I have few absolutes in my life. This is by design, the fewer things that you have no bending on the greater the chance that you can find common ground and get progress on issues or even have a happy life. The two I’ll talk about today are torture and political violence.

We have seen a disturbing trend in the last few months of violence based on political views. The man who flew his plane into the IRS, the assassination of Dr. Tiller for performing legal reproductive services, the killing of police officers for the supposed plan by the Obama administration to seize the guns of private citizens, the brick throwing at Democratic political offices and the cutting of gas lines at the family home of the brother of a U.S Representative whose address was posted on the internet by mistake.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

Then there are the credible threats; just yesterday a man was arrested for making credible threats against the life of Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and a man was arrested for threatening to use deadly force to prevent the operation of an abortion clinic. Pictures of nooses have been faxed to African American Representatives, and many other have had anonymous calls to their homes and offices.

           Read more... 

Let’s be clear, if a member of Congress or one of their staff is seriously assaulted, the blame will squarely lie with the Republican Party and its leadership in particular. I say seriously assaulted because Rep. Cleaver was spat upon on Sunday and that constitutes assault. But it will not be a legal culpability that the Republicans will have to bear it is the moral responsibility that they as people elected to represent and lead this nation.

We have seen some back peddling from a few Republicans, softly decrying the actions of their supporters as “nuts” or a “ few isolated incidents”. This, of course, completely ignores the years of ever growing rhetoric which paints their political opponents as traitors or baby killers or Socialists or Nazi’s.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net

           Read more... 

When I was a six or seven, I asked my Dad to explain what political conservative was (yes, I was just as big a politics nerd as a child as I am now, it must be genetic). It was harder than he thought but he came down on the definition that a conservative was someone that wanted to keep things as much the same as they were or are today as possible. Dad was great in that he did not attach any negative connotations to this desire, in fact he made a point to say that it was important to have folks like this, lest the nation make big mistakes. It is sad to say, but the definition Dad provided 30 plus years ago does not seem to apply anymore.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net

           Read more... 

Last night the House passed the Senates version of the HCR bill and the reconciliation fixes that they had bargained for. With that we crossed a line, but it was not the finish line, not by a long shot. While the bill has a lot of things in it that will measurably improve the amount and availability of health care for millions of Americans (more than zero, but way less that all) that is not really the important and historic aspect of the bill.

What changed last night is the framing of the debate about health care in this nation. Up until now it was an undecided question if the goal should be covering all Americans in one form or another. That question has been decided, the answer is yes.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net

           Read more... 

Last night the President did one of the things that he does better than almost anyone else, he gave a great speech. Taking the tone of confidence without arrogance, being willing to face the Republicans and put them in box by either applauding him or failing to applaud their own proposals, even by chiding them for their recalcitrance and stance of know nothingism. While it remains to be seen if he will push for the follow through which his speech called for it is interesting that the end of his speech was a political trope that should be dear to every politician.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

The Dogs Father taught one primary lesson to the hound as a pup – sometimes you get beat, but you only ever lose when you quit. This has lead to a life time of being beaten, but it also has lead to a set of victories personal, professional and public. This is the lesson the American people get, whether they had a father who harped on it or not. We intuitively understand that having a dumb faith in ourselves, an inability to see that the mountain is unassailable and that we would be better off if we just packed it in that is central to our experience.

           Read more... 

I am a life long Democrat and Liberal. There is nothing but pride in those appellations for me. I have been a supporter of the idea of the Big Tent since before I really understood that it did to refer to the Party and the Circus. However, there is a limit and that limit has been reached. It is not acceptable for politicians to be able to call themselves Democrats and then piss on the party’s agenda from a great height.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

I am specifically looking at the Blue Dogs in the House and Senators Bayh, Nelson, Landrieu, Lincoln, and Lieberman. The time has come for them to either leave the party or be replaced. You have collectively benefited from millions of dollars of campaign donations from the DSCC and from the work of tens of thousands of union members and Democratic volunteers over the course of your political careers.

           Read more... 

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.

           Read more... 

Ah, Aristophanes! How well you understood the martial excesses of your times, and how delightfully did you sketch the true power that need only assert itself in the face of patriarchal ambitions to grasp its ultimate power in this world.

For twenty-five long years during the last of the fifth century b.c.e. the Athenian democracy fought the Spartan oligarchy over the shape and nature of the ancient world. The endless war sucked away the wealth and strength - and sons - of the city-states and territories and spread civil strife throughout the Aegean region. Originally staged in Athens in 411 b.c.e. - seven years before the end of the war - Aristophanes' brilliant and funny Lysistrata was so popular it still serves as a humorous reminder nearly 2500 years later that the ultimate power of life and continuance, the power men most fear above all things, belongs to women.

Most of us are familiar with the plot line of Lysistrata, how she rallied the women of Athens to seize the Acropolis and convinced the women of Sparta to join in a Sex Strike to bring an end to the conflict. The sex strike theme has been borrowed here and there, and the play recast in modern, more feminist terms many times during the 20th century, and staged every year since 2003 (beginning with an Iraq peace protest) in the 21st. Yet here we are all these centuries later, suffering a new patriarchal shove-down of women's rights and power by a fearful warrior class and the government that commands them into endless wars for the profit of soul-less oligarchs.

The Stupak amendment is the final insult for me. I have NO reason to believe the misshapen, grotesquely immoral oligarchs in D.C. when they claim they didn't 'mean' to strip us of a long-enshrined constitutional right to privacy for our own bodies and important health decisions when they voted this abomination into the HCR bill. Thus I have NO reason to believe their lying lips when they claim it will never make it to the final law. I would have to be a much bigger fool than I already am to play along with that sort of pure garbage at this point in time - Congress does nothing by accident.

           Read more...