Carl Roves in Training?

I've not figured out what to do with this story except maybe post it up here and let you all see the bankrupt ethics being taught to young College Republicans. Well, I won't post it in its entirety, but I'll post enough to show all a bit of politically motivated.

MINNEAPOLIS - Eighty-eight-year-old Carmen Bakken responded to a stream of fund-raising letters from the National College Republicans by sending them 91 checks totaling $42,985.

When told of the extent of her donations, the Cambridge woman said, "Oh, my goodness! I don't think I gave so much. I don't remember the name College Republicans. I thought what I gave to was a national Republican company."

Similar accounts from other senior citizens in Minnesota and nationwide have put Eric Hoplin, the St. Olaf College graduate who chairs the College Republican National Committee, on the defensive about the group's record $8 million in fund-raising this year...

Monda Jo Millsap, 68, of Van Buren, Ark., said that when she was solicited by phone and mail, she agreed to "lend" nearly $60,000 to the group.

"They were supposed to give it back, and I haven't heard nothing," she said...

Elliot Baines, an 84-year-old retired metallurgical engineer from Vero Beach, Fla., said he received "as much as 20 pounds" of mail in a day, much of it from Republicans.

Baines gave the College Republicans $63,435 in 59 donations, some as high as $4,000. But since President Bush won re-election, he said, he's not bothered.

Frances Offerman, 86, of Eden Prairie, sent in 36 checks totaling $1,814.

"I don't remember giving that much," she said. "No, I don't remember addressing it to the college."

Perhaps the most damning bit, beyond swindling old ladies, is this:

Alison Eikele, a spokeswoman for the College Republicans, said 79 percent of the group's revenue went toward fund-raising consultants. The rest went to a campus recruiting drive that more than tripled membership to 150,000, and to dispatching 75 paid staff members to battleground states this fall, Hoplin said.

Yup, the money these little old ladies gave was spent, mostly, on fundraising.

So, a little contest. The War in Iraq is called "Operation Iraqi Freedom," and the Bush Administration as a whole has been calle "Operation Perpetual Excuse" on ASZ. What would you call this little fiasco by the College Republicans?

One of Those Off-Center Days

It's been one of those crazy days. Actually, the fact that the election happened almost two weeks ago is probably a good thing. The first week of November coincides with the start of the "busy season" at my place of employment. Above everything else, busy-ness alone accounts for my reduced blogging over the past few weeks, not so much that I was supremely disappointed in the election results. Which I was, but you knew that already.

Anyway, Kate started something a month or so back - Friday family blogging - and it seems to fit the theme of the day. I have to put the world on the back burner tomorrow. It's the start of the great college hunt.

My daughter is a senior in high school. She's always been more in tune with the real world than most of her contemporaries. The girl's got a wonderful head on her shoulders, is near the top of her class, and did well on her college boards. So tomorrow, we're taking a trip into the Big Apple for an open house at Fordham University. She can't wait. I'm dreading it.

Fordham, Hofstra, Manhattan Marymount...all on her "A" list. My wallet is hurting already.

But more than anything, this is the start of the big "goodbye". I guess all parents go through it. The baby wants to fly the nest, and I'm conflicted. It's the start of a big adventure for her; it's the end of a life phase for my wife and me. We're not ready to be empty nesters. We're too damn young.

Change is not always good. Check that - change can be really good, and you want nothing but the best in life for your kids - but it's, well, discombobulating.

It seems like just yesterday that I was matriculating myself. I remember how out of sorts I was as a freshman in college. You go from being top dog (as a senior in high school) to pond scum (a freshman) in a totally foreign setting. In my daughter's case...in a really big city, if she has her way. I'm sure she'll figure it out, just like her mom and I did before her, but...

Damn, I'm not ready for this.

The good news is, regardless of the results of the past election, life goes on. The bad news is, I'm going to need a pipeline to Prozac™ before the next 12 months have passed. Not only for life with Bush Unchained, but for life with Daughter Unchained.

Buy Jack Daniel's stock.

Arafat and US Presidential Politics

I've heard Republicans say that Jews will vote for Bush before they will vote for a Democrat because Bush is taking it hard to the terrorists. The flip-side of that, of course, is that Mr. Bush is in bed with the Radical Christian Clerics like Pat Robertson, Bob Jones and Jerry Falwell. Perhaps we should, like Josh Marshall, call these folks "Mullahs." Marshall points out Bob Jones' letter to Bush concerning what Jones feels Bush owes the American Radical Clerics due to this election. The list is scary, or course, but it is most interesting in that it conjures images from the days of the divine rights of Kings. (Do these folks have such a poor sense of history that they don't know those Kings used that notion of divinity to persecute protestant Christians?) Certainly Falwell's take on Bush's task in Iraq, excerpted below, is handled adeptly in The Washington Dispatch:

Jerry Falwell appeared on CNN and spoke about the war in Iraq. He said in part, “The president’s doing the right thing. He’s looking for [terrorists], he’s searching them out. He’s killing them when he finds them. And that’s the only cure for barbarians.” He also said with somewhat circular logic that “you’ve got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I’m for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord.” When reminded that the terrorists who brought down the twin towers did not come from Iraq, he said “I don’t care where they came from.” Is this the definition of Christianity? Is it outmoded to view Christianity as something that shouldn’t be blinded by zealotry but instead something that opens our eyes to the humanity to be found in everyone the world over?

Falwell doesn't care where the terrorists come from, and calls for killing everyone, like Bush is doing, in the vicinity of terrorists, all in the name of the Lord. I'm here to tell you right now, this kind of rhetoric, which appears to be perfectly acceptable to the Bush Administration, will only remind American Jews of history, and other killing done in the name of the Lord, by folks like Torquemada. Perhaps that's why, on election day, Jews in this country continued to support John Kerry..

As long as folks like Jerry Falwell are given air time, the Republican Party will continue to be seen as the party of mullahs, radical clerics, and jihad.

Some "Babies" More Equal than Others

Convergence

I was on a break at work Thursday afternoon - a few minutes to check up on ASZ and a few other blogs, a little power reading. My own personal Fury, the Hulkette, chimed in. Well she doesn't actually chime. The experience is more like how I imagine the reverberations of the bell of Big Ben to be -- while standing inside the bell tower.

It's only ever about convergence on the Happy Planet for Hulkette and me. Connections, connections, connections, and all the great, incongruous disconnections. We can't not see and hear the connections, and rave the most when mother culture's loudspeakers fail to perceive them. And mother culture's loudspeakers are blaring away with the most heinous disregard for connections right now.

Let me 'splain. We have the US Attorney General appointee, Alberto Gonzales, and a bruhaha that has begun and will keep on for awhile. You know it will. Sure he's conservative say the so-called "pro-life" Sims, but Judie Brown of the "American Life League" (ALL - puleaze! these acronyms...) says she's a tad concerned about the Gonzales' commitment to the "correct" way of thinking and acting. Her way. Gonzales is not ALL's sort of conservative.

"As a Texas Supreme Court Justice, Gonzales' rulings implied he does not view abortion as a heinous crime. Choosing not to rule against abortion, in any situation, is the epitome of denying justice for an entire segment of the American population - preborn babies in the womb," said Judie Brown, president of ALL, in a statement."

You still with me/us?

Judie (Judie, Judie) is also horked off about Arlen Specter's desire to head the Senate Judiciary Committee (which will be "instrumental" in judicial nominations), 'cos you know, even though Arlen hasn't quite decided which side of the aisle he's going to sit on for the next four years ... She thinks God's Little Tool ought to do something about that little problem.

"Why is President Bush betraying the babies? Justice begins with protecting the most vulnerable in our midst. Please, Mr. President - just say no to the unjust views of Alberto Gonzales," Brown concluded."

But Hulkette noticed immediately that Judie in her solemn charge to protect human life, human babies, has failed to note how many babies God's Tool's Holy War is maiming and killing in Iraq these days.

Hulkette screams ... Disconnect, baby!!! If it walks like it, and talks like it ... call it what it is: hypocrisy. All Life League, my happy ass.

Here's our inspiration from Atrios for today.

I leave you with images for our incredible disconnect. Some babies on the Happy Planet are more equal than others...


Equal "baby" at left.

Unequal "baby" at right.

Steerage - Day 4

Day 4 - Change my party registration.

Ok, so I didn't do this one today. But here's my thinking:

I'm a registered Democrat - I don't suppose that's any big surprise. Unlike some other states, my home state does not hold open primaries. If I want to have some say in holding back any local, schoolboard, or county, or statewide GOP Kool Aid drinkers, I have to be able to vote for their own party opposition in primary elections. Granted, this might turn out to be an exercise in degrees. Any 'republican' almost has to be a Kool Aid drinker to get GOP party support in my local area.

The point is, being a registered Democrat isn't really buying me anything. It's certainly not buying me partisan influence with my congressman (as previously described, a Bush rubber stamp), and the GOP in the county where I live is much stronger organizationally than the Democrats.

Changing my registration to Republican wouldn't mean that I'm abandoning my progressive values. Au contraire (see how French that was?). What I want to be able to do is use those values internal to the GOP. Viral marketing of progressive ideas, in other words. I've come to the conclusion that maybe it would be better to be on the inside looking out than vice-versa.

The fact of the matter is, in the past election, on a local level I actually voted straight GOP. No big deal there. Small town local politics tends to be more about generational "Hatfield and McCoy" familial type feuds than Democratic or GOP ideology, anyway.

Note that I haven't pulled the trigger yet. First off, I have to get a day off to go down to the county election board office to change my registration. Secondly, I'm persuadable (go ahead, convince me not to change my registration).

Just think about it, though. If every progressive switched their registration to GOP, what we'd be talking about is some real influence on GOP party direction.

I know, I'm a dreamer.

Ditching Private Ryan

I will not be able to view Saving Private Ryan tonight. My local station has decided not to air the film, as it is unsure if the language and violence in the film will pass muster with the FCC. They are joined by many other stations across the country. Steven Speilberg would not allow the stations to edit the film, for which he won the directing Oscar in 1998. A haunting tribute to what Tom Brokaw named the Greatest Generation, the film earned several other Oscars that year. There is not a doubt that it art, and not the slightest bit obscene, by any measure.

The reasons these stations fear arbitrary rulings by the FCC that might jeopardize their licenses is I think reduced to two, maybe three key reasons. First, Michael Powell refuses to definewhat is or is not allowed on broadcast television:

FCC chairman Michael Powell warned broadcasters to be careful what they wish for on Tuesday, telling the industry's trade group that they do not want the government to define exactly what words or actions are indecent.

Some industry leaders, most notably Viacom's Mel Karmazin, have pushed the commission to say exactly what is meant by indecent speech. They argue that the current definition is too fuzzy to tell them how far they can go before facing a stiff fine.

"You don't want the government to write red book of what the government says you can and cannot say," he told a packed crowd at the National Association of Broadcasters annual convention.

Second, perhaps, is the focus on Bono saying "fucking" on the Academy Awards show in 2003. The FCC let that go, but Michael Powell called for it to be reviewed again, and his stepping in on that case has caused a chilling effect far more than Janet Jackson's nipple, or Howard Stern's rants about anal sex. They're worried because of the head of the FCC and because he won't define the rules.

Finally, they are worried because the FCC reacts not to what is aired, but to complaints. Those complaints come from fundie groups, and Steven Speilberg is famously known for supporting Democratic candidates. Yeah, I think these stations are fearful these fundie groups will send in complaints in order to punish Hollywood, and the way I'm reading it, the stations have no clue how beholden Michael Powell is to the fundie groups. Given the Bush Administrations's leanings, they have every right to fear the FCC's potential actions.

No, it isn't censorship. It's a chilling effect and a direct reaction to this election.

Coronation Plans

Pageantry Planned for Bush Inauguration:

...But that is not expected to alter the elaborate rituals by which the nation installs its president. For Bush's second inauguration, those rituals provide a regal subtext, the crown jewel in the Bush political dynasty: His father, George H. W. Bush, was inaugurated twice as vice president, in 1981 and 1985, and once as president, in 1989.

With 21-gun salutes, fancy-dress balls and tighter-than-ever security, the day will resemble nothing so much as a coronation.

"We don't have the unifying effect of a king or queen. As a result, over the centuries America has developed traditions that encourage stability and public confidence. That's what an inauguration is," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Am I the only one made physically ill by the vision of King George II (U.S.) riding a gilded chariot down Pa. Avenue to The People's House?

Another Constructive Idea - Revamp the Primaries

I was just getting ready to head for bed when I clicked onto a Kos posting that makes a lot of sense to me. It's high time to look at the entire Democratic Party presidential nominating process. Iowa and New Hampshire have become waaaaaaay too influential in the primary season.

There has to be a better way.

Daily Kos :: Kill the Iowa caucuses

Handling Dissent, BushCo Cowboy Style

Certainly they are handling dissent in Fallujah with an iron fist, or Abrams tanks. It appears evident now that most of the insurgents have left the city, so many of the deaths will be women, children, etc.

So, it appears from this video that the Bush Administration thinks the tactics that are working so well in Fallujah might just work here at home.

LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM two armored tanks showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered. Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the tanks, but police quickly cleared the street. The people continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but about ten minutes the tanks drove off. It is unclear as to why the tanks were deployed to this location. Uploaded here is video from the event.

I've been predicting some protests that will make the Seattle protests of a few years ago pale in comparison. I'm not going to back off of that prediction.

Steerage - Day 3

Day 3 - Schedule a "turn off the TV" day.

This one's a bit more expansive than the first two 'days of steerage', only because the scope is much broader than you might suspect. I'm not talking about my own TV (which I rarely watch, except for Sunday afternoons in the fall). I'm talking about your TV. And your neighbor's TV. And every TV in your town.

One thing that the right and left had in common during the past election cycle - we all felt that the media was unfair to our respective sides. Media Matters is pretty clear on the trend: broadcast news organizations (particularly those on the 'cable only' side of the ledger) leaned decidedly toward the right over last year. It's not personal, though. It's all about ratings and advertising dollars. When Rupert Murdoch is swinging the longest dong on the news porch, the other cable newsbots are going to try and follow him. It's the nature of the beast. But you knew that already, right? Because you're a smart cookie who reads this blog, and by default, tolerates my own insufferable rants against the biased media.

I digress.

So, what's this about scheduling a 'turn off the TV day'? Well, let's do the math. Fifty-some odd million people voted against fascism on November 2, as opposed to fifty-some odd million people (+1) who voted for fascism. Ok, fine. We're fucked for the next four (or forty, pick your timeframe) years. But we don't have to support the inexorable march toward fascism and the demise of critical thinking by continuing to watch and support the broadcast outlets of the Ministry of Truth.

What I'm proposing is one day - a single day - where every progressive in the country shuts off the TV for 24 hours. One day. It would be great if it was a high impact time like Super Bowl Sunday, but that ain't gonna happen, even in my household. But what if we made that day January 20, 2005? Inauguration Day. News organizations are going to be tripping over themselves, and expect very high ratings for the second coronation.

Let's surprise the networks and their advertisers. From the time that Matt Lauer flashes his balding head at 7AM EST from his "Today Show" press box on Pennsylvania Avenue, through 7AM the next day when Matt's nursing a terrible hangover from the previous evening's Coronation Balls, turn off your television set. In fact, if 50 some-odd million people simply shut down the tube for a 24 hour period, and gave a good Nielsen thumping to the advertisers, I think it would send a powerful message.

That's what I meant when I said that Steerage - Day 3 would be "schedule a turn off your TV day". Not just mine. Yours and everyone else's.

Beale: Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems and he died at eleven o'clock this morning of a heart condition! And woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble!!

So, a rich little man with white hair died. What does that got to do with the price of rice, right? And why is that woe to us?

Because you people, and 62 million other Americans are listening to me right now.

Because less than 3 percent of you people read books.

Because less than 15 percent of you read newspapers.

Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube.

Right now, there is a whole and entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube.

This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation.

This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers.

This tube is the most awesome goddamn force in the while godless world.

And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.

And that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died.

Because this company is now in the hands of CCA -- the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new Chairman of the Board, a man called Frank Hackett sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the 20th floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network.

So, you listen to me. Listen to me!

Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamn amusement park. Television is circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers, and football players.

We're in the boredom-killing business.

So if you want the Truth, go to God.

Go to your gurus.

Go to yourselves!

Because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth.

But, man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you wanna hear. We lie like hell. We'll tell you that Kojak always gets the killer and that nobody ever gets cancer in Archie Bunker's house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry. Just look at your watch. At the end of the hour, he's gonna win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear.

We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true!

But you people sit there, day after day, night after night -- all ages, colors, creeds,

We're all you know!

You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here!

You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal.

You do whatever the tube tells you --

You dress like the tube.

You eat like the tube.

You raise your children like the tube.

You even think like the tube.

This is mass madness, you maniacs!

In God's name, you people are the real thing.

We are the illusion!

So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I'm speaking to you now.

Turn them off!!

If you've never seen this Paddy Chayevsky piece, performed by Peter Finch (as Howard Beale) in the movie Network, you missed perhaps the most powerful four minute performance monologue in film history. Your reward for suffering with me through this long post is a link to Howard Beale's rant. Watch it.

Then, resolve to turn them off on January 20, 2005.

Oh - and someone make me a logo that we can pass around to other progressive blogs. ;-)

More Minority Initiatives for BushCo

So, the big story today is that Alberto "Abu Ghraib" Gonzales received the seal of approval from BushCo today. He'd be a nice followup to Ashcroft, since Gonzales has been a one man wrecking crew on the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention. In fact, even the SCOTUS appears to be having a bit of a problem with Gonzales' interpretation of the terms "enemy combatant" and "indefinite detainment without counsel".

So, you expected Judge Roy Moore or something? Naw. Judge Moore wears his religion on his sleeve. He's predictable. Gonzales is a snake who does his best Reichstag-related work in the shadows. At least Ashcroft shed his skin in public.

Bush Picks Gonzales to Succeed Ashcroft: check the linkage off of this story for threads on Al Gonzales' torture and Geneva Convention memos.

I think I've found the first topic to discuss with my congressman and senators.

Boys Will Be Boys

No! I'm King of the Hill

From the "you can't make this up" file:

"US Marines of the 1st Division dressed as gladiators stage a chariot race reminiscent of the Charlton Heston movie-complete with confiscated Iraqi horses at their base outside Fallujah, Iraq."

All three photos here.

Didn't it used to be an extra ration of cigarettes, hooch and hookers before the few and the proud went off to kill and be killed? Just askin'. I will most certainly be writing that book based upon my research and observation of the wholly bizarre post Post-Modern resurgence of the love of all things barbarian and gladiatorial. In fact, do me a favor ... pay attention in popular media, and see if you can't see what I've been seeing for a very long time. I could use some observant stringers. The pay sucks, though. Consider it a labor of love.

The Resignations ...

Ashcroft and Evans and bears, oh my...

Bush Cabinet Shakeup Begins

I'm not sure how I'm feeling right now.

When Fundies Attack

Druggists refuse to give out pill:

For a year, Julee Lacey stopped in a CVS pharmacy near her home in a Fort Worth suburb to get refills of her birth-control pills. Then one day last March, the pharmacist refused to fill Lacey's prescription because she did not believe in birth control.

I was shocked," says Lacey, 33, who was not able to get her prescription until the next day and missed taking one of her pills. "Their job is not to regulate what people take or do. It's just to fill the prescription that was ordered by my physician."...

Welcome to Jesusland, Ms. Lacey. BTW, did you vote for George Bush? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Got Digital Camera??

Sorry Everybody

This is simply too friggin' good. Cathartic. Excrutiating. Wonderful.

Thank you to our favorite blondes for leading me to this site. Here's a sample of one of over 1000 photos currently uploaded. Mine will be added sometime later tonight.


(Click for larger picture)

DEAN WINS!

New Haven Advocate: DEAN WINS!:

The incredible story of how Howard Dean became President of the United States...you'll laugh...you'll cry...and you'll realize the opportunities that were missed...

Steerage - Day 2

Day 2 - Thank a young voter for participating.

As I've previously explained, I work in a pretty damn liberal organization. While the GOP certainly had their own GOTV effort in business and industry (basically, it amounted to scare tactics broadcast to employees), there are plenty of businesses operated by progressive owners. Here's what struck me about my place of business - as liberal as it is, the ownership was not willing to get out front of a public demonstration of their support, at the risk of potentially alienating clients who were not so, eh, progressive.

Internally, we did a pretty nice job, registering everyone who wasn't registered, passing around company email on the latest political gaffes, and generally building up the Kerry campaign. There's a lot of young people (20 - 30 demographic) that work in our organization, so finding someone to thank for their participation wasn't difficult. What's a bit harder to deal with was the reaction to my "thank you".

There's a lot of bitterness among the younger folks in the organization. Some of them were involved in GOTV efforts; at a minimum, it seems like all of them spent some talking to friends and family. One guy butted heads with his die-hard GOP dad, and brought up the subject of the draft. His dad's reaction? It'll do ya good; make a man out of you.

How do you argue with that kind of logic?? You don't. You can't. It's impossible.

And it's frustrating for those who are just coming "of age"; frustrating to the point that I don't know how many of the young folks we registered in the past election cycle will be willing to participate in the midterm elections two years from now. The grayer of us on the left implored these young folks to get involved, when maybe the comfort level wasn't there on their part. We convinced them that it was personal - that it had to be - I mean, how much more personal can you get than some faceless government bureaucrat deciding your future for you?

I'm thinking that they're let down right now, and that many have the distinct impression their votes truly don't matter. No one likes being associated with a losing team. That's just the nature of our "winning is everything" culture (thanks, Coach Lombardi).

So I'm finding that this particular mission may take a bit longer than I anticipated. In fact, it's looking like a long term project -- an educational process, especially for the younger dudes and dudettes. What's clear to me is that reinforcing the importance of their participation is critical in retaining their involvement.

Re-Election Protests

Surely they won't all be this drastic, but they are evidently widespread throughout the country. This story about a young Georgia research aid is even getting play in Russian media, but heaven forbid it reach our nightly news. Nor have we heard of the protests in Bellingham, Washington, where students at Western Washington University marched in the streets snarling traffic. Nor have we heard much about the arrest of Bard College students in Red Hook, NY. Further protests could be found in Baltimore, San Francisco, and in Columbus, Ohio.

It appears the biggest protest will be in Washington on January 20, 2005. This seems in the formative stages, but at least a few groups are behind it. Here's an anti-war group, and they, however, have been planning this all along, no matter which party won on Nov. 2, at least according to some of their materials.

I've been bringing up to people for a few days now that I think this election may energize people more than any events since the Viet Nam war. I guess we're seeing some evidence of that. How is the press playing this possibility? Two words: Homeland Security. It appears the protesters will be treated as if they are terrorists. Read the story, folks. 4000 troops will be on hand in Washington to make it safe for the Bush inauguration.

Maps? We Got Maps, Bucko!

The Purple Map with blogging from Blondesense: It's Really Purple, You know.

Nice catch, Liz.

Spin?

We don't need no stinking spin.

They voted for this mess, Steve Gilliard.

Not to put too fine a point on it, I'll quote my "ever-joyful" husband. His great fall back line of the times is: "What do you want? It's a shit species". And I have a world-weariness on me like a room-sized block of granite.

Steve's post is long and brilliant.

Steerage - Day 1

Day 1 - Write a letter to my congressperson.

The congressman from my district is a 3 term Republican. On the whole, he's probably one of the less accomplished House representatives in Washington. In general, he's a rubber stamp for Dennis Hastert and George Bush. Truthfully, I can't point to a lot of reasons why anyone would want to vote for the guy, but the Democratic Party in my district didn't even bother to put up credible opposition this year.

I guess that's what they mean by "the power of incumbency". My current representative hasn't soiled himself in public (as far as I know), and hasn't been caught shagging interns. He's also a very strong second amendment guy in a very strong second amendment district - so he'll be there until he wants to quit.

The question is how to make him know that I'm going to personally hold him accountable from here on out, with respect to how's he's representing his constituents? That's the purpose of the following short letter, which I hand wrote, and then mailed to his local office this morning:

Congressman John Doe
345 Broad St.
Overthere, LB 12346

Dear Congressman Doe,

I'd like to take the opportunity to offer my congratulations on your re-election to the House of Representatives. Many of the issues which will debated during the next congressional session have significant potential impact to those of us in the YY district. I believe that you will continue to represent the interests of all constituents in our district to the best of your ability.

Though I realize that you can't personally respond to every phone call, letter, and email that you receive, as one of your constituents I'll be communicating my concerns and suggestions to you over the coming months. I hope that we can engage in some meaningful dialog that will reflect what is most important to our mutual Left Blogistan home.

Again, best wishes in your next term!

Sincerely,

Richard Cranium
123 Main St.
Anywhere, LB 12345
(800)555-1212

So, I've introduced myself to my congressman in a brief, positively framed letter. I hold no false illusions that Rep. Doe will respond to me directly, in fact, the letter will probably never get beyond some minimum wage staffer in his office. The point is that I want someone in his office to see my name, in a short handwritten note, and know that his office will be hearing from me frequently.

I'm a great LTE writer - most of them that I write get published in my local paper. So, my followup letter to Congressman Doe will express that sentiment. The guy has been flying below the radar for too long. And I'm ready to start holding him accountable for his support of the Bush administration's failures.

Deja Vu All Over Again?

Caramba! It's deja vu every damn day...

This from Get Your War On and MNFTIU. Notice the date. My how tempus fugits, eh? ... and fugits and fugits. Seems like only yesterday I was watching flag-draped coffins being unloaded from military transport planes in 1969.







And in case I haven't mentioned it ten or twenty times in the last six months, please check out: Addicted to War, by Joel Andreas. I picked it up back when the US bombed the already-existing rubble of Afghanistan. It's an inexpensive book that has an important message for all the history-impoverished and still-mystified people of the United States.

Bush "Cronimals"

It's time to shake up the language. Bush cronies getting a pass on the law will accelerate in the coming years, and we need to shout about every instance to show that this Administration can't pass the moral values test. I recommend "cronimal," a bastard child of the words criminal and crony. Of course, Wikipedia already has an entry for "Crony Capitalism," so perhaps we can push my neologism forward.

Speaking of cronimals, the Bush Administration has been soft on companies doing business with terrorist sponsoring nations, far softer AFTER 9/11 than before, according to AP reporter Matt Kelley:

Despite the Bush administration's pledge to battle terrorist financing, the government's average penalty against companies doing business with countries listed as terrorist-sponsoring states fell sharply after the Sept. 11 attacks, an Associated Press analysis of federal records shows.

The average penalty for a company doing business with Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan or Libya dropped nearly threefold, from more than $50,000 in the five years before the 2001 attacks to about $18,700 afterward, according to a computer-assisted analysis of federal records.

What's interesting about this article is that Halliburton shows up yet again. Perhaps they will be the mother lode of cronimals this four years. Better yet are the cronimals here:

Nineteen executives or directors of companies fined by OFAC for dealing with state sponsors of terrorism were top campaign fund-raisers for Bush.

Halliburton, of course, is continuing to be under investigation. The next Halliburton probe looks to be about bribery in Nigeria.

Edit:Just for giggles, here's Karl Rove:


Not to get totally snarky and without reason, but the use of "architect" to describe Mr. Rove has been eating away at me. It's been all I could do to start shouting "Albert Speer" loudly at the television. But that would be kind to Rove, as Albert Speer was always labelled the "good Nazi." Perhaps I should remain pleased that this picture makes Mr. Rove look a bit like bullwinkle, or maybe a really really nerdy kid on his way to a sleepover.

Hmm, I guess that Albert Speer reference wasn't a source of huge giggles, was it. So sue me.

Patriotboy strikes again

Damn that guy is good! Patriotboy again gives us hope as to what we should do to survive the Bush years. Just go here and you can find out all the tricks Iranians use to survive.

Faith-based politics in action

The Wall Street Journal, back in my youth, was a paper that prided itself in rationality. I remember reading it from about the age 13 and forward, totally fascinated that they could reduce the world to numbers. Sure, they were conservative, but they backed it up. The Wall Streert Journal of my youth would have laughed this Op-Ed piece out of the room.

Hope has triumphed, and with it the confidence of the American people in the values and principles on which our shared civilization on both sides of the Atlantic is based. George W. Bush decided to respond to totalitarian terrorist attacks with a return to basic principles. He could have chosen appeasement. He could have opted for mere rhetoric. He decided not to do so. He decided to oppose brutality with steadfast conviction. Now a wide majority of his people has backed this policy. It has confirmed that there is hope in our way of life, a form of hope that derives its strength from its essential convictions, a hope that is manifested in the desire to defend freedom above all else.

Just one comment about the article itself. Just what "totalitarian terrorist attacks" is he talking about? "Totalitarian" usually refers to a country. There was no country launching terroism, of course. This guy Jose Maria Aznar seems to have swallowed the Administration line whole. Yes, it is more than the 40+% percent of Republicans who believe a lie that Saddam was involved in 9/11. It is also political commentators who have such faith, regardless of facts.

It would serve well if someone were to write a history of the Wall Street Journal, identifying just when they succombed to faith over fact. 1980? 1990? Or was it sometime during the Clinton years?

Bloggerman - Following the Fraud Trail?

I like Keith Olberman a lot.

It's a shame that the Ministry of Truth is gonna either shut him down entirely or do a Rather on him one of these days.

Tread carefully, Keith. You're one of the few non-Comedy Channel "Fair Witnesses" remaining.

Rush would like to stuff you and put you in a museum.

Just Can't Spin This

There's no way to spin the headlines below. You have to wonder if the current situation in Iraq would have been any different had the results of the election this past Tuesday been any different. I suspect not. I feel dreadfully sorry for the innocents caught in the crossfire between competing ideologies in this most unholy of holy wars.

Extremists Moving Across Iran-Iraq Border
Allawi Vies for Support in Insurgent Fight
Insurgents Use Media to Fight Americans
As Falluja Waits in Despair, Rebels Attack in Samarra
Iraqi leader declares state of emergency
Zarqawi group claims string of deadly Iraq attacks
Iraqi PM declares state of emergency, warns Fallujah rebels time is up
Commanders Give Marines Pep Talk in Iraq
Iraq declares state of emergency
Iraq Claims Emergency As Insurgency Flares
Iraq Declares Martial Law, 23 Police Killed
U.S. Troops Keep Close Eye on Syria-Iraq Border

Steerage

One thing I think that we can all agree on is that America is entering some dangerous rapids, and we're all in this canoe together. It's hard to see what's around the next bend in the river, but we're definitely in uncharted territory. The water is really choppy, and big rocks are popping up everywhere.

What's maybe the most pressing issue in our current predicament is that we lost the oars back on November 2nd. While oars give us the ability to propel the canoe forward, most importantly, oars provide steerage. Right now, with our canoe hurtling down the river at breakneck speed, we have no way to turn toward safe harbor. We're at the mercy of the rapids. Some of us in the canoe are even of the mind that there's a big waterfall right around the next bend in the river.

By this time, you're no doubt thinking I've gone off my metaphorical rocker. Let me 'splain.

One major mistake made during this past election cycle was concentrating and expending so much effort on sending Dubya back to Crawford. George Bush is only the figurehead that sits on top of a much larger problem. What we've given the GOP is at least two more years of unobstructed ability to quicken the rapids even further.

I certainly took the bait as much as anyone else. Six months ago, I should have been pile driving the concept that more than deposing the Boy King, we needed to get at least one house of congress back into the fold. It wasn't that John Kerry needed a friendly congress to work with (as I and most other progressives were framing it) - control of the House or the Senate were the oars we really needed to provide some canoe steerage regardless of who was leading us down the river. A President Kerry was not going to, even in the best case scenario, significantly calm the waters in the short term.

But I'm just one lone backwater progressive blogger shouting into mostly a void of bits and bytes. Left Blogistan is awash in caterwauling over lousy Democratic Party leadership in various aspects of the past election. In retrospect, the lack of foresight in recognizing (and communicating) the need for steerage is perhaps the single most glaring failure of party leadership.

Maybe this failure also says a lot about us, as Americans, not fully appreciating the role and power of the legislative branch of government. The constitutional framers understood the need for steerage way back in the 18th century - the legislative branch was established and empowered specifically to avoid consolidation of unfettered power in a single figurehead.

With George Bush as the lightening rod, focus on the bigger picture was blurred, if not totally lost. Of all the changes that need to be made in progressive leadership approach over the next few years, concentrating on regaining steerage is clearly the most imperative.

And that's where my five day recovery plan for despondent progressives comes into play. The election is past - and the holidays are bearing down upon us. Focus will be lost. There is no time like the present to take a few minutes over then next five days and consider the next steps that need to be taken to regain at least some modicum of steerage, even working with what little we have to work with.

So here's my personal blueprint. I'll be explaining each step in detail over the next five days, and how each applies to the concept of regaining steerage:

1. Write a letter to my congressperson.
   
2. Thank a young voter.
   
3. Schedule a "Turn off your TV" day.
   
4. Change my party registration.
   
5. Adopt-a-fundie.

What I'm going to lay out is my own personal recovery plan: five simple and -- key concept, here -- easily implemented actions that won't consume a lot of my time. Each of the steps is something that I can actually control. It's personal therapy, as much as anything. If it works for you, great, feel free to follow along. Again, it's all about steerage in the quickening rapids. We don't have the luxury of time to lament our personal or national woes.

By this time next week, progressive activists everywhere need to be ready to jump back into the game.

Update, 10:05AM: Buried in the comments to a thread below, sukabi posted a link to a great Buzzflash reader contribution. Consider it your essential reading for the day...

Down-thread Fun

Thanks to ASZ reader (and recently minted Canuck blogger) RossK for the linkage through to this great getaway site - there is hope!

Or maybe not.

Anyway, an open thread and clean slate for you to work with.

Graffiti ho.

Lighter Fare

After the heavy-duty thought inducing star posting below, I said I'd do something a wee bit lighter.

Oh, RossK? LG? eteba?

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration Web site has shot up six-fold as Americans flirt with the idea of abandoning their homeland after President Bush (news - web sites)'s election win this week.

When we looked at the first day after the election, Nov. 3, our Web site hit a new high, almost double the previous record high," immigration ministry spokeswoman Maria Iadinardi said on Friday.

On an average day some 20,000 people in the United States log onto the Web site, www.cic.gc.ca -- a figure which rocketed to 115,016 on Wednesday. The number of U.S. visits settled down to 65,803 on Thursday, still well above the norm...

...and this from the Big Apple - christo, I'm showing my lack of hipness. I wouldn't have picked it up either. I'm sure my daughter will be smirking that "you friggin' geezer" look at me when she reads this posting...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York officials were red-faced on Friday after they discovered that clothing ads on city buses that appeared to promote reading suggested a love of books could be rewarded with oral sex.

The advertisements that ran on about 200 buses across the city in recent months carried posters displaying a suggestively posed woman in hot pants kneeling among a pile of books beside the snappy slogan "Read Books, Get Brain."

What unhip, unsuspecting local transportation officials did not know was that "get brain" is street slang for oral sex...

Them damn kids, havin' all the fun.

Update, 6:35PM: Forgot to mention it earlier: ASZ's blogroll has been updated with linkage to some old friends and new acquaintances. I don't "pull the weeds" or "sow the seeds" in our link list as often as I should...

Calling Margaret Atwood!

Blessed be the Fruit. May the Lord Open


It's in the air. Our own Doc, the SpinDentist has mentioned as much down-blog, here. Jesus' General has this.

God's Tool, (the title courtesy of The Onion - check it out) the little Twig tells us that he's earned political capital and intends to spend it. We're talking SPEND it, oh Constant Readers. Of course this means to me that he'll be spending much of it to pay back the xian conservative reich that helped make his second term possible. The juggernaut has four years to do its worst ...

James Ridgeway counts the ways in which God's Little Tool will thank all those true believers... No Choice

"The administration already has sought to limit a woman's access to abortion and contraception; to shut up clinics, individuals, and providers of abortion around the world; and to cut funds from women's reproductive health services.

• Get rid of Roe v. Wade
• Promote federal statutes and regulations that use the term "unborn child" to describe the fetus
• Push for enactment of the so-called "Child Custody Protection Act" (CCPA), which would prevent teenagers from crossing state lines to get an abortion
• Deny Medicaid funding for abortions
• Place new restrictions on funding abortion in cases of incest, rape, and where a woman's life is at stake
• Restrict access to contraception and push new legislation to withdraw contraception coverage for federal employees (including military personnel)
• Continue to deny over-the-counter status to emergency contraception claiming it amounts to an abortifacient"
(I've condensed some of the particulars in the bullet points ... check the article at the link)

My inner Cassandra is in a nasty state over this foul aroma in the air. Have her premonitions ever been wrong? Not often. And by the looks of it, she's in pretty good company these days.

Oh... and if you must ... here's a close-up of the "Red Center" photo with God's Tool (taken in February of 2004) And if you haven't read Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale", now would be a good time.

Shudder.

The Bush Re-election Survival Guide

Here it is - from Philadelphia City Paper (a nice little fishwrap in Philly) comes the Bush Reelection Survival Guide:
Overall Strategy, Foreign Policy, Economy, War on Terror, Civil Rights, Education, Environment, Culture.

This issue of City Paper is chock full of some really great articles, some humorus, some dead nut serious.

And as a bonus, you get the Kerry Election Survival Guide: How things would have been different if Kerry had won. Obviously, City Paper had these both in the can ready to go regardless of who won the election; only article titles were changed to protect the guilty. ;-)

Enjoy!

Solutions Abound

One of my "key solutions" to political gerrymandering in states (it's going to get worse, folks) and a strong armed lock on the Senate and House by the Taliban wing of the GOP (or either major party, for that matter) is term limits.

I've advocated the concept of terms limits for most of my politically aware life. It's not possible to govern in the interest of the governed when a) a representative is perpetually in a campaign mode (as most House members with two year terms are) and b) elected officials become too comfortable in their positions of power.

Career politicians, be they Democrat, Republican, or Venusian (I kid, I kid) will always be looking more toward their own best interests and maintaining the ideological purity of their party.

Term limits is a drum that needs to be beat loudly - but the drumbeat has to start at the local level and work its way up the political food chain. For example, there's simply no reason why a part time city council member needs to sit in the chair for 30 damn years.

Admittedly, the concept of term limits is one that goes against the survival instincts of politicians everywhere, which is why it's not a quick fix. But it's the one that will make a big difference in the long haul.

Many progressives are floating the idea (as it seems we do every four years) that America needs a viable and strong third party. Time-bounding the number of years that a politician could serve in a given elected position would help level the playing field a bit.

It was over 12 years ago

That was the last time I was involved in a Pro-Choice March. 1992, the March for Women's lives that attracted 750,000 people to Washington DC. I attended with my ex-wife, her family, including a couple small kids. I'm thinking that soon we'll be doing it again, and maybe it won't be pretty this time.
But, then, we appear to have some allies.

Arlen Specter
Olympia Snowe
Susan Collins
Lincoln Chaffee

No, I have not been a huge fan of Specter, but it apears he may be rising to stand for his own ethics as concerns future nominations to the Supreme Court. At least most of the reports today are saying Specter is warning Bush not to appoint someone to the court who will disturb the settled legal nature of Roe v. Wade.

I need to preach to the choir for a moment. We are, of course, on the right side of this issue. The moral side. And we must in the next months and years continue to stress our moral superiority. The moral side of this issue is that unwanted births ruin families and ruin lives. Further, the moral side of the issue is that providing full birth control education to all women and men in this country moves us toward a time when abortions are rare.

We're on the moral side of stem cell research and on partial birth abortion as well, and it is time we start articulating that. Today? No, but we need to get the words out there, the memes, if you will.

I saw a friend I hadn't seen for a good long time this week on election day. She looked fine. I didn't mention it, but by my sincere question about how she was doing, I'm sure she knew that I was asking about her miscarriage several weeks before. I met her good friend today, and all she could do was cry on my shoulder, figuratively, about how they were wailing about losing the right to abortion with this coming term. Trying desperately to get pregnant, but she wails at the potential loss of her rights.

That's not going to happen. If Bush names a conservative judge I'm sure Planned Parenthood and NARAL will have a March that will end all marches, and the really good thing is that there will be many, many Republicans who will be there. We all know the demographics, that a high persentage of Bush voters are pro-chocie. Naming a conservative judge will likely be the death knell of Bushco.

Part of me is hoping Bush and Rove haven't figured this out.

Blogi-Kari

Several months ago, one of the more respected progressive political bloggers, Hesiod @ Counterspin Central, "went dark". Even though Counterspin was still online, he just quit posting without explanation. Eventually, he made an exit posting just to let everyone know he was OK.

A few months ago, Hesiod resurfaced - while not as invigorated as his prior incarnation, Counterspin was still relevant and influential. Then, in the hours following Dubya's gloating win, Counterspin disappeared. As in, totally eliminated. As in, wiped off the face of Left Blogistan, as surely as if the Death Star had zapped Alderaan. Basically, the equivalent of blogicide. Hesiod left no blogicide note (at least, not that google cache picked up), the last posting cached was Monday, and there were comments until mid-day Tuesday.

Why do I bring this up? And why should I care? Heck, Counterspin isn't even on ASZ's blogroll (well, that's not totally correct - in the first iteration of ASZ, Counterspin was listed, but then dropped when ASZ was redesigned...).

I care because Hesiod was an angry progressive voice who usually brought something good to the table. Maybe more importantly, losing the archive of discussion from an important progressive blog, a discussion that took place over many months, is like missing a piece of the big puzzle if anyone ever attempted to recreate the underpinnings of Left Blogistan (as I'm sure that someone will be wont to do in the future, if it's not already being worked somewhere).

Even more to the point, a respected voice silenced itself. Several years ago when I was very active in online community building, I read a book titled Virtual Communities by Howard Rheingold, which was a pop-pseudo-psychoanalysis of what binds online communities such as Left Blogistan. Rheingold expended a great deal of ink exploring the virtual "chaos effect" that's created when even a minor player in an online community commits cybercide. And Hesiod was certainly more than a minor player over the past few years in our collective passion play.

The reason I bring up the topic of Counterspin's demise is to frame a discussion of where we go from here (and I don't just mean the primary contributors on ASZ). I think the lessons that I had learned in the past is one reason that ASZ was formed as a group blog. One person carrying the weight of an endeavor like this blog is simply too much, plus, there's the danger of becoming too enamored with your own thoughts and words.

When Kate and Doc and I first fired this thing up, it was basically the three of us tossing out topics and then talking amongst ourselves. Very predictably, like all online communities, ASZ took on a bit of a life of its own after other like minded folks started stumbling in the door. At that point, rather than just typing words into the ether, I started watching the main page postings evolve into a vehicle for facilitating discussion among a larger group of folks rather than being the focal point of the blog. Thank you (as much as I whine about it) Haloscan!

More importantly, we developed an ersatz kind of support system among us, and that's what true virtual communities do. That's exactly what we're doing right now in our period of political mourning. I can't tell you how many times an offhanded comment to one of my "funeral dirge" type of posts has lifted my spirits and brought me out of a funk. Unlike a lot of poliblogs, Kate, Doc and I are active participants in the comments. None of us claim to be experts in anything. We don't have "inside connections" - we're guessing just like everyone else, but at least we're up front about it. ;-)

Personally, I like two-way communication. I'm more into discussion than preaching to the converted.

And that's why, even though I have the ability to do so with the click of a single button, I would never consider wiping out the history that's been compiled on ASZ as Hesiod did with Counterspin. I'd rather that it died by atrophy (which I won't let happen anyway) and benign neglect than a stake through the heart. Because once you've pushed that button in Blogger, there's no going back.

There's a certain amount of pent up anger that's welling to the surface all around Left Blogistan at the moment. I'm seeing it here, too, but not nearly to the extent that I'm feeling it on some other progressive blogs. What I'm reading and feeling and seeing here is more of a mourning phase, but the mourning is lined with the silver tinge of a determination to move ahead with some kind of focused action as a group. You don't know how good that makes me feel, above and beyond all of the emotions I've personally endured in the past 48 hours.

There will be a time very soon for regrouping and figuring out where we go from here. The seeds are being planted in the blog comments already. We progressives are either a hardy or a foolish bunch - I haven't quite figured that out yet.

Maybe it's more that we're idealists rather than absolutists, and it's just human nature that the notion of idealism is a most difficult thing to kill. Time and time again throughout the course of human history, absolutism and moral relativism have been tossed on the scrap heap of bad governance. Idealism survives. I don't think we would have made it this far as a species if idealism was a disposable commodity that could be erased with a mouse click on a Blogger button.

The Zen of Soup Cooking

Almost as good as eating it ...
I've just finished cooking the stock, chopping the vegetables and seasoning a big pot of chicken vegetable soup that my husband and I will enjoy for the next three or four days. Aside from the obvious pleasures of tasting and eating, I find the making of soup from scratch (as the saying went from long ago in my family) very centering and calming. The cutting, the mixing. The breathing. All is well. I haven't felt this good in more than two days.

So tonight I'm leaving you with the olfactory memory of the last good soup you tasted, and the recommendation to find "normal", centering, zen-like things to do in order to reenergize yourselves for all that lies ahead.

And of course, you can use this as a new open thread... the sky's the limit... or like my soup...toss in the kitchen sink.

First of what'dya think? 3 news conferences for the next year?

Against my better judgment I turned on CNN for the post-election WH news conference. I'll give you the "shorter" version:

Hard work. Hard work. Hard work. Hard work. Hard work. Hard work. Hard work. Hard work.

Photo at left from the UK's Daily Mirror is being sent to everyone I know, especially those in the 59+ million cohort. You know who you are. I put a sign on my car yesterday. Not MY President. Blame the right-wing nuts.

If anyone can find the "Oh God" full page from The Guardian, would you put a link in the comments. I need that one too.

Channeling Hulkette in the secret underground bunker, I remain...

Digby, Digby, Digby

Compared to Digby and Billmon, I'm a hack writer (even though I've taken the requisite "AP style" courses).

Since Billmon isn't really longforming anymore, even when he pops his head out of his hole, go read Hullabaloo. And much gratefulness to Kate for pointing me in that direction - Digby is usually one of my daily stops, but for some reason I didn't get over to Hullabaloo yesterday.

Bad Richard.

Perhaps there is a liberal media

At least at Netscape there is.

Sure, a standard story about the President, right? Not any bias there that I see. But take a wee bitty closer look. Go ahead, right click on the picture and check out the name of the file, if you would.

Yes, this is the way to begin the day. Guerilla journalism? Or is this just the prank of a copy desk guy? Whatever, I'm enjoying the beginning of my day as a result.

Three Americas

About a year ago this month, I first heard John Edwards give his "Two Americas" stump speech on CSPAN. I was smitten enough to donate money to his campaign, even though I saw his Democratic primary campaign as probably an eventual loser, because he didn't have the party machine behind him. Edwards was the only candidate at the time that had the cajones to point to the vast economic canyon that seperates the "haves" and the "have nots".

In the afterglow of our most recent buggering by the GOP machine, what strikes me, given all of the GOTV work I've done in the past year, is how many people simply don't give a rat's ass. What's worse is that there is literally no way to engage these people. For every voter I spoke with or registered, there were five who just didn't want to be bothered, and no amount of talking or political prosthelytizing by me was going to change their mind.

I'm beginning to think the lack of engagement comes down to a collective tribal narcicism. People (even many of we 'progressives') have become so focused on themselves and their consumerism as a barometer of self-worth, that nothing else matters. One of the strangest things to come out of 9/11/2001 was the government saying, "get on with your lives. Go back to the malls. Travel. Enjoy life!! (But be very afraid.)" Yet rather than examining the attack, we took it at face value, allowed the government to dictate the terms of our national mourning, and then went about our lives.

It occurs to me that as long as there's a buck three eighty left at the end of the paycheck to buy a six pack of Natural Light, there's a large segment of the American population that simply does not care about anything else. They won't ever care. They don't vote. They won't register to vote, even if I fill out the form for them. And I know of no way to engage them.

Another 9/11 style attack? Nope. We could have fifty 9/11 style attacks in a single day, and a polling majority the week after would still say "I feel safer with Bush" (polling brought to you by your local Chevy Tri-State Dealers).

John Edwards said there were two Americas. He was wrong. There are three. The "haves", the "have-nots", and the "don't give a shits".

It's the "don't give a shits" that drove us off a cliff yesterday. I'm at a huge loss as to how to engage this missing bloc of the electorate, and I don't even know if there's ultimately an answer.

Roll Up Your Sleeves, Ye Conscious

We Have Much Work to Do
Here's another space for us to continue to dialogue about how to wake the frightened sleepers. Our children and the children of the Happy Planet deserve nothing less than our complete consciousness and total dedication.


"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding."
Albert Einstein

The Enlightenment - It's not just for philosophers any more.

Update: from ASZ reader, Toast, Mark Morford's Morning After View: Wallow In Chaos, And Laugh: A Bush-leaning outcome and one enormous bitter pill and you without your vodka

It's excellent. Thanks for the pointer, Toast.

Bush's Friends

And this one isn't likely to be indicted. How many other criminal friends of Bush also will go free over the next few years?
Link

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Bush as a "predictable partner" and said that if his slim lead in the U.S. election is confirmed, it would mean the American people had not given in to the threats of international terrorists.

"If Bush wins, I would feel happy that the American people have not allowed themselves to be scared and made the decision they considered reasonable," Putin said at a Kremlin news conference following talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Putin said U.S.-Russian relations have improved under Bush's presidency "for the benefit of our peoples and global security."

Bush has shown himself to be a "tough politician, a man with strong character ... and a predictable partner," Putin said.

Sunrise

The sun actually rose this morning.

There were a few times late last night and early today that I wasn't so sure it would happen, but damn if it didn't. It's a crisp, late autumn day in New Jersey, and the wind is kicking up a bit. More leaves are blowing around my lawn than I care to think about, so at some point today I suppose I should get a rake out of the shed and take out some of my frustration on the yard.

Before my daughter drove me to school this morning (she has her driving permit and gets her license in two weeks, so she's just starting to taste a little four wheeled freedom by driving to school with dad in the passenger seat), I told her I was proud of her and to always hold her beliefs close. She's taken some heat lately from some of her classmates for her passion and activism. My son will get the same speech later when I see him. Both of my kids are among the most politically and socially aware people that I know in their demographic (apple, tree, etc.), and I'm sure they're both heartbroken today by the results of the election. Neither of them have been tempered by life yet. But the sun rose for both of them this morning as well.

Me, I'm still processing my own feelings. Losing a battle like this, particularly after so much emotional investment over so long a period of time, is a tough thing. A lot of people on the left are going to be braying into the wind today and caterwauling about what went wrong. And I'll admit, it's kind of hard to find an upside to what we face this morning.

I do know this: no one's going to have to talk me off of a ledge. My personal political beliefs don't change simply because a clear majority of Americans chose not to reject a creeping neofascism in America. I take some small comfort this morning in the fact that the world's been down this road before, and the human race still survives. We're hardy species like that. Kind of like chickweed or cockroaches, if you will.

In the big cosmic schema, maybe things truly do have to get worse before they get better, as some on this forum have suggested in the past. Maybe there does have to be some type of fundamental revolution of thought (and action) that could not have been accomplished by simply deposing the Boy King. And perhaps that's the message we need to take from all of this, even as much as the path we might have to take to get there scares the beejesus out of all of us.

Take heart in the fact that those of us of a "like mind" here on ASZ (and many of the thoughtful forums listed over in the left navigation menu) have found each other, and come together in an ad-hoc way that I really didn't think possible 12 months ago.

I know this: almost everyone that's taken the opportunity to become part of our little family is committed to change. Our ability to immediately affect the necessary "change" became a little harder last night, but maybe (in the coming days) we'll understand that it gave us greater clarity of purpose, not lesser.

So hang in there. We'll ride through this day. And tomorrow. And the next. And then we start building on the foundation that we've put into place. Over the past year, I've been very deliberate in putting together the blog list on the left of your screen for a simple reason - it is the foundation for a small movement.

When we've all licked our wounds, the real work starts. Frederick Nietzche summed it up nicely:

Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

For the moment, I have some leaves to rake, and then I'll share some more thoughts.

Group Hug

We will get through this.

Promise.

Lissen....

The urban East Coast areas haven't even begin to come in.

Freakin' relax.

Ok?

I know it's nerve wracking, but relax. Breath. You need to know that ONE organization is compiling results - Associated Press. Earlier this year, I blogged on how Bush-centric AP was.

Calm down. It's all good. Gonna be a long night.

ed. 9:30AM, 11/3: Ok - so I was wrong about one thing. One little thing. ;-)

Election Night Blogging

Just this update concerning Florida, from Kevin Drum:

We're already hearing that turnout in Hispanic precincts is far higher than in 2000. I don't know if that's because there are simply more Hispanics in the U.S. than there were four years ago or if it's a result of focused voter registration efforts in Hispanic communities or if it is a reflection of the more general way that intimidation tactics seem to have driven up turnout among minorities.

But what we're learning now is that the Hispanic precincts in Florida at least are breaking in very different ways than they did in 2000. Check out these numbers:

Hispanic FL vote in 2000: 35% for Gore, 65% for Bush
Hispanic FL vote in 2004: 46% for Kerry, 53% for Bush

Get your BLOG on! Get snarky and get excited!

Pins and Needles Time

I've posted a couple of quick ground updates in the comments during the course of the day; here's what we're seeing in NJ:

Multitudes. Of. Voters.

Conventional wisdom says that this is a good thing for Democrats. The weather has held here in NJ, and no one's spending an inordinate amount of time in line. Locally, we're up to about 75% of registered voters having made it to the polls at 6:30PM EST.

I left the local Dem HQ a few minutes ago to take a breather...been one heck of a day. Everyone is pretty charged up, to say the least. Our polls will be open until all voters in line at 8PM have voted and cleared out.

This is like watching a no-hitter going into the 9th inning...if you're expecting me to say something to jinx it...heh heh...nope.

Expect the blogosphere to explode tonight. By that, I mean servers crashing everywhere due to overload...so if it's a bit hard to get onto some Blogger-based websites tonight, you'll know why.

I'm heading back -- our poll workers were updating the tally sheets when I left, and we're making one last phone push at 7PM. One distinct impression I'm getting: people are tired of getting political phone calls. And my ear hurts. They need to buy headsets next time.

Oh well. One more hour.

I'll try to post an update in the next hour or so. Anyone with fresh info, perceptions, or anxiety to share, feel free to do so in the comments. :-)

2PM Numbers via MyDD and Kos

From Jerome Armstrong @ MyDD via Kos (no links posted; you know how to get both places if you need to):

Jerome over at MyDD gets the big scoop on the 2 p.m. VNS numbers:


        AZ CO LA PA OH FL MI NM MN WI IA NH
Kerry 45 48 42 60 52 51 51   50 58 52 49 57
Bush 55 51 57 40 48 48 47   48 40 43 49 41

In 2000, the early numbers favored Bush. In 2002, exit polling was terribly innacurate. Exit polling also doesn't account for absentee and early ballots. And it's still early in the day. PA and MN will be much closer than these number indicate.

So please, please take with a giant grain of sand.

GOTV!

Take Markos's disclaimer to heart. But it's certainly encouraging.

Where Did YOU Get Your Politics On?

Spin'ster reminded me of a post I wanted to make today. Indeed, I was thinking of this as I got the idea to let my students do the blogging -- and I'd love for you all to comment at the range of their reasons for voting.

I just thought it would be good of all of us to share where we first became political. I think I've told my story before, but since it is buried some few months back I'll repeat it.
For me it had to do with Bobby, back when I was 11. Coincidently, that election was as contentious as this one, especially in the primaries, and us fifth graders were following it closely. We even had an assembly where some of us were chosen to go up and represent the candidates. I was chosen to represent Bobby.

My Dad helped me to do the speech, and we sprinkled in a lot of hippie talk, my speech littered with "groks" and "groovys," and I dressed the part, complete with stick on goatee that fell off when I spoke. I had a blast, but it wasn't really political, until a just few days later in Los Angeles. Bobby wasn't my hero or anything, until that tragic day. I have followed politics ever since.

I add this short vignette partly because I'd love to hear how you folks got energized. Partly that is in honor of my students, who I hope got energized this political season, and will continue to take part the rest of their lives. But part of why I wrote this was Spin'ster's comment comparing JFKerry to JFKennedy, at least she makes that comparison, as do we all, when we use the short form, "JFK." Kerry is more like RFK, though. Former prosecutor, former Senator. One can't imagine JFK taking on BCCI, as did Kerry, but RFK would.

Tell us your stories, folks. Where in your past did politics become important?

Open Thread - SIGHTINGS

I'm sure we'd all like to know what's going on either on your scrap of the planet, or other spots of interest in cyberspace. Post any personal sightings or election day happenings here!

Or, just share your anxieties. ;-)

1-866-MYVOTE1 to report problems
1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) for immediate legal assistance
1-888-BUSHOUT neocon suicide prevention line

Student Blogging

The comments here are from my Humanities students in my 9:30 class. I'm asking them to tell ASZ and our readers the one major reason they voted. Check their comments, then, it's your time to comment, folks.

What you're getting here is a sample of what is pushing people in Florida to the polls in record numbers.

Zero

About Right

I've been in and out of several blogs tonight - this comment from Eschaton seems about right:

Even Scarborough on MSGOP seems to be laying the groundwork for explaining the pending Kerry landslide. The rats are lining the railing and judging the distance to the waterline.
Neb Barry | Email | Homepage | 11.01.04 - 10:40 pm | #

When the bloviating, Bush-ball-licking media is starting to break for Kerry...

Can you say "landslide"?

I knew you could. ;-)

Makin' Book

Molly and Jimmy Call It

Read 'em...

Molly Ivins

Jimmy Breslin

Two Horoscopes for Tomorrow

George Bush (Cancer)

John Kerry (Sagittarius)

Thanks to reader 'dissenter' in the Eschaton comment section for digging these up!

Late Night Blogging

Tomorrow, Americans Face a Choice! The link is to the two minute Kerry commercial running in the Battleground states tonight. Enjoy, folks.

The comment zone is open for anything, whether hopeful or worried, whether snarky or snide. Let's get energized for tomorrow.

As Andy Reid would say, "time's yours."

Sine Nomine - A thread without name

Happy, Happy Reformation Day...
Who will speak for Luther's wife? (ex-nun Katharina von Bora; Luther rescued this beautiful flower from the gloomy, concealed life of a convent because he knew that it is no fun to be a nun. Martin Luther being the father of the "Reformation")

I thought I'd start a series of open threads for the next day and a half. What's on my mind is the mention in more than one thread of evangelicalism and fundamentalism, and my lifetime of Lutheran "schooling", although I'm not any of those things for the last 15 years. So I'm going to give you a few links to peruse at your leisure about November 1st ... the Day of the Dead, about the Reformation, and "Reformation Sunday" and the words to perhaps the best-known Reformation Day hymn of all times by the English-born 20th Century, Ralph Vaughan Williams:

1. For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

2. Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
thou Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
thou in the darkness drear, their one true light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

3. O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
and win with them the victor's crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

4. O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

5. And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

6. From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

I was a long-time church organist as well as a congregant who sung this song every year. It beats "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder."

Day of the Dead

Old Lutheran Humor - Reformation ideas...


Knock yourselves out on this thread. Religion or none ... sine or no-mine... politics... The Day of the Dead calls to us simple and mortal homo sapiens sapiens.

Boola Boola!

Get your Yale Daily News Presidential Endorsement here!

Still, we see great promise in Kerry's candidacy. The Democrat has been at his most eloquent in explaining how the president has failed the American people, and we believe he is well-suited to put the nation back on track.

Kerry has expressed an understanding of the need to stay the course in Iraq while re-establishing the support of allies we have alienated. His commitment to fighting terrorism is no less sincere than Bush's, and we have much more confidence in his ability to stem the tide of anti-Americanism feeding those attacks. Likewise, Kerry's pledge to repeal Bush's top-bracket tax cut is a strong step toward renewed fiscal responsibility, and his ambitious health-care proposal is an innovative approach to one of this nation's most shameful problems.

We have come to trust Kerry on many of the issues we consider most important. We trust him to appoint fair and reasonable Supreme Court justices, to maintain a woman's right to choose and to protect our civil liberties. And we trust that he will see homeland security as a means of making us safer, not a political wedge issue.

Most of all, we strongly endorse John Kerry because we believe he has the ability to do what Bush has not: ask questions, build coalitions and consider different perspectives. Much has been made of the fact that whoever wins next Tuesday, a Yalie will occupy the Oval Office. Yet we see stark differences in how Bush and Kerry live up to the ideals of their alma mater. Yale prides itself on rewarding intellectual curiosity and fostering open debate. And though the White House is not a seminar room, we value a president's willingness to think critically about his beliefs and subject his proposals to scrutiny.

In Bush, we see a president who has been constrained by stubbornly refusing to admit his mistakes or entertain alternative ideas. But in these uncertain times, we need a president with the ability to be both strong and open-minded -- a president like John Kerry.

For the most part, this appears to be an endorsement on Kerry's merits, and not a running away from Mr. Bush's obvious defects. That's very good.

Now, for those lyric posting maniacs in the bunch, a treat:

"Boola Boola"

Words and music by Alan Hirsch, 1901

Boola boola, boola boola
Boola boola, boola boola
When we rough house poor old hahvahd
They will holler, "Boola boo"
Oh Yale, Eli Yale! Oh Yale, Eli Yale!
Oh Yale, Eli Yale! Oh Yale, Eli Yale!

BushCo Supports the Troop - With Sandbags and Plywood

18 months after the first battalions rolled into Baghdad, the following story should piss off anyone with connections to the military - vets, active duty, National Guard, friends, and family. This is absolutely unconcionable:

GIs Still Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets:

...Lacking the proper steel plating to protect soldiers from enemy mines and rocket propelled grenades, they had been jerry-rigged with plywood and sandbags.

"They were called cardboard coffins," Preston says.

...60 Minutes went to a man more familiar with the problems facing the Oregon National Guard than anyone else – its commanding general, Ray Byrne. General Byrne was somewhat reluctant to talk when 60 Minutes showed him pictures of his men's Humvees and trucks, armored with plywood and sandbags.

"If you have nothing then that's better than nothing. The question becomes then again when – when are they going to receive the full up armored Humvees? And I don't have that answer," says Gen. Byrne.

"It distresses me greatly that they do not have the equipment. I don't have control over it. The soldiers don't have control over it. The question becomes, 'When is it going to be available? When is it going to be available? When will they have it?"...

Well, there's one General who will undoubtedly be submitting his retirement papers shortly.

(Click through and read the whole story - it's one of those narratives that I can't really do justice for in a few quick blog excerpts.)

Tracking Voter Suppression

Polling place shenanigans will be in high gear starting from the opening bell tomorrow. Fortunately, I think enough light has been shed on the problems (specifically in FLA and O-hi-O) that the GOP hired poll thugs will mostly be scurrying for darkness like the roaches they are.

(In fact, a significant victory in the quest to squash GOP voter suppression tactics was gained in Ohio courts overnight. Actually, the ruling has potentially significant national implications - I'm sure there will be more on this development in the next 24 - 36 hours.).

The folks who put together mypollingsite.com have launched a sister site to compile voting problems reported by the media. Blog the Vote, like mypollingsite.com, it a non-partisan watchdog site. Check out the list of over 200 currently reported problems - and the list is growing by the hour.

You might want to bookmark Blog the Vote, and check in frequently tomorrow...

Keyes Playing the Nazi Card

I didn't know Godwin's Law applied to political campaigns.

But then again, we're talking about Alan Keyes here -- so damn near anything applies. What a friggin' embarrassment for the Illinois GOP. Why didn't they just run a "local nobody" when Jack Ryan dropped out, and spare themselves the ridicule?

Keyes says supporting Obama akin to mortal sin:

The Republican Keyes says Obama stands for the destruction of innocent life and against the male-female family.

He also said Catholics who vote for the Democratic Obama make themselves part of that evil, just like people in Germany who supported the Nazi Party did.

One

Jesus' General

Drops the cloak of satire yesterday to give a heartfelt pep talk. Go read his column and then go help Get Out The Vote!