Time to Pull the Plug

Devilstower, in his excellent front-page item at Daily Kos today, expressed clearly what situation we are in this weekend: a fundamental threat to our democracy. An un-accountable executive is called a "dictatorship." If congress will not hold them accountable, the we the people need to hold the executive and the legislative branches accountable to us.

Devilstower finished by saying:

In a high school history book, the fall of the Roman Republic is usually dated to the point were Julius Caesar, in defiance of Senate "micromanagement," ordered his legions across the Rubicon to end effective representative oversight. However, at the time, the Romans didn't see it that way. They continued to call themselves a republic for years. Decades. Long after Caesar, they kept up the hollow pretense of a senate, marching in each day to pass laws that the executive of their day did not follow, and direct armies that moved only at the emperor's command.

The Bush administration is, as Devilstower said, waist deep in the Rubicon. The only question now is whether we the citizens will drive them back to the bank, or else decide by our inaction that we are only play-acting at democracy, the the great American Experiment in self-government is a failure and a lie.

The administration is "crossing the Rubicon." We need to be on the other side of the river, calling out in a firm, united voiice, "Yeah. Go ahead - cross this river and see what happens." And by "we," I mean We the People. It really is up to us. Do we want to live in a nominal democracy, or a real one? The next election is in two years. We don't have anywhere near that long. We have mere days, or weeks at the very least, to make them stop this.

I've written a few meta-type diaries, and a few more personal ones. This is my first action diary, and I'm jumping in with both feet.

The American people, united in purpose, have more power than any of the three branches of Government. I've heard a lot of noise in the Administration about how various people "serve at the pleasure of the President." Well, guess what, talking-point-spewing proto-fascists? The president and congress serve at My and My Fellow Citizens' pleasure. All of you folks are accountable to US.

What I propose is this: begin emergancy planning for implementing the following two national actions by April 10th at the latest:

1. A General Strike (work stoppage). A rent strike. A mortgage-payment strike. No buying anything beyond what is absolutely necessary to survive. No sending children to school, and no teachers teaching them. No university student attending classes, and no professors or TAs teaching them. This will require an absolutely massive coordination effort, and I think websites like this can play a critical role.

The main effort must be on a more "personal contact" level, however. Each of us must take responsibility for our citizenship by talking to our co-workers, friends, small-business owners, members of our congregations in our churches, synagogues and mosques, classmates in our college classrooms, fellow union members in our local, PTA members - any place where we gather and talk to fellow citizens. Our democracy is in critical danger. We must defend it.

2. The largest mass-demonstrations in history. We citizens must gather in Washington, and other major cities, and demonstrate in truly massive numbers. Anyone whose freedom is in danger (all citizens) should go to Washington to say, "No." Congress needs to be unequivocal that they damn well DO have the power to hold the Executive accountable, any son of a bitch in the administration or anywhere else that expresses ambivalence on the point needs to be out on his ass right now. Not "after consultation" with his boss, but right. freaking. NOW. And we, the citizens, need to insist in an undeniable way that congress do just that - with the understanding that if they don't, we will peacefully and non-violently deprive both branches of their legitimacy and then do it ourselves.

This Is That Serious.

Running count of the State of the Senate

Hurricanes in Southern California?

The temperature of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California is ominously warm - San Clemente pier had an ocean temperature of 79 degrees yesterday - and this may make possible an unprecedented event: a full-strength hurricane strike on southern California in the next two months.

To review the science: hurricanes require a warm ocean surface (about 82 degrees Fahrenheit or above) in order to grow and maintain themselves. Colder water will quickly kill a hurricane, which is why California has never had a hurricane. There are ominous signs that this is changing.


Note: there is a usful article that discusses the subject of the diary at http://www.thinkandask.com/...
Compared to a similar latitude on the east coast of the united States, California's coastal water temperatures are usually about 20 degrees cooler during summer, due to phenomenon called "coastal upwelling". Winds in summer come out of the northwest, which moves water down the coast. The Coriolis effect, due to the Earth's rotation, then makes this south-moving current curve out to sea, and cold, deep water wells up to the surface to replace it. Hence, the water temperature around California is often in the upper forties to low fifties, and usually no higher than an occasional spurt to the upper sixties - far too cold to feed a hurricane.
This whole system has collapsed this summer, and we have extremely warm (for California) waters at the coast. Southern California is experiencing conditions characteristic of Hawaii or South Carolina - humid, warm nights (due to the proximity of a bathwater-warm ocean), and thunderstorms during the afternoons and evenings.

If the coastal water temperature rises another 3-6 degrees, there would be very little to keep an east pacific hurricane from maintaining its strength and plowing into southern California late this summer or fall. The only controlling factor would be the steering winds, which tend to push Pacific hurricanes out to sea, rather than up the coast - but there have been near-misses (most recently in 1997) where the only thing that saved California was the now-vanished cold water at the coast.

My Feelings as a Catholic about the Wars

I often read the blog of a young Catholic priest named Jim Tucker. He posted a link today to a lament for what America has become in the world and at home. Read it.

http://hallowedground.blog-city.com/my_countrys_wars.htm

Thomas Frank [repost]

(Reposted due to spam in comments when posted previously)...

...Is the author of "What's the Matter with Kansas", and also a hero of mine.

He eviscerates Joe Klein's latest screed about how the Democrats are losing because they are not "centrist" enough...

"Joe Klein is not the only one to moan about the polarized age in which we are supposedly living these days, with all the power having gravitated to “the extremes of both left and right,” to use the standard deploring formula. Everyone in pundit-land moans this way, and they can be fairly confident that their buddy the CNN host won’t contradict them when they so moan. But someone needs to rub their faces in the fact that, compared to today’s “polarized” Democratic Party, their lovable old Harry Truman sounds like a fire-breathing anarchist, defending positions so far to the left that we have forgotten that one of the two major parties ever held them. Maybe what ails us isn’t a deficit of authenticity or the pull of the poles; maybe it’s something Truman would have grasped in a Kansas City minute: the power of money, the push of the right. Maybe squishy centrism is the problem, not the solution. And maybe we could use a little more polarization of the Turnip Day variety."

Come back, Woody Guthrie, Come back to us now...

I found an interesting article that criticizes the Democrats' turning away, about the time of the McGovern presidential run, of a key constituency of their 30-year winning formula: working class Catholics.
This is something that I've mentioned here before -- we need to get the working class back into our fold. This must be our base, from which we expand the coalition to intellectuals and others. Red States should be the focus of lots and lots of attention, and I'm not talking about candidates taking pictures in front of tractors and hayfields every 2 or 4 years.

I'm talking about making a big deal of touring red states for months, begging their forgiveness for abandoning them, for allowing their debasement at the hands of right-wing snake-oil salesmen and religious extremists. LISTEN to them, with an attitude of humble contrition. Listen. LISTEN.

When we listen, we will hear stories that will break our hearts of incredible economic loss, cultural marginalization, and suffocating, ever-present worry that two guys in dress blues are going to stop at their house this time and delivery the awful news that fuels their nightmares - "The secretary of the Army has asked me to express his deep regret that your son, John, was killed in action..."

Dammit, Democrats, remember

I am SICK of losing elections in which, given the playing field, we should be absolutely CRUSHING the Republicans.

Remember the 2000 presidential election result? Was Florida "stolen"? I don't friggin care. Gore was riding the crest of the longest economic expansion in American history. The Federal Budget was not just balanced, but running such surpluses that Alan Greenspan was cautioning against paying off the entire national debt too soon. The world was, relatively at least, at peace. Competence reigned supreme at the highest levels of government. Given all that, Gore - hell, ANY Democratic nominee - should have absolutely crushed whoever the Republicans found to run against them. Florida, and the rest of the country for that matter, shouldn't have even been close - Florida should have been 200,000 votes in our favor, along with 40 to 45 other states.

How do we win the Congress and the White House?

Hit the Republicans hard, all the time, everywhere.

"Hey folks, remember the last time the economy was really good for you - not in some abstract, esoteric-indicators way, but the last period of time when you were getting regular raises in your hourly wage? Yeah? Who was running the country then? Do you remember?"

"Tired of the leadership in Congress being covered in rich peoples' pocket lint? Wanna vote some people in who will fight for you, and not to keep their rich friends farting through silk?"

["B-b-but that's class warfare!" you stammer? The response is "Good call! Yes, it is." Period.]

The agenda must be to fight for the bottom 70% of the income scale. Whatever is most important to them, well, that's what we stand for.

This is not about "framing". If your agenda doesn't match their needs, no amount of "getting them to think about it in your terms" is going to get their votes. You ARE them. You must decide to stand with them, and then explain over and over and over again in what specific, concrete ways you are, in fact, standing with them.

I found a winning strategy for the Democrats

There was a time when the Republican base was our base. Working Class meant "votes Democratic" - every single election. And make no mistake: you win the working class, you win national elections

While I know that the Republicans are using immigrants, abortion, school prayer etc. as political wedges, and that that is despicable, have you ever wondered why that works? It's because the agenda, the issues, of the Democratic Party neglect the priorities of the working class. The Republicans are the only party that seems to be - in fact, in a cynical way is - listening to the working class.

Ok, here's an agenda that I believe the Democrats should be standing for, that I believe will win them elections, reliably.
mftalbot's diary :: ::
1. We stand with workers against bosses. That means we support unions, all the time and loudly. Not just existing unions, but we push, loudly, constantly and publically, for more and more unionization in every sector of the economy - not just manufacturing, but services. Not just auto and steel workers, but call-center employees, bank tellers, EVERYONE who is non-management. The perfect villain: Walmart.
2. We stand with 40 million Americans to get them Publically-financed health care. Every single citizen should be guaranteed health care. Not "tax incentives" to help people buy insurance, or any other scheme the effect of which is to enrich insurance companies and HMOs. Nope. Publically financed health care. This is truly a winning issue, if "liberals" pull their heads out of their asses and get behind it.
3. We stand for a truly progressive income and other tax structures. The tax rate on incomes over $200,000 should be 90 percent (during the Eisenhower administration, it was not considered especially remarkable that the tax rate for equivalent incomes was 95 percent!), and deductions should thin out at that stratospheric income level.
4. We stand with our chronically-poor citizens in calling for a MASSIVE, sustained, and comprehensive jobs training program, so that any resident of these communities will be aptitude-tested, and then trained for, matched with, and placed with companies that need their skills.
5. We stand with every American who is starting out in the job market in calling for a raise, and a big one at that, in the minimum wage. 8 dollars an hour seems about right - and this should be indexed for inflation every sigle fucking year, and also adjusted for the cost of living in more-expensive coastal areas.
6. We stand with our brothers and sisters to the south, in beginning a massive and sustained effort to help Mexico raise its citizens' standard of living to a point that Mexicans emmigrate to the US at the same rate that Americans emigrate to Canada (expain it in exactly those terms, and a lot of people will get on board).
7. We stand with our brothers and sisters in South Central, The South Side of Chicago, East Oakland, etc., in saying that, as a companion program to "4." above, we vow to end the 40-year murder spree terrorizing these places, and we will use the entire resources of our nation to meet this commitment, if necessary. If we have to hire enough cops to post one on on every fucking corner in every ghetto in the country 24 hours a day 7 days a week, then that's what we'll do. "Poor" must never mean "unsafe" again.

Do this, advocate this agenda, and the Repulicans (and quite a few affluent "liberals") will scream bloody murder, call you socialist, make up all kinds of lies, spin the crap out of your positions, etc. This is how we'll know we're winning - they'll be arguing on our terms. And notice, this is NOT "framing" in the Lakoff sense, at least not yet - sure, sales skills are there somewhere in the mix - but selling a wheelbarrow full of entrails as "anatomy lessons for your children" will only take you so far. Selling a valuable product at a reasonable price takes a whole lot less framing to begin with.

When Repulicans start screaming and spinning, you loudly and constantly call them the rich people's party, the advocates for the affluent, that they are. We answer their lies and fearmongering with the truth, and with a chuckle: "It's no wonder Senator Blowhard hates this: his rich friends are screaming bloody murder! Well, a reckoning is coming - they've been ruining this coutry with their greed and selfishness long enough. America is a better coutry than they can possibly imagine, and with your help in November, we're going to start to show them just how much better."

One final thought - a commenter with the handle "Biminicat" over at Daily Kos brought up an interesting, and in my view legitimate, point to me, in response to my suggestion to appeal to the working class and make them our base:
"[in the elections of] 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, 1948, 1960, 1964 half the dem party was racist.
we don't have that option now, nor should we consider that option. Poor people certainly like it when you stand up for their own interests.
sometimes they like it more when you represent their petty prejudices. (see: repug party since civil rights)."
While I agree that the Republicans get mileage out of appealing to prejudices (really, fears) of the (white) working class, it is worth remembering a couple things:
1. The country has changed a lot in 40 years. There is still racism out there, plenty of it in fact, but civil rights, at least in the sense the term was used in the '50s and '60s, is no longer a motivating issue for southern working-class voters like it was then. I think you would find very, very few southern voters of any class who would advocate a return to segregated schools, no voting rights for blacks, separate dining and restroom facilities, etc. There may be some quiet sentiments in that vein, but are they going to vote to restore those things? To put it mildly, I doubt it.
2. More to the point, a party that advocates for the bottom 70% of the income scale recognizes that the bottom 70% includes a (too) large proportion of black voters, latinos, etc. You answer the fear-mongering with, again, the truth: "They are trying to play you [white working class voters] - they want you to believe that we'll be helping blacks and latinos and not you. They are just trying the old southern rich peoples' trick of trying to divide you from your brothers of color, so that neither one of you gets help. I believe in you. I believe in this country. I know that you will reject that cynical ploy, and will work with us so that everyone gets help."

Remember, Democrats, dammit, REMEMBER.

Josh Marshall on the task before the Dems

Bad politics usually stems from people not having a clear idea of what they're trying to achieve, where they're trying to go. Once you know where you're trying to lead the country, strategy and tactics and optics and gutting the other side all tend to fall into place. If not perfectly, then a whole lot easier. Where do we want to take the country? Forget the rest and think about that. That's the guiding star."

This is the key.

I found an interesting article that criticizes the Democrats' turning away, about the time of the McGovern presidential run, of a key constituency of their 30-year winning formula: working class Catholics.
This is something that I've mentioned here before -- we need to get the working class back into our fold. This must be our base, from which we expand the coalition to intellectuals and others. Red States should be the focus of lots and lots of attention, and I'm not talking about candidates taking pictures in front of tractors and hayfields every 2 or 4 years.
I'm talking about touring red states for months, begging their forgiveness for abandoning them, for allowing their debasement at the hands of right-wing snake-oil salesmen and religious extremists. LISTEN to them, with an attitude of humble contrition. Listen. LISTEN.
When we listen, we will hear stories that will break our hearts of incredible economic loss, cultural marginalization, and suffocating, ever-present worry that two guys in dress blues are going to stop at their house this time and delivery the awful news that fuels their nightmares - "The secretary of the Army has asked me to express his deep regret that your son, John, was killed in action..."

Jim Kunstler's latest lecture: like dad in the den

Jim Kunstler is the author of a couple books ("the Geography of Nowhere" and
"Home From Nowhere") that have given me, and lots of folks, a vocabulary to
describe what has always bothered me about the setting of lots of American
life:
namely, the suburbs. He has a "blog" of sorts (updated about once per week) in which he rails
against the stupidity of the "modern" way of doing things. Worth a
read.

While I doubt that the President and his posse are too dim to comprehend
the
energy trap we're in, there certainly is plenty of plain stupidity in the
rest of our elected leadership, of which Senator Grassley's remarks are
Exhibit
A. To be more precise, actually, Grassley's statement displays
something closer
to childishness than sheer stupidity. It comprises a set of
beliefs or
expectations that are unfortunately widespread in our culture,
namely, that we
should demand a particular outcome because we want it to be
so. This is exactly
how children below the age of reason think, in their
wild egocentricity, and it
is the hallmark of mental development to grow
beyond that kind of thinking. But
the force of advertising and other
inducements to fantasy are so overwhelming in
everyday American life that
they may be obstructing the development of a huge
chunk of the population,
something that becomes worse each year, as
proportionately more adults fail
to grow up mentally. This state-of-mind is made
visible in Las Vegas, our
national monument to the creed that people should get
whatever they want.
What I wonder is: when will my fellow citizens discover
that their
thinking and their behavior are unworthy of their history? That we
are
entering a time when these things simply aren't good enough, aren't enough
to meet the challenges that reality now presents. Or are we too far gone?
It's
possible that we are. After all, life is tragic, meaning that happy
outcomes are
not guaranteed and that people who forget that usually come to
grief.

Chris Hedges on the Antidote to the poison of war

"To survive as a human being is possible only through love. And when Thanatos [the death impulse] is ascendent, the instinct must be to reach out to those we love, to see in them all the divinity, pity and pathos of the human. And to recognize love in the lives of others -- even those with whom we are in conflict -- love that is like our own. It does not mean we will avoid war or death. It does not mean that we as distinct individuals will survive. But love, in its mystery, has its own power. It alone gives us meaning that endures. It alone allows us to embrace and cherish life. Love has the power both to resist in our nature what we know we must resist, and to affirm what we know we must affirm. And love, as the poets remind us, is eternal."