July 2007 Archives

[Image credit: Wichita State College]

It seems that many a Republican presidential candidate are finding themselves with they YouTube jitters, and the CNN YouTube debate may not happen at all.

1. Why do you think the candidates are trying to avoid this format of debate?

2. What question would you ask a Republican candidate via You Tube that you think would have a hope in hell of getting through the selection process?

3. Do you agree that there should be, as some have suggested, an American Idol type call in voting immediately following the each of the future Democratic and Republican debates, to get people used to voting for political candidates and not just entertainment stars?

4. Did you think that question number three was a real question? It wasn't. I made up the whole thing, especially the "some people have suggested part". See how easy it is to be a journalist? All you have to do is add "some people" into any question, and it can make any idiotic assertion look like a plausible and reasonable question to ask. Right up there with asking Barack Obama if he's "black enough".

5. What the hell does "black enough" mean?

6. Anyone here think that Alberto is trying to get himself out of perjury charges by pretending to spill the beans on "other intelligence activities" as a cover?

7. And is it the height of incompetence to suggest that you have committed a lesser sin than perjury by admitting instead that you were talking about a whole other program of spying, so heinous in its illegality, that half of the Justice Department was ready to take a walk if they didn't knock it off?

8. Was the Hillary/Obama "fight", carried on thoughout last week to the interest of almost no one, utterly stupid and vapid?

9. Anyone know who did the John Edwards "hair video"? It's an education in itself how to react to this sort of absolutely idiotic nonsense, namely the hubub about his haircut. You respond with ridicule. If you missed it, it's here for viewing. And by viewing, I mean viewing in non-partisan terms, but as a piece of strategy and response in today's media culture. I don't endorse any candidate for office. I endorse solid political thinking.

10. Will Solicitor General Paul Clement appoint a special prosecutor to the DOJ USA firings investigation? The best I can come up with is, maybe. I am positive that if Ted Olsen were still the Solicitor General of the United States, he would and do so swiftly. As much as I dislike Olsen's stand on any number of social issues, I have always admired him as a good legal scholar who loves the law. Same goes for James Comey, and many, if not most of the employees at the justice department. So the question becomes, does Paul Clement love the law, or does he love some other ideology which ascends some folks above the reach of the Rule of Law for its namesake?

BONUS QUESTION: Now that Inslee is putting a Gonazales impeachment bill in the hopper, has Harry Reid thought about the problem of President Bush using the August recess to dump Gonzales and do a recess appointment of a new Attorney General without any Congressional oversight? Hmmm...

I have questions. You have answers. Pick a question or ten and let's get the discussion going.

Recently I joined ArtKos, a group of people interested in political art, and my friend Kayakbiker and I submitted some work for a book for YearlyKos. Through ArtKos, I learned of some wonderful political artists and they are allowing me to present some work here.

Emily Duffy, an East Bay political and car artist, has presented political art via DailyKos diaries and her political art blog, and recently highlighted the work of Kelly Lyles, from the Pacific Northwest. I can see these "Rodent Dictators" live later today in my own backyard at CITIZENS IN HELL, ArtCore studios, Seattle, WA.

The following is adapted (with her permission) from Emily's article about artist Kelly Lyles.

(copyright Lyles 2007)

Rodent Dictators by Kelly Lyles

In the troubled postwar [world war I] period Mussolini organized his followers, mostly war veterans, in the Fasci di combattimento, which advocated aggressive nationalism, violently opposed the Communists and Socialists, and dressed in black shirts.... Amid strikes, social unrest, and parliamentary breakdown, Mussolini preached forcible restoration of order and practiced terrorism with armed groups.

Mao's record is dominated by two disastrous initiatives: the "Great Leap Forward," a broad campaign to organize peasants into communes during the late 1950s that resulted in mass starvation and repression; and the "Cultural Revolution," a youth- and army-driven nationwide campaign for ideological purity, again resulting in widespread repression and death.

No doubt you know plenty about the George W. Bush's anti-democracy presidency. In Kelly's triptych Mr. Bush is in very compatible company.

The widely read and often acerbic New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd -- who is particularly well-versed in the internal psychology of the extended Bush family dynasty, and who as a result of that knowledge is not exactly one of Bush 43's greatest fans in the mainstream media's polipunditbobbleheadosphere -- wrote a rather interesting column last week in which she shared her acutely non-progressive siblings' gradual changes of heart regarding the corrosive regime of our current Decider-In-Thief.

What MoDo had to say in that column is especially relevant to us here in the DCP community, since several of us have reported encountering similar situations in our own extended families over the past several years...

W.’s odyssey is one of the oddest in history, a black sheep who leapt above expectations and then crashed back down. It must be a crushing burden for President Bush to have wrought the opposite of what he intended in so many profound ways.

For me, one of the most amazing reversals brought about by W.’s reign of error is this: He may have turned my sister into a Democrat.

The lunacy that bothers me is not the stuff you find in Bedlam - people raging at the walls: that's what sane people do now; it's the new variety that comes from poverty of spirit: the popular, well-dressed, well-heeled and well-spoken lunacy that elects mad leaders to make mad wars upon the unfortunate and the dispossessed - the lunacy of the soul; of cold human hollowness, emotional flatness and numbness, moral emptiness; all surrounded with a gargantuan, manic and carefully disguised greed as a remedy for pain and the fear of death: the clever, well-adapted madness that the world rewards and to which the world aspires.

Michael Leunig in The Age, thanks to woz. (Leunig's day job is as an editorial cartoonist for The Age.)

Yesterday's thread header provided an opportunity for woz to link to a remarkable piece by Michael Leunig. The above drawing and quote are the inspiration for today's conversation.

The above video sums up the concerns I have about the new politics and the abilities (or lack of) of the campaigns to truly change and become what all of us at the DCP were working towards in the 2004 campaign cycle -- AUTHENTIC LEARNING.

The video was created by a guy who works at Microsoft and it has struck a chord with the choir, at any rate. It is not clear that anyone inside the world of electoral politics has picked up on it.

"Dear DCP people: please come and rip this website to shreds. Thank you."

Well, that's a bit of a deliberate oversimplification, of course. But it's a legitimate request nonetheless.

It's been a heck of a job Brownie busy week in Washington, not to mention elsewhere in the progressive blogoshperality. So most of our regular lead DCPeeps are in well-earned hibernation this morning, it seems. And that is as it should be.

But it's time for a thread change anyway, and somebody's got to fill it until something more earth-changing comes along. So I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to hijack the ongoing discussions of what's wrong (or right) with the world and ask y'all to tell me what's wrong (or right) with a particular website instead.

What did John Conyers want?

That’s the question I kept asking myself while watching the highly stylized kabuki-theater-like unfolding of the impeachment drama yesterday afternoon outside Conyers' office.

Getting arrested for civil disobedience in the District of Columbia isn’t what it used to be. If you go through the process of applying for a demonstration permit, there is a check-off box on the form asking if you are planning to have people arrested as part of your demonstration.

Knowing that people intend to risk arrest, leaves the police to determine the timing of the arrests, and things stay under control (from the police point of view) -- in contrast to the arrests at a World Bank demo a few years ago in which DC police sealed off whole city blocks and arrested everyone who happened to be on the street at that moment -- an unconstitutional procedure for which arrestees have won huge judgments against the city.

Don’t get me wrong -- even in such a well-choreographed encounter, there were moments of very high emotion. I was standing a bit down from Conyers’ office in the long, narrow, high-ceilinged hall when the crowd broke out into a single-word chant: IMPEACH. IMPEACH. IMPEACH.

Alberto Gonzales testifying on Capitol Hill. It's on C-SPAN 3 right now. Senator Arlen Spector laying out the options for enforcing their Congressional authority and doing a nice job of it.

It's worth catching it now, or I will try to post a link to it tomorrow for the Congressional record.

A bit of liveblogging here: Spector jamming Gonzales against the wall for the "going to the hospital in the middle of the night to see a man who has ceded his authority, it's very disturbing, you will have a chance to explain that, althought there's no conceivable explanation I can think of..." (I am paraphrasing, but not by much).

Swearing Gonzales in now...

Shorter Gonzales: Terror!! Terror!! Terror!! WE need to revise FISA. Oh, and keeping kids safe. I'm really good at that.

You know, stupid and dishonest is not an attractive combination, and every Senator at that tale who voted to confirm this Keystone Kriminal must be wondering how they could have missed his basic and underlying level of incompetence and versimilitude.

Also, ignoring every topic that the Chairman and the ranking member raised in their opening does not bode well for a pretty morning.

Tune in here to link to streaming.

Favorite rhetorical question so far: Arlen Spector to Gonzales- "Is your department working?"

UPDATE: I am just, again, have to say it, shocked at how stunningly stupid, and by stupid, I mean of meager intellectual capacity, education, curiosity and insight, Alberto Gonzales.

Also, this is being liveblogged here at Kos.

UPDATE: Worth noting--Gonzales testified, in explaining how he came to be a Ashcroft's bedside, that his appearence arose out of a meeting earlier of "the gang of eight" earlier that day in which he informed those present that Comey would not approved continuing the FISA program in its current form. Here's my question: Who in that meeting suggested that the Attorney General and the Chief of Staff Andrew Card should visit the bedside to convince him to approve a program that was disapproved? Whose idea was it to begin with, and who approved, and how did that approval happen?

UPDATE: Ben Cardin trying to follow up on this, by pointing out that the meeting was confidential, just like the matters that the White House is protecting by Executive privelege. Pointing out that the "protection of information" is very selective and "self-serving for the White House", but not getting to the point of"what in the world were Andy Card and I doing that night", as Gonzales himself describes it.

I am sitting on the floor of a phone booth, so the police will not make me stand and blog. Lisa from C-ville is standing in front of it, hoping I will not be noticed.

I have never seen anything like this one, folks.

There are HUNDREDS of people lining the hallway to John Conyers' office. Cindy and a few others are inside, speaking to the staff, we assume. But the scene is incredible--people have come from all over the country to deliver the message that we can not tolerate illegal actions and an unConstitutional government.

Richard has the camera and many photos--but he is up close and I cannot get to him. But we promise you photos as soon as possible.

I will update this as I can...

But hello to all from the center of democracy! We are taking it BACK.

Oh--and CALL!

Phone Chairman Conyers at 202-225-5126 and ask him to start the impeachment of Dick Cheney; and phone your own Congress Member at 202-224-3121 and ask them to immediately call Conyers' office to express their support for impeachment. Your Congress Member might be one of the three needed, not just to keep impeachment activists out of jail but to keep this nation from devolving into dictatorship.

THE PHOTOS:

Entering the Building

Delivering the Message Outside

cont. below the fold:

(photo by DiAnne Grieser)

The latest Utne Reader poses the title question: How Can America Win Back the World?

Author Hannah Lobel describes a recent scenario where President Bush proposed humanitarian relief in Darfur but it appeared to be too late for us to help much. She asks whether we have squandered our power and, if you will, political capital under this Administration. I will cut short the litany of things that have gone wrong in the last six-plus years, from Katrina to Guantanamo. We all know them too well. We also know that our position in the eyes of the world has gone down, that much goodwill toward our country has been squandered.

She then describes what must be done, and comments that this administration can not be counted on to do it, nor might they be able to if they had the political will.

Her positive program includes the following:

1. Re-engage the international community.

2. Take the lead on climate change.

3. Drop the pursuit of a more advanced nuclear arsenal.

4. Ensure that government can provide basic services.

5. Rejoin the International Criminal Court.

6. Bring back habeas corpus.

7. Commit to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

8. Stop torturing people.

Can you add to the list? Do you agree with the list? How much can be done with this Administration still in the White House? Assuming someone else takes over, how do we start?

You knew this story was coming:

A turtle was happily swimming along a river when a scorpion hailed it from the shore.

"Dear friend turtle!" called the scorpion. "Please let me climb upon your back and swim me to the other side of the river!"

"No," replied the turtle, "for if I do, you shall sting me, and I shall die."

"Nonsense!" replied the scorpion. "If I kill you in the middle of the river, you shall sink, and I shall drown and die with you."

The turtle thought this over, and saw the truth of the scorpion's statement. He let it upon his back and began swimming towards the other side of the river. Halfway across, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck.

"Why have you stung me?!" cried the turtle as his body began to stiffen. "Now you shall die as well!"

"Because it is in my nature," replied the scorpion as the turtle sank beneath the waters.

****

Well, it is a cloudy and overly warm morning in America. The Republicans are behaving as the scorpions they are and the Democrats are trying to be wily turtles, as usual.

But let us deconstruct the tale:

No!

Tell me what democracy looks like?

This is what democracy looks like!

(Times-News photo of Laura Buchan by Vivian Johnson)


Erie, Pennsylvania is a small city on the edge of a great lake. It is a quintessentially American community -- so much so, in fact, that it was designated an All-American City by Richard Nixon in 1972. Like many such cities, it has gone through some painful changes over the last few decades as its old industrial economy gradually gave way to a 21st-century technology/service/tourism economy instead. But Erie still typifies what most Americans look for in their home towns: wide streets, good schools, low crime rates, affordable housing, and a generally pleasant quality of life for its citizens.

And like the residents of most American home towns outside the Beltway and between the polarized left and right coast megalopolises, people in Erie are basically centrist by nature. They may differ widely on specific individual issues, but for the most part they share common values and common beliefs with each other and with the hundreds of millions of other Americans who live in what is sometimes referred to as "flyover country."

Politics is something that people do care about in Erie, at least when it impacts their daily lives in some particular way, but they don't obsess about it. They may lean left or right, but they do so with their feet planted firmly in the middle of the road. During the 2004 race, George Bush's single largest campaign-rally audience was in Erie. But in 2004, Erie voters chose John Kerry over George Bush by a solid margin. Professional pundits and politicians and prognosticators do well to pay attention to what happens in Erie, because it is and always has been a bellwether burg for how the American electorate looks at the world.

That's why today, while Senators on both sides of the aisle are busy debating and voting on the Levin-Reed Amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that would begin to put the brakes on the Bush administration's ongoing escalation of its dishonest war in Iraq, it's appropriate for us to look at the human costs of making war as seen through the eyes of quintessentially average Americans, as told in the words of four reporters for the award-winning Erie Times-News newspaper.

Two funerals in two weeks. Two flag-draped coffins. Two men who gave the last full measure of devotion for the country they chose to serve. And one mother of two sons in harm's way, waiting and hoping and praying that they come home alive this time.

“You can never do only one thing” —-attributed to ecologist Garret Hardin

“Hey students! Biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel can make a big difference in improving our environment, helping our economy, and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.” —-from "ABC’s of Biofuels," U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Map of human use of biomass

Well guess what else, boys and girls.

In its ABC’s, the Department of Energy forgot about the XYZ’s. In our desperate rush to find substitutes for oil in order to keep the American Way of Life in Cars intact, we are rushing down a path that will wreak havoc on the lives of the world’s poor, and further accelerate the already catastrophically high rate of extinction for the rest of the species we share the planet with.

And just for a little ethanol?

Words have amazing power, as we who reveal ourselves in print on the internet learn! Words can inspire, teach, confuse or offend and sometimes have more power than we bargain for. Then there is the power of love.

Christy touched on this when we were talking about humor. She wrote:

Humor is the exact same thing as diplomacy.
You have to find the right words.
Otherwise, wars ensue.

By coincidence, immediately before I read her words, I had read a version of this amazing story from the Washington Post:

I have got to tell you: Just when you think life has gotten as surreal as it could possibly get, suddenly the Gods of Satire look down upon you and throw some interesting stuff your way.

Here's the story from the beginning...

Today, as I was driving to work, I heard a siren in the distance. Being the law abiding citizen that I am, I pulled over as I'm required by law to do. In my rear-view mirror, I could see the strangest contraption heading my way.

A red mirage? ...No.

A red fire truck...? Well... that would be using that phrase very loosely!

As it passed by me and pulled in front of me, I could see it more clearly. And the kindest thing anyone could say about the little red thingie making it's way up the road is that it was a fire truck wanna-be -- a cross between a jeep and a dunebuggy, painted red, and looking amazingly like a child's toy.

At least its presence provided a good laugh between my daughter and I as I resumed driving the long trek to work -- all the while following the little do-hickey fire jeep with the funny bars on top and its flashing red light. Before too long, it was just a tiny red blob in the distance.

Of course everyone knows where there's little red fire trucks, there's smoke, and where there's smoke, there's fire.

Sorab Wadia is an actor who was in FEAR UP last summer. We had a lot of conversations about the level of humor that was appropriate for serious statements about war and torture. We agreed that finding a balance between "I Love Lucy" and Lenny Bruce is not easy and the context of the times needs consideration.

Watch the above video. Sorab is in a new production called JIHAD THE MUSICAL. He plays a wannabe terrorist.

Here is the description of Jihad The Musical:

The Show

Featuring songs such as 'I wanna be like Osama' and the love ballad 'I Only See Your Eyes', JIHAD THE MUSICAL is a madcap gallop through the wacky world of international terrorism; one that puts the powers that be in their place, and that invokes the Blitz spirit that we must laugh at those who seek to intimidate us. Stand back! This is a high-kicking chorus line!

Hmmm. Much food for thought here. Is the darkness of the humor in some way a barometer for the depth of the problems? Are these actors simply oblivious to the degree of offensiveness in their work? IS it offensive? Are you amused? Are you more aware?

Can we make jokes about invading Saudi Arabia, or are we deep-down seriously pushing back at fear? Can Sorab, who is truly both Muslim and American, and politically aware, be allowed to make fun of his culture of origin? UPDATE: Sorab wrote to me and reminded me that he is actually NEITHER Mulsim nor American, but Zoroastrian by religion and Indian by citizenship. He is, however, applying for American citizenship, which led to my query: WHY?? I am sure he has good reasons. I am just feeling a tad negative about the direction this country is going in and concerned about adding more taxpayers to support the cabal...

[Photo credit for Dana Lynne Anderson's painting "Zeitgeist": Kosmos magazine]

Why should we care about zeitgeist and what people are talking about in someone else's neighborhood? We should care because it can be the key to making our efforts at pressuring Congress more effective and ultimately, controlling the policy debate.

How?

[Photo credit of eggs frying on sidewalk: operapixels]

All the kids I know are asking if you can really do this...yes, you can, but it's disgusting. I give that answer alot these days.

[UPDATE: Harriet Miers blows off the subpoena. Conyers responds here. My response? Throw her ass in jail. Now. What's your response?]

Speaking of these days, you don't need me to tell you that it's summertime. The mercury is through the roof, and we're all seeking a little shelter. And while you seek that shelter, what are you talking about with your friends and neighbors? More important, what are you talking about with strangers? You know, the folks in line at the grocery store, or in my case, at the town pool.

I usually know what's on the minds of my close friends and neighbors, but I've found that what's on the minds of strangers usually provides the most insight as to what the country, as a whole, is talking about.

So here's what people are talking back about:

Paul Krugman has written in the New York Times of the medical-industrial complex and how its political allies have used scare tactics to prevent Americans from supporting and seeking universal healthcare coverage for all. File under "I knew this would happen" his report of a Fox "talking head" trying to link universal healthcare with terrorism.

Excerpts from Krugman's article:

These days terrorism is the first refuge of scoundrels. So when British authorities announced that a ring of Muslim doctors working for the National Health Service was behind the recent failed bomb plot, we should have known what was coming.

“National healthcare: Breeding ground for terror?” read the on-screen headline, as the Fox News host Neil Cavuto and the commentator Jerry Bowyer solemnly discussed how universal health care promotes terrorism.

While this was crass even by the standards of Bush-era political discourse, Fox was following in a long tradition. For more than 60 years, the medical-industrial complex and its political allies have used scare tactics to prevent America from following its conscience and making access to health care a right for all its citizens.

I say conscience, because the health care issue is, most of all, about morality.

Ally and I get kind of esoteric in our blog discussions about exotic animals like Neoconservatives and Neoliberals. Then there are all the different stripes and colors of regular old Democrats and Republicans, as they evolve across time (assuming evolution exists). Then there is the third issue of whether "swing voters" are worth dealing with or should they just be ignored and they might go away.

We have the "fifty state plan" people vs those who would target "swing states" which presumably can go either way.

Who are these "swing voters" or Independents and why are they important?

In 2004, Bush and Kerry split the independent vote, but in 2006 independents swung toward Democratic House candidates by a wide margin. They are poised to play a decisive role in 2008.

The percentage identifying as Independent has risen from approximately 25% in the 1950s to almost 40% in 2004. Independents are less likely to vote than Democrats or Republicans. The number voting jumped from 19% of voters in 1972 to approximately 27% in the 2006 midterm election, and peaked in 1976 at 34%. Other surveys have identified 29% to 34% of voters as Independents.

We arrived at the Museum of the American Indian at 9:45, fifteen minutes prior to the time people were told to arrive, to find that a long line was already snaking around the building, and that only 200 would be let in. Somehow we missed that memo. But we saw our Code Pink buddies up in the front of the line and so flew over there to photograph the intrepid few. Three of them spent the night; the rest showed up at 8 am, causing a near riot in the line behind them. Hottest ticket in town.

We tried to blend in,

but today I am wearing my t-shirt that says "These colors don't torture", with a peace flag. The pink outfit is in the laundry. So I was quickly spotted for the interloper I was, and tossed out.

As I left, I ran into the lovely, and injured Midge:

Now we are under a tree, with a cool breeze and a nearby Jumbotron. The Code Pink folks are inside, in front, and in the blazing sun. Hottest ticket, indeed!

Where have we seen this before?

From earlier:

It's Friday night as I write this and we just back from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. We saw a rockin' gospel concert tonight and I started thinking about music and rhythm and choirs and everyday people again.

It started when everyone in the audience started clapping along with the music, which took about thirty-five seconds. I looked around the tent and saw a fairly representative group of old, young, Black, Asian, Hispanic, White, gay, families with young children, and one very tall, weird spaghetti-like guy I remember from years past who does a sort-of ostrich-like dance around the tent. Well, at least no one else feels too strange getting up and rocking out after he gets going!

It was during the early clapping however, that I started to think about Dick Cheney and George Bush and Condeleeza Rice. I was caught up in the sense of joy and transcendence of the music, the cool night breeze, the smell of ethnic foods, and the sense of community and all of a sudden I realized that there was no way that they would ever, could ever understand the phenomenon I was experiencing.

Leaders who can be OF the people and still lead are missing from the mix, I fear. I watched as the Paschall Brothers allowed themselves to be overtaken by rhythm and melody and harmony, channeling their faith. One of them said to us that this is FOLK music because we are all just FOLKS.

Just folks. It's now Saturday and I am thinking about sparrow's adventure last night in her small town (see last thread header) holding up the truth for all to see. I am thinking about Al Gore's concert and today's Folklife festivities on the Mall and how we plan to be running back and forth, inhaling the community, the rhythms, and the sense that together, we too can overcome the indifference and the meanness of spirit and simply state the truth.

I'll be posting photos here today of what we encounter. I invite you to, in your own way and in your own place, find a moment to dance with the sun and the stars and to celebrate the fact that we are folks who dance with each other.

Find the beat...

My family hasn't seen Michael Moore's "Sicko" yet as of this writing, but we understand that he will be accused of left-wing bias and selective presentation of information. There is always the option of someone making a counter-documentary, as usually happens, though his documentaries tend to start the ball rolling.

What would such a counter-documentary cover? Long lines for services? High taxes in countries with good coverage? How much better the US compares to some of the poorer African countries? Would they be able to explain why my two brothers and their families or my own son currently have no healthcare?

Here are the basic options available in developed countries today:

[Ed's note: this entry was originally posted on dKos by progressive blogger BriVT.]

I am OUTRAGED by the media coverage of yesterday's big news out of Philadelphia. The Declaration of Independence is a really big deal, imo, but you can't even get a sense of what's in the document from the news coverage. Let's take a look at what I mean ...

First, here's the lede of a representative article from the Washington Post:

In a move termed a "last-ditch plea for relevance from a defeated insurgency" by a British Army spokesman, the Continental Congress yesterday gave final approval of a Declaration of Independence.

The document, signed by the Congressmen, provides a brief introduction followed by a litany of what the Congress terms "injuries and usurpations" by King George III.

"This really is the last gasp of a dying insurgency," said British Army spokesman Larry DiRita. "With our fleets gathering outside New York to put the final touches on their rag-tag 'Army,' the rebels decided to make one final plea for attention."

The article goes on to give conflicting reports over the situation in New York.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

My siblings and I have spent the past five days in western Massachusetts, experiencing the historical roots of participatory democracy.

Saturday was especially rich. We decided to pay homage to Arlo and Alice and headed for the Guthrie Center, the former home of Alice and Ray, of Alice's Restaurant.

Arlo has purchased the church and turned it into a community center. George showed us around. There is a recreation of Alice's Restaurant, a cabaret space and an upstairs meeting space (free yoga on Wednesdays!). Arlo is going to be releasing his new CD there this coming weekend, in case anyone wants to run over there.

We talked with George about the kind of community events he sponsors at the Center. Free meals and fundraisers for homeless and handicapped folks are regular events, and the music is at the center of the feeding process. People take turns playing and singing at these events, and income level doesn't matter.

And so we pondered the role of song and dance in community-building.

Patrick Fitzgerald's statement:

We fully recognize that the Constitution provides that commutation decisions are a matter of presidential prerogative and we do not comment on the exercise of that prerogative.

* We comment only on the statement in which the President termed the sentence imposed by the judge as "excessive." The sentence in this case was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country. In this case, an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws. It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals. That principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing.

* Although the President’s decision eliminates Mr. Libby’s sentence of imprisonment, Mr. Libby remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process.

h/t to FireDogLake

I keep seeing and hearing frustrated exchanges about how unresponsive our government and media are to concerned individuals such as we in the progressive blogosphere.

These recent posts to the DCP blog are typical of the kind of comments being made in all manner of other online venues as well:

When can we, as a nation (not just bloggers) call 'bull$h*te' on these war criminals "leading" us and say "Enough!"???
-- Posted by: NonnyO

How about this for an idea about "when" change will occur -- when the bloggers figure out how to reach out beyond the blogosphere ghetto. I can tell you that in my blue-collar, economically declining, city, 85% of the people do not use the internet at all. Probably 80% to 90% do not read a newspaper daily. They get most of their information via television and radio. Many of these people now know that Bush is bad but they are not quite sure why, and they are not quite sure what to do about it.
-- Posted by: Ralpheh

The Pew Research Group provides some insight in this report entitled "Cable and Internet Loom Large in Fragmented Political News Universe." This table makes it quite clear that the Internet, while growing in importance, has some stiff competition from corporate-controlled "mainstream media." They looked particularly at campaign-related news, but the same sources disseminate most of our news.

There has been a shift in how the public gets election (and presumably other) news. Television leads but broadcast television popularity has eroded. The Internet, on the other hand, has grown in importance but is still overshadowed by television. Young people are increasingly seeking out alternative sources of information, such as comedy shows and the Internet. Local news has suffered over time, as have newspapers and other print media, as far as market share.

Internet election news climbed from 9% in 2000 to 13% in 2004 for regular campaign news consumers, and from 15% to 20% for occasional ones. This does not measure those individuals who are politically unaware, do not vote or do not care.