Displaying 4,141 To 4,170 Of 5,146 Comments Pressure! More pressure! OK – whew – I’m back in the game. I will see if I can bring sense from nonsense. » Posted By choicelady On November 23, 2010 @ 1:27 pm Hey bito and kes – THANK YOU!!!! All your good insights and thoughtful reflection does help. Truly it does. bito – I’m delighted to know you have friends in low places. Best kind of friends. Kes – I do agree that what we say behind closed doors to blow off steam is GOOD (I’m always up for a good Sarah joke) but it’s when we snark at one another that it’s not helpful. I do LOVE your observation that there are millions of ways to be good but only few required to be awful. That does explain the disarray on the Left to some significant measure! What I can’t take though is the very fact of our differences leading to exclusion, anger, snottiness, and lack of cohesion especially when we’re on the same project. This leads to paralysis, and in this time of our lives we absolutely cannot be dumping allies along the side of the road or, worse, trampling over them. My best experience tells me that when I cannot agree, I move over. “Lead, follow, or get out of the way”. I’ve resigned from things when I cannot do whatever is on the agenda, but I do NOT snipe and undermine. Wherever did we learn that it’s OK to trash your allies and to ride over them with hobnail boots? We’ve had our differences here on the Planet, but I’m unaware that it has led to a “I’m taking my toys and going home” sort of sniff fit. We keep talking. And I learn SO much from each of you – I’d be pretty stupid not to pay attention even when it may mean – gasp! – changing my mind. The result is that I do see too many of us on the Left being snide IN PUBLIC about something, and it’s not too far a reach to think some of them may entertain if not 2nd amendment solutions, violence or spitting-loud confrontations. Ego is a serious problem among us that doesn’t seem to exist in public in the Right. Anyway, I feel better, have indeed stepped away from the edge, and will carry on. Thank you, dear friends. It does help! » Posted By choicelady On November 23, 2010 @ 11:16 am Reading ALL of this, I have become too depressed to comment. My members – most of the 1.5 million of ’em – are NOT like any of this, but we are invisible to even other progressive because we threaten the status quo which, unfortunately, even progressives HAVE. We are getting cut out of the discussion even though – or maybe because – we have had huge success in altering the conversation. America does not need to be this way, but I’ve finally reached the conclusion that until the progressives give up the smug isolation that exists between us as individuals and between our groups living in self satisfied silos, we will never organize well enough to change this. I sat through a good explication of how to move single payer health care forward in CA yesterday. Only problem – the steps needed were misrepresented in terms of probable success, and the purveyor of the plan REFUSED to heed the advice of the Churchlady (choicelady) or a major legislative staffer who understood that one key plan was impossible. Why? He was so full of himself he could not bear to believe we (both women) knew more than he did about the legislative process in which we both operate and he does not. He was sneeringly dismissive of us both. That left the rest of the group totally confused about next steps. So we have none. If we can’t even have a civilized strategy discussion, how will we ever be ready to cooperate on the big things? The uptick of the Right has everything in the world to do with the lack of coordinated and mutually respectful pushback from the Left. I am teetering on the edge of giving up. Planeteers! Talk me down!!! » Posted By choicelady On November 23, 2010 @ 9:50 am Guten Morgen und Danke Schoen! Thank you, thank you Kalima, AdLib, KQ, bito and all who made the Planet happen and now make it such a wonderful place to live! » Posted By choicelady On November 19, 2010 @ 10:50 am Not Just Your Household Budget! Thank you bito and kes – I got deflected from answering when you said, kes, the unemployment extension was defeated. I went into a major fury and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening looking it up and trying to wrap my mind around it all. I actually heard someone say – well, how would we PAY for it? NO ONE asks that of the tax cuts – and in fact the GOOPERS say they don’t HAVE to be paid for. I have never been this angry, not even Watergate, not even under Clinton – this behavior is beyond horrible. Anyone got a place to see in Canada? I lived there one summer. I’m willing to go back permanently. Willing even to learn French. In 1972 Susan St. James gave a talk at a fund raiser for McGovern. She talked at length about her new baby girl – the problems with her pregnancy, the hard delivery, etc. etc. while all of us wondered WHERE WAS she going with this? Then she finished – “Now, I did not go through all of that just to have her spend the first four years of her life under Richard Nixon!” The room went UP – and that’s exactly how I feel now. I want to retire in the next decade, and I’ll be damned if I want to spend those “golden years” under these rubes, boobs, and crooks. Canada – here I come. » Posted By choicelady On November 18, 2010 @ 9:53 pm Gosh, AdLib – if you paid attention to POLICY, when would you get to discuss the burning issues of The Donald’s hair or Lindsay Lohan’s latest drug crazed spree? C’mon man – get with the basic VALUES. » Posted By choicelady On November 18, 2010 @ 9:45 pm May I sign up as your campaign PR person? You ROCK! » Posted By choicelady On November 18, 2010 @ 9:42 pm Oooh – Ques – the Guy Fawkes people are part of “Anonymous” who really creep me out! Initiatlly they were anti-Scientologist, but a look at their old web pages was truly scary. Not only do they target ANY faith group, they are homophobic and willing to be violent about it. I know absolutely NOTHING about Scientology other than one woman I rather like who has been totally creeped out by people in Guy Fawkes masks picketing their church. Now this would possibly make sense IF Guy Fawkes had not been a Catholic radical icon of the “gunpowder plot” to restore Catholicism in England. So why would ANTI religious people adopt the mask? Anonymous has blasted several church and denominational web sites among progressive faith groups – so where’s that coming from? In sum I suppose Anonymous is like an anti-abortion weirdo I once saw who stopped outside a clinic muttering to no one in particular, “I could blow it up. I could just make a bomb and blow it up – I could do that, yeah I could blow it up.” A patient escort quietly watched him while he was muttering, and then said, after he’d walked away, “I don’t think he’s so much anti-abortion as he is pro-dynamite.” So I suppose the Guy Fawkes folks are the same. Never mind the illogic – let’s just blow something up. Still, since I’ve seen these guys on the street, they really DO creep me out. » Posted By choicelady On November 18, 2010 @ 9:41 pm In every budget year in CA some doofus, always from the right, hollers that when things get tight in your household, you “throw away the credit card and tighten your belt”. Alan Simpson of the Deficit Reduction Commission, said precisely the same thing yesterday on NPR (not yet posted on their site, BTW.) He then said that the only people reacting to their plan to create “shared sacrifice” are “whiners, snivelers, and those crying racism”. I have little skin in this game. Whatever happens won’t hurt me much if at all. But I DO advocate for ordinary people and those hanging by their fingernails, and I’m OUTRAGED that the “shared sacrifice” lands almost entirely on the middle class on DOWN. First – the government is NOT a household. Fiscal responsibility is fine, but the point of government is to balance us all, to hold us out of harm’s way, and to protect those discarded and mowed over by the private sector. No legitimate government can exist if it does NOT do those things. It must balance the bullies and the bullied. Even if the government WERE to function as households do, the one thing a household does NOT do is throw its kids into the streets, turn its elders out onto ice floes, and deny basic sustenance to those who are tired and ill. Any family that did that would face legal action from the police. So why should the government be encouraged to become a criminally dysfunctional family? For the past 30 years or more, this nation has robbed the middle class and working people to put moolah in the pockets of the uber rich. Jacob Hacker’s book, “The Great Risk Shift” and David Cay Johnston’s “Free Lunch” have shown how we changed the tax system, regulatory codes, and labor rights, how we subsidized the offshoring of jobs, the closing of businesses even when profitable, and the abject failures of companies so looted by management that they robbed investors and communities alike. Now we are supposed to have “shared sacrifice” just as in WW II – except who is “sharing”? Simply reinstating tax rates from the 1990s AND raising the SS and Medicare contribution level, cleaning up the ridiculous expenditures on private contractors who handle Medicare Advantage and eliminating totally wasteful military expenditures on equipment the military itself neither wants nor needs would END this mess. Instead – we, the middle class and low wage to poor are expected to pony up a regressive sales tax, see cuts in benefits, lower our retirement hopes while waiting longer to get them, and the only “sacrifice” from the rich is that they might not be able to deduct the interest on their second-third-fourth-etc. houses. (Unless, of course, those are “business expenses” – we’ll see about that…) Income tax rates are theoretically lowered by eliminating deductions – but we will see who benefits from that since it’s not at all likely to be us. Nope. The poor have to suffer because the rich would find paying their fair share too “burdensome” and might not create jobs. As if personal income ever did that. Taxes ride on PROFITS not on investment incomes, and the latter for the wealthy goes to single high ticket items rather than being broadly spent. The vast discrepancies in wealth that have occurred over these thirty years ought to be a wake up call about who “got” and who “gave” over that period. Did one dime of that benefit the nation? I see no evidence that it did. In the middle of it all, we have a meme floating around that this is a “Christian” nation (not true – it’s a nation of NO religious preference at all) so let’s go with that for a moment. Presuming that is true, then where, for the love of God, did we lose one of our key faith premises: from those to whom much is given, much is required. If we operated on that principle which in fact is democratic, not just faith grounded, in nature, we would NOT be having this absurd discussion. If and ONLY if the rich take not one dime in subsidies or supports, if and ONLY if investors absorb every penny of risk and bail themselves out, if and ONLY if they see labor and consumers equal in rights to themselves, and if and ONLY if they pay wages commensurate with the value working people produce – then maybe, just maybe they will regain some validity in our nation. That is precisely how we operated in colonial days – the rich got rich by their own responsible actions, NOT on ordinary people’s backs, and they did so by serving their communities and colonies FIRST before taking money for themselves. Until we return to the fundamental idea that the wealthy have an obligation to us all, and that we have rights not just privileges, we will perpetuate massive inequality. In 1973 Barnet and Muller wrote a scarily predictive book, “Global Reach” with a chapter that chilled my soul, “The Latinamericanization of the United States”. That is precisely what is happening – has happened – and we and only we can stop it. If the American populace permits itself to be hornswoggled into believing their safety lies in their inequality, then we are doomed. » Posted By choicelady On November 18, 2010 @ 10:38 am Thank you so much, Marion! I did not even READ the stinking story because I knew it was a hype and a lie from the screaming headline. Over the past two days I’ve engaged with the “religion” section on a rather insipid article about the middle ground between science and religion. I did not think much of the article, but what horrified me was the unbelievable stereotyping of “religion”. So, of course, being both choicelady AND the Churchlady (better hair and shoes, natch) I began replying. I openly represent a significant part of the faith community that is neither superstitious nor hateful, but when I reviewed what they let in, I was shocked – I was censored vigorously for comments that were both historical and informative. The very idea that there is a progressive faith presence that is almost equal in size to the loony side is apparently NOT appreciated by the HP censors. How terribly scary! I think you’re on the money, Marion – this bitch wants Obama to fail so she can keep the parts of the RW agenda that benefit her and her rich cronies. What utterly horrifies me is that SHE IS SUCCEEDING. The Left on HP are no better than ‘baggers in terms of their prejudices, rants, and dismissal. Your opening is accurate – they don’t even understand democracy and the separation of powers. I am so frightened for our nation. I used to believe that when push came to shove we would opt for smart and better things, but that is clearly NOT true any longer. When your Faux Friends – AH – shove people into panic and false “movements” over things that do not even exist – then we have real trouble. Arianna is the puppeteer and propagandist, and with her influence and even power, we are in real danger. » Posted By choicelady On November 15, 2010 @ 9:32 am bito – very revealing info, but in response to your (probably rhetorical) query: “What do they want? Zero taxes” Non-union employees without pension or health care?” The answer is: YES. That is what they want. Their hero is William McKinley. They want the age of the Robber Barons back. Of course the upper middle think they can survive, too, but in fact they will be shoved down to Bob Cratchit wages and standards of living. Bob was not poor because of lack of skills – he was the chief CPA for Scrooge. He was poor because he had to take what Scrooge doled out, period. That’s the goal. Forward to the Past! What was good enough for Vanderbilt and J.P. Morgan should be good enough for America! » Posted By choicelady On November 12, 2010 @ 2:11 pm I think Molly Ivins said it best – the only people who should be engaged in campaigns are those who can actually VOTE. The corporation as fictitious person has had resonance since 1886 BUT not as an element in the Supreme Court decision, Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific RR. Nope. Not a word of that in the decision – only in the PREFACE and summary written by a CLERK. So upon that, our law now hangs. Can we GET any more stupid? Back to basics. Democracy is about human beings, NOT about corporations. After the Revolutionary War and adoption of the Constitution, corporations were permitted to come into existence for one reason – to harness capital in the interest of society’s well being. Period. Well, that promise lasted about thirty seconds until the ink dried. And from that point on, we have had the eternal battle between REAL persons and fictious ones. It is past time that the real ones won out. That’s my mantra – America for human beings. Corporations must either be tightly regulated in the service of us all or abolished as a form of doing business. There simply is no other choice if we are to survive as a democracy. » Posted By choicelady On November 10, 2010 @ 9:34 pm BD – back in the Reign of Bush there was a Diatribe Against Liberalism that was, in fact, the opposite. It followed one man awakening to clean water for his shower, affordable electric rates and government provided rights of way for transmission; pure food for breakfast, highways to get to work – and on and on. It was brilliant. Here YOU have recorded the precise opposite, and it’s equally compelling and important. Where are our sloganeers who can put the same pizazz in OUR messages that the Right does on theirs? What you’ve said is so important as a message to the American populace, and who other than we will read such a great summary of “attack legislation”, the assault on the American people? On the issue of “lobbyists writing legislation” – well, I am one. Been there, done that. Big difference is that I have not a shred of profit motive behind what I’ve helped to write. NO self interest whatsoever. So I’d like to see the profit whores OUTED, but I’m a bit wary of banning us all entirely. (We always see ourselves as the Good Guys – I’m sure the people who oppose my work think I’m horrible.) So I’m of two minds about that. My status is identical to that of a Chevron lobbyist legally – I am no more or less than they. So without cutting my own throat, I am unclear how you get the bozos out of our business. Thank you for raising all this up, BD. We are losing our national reason for existence. Creepy, creepy, we erode our democracy, and we don’t even see it. » Posted By choicelady On November 9, 2010 @ 10:59 am Manning Up to Maypo Madness and Mourning in America Marion – thank you. Thank you!!!! As a putative “leader” of an inclusive progressive organization, I have absolutely reached the end of my rope with my own side. I’m about to attend Netroots CA, the state spin off of Netroots Nation, and I think I’m about to get cranky. Reading the presentation synopses, this is oriented to network building which is fine, but it casts much of its meme in “standing up to the old troglodytes” who don’t “get it”. No one ever thinks that maybe that alone is a problem. We have very weak links, we progressives (aka Dems) because we spend time with our machines, not with our people. But that’s “old thinking”, and anyway, I’m “faith based” which is instantly dismissed as hateful and narrow minded. We in fact are the single largest progressive advocacy organization in CA. Period. We’re vastly larger than labor unions, MoveOn, or any other network, and no one cares. NO ONE. We’re left out of funding for essential work, we’re left out of coalitions, and we’re left out of policy decisions. When it gets down to what the Dems need, it’s solidarity. We once built the civil rights and anti-war movements together, and now we have bright shiny things – tweets and gaming and other flash and dazzle – but where is the solidarity? I went to grad school some years ago at UC Santa Cruz from which, after four years, I left eagerly because THE political issue was the war between vegans and vegetarians. All that was going on while Carter and Reagan were duking it out, and most of the campus could not have cared less. Too good to vote for Carter (a better ex president than ever he was as president) and indifferent to Reagan. Why should THEY care about Reagan? His policies deeply impacted blue collar work, union survival, poor people, and people of color, none of which they were. Even people of color weren’t allied with urban poverty concerns – they were headed for some dream job and outta there. So they largely did not vote at all. They did vote for Prop. 13 two years earlier to save on “taxes” they did not even pay. And while I walked out of CA with a BA, two MA degrees, and having taken my orals for my PhD and owed NOTHING, my successors – those younger students – have hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Welcome to intelligent voting. Dems are inclined to parse policy in very narrow terms. How we lost a commitment to the Common Good – once our hallmark – and shifted over to the politics of whiny fear is beyond me. If we ever get America back – a land of opportunity and inclusion – it probably will happen after I’md dead. So to the young’uns I say what one NAtive American commentator said two years ago to Obama – don’t fuck it up. » Posted By choicelady On November 5, 2010 @ 6:53 pm Hi BD – thank you for standing firmly for truth. I tend to agree with AdLib that there is a balance between intellect and emotion, the latter important lest we become distant from those for whom we fight. Emotions have value in keeping the passionate focus alive. That said, you are so correct in assessing that emotion run rampant is very destabilizing when it trumps thoughtful reflection and assessment. So balance, balance, balance. I think the thing that amazes me about the Reeps is the pretense at being thoughtfully reflective. Oh, not Rush or Glenn but those in power who speak as if their Big Picture Book budget was a thing of substance. Or their rhetoric – Dead Grannies – actually reflected thought. Even when someone (like that wacko woman who insisted you could find ‘death panels’ IN the federal health reform bill) holds up “proof” they do so without actually reading it out loud thus not proving – it says nothing remotely like what they claim. I am not sure we ever have bridged the divide between the learned and the unschooled. The very slogan from Missouri – “I’m from Missouri. SHOW me” – is a quest for that “common sense” we think trumps book larnin’ any day. It’s quite true that some of the stupidest people I’ve ever met are “intellectuals”; too many read but do not comprehend, and in that vein they mirror the anti-intellectualism of the unschooled. There is balance needed in all walks of life. I had a grad school colleague who’d never had an enduring relationship in her life, and her goal? To create “family policy”. Shudder. It is not essential to have children to be a good teacher, but it does matter if you’ve never even been AROUND children enough to learn even the basics of developmental stages, kid humor, fear, and joy. If you’ve never poured steel or talked with those who have, how can you make decisions about that kind of work and its value? If all you know is the Country Club, how can you value the Boys and Girls clubs within the inner city. WE make up our minds with neither practical experience or intellect. We think if someone says it on TV or the internet it MUST be true. I suspect, however, we really don’t CARE if it’s true so long as it confirms what we WANT to be true. As in the stupid debate between religion and science about which creates the best moral leadership, there is no real division between intellect and feeling. In either case there are those with insight and those with blinders. There ARE brainless curmudgeons, too, the Archie Bunkers of the world. Dedication to finding the truth means being willing to confront your own cherished ideas, and if that’s first in your hierarchy of values, you will go far. Curmudgeons of the world cannot yet unite until the value of self skepticism is equal on all sides. My fave saying when it comes to politics or other issues: Don’t believe everything you think. If more of us accepted that reflective position, we’d be a lot further ahead as a civilization. » Posted By choicelady On November 3, 2010 @ 7:52 pm Happy Halloween From PlanetPOV! Oh my, AdLib – NO apologies needed to EAP. He’d have bowed in deep respect for your adLibaptation. MARVELOUS!!!!! » Posted By choicelady On November 1, 2010 @ 7:26 pm Christian dominionists and death Ye – they are part of the New Apostolic Reformation from top (C Street) to bottom (congregations) that want to capture ALL the Seven Mountains or Pillars. I’m not giving up even ONE pillar to them. Not even a speed bump much less a mountain. » Posted By choicelady On October 26, 2010 @ 4:38 pm Hi Sue and bito – you are indeed right. They are the grow up version of Campus Crusade and the force behind spreading “christianity” to the military, foreign service, etc. Their main goal? Capture Israel so they can fulfill the “prophecy” (they made up) of rebuilding the Temple so Jesus can return. It means that for now they have to be nice to Jews. Scant comfort after 2000 years of not. They are behind much of the Islamophobia today, and they are determined that their religious freedom involves having free control of governmental structures and organizations. To stop them is equal to persecution. They are very scary people. C Street, Franklin Graham, ‘death to gay’ laws in Uganda – there is no end to their impact. What they have in store for us here is beyond horrifying. Imagine your kids being taught that the greatest American was Stonewall Jackson. They believe that. And if they get control, that’s what they will teach in schools. Horrible, awful, wicked people. » Posted By choicelady On October 26, 2010 @ 4:36 pm Hi Haruko- The trolls are all people who’ve not ever had to face anything really difficult. Yet. It was a source of real anger to clinics and doctors though when young women on “that” side of the line would wind up in the clinic. They’d rationalize it – Oh, I’m DIFFERENT – and go back picketing and hounding other women and girls. Even we escorts could not”out” them, but it was maddening how utterly hypocritical they were! I do understand real pro-life people – ones who carry through in loving kindness to kids who are here. But I do NOT have a shred of respect for the anti-abortion people who kill on one hand and cut off help for children with the other hand. They are just sanctimonious creeps. Randall Terry is the worst. BTW – he hit me in the arm once while flailing around dramatizing his harangue. When he saw it was an escort, he did not even apologize. No humanity ever snuck into his firmament. He is on the outs with the movement now – he’s an adulterer who dumped his wife for a trophy second wife. But that has not humbled him one iota. He, like the girls who cross over, apparently has a pass from God. They are beyond belief. » Posted By choicelady On October 26, 2010 @ 12:34 pm Thank you, Mighty! I’m workin’ on it! I don’t want them to win either, and I’m not going down without a fight! » Posted By choicelady On October 26, 2010 @ 12:26 pm Dear Kalima – I’m so sorry for your losses. Anyone who thinks this is a casual decision must read your tears. I’m sad you have gone through this but so admiring of your decision to HAVE a decision. This is between you and your husband, and the fact you did not tell us the “why” is as it should be. It’s not any of our business. We embrace you in the humanity of your worth and all your feelings, period. I cannot stress enough how ugly life will be if the extremists dominate us. Big Brother will be everywhere watching our every move so our persons will be under their control however they wish to impose their morality. Brave new world. When they say they want you – they ain’t kidding. Look out! » Posted By choicelady On October 26, 2010 @ 12:17 pm Hi Mighty – you are a devoted cat owner, and from all of us who care for our critters, thank you for caring. One of mine is starting the inevitable slide – kidney stuff – but so far it just requires putting a little “good” food with the “healthy” stuff she WILL eat but not all by itself. When the day comes, I think it’s I, not she, who will be wearing the food. She has a mind of her own and has made that quite clear. Good luck with all you’re doing. Cats and all creatures great and small are indeed worth it. » Posted By choicelady On October 25, 2010 @ 4:48 pm Stunning new look and updates! Since I’ve never mastered the former methods, I look forward to, perhaps, learning these? Some of us are better adapted to antiquarian methods. Personally, I’m the Queen of the No. 2 pencil, but I soldier on trying to claw my way into the 21st C. This may improve my chances of becoming techo literate before I die… It’s all beautiful, easy to read, and thank you as always, AdLib, for all you put into this for all of us. » Posted By choicelady On October 25, 2010 @ 4:42 pm A Problem with ‘Original Intent’ Oooooo – that’s BAD, AdLib. » Posted By choicelady On October 22, 2010 @ 10:00 am Joan Walsh, Joe Miller and the First Amendment Wow Marion – GREAT observations! I don’t think I’m sorry you were “deFriended” by her. Maybe it’s like being on Nixon’s enemies list – it’s more an honor? I am scared that too much of the Progressive movement is populated with leftovers from the narcissistic 60s. I went to Antioch for two years and left because of the right-posing-as-left mentality. When all truth emanates from your ego and not your sense of others and their value, when you have “found” the absolute truth (at least a you see it today) and look no further for it, then we have no difference from Palin et al. There is a religious fundamentalism that is common to both – “I” define the world. Period. A second issue is that when you are wrapped up in a system of privilege – and surely being a national blogger coming into contact with others of money and power is such a system – can you avoid losing your way? Can you avoid the snark, the quip, the judgmental superiority over other, lesser mortals? Can you avoid feeling entitled to dismiss our merely mortal President? Can you avoid snuggling up with other, similarly situated women of power and influence? Apparently not. Between the politics of ME and the pressures of belonging, the Left, dubiously named, seems no more immune to selling out than the Right. A plague on both their houses. We need honest critique and civility, honest appraisal of democracy not just our own wants, honest commentators who help us think rather than simply pandering to us with snark, cheap shots, jokes, insiderness. Oh for a freaking good muckraker. Where HAVE they gone??? Certainly not to the blogosphere, that’s for sure. Thank you Marion for letting us see underneath yet another rock where the slimy foetid things rot. » Posted By choicelady On October 21, 2010 @ 11:04 am Flog That Lame Duck For All We Are Worth I have to agree that Dems fall time and again into defensiveness and weakness because of it. After the 2004 presidential race, there was an uptick in the awareness that the Reeps had the ability to sloganeer based on “values”. The fact that the values were hollow and the slogans usually false did not undermine that their messaging was worthwhile in convincing the public of the Reeps’ “sincerity”. So began a round of trainings among liberals and progressives on how to base your message on values – and man, did it fall flat! One wise trainer said if you ask a Reep for a value, they pounce on it. Ask a Dem, and you get a 40-page position paper. MoveOn had a video with George Lakoff on the importance of value messaging, and the end result was that the leader, in whose house we were, refused to permit any of us to proffer values UNTIL we had come up with a policy. So we wound up with neither. Oddly, the rest of the group had less trouble with values, but we were all squashed. Until Dems get proud of being liberal and standing for people, until they are willing to challenge their corporate sponsors and make clear that the corporations have responsibilities not just “rights”, we will never get emboldened visions again. We are SO afraid of being bold for fear some stray “fact” will call our values into question. But those who do express values and their policy outcomes boldly – Alan Grayson, Anthony Weiner, etc. – do it well. When Weiner called out the Reeps’ failure to vote on health coverage for 9/11 rescue workers, it was a glorious day! Nothing the Reeps said made sense, and he blasted them for their failure to vote. The bill was passed the next day. But BassetDad notes the key issue – WE have to move the Dems by constantly asserting what WE want them to do. Our progressive allies who whine over at HP have NO track record of activism over policy. In some cases it’s “not good enough” and in others they just prefer to whine than act. So yes indeed – to get anything done, we have to lean on our elected representatives and make very clear what we demand of them. The Right has no problem – the Left must do the same. Stand up, speak out, or lose it all. I’m tired of allies who’d rather curse the darkness than light that single candle. I have matches – who’s game? » Posted By choicelady On October 20, 2010 @ 9:45 am Interview With Kim Kardashian’s Butt WTS – I have not followed this story, but my one viewing of the mom and daughter Kardashians left me wondering WHY???? If that’s ALL you’re known for – your butt – where will you be when it starts following gravity? America may not be alone in its dementia (remember Japan’s fascination with all things weird and Imelda Marcos) but we certainly do descend to new lows. No offense to the butt, of course. At least not this year. » Posted By choicelady On October 19, 2010 @ 10:43 am Adventures in Investigative Journalism, Part II Vol. 2 Pepe – this is incredibly insightful. It is like the “Wicker Man” but it’s absolutely NO different from the hard-core religious right. Whenever you have people who form communities of “true believers” about almost anything, the potential exists for the mindset to become utterly insular. In its positive form, the “General Will” is the foundation of coherence and dedication to principles. In its corrupt form, that same “general will” becomes the foundation for an “us v. them” obsession complete with a justification for violence. The latter seems to have been the case on your island. What is fascinating is the lack of oppression. Yes, there was a pot bust and some people did time, but that did not occur over and over yet “persecution” became the mantra, even for Bill to whom nothing bad actually happened. So you combine the general will with rampant narcissism, and you do have a recipe for disaster. It’s why anti-abortion zealots will claim they are “persecuted” and are “silenced” even as they stand on public sidewalks handing out their pamphlets and haranguing women. “They” are out to “get” “us”. You were probably wise to leave. If they could do so much harm to one woman, they were potentially ramping up against you. You brought sunshine to the issue, and nothing can flourish when its natural environment is the dark side of the rock. Sunshine reveals truth. Brilliant story, insightful observations about how quickly paradise can become hell. Thank you!!! » Posted By choicelady On October 19, 2010 @ 10:39 am Adventures in Investigative Journalism, Part II, Vol. 1 Oh my! You certainly weren’t covering just the Rotary Club, were you? Amazing stuff – and yes, we want MORE! On to the next… » Posted By choicelady On October 19, 2010 @ 10:24 am Good points, AdLib. I would say, sigh, that McVeigh and Rudolph weren’t evangelicals but were fundamentalists so they are far more in sync with bin Laden and wahabbi Muslims. Not precisely the same, but close nonetheless. Your REAL point though is that when these Christian Identity folks did their horrid deeds, we NONE of us said “Eeeek – America is under attack from Christians!!!!” Nor did we say they were “brush heads” (for their short hair) or in any other way defame and denigrate them as a class of people. Nope – they were “extremists” who had nothing to do with US. Uh-uh, nope, no way. Not our problem. It’s SO comforting to be exclusionary, isn’t it? » Posted By choicelady On October 15, 2010 @ 4:53 pmComments Posted By choicelady
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