Catchup roundup

We have a new Governor-elect. Rossi won by 261 votes after Paul Berendt cried on television (what the hell??!), Mr. Vance sued King County to throw out provisional ballots, then turned around and said Dems are seeking to overturn a fair election when they demanded a manual recount, and everybody with free time spent a week knocking on doors and calling people who thought they were done with politics for the year. So, congrats to Governor Rossi, who I’m sure will tell us about his new mandate any day now. And thanks to Chris Gregoire, for running such a strong campaign that she managed to end a 20-year winning streak for Democrats. Hey Chris: All you had to do was stand up and say what you believed. Just stand for something. That’s all you needed to do. But you ran on your record, and frankly, it just ain’t that great.

Next stop: Vance v. Cantwell, 2006 Senate. Woo hoo! Others, perhaps: Inslee v. Rossi for Gov (2008), Ruderman v. ?? for WA-1 in 2008. Heidi BB v. Reichert in 2006 (sigh).

Hee hee! College Republicans are screwed. I love when these morons get exposed. My favorite bit: the CRNC Chair, Eric Hoplin, put out a memo:

Hoplin's memo said the media were simply trying to bash Republicans the week before the election and claimed the stories were full of "lies and distortions written by a well-known liberal who is out to get us."

Those Republicans, never afraid to whine and cry about liberals in the media. Poor babies.

After two babies were found starved and dehydrated to death in a Kent apartment, surrounded by a sleeping Mom and 370 beer cans in varying states of consumption, the CPS is again under fire. This woman and her children were under investigation, but apparently no one had checked on them in more than 90 days. How do we get this damn agency either fixed or a better PR person? I put it this way because when the media covers things like this, it is difficult to really discern what has been done wrong and what just appears to be wrong.

12 million families went hungry or were in danger of going hungry in 2003. Fortunately, that’s about the same number as 2002, so hooray Bush administration! Not letting things get worse as far as 12 million people being hungry. Nice work! Apparently, a third of these families actually didn’t have enough food all or some of the time, and as for the rest:

The other two-thirds of families avoided hunger by reducing the variety of foods they ate, participating in federal food assistance programs or getting supplies from community food banks.

Reducing the variety of foods they ate means eating mac and cheese, beans, hot dogs, and ramen. It also means they got fatter and less healthy. Natch, since they ain’t gots money for food, they ain’t gots no insurance either. And so the cycle of poverty goes.

We get poor, we eat unhealthy food because it’s cheap, we don’t exercise because we have to work harder for minimum wage, we get fat, our heart gives us problems, we got to the hospital which we can’t afford, and now we’re keeping less of our money because we’re paying hospital bills so we have less money for food so we “reduce the variety” of our foods again, and down and down we go.

The $388 billion budget has almost passed Congress. Natch, education spending has a 2 percent increase, less than needed and less than cost of living increases. Ironically, the National Endowment for Democracy took a $20 million cut, and a program to promote clean-burning power plants got one-thirteenth of the proposed amount. Bush himself proposed the initial request for money on this project, but if he really wanted that money, he would have gotten it. The fact that it’s been cut from $234 million to $18 million tells you what the backdoor dealings were like. Tom Delay, he of the newly minted rule changes and high ethical standards, managed to wrangle an extra $300 million for NASA (natch, this money goes to Houston), bringing their take to $16 billion. Space exploration trumps education and social services any freakin’ day. Douchebags.

The Jayhawks barely survived Vermont on their home floor, but I’m not going to start rolling my eyes yet. Vermont was 22-9 last year and returns four of their starters, so they’re legit. Still, 68-61 at home, to Vermont? This may be a bad sign…watch and see…

The Sonics won their 9th straight, further convincing locals that they’re for real. They’re not, folks. They may pull of 45 wins or so, but they are not the shooters that you’re seeing right now. They will continue to rebound well, and they will stay competitive. Ridnour will play acceptable ball most nights. But Rashard will tire out, Fortson will foul out in a lot of big games, and their shooting will come back to earth. And their defense will be exposed. That said, they’re clearly better than last year, and better than everyone thought, so go Sonics!

Okay, I just needed to post to let everyone know I’m still here, and I’ll post something insightful and/or pithy later tonight.

Why do we fear (or crave) what Republicans think?

The last few days, we’ve hashed out who should/will become the next chair of the DNC. As in the primaries earlier this year, we’ve already broken into Dean/stop-Dean movements.

Yes, some version of this topic has appeared in diaries on Kos.

Eugene’s incredible diary .

This diary by Jack109 .

And of course, Kos’s own Memo to the world.

But I’m talking about something different. I’m going to look at the arguments we hear from the shift-right folks. The arguments I hear against Dean as DNC chair come from our friends on the conservative side of the party. With the exception of the holdouts who simply (and fairly) prefer another player, these arguments are all different forms of the same thing: Republicans and conservatives don’t like Dean because he’s too liberal, ergo he’s the death of the party.

I’m going to address this one part of this: Why we’re even discussing what others think about liberals. This is not intended to sway anyone towards Dean; just to get us to talk honestly about what WE want, not what THEY want.

Why do we care what others think? Why do we spend time on statements like “They already think we’re too far left” or (a favorite pre-Iowa caucus) “They can’t wait for Dean; they’ll cast him as a flip-flopper and tax & spend liberal”?

Republicans don’t bother for one second considering how we feel or think about them. They don’t care what we think of their actions. They’re not afraid of us at all. And they didn’t get here by following us to the left; rather, they led us where we are by the nose.

They don’t have these conversations. When Ed “Goebbels” Gillespie was appointed RNC chair to replace Marc Racicot, no one moaned in despair that the Democrats would paint him as too conservative or extreme. They knew that he’d do exactly what Racicot does, which is keep the party disciplined and be in front of the media every freaking day. And they didn’t. care. what. we. thought.

And you know what they say when they get in front of the media? They say that Democrats are too liberal and out of touch with mainstream America. They said it about Dean, about Kerry, about Edwards – they’d say it about Holy Joe if he wasn’t such a reliable vote. It doesn’t matter who we nominate for President or who we appoint as DNC chair – they will be labeled IMMEDIATELY AND PERMANENTLY as a tax-and-spend big government liberal who is borderline insane, anti-religion and pro-forced-abortion.

So can we please stop acting fucking surprised when they say these things? And can we learn that fearing these labels and dancing all over the ideological map will not prevent their use of them?

Every time we chase them to the right, they respond with another rightward shift, proudly proclaim what they are, and win elections. And we respond with more analysis of how they labeled us and what we can do to “appear” more to the “center”. And we keep losing elections. We cede some ground on issues. And we keep losing elections. They lead, and we follow. And we lose elections.

Don’t believe me? In 2000, we were against the tax cuts, because they were irresponsible. But Senate and House Dems became afraid of being labeled tax and spend liberals with mid-term elections coming up, so we compromised. Just SOME tax cuts (Bush, of course, got 90% of what he wanted), and the people will think we’re for tax relief, too (we even adopted their language). In 2002, House and Senate Dems feared for their jobs if they voted against the Iraq war, so many (not all, but many) voted for it just to take it off the table in the election.

And we got our asses kicked. We got our asses kicked because we didn’t vote for it FAST ENOUGH. We wound up explaining ourselves to liberals who were furious, and conservatives who’d become convinced by negative ads that we were soft on security. The issues themselves didn’t matter; a majority was opposed to the tax cuts when they passed! A majority was opposed to the war when it passed! It was the appearance of leadership for them, and lack of it for us, that did us in. We looked weak, because we caved and we danced, and they looked strong, because they fought and attacked.

It never really mattered how we voted on tax cuts or Iraq. They will paint Democrats as weakling tax and spend liberals no matter what we do. Their arguments won’t change even a little bit no matter what we do. So why not stick with our principles? At least we’ll have our own arguments to make about the merits of our positions – and perhaps we can start to win the framing game, instead of playing “me too!”.

Stop being afraid of them. They can be exposed. Dean exposed them with ease. And it didn’t hurt him a bit. Dean wasn’t done in by Republicans; he was done in by a crappy Iowa ground game, media blitz, crappy commercials, and a rookie Prez candidate with a big mouth. And let’s not forget, Dems who were afraid of what the Republicans would say about him. The electability plan worked out nicely, didn’t it?

I don’t care what they think of me or my politics. Fuck ‘em. They control the media at every level except the internet, yet they whine incessantly like babies at the unfair treatment they get. They’re weak and pathetic. They have to amend the constitution to get their way because they know they don’t have a legal leg to stand on with gay marriage. They’re weak and pathetic.

But we’ve been weaker and more pathetic, because we’ve followed them to the right in our own fear of being called names. And it’s time it stopped.

On the issues:

• Tax cuts. We've ceded this to the Republicans.
• Abortion. We've ceded ground on this.
• Iraq. We've ceded this to the Republicans in the 2002 votes.
• Gay marriage. Our party platform and all Prez candidates save two opposed this. So now it is suggested that we give the Republicans the amendment and take it off the table.

Question: If we’ve ceded ground on tax cuts, abortion and Iraq, yet these are still used to beat us into quivering masses of fear, why will we get a different result when we cave on gay marriage? Where do you draw the line on issues you’re willing to cede? What would happen if we stood up and fought? We might lose, you say? How is that different than today? Even more importantly, what good is winning if we run on their hand-me-down platform?

But what if we showed some leadership, and some principle? We might actually start to win.

If we act on our beliefs instead of dancing around their accusations, we can start winning. Most people don’t share the neo-con’s beliefs. Bush’s supporters were notoriously uninformed about his beliefs. But they didn’t care, because he leads. He just “says what he thinks, and acts on it”. But let’s not forget the lies they have to tell to get elected. They are weak, and they know that. They have to lie. They have to rig elections. They have to change the rules. They have to redraw Texas.

We may have to learn some of their tricks; but by God we can use their tricks against them while we at least tell Americans what Democrats stand for, not what we think they want us to stand for.

We stand for equality. This is not controversial. We stand for fiscal discipline. We need to start proving it, and standing by it (something I’m desperate for D’s not to screw up in WA State this session). This is not controversial. We stand for real national security in ALL forms, not just military. This is not controversial. We stand for fairness. This is not controversial.

Will these beliefs ever get us 500 electoral votes in an election? Probably not. But these are things most Americans also believe in. We need to lead, not follow. We can have disagreements among ourselves about the proper course – I have no problem discussing with our conservative friends how we can achieve our mutual goals. But I will not, ever again, allow someone to tell me why I should react to Republicans or be afraid of being “too liberal”.

barefoot and pregnant

cross-posted from liberal street fighter. This dovetails nicely with my drive to take back the school boards. It was written by mcjoan, a fellow Kossack from Seattle.

---

Hello class. Welcome back to “Pregnancy and STD Prevention I.” Today’s lesson is barrier methods. Let’s get started by opening your textbook to page . . . oh wait, that’s not in the textbook. See, the Texas State Board of Educators (SBOE) decided last week (subscription) that your textbook couldn’t talk about contraception. And since Texas is the second-largest market for high school textbooks, well that pretty much sets the standard for all textbook publishers. You’re not going to find anything about contraceptive methods in this textbook. So kids, here’s what to do. Abstain. Get plenty of rest, and go out in groups rather than pairs. Oh, and respect yourself. Ok, class dismissed. Girls off to home ec, boys to shop.

Click here to keep reading.

Capitulation: breakfast of champions

In another one from the "Never listen to Republicans" category, Bill Frist has decided to tell the Federalist Society** that the filibustering of judicial nominees must stop. Apparently, this only remaining weapon to keep the minority voice heard, which has been used on 10 out of over 200 nominees, joins gay marriage and goddamn corporate taxes as a priority of the nation which must be stopped at all costs.

Republican Senators, who are in the majority, collectively represent approximately 160 million people.

Democrats, in the minority, represent 170 million.

I especially love this piece:

Frist said filibustering judicial nominees is "radical. It is dangerous and it must be overcome. The Senate must be allowed to confirm judges who fairly, justly and independently interpret the law."

So, apparently, blocking 10 out of over 200 appointees, and reducing the judicial vacancy rate to the lowest point ever is "radical" and "dangerous" and "must be overcome". So the non-radical, non-dangerous way is to approve every single judge George W. Bush nominates, no matter how many crazy-ass things they've said and done from the bench. And especially when they're rabidly, openly, publicly anti-choice. And let's not forget that some of his appointments have been {cue scary music} activist judges.

By the way, nice how they're calling the filibuster, a tradition dating back to the first days of the constitutional convention, a "new and destructive practice"...of course, that's because being on the wrong end of a filibuster is new to them and destructive to their radical agenda.

Anyhoozle, the morons who control all three branches and don't know anything about tradition despite their ever-present use of the word, will again try to change the rules of the Senate to favor their inevitable lock-step approval of every bag of rolling dried-up turds with legs that George W. Bush nominates.

Again. They're whiners who cry like little babies at the slightest difficulty. They are not qualified to lead a city council, much less a country. They are radicals with an anti-traditional agenda aimed only at increasing their power at the expense of ordinary Americans. They control the media and cry and whine about that. They control all three branches of the Federal government, and not only do the cry and whine about that, they don't seem to be aware of the fact. They hate anyone who doesn't look or act like them, and cry and whine when anyone who doesn't look or act like them is given the equal rights which the constitution guarantees them.

I will repeat this every time they do something stupid. You're going to get tired of it, because you're going to hear it a LOT.

to repeat:

Republican Senators, who are in the majority, collectively represent approximately 160 million people.
Democrats, in the minority, represent 170 million.

**Federalist Society: the most influential society in the country that doesn't understand that they represent a political method our founding fathers came together to destroy because of its singular failure to run the country.

Oh, this is rich!

So first Bush appoints Alberto "Human rights are quaint" Gonzales for the AG spot, and we all say "Whew! At least it isn't SCOTUS!" (SCOTUS + Ashcroft is a discussion for another day)

And today, we find that anti-abortion groups oppose the nomination...because he isn't right-wing ENOUGH!

Seems that O boy Alberto, when he sat on the Texas Supreme Court, was NOT an activist judge, and followed the law as written. And that law, as written, said that there are times when an under-18 patient can have an abortion without notifying her parents.

And by NOT being an activist judge, he has incurred the wrath of the right-to-lifers. Wow!

I love this:

Said Brown(Judie Brown, president of the American Life League), "Gonzales' position is clear: The personhood of the pre-born human being is secondary to technical points of law, and that is a deadly perspective for anyone to take. ...

Screw the law, we should impose our personal points of view! That's the conservative stance now. I'll be sure to let everyone know that judges should be required to rule based on their own personal beliefs, NOT on the law. I'm sure the Massachusets Supreme Court will feel a great weight has been lifted from their shoulders now that they're no longer activist judges; they're moral judges.

How do we keep losing to these morons? I mean, seriously.

What a big freakin' surprise

George Bush has decided to unite us by…ramming through the exact same agenda that divided us over the last four years! Hooray!!

The administration now plans to try again to get drilling for oil in ANWR approved. Yep, that six-month supply of oil that will cost us billions to find and drill and won’t be available for ten years in a best-case scenario is job 1 in Bush’s “new” agenda. That should work out swimmingly! They call this “energy independence”, and “alternative energy resources”. Isn’t it amazing how all along we though energy independence and alternative energy resources meant things like solar, wind and hydro power? Naïve liberals, thinking there is any solution other than oil! Those creationists scientists in the Bush administration know that if it isn't already easily accepted by Exxon, it will never ever work. Better spend billions on oil.

Another fun and surprising plan they have is to privatize social security!(via Kos) Yay! This should unite us - the plan to eliminate social security, replace it with 401(k)s, because they've done so well, and immediately lose $2 trillion from current benefits. Yep, for this administration, no job is done until the words "lost" and "trillion" are involved.

Oo, and let's not forget that another priority, as stated by the Uniter, is to ban gay marriage in the constitution! See, since everyone agrees that the constitution does NOT ban gay marriage, and since the constitution clearly states that what is not banned is allowed, it's quite obvious that when courts begin finding that gay marriage is allowed according to the constitution, they're just liberal activists making up the law and ignoring the will of the people (will of the people /= in the constitution). Once liberals start doing things, it's time to by-God^tm ban it in the constitution. Equality, my ass, that's the Republican way! God^tm clearly hates gays, ergo they should be blocked from legal rights in the document which says we can't conflate church and state. Isn't it fun to be united??? YAAYY!

Oo, later we can talk about their great ideas on flat taxes or a national sales tax. Regressive taxation for everyone making less than $200,000! Hooray!

Remember, kids, whenever you hear a Republican whining about the media picking on them, feel free to remind them that A: they're whining and crying like a baby - AGAIN - and B: they control more legislatures than Democrats, and all three branches of the Federal government. Just tell them to shut up and stop whining.

Arafat is dead.

Au revoir, Yasshole.

 

Story here.

 

 

F*ck the South!

I think this is just freaking genius! Honestly, I'm not a big secessionist - yet. But, increasingly, it seems the entire South sees itself as a different nation, and I question why we bothered to fight for it in the 1860's. I've made the case many times before, especially when discussing my arch-nemesis John Edwards, that we do not need to kowtow to the stupidest among us, who are unfortunately the representative slices of bacon that vote in the South.

Besides, we didn't start this. This post from a winger shows that they're ready to slice-n-dice the union (inexplicably leaving Washington out of his soon-to-be-former fellow states).

With that, I present to you, Fuck the South, a new website sent to me by my friend Ellen. Whatever you may think of the sentiment, it uses facts and lots and lots of vulgarity to make a strong point, and in spots is pee-your-pants funny. My favorite excerpt:

The next dickwad who says, "It’s your money, not the government's money" is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least... can you guess? Go on, guess. That’s right, motherfucker, they're red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? It’s too easy, asshole, they’re blue states. It’s not your money, assholes, it’s fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes.

It's only a one page website, but it's worth a read. And I think, even around the cursing and the funny bits, it makes some very, very strong points. Fuck the South indeed!

Ashcroft resigns!

Yyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Dean! Dean! Dean! Dean! Yeeaarrghh!

Okay, I give up.  I'll talk about Howard Dean and the DNC.  So many people have sent me this damn petition that I now feel obligated.  Besides, he’s apparently seriously considering it. 

 

I’m opposed to Dean being DNC chair.  I think he’d do a great job; don’t get me wrong.  But I think he’s more effective as a gadfly than as a fundraiser/organizer.  Remember, the innovations in the Dean campaign weren’t Dean’s, they were Trippi’s.  Dean is a gifted speaker – in fact, he’s a gifted demagogue, and our side needs a couple of those.  Vermont residents who remember Governor Dean still don’t get that – he wasn’t a gifted speaker there, where did this come from?  But it’s real.  He’s also a listener.  He did learn to listen to the grassroots and take their direction from time to time.  He knows when it’s time to come down from the podium and hear what people are telling him.  When I introduced the Gov to my father a couple months ago, we explained to him what a PCO was (somehow, he hadn’t gotten this info during the campaign!).  I’ll never forget that during his speech later that evening, he mentioned that he’d just learned about PCO’s – and he mentioned it again when he came out in October to campaign for the Democratic ticket.  He listened, and cared about what my father was doing for Democrats. 

 

He uses these gifts to run roughshod on Democrats who forget who they’re working for.  He’s been merciless on Democrats who voted for the fatty corporate tax-cut bill last month (including my boss).  That bill contained two provisions that needed to be passed (not one, as the gov says):  A $5 billion tax ”correction” to bring our code in line with the WTO and save some companies from unfair exclusion, and the sales tax deductibility portion.  The remaining $138.5 billion was just giveaways to random corporations.  Dems voted for the bill because it contained the sales tax deductibility and they needed that for re-election.  I love my boss, but this is the truth.  She genuinely wanted the deductibility portion, needed it for the re-election, and voted for it for that reason.  A DNC chair can’t crack the whip on stuff like that the way Dean can; the DNC chair has to justify and stand behind it no matter what.  It’s the ultimate cheerleader for anything the party does. 

 

At the same time, we could use some demagoguery from the DNC chair.  Look at what Marc Racicot and Ed Gillespie (the big nazi-looking freak) have done with their mouthpiece.  They’re on TV the instant any Democrat says anything that resonates, with no particular message other than “whichever Dem said that is clearly an America-hating liberal who wants to raise your taxes and force you to have an abortion after marrying a gay man.”  And it fucking works!  We need that on our side; we need someone to call Ed Gillespie out every time he whines like a little baby about the media being unfair or cries out in paranoid horror every time a judge interprets the constitution as requiring fair and equal treatment for all Americans, not just the white, heterosexual Protestant ones.  We need someone to run in front of the cameras moments after any Republican is announced as a candidate for anything and remind America that this person will force women to carry their rapist’s child to term, even if it costs the mother her life.  Someone who will remind all voters that Republicans have one plan in mind, and that is to bankrupt the middle class by eliminating social security and putting it into a 401(k) (remember those?  The ones that failed?), and tacking on either a flat tax, or national sales tax (or both!).  Howard Dean would be incredible at this part of the job, and he would probably raise a lot of money.

 

But he wouldn’t be able to snap the towel at Democrats’ backsides when they need it.  And that’s why I don’t want him as DNC Chair.

 

Later, I’ll write about the misconceptions people have about Dean, and why they can’t get past it.  (too liberal!  The scream!  Too divisive!  Wes Clark is a genius [I’ve met him; genius is the last word I’d use to describe him.  Ignorant, arrogant douchebag are the first three]!  Too elitist!  Not southern enough!)

Rock, chalk, Jayhawk?

So, after the Jayhawks lost to Syracuse a couple years ago, I decided to walk away from my longtime Jayhawk support. Any school that could miss 16 free throws in a row in the freakin' championship game doesn't deserve my support. I also decided that I no longer could support Roy Williams, because his teams have ALWAYS had trouble making free throws, and more than once that weakness has cost them the national title. If he can't recognize and correct a problem that small, he doesn't deserve any support at all. The bastard.

Now, I see Bill Self (the hiring of whom was the last straw for me with Kansas, btw) has them ranked number one already. Wayne Simien is back, as is Keith Langford. They've gotten some good recruits, and seem to have some promise.

So, since I never officially replaced KU as my team, and Carolina is out because of Roy Williams, I'm now stating that pending any major letdowns I am allowing KU to become my provisional favorite team, on a one-year probationary period. May Roy Williams always be in the second tier at Carolina.

---

On a more serious note, my friend Peter was feature on the news tonight! His counseling practice is offering free counseling to Democrats and campaign staffers to help get over the election letdown. Also shown were friends from the campaign, Mike Mahoney and Erin Oldfield. You go!

No global warming. Repeat after me, no global warming. It's all a dreeeeaammm...

Well, ain’t this just a pickle?

Indigenous hunters are falling through thinning ice and say that prey from seals to whales is harder to find. Rising levels of ultra-violet radiation may cause cancers

Fortunately, since we’re the top polluter in the world and the richest nation ever to exist, W feels it’s too expensive to join Kyoto and cut our emissions – but developing nations should have to do it, too, since they have so much extra wealth laying around. Bastard.

Gov race is still tight! Rossi within .16%

From Spin Control:

 

You can find the up-to-the-minute Gube results here.  Camden says the results are usually updated between 4 and 6pm each evening (makes sense). 

Transportation fixes on the way?

Since Brian Weinstein beat Jim Horn, it looks like we're going to finally get some movement on transportation fixes. With the County Council now voted down to 9 seats from 13, Dwight Pelz will run for City Council (for those of you who didn't already know that), where he can push for more transit options and hopefully oppose the Mayor's dim-witted Mercer solution.

Ed Murray said it'll be hard to get voters to approve any tax increases for transportation fixes, but I think he misses the mark. His direct quote was, "If they won't approve it for kids, they won't approve it for roads." I disagree with him. Seattle voters typically do vote for new roads, because GOD FORBID we try any innovative solutions or change any existing roadways in any way that might remotely affect any resident in any way, but by God we're going to have better roads because we hate being stuck in traffic.

Sorry, that was an unrelated rant that just started all on its own. As I was saying, Seattle voters have a tough time approving money for schools, but approve almost all money for roads. The difficulty this time is, there is so much distrust of government locally that it's hard to tell if folks will go for it. Democrats really need to lead responsively and actively over the next two years and establish some trust between the government and the voters.

We need to take back the school boards

This week, we've seen the textbooks in Texas altered to "define" marriage as between a man and a woman (the reality: they changed words like "partners" to "husband and wife", and "two people get married" to read "a man and a woman get married"). We've seen a school district in Wisconsin join districts in a growing number of states in requiring creationism as part of the science curriculum. Just to scare you a little bit more...

The more striking changes suggested by social conservatives — including language that said homosexuals are more likely to use illegal drugs and commit suicide — were rejected by publishers.

The school board is responsible for these decisions. And where the hell are our people? Who is fighting to keep creation in the church, where it belongs?

They're not running for the school board, that's for sure. I know, some of us have run for school board. But the reality is, most of those who have run jumped straight to AA ball by running for the state House, Congress, or stayed low by running for Party positions. Meanwhile, the GOP keeps sending Christian evangelicals - you know, the American version of the Taliban/Osama - to run for the school boards, where they're forcing creationism into science classes and using the classroom as their own little bible school GOP incubator. Where they're now "defining" marriage for the kiddies. Where they're trying to teach them gays are more likely to commit suicide and use illegal drugs! Good luck, gay teens - your problems coming out just got much worse. Psychologists across America will thank the GOP for that little boost to business.

We need to either start running for school boards ourselves, or recruiting others to do it. We need to treat the school boards as just as vital a race as Congress or the state House. The GOP does. And they're winning.

Losing battles, winning wars

I've avoided writing about this election so far. In addition to the standard melancholy, depression, sense of loss, whatever you want to call it that we're all feeling, I think everyone needs some time and room to grieve. Some do so by retreating into themselves, away from blogs and internet and other people. Some do it by writing diatribes, screeds, rants, and dialogues on what we're going to do now. Some, hopefully few, will write their next missive from New Zealand. I think it's all healthy, and I want to give everyone the time to do it.

As for me, I think. The loss is so great, the questions so daunting, the challenge now so massive, that it is difficult to fully get your mind around it all. Where do you start? Everyone keeps asking, "what happened?". "What do we do?". "How will we ever get our country back now?". Who knows? This is very difficult. But here are a few of my suggestions, for those inclined to listen.

First, relax. Take a hot bath or read a book. Reacquaint yourself with your family; take them to dinner to thank them for their patience with you the last two years. If you're my friends, play some poker and know that I'll join you as soon as I can, because I love you all. Your brain needs to unspool for a while, and you need to just let the pressure off a bit at a time.

Next, let it out. Air that sucker out all you want. If you want to go to the woods and practice some primal scream therapy, go crazy. Scare the bears. If you want to cry, sobbing into your pillow, weep away (I think many of us are past this stage, but hey, if it feels good, do it). If you want to yell about Democrats or write a 10,000 word explosion about next steps, do it. Just let it out. They say that laughter is the best medicine, I say shrieking your lungs out in frustration is a close number two.

That reminds me. If at all possible, go see a funny movie. Laugh with your friends. They're still there, and stuff is still funny. You are still in control of yourself, and it isn't fair to let George Bush and his crazy friends steal your sense of humor.

Finally, sit back and start putting the pieces back together. If you've slept, relaxed, gotten it off your chest, and laughed at something funny, your mind should be ready for some reflection and planning.

Because that's our next step. We need to plan. I don't know what we need to do, exactly, and let's face it, neither do you. We're all struggling. But we agree on some common things, and I think all our rants and diatribes will begin to coalesce into a few good, maybe even great ideas. Here are some of mine.

Read this article by William Saleton, if you haven't already. I think he hits the nail on the head, when he says Bush's ability to stay above 15% of the vote is simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. He says very simple things that anyone can latch onto and repeat with ease. Our society now thinks in soundbites, and Democrats act in paragraphs. (I'm one to talk!) We need to choose a real message - equality, strength, community, whatever - and boil it down into three easily repeated sentences.

We need to understand that things we see as basic fairness are not just opposed by much of the country, but are frightening and disgusting to much of the country. Opposition to gay marriage isn't just a matter of bigotry or misguided morals; there is real, genuine, visceral disgust involved. This isn't something people just stop feeling. So we need to learn another way to approach it. Statistics are fun, but don't remove the images people see in their mind. And they definitely don't clear out the opposition to church morals. We have to learn how to talk about this. It isn't a moral issue from our perspective, it's a fairness issue. We have to work to reinforce the idea that government can never, under any circumstances, require a church to perform or recognize a gay marriage.

We need big ideas, clear goals, plans and a message. See this diary at Daily Kos for a nice start. This is someone's first draft, but it's the right idea, and we should do more of this. As progressives, we complain a lot, but we don't introduce a lot of meaningful legislation and work to get it passed. It's time to start doing so, and it's time to start lobbying and fighting just as hard as Republicans do.

We need new leaders. McAullife failed. Kerry failed. Gore failed. Clinton is failing, because even with his charisma, he is tied to his own past and refuses to see that we're not running against his old opponents. Dean came close, and he was a good start, but he'll never be palatable to most of the country. I don't know who to suggest as the next leaders, but that's the whole point. They need to come from us, not be given to us! We need to stand up and fight, run for office, and stand up for what we believe. Don't tell me we did it this time, because many of us were still waiting for Kerry to say what we wanted to hear. We didn't run for office, for the most part. But now our chance is here. Run for office within the party. Look at upcoming races near you, for school board, City Council, whatever is happening. We've already seen what we can do (and it was amazing), now let's see if we can lead.

Lastly, for now, don't despair. The world won't end. We will come back. We're going to sound like a bunch of lunatics for a couple months while we spin our wheels on all the many thousands of things we need to do to get back in the game and earn the right to govern again. It's a difficult fact of life, but the party that wants nothing but election victories at any cost will in the end fail to govern (we've been that party before), but will almost always defeat the party that places governing above winning. Our lot in life is to work harder than them, organize better than them, and always know that we are one thoughtless act from where we sit today. America needs, and deserves, our best effort to pull it together and govern again, no matter how hard it is to get there.