgement. He says Iran's president Khatami and pundit Charles Krauthammer are both wrong in their reasons for promoting a January deadline for Iraq's election. Professor Cole makes short work of Quentin Langley's views as well.
See Elections in Iraq will be Held on Schedule, But with What Result?
The NY Times titled their editorial "Mr. Smith Goes Under the Gavel," which warns against declaring war on one of the oldest traditions in American democracy - the filibuster. See a similar opinion titled "Watch 'Mr. Smith' Die". It was a November 12th Iddybud opinion.
Joyce Marcel has written a piece on Sy Hersh titled Bush: When Even the Good News is Bad. "...We must let events take over, Hersh said."We have put ourselves in an enormous hole," he said. "There's no magic story to get us out. The market will crash. Maybe people will come to their senses. Maybe some Democrat will step forward to do the right thing. And maybe the Easter bunny will turn out to be real."I want to give Sy a bear hug for keeping it real, no matter how depressing.
At Preemptive Karma, Carla is concerned about the movement by fundamentalists into politics and power. She leads us to a discussion regarding Liberal Christians over at Chuck Currie's blog. I wish to refer any of you who may be interested to a site to which I've contributed and read regularly, titled JesusReligion.com (Truth: Bad Religion in the Name of Christ). They're a group of fine liberal Christians whose discussions would put the fundamentalists and all their proud political desires to shame. Here is a mere sampling.
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Thanks to Billy Bob at JesusReligion.com for:
THE TOP TEN SIGNS YOU'RE A CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALIST:
10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of
gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when
someone denies the existence of yours.
9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists
say that people evolved from other life forms, but you
have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were
created from dirt.
8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem
believing in a Triune God.
7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the
"atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even
flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all
the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the
elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" --
including women, children, and trees!
6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and
Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have
no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated
Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed,
came back to life and then ascended into the sky.
5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little
loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth
(4.55 billion years), but you find nothing wrong with
believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting
in their tents and guessing that Earth is a couple of
generations old.
4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet
with the exception of those who share your beliefs --
though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend
Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet
consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."
3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and
physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot
rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be
all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.
2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it
comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be
evidence that prayer works. And you think that the
remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and
agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church
history - but still call yourself a Christian.
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Read the lyrics to SOLDIERS OF CHRIST by Jill Sobule. They're the best."..our lord loves the country, he's with you at the polls
He knows the lever that you pull
He's keeping track of souls.."
Hear the song on MP3 at the website.
