Nietzsche said"

“When we look into the abyss, searching for monsters, the abyss looks into us as well”.

Right now we are staring the abyss in the face and there are indeed monsters there. This abyss is the elections this fall. The chance that radical Republicans will take over the House and perhaps the Senate has grown. The affect of constant lies from Fox News and Talk Radio have energized the Republican base. The limp leadership from the White House and from Majority Leader Reid has demoralized the Democratic base.

The passing of many of the Lefts long term wish list items, barely and with tons of ridiculous and galling compromise has created a situation where the Right is fired up and the Left is angry at its own leadership. The conditions are in place for a wave election and the wave is not likely to go the way that we Liberals are going to like in any fashion.

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Since the Republicans have managed to stand tall on their intransigence that up to 2 million unemployed Americans should lose their meager benefits, perhaps it is time to start introducing them to some of the unemployed. We have heard the Dickensian pronouncements on the Senate floor that the unemployed are lazy, that the benefits they receive are keeping them from looking for work, that it is more important in a financial crisis to cut spending (and thus cut the over all recovery off at the knees) than it is to help our fellow Americans who, through no fault of their own, are now paying the price for financial deregulation.

As long as this debate is kept in abstract terms it is easy for those Republicans who have a conscience (all three of them) to talk about how we should be burdening our children and grandchildren with debt. It is time to use the very effective method of hearings to bring the real face of the long term unemployed right into the face of the heartless and petty Republican majority.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

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Thus the comparison between the Great Depression and the current Great Recession falls flat, because the popular upheavals of the 1930s are only in evidence today among the least helpful segments of the population. This of course is a major reason why we can expect no FDR-like President to save us from the...economic collapse...

...During the 1930s...intellectual figures such as John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, Kenneth Burke, and Richard Wright were actual socialists and not just mere liberals offering occasional plugs for John Kerry.

Another prominent socialist, albeit a bit later than the Depression, was Albert Einstein. He was an all around brilliant man, someone whom I admire greatly. And he wisely said this, although today it would probably be considered way too radical for anyone respectable to utter:

[I am] a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist. I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did any exaggerated personality cult.

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Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s letter writing campaign for accountability under the law for the apparent torture program of the Bush administration. The point of this effort is to keep the issue of accountability alive. We all know there are other critical issues, and the President and many in the Congress would rather deal with those than an issue that is going to be as divisive as this one.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

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In Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the little electronic book has printed on it in cheery yellow letters the phrase “Don’t Panic”. This is good advice in all situations in life, but in the new environment of the post Massachusetts Special Election, it is particularly true. We have seen the signs of panic from just about the entire leadership of the Democratic Party in one fashion or another. Whether it is Speaker Pelosi whistling past the graveyard saying we will pass this bill, or Sen. Webb saying that nothing should be done on HCR until Senator Elect Brown is sworn in or whether it is the contemptible Sen. Evan Bayh, (Chickenshit, IN) saying the whole reform effort should be scrapped, they are all engaging in panic behavior.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

This is not to say that some in the base are not engaging in it too. The Dog had a long day yesterday processing and getting his head around the new reality. It is not the different from the old reality, when you take the time to look at it, but a loss combined with the behavior and statements of our elected officials it easy to get into a funk.

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There is a lot of despair about the state of the Democrats who are in control of the Congress these days. To be fair there is a lot to despair about given the performance of many of the old guard in the party. On the flip side, there is a realization that we are indeed better off with Democrats in control of the government, as the example of 8 years of misrule by the criminal Bush administration clearly shows. Finally there is a significant worry that the Democrats are going to lose ground, and if thing turn catastrophic, lose control of one of the Houses of Congress.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

These are the problems, but the Dog has an idea how you and he can address these problems in a positive way. It will not require a hierarchal structure, it will not require any allegiance to the current power structure, and it will take merely a moderate level of work from each of us, over a period of the next ten months.

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Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s on-going letter writing campaign for torture accountability under the law. For those who have not seen this series before, the way it works is as follows; every Monday the Dog writes a letter to the decision makers urging them to follow through on accountability for the apparent Bush Administration torture program. You get involved by either using the letter as the starting place for one of your own, or cutting and pasting it over your signature and sending it off.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Most weeks the letter heads to the Attorney General, but the quest for accountability does not begin and end at the DOJ. Congress has a constitutional role of oversight which is also required if we are to make sure the United States does not drift to and fro on the issue of state sponsored torture. To this end, we will be writing Sen. Dianne Feinstein Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence this week. There will copies to the President, the AG, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Chairs Conyers and Leahy and Rep. Jerry Nadler a senior member of the House Judiciary

Dear Senator Feinstein;

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Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s letter writing campaign series. The object of this series is to keep the issue of accountability under the law for the apparent Bush Administration state sponsored torture program. For those who are new to this series here is how it works. On Mondays, the Dog writes a letter to the Attorney General and other decision makers urging them to follow the laws of our nation, fully investigate, and where appropriate evidence exists, prosecute those who conspired to torture, ordered torture and carried it out.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

The way you get involved is to take the letter and either use it as the starting place for your own letter or to cut and paste it over your own name and send it off. The Dog provides all the e-mail addresses or links to contact the AG, the President, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Chairs Conyers and Leahy and Rep. Jerry Nadler, you just provide a few minutes of your time to keep this issue alive.

This week we write the Attorney General, with copies to all of the other decision makers. Below is the letter;

Dear Attorney General Holder;

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On Monday’s the Dog usually works his letter writing campaign for torture accountability, but with all the other issues out there it seems like a good time to remind everyone what this letter writing campaign is asking accountability for. Torture is hideous not merely for the physical damage it causes. It is hideous because of the sense of total helplessness it causes. It makes people live in total fear, for their lives, and total helplessness to make it end.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Last year the Dog wrote the following first person example of waterboarding. It is taken from literature and descriptions from those who have actually experienced waterboarding, though not from the Dog’s personal experience. The intent is to give those of us who have never been tortured one small, imperfect, glimpse into what that might be like.

WARNING: For those who have been tortured, this description may be triggering to PTSD. If you have lived through torture yourself, please consider not reading this or read it knowing it is graphic and may be disturbing.

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Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s ongoing letter writing campaign. The purpose of this series is to try to keep the issue of accountability under the law for the Bush Administrations state sponsored torture program. Every week the Dog writes to decision makers on this issue reminding them of their responsibility under the law to investigate all credible allegations of torture and where evidence exists to prosecute the offenders. This is a community action, and your part in is to either cut and paste the letter over your own signature or to use it to write one of your own. The Dog provides all the e-mail addresses or links to the decision makers; you just provide a little typing time and some electrons.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

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