Reform The DNC!

Mark Benjamin posts some interesting observations about the protests outside today's DNC rules committee meeting at Salon's War Room. (If you haven't been paying attention, the RC is meeting to figure out what to do about Florida and Michigan.)

Apparently, contrary to what the cable news is telling us, Hillary is not what most of the protests are about.

"We are here because we want every vote counted," said Wesley Taylor, who traveled by bus from Coral Springs, Florida to air his bad feelings. Taylor, who voted for John Edwards in the primary, served 14 years in the Army, including service in Bosnia. "I didn’t fight not to have my vote counted," he said.

"It is not democracy," complained Debbie Kubiak, 52, who traveled from Buffalo, N.Y. "It is worse than what they did back in 2000."

This sad state of affairs is nothing more nor less than our beloved DLC/DNC conducting business as usual. That Hillary represents this part of the Democratic party is why I can't support her. (Which is NHNT.)

They just don't get how dysfunctional the system has become. They talk about being "reality-based" to score cheap points off the ridiculous wing of the Republican party, but have no idea how much of their own realities they're blind to. As the 12-steppers like to say, denial is a great deal more than a river in Egypt.

The American political system no longer works. That's a huge statement. With the right company and setting, I can see talking about it on the front porch into the wee hours without ever getting beyond the meaning of "works." For now, I'm stating it as a given.

Hillary has no idea. She and her DLC/DNC pals believe in the system and believe that it can be repaired with a tweak here and a tweak there. And today's protests outside the rules committee meeting is an excellent example of what their finest efforts have wrought.

If we're ever going to create a progressive government that actually reflects the values we've been taught America was founded on, we've got to reform our party to reflect those same values. Beginning with dumping all of the present party leadership who place retaining their power above solving the problems of the day.

This is one of the reasons why I love Paul Rosenberg at Open Left and OL's Bush Dog Project. If you're not familiar with the Project, here's a good place to start: Matt Stoller's "What is a Blue Dog Democrat? And if you're not familiar with Paul's writing, here's the perfect place to start: There Is No 'They' Here

Enjoy!
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David Sirota on Colbert

Our friend David Sirota was on "The Colbert Report" last night, hyping his new book, The Uprising


Way to go, David!

Rove Playbook?

Well, no. But this ~1950 educational film is eerily familiar


via Ralph Bernardo at disinformation.

The War Prayer

Mark Twain has always been my favorite philosopher, and his short story "The War Prayer", my favorite.

During the Vietnam War, I quoted it extensively and even did readings of it at anti-war gatherings. It is one of the most powerful statements against war and jingoism ever written, and it is as relevant today as it ever has been.

Now, thanks to the internet, Twain's magnificent work (relatively unknown before) is enjoying a much wider popularity than ever before, with a number of sites and pages dedicated to it. The newest of these, thewarprayer.com, put together by our friend Markos Kounalakis at the Washington Monthly is quite amazing:


(h/t Mike Finnigan at C&L)

Here's Kevin Drum's intro to the film from WM:

In 1904, disgusted by the aftermath of the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine-American War, Mark Twain wrote a short anti-war prose poem called "The War Prayer." His family begged him not to publish it, his friends advised him to bury it, and his publisher rejected it, thinking it too inflammatory for the times. Twain agreed, but instructed that it be published after his death, saying famously:

None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.

"The War Prayer" was eventually published after World War I, when its message was more in tune with the times. Washington Monthly's publisher, Markos Kounalakis, who was affected by Twain's words when he covered the war in Yugoslavia in the early 90s, made "The War Prayer" into a short video for release last Memorial Day, and today we're reprising it. It features stunning illustrations by Akis Dimitrakopoulos and is narrated by Peter Coyote, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Erik Bauersfeld.

What To Do With Your Bush Rebate Check

Mr. Bush's solution to America's economic woes is a "bonus" rebate check, which we're all supposed to spend and thus stimulate the economy, creating more jobs and more opportunities so we can all live Happily Ever After and Mr. Bush will go down in history as The Man Who Saved America. Or something like that.

Here's one person's solution of how to put that money to better use:



You can follow Kenevan's example here.

Back In The U. S. of A.

Well, there's no mistaking it. I'm back in the US, getting my anti-depressant medication adjusted, and my head back in the world.

The actual trip was a breeze, and the dog arrived in Chicago no worse for the wear. The trip down from Chicago to Champaign was a stark reminder of how incredibly flat Illinois is. No sea, either.

I've done nothing much since I got back except sleep. I got the things I absolutely had to do taken care of while I was still buzzing from the energy of the trip (I had made the mistake of not completely finishing my packing before I enjoyed a couple of "good-bye" get-togethers with friends.), and then I collapsed and have pretty much stayed that way.

If you've never enjoyed the experience of full-blown clinical depression, I hope you never do. I see the shrink on Thursday, and with a little luck will begin feeling better again not too long thereafter.

Besides the flatness, another thing that has blown me away is that nobody seems to realize the Democratic primary's been over since last month. As far as my Spanish friends know, it was over a long time before that. But not many of them are paying much attention. The general attitude is that Bush has really screwed up America, and that he's out of there come next January when Mr. Obama will begin the long, hard job of trying to put things back together again. It is unimaginable to them that anything else could happen. They see little difference between Bush and McCain. They think Hillary would be an improvement, but they see her as being too enmeshed with the system and the ways of thinking that got us into the mess we're in.

I think they're pretty astute in appraising the candidates, but I'm afraid they don't realize how little a role this kind of logic plays in American elections. We'll see.