Take heart, progressives!

Matt Stoller has words of comfort for us:

Political progress is slow, until it's not. The organizing work of the 1930s-1950s led to the Civil Rights movement of the next decade; the same can be said about the New Deal, which was based on 40 years of populist and progressive organizing. Political change looks rapid, because opportunities open up quickly, but the actual work to make that rapid change happen is slow and filled with losses, self-doubt, and heartache. Every successful movement has been tagged as a group of losers who are childish and angry. Every successful movement has lost political battles; a lot of them in fact. And every successful movement has persevered through those times, learned from them, and ultimately validated itself.

9/11 and the few years after that was a dark time. Fake heroes like Giuliani and his minions, Bush and his minions, and Fox News and its stable of entertainers ruled discourse. Clinton's impeachment had laid the Democrats low. Iraq happened with no public debate, right-wing extremists took Congress in 2002 and strengthened their grip in 2004, and progressive politics were bereft of leadership, resources, and ideas. Or so it seemed.

Below the surface, progressive energy was simmering, and we're only starting to see a boil-over. At the same time, the right-wing movement, which looks so healthy as it governs the country and controls the levers of power in corporate board rooms, is dying. These two trend lines are crossing with increasing frequency; the people are on our side and not theirs anymore....

I confess to creeping optimism myself of late.

Q: What is George W. Bush (illustrated edition)

A. An asshole, of course.

Bonus behind-the-scene memo: "It'll be more guys with guns and badges," said a proponent of the plan. "Think of the visuals. The President can go down and meet with the new recruits. He can go down to the border and meet with a bunch of guys and go ride around on an ATV."

Bonus on-the scene dialog: "Were you able to see me riding in the dune buggy?" Bush asked an official, who told the president, "It looked like you were having a good time down there."

Q: What is George W. Bush?

A: An asshole, of course.

The amazing shrinking GOP

Look at this pretty map that Chris Bowers made!

This is not your father's angry left

Glenn Greenwald points out that it's not 1972 anymore and Democrats can quit worrying about being perceived as deranged freaks. "Civility 'n Restraint Forever" is the wrong lesson to take from McGovern's defeat. Constructive anger can be a great motivator in politics. At times it is essential. Sometimes it can even be noble.

Oh, and the corollary?

[T]hose who are entirely devoid of anger are often lifeless, limp, uninspiring figures who seem to be drained of soul and purpose. An anger-less political movement is embodied by a plodding, bespecled, muttering Jay Rockefeller. Or John Kerry's non-response to the Swift Boat attacks. Or the Democrats' often ponderous, half-hearted, overly-rational mutterings on all too many issues or in response to all too many corruption and lawbreaking scandals. Or craven, eager-to-please "liberals" who are more interested in convincing Fox News and other Bush followers how balanced and reasonable they are than they are than in fighting for any actual political ideals -- like Joe Klein, or Richard Cohen, for example.

Democrats need to get away -- as far away and as quickly as possible -- from that bland, mushy, sonorous, overly calculating and painfully restrained, passion-free dead zone. And in that regard, a much bigger problem for Democrats has been a lack of anger -- and most other human passions -- not an excess of it.

Amen! Amen! Amen! (What's that you say? Hillary Clinton is clearing her throat for a cautious rejoinder?)

P.S. William Rivers Pitt nails Cohen on the same topic.

Strange bedfellows in Boston

Holy smokes - a John Birch rightwing radio host says Air America and MoveOn are doing righteous work, calls for a rebel left-right alliance to isolate the DC powerbrokers and save the Constitution.

I say you bet (and what took you so long?).

Wherein we feel the Republicans' pain and help out a little

The Republicans are facing a tough battle in the midterms, what with Mr. 31% and all. So Kos invited compassionate progressives to help them out by thinking up campaign slogans. It's a creative bunch and there's a large amount of leeway given that we're talking SUV- and Hummer-sized bumper stickers, so we got some interesting results. Like this one:

Gay illegal aliens are coming here to burn the American Flag and wave the Mexican flag while they sing the National Anthem in Spanish and try to get married to one another--while never paying taxes!

There were also some pithy short ones:

If you don't vote for us, lesbians will take your guns.

If you don't feel like wading through 500+ comments, here's my selection of favorites.

GOP 2006: Blowjobs are out, snowjobs are in.

GOP 2006: No sin we can’t spin.

Wrong, corrupt, inept – what’s not to like?

Because we haven’t stolen all your money yet.

Vote for us, or Diebold will do it for you.

Vote for us because if you don't, Hollywood liberals will force your children to marry other children of the same sex, and then will brand the numbers 666 on their heads.

It’s still Bill Clinton’s fault.

9/11! Iran! 9/11! Iran! 9/11! Iran! 9/11! Iran!

Vote for [Candidate X] – He’s still not indicted!

Destroying America before the terrorists can.

You say fascism like it’s a bad thing.

Return us to power; resistance is futile.

No-bid contracts are yummy like butter!

Why change now, when things are going so well?

Because the Constitution really is just a piece of paper.

Killing brown people on five continents.

Stamping out poverty one poor person at a time.

The new GOP: now with SEX!

We had to destroy the Bill of Rights in order to save it.

Batshit crazy since 2000!

Vote for us or God will kill you.

Conservatism = Kleptocracy + Sops to Base

What Hunter said.

Mr. Popularity

Okay, this is pretty interesting, courtesy of Andrew Sullivan. What to make of these data?

Second terms are supposed to be tough - but George H.W. Bush, Reagan, and Clinton all rose in popularity over time. And Clinton did it in the midst of scandal and impeachment.

Carter gets a bad rap but he still hovered near 50%. The despised Johnson was around 44% in 1966. And I didn't realize how much people hated Truman.

But Chimpy McFlightsuit stands in a class by himself.

Media blackout on Colbert

Elisabeth "I want to bear George W. Bush's love-child" Bumiller pens a NYT story on the correspondents' dinner without mentioning Stephen Colbert, the featured performer whose astounding takedown of Bush is winging around the internets as we speak.

I write a letter.

Dear Ms. Bumiller:

Stephen Colbert explains how the White House press corps functions:

Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the Decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home.

Elisabeth Bumiller reports on the White House Correspondents Dinner:

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tappity. Tap.
Ding!
File.

Nice typing, Ms. Bumiller. By the way, you could save your employer some bucks next year and just skip the dinner. File that White House press release right from your office.

Sincerely,
Alna Dem

P.S. You can thank Mr. Colbert personally here. The press certainly isn't going to do it.

UPDATE: Thank you #10,134 is a good one:

Far too many people are easily impressed by power and forget the fact that since we are the very ones who give it, we must also question it.

Thank you for being a shining example of that fact, and for using your sharp mind and wit for the greater good of all. The fact that Bush and most of the audience was quiet at your during your audacious presentation shows how accurate and effective your message was. Thank you for saying what all of us would like to say.

Why is today different from all other days?

It's Happy Codpiece Day, also known as "Mission Accomplished" Day.

UPDATE: Think Progress has the numbers.

What patriots do

Glenn Greenwald's new book is #1 at Amazon - after one day, with no marketing or PR blitz, for a book that hasn't even been released yet. If nothing else, here is powerful evidence that the blogosphere is a force to be reckoned with. New voices are forcing their way into what used to be a closed media system and changing the terms of political debate. New arguments get a hearing outside of DC's airless pundit pool and come back sharper than they went out. Online citizens - as a group wealthy, well-educated, mature, and voraciously well-informed - are furious at the state of their government and appalled at the lapses of the fourth estate. And now they can do something about it.

But Greenwald, thrilled and grateful at the response, hopes for even bigger impact. He wants his book to start at long last (and have you no decency, sirs, at long last?) a nationwide debate on this administration's radical theories of executive power, theories that are well on their way to changing our nation forever. Whatever you think of this president and his policies, change of this scope deserves full, measured hearing and debate. Which we're not getting.

Says Greenwald:

Americans are instilled from an early age with a commitment to our political values and liberties, even if it buried by other distractions and life concerns, but that deeply felt commitment has been triggered and galvanized to great effect many times before in our history, and can be again. If the media fails to perform its central function to serve as a watchdog over the government and to ensure that citizens are informed about what the government is really doing -- and it has been failing in that function, dreadfully -- citizens who are committed to defending the principles of our country will find other ways -- will create other ways -- for that to happen.

(Emphasis mine.) So read Digby's powerful endorsement and if you can spare $12, pre-order a copy of this book. Share it with politicians and other activists. Be ready to defend our constitution and American values. It's what patriots do.

P.S. Bloggers, we need to thank Tom Allen for doing the right thing on today's internet vote.

web email
(207) 774-5019 (phone)
(207) 871-0720 (fax)

Chicken-stealing dogs

Illinois and California legislatures are calling for impeachment, using an obscure Jeffersonian rule that empowers state legislatures to initiate proceedings by joint resolution. If either succeeds, the measure will arrive at the House as a "highly privileged motion" on which they are obligated to act.

We're talking four high crimes & misdeanors and one felony:

WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without warrant; and

WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war without charge or trial; and

WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and

WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to investigate the matter....

Whereupon the House will take it up, refer it to the Judiciary Committee, and vote no along party lines, right?

Whereupon we will have forced them to defend the indefensible, kept the scandals alive throughout the campaign season, highlighted the venality of the Republican rubberstamp Congress, and nationalized the midterm elections.

It's called tying a dead chicken around the neck of a chicken-stealing dog. Let Senator Snowe and her compliant fellow Republicans wear the stench of this administration with them wherever they go. May they have trouble sleeping. May they sicken themselves and quit.

It's hard to be gay in Lodgepole, Nebraska

Completely fascinating set of maps on America's religious distribution, with links, over at Kos. Author Devilstower sums it up: "One thing's for sure, if a religious shooting war ever starts in this country, I'm staying the heck out of Nebraska."

Interesting that so much of the country, Maine included, is "default Catholic" blue. My own denomination, Protestant Episcopal, is too small at 2 million to show up on the big map. (There are more Muslims in the U.S. than Episcopalians.) But if you want to live in an enclave where they dominate, you can choose from several counties in - I find this astounding - South Dakota or Alaska!

I think Devilstower has offered us sound advice on Nebraska. We had family members - nondenominational variety - take up residence there for job reasons and they didn't last a year. Aside from the freight trains running through town every 3 minutes and the astonishing flatness and the Christ-and-football culture, they couldn't hack being asked "What church do you belong to?" by every passerby.

Note: The title of this post is from the song "Cornhusker Refugee" by the Austin Lounge Lizards. They're the same group who brought us "Jesus Loves Me But He Can't Stand You."

Why are gas prices higher? Let us count the reasons.

1. Because we haven't invaded Iran yet.
2. Because people are complaining about Donald Rumsfeld.
3. We dunno, we never said anything about oil prices.