'It is clear that Nancy Pelosi's reign as Speaker has been an absolute disaster for the Democratic party and for the entire nation' And then there is Condoleeza Rice, now recognized as a dismal failure and incompetent. Followed by HClinton's macho bravado blundering -it is heralding a bleak tomorrow for the future of women as effective leaders rather than handmaidens to the boy's club.
But you know what really bothers me about this quote?

"If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but because they have 'Impeach Bush' across their chest, it's the First Amendment."

The commentary is always about the rights of activists, but what sickened me was Pelosi's overt disdain for the poor. And she is considered a liberal democrat? She didn't even seem conscious that she was dismissing human beings as so much garbage littering her view and can't the authorities simply make them disappear? That is definitely in the "let them eat cake" league.

You go, Cindy Sheehan!

"When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then, indeed, their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the State, and calls for an exercise of the power of dissolution." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774

Mr. Jefferson, I'm sure, is turning over in his grave at Monticello.

I am going! We have a campaign office in SF now and a lot of energy is there for overthrowing Ms. "Let them eat cake."

I obviously agree with everything the author says, except that activists have been demanding impeachment. That's why CODEPINK is sitting outside her house in SF and that's why 47 people got arrested in Congressman Conyers' office on July 23rd while 300 more people lines the halls near his office chanting "Impeach Bush and Cheney." That's why we interrupted Rahm Emmanuel's press conference on January 3rd.

Anyway, we have been actively seeking impeachment for years now

We have also been demanding an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq...that's why I am running for Congress...no one is listening to us.

Love
Cindy

Impeach Pelosi!!

After reading the same SFChron article that prompted Ms. Kimberley to pen this response, I sent this letter to the SFChron article's writer and to its editorial board:

"Glad to read that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi participated in a lunch discussion with Washington reporters.

"There was no mention, however, of the hurried summer recess vote on the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) bill, or of the current discussions in Congress to extend even more powers to the National Security Agency, despite Congress' insistence two months ago that they would roll back the unnecessarily broad eavesdropping powers they awarded the Bush administration in passing that White House-drafted FISA bill in August. Was this important issue overlooked during this 'candid talk?'

"Pelosi mentioned 'people sitting outside my home' in San Francisco. She commented: 'If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering.' Are these people participating in lawful citizen assemblies? Or are they breaking our laws outside her private residence? This article did not make this distinction. Wearing an 'Impeach Bush' t-shirt while on a public sidewalk is First Amendment. Trespassing onto what Pelosi described as 'my sidewalk' and going into her garden on her private property is not First Amendment. That is trespassing, at the least, and possibly violates laws against vandalism and harassment.

"She also mentioned her 'neighbors' reaction to all this.' Are her neighbors angered by lawbreaking citizens infringing on their property rights? Or are they angered by public response to her high-profile job in the U.S. Congress? They will recover from that inconvenience way before the world recovers from the disastrous Bush/Cheney policies, followed by our Congress' unwillingness and failure to do what we voters gave them a mandate to do in the 2006 midterm election."

Pelosi wants everyone to remember the genocide of Armenians by the Turks in WWI and understandably so since she had nothing to do with that.

Pelosi wants everyone to ignore the 1.2 million dead in Iraq, and understandably so since she has everything to do with that.

The judicial system won't do it for us, so we have to form a people's court and place Pelosi and the Bush warmongers on trial for crimes against humanity. We need a location: How about Nuremberg? We need judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, jurors, and legitimacy. The latter is supplied by the failure of the judicial system; when justice itself fails, the people have to act. We have a complete and total collapse of the justice system; we have to take charge. Otherwise all this complaining is meaningless. Who will sign up to get the people's court into operation?

She says "My Sidewalk". I looked it up. Cities own the sidewalks, except for unusual circumstances. So, it is the public's sidewalk. She could say the sidewalk in front of my house, for example.

After 15 years or so as a social worker i concluded that there is only one thing worse than not doing something to solve a problem: pretending to do something to solve the problem. putting up a front, acting as though you are doing the right thing.

we would be better off without a pretend liberal such as pelosi muddying the waters, pretending she has our working class interests as a priority.

I would suggest that we start "labeling" ourselves as "pro-peace" rather than "anti-war."

I would also suggest that perhaps it's time for all us "liberals" to decamp en masse to the Green Party.

Their party platform sure seems to line up the most with what I believe these days: grassroots democracy, social justice & equal opportunity, ecological wisdom, non-violence, decentralization, community-based economics, feminism & gender equity, respect for diversity, personal & global responsibility, and future focus & sustainability.

Check out their website to see what I mean: www.gp.org

What caught my eye, above, (cindysheehan October 17th, 2007 12:31 pm) is Cindy's last sentence:

"We have also been demanding an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq…that's why I am running for Congress…no one is listening to us."

She is running for "us". She wants to give "us" a voice. I'll say it. She speaks for me. She is a true progressive. If she is in Congress I won't need to call her to get her to do what is progressive.

Cindy's candidacy is about giving true progressives representation. She can be our voice. Those who want the occupation (the correct term I believe) of Iraq to end, can rely on her to be our voice. And so it is across a whole range of progressive solutions to problems.

The fact that Cindy comments here is an indication she rides no high celebrity horse. (Can anyone imagine Pelosi commenting here? I can't.) Cindy is a true progressive--one of us, and she won't forget, should she win.

Let's help her.

Cindy, I'm glad you have an office in SF. Your race is an exciting one. We need you in Congress.

"Activists must begin making demands. They must demand impeachment, they must demand that New Orleans be rebuilt, they must demand no further funding for occupation in Iraq or for a new war in Iran."

Activists have been demanding all these things, but like Major Major, Pelosi can't be seen when she's in her office but she can be seen when she isn't there.

ça ira!!

"If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but because they have 'Impeach Bush' across their chest, it's the First Amendment."
- Nancy Pelosi

Plutocrats always believe that the public commons belongs to them alone.

Adam Smith said it best, "All for ourselves and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind."

Yes to Cindy Sheehan!

RichM and nofacists are totally on the money.

Honorable Pelosi is a disgrace to the nation, as much as Marie-Antoinnette was to France in the eighteenth century.

Pelosi obviously has contempt for the poor, the majority of the people she is supposed to represent (in contrast to the one percent of the U.S. population that owns most of the wealth in this country, whose indentured servant she is), the Constitution, the people of Iraq, the soldiers, and the activists who are forced by her political inertia and servility to demonstrate in front of her house.

After that, she will probably tell us what a good Christian she is.

To all the Dem appartchiks, enablers and apologists out there: What a burden it must be to keep trying to explain away the collaborationist Vichy Democrats.

Unburden yourselves! You keep talking about working hard to elect a "real" democrat like Kucinich.The "real" democrats today are Hillary, Bill, Reid and Pelosi.We all know Kucinich would never be permitted to win the nomination, let alone the Presidency.

I know, I know, you will say it's talk like that that keeps Kucinich from winning. At the same time you will point out to me that "3rd parties have no chance of winning."
I will answer by saying it's talk like that that keeps 3rd parties from winning.

There is only so much energy, money, talent, media savvy on the Progressive side and it's time to quit wasting it trying to "take over" or reform a party that has no intention of being taken over or reformed.

I say it again. Unburden yourselves from the impossible Democratic Party. Change comes from Movements: the anti-slavery Movement, the labor Movement, the suffrage Movement, the peace Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, etc. The Democratic Party is the place reform goes to die!

Movements can use electoral politics but not as an end in itself. As a tool in the greater struggle. Elect Cindy Sheehan to Congress!

It was too much to hope that Pelosi would morph into Joan of Arc once elected to the Speakership, but it's appalling how much like Marie Antoinette she's turned out to be! Meanwhile, pardon me for repeating myself:
______________________________________________________________________________
#
Little Brother October 16th, 2007 1:35 pm

I truly believe that the political elite class generally clings to the bygone precept that citizens must respect and trust the conduct, character, and personal integrity of members of Congress, and ought to defer to members' judgements in Serious matters, e.g. national security.

So that a Pelosi expects never to be taken to task for actions or inactions based on access to classified or sensitive information, and has no intention of disclosing or rigorously explaining her positions. If, now or at some future time, there is evidence that Pelosi and her colleagues indeed explicitly acquiesced in support of extra-legal and anti-constitutional "laws", policies, and procedures, I expect that they'll stonewall or haughtily preclude comment for security reasons.

This is another characteristic shared by both parties: how and why the US government got into the position it's in today is for them to know, and us to find out.

Pelosi is the perfect incarnation of the current Democratic party - Julius Caesar in Converse All-Stars, gentrified yuppies walking the streets of Park City, Utah, lamenting the crudeness and aggressive stupidity of the Bush regime and the Republican party while sipping the latest "hot" Australian shiraz and saying, sotto voce, what a shame it is we have to kill all those wogs.

Women of America wake up!
Pelosi is the first female speaker and has damaged female credibility. Women fought hard to get equal rights and Pelosi is sending you back to the dark age. The next time a woman is nominated as speaker people will be remembering and shaking their heads.
Women across America should be outraged at Ms. Pelosi's incompetence.

McDee - Agreed.

But the Movements you're talking about either have to coalesce into One Movement, or at least separately elect similar thinking candidates to positions of power (assuming standard politics is the foucs of the Movement[s].

So please take it to the next step.

What should be the Movement/Party be called? (It needs a focused identity and set of goals the public can understand....)

And who should begin organizing it? And how? And when?

I'm not being sarcastic. I agree with you.

But, should it be the Green Movement/Party - or something else?

Every time we come up with a good idea to focus and empower a progressive force in the US, I think we need to suggest How to do it - so 'idea talk' can at least start to distill into 'implementation talk.'

Otherwise, we just go round and round in circles.

What are your further thoughts?

It's time to teach the loyalbushieDems a lesson - actually, it's been time for a while now, but apparently the sidelines remain a very comfortable place for too many.

Switch your voter registration ASAP, from Dem to any other choice. The message will be loud - we will not be "loyal" to those who screw us and our country every hour on the hour. We will no longer behave like children of alcoholic parents who keep hoping that this time - yes, this time - our "reps" will do the right thing... in spite of the fact that the only penalty for doing the wrong thing is more for them and less for us. Gee, wonder why they choose choice B...

Right now - open a new tab, download the form, fill it out, and mail it. Let's see what happens when their base abandons them at record speed. Who knows, some might, God forbid, dare to try and actually earn our vote...

we were all so happy to see the democrats regain control of congress until we realized what idiots Reid and Pelosi are. Both parties are filled with morons and now the democratic party is poised to elect Hillary Clinton who is a warmonger. Can you imagine the harm Mrs. Clinton and a congress led by Reid and Pelosi will bring to this country?

Yes: Less harm than Rudy Guliani in the White House and a Republican majority in Congress.

Now I know what a "Defeatocrat" is. An anti-war liberal who'd rather snipe away at his allies than challenge the real enemies of peace.

Political power is achieved by coalitions. The 'Pubs have done a very good job of getting people from all over the right half of the political spectrum to tolerate each other long enough to win elections. We have to do the same.

The Centrist Democrats can't end the war without us. Do you believe that we can end the war without them?

If you over-estimated the power of Congress in the current political climate, it's time to wake up to the fact that change takes time, effort, and alliances with people who only partly agree with you.

If you support a third party - good. You can exert some pull on the Democrats that way too. But the goal always is to build bridges, not to burn them.

I have made and am promoting a call for progressives in the Democratic Party to finally acknowledge that they are not going to be able to have any influence in that disfunctional party until they are willing to make a clear threat to leave it. Accordingly, I have established a website where people can sign on to a petition saying that they are quitting the party until it does two key things: cutting off funding for the war, and initiating impeachment hearings.
Quitting the party is easy. It defers for each individual the question of who to vote for in '08. Those who want to vote for Dennis K or Mike G or whoever in their state's primary, may be able to anyway, since some state allow this. Or they can rejoin in time to vote in the primary, and then quit again after voting. The important thing is that if we quit enmasse, the Party leadership will for the first time have to wonder if they're losing us and our votes and our donated campaign help, and if they start worrying for real, they'll have to act to win us back--something they haven't done since the 1950s and the retreat from the New Deal.
So quit the party, and spread the word!
Go to ThisCantBeHappening.net for details, and to I Quit This Party to sign on.

Dave Lindorff
author: "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006)

Lets gather for a victory party outside her house in November 2008. I think she when she learns of her early retirement, she should be forced to look out her window and see thousands of us dancing in the street in celebration!

dear countless,

I agree with what you say, but I learned the same lesson in 1992. Its not the personalities of Reid, Pelosi, Dean, the Clintons et al. Its the fundamental change in the nature of the Democratic party that came to fruition during the Reagan years.

I agree with your feelings. But your comment leaves open the suggestion that simply replacing a few bad apples at the top of the Democratic Party would fix things. It won't. The Democratic Party cut its ties to what its base believes 20 years ago. Ever since then the fundamental foundation of the party has been a lie. They pretend to believe what their voters believe, but they vote and govern very, very differently.

And given that the Democratic Party today is a highly undemocratic institution, I'm afraid that the call to quit the party is the correct choice. Ever since the Clinton years and the anger at NAFTA, WTO, Welfare Reform, etc, etc, etc, I've heard this call to work within the party and change from within. Well, that race is run and its plainly clear that trying that is about as effective as beating your head against a brick wall.

Whoever now thinks that Nancy Pelosi is "Public Enemy Number One" evidently somehow forgot Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan, Tom Delay, Bill Frist, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Denny Hastert, Karl Rove, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and a few thousand other Republicans, plus the entire K-Street Project.

Watching a slur, followed by a pile-on here, is about like going to the lunchroom at middle school. Nancy is today's target. Good grief!

PS ... my only reservation to the excellent Mr. Lindorff is that quiting the party shouldn't be a threat. Its a first step towards a solution. And one that must be done and from which there should be no looking back. Its not time to take a symbolic action against the Democrats. Its time to send that party to the dust-heap of history along with other parties that no longer serve their purpose like the Whig Party. Its time for something new. Quiting the Democratic party is just the first step in that direction.

THANK YOU CINDY! Any chance you might consider coming to a progressive little ski town (Sandpoint, ID)in the coming months, expenses paid, to help support our burgeoning indy community radio station? We could pack our community theater if you would like to come to speak and raise funding for us and your campaign. Hang in there and thank you for being such a high energy progressive activist--For the People!

Since Ms. Pelosi's role is to support and defend the same policies as supported by Gingrich, Delay, Cheney, etc, I'm not sure there's any objection to putting her into the same bunch with them.

The track record of this Democratic Congress has been one where it consistently gives the Republicans everything they ask for. Whether it be war funding or more powers for the police state. At the same time you've seen absolutely zero attempts at action to reverse the changes of the previous six years. There's no attempt to reverse Bush's tax cuts (which were supported by a number of Democrats by the way) or to reverse the police state policies of say the Patriot Act.

You must judge by actions. Its like watching a magician, the words and the patter and the waving of the hands is only there to distract you from what is really happening. What is really happening is that the Democrats support and defend exactly the same policies as the Republicans.

And to me, what Ms. Pelosi does is even worse than the people on your list because she does it by misleading and lying to people. At lease Limbaugh and Cheney et al are relatively open and honest about what they want to do. Ms.Pelosi supports the same policies by lying and misleading people in trying to get them to believe she's really an opponent when her actions reveal her as a full supporter. To my mind, this makes Ms.Pelosi even more dangerous than those listed.

Why is it that the Democratic coalitions are always to be built on anyone to the left of Reagan giving up their beliefs and having to support a pro-war, pro-corporate agenda? If there was truly a coalition and some give and take, perhaps a coalition with a few of the less neaderthalic Democrats might be possible.

But the deal the Democrats always offer is that we should completely surrender all of our ideals and positions in exchange for absolutely nothing. Apparently we are supposed to feel great joy in the simple fact that a candidate with a (D) after their name won an election. We certainly aren't supposed to expect any more than that.

The day I hear the Democratic leadership telling the pro-war, pro-corporate Democrats that they have to surrender and give up what they believe in at least part of the time in order to be in a coalition with us, then maybe I'll believe in the possibility of a coalition with the Democrats. But this one-direction, we-always-get-screwed coalition is for the birds.

Activities to plan for in 2008
-- Come to Denver to let the Democrats hear what you think of them in person. Hopefully a million or more voices strong!
-- Go to California in October to help with Cindy's campaign
-- Stay home and work for your own independent pro-war, pro-citizens candidate.

Who should be organizing the "movement party'? The people.

Its a fundamental choice. The problem with the Democrats is that its a top-down driven party that follows the dictates of its leaders. Any movement party must be organized in the opposite fashion such that power and decisions flow up from the people to the leaders.

Thus, its fundamentally wrong to ask who should be organizing such a party because that has the built in assumption that we would then follow such a leader. The key is that the people we choose to be the leaders of such a new party must follow us.

If we fail in that, we'll be right back in the same boat as power corrupts the new leaders of the new party and they stop following parties that benefit the citizens of this country.

While I agree that the Dems and Pelosi in particular have become spineless, traitorous enablers; I am more and more starting to think that powers that be must have something on them. Let's not forget about the murder of Paul Wellstone who was the main thorn in the side of the current criminal cabal, or that only key Democrats were sent anthrax traced to Ft. Detrick shortly before voting on the Patriot Act which they initially opposed.
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/02/bioterror.html
And just guess how they voted? If some individuals in our government could be complicit in the attacks of 9-11, I'm sure they would have no qualms about offing or threatening a few pesky Democrats. As Michael Ruppert said about this in his book Crossing The Rubicon "message received."
Something to think about.

Al/Cindy Green Party 2008?

Thank you Ms. Kimberley for putting Pelosi in her place...front and center of the real issue for the people...we do not have democracy in this country! We have tyranny! What are we going to do about it?!

"The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion." Frederick Douglass

Daniel David--The reason Pelosi is worse than Reagan, Gingrich, etc. is that she is such an insufferable phony! And to theLorax, yes, she, Hillary and Condi are horrible examples of women leaders. But Cindy Sheehan more than makes up for them.

For all you "Progressives" who hate Ron Paul, here's a new piece of legislation he just introduced:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/1027/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=17371

And now I'm sending him another hundred bucks.

After reading about the bitch Fascist Pelosi, I realize more than ever how much the Constitution means to Ron Paul and how little it means to Pelosi. Let's see if she signs on to this legislation. She's such an embarrassment to the United States, she nauseates me.

COMarc - you apparently misundertand my post above.

I agree with you: No more Top-Down parties (for progressives, anyway)

A just-posted set of suggestions by me, as to how such a Party would work, was erased - somehow.

Dinner time for me now: Will re-post later.

Little Brother - I agree with your appraisal of the probable.

Then, What to Do? Try Nothing?

If a Venturie Shaft COULD coalesce dissenters around an organized, national political force, dead-center might be moved off of.

Unfortunately, I believe that the massive complacency and superciliousness necessary to keep faith with the Democratic Party, regularly exhibited by its benighted representatives in CD comment boards, will render impotent a wake-up call in the form of mass public desertion and disaffection.

First of all, truth and passion doesn't carry in the air of that sealed environment, so the Democratic bosses will regard the threats as a bluff. In line with the Democratic Party tradition of seducing and abandoning desperate liberals and progressives, they will continue to take dissenters for granted, and will confidently reckon that only a negligible group will even sincerely threaten to opt out in the first place; of that group, most will wise up and run back to the reeking bosom of Lesser Evil-- and the rest are expendable.

They will calculate that their candidates will perform well enough to squeeze out enough fan dollars for at least one more platinum release and tour, and that there will be enough anti-Republic sentiment to push more swing Yahoos into the corral than will escape on principle. Or because of principle, I should say. In service of their quest for the illusory moderate, centrist constituency-- the rhinoceri they mistake for unicorns-- they will expect you to meekly flee back to the herd when the wolves appear, or bid you good riddance.

I'd be thrilled to see hordes defecting from the decadent Democrats, especially if this was the catalyst for breaking the moribund duopoly that has run our unique democratic republic into an end-stage evil empire.

McDee,

"What a burden it must be to keep trying to explain away the collaborationist Vichy Democrats."

We should shorten it to Vichycrats, everyone will know who we're talking about.

I knew when Nancy dismissed Jack Murtha as her House Majority Leader and put in Steny Hoyer as the establishment yes man, that she was sleeping with the enemy.

We the people are in their way - and in their minds we are irritants, flys around that table, the table set out only for the elites and insiders. How dare we demand fair representation. Why the nerve of this rabble!

My plan for my next payday: write and mail a check for $100 to Cindy Sheehan and mail a copy to Pelosi.

I did the same thing during the MoveOn "controversy," wrote a check to MoveOn and sent the copies to Boxer, Feinstein, my so-called "representative" ...

I am so angry with Pelosi and her $100,000 worth of plastic surgery. She is NOT taking the U.S. Constitution "off the table."

If Cindy Sheehan is the reincarnation of Henry David Thoreau, then Nancy Pelosi is the reincarnation of Heinrich Himmler.

Daniel David, has Nancy Pelosi said anything anywhere nearly as harsh or as contemptuous of any Bushcriminal as she, and other Vichycrats, have said about those who criticize or challenge her? No.

Yes, IMPEACH her.
She and Bush are one and the same.

Jonas the Prophet
http://jonestheprophet.tk

"Anti-war" vs. "Pro-peace"?

October 27th: The First Step To Peace Is Impeachment.

One mind, one heart, one voice: Impeach!

There will be no honest diplomacy until Bush/Cheney are removed from the White House.

Read the article from the 12 Captains and ask yourself how we can continue to let the US Troops to continue to hang by a limb. Contemplate the nearly 4,000 killed and 50,000 wounded and counting of US Troops. Contemplate the 1,200,000 killed and 5,000,000 wounded and 5,000,000 displaced and counting, Iraqi Civilians (mostly from the unreported US air strikes). Contemplate the spread of cholera and the decimation to the world environment due to the use of depleted uranium - with the burgeoning birth defects of not only Iraqis but US Military personal.

(All this based on lies and the manipulation of the People's sorrow and grief surrounding 9/11/01 - i.e. betrayal)

Go to your nearest ghetto (if you're not living in one) and contemplate the billions upon billions spent so Halliburton could relocate to Dubai (this crosses the line into treason!), and also measure this with the falling value of the US dollar along with the US moral standing worldwide.

Contemplate these things and then ask yourself if you can give up the argument of anti-war vs. pro-peace for the succinct action word that contains them both, as well as providing the pathway to the grandest of grand American renewals amidst all this horror: IMPEACH.

October 27th:

ONE MIND, ONE HEART, ONE VOICE: IMPEACH!

I can understand why people keep on arguing that the Democrats are at least as bad as the Republicans and I see the whole pattern of deception behind this party. But my contempt for the Democratic establishment does not extend to the Democratic voters: I can also understand their 'let's vote for the lesser of two evils' attitude. I don't agree with it, but I understand it.
However, I do have contempt for Republican voters. What do they think ? Do they consciously vote for 'the most evil of the two evils ?' Why do they insist on their foolish path ? Do they even have that one brain cell, that many people claim they have ? How completely ignorant can a person be ?
So: Let us really see who are the enemies: Republican voters and the Democratic (and Repug) establishment. Anyone who falls outside those categories should be considered a friend and ally in the revolution that is to come ! Stop the fussing and fighting !

I see the tide of change happening.
Next year will bring a perfect storm.
People across the spectrum are ready for a difference. Just check the poll numbers for Congress. Lower than Bush's!

The Democratic party is fat and lazy and smug. The only thing that matters anymore to them is power, gaining it, keeping it, enlarging it. They have forgotten the reason for gaining power -- to protect and provide for us (not just for themselves -- "my sidewalk", indeed!).

It's time for a third way. It's past time, but previous efforts were blocked, because information and communication could be controlled. Not anymore, not with the Internet and instant worldwide communication.

The answer is networking, as in what we do here. Share our ideas and ideals, latch onto great and grand concepts, support each other. Keep doing what we're doing, only more of it.
Don't wait for leaders to ride up on white horses. Anybody, everybody can lead. Who is Cindy Sheehan but one of us?

It will take all our efforts, and for a year. Ready? Willing? Able?
Go!
We can do it.
Don't lose faith. Keep trying and next year we'll lose Pelosi along with the other ogres in government.

p.s. I'm unemployed but I'm sending $ 100 to Cindy.

RichM says:

"I challenge Daniel David to advance a positive argument for his disgusting party(Democrats) along the lines of (for example) Blah, Blah Blah per RichM. If he cannot make such an argument then he has nothing to say that's worth hearing."

For the information of RichM, I do not guide my comments by the definitions of RichM, and I have as much right to express civil opinions here as anyone else, including the pack of attack dogs who consider themselves "regulars." Those who don't like my posts can always skip reading mine and write better ones.

My point, for which I'm being attacked, is that Nancy Polosi is not "Public Enemy Number ONE" as was posited by the author and then ridiculously agreed by a whole bunch of keyboard reactionaries here. Without doubt, Nancy has disappointed some for not tabling everything else in the U.S. Government to commence a sure-to-fail impeachment. But some of us actually agree with her for that judgment, and knew, before the election of 2006 that there would be no impeachment. The notion, advanced by some, that we must all now work against HER instead of working against corporate domination of individuals by Republicans is ludicrous.

As for Democrats, here is a short list of reasons for electing them. The Supreme Court, Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, law enforcement, foreign relations, union rights, gender rights, racial rights, economics, tax policy, congressional committee chairs, limits (if any) on Wall Street shenanigans, the entire agenda (or not) of Congress, the power in Congress to hold hearings (or not) and the future separation of church and state. For all the fawning done here over fringe "progressives" and what they stand for, there are no "progressives" anywhere in the United States Government (except elected as Democrats) who can affect any of these things even one iota. Democrats can, and I intend to keep pointing that out as time permits, even over the objection of single-issue detractors.

Daniel David

COMarc October 17th, 2007 4:25 pm

"The day I hear the Democratic leadership telling the pro-war, pro-corporate Democrats that they have to surrender and give up what they believe in at least part of the time in order to be in a coalition with us, then maybe I'll believe in the possibility of a coalition with the Democrats. But this one-direction, we-always-get-screwed coalition is for the birds."

Exactly! Progressives who don't support the Democrats are lectured about how smart the Christian Right is to work within the Republican Party, and how dumb we are to not work within the Democratic Party. There is a crucial difference in that the Christian Right is generally rewarded for their support. The Republicans don't give them the middle finger and say "At least we're not as bad as the Democrats."

Arundhati Roy

http://www.democracynow.org/static/Arundhati_Trans.shtml

"It's not a real choice. It's an apparent choice. Like choosing a brand of detergent. Whether you buy Ivory Snow or Tide, they're both owned by Proctor & Gamble.

This doesn't mean that one takes a position that is without nuance, that the Democrats and Republicans are the same. Of course, they're not. Neither are Tide and Ivory Snow. Tide has oxy-boosting and Ivory Snow is a gentle cleanser."

For the most part Democrats are the enemy.MH
GO CINDY!