Scandals

Talking to Michael about Spitzer and to other people, I am struck by how different the public persona I had met was from the public Spitzer persona that others knew.

I was only in several social situations with Spitzer and spoke to him only a couple of times. Yet during those public "private" appearances (they were at closed events) I was able to observe the man.

What did I take away? Even though the man knew how to commandeer a room and appeared to have a hyper-social personality, Eliot Spitzer struck me as a very private, very shy man.

Yes, it's shocking to hear since so many describe him as powerful, intense and overwhelming. Which I don't disagree with. It's just that if you got physically a bit too close to him (as it happened to me a couple of times) he would get very quiet and, what struck me about him was that he couldn't look at me straight into my eyes.

And as I was telling my husband, I've packed on some serious poundage, so it's not that I am looking babealicious these days. Yet I noticed that Spitzer was actually shyish in a nerdy way. At least to me, he wasn't that overwhelming as other people have described him.

Make of that what you wish.

It's 2004 all over again, 'yall! Political manwhore and principal funder of the infamous "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" is at it again. GOPers are the party of crazy-makers and T. Boone Pickens is the guy who paid for the 2004 crazy-making anti-John Kerry smear campaign that claims to have given Bush the 2004 elections.

Unhappy with not being in the news during this election cycle, the oilman seems to have been drunk at a dinner sponsored by the American Spectator magazine. In a room full of Washington movers and shakers he claimed to be willing to pay 1 Million Dollars to anybody who could prove his "Swifties" lied about John Kerry's record.

Kerry issued a statement accepting the challenge and vowing to give the money to Paralyzed Veterans of America. So what does the GOP douchebag say to that? In what a colleague described as "a game of GOP Calvinball", the guy completely changes the rules of the wager by demanding that Kerry "provide his Vietnam journal, his military records, and copies of movies and tapes made during his service".

First off, I was upset that my colleague used the Calvinball reference to describe anything to do with the crazy-making slimeballs working for the Republican party. Bill Waterson is one of my heroes and Calvin and Hobbes is a masterpiece for how he captured the anarchic innocence and creative exhuberance of childhood.

! ! ! !

Today, Markos Moulitsas, is the doctrinaire leftist publisher of the DailyKos “progressive” anti-war blog, railing against the moderation of candidates like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Harold Ford. But in the 1980’s, Mr. Moulitsas was an unabashed Reagan Democrat, even working as a campaign aid to George H.W. Bush in the 1992 Presidential election. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0601.wallace-wells.html http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2007/01/markos-was-republican-states...

Last year, in a piece Markos wrote for the Cato (libertarian) Institute, Markos acknowledged that the spent the 1980's as a Reagan Republican. http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/10/02/markos-moulitsas/the-case-for-the...
http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2007/01/yes-progessive-markos-of-dai...

How did Markos achieve this stunning metamorphosis in just a few short years? Actually, nobody knows and Markos isn’t telling. He has told interviewers, improbably, that he last voted for the Republicans in 1992, because he suddenly realized that they didn’t support “states rights” as strongly as he would have liked. (See articles above.)

Image courtesy of Jossip

I was invited to attend the Reuters' Newmaker Event : Public figures, Private Lives.

The focus was actually on celebrities, paparazzi and the rise new media upstarts like Perez Hilton, Jossrip or the indy image agency Splash News. You all know who Perez and Jossip are. SplashNews, though, is the little company that could --they were the ones who snagged the rights to the "drunken stepfather" photographs of Mel Gibson; the ones taken minutes before his DWI arrest and anti-semitic ranting.

David has an excellent recap over at Jossip. He tells of how Bonnie Fuller polygraphs sources on some of their scoops. Crazy! Given that she is the biggest purveyor of gossip-as-cracktainment, this bit of news proves Bonnie Fuller is the Donna of the biggest gossip mafia in the world.

That's so hot!

This being Reuters though, the conversation when from gossip to politics thanks to Mark Foley. And of course, it was used as a moment to bitch-slap "the blogs".

Sigh.

A year ago I debated with Paul Holmes, the chief editor of Reuters global news division, about myths rurrounding blogs. A year has passed, much has happened since, and he's totally hit to blogging. But somehow these panels end up into blogsmears and now the shift is from "bloggers are rookies nobody should pay attention to" to "if Democrats/Lamont/candidate-of-your-choice looses, it will show how "the blogs" can't be trusted".

Disgraced Republican Congressman Bob Ney has now pleaded guilty to bribery charges in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal. He is the first Congressman to plead guilty in this case to date, though it has also brought indictments to the likes of the disgraced Republican, Tom DeLay. Remember, Bob Ney was an early target of my Target the Corrupt Republican Campaign. Tom DeLay was another early target! So far, I think I am doing well in picking them.

If you want to fight corruption, please consider donating to defeating corrupt Republicans in this year's election (including Bob Ney's OH-18 and Tom DeLay's TX-22 seats), and please consider donating to electing Democratic Attornies General who will pursue, rather than block, investigations into Republican corruption (Secretaries of State races also included).

What started as a longish email reply about the scandal that has led to the resignation of US Rep (Fl-R) Mark Foley is turning out into a full fledged post. The conversations I have been having with other people is about how this story is being framed.

I've been hearing the word "pedophile" and now the moniker "predatorgate" thrown around with much gusto by Democrats. The problem is, it has been also intertwined with the words "homosexual".

See, Mark Foley was a self-hating semi-closeted gay man who happens to have also had a fondness for stalking young pages all around Capitol Hill. The worse part? Dennis Hastert, Tom Delay and other republicans knew about it. For years. About five years to be exact. They did nothing about.

Yet because "pedophile" and "predator" are in collusion with "gay", this whole framing makes me nervous.

Queer activists, like my friend Michael Rogers of BlogActive, work hard to report on the enemies within their communities. That a man like Mark Foley could spend 19 years in a committed relationship with another man yet push forward the Defense of Marriage Act is just incredible. Without Michael's investigative reports we wouldn't have the background information necessary for making informed assessments on creeps like Foley.

As many states face a decision of what technology to choose to replace the old voting machines, more security issues are cropping up around the touch-screen (DRE) machines.

I already have reported on how the DRE machines are easily hackable, use prorietary software that prevents open public oversight of elections, have no official paper trail preventing any kind of independent recount and, on top of it all, are far more expensive to buy, maintain and replace than the alternative, "scantron" (PBOS) system. A summary of a Princeton study on security issues surrounding DRE machines can be found here.

But the DRE machines are also easy for almost anyone to open. Turns out the locks they use can be opened by a standard key that will open hotel minibars and many kinds of office furniture. From the "Freedom to Tinker" technology blog:

“Hotel Minibar” Keys Open Diebold Voting Machines

Monday September 18, 2006 by Ed Felten

Like other computer scientists who have studied Diebold voting machines, we were surprised at the apparent carelessness of Diebold’s security design. It can be hard to convey this to nonexperts, because the examples are technical. To security practitioners, the use of a fixed, unchangeable encryption key and the blind acceptance of every software update offered on removable storage are rookie mistakes; but nonexperts have trouble appreciating this. Here is an example that anybody, expert or not, can appreciate:

Israel just went through a highly contentious war, and many of its citizens are questioning the way the war was conducted. Here in America, those dissidents would merely be intimidated, denegrated and ignored. In Israel, those dissidents have forced an actual investigation of the government.
From Guysen Israel News:

Ehud Olmert finally succumbed to public pressure. The former judge Eliyahu Vinograd will head the commission of inquiry into the handling of the war in Lebanon. He will have the power to summon witnesses and grant them immunity...

Former Judge Eliyahu Vinograd will head the commission of inquiry into the handling of the war. His appointment was approved by the Attorney General Meni Mazus this afternoon and will be submitted for government approval on Sunday. (Guysen.Israël.News)
Ehud Olmert finally succumbed to public pressure and dismissed former Mossad head, Nahum Admoni who had been appointed to the position. However he will remain on the commission.

Now why can't we get a REAL investigation of the way Bush and Co. have conducted the Iraq Fiasco?

Not long ago I was chided for targeting Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio. I considered him a target while the person who chided me said he was unassailable, too hard to defeat.

Well, once again events prove that no politician is safe if they are corrupt. Bob Ney is going down. And if we play our cards right, we can win big in Ohio this year because of Republican corruption.

I keep saying that even in districts where Republicans seem safe, the corruption issue can be huge. No one seemed safer in their corrupt complacency than Tom DeLay (TX), Randy Cunningham (CA) and Bob Ney (OH). DeLay is dropping out in disgrace, Cunningham is in jail and now I am happy to report that Bob Ney is following in DeLay's footsteps. Bob Ney, who I have included in some of my Ohio diaries, will drop out in disgrace in November. From BBC News:

A leading US Republican lawmaker facing corruption allegations has said he will not run for re-election in November.

Ohio congressman Bob Ney said he would stand down from the seat he has held for 12 years because of his family.

NY State Republicans may not quite be as corrupt as their counterparts in Ohio, Missouri and Kentucky (the three most corrupt Republican State Parties in the nation), but, my own NY State is not immune to the largely Republican Culture of Corruption. Some time back I brought up the hypocrisy and corruption of Republican Congressman John Sweeny (NY-20) who did his best to distance himself from the Republican mega-scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramhoff but is himself just as much a part of the Republican-Lobbyist Culture of Corruption as any Republican. I also have blogged extensively about some corrupt ties between a particular developer (Bruce Ratner) and New York politicians (Republicans Michael Bloomberg and George Pataki (Ratner's law school chum)...as well as Democrat Marty Markowitz). Today I want to review Sweeny's corruption and introduce a new target of my campaign against corruption in NY State: Congressman Vito Fossella (NY-13).

Ken Lay, convicted and corrupt Enron exec who became the poster boy for what is wrong with the Republican culture of corruption, has died of a heart attack. He was scheduled to be sentenced in September. Seems like nature beat the court to it.

Condolences to Lay's family.

One thing no one has ever been able to answer in any clear and logical way is why we invaded Iraq. It never was about a link to al-Qaeda because that was viewed as bogus the moment Bush tried to claim it. Remember that the ONLY link between Iraq and al-Qaeda BEFORE we invaded was an al-Qaeda connected ANTI-SADDAM Kurdish group who we supported. It never was about WMD because that was based on intelligence from a source KNOWN to be unreliable and Saddam didn't even have a functioning airforce and tank corps, let alone WMD, when we invaded. Plus, any and all supplies for WMD Saddam ever had were given to him by the United States during earlier Republican Administrations, with Rumsfeld personally involved in the deals. In other words we ALWAYS knew what he had and didn't have.

So why invade?

And why did Republicans prevent Clinton from going after Osama bin Laden long before 9/11? And why did Bush pull our troops out of Tora Bora when we had bin Laden cornered?

Why let al-Qaeda continue to function?

I think the answer lies in two simple observations. One is the government's redefining the current war (which they define as BOTH the war on Iraq AND the war against al-Qaeda and which they are trying to expand into Iran) as the "Forever War" (my interpretation of the official government name of "the Long War"). And second are the gross profits being made by large corporations, many directly connected with Administration officials, directly from the war.

From New Democratic Majority.

Ann Coulter is one of the favorite spokespeople of the Republican Party, having appeared, among other venues, at CPAC, the annual rightist conference in Washington; in that particular instance, she spoke right after Dick Cheney.

So it's entirely fair to assume that Coulter speaks for the Republican Party, and that her views represent those of the party.

So does the Republican Party support her statement on the 9/11 widows "These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazis. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much."?

Not a single Other than Pataki, no Republican elected official in New York State has publicly said a word about Coulter's vicious attacks on the 9/11 widows. Silence, in this case, implies consent.

We suggest that all New Yorkers who live in Republican districts get on the phone and ask what their representative has to say about Coulter's statements. Contact info is after the break.

Ratner supporters are very passionate about his Atlantic Yards Project. They often brook no criticism whatsoever of his plan, always coming back to the promised benefits of the project. Bruce Ratner’s development schemes could indeed address real development needs of Brooklyn. The problem is that for the most part his actual plans DON’T address them. The “affordable housing” is defined such that poorer residents would be quickly priced out as the overall value of the area goes up. The promise of jobs is in no way guaranteed and would mainly be white collar or very low paid jobs, not solid, union jobs. There is no plan for new schools and firehouses in an area where schools and firehouses are already too few and far between. And no one has yet addressed the problems of the massive increase in traffic in an already packed area or where the sewage will go with our already overtaxed sewer system. The already smelly Gowanus canal will be the ultimate destination of large chunks of the sewage from Ratner’s 17 skyscrapers and giant arena.

But all practical problems aside, one thing not one single Ratner supporter has ever been able to explain away are the blatant lies and almost as blatant corruption that surrounds Ratner and his business dealings. Let’s face facts. The practical problems like whether the affordable housing is REALLY affordable and for how long, whether the city’s infrastructure will be upgraded adequately to deal with the increased traffic, population and sewage can all be negotiated and worked out if Ratner would actually negotiate in good faith. But what is clear is that Ratner and his business are NOT dealing in good faith. Mostly he gives the community lies and corruption and THAT is something that none of his supporters, from Bloomberg and Pataki to Marty Markowitz, have been able to justify.

Brooklyn is burning and arson is suspected.

I first became suspicious when 1033 Pacific Street burned down, killing four people. It was while reading about this fire that I became aware that there has been an unusual spike in suspicious fires in Central Brooklyn. What particularly struck me was how many of those suspicious fires were around the area Bruce Ratner wants to develop. It was one of those thoughts you don’t like having. When you make a connection that is far fetched and disturbing, but does fit the facts. There is a huge push to declare the entire region blighted so Ratner can come and develop it. It isn’t just Atlantic Yards. There are surrounding neighborhoods that have already been promised to Ratner by Pataki and Bloomberg, a fact that was only made public because of a freedom of information act request by the group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.

My wife and I both had the same thought: that the sudden spate of suspicious fires was awfully convenient for Ratner’s plan to declare the area blighted. Coincidence? Quite possibly. But it is a disturbing thought. I pushed that thought aside because although Ratner certainly employs thugs to push his agenda (I have encountered some), I have never witnessed any sign of anything beyond run of the mill, in-your-face intimidation. In fact I even saw Ratner foe, Letitia James, diffuse that intimidation by essentially going up to the thugs and hugging them, leaving them rather sheepish looking.

Last night two politicians independently raised the same specter of arson in Brooklyn at the Park Slope Democracy for NYC meeting. This time the suspicious fire was the massive Greenpoint warehouse fire. First Wellington Sharpe, running for Assembly in the 58th district, then Bill Batson, running for Assembly in the 57th district, called the recent fires in Central Brooklyn and now at the waterfront arson and linked them with the plans to overdevelop Brooklyn.

Today is the third anniversary of Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech, quite possibly the dumbest speeches in American History. Since then, the quagmire has stretched on and on and there is no end in sight.

Let's reflect on then and now...

May 1st, 2003, in the New York Times (via Editor and Publisher):

By Elisabeth Bumiller

WASHINGTON, May 1 -- President Bush's made-for-television address tonight on the carrier Abraham Lincoln was a powerful, Reaganesque finale to a six-week war. But beneath the golden images of a president steaming home with his troops toward the California coast lay the cold political and military realities that drove Mr. Bush's advisers to create the moment.

The president declared an end to major combat operations, White House, Pentagon and State Department officials said, for three crucial reasons: to signify the shift of American soldiers from the role of conquerors to police, to open the way for aid from countries that refused to help militarily and -- above all -- to signal to voters that Mr. Bush is shifting his focus from Baghdad to concerns at home….

Here are some comments from outsiders on the actions of IND insiders in the recent disenfranchisement of nearly 100 new memebrs by the Independent Neighborhood Democrats executive board:

From a Brooklyn activist and organizer who is watching this from as much of a distance as he can:

“If I were advising IND, I would have said that there really isn't much that they can do if the process they set out makes it possible, except change it for the future; but to change the rules of engagement during the process, as it appears they did, is simply un-democratic with a small "d". As you note, that has Tammany Hall written all over it, and it's sad to have that happen; it might be preferable to have IND make an endorsement that the 'old guard' does not agree with rather than to acquire the reputation they seem intent on getting. Short-sighted and knee-jerk, that response, in my view.

The Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND) has been one of the pinnacles of integrity within Brooklyn politics. A reform club specifically designed to fight against the corruption of the Brooklyn Democratic Machine.

I regret to inform you that the integrity of IND is in critical condition if not outright deceased as of last night. I recently wrote about one aspect of their decline, a move by the executive board that had the stated purpose of fighting club packing, but was interpreted by many as being a move to protect the interests of favorite candidates over the wishes of newcomers to the club. Last night’s IND meeting confirmed our worst fears about the new executive board and their intentions.

To put it quite pointedly, last night's IND meeting was a giant pile of stinking donkey dung and the inescapable conclusion is that the integrity that IND was so well known for has been replaced by outright corruption as soon as the new executive board took control. Last night confirmed my worst fears, but the signs of impending corruption have been accumulating.

Last week I covered the scandal that has hit the Brooklyn Reform Democratic Club, Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND). I have talked with people on both sides of this issue and wanted to send out a clarification/update. This is a very important issue because IND has been one of the better groups fighting corruption in Brooklyn. But the new leadership of IND is already running into trouble and the fact that the recent scandal seems to be protecting favored candidates and the new president breaks with tradition in being actively working on the staff of a politician WHILE being the member of a club are worrisome trends. This could set back the reform movement and that is why we have to fight it.

First off, I think it is important to note that the outgoing president, Devin Cohen, was solidly against the disenfranchisement vote. He was known throughout his stint as president of IND as being honest and upstanding. It is hard to believe that anything like this would have happened under his leadership. It is worrisome that IND is losing its integrity so quickly after the new president has taken the reins.

Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND) has been a club I have been involved with for nearly two years. I have publicized it and petitioned for them. Now, I have only recently gotten around to joining as a paid member and, as endorsement time approached, I pushed harder to get all who read my blogs and who attend meetings I host to join IND and other reform clubs. Some of those I have been pushing agree with me on candidates, some don't. I have urged all of them to join before the deadline to be able to vote in endorsement votes. I have not always agreed with IND, but I have always respected IND and been proud to work with them.

IND has a reputation of standing up to the corrupt Brooklyn machine. That is one reason I have plugged them so avidly. They have been efficient, and honorable compared to many other clubs.

IND has just taken an action that makes me feel betrayed and which makes me wonder what has become of the reform movement in Brooklyn. The executive board of IND, in a contentious move, has disenfranchised nearly 100 new members with the sole intention of manipulating the endorsement process.

I favor certain candidates that are not favorites in IND. Naturally I hope to see their endorsement go the way I want it to. But, I know enough members of IND to know that they will be supporting some candidates who are not my favorites. I was prepared for this and accepted it. What I was not prepared for was a move by the newly elected IND executive board that will screw nearly 100 new, dues paying members. For the record, my wife and I are not being screwed. We are already able to vote. They have not been able to disenfranchise our vote. But many who have heeded my call to join the reform clubs of Brooklyn have now been screwed by the very "reformers" I recommended.

My co-worker suggest's I re-name this one "Great Job, Doily."

Here's the latest from my Target the Corrupt Republican blog:

The so-called "moral" Republican party has been beset by so many corruption charges that it is hard to take their claims of morality seriously anymore. With Jack Abramoff and Randy Cunningham in jail and with Tom DeLay facing impending corruption charges, the Republicans are looking might immoral these days. But there is another aspect to the "Immoral Republican Party"--sex.

Now I have nothing against sex. Unlike so many Republicans, I believe what people do on their own time in their own house is none of my business as long as all participants are consenting. Consenting adults are free to play scrabble, engage in homosexual sex or even watch Fox News and it is none of my business. Republicans feel that they have the right to dictate to you and me what we are allowed to do in private. But they are often so hypocritical about this that once again one wonders how anyone believes the myth of Republican morality.

Awhile back I covered the story of the extreme right wing, anti-gay Republican mayor of Spokane, WA who was caught soliciting homosexual sex over the internet in exchange for city jobs. The fact that he was publicly anti-gay but privately a practicing homosexual is merely hypocritical. We are used to Republican hypocrisy. Doing it over the internet when he had something to hide was outright stupid. Well, with Bush as our "president" we are used to Republicans being stupid. But to offer city jobs in exchange for homosexual sex is criminal. So, the Republican mayor of Spokane displayed extreme stupidity, criminality and hypocrisy all at once. To their credit, the voters of Spokane ousted him from office.

"This is a blog for the majority of Americans".

Those were the opening words of the first posting on a new blog the Washington post inaugurated this week, Red America. And with those words began a saga, told at Internet speed, which quickly moved from the personal into archetype.

The story itself is quickly told; Domenech, a 24-year old blogger, Bush administration appointee, founder of redstate.com (which is the rather feeble attempt by the right to emulate Daily Kos), was hired by a Washington Post unnerved by accusations of liberalism directed at one of its own bloggers, Dan Froomkin. Froomkin writes the Post's well-regarded White House Briefing, a widely read and occasionally scathing daily examination of the Bush White House. The liberal blogosphere took up this particular gauntlet very quickly, went into Domenech's past writings, and discovered examples of blatant, offensive stupidity – "Coretta Scott King is a communist" – and more seriously, of outright plagiarism, which in turn led to his "resignation", as these things are politely called when an exit is unavoidable and all parties concerned scramble to try and save whatever face they still can.

In this abbreviated story lie several narratives that progressives need to examine.

Most kids won't become pro sports stars; obviously the only proper public response to this terrible problem is to force all potential pro athletes to acquire standardized academic skills in public school, to guarantee that all those wayside wannabes can still make some basic kind of living after they flunk out (with their algebra skills? - never mind, that's another rant.)

Betraying Student Athletes
The national effort to raise educational standards — especially for the inner-city poor — is besieged by advocates of mediocrity and the bad old status quo. A vivid example of that can be found in the growing number of dubious "prep schools" where barely literate athletes earn bogus grades, often by taking no real courses to speak of. The athletes can then move on to universities that care nothing about them and value winning teams above all else.

This deception exploits the athletes . . the prep school scam cries out for action from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and from the state legislatures and education departments that have turned a blind eye to this growing educational fraud.

Okay. I'm going out on a limb here, but this morning's article in Salon, "Coretta and Hillary, not yet free," has pissed me off. The author makes a link between Coretta Scott King and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Why? Because they both married men who cheated on them.

Being cheated on and deciding to stay does not make you a victim.
What is interesting to me about McWhorter's article is that she can't seem to accept the notion that not all marriages adhere to a "til death do us part," one man-one woman lifelong partnership. Marriages are private. And each is different. Assuming that wives who stay with men who cheat are somehow victims makes gross assumptions about a number of things.

The first assumption is that women whose husbands stray are helpless. In the cases of King and Clinton, both wives chose to stay. Instead of assuming that the infidelity victimized the wife, can we not accept that in each case, a woman made a choice?

Ms. McWhorter seems blind to the notion that marriage does not have to mean lifelong monogamy. I know many couples who have made accommodations for each partner's desire to find companionship--sexual or otherwise--with other people. Marriage is a private relationship, and its boundaries are determined by the two people involved.

While a million little shitheads are verbally masturbating over James Frey literary hoax; Jill Carrol, a woman journalist who has been kidnapped by inusurgents since the earlier this month, pleads for her life on Al-Jazeera TV through her tear soaked chador. Her kidnappers' demands? That the US release all women prisioner from US Army and Iraqi jails.

A demand that comes just in time to explain the claims of 'leveraging' used by the US Army. Leveraging being the parsed verbiage used by the Army to describe US government sanctioned kidnapping of the wives of suspected Iraqi insurgents.

And people wonder why Hamas won the elections in Palestine. Hamas is the perfect example of the kind of democracy the United States has spread throughout the region.

[Note from M. Loutre: The following call-to-action essay was originally posted as a blog comment-thread header on the Democracy Cell Project website on 1/14/06. It was co-written by well-known citizen activists Karen Bradley and Dick Bell, after a morning discussion about people and groups floundering between despair and hope over the past week. Karen and Dick co-founded The Democracy Cell Project, along with a group of remarkable citizen-activists, in 2004. They live in Washington, DC.]

----------


CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS WATERS RISING FAST

The understanding that Bush has provoked a "constitutional crisis" is taking root and spreading. Al Gore is expected to deliver a speech on Monday that is going to focus on this. (We will be there and hope to do a little live blogging, if possible.)

We think we are entering a period of extreme fluidity; Bush's ability to control the many dark forces that he has unleashed is diminshing by the day. But, this is a time of both great danger and great opportunity. Watching Americans slowly coming to grips after years of indifference is not a pretty picture, but it is movement in the right direction. In American history, we know that there are periodic convulsions in which the forces of evil sometimes get the upper hand. (i.e. The Alien Sedition Acts of 1798, the red scare of the early 1920's, the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII, McCarthy, decades of J. Edgar Hoover's illegal actions, COINTELPRO, and now Bush, the NSA, and the Patriot Act.)

In each of these dark times, the ideals on which the country was founded appeared to be headed for the junk heap of history. But time and again, the American people have ultimately returned to the arms of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The ability of the American people, again and again, to find ways to transcend these efforts to subvert freedom and liberty is the true exceptionalism that has made America a beacon of hope for lo these two centuries.

History shows that we can do what we need to do; the biggest obstacle is persuading enough people that all is not lost, and that by working together, as our ancestors have done repeatedly, we can win this fight.

As one of the spirituals would have it, "Freedom Is A Constant Struggle."

In practice, we need first to keep on keeping on with what we have been doing; second we have to be ready to act boldly and seize the opportunities that we know are coming as Bush's criminal enterprise unravels. History being the elusive prognosticator that it is cannot tell us where the openings will be. What revelations are still to come that could light such a fire for impeachment that even the Republican House would at least have to hold hearings? Jack Abramoff may implicate enough Republican members to switch the House of Representatives all by himself! And then, of course, there is Iraq, as well as the deepening crisis over Iran's nuclear weapons intentions.

No matter how bad things get, however, Bush will never voluntarily surrender an iota of the power he has grabbed. Our energy has to go into organizations, be they existing organizations, or brand-new ones that we found, to push Bush and his congressional support out of power as soon as possible. These are opportunities and they abound.

Organizations such as AfterDowningStreet, Code Pink, the World Can't Wait, United for Peace and Justice, Progressive Dems of America, MoveOn and many many other groups sponsor town meetings, rallies, petitions, mobilize, march, and conduct nonviolent civil disobedience and street theatre, or run serious vigils and gatherings; PACS raise money to support candidates, blogs report new findings faster than the mainstream media -- all of this is worthy because we simply do not know the threshold or when critical mass will be achieved.

Neither of us is suggesting there is a need to choose BETWEEN actions or that any of these groups have THE answer. The solution is in our daily actions, saying "yes, and..." to all the opportunities. We each need to contribute, in the largest sense of that word. It could be a simple as forwarding an email that you know has truth. It could be as complicated as building an online community for a cause or a candidate. It probably needs to be "all of the above."

In business, managers and consultants are always talking about "capacity building" -- growing the organization to the right size so that more growth can happen, building on the infrastructure set in place. We each must build our own capacity for taking action, making sure the infrastructure is in place, contributing to the hands reaching out for us, and joining them.

We don't have to say yes to everything asked, but saying no brings the effort to a halt. Offer something back -- a suggestion, a small check, a networking moment, a hug of encouragement.

Think of it as being a good citizen.

----------

To read this essay in its natural habitat and to read or post comments on it there, please visit it in situ on the Democracy Cell Project's blog.

The Democracy Cell Project is a learning- and action-directed community of dedicated citizen activists, one which I'm proud to be an active part of. I encourage you to visit the DCP's website and learn more about its mission and its activities, and I invite you to join in the ongoing conversation that centers around the site's blog area. (Trust me -- if you like it here, you'll like it there too.)

----------

all that is necessary for evil to fail is for good persons to do something,
Otter