Liberal Hawks Take Note

Ever since the election and the repudiation of the war, the "liberal hawks" have had their panties in a twist. They really can't stand that the anti-war left was right, so they are doing all kinds of logical gymnastics to avoid sucking it up and admitting the error of their ways. The meme seems to be that since some of the voices in objection that were right were right for the "wrong" reasons, they don't deserve credit for being right.

Did you get that?

What bullshit reasoning that is.

I am the kind of person who, if I am wrong, I will admit it, set it right, and clarify the record. The hallmark of liberalism is, after all, the ability to change ones mind as evidence indicates.

It was bad enough when the other side questioned our patriotism and jeered at us, and all the while we were right. Now, four years later, it's obvious we were right, and the so-called liberal hawks who should be coming to us hat in hand and begging our forgiveness are instead making excuses why they need not accord those of us who were fucking right the entire time any respect or acknowledgement that we were right.

As far as I'm concerned, every last one of those used tools can go be Republicans. That whole election we had was about accountability. Either get some or get out.

People are Standing Up

Today in the Kansas City Star, the following three letters to the editor lead off. Powerful stuff.

How many more will die?

There is a wall in Washington, a long, black wall of marbled panels inscribed with more than 58,000 names of the long dead. Many of us who did not die have walked that wall, still burdened with loss and guilt. We remember the rain and mud, and the sweat and blood, that sucked at our boots until we thought we were in a quagmire that we might never return from.

Now a much smaller number of names – more than 3,000 so far — are unrecorded and unremembered in spite of their sacrifice and loss. But what if those names were etched each day upon their own panel as they fell? How long must we walk past as each name is etched into stone? How many days, weeks, years?

And now we are called to watch as more names are to be added. Those who return will remember their boots sinking into the sands of Iraq as the hot winds of hate swirl. And for what?

Surely the Iraqis say, “When the Americans leave, then we will sort all of this out.” Would we not say and do the same if our country was occupied?

Still, the chiseler etches our brothers’ and sisters’ names into eternity, one by one, until the war is done.

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Bring our troops home

Congress has a duty to enforce the will of the American people. Legislators should withhold more funding for the war but provide funds to bring our military people home. It would be a travesty to afford this administration’s personally selected corporate gluttons further opportunities to pig out at their sumptuous Iraqi banquet financed by U.S. tax dollars.

Congress must not toady to the president’s strategies this time. It would be akin to the same self-serving fear that gave the president power to go to war. Our nation’s leaders should quit pretending our soldiers are occupying Iraq as peacekeepers. They’re targets.

Trying to mend Iraq, this country with a seething history of political and religious division, is as senseless as working a jigsaw puzzle in a tornado.

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Forget about ‘winning’ war

Last Wednesday night, President Bush made another proposal on what to do in Iraq. Generally speaking, the American public probably didn’t buy it. May I make a suggestion that I don’t believe has ever been tried and could be successful?

In simple terms, it is a strategy of intelligently managing the always inevitable societal disorder. As an example, isn’t that what a good police department does? The police department doesn’t ever “win” a war against criminal activity because it can’t. It just manages the disorder.

So in Iraq (and everywhere) the United States should forget “winning” any war against insurgents or terrorists. We should analyze the disorder and figure out intelligent methods of combating it militarily and politically. Ultimately, the disorder will subside, Iraqi society can rule again, and we can safely say goodbye.

And later in the week, they are running my letter about the new oil law that was written for western oil interests. We are pissed. And a pissed off electorate is one of the few things that truly has the power to change the world.

So change the fucking world already. These words used to be a bumper sticker, but no longer. Now they are a rallying cry...

If not us, who?

If not now, when?

I know the people of Louisiana elected him...

But can't the new congress refuse to seat William "Cold Cash" Jefferson?

That would sure go a long ways toward establishing this new congress as the most corruption-free and transparent in memory, as Speaker Pelosi keeps reminding us it's going to be. Hey, I'm all for it. What sets us apart, and makes us, well, better than the bums we just threw out is our willingness to stick to the rules of the game. I want accountability across the board. If we hold our own accountable; when we pants the Publicans in the public square we won't look like freakin' hypocrites.

The people we are after are the same people who, when we were kids, took money out of the Monopoly bank when you went to the bathroom. They cheated then and they still cheat now. That's the difference between us and them. We aren't cheaters. So when we catch one of our own cheating, we can't screw around. If we are the party of anti-corruption, set that bar really effing high and don't lower it for anyone.

Where this issue is concerned don't give me the innocent until proven guilty routine - we aren't talking about summary declaration of guilt in a criminal proceding. We are talking about fitness to serve. They are two entirely different things, and one can be unfit to serve and be guilty of no crime. William Jefferson has not been judged guilty by any court but I do not believe he is fit to serve, either.

Let's face it - he should be up to his eyeballs in subpoenas and indictments, and he would be if the new minority party hadn't been trying to use Jefferson to give themselves cover. They did not want their own activities looked into very carefully, so they packaged the FBI raid of Jefferson's congressional offices as a Constitutional crisis.

I laughed at this, oh how I laughed. Those setting up the loudest howl were the very congresspersons who didn't mind the NSA listening in on your phone calls, yet they wanted immunity from the law on the premises that you and I pay for them to use. Yeah. Their outrage didn't fly then and it still won't. There's a new rule of the day. It's called accountability. Study up, it's going to be on the test.

Whether he eventually goes to prison will be up to the prosecuting attorneys and the justice system. Whether or not he continues to legislate - an activity that affects us all - is up to the House of Representatives. This is a test of their character, and if they take the moral high ground it could very well set the tone for at least a decade of Democratic control of Congress.

Populism and the Netroots

You know, populism has gotten a bit of a bad rap from the effete and elite. Populism scares the hell out of the party apparatchiks because populist issues do not come out of think tanks on the coasts. Populist issues are fostered in Grange Halls and at high-school sporting events; at kitchen tables and in the corner booth of small-town diners throughout the land. In no political area is the saying “all politics is local” more of a truism than in populist movements. This thing has a direct effect on me; therefore I am going to do something about it. That probably means I will have to throw my lot in with that group over there that is trying to accomplish something else. Separately we fail, but together we succeed.

The netroots is a natural fit with populism. So of course we scare the hell out of Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the establishment Democrats. Howard Dean is the only one who gets us. He takes us at face value – we are dedicated and we are pissed off. We watched our parents absolutely gut our party. They sold out the core Democratic principles to become “Republican Light” (bad taste and not at all fulfilling) and they damned near appeased us out of existence.

I've said this before and I'll say it again and again and again...We are not our parents democratic party. We are our Grandparents Democratic Party.

I Thank a God I don’t believe in (you stand at the gates of Auschwitz and tell me you can still believe in any God) for the netroots and Howard Dean.

Because of the netroots, we have taken back the political process, and if you don’t believe me, just wait until the new congress takes their seats in January. You think they are going to get any free passes just because they are not-Republicans? Think again.

We put them there, and we can take them away; and if they fuck up, we most certainly will. We will be watching every vote. We will be demanding accountability. Claire had better join Emmanuel Cleaver and just put me in the email address book, because I want answers about everything.