The Democrats' Biggest Mistake

The Democrats' Biggest Mistake

At Shadow of the Hegemon, there's a quote from Adam Cohen's recent NYT article about the political power of bloggers:

With very few exceptions, national Democrats in Washington see the blogosphere as composed of uninformed, ranting, dirty masses who need to be kept as far away as possible.

The Democrats are missing the boat with this kind of snobbery. After Howard Dean raised millions of dollars from internet campaigning, they should know better. And I imagine they haven't seen the Wesley Clark grassroots website. During the 2004 campaign, John Kerry had an excellent blogging website.

Former Senator and 2004 VP candidate John Edwards has most recently harnessed some very informed and persuasive citizen-bloggers at the new One America Committee blog. By the time 2008 rolls around, some of these national Democrats, much too late, will realize the organizing power of the netroots and likely won't know what the hell hit them. I would hope, by the sheer power of the ideas laid out by the bloggers at the new Edwards blog, that mainstream media will take notice and offer respectful commentary. If I may offer a personal example of mainstream media giving more credibility to bloggers than some representatives from my own party, my city's newspaper asked me to blog politics at their own website over two years ago. [The Rational Liberal]

Are national Democrats missing a very important boat?

We bloggers don't sit out here and do this work for free because we have ulterior motives or unwashed intentions. Most of us, I'd wager, by the gift of a lot more free time, are more informed by our own conscience and our own choice of reading material than many of our elected representatives. It would behoove them to listen to what's happening out here.

In politics, elitism will get the Democrats nowhere - ever. It turns people off. It may make them popular with pseudo-intellectuals, but there are a lot of concerned and very-much informed common-sense people out here who knew - in 2003, for example, that the Iraq War was an unjust, dangerous, futile, and chaotic mess just waiting to happen.

The Republicans are much better at this game. National Republicans have understood the power that exists on the netroots level, especially when given wings by the support of the national party. They derive much power from acknowledging the credibility of the concerns of their constitiuents. National Republicans have invested in RedState.org, a popular site for Republican citizens to discuss the issues of the day, and you'd be hard-pressed to see Republican leaders laying waste to the intelligence levels of the citizens who care enough to discuss the issues there.

See a further discussion at Crooks and Liars.

Feingold Censure: Will Democrats Stand For Law Breaking?

Feingold Censure: Will Democrats Stand For Law Breaking?

George Clooney is swearing about meek Democrats. (see "I am A Liberal - There, I Said It!" - and great, but what took you so long, George?) Update: [Sheesh - Clooney didn't even write it as presented on HuffPo.]

Molly Ivins is cussing about them too.

Senator Russ Feingold gave Bush a much-needed "what for" yesterday, offering his resolution for censure of Bush on the NSA wiretapping issue.

I suspect that Clooney and Ivins will be disgusted to learn that the Democratic establishment fears the party may appear "extremist" because of Senator Feingold's resolution. If they back away from Senator Feingold now, they'll look like people with no conviction or willingness to protect the People they have sworn to represent. The idea of our President deciding that it's perfectly fine to ignore any standing law and cover his ass later on - and getting away with it time after time - is a frightening thought for those who carefully tend the gardens of democracy.

Senator Feingold is one of those careful garden-tenders. I think that he made a world of common sense yesterday. He made his case strongly, making it clear that the President broke the law - plain and simple. Bush has a pattern of breaking the law, then having his administration and rubber-stamper Republicans fold in behind him to stare down his crevasse of lies and come up with a new law to fill in the deep cracks. That is absolutely anti-American and Senator Feingold was correct in his final lines about the terrorists winning if we allow anyone - even a President - to break the law.

Americans are shaky on Bush. We don't "just trust him." He's f**ked up on Iraq after rushing headlong into it and lying us into it. He's been caught covering for his errors so many times that his lack of humility, forthrightness, and truth-telling doesn't even shock us like it used to. If we lived in a nation of dolts, we would likely be happy to have Bush as our Dolt King. But we're not dolts - and we know what the king of the dolts has done.

When the shock wears off and you get used to your President saying "Screw you, I'm President" to the rule of law one too many times, you know it's time to censure the man. He's not a King. We have a system of government that has not changed in over 200 years. Bush is a deviant and it must be pointed out.

Russ Feingold knows it. Why don't his Democratic colleagues? Their shying away from the Censure is just as dishonest, to my way of thinking, as George W. Bush when he fails to account for his law-breaking. I thought the Democrats showed extreme cowardice when they backed away from Senator Feingold on his concerns about the Patriot Act. When the Democrats decide to go numb to please the mainstream media, they will also have a numbing effect on people who are looking for ethical and rule-abiding leaders. If they believe they are scoring points with moderate voters by abandoning what is right and just, they are sadly mistaken. They lose much respect from American citizens every time they fail to take a unified stand.

You've got lobbyist-pampered Republicans like Sallie Mae's favorite puppet John Boehner calling Senator Feingold's words on the Senate floor yesterday "political grandstanding of the very worst kind." Senator Feingold doesn't strike most Americans that way. I believe that most people in tune with politics see Senator Feingold as a fairly quiet person of reason and common sense, which is why so many ears perk up when he gets up to speak.

For those Americans who are not in tune with politics, they heard next to nothing about Senator Feingold's Resolution on the nightly news last night. Will Democrats leave Senator Feingold swinging in the breeze again? If that's what they have decided, my respect for them as individuals have dropped down the shaft.

Give us an ethical, moral, principled leader who not only can create a spirit of unity in the party, but will stand by his or her convictions with humble demeanor and firm, convincing reason - along with a swift readiness and ability to defend him/herself from the daggers of political attacks. As things stand today, I'm wondering if there is one Democrat in all of Washington, D.C. that I would stand behind with the utmost confidence that they were that kind of leader.

Looking into the halls of D.C., Russ Feingold is about as close as it comes.

And I'm no extremist.

______

UPDATE: Senator Feingold Calls Silent Democrats Cowards [Think Progress]


Anonymoses predicts that "Censure parties" will erupt around the world.

Carte Blanche parties can spring up all over Jesusland, and the money can be used to stuff into the mouths of Chris Matthews and Rush Limbaugh.

Screwy Hoolie has a simple task for you to complete:

If we don't stand up for our Constitutional values, then no one else will. Russ Feingold is doing what we asked. Now it's our turn to take part in our democracy. As we're seeing with the plan to sell off our National Forests, public pressure can turn the most hard-hearted conservatives into servants of the progressive movement. Go ahead and make the call or write the letter. Then tell your friends to do the same.

Just keep banging away at them until they buckle, Senator Feingold. Scrutiny Hooligans salute you.

Iddybud salutes you, too, Senator Feingold.

Here's an easy way to let your Representatives know. While most politicians sat back and weighed the political pros and cons of holding the president accountable, Senator Feingold stuck his neck out and did it. Now it's up to us to show broad public support. Can you sign this MoveOn.org petition asking Congress to join the call for censure?

Chile Elects First Female President

Chile Elects First Female President


Meet Michelle Bachelet, Chile's new President.

In what is being viewed as a major change in the existing social scenario in Chile, one of Latin America’s most conservative nations, appointed its first ever woman president. In this remarkably progressive step, socialist, Michelle Bachelet, who was in political exile and an ex-prisoner of the military dictatorship, was sworn in Saturday as Chile’s first female president on Saturday in the country’s coastal city of Valparaiso which is home to the congress. The ceremony was attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice along with other luminaries from as many as 120 different countries. - [24X7Updates]

Adam Cohen's advice for Netroots

Adam Cohen's advice for Netroots

Adam Cohen has an idea for netroots insiders. [NY Times]

The Democratic establishment could not hold the netroots back even if it wanted to. Their ability to raise money, recruit volunteers and shape the debate will make them indispensable. What "Crashing the Gates" is short on is policy: ideas for providing health care, improving education, and all the other things that make it important which party wins. As the gates swing open, that should be the next item on the agenda.

I couldn't help but wonder, as I read Mr. Cohen's article, what Jerome Armstrong - who is founder of myDD.com and an adviser to the political action committee for Mark Warner - must be thinking about Molly Ivins' trashing of former Virginia governor's candidacy. [All on the same day that Warner is showcased as an "anti-Hillary" in the NY Times' magazine].

John Edwards News & Observer Interview

Senator John Edwards, considered a prospective candidate for president in 2008, recently spoke with News & Observer [Raleigh/Durham] editor Jane Ruffin.

Because I Can - (Tar Heel Tavern)

Because I Can..(Tar Heel Tavern)
This entry has been made especially for Billy the Blogging Poet's Tar Heel Tavern edition.

I play with my cell phone camera on a lazy Saturday afternoon - just because I can.

Check out my Republican and Democrat Beanie Babies. Note that in MY office, the Democrat always shows dominance over the Republican.



I can take a photo of my latest hair cut.



I'm cat blogging because I can. I know it's cheesy, but I've placed my Eliot Spitzer 2006 sign in a strategically noticeable place.



I took a walk through my village, then a ride through the surrounding countryside.



The photo directly above, on the right, is a Ukranian Orthodox church, which springs up majestically from the hills as you're driving along.




Syracuse University is playing Pitt this evening, and my friendly neighborhood Inn is expecting a big crowd for the game.



The photo below is of the Erie Canal, which is within easy walking distance of my home.



The upstate New York countryside..




When I say I am an American, I mean I come from a long line of Americans. My great grandmother Isabell was born in 1780. Think about that. She was an infant during the American Revolution when the Battle of Yorktown was being fought in 1781...before the signing of the US Constitution. She lived right here in Camillus where I live today. Isabell is buried in a very quiet, tiny country cemetary about 3 miles from where I am now living. I visit her often. Her husband John, my great-grandfather, was the son of a patriot - a Revolutionary War soldier. You can see my image as I'm taking a photo of Isabell's stone. It says:

Isabell
Wife of John Pelton
Died February 16, 1840
Age 60 years

I'll end with the moon - and I bid you a Goodnight.

SD State Senator Napoli - Abortion OK for 'Pious' Virgins

SD State Senator Napoli - Abortion OK for 'Pious' Virgins
Misogyny Rears its Head With Outlawing of Abortion
Dear God, Do They Really Think That Way?

I've seen some mocking of South Dakota state legislator Bill Napoli's statement on the PBS Newshour regarding the way an unwanted pregnancy can "threaten" the life of a young religious virgin woman. [Napoli had supported exemptions for cases of rape or incest to the state's abortion ban.]

BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

Let's take a step or two further, for the sake of humanity vs. gender-stereotypical religious triumphalism. Values are values. Life is life.

I didn't have to investigate to know which religious platform Napoli was speaking from. As a Catholic myself, I immediately recognized Napoli's rhetoric as "Catholicspeak." What if the virgin was a Muslim? A Wiccan? A Buddhist?

If Napoli can see how a young woman's life is "threatened" when she suddenly realizes she has an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy to deal with, then Bill Napoli is admitting that there are lives ruined and he's admitting that deep emotional scars are left behind because of the pregnancy rather than the abortion. And he's right. If he came out of his triumphalist shell, he might understand how forcing a young woman to endure an unwanted pregnancy, brought about by any means, can shatter her life's plans and/or contribute to mental illness and the suicide rate.

Napoli is dead wrong in saying that any young woman who isn't a regular Christian church-goer, and who gets raped, deserves to have her life "threatened." That is an extremely ignorant, misogynistic, and dangerous way to think. It's saying that it's okay to rape and impregnate a non-virgin because she's a dirty whore. Rapists: stay away from the church-goin' gals - grab yourself a filthy slut and South Dakota will make you s Daddy.

As the aunt of five beautiful young nieces, now children, I cringe at the thought of them growing up in today's South Dakota. Our young women need to grow up with a sense of pride, freedom, equality, respect, and dignity without the men (or women) in their government making rules about who is "decent" and who is not when it comes to their intimate choices. For all the GOP negative talk about "socialism," they become complete hypocrites by making the choices for our young women that they should be making themselves. We parents raise our girls the way we think they should go and the option to worship or not to participate in religion is completely up to the individual. If freedom of conscience is respected, as our forefathers have prescribed, government has no right to judge who is eligible for a safe, legal abortion and who is not.

If SD State Senator Bill Napoli's narrow-valued religious triumphalism had ruled the day, allowing exemptions for only freshly raped, impregnated "religious virgins" to obtain abortions in South Dakota, I guarantee you'd see a hell of a lot more rape charges going up against young South Dakota men and a lot more pregnant girls claiming to be "pious." Let's not push our young generation into this kind of false faith, fear, and judgement. It's ugly. It's apparent that misogyny has existed perenially in South Dakota. It's all rearing its ugly head once again. The abortion ban is betraying religious bigotry and public leaders are promoting a gross misunderstanding of mental illness. What a shameful step backward for women in America and their freedom of conscience.

Note: South Dakota lawmakers have rejected the idea of allowing any exemptions for cases of rape or incest to the state's abortion ban, leaving all South Dakota women subject to misogyny and disregard for their freedom and conscience. In essence, Bill Napoli, in his own way, made an admission that women are emotionally scarred by unwanted pregnancy. If I was a mother of a young man OR woman living in South Dakota today, I'd move out of that state to ensure that my children lived in an environment of the spirit of the freedom that our Founding Fathers intended for them. South Dakota will not get my tourism dollars and I will not do business with any South Dakota firms while this draconian law remains on their books.

American Street's Kevin Hayden says that South Dakota’s "sex nazis" deserve their own country. I couldn't say it any better.

Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

From the One America Committee:
Let's raise the federal minimum wage!

Raising the minimum wage would be a major victory in the fight against poverty, and it could spearhead other much-needed reforms that together could make widespread poverty a thing of the past. So please, co-sign Senator Kennedy’s proposal to raise the minimum wage, and tell your friends and family to do the same.

Is Bill Giving Hillary Bad Advice?

Is Bill Giving Hillary Bad Advice?

It sounds to me as if Bill Clinton may be giving his wife some bum advice on "the strong thing."

A "strong woman," to me, means being a woman of realistic conviction as well as being a woman who is a trustworthy, capable, and job-worthy Commander in Chief. Of course, conviction is subjective. If a woman, from where we stand today, expresses the conviction that we need to stay in Iraq one nanosecond longer than we should while holding to the conviction that her vote on the Iraq War Resolution was valuable, it is the kind of conviction that would drive the majority of Americans away from her at the voting booth. Let's be blunt. One look at the public polls will show any intelligent person that the American public thinks the Iraq War was not worth the fuss, the death, or the treasure. When 70 percent of Republicans believe civil war will break out in Iraq, you know that cold reality is hitting the frying pan and splattering the burning grease of truth onto the lap of Washington D.C.

Hillary needs a new recipe.

72% Troops in Iraq: End War in 2006

72% Troops in Iraq: End War in 2006

A new Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five troops want to heed Bush call to stay “as long as they are needed.” The survey included 944 military respondents interviewed at several undisclosed locations throughout Iraq. It was conducted in conjunction with Le Moyne College's Center for Peace and Global Studies.

While 89% of reserves and 82% of those in the National Guard said the U.S. should leave Iraq within a year, 58% of Marines think so. Seven in ten of those in the regular Army thought the U.S. should leave Iraq in the next year. Moreover, about three-quarters of those in National Guard and Reserve units favor withdrawal within six months, just 15% of Marines felt that way. About half of those in the regular Army favored withdrawal from Iraq in the next six months.

The troops have drawn different conclusions about fellow citizens back home. Asked why they think some Americans favor rapid U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, 37% of troops serving there said those Americans are unpatriotic.

Almost 90% think the Iraq war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11, and most don’t blame the Iraqi public for insurgent attacks. The continuing insurgent attacks have not turned U.S. troops against the Iraqi population, the survey shows. More than 80% said they did not hold a negative view of Iraqis because of those attacks. However, less than a third think that if non-Iraqi terrorists could be prevented from crossing the border into Iraq, the insurgency would end.

My first impression is that, if 90% of those interviewed believe that Saddam Hussein actually had a role in 9/11 (a myth of which no reputable journalist has ever found proof), then it's no wonder that 37% of them would think it's "unpatriotic" for any of us here at home to demand a troop withdrawl. I hate to say this, but it seems that they are relying on false information, and I wonder who's feeding it to them over there. Is it Rush Limbaugh, the lying gasbag they hear in Iraq on American Forces Radio?

A BIT OF RECENT HISTORY REGARDING AMERICAN FORCES RADIO:

[See Media Matters' petition to have the Limbaugh propaganda removed]

[See Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's statement where he took issue with the fact that there was no commentary on the American Forces Radio service that would even begin to balance the extreme right-wing views that Rush Limbaugh routinely expresses on his program.]

[Last October, New York Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter called for an Inspector General investigation into the partisan bias of AFN programming.]

[See where American Forces Radio Network (AFRN), after plans to air Ed Schultz' progressive talk radio program were scrapped by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber, the "coach" of the now-infamous staged, scripted satellite feed featuring President Bush and troops in Iraq.]

[Blogger Brian Maloney has called the AFN Schultz shunning by the Department of Defense a "phony scenario" - but here we are four months later and is Schultz' voice is anywhere to be found in Iraq? The jury is still out on that one. American Forces Radio began airing “The Ed Schultz Show,” nearly two months after the controversial host was originally scheduled to hit the airwaves. Last December, the first hour of Schultz’s daily show, along with the first hour of the Al Franken radio show and the Sean Hannity show, was broadcast Monday through Friday over the network’s Voice Channel. HOWEVER (and here's the kick in the ass) - not everyone is able to hear the new shows.]

[Last January, the DOD news site wrote about a survey being conducted asking questions of 10,000 service members and Department of Defense civilian employees overseas to determine what they're looking for in radio programming provided by American Forces Network.]

Limbaugh has had the clear propaganda advantage in Iraq. He has made significant inroads into the minds of many of these soldiers, bombarding them with irresponsible misinformation for over the past three years. Let's face it - by the time this DOD survey about radio preference is completed, the troops will probably be home from Iraq - because regardless of what they think about their AFN radio service, 72% have stated, loud and clear, that they think it's time to draw down.

_____


Related: A post by John Zogby. [Huffington Post]

One America Blog Officially Launched

One America Blog Officially Launched

The Hotline at the National Journal is talking about the launch of the new One America blog. They say "it's cool" and "it's bound to be copied."

Jimmy Carter Calls for Troop Drawdown in Iraq

Jimmy Carter Calls for Troop Drawdown in Iraq

The Iraq War -

* Unnecessary.
* An unjust war.
* Initiated on the basis of false pretenses.
* Violence increasing monthly.

While all these things are true, former President Jimmy Carter believes troops should be drawn down within the next 12 months. Even knowing the unfortunate facts listed above (which President Carter referred to in a news conference before a building dedication at the University of Washington yesterday), he says "we can't just pre-emptively withdraw." [source: AP/WaPo]

"..President Bush's belligerent record in the region is a shameful echo of the policies forged by the peanut farmer from Plains."
- Patrick Doherty

At TomPaine.com, Patrick Doherty hopes the Democratic leadership will stand by the former President who has been "breaking the unwritten rule that former presidents shall not contradict sitting presidents on major issues of policy." Mr. Doherty says:

The Democratic leadership must stand with our former commander in chief and finally agree: America's current strategic direction is damaging to our national security.

Today at TomPaine.com, Jimmy Carter offered a piece written by himself which says that it's obvious to most Israelis that Israel’s permanent occupation will be increasingly difficult as the relative number of Jewish citizens decreases demographically both within Israel and in Palestine. He believes that the dominant role Israel has played in the region is a distortion of Israeli's ancient moral and religious values. An overwhelming number of both Israelis and Palestinians want a durable two-state solution. He believes that any rejectionist policies of Hamas or any terrorist group will be overcome by an overall Arab commitment to restrain further violence and to promote the well-being of the Palestinian people.

With optimism, President Carter says that we need not give up hope for permanent peace for Israelis and freedom and justice for Palestinians if three basic premises are honored:


1. Israel’s right to exist—and to live in peace—must be recognized and accepted by Palestinians and all other neighbors;

2. The killing of innocent people by suicide bombs or other acts of violence cannot be condoned; and

3. Palestinians must live in peace and dignity, and permanent Israeli settlements on their land are a major obstacle to this goal.

On a much lighter note, Paula Deen, the lovely hostess of the Food Network's Paula's Home Cooking visited the Carters in Plains, Georgia for the taping of an upcoming special cooking segment.

The True Way We Become Human

"Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself."

--C.S. Lewis, from The Problem of Pain

The True Way We Become Human
A Lenten Reflection

Andrew Sullivan has a lovely post on belief and suffering.

As much as it pains us, we all know that human suffering is inevitable, and as a Catholic, Andrew points to the Cross as the simple answer to the existential dilemma of one man who was broken by a mere glimpse of a human world of endless suffering unconstrained by even the simplest of moral logic.

As a Catholic, I am reminded of suffering as we enter the Lenten season. Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) said this about suffering in an interview with Peter Seewald:

Anyone who really wanted to get rid of suffering would have to get rid of love before anything else, because there can be no love without suffering, because it always demands an element of self-sacrifice, because, given temperamental differences and the drama of situations, it will always bring with it renunciation and pain. When we know that the way of love – this exodus, this going out of oneself - is the true way by which man becomes human, then we also understand that suffering is the process through which we mature. Anyone who has inwardly accepted suffering becomes more mature and more understanding of others, becomes more human. Anyone who has consistently avoided suffering does not understand other people; he becomes hard and selfish.

In a story I recently read, I saw these words:

"True love is an acceptance of all that will not be.."

Those simple words gave me insight into the world of inevitable suffering, the crosses we all must bear, the love that makes us human and vulnerable, and the faith that enables us to transcend. We only find the fullness of beauty in being alive when we freely participate, unafraid and faithful, in true love for one another.

I am reminded of the Cross when I read the following story:

THIS IS WHAT LOVE IS ALL ABOUT

It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 am, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's, arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am. I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation. I asked him if he had a doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I then inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer Disease. As we talked, and I finished dressing his wound, I asked if she would be worried if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now. I was surprised, and asked him. "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?" He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is." I had to hold back tears as he left. I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, "That is the kind of love I want in my life."

True love is neither physical, nor romantic.
True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

When I am left to navigate the roughest sea with nothing save faith to guide me, my fervent prayer is that I will graciously take up my Cross with the knowledge that I have lived a full life in the way of true love. And like my mother before me, may I still possess the heart and the faith of a little child.

Media Portrays Dems as "struggling"

Media Portrays Dems as "struggling"

How is it that we have come to the pitiful point where Chris Matthews of MSNBC is spouting off deliriously about the "greatness" (yes, I said "greatness" if you can believe it) of Congressman (and House majority leader) John Boehner, a representative who has pandered to lobbyists and taken their gifts of golf trips at swank resorts - and who has doled out Big Tobacco checks on the floor of the House of Representatives - and who has neglected the better interests of our kids' and their college loan interests because of his big political contributor Sallie Mae. Boehner's own daughter works for a loan-collection company owned by Sallie Mae. "Greatness" - my ass!

Yes, we have come to that pathetic point where we have to sit and listen to pure crap like "Boehner is great" while the Democrats get limited play, the label of being a struggling/lost party, and assorted other cheap shots from Tweety O'Reilly Matthews.

In a WaPo article today (as always, portraying Democrats as "struggling"), Harry Reid said:

"By the time the [2006]election rolls around, people are going to know where Democrats stand."

..and I say to myself: JEEBUS! If they don't know what Democrats stand for NOW, how will they know by November?!?

I agree with a concern voiced in the article, namely:

Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.) tried to filibuster the renewal of the USA Patriot Act, a move opposed by most of his Senate colleagues, including Reid. Kerry (Mass.) led an unsuccessful filibuster attempt against Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s confirmation as a Supreme Court justice.

I was so disappointed to see these men have the guts to stand up - only to have their lily-livered colleagues leave them to hang alone. If Democrats refuse to have each other's backs when issues like these arise, they will never - and I mean NEVER - win the public's confidence about being a party with a cohesive message.

Rahm Emanuel is a smart fellow, but I have serious concerns about something he has said in the same article:

"When you're in the opposition, you both propose and oppose. But fundamentally, this [2006 election] is going to be a referendum on [Republican] stewardship."

I strongly suggest that the Democrats do not rely too heavily on Republican failures and think they will win over the public's trust. It sure won't get any play on Tweety's show - and perhaps Tweety's not to blame this time.

We win the battle of ideas by electrifying the electorate with our ideas, not by being complainers who will turn many moderates off and cause them to sit at home on election day 2006.

I don't think Democrats should be unoriginal and rely upon the Newt Gingrich successes of 1994, especially since much of it involved the filthy politics of destruction - namely the destruction of Bill Clinton. Looking back, it's amazing how the pundits only recall the "glory" of the 'Contract with America' when it was actually a "contract out on Clinton." I didn't even vote for Bill Clinton in 1992. 1994 turned me into a registered Democrat because of all the dirty shit the Republicans were up to. Until then, I'd been an Independent. 1994? No - get away from 1994. Democrats don't want to go back to that place.

It's a no-brainer that Bush has become a liability for Republicans who, until Bush's popularity in the polls went to hell, were making the ugliest partisan decisions I've ever seen, acting as a bona fide rubber stamp for a White House agenda - always putting PARTY before COUNTRY. My attention span isn't so short that I will forget that kind of ugly partisanship anytime soon, but the mainstream media will mindlessly move on because they're the least tenacious and most government-tamed beast in the world. They've moved on after every one of the many revelations that the Bush administration has acted unethically or criminally. There is no story the American media will not DROP. I imagine that most Americans, especially with the mainstream's mind-numbing assistance, will forget how the Republicans led them to the sad state our nation's in today.

By election-time 2006, I'll bet the mind-numbing mainstream media could even be convinced by Karl Rove - and the same pliant media will consequently convince the public that it's all the Democrats' fault.

Any future Democratic success will need to revolve around something DIFFERENT. The status quo is unsatisfactory to two thirds of Americans. Democrats need something bold, cohesive, inspiring, and giving the appearance of a united front:

- A promise of truth-in-leadership

- Creative ideas and a way to confidently promote and defend them

- Standing by one another as Democrats (Why has everyone has been left to hang from Dean to Feingold to Kerry to Murtha?)

- New and refreshing honesty in Democratic rhetoric. If Bush f*cked up, SAY SO LOUD AND CLEAR. (Use bold/blunt/sharp rhetoric if need be. Don't be afraid of Howard Dean. Step away from your timidity!)

- Democrats should promise to build social responsibility into the everyday operations of our economic and political life. Tikkun's Rabbi Michael Lerner had a great idea. He suggested a law requiring corporations to get a new coroporate charter once every ten years, which would be granted to only those corporations which could prove to a jury of ordinary citizens that it had a satisfactory history of social responsibility.

- Democrats need better talent. Better campaign managers. Better rapid response teams. Idea people. People to come up with some dynamite soundbites. Great ads. Humor. (Is Jon Stewart available?) Maybe a bit of self-effacing humor (without looking like doomsayers) with equal time devoted to mocking the other side. ;)

- Democrats: Do not rely on the mainstream media to save or promote you. Repeat this to yourself once an hour: They are not my friends... They are not my friends.

_________

Bill Press gives us a list of issues that Democrats already agree upon:

*Iraq - set a timetable for bringing the troops home.

*Tax cuts - replace Bush's tax cuts for the rich - with tax cuts for the middle class.

*Social Security - make it secure and protect it.

*Health Insurance - provide it for 45 million Americans who don't have any.

* National security - give first responders the tools they were promised by George Bush, but never received.

House to Dubai Ports World: Git Outta Dodge

House to Dubai Ports World: Git Outta Dodge

In true tough-Texan tradition, President Bush is stickin' to his guns on his threat to veto any legislation blocking that Dubai state-run company from managing U.S. ports. Most of the House Republicans had a political shoot-out with the president on the Ports issue today, voting to kill the deal. Bang-bang. They want Dubai Ports World to "git outta Dodge."

Interestingly, Democrat Jim Moran of Virginia voted against the House measure to block the Ports deal today, saying "It is premature, we don't have enough information and ... it may turn out to be unnecessary." Hmmm. What's up with that?

Democrats in the Senate are maneuvering for a vote in the GOP-led Senate. Republican leaders said they would hold a procedural vote aimed at heading off the Democratic effort. Senate Democrats don't want to let Republican Senators (who have a majority) off easily. Not interested in being pinned down, Republican Senators said it was possible they would pass a simple symbolic statement in coming weeks that would put the Senate's view of the takeover on record without "interfering with it." Democrats say the Abramoff scandal-stained Republicans are being wusses by taking this stance.

..by mid-afternoon Wednesday, with the Senate debating legislation to respond to a corruption scandal involving lobbyists, Democrats signaled they wouldn't be satisfied with a weak provision.

Gee - I wonder what David Brooks would say about those Republicans who (just last week) he praised for not being Buchananites while he accused Democrats of attacking the Dubai ports deal in order to "burnish their security credentials?" Where's the hypocrite alarm?

Bush Doesn't Feel Your Pain

Bush Doesn't Feel Your Pain

Paul Krugman tells us that George W. Bush doesn't feel our pain - and it shows. In his latest NYT column, he says

..the economy is expanding, so it's impressive just how large a majority of Americans disapproves of Mr. Bush's economic management. Why doesn't Mr. Bush get any economic respect? I think it's because most Americans sense, correctly, that he doesn't care about people like them. We're living in a time when many Americans are feeling economically insecure, but a tiny elite has been growing incredibly rich.

On that same note, I invite you to read a blogpiece I wrote for the One America Committee weblog today, titled "Squeezed, Unprepared, and Uncertain in the New Economy."

Gen. Odom: Dwarfish Leaders Won't Escape Accountability on Iraq

Gen. Odom: Dwarfish Leaders Won't
Escape Accountability on Iraq

Thanks to Lew Rockwell's blog, I've learned about General William E. Odom's speech to congressional staff members on Thursday, March 2, 2006 as a guest of The Liberty Committee. General Odom opened his remarks by saying,

"I think we're in a time of strategic drift and dwarfish leaders."

He also said,

"This is not just an ordinary political gambit where you can sham it and get away with it. You're making decisions to go to war and kill people and bring them home and put their bodies down under the earth and try to tell people they did it for you, for some good reason. There's no accountability. I don't see how you can sit here and not be morally indignant about it." He added, "The war in Vietnam was as stupid as this one [Iraq war]." - [source: More Liberty]

The video of the speech is available HERE, courtesy of More Liberty. The video is 43:36 long. Q&A starts at 30:50

Mr. Rockwell says

his [Gen. Odom's] incredible understanding of world events and the shortcomings of our current regime make his critique of this administration particularly poignant. Along with his plain like-ability and use of colorfully descriptive language, Odom's talk is not to be missed -- especially the Q&A session at the end!

Good night and get lost!

Good night and get lost!

Will Bunch on Chris Matthews aka Tweety.

Speaking of Tweety, I got a gem of a tip from Eleanor last night.

Chris Matthews on John Boehner:
'You Can See This Man's Greatness'

MSNBC's Chris Matthews conducted a "hard-hitting" interview tonight with House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). The most aggressive line of questioning Boehner faced was over the hotly-debated question, "Is Hillary Clinton a socialist?" which Matthews asked three times. The segment concluded with Matthews declaring, "You can see this man's greatness." [Think Progress]

Boehner? Greatness? Oh - barf.
Really. I can't think of anything better to say than simply "BARF".

Watch it HERE
_______________

UPDATE: John Byrne of Raw Story tells us that they've receioved an advanced report from Dave Johnson of Seeing the Forest revealing that Chris Matthews has "accepted hefty speaking fees from an array of conservative trade associations" while no records could be found indicating that Matthews has spoken before any Democratic-leaning organizations.

More States Cite Federal Budget Woes

More States Cite Federal Budget Woes

Indiana advocates for children and education are worried by President George W. Bush's proposed budget. The budget Bush submitted to Congress would cut funding to some of the programs local advocates say are just what Michigan City needs.

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the Bush budget would:

- Freeze Head Start funding.

- Cut 400,000 children from the rolls of families that receive child care assistance.

- Eliminate funding for the Even Start family literacy program.

- Freeze funds for teacher training and professional development. Some of that training is required by the president's own No Child Left Behind Act.

In Louisiana, a call goes out to the African American community for political action on social justice issues:

We have come out of a period of national mourning for several legends of the civil rights movement which has included the solemn words and actions by the president of the United States, all meant to give the impression of respect for their legacy. But however much one acknowledges this show of respect from the White House, it is in the doing that one really respect the legacy of their life work....it is wise to see how policy proposals in the president's new budget lives up to the human needs legacy raised by the justice movement.... driving down the deficit now means driving down spending for the social and economic needs of citizens in this country. (* my emphasis) This is the budget position Republicans have wanted to create all along and the so-called "war against terror" has helped them achieve it. This must become an increasing part of Black economic thinking and a cause for political action.

David Broder explains how the Bush budget is based upon political trickery and base dishonesty.

..To fail ever to count the cost of the tax cuts in the years after the sunset dates ... would represent one of the largest and most flagrant budget gimmicks in recent memory..." ......the budget Bush submitted simply assumes the tax cuts have been made permanent — and thus includes them in the “baseline” for all future years. The effect, according to the [Center Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’] analysis, is that “legislation to make these tax cuts permanent will be scored as having no cost whatsoever."

In California, it is clear that the Bush budget takes into no meaningful consideration the effect that their budget cuts will have on Family Values:

Federal budget cuts to child welfare services may cost California hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade and short-circuit efforts to keep thousands of children with family members, local county welfare officials and policy experts say. The cuts, advocates say, are a direct effort to sidestep a federal court decision that helped open up payments to thousands of relatives who are caregivers in several Western states. These cuts could immediately affect the care of some 4,000 to 5,000 children in California alone, according to the advocates.

From a New York article, we see the real and damaging effects the 2006 federal budget will have on education and competition, two alleged priorities that President Bush mentioned in his most recent State of the Union speech (Did he mean what he was saying?):

The Committee for Education Funding (CEF) called a press conference to inform the public that America is losing more of its competitive edge against countries such as India, whose pool of highly educated and employable individuals has outpaced that of the U.S. The reason? Reduction of education funds in the 2006 federal budget...The President and Congress must make significant and sustained federal investment in America's students a top priority in the fiscal year 2007 budget..

Unfortunately, President George Bush’s 2007 budget may make students (in Idaho and beyond) pay the price...while the banks are enriched.

The major change that students will notice if the budget is passed is a change from a variable interest rate student loan to loans with a fixed rate. The interest rate is currently at 5 percent for a Stafford Loan. The proposed changes will fix the rate at 6.8 percent. For parents’ PLUS Loans, currently at 6.1 percent, the rate will go up to 8.5 percent..The fixed rates [] will help banks save billions of dollars in interest they lose due to the lower rates.

More on Education and the 2007 Budget:

The president's 2007 budget plan calls for cutting Education Department spending by, among other things, eliminating a major loan program to help needy students attend community college. Last week, Pennsylvania's Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees education, labeled the proposal "scandalous" and "insufficient."

The 2007 Budget Proposal will jeopardize plans to improve care for the elderly in California's nursing homes.

Jim Wallis, Chancellor Brown's religious guru

Jim Wallis, Chancellor Brown's religious guru

Meet Jim Wallis, the Chancellor's religious guru
He doesn't like the Iraq war. And he's no friend of George Bush. So who exactly is the American evangelical pastor and why has Gordon Brown agreed to endorse his latest work?
by Gaby Hinsliff, political editor
Guardian Unlimited Feb 5, 2006

Read about how American pastor Jim Wallis has developed an unexpected friendship with UK Chancellor Gordon Brown.

A related article titled Me, God... and Gordon Brown by Susan Mansfield can be found at the Scotsman.

The Guardian's Jonathan Bartley, speaking about the Jim Wallis book God's Politics, recently released in Great Britian, says:

What makes God's Politics so original is that it is written from a religious perspective, by someone who is breaking ranks with his fellow believers.

Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian worries about Gordon Brown's political fate, saying that

he is forced to support moves he probably opposes and certainly would not initiate himself were he in charge. During last year's election campaign he gave a one-word endorsement for the Iraq war - but this week we learned that he has lent his name to a new book by the US evangelist Jim Wallis that brands the war "unjust"....He cannot speak freely or in his own terms, but has to stick to a script he is not yet writing himself..

Bush Pulls Rug Out From Under Great Lakes Restoration

Bush Pulls Rug Out From Under Great Lakes Restoration

Folks living in the Great Lakes region (myself included) are disappointed to learn that President Bush's proposed budget cuts will likely sink his administration's master plan for restoring the Great Lakes region - less than two months after it was adopted! Talk about the punch-to-the stomach feeling upon learning that you were lied to. Bush has proposed to cut $200 million more from the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water State Revolving Fund during the 2007 fiscal year. Here in New York State, $175.9 million in new State and Federal funds had been earmarked in the 2004-05 budget for the State Revolving Fund low-interest loan program to build and rehabilitate municipal sewage treatment facilities. The purpose of this program was to provide grants to states for long-term financing for construction of wastewater treatment facilities and implementation of state management plans. In the Great Lakes basin, funds from CWSRF programs have been used to implement agricultural best management practices (BMPs). Here in New York state, the state government used program funds to purchase land and easements to protect our sourcewater.

The White House, in its online analysis posted on its Web site, said the President's budget "continues to support state and tribal efforts to improve water quality through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund," even with less money budgeted.

It's a hollow statement. Those who expected good faith from the White House now feel betrayed.

In New York State, I'm sure that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer will get a boost in his already-high popularity ratings by speaking out about this betrayal of the public trust.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

Today's quote is from Alternet's "Russert Watch" - it's about the March 5th show, with the appearance of former Democratic Senator John Edwards and Republican Jack Kemp:

"..the crowning moment of the show was Tim's last line, "It's nice to have a Democrat and a Republican sit here together." Yes - isn't that just lovely? Maybe, and here's just a little suggestion, Tim, try it again next week."

Rep who Called Cops on Fellow Reps Retiring

Rep who Called Cops on Fellow Reps Retiring

Rep. Bill Thomas, the overly impulsive fellow whose image will be forever burned in our minds as the guy who called the cops on his fellow US House Representatives has announced that he will not seek re-election.

Buh- bye.

Beneath the surface of Friedman's flat Earth

Beneath the surface of Friedman's flat Earth

Be careful of conventional wisdom you hear at the water cooler about Thomas Friedman's "Flat Earth" theory, popularized by his best-selling book. Richard Daughty, who is frequently quoted in Barron's, looks at the truth behind this commonspeak about the glorious benefits of unregulated globalization. If you're asking me to be patriotic and if you're holding the lable of isolationist over my thinking head, think about logic when you ask me to swallow the lines about free trade and expect me to ignore the loss of bargaining power for so many of my fellow American workers. From an article at The Daily Reckoning:

In America, low-level earners can't get ahead because they have no bargaining power. They are competing with a billion workers in Asia willing to do the same work for less than one-tenth the cost. And in China, there is also growing income inequality between those who have joined the global economy and those who have not. Some 500 million people live in coastal cities in China and participate in modern commerce, but there are another 700 million who still live in the countryside. While
the cities grow richer, the poor in China are left behind, like America's industrial workers.

In short, the world is not getting flatter at all. It is getting flatter in some areas, and steeper in others. There is less difference between China's industrial workers and those in America, but the difference between the globalized wage slave and the capitalists who employ them is growing.

Beneath the surface of Friedman's flat Earth, the pressure is growing - either in China or in America and sooner or later, it is bound to explode.

Social justice for people living right here in my United States is going to be an important moral, political, and patriotic issue in years to come. There will be much debate. As American low-wage earners are hurt further, there will be some realization about the ways that our nation's Monetary policy has effected our Foreign policy. Americans will see that elective (pre-emptive) wars were made necessary because of a systematic and voluntary succumbing to a new world order. The hypocrisy is clear when someone like the current President gives me moral lessons on loving the world and being a 'good patriot' through my support of free trade and selling out my nation's security to foreign nations while at the same time, he's calling me an unpatriotic isolationist when I see that American low-wage workers are suffering and social programs to support them are being drowned a Norquistian bathtub - or when I point out the reality of what his administration has done in Iraq and the many lies that were told to get us there.

We have to ask ourselves - what does it mean to be an intelligent patriot? I certainly wouldn't suggest that we acknowledge the Bush administration's definition.

On a related note, Lew Rockwell connects the usually politically-separated issues of Foreign Policy and Monetary Policy:

Richard Nixon enacted, by imperial decree, a purely fiat dollar, repudiating solemn promises to redeem in gold. After that, with the printing presses running 24/7, the pax Americana could be “financed.” To understand the connection requires that we understand two fields of study that are usually kept separate: foreign-policy analytics and monetary economics. It is in understanding this relationship that our authors excel. Alan Greenspan had pretended to be against it all, but given the chance for power, he happily repudiated his restrictionist gold-standard views and supplied the credit for the expensive wars, the expensive bread, and the expensive circuses that have wrecked empires from Rome to London. His successor promises even more of the same..[..]There is no inherent reason that a plumber with a U.S. flag pin should earn more than one with a crescent moon. In India, real incomes have doubled in the last 10 years. In the U.S. they have been stagnant or worse. The inequitable draining of the world’s resources into America, made possible by the military empire and its financial structure since Bretton Woods, is also coming to an end.

What do we do when a good education loses its value?

Jane Hamsher Unfairly Criticizes Senator Edwards

Jane Hamsher Unfairly Criticizes Senator Edwards

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake has made some caustic and unfair comments about Senator John Edwards at the Huffington Post based upon his brief appearance on Meet The Press, and it pains me to see the Democratic party so disunified that there is no room for one of its leaders to say something that is fundamentally true without being publically crucified for it. We've lost many elections because we are not standing together on so many issues. Teenage pregnancy and the effect it has on Poverty is a reality that we cannot turn our heads away from. After quoting John Edwards' comments about teenage pregnancy on Meet the Press, Ms. Hamsher says:

There's really nothing quite like a panel full of white male millionaires scolding poor African American women about their reproductive irresponsibility, particularly in a conversation about the victims of Hurricane Katrina and in a week where South Dakota has passed a bill guaranteeing every rapist the right to have his fetus carried to term because women just really need to learn to keep their legs together. Who knew the bigot vote was even in play?

There is absolutely nothing bigoted about speaking publically about supporting social programs geared to curb unwanted pregnancies which produce babies that will not be raised with the love and/or caring of a planned-for and wanted child. Poverty begets poverty - it's a vicious cycle. Ms. Hamsher points unwarranted blame toward Senator Edwards for issues that he has never supported, such as the attempted killing of teh legal right to choose issue in South Dakota. Senator Edwards has had absolutely nothing to do with South Dakota's new law, and we know it. The fact is that Senator Edwards supports a woman's right to choose. This intellectually dishonest melding of issue upon issue, accompanied with unfair finger-pointing, causes me to lose trust that the Democratic party can "keep it real." Some are disappointed that Senator Edwards failed to take major swings with his public bashing-bat at the Bush administration while he had a few rare moments of NBC's time. We tend to forget that our leaders are speaking to all of America when they are on these Sunday morning talk shows, and given what we know about the right-tilt of these awful Sunday morning talk shows, the mission for any Democrat would seem to be to send out a rational and hopeful message straight to the heart of the center of America. Face it. Most people are fucking sick of all the negativity and want to hear something hopeful, positive, and progressive from their Democratic leaders.

Just One Set of Facts in a Nation of Many Communities: I recently worked for an African American woman here in my own community who has taken on a different job in our nonprofit organization. She looks at the photos on her office wall of faces that remind her of herself. She knows what it's like to grow up with limitations. A native of the same area in which she now works, she has seen her share of crime and violence. A woman who had the opportunity to go to college and graduated from Cornell University with a degree in human development and went on to get a Masters in Social Work, she is now the coordinator of an after-school program at a community center in a neighborhood where kids grow up dirt-poor and underprivileged. Her program includes a pregnancy prevention program to more than 50 inner-city students, male and female. She has said this:

"I'd say the biggest problem in the community is a lack of hope. It can lead to violence, teen pregnancy, and people dropping out of school. It's easier to have hope when you have support and people surrounding you who are positive role models."

Last year, all eight Senior high school students in her program graduated from high school and some have gone on to college. That's a major achievement for this program and for these kids. One look at this should show you what a damned hard job it is to make the slightest bit of difference in this country. To see a respected and prolific blogger like Jane Hamsher trashing Senator Edwards for pointing out certain hard truths - while neglecting the fact that he supports some very-much needed social programs and government incentives to help the poorest in our society is bitterly disappointing, to say the very least. If we political bloggers can't issue realistic, rational, intellectually honest, and fair critiques, we risk being seen as little more than reactionaries. I guarantee you that that perception about our party will serve to secure the Democrats' legacy as losers. We need to appeal to hard truth and hope in finding solutions to the toughest problems if we're ever going to be seen as serious leaders.


On a related note, Matt Stoller, who trusts in the potential of John Edwards as a serious 2008 contender, says that he would have liked for Senator Edwards' convictions to have come across more strongly on his MTP appearance.

Eason Jordan to New Organizations: You're Lost/Admit It.

Eason Jordan to New Organizations: You're Lost/Admit It.

I'm sure you remember the resignation of Eason Jordan from CNN. He's now with an organization called Iraq Safety Net and he's telling the news organizations that they've lost their own way in Iraq, citing a deficiency in the Committee to Protect Journalists for an inaccurate reporting of the number of journalists killed in Iraq.

In a USA Today article about the state of journalism in the Middle East by Souheila Al-Jadda, we are reminded of the dangers of reporting from Iraq and the greater Middle East:

Being a journalist in the Middle East can have fatal consequences, where the road to freedom is often paved with blood.

An Update on Bob Woodruff

An Update on Bob Woodruff

I think about Bob Woodruff and his family often..and pray for his return to good health - and to ABC News. Newsday has an update:

Woodruff's doctors at Bethesda Medical Center in Maryland "are slowly bringing him out of sedation and are very pleased with the progress they've seen so far, especially in the last few days."

Cathie Levine, spokeswoman for "World News Tonight," said yesterday there were no additional updates. Vogt, not as seriously injured as Woodruff, checked out of Bethesda Medical Center and returned to his home in France last week.

In his statement, Westin said of Woodruff, "We've come some distance, but we still have a long way to go," though he added that "in another sign of Bob's moving along his path to recovery, the doctors have said that in the next few weeks it is reasonable to expect that he will be able to move to facilities in the New York area, bringing him closer to his family, his home and the support structure here."

Ben Kweller and Rufus Wainwright

Ben Kweller and Rufus Wainwright

Guess where I was last night? (Read page two of this Daily Orange (Syracuse University daily) article and you'll see).

Onondaga Land Rights Series Begins

Tadadaho Sid Hill and Clanmother Audrey Shenandoah of the Onondaga Nation spoke at Syracuse Stage on Monday, February 27th
photo by Iddybud

From Onondaga Land Rights - A Collaborative Educational Series by Frieda Jacques:

Tadadaho Sid Hill began speaking to the large crowd with our Thanksgiving address.

The address is an integral aspect of Haudenosaunee life. Therefore, Tadadaho Sid Hill translated his Onondaga speech into English to aid in the understanding of such powerful words. In this address, it reminds us that we are all a part of a very large circle. The Creator of all, the people, Mother Earth, the grasses and tress, the fruits and foods, the animals, the waters, the air, the winds and rains, moon, sun, and stars and are thanked for continuing their duties that support life for the people here on Mother Earth. It is our duty as people to help and ensure that our Mother Earth is healthy so that this great gift can continue for future generations.

Tadadaho explained that it has been a long process for the Nation to get to this point of filing a land rights action. That a major factor for beginning the lawsuit is the Nation believed that its voice needed to be heard in the role of cleaning up the pollution of our homelands. Sid continued on informing the attentive audience by saying that there has been wide support of our action and especially from communities in the Land Rights Action land base. Some of these communities have sought support from Onondaga in their efforts to clean up their own pollution sites.

Clanmother Audrey Shenandoah, eloquently thanked all for coming and also thanking the organizers for making time for our Thanksgiving address. For the address not only begins our meetings, but our ceremonies as well. At Onondaga, ceremonies are an important factor in our daily life. There continues to be a dedicated group of people who have kept our sacred ceremonies alive. She explained how this hasn’t always been easy at Onondaga. That there was a time when other cultures and religions organizations pressured the people to stop the ceremonies and the people were forced to continue our culture secretly.

Audrey Shenandoah stated that today times are different. The churches and the missions on the Nation support our traditional Onondaga government. This is evident with the support of the land rights action. Audrey Shenandoah remembers when she was young that the nation almost filed a similar case in the past. But it was explained that if the suit was settled, the Nation would receive a cash settlement but would end our title to the land. This was unacceptable to the people. That the Onondagas are the caretakers of the land and this is our mandate from the Creator to continue to do so.

From Syracuse.com:

Lecture series begins with thanksgiving message by Tadadaho Sidney Hill

Tadadaho Sidney Hill, the spiritual leader of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, opened the Onondaga Nation’s yearlong educational series tonight with the traditional thanksgiving address.

“We give thanks to the creator and everything he has given us,” Hill said. “We start each of our ceremonies with this address.”

Hill and Onondaga Clan Mother Audrey Shenandoah led the program, “Nation in Our Midst: Onondaga History, Culture and Spirituality,” before a crowded audience at Syracuse Stage. The event was the first in a series of lectures designed to help people understand the nation and its land-rights action.

“This night has been long in the planning,” said Philip Arnold, a member of the planning committee. “Our goal really is to bring together the Syracuse community and the Onondaga Nation to foster a greater understanding in light of recent events.”

The nation, which filed a land-rights action last spring, is collaborating with community groups, Syracuse University and the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry to present the series.

“We are trying to educate people about our way and our way of thinking,” Shenandoah said. “Everyone here should pass on what they learn to those people who are apprehensive and have anxiety about what is going on.”

Shenandoah said the Onondaga Nation does not want to cause trouble for any of the people living in New York state.

“In our land-rights claim we have no intentions of causing any harm to the people of this land,” she said.’’It’s justice that we are seeking,” she said.

Hill and Shenandoah said the Onondaga Nation had been planning to file a claim for several decades but didn’t because the timing was never right.

“There were things going on around us that pushed us to do this now,” Hill said. “We were seeing everything that was going on in the world and the problems with the environment. There were talks about cleaning up the Onondaga Lake, and we thought that we should be a part of them.”

During tonight's address, Shenandoah spoke about the traditional history and culture of the Onondaga Nation.

“We are roughly 1,200 people, and more than half adhere to our traditional ways,” she said.

Shenandoah said the other half of the Onondaga people may worship in one of the nation’s five Christian churches or on churches off the nation’s land.

“No matter where they worship they still respect our traditional leadership and our traditional culture,” she said.

-- Sarah Moses

John Edwards Considering 2008 Run for President

John Edwards Considering 2008 Run for President

On today's Meet the Press, former Senator and 2004 VP candidate John Edwards of North Carolina stated that he was considering a run for US President in 2008.

Senator Edwards leads the list of most popular Democratic 2008 hopefuls in a poll of overall most popular US political leaders conducted by Quinnipiac University.

Four Democrats considered potential presidential candidates were also mentioned in the poll's top ten, led by Edwards.

__________

A God-Awful Column by George Will

George Will writes today:

Edwards is roaming around, with 2008 in mind. His travels to more than 30 states have been organized around his interest in poverty.

The pure pessimist, Mr. Will says that he believes most Americans only see "economic injustice" from the selfish and narrow lens of their right to cheap gasoline. I know that Americans are more caring - and far less selfish - than that. Americans would respond positively to moral leadership - if they had any. The sad fact is that we haven't had moral leadership for quite some time in the United States.

Mr. Will appears helpless when he claims that he believes "no one knows how to stop" poverty, criticizing what he calls Edwards' reliance on a tired "1930s paradigm" for poverty resolution. Obviously, Mr. Will has not been paying close enough attention to the work of Senator Edwards. Having no illusions about the problems we face here in America, Senator Edwards is looking for straight-on solutions that fit our modern society. Mr. Will gives no credit to Senator Edwards for all the hard work he has done - especially with the young people across America whom he has inspired to become engaged in finding solutions to the alleviation of poverty in their own individual communities. While Senator Edwards commits himself to shaping the future, Mr. Will unfairly accuses the Senator of looking only to the past. Knowing what I know about Senator Edwards, that makes my blood boil.

Meanwhile, Mr. Will returns to an even more tired and more quickly-failed "new" paradigm - which involves an out-and-out blaming of the poor for who they are rather than who they should be and what could have been accomplished by now had the government done what Senator Edwards is striving to do in order to alleviate poverty from a moral, modern, progressive, and common-sense manner. Like many dull and "stuck" conservatives before him, Mr. Will takes the easy and politically lazy route of blaming the poor for their deficiency in punctuality, hygiene, industriousness, deferral of gratification In reality, the stupidity, stereotyping, and ignorance that surrounds such finger-pointing is being revealed as a failure of imagination and igenuity and a better solution is being researched and formulated by the great ideas of Senator Edwards and his Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina.

Mr. Will's uncreative column ends in a blur of jet-propelled criticisms regarding Senator Edwards' political aspirations. I found it to be a politically-motivated piece with no solution to Poverty other than the employment of naked blame of those who are most in need. Lacking creativity and objectivity, Mr. Will neglects to mention that programs intended to change all those traits he sterotypically throws around about the poor in America (they're late; they're dirty; they're lazy; they're morally deficient) were effectively wiped out by Bush's immoral budget proposal.

The blame-game is old; it's useless; it's for the dull-minded. I know George Will could have done better. I imagine he couldn't resist the chance to take a cheap shot. That's indicative of a character flaw, too - right up there with laziness - isn't it?

Tar Heel Tavern #54

Tar Heel Tavern #54





Tar Heel Tavern #54 is up at gingerrivers. The topic for this week is Grace. Don't miss the varied posts that reveal Grace in diverse faces and places.

NYT's Keller: Bush Admin Declaring War on Democracy

NYT's Keller: Bush Admin Declaring War on Democracy

"There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad." - WaPo

A strong statement from Bill Keller, who obviously sees this type of intimidating White House damage control as nothing but destructive to freedom of the press and the democratic fabric of this nation.

Army to Investigate Pat Tillman's Death

Army to Investigate Pat Tillman's Death

Although there have been various investigations already, the US Army will launch the first criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 2004 death of Pat Tillman, "the former professional football player who was shot to death by fellow soldiers in Afghanistan in what previous Army reviews had concluded was an accidental shooting." [NYT/AP] This past November, Salon.com's Peter Daou had asked this question, after we learned about Mr. Tillman's real views on the war and politics [ie: Mr. Tillman had called the Iraq invasion "so f*cking illegal" and was an avid reader and fan of leftist Noam Chomsky]:

Now that we know more about his real views on Bush, Kerry, and war, is Pat Tillman considered a “moonbat” by the right, and is he now a liberal or a conservative hero? Or both?

My reply:

Pat Tillman's image as an American athlete-turned military volunteer was used with gleeful partisan craftsmanship by the Right - until the story of the circumstances of Pat's death was widely spread and the Tillman family's reactions and opinions came to light. Then the "Sunshine patriots" of the extreme rightwing, who will hold a soldier to angelic heights only when he and his family agree to their unspoken and undemocratic vow of silence, turned on their destruction machinery. "Pat Tillman could not have been a patriot," the extremists would say. I'd love to spit in the faces of any partisan who would raise a young man to heroic heights and then sully his good name when his political opinions come to light. I see Pat Tillman as a human being - a caring and patriotic American who believed in a vision of America as an indivisible nation. He was lifted to "hero" status by Americans who place a high cultural value on athletes and soldiers. I don't think it's probable that Pat gave too much weight to the divisive political elements that exist today when he decided to join the Military. I think he was moved by all that he'd seen. I think he wanted to put an end to the power of fear that terrorism held over his country. I think he was a brave young man. In 2004, long before the truth came out about Pat's political beliefs, I had written this about him:

The cause in which his country was engaged mattered more to Pat than the dull emptiness of greed. It mattered more to Pat than life.

If Pat was a hero, then all soldiers are heroes. They all risk the same thing - their lives - for their country.

According to the Washington Post, Mary Tillman has expressed deep frustration about what she calls a succession of "lies" she has been told about her son's death. She has said that she believes evidence of a crime has existed all along, and that the family's repeated calls for a criminal investigation were ignored until now. Like Mr. Tillman's parents, I am skeptical that this investigation will bring in any new evidence or revelation. It's a terribly embarrassing situation for the Army, and I'm sure it's painful for Mr. Tillman's family. My thoughts are especially with them at such a difficult time.

David Brooks Eager to See Our Security Sold to Dubai

David Brooks Eager to See Our Security Sold to Dubai

It's amazing how enthusiastic David Brooks is to see our Ports taken over by foreign investors who may have - for all we know - been involved in financing the terrorists that brought us 9/11. It's also intellectually dishonest - and pathetically political - for Brooks to say it's simply because we 'don't trust Arabs.' This past week, Rep. Bernie Sanders confronted those responsible in the Bush administration for checking out what should be such an obvious concern - and they couldn't say with any form of certainty that the Dubai company didn't have investors who've funded terrorism in their ranks. The biggest joke of all is that Brooks points to Democrats when the majority of Republicans are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Democrats on the Ports deal issue. One of Brooks' statements reeks of omission - and what is missing speaks volumes about Brooks' sheer denial of the reality surrounding the Bush administration's strong and constant Arab-nation-related fear-mongering statements since 9/11. (statement quoted below)

The Bush administration has scared American citizens shitless since the World Trade Center fell (while hypocritically allowing Sheikdom-tyrannies to thrive in places like Saudi Arabia). Brooks was perfectly supportive of the pre-emptive war against an Arab regime. He now falls back on "Bush's brand" as if Bush had never promoted mass fear of Arabs with his foreign policy and fear-loaded rhetoric of Arab nations that fund and harbor terrorists.

George Bush's brand was based on the premise that Arabs aren't very different from anybody else, and can be brought into the family of democratic nations.

Guess what, David Brooks? The inept neoconservative experiment in Iraq has been a failure and the only thing "spreading democracy" in the region has proven in the Middle East is that the Bush foreign policy has pushed just about every regional electorate toward the extremists. Arabs aren't different from anyone else - they vote for whom they trust. Thanks to the Bush administration, we've driven them straight to those who hate us most. So much for the "Bush brand."

Bush Has Empowered Iran

Bush Has Empowered Iran
..while demonizing them at every turn..

In the NYT editorial today, it's said that Thursday's nuclear deal with India would have been a bad idea at any time, but it was an especially bad idea now because it has undermined attempts to rein in Iran, whose nuclear program is progressing fast and unnerving both its neighbors and the West. From the article:

For all of the axis-of-evil rhetoric that has come out of the White House, the reality is that the Bush administration has done more to empower Iran than its most ambitious ayatollah could have dared to imagine.

Bush's Cut and Run Plan Revealed

Bush's Cut and Run Plan Revealed

Apparently, Bush tentatively plans to have cut and run from Iraq by about this time next year.