Over the past two months of repeated Congressional votes to fund the occupation of Iraq, culminating in President Bush's signing the bill on Friday, what – if anything – have we learned?  Have we learned anything about individuals or political parties or activist organizations to trust or despise, or have we learned better what to demand of them regardless of such emotions?  Have we learned anything about policies to support, battles to lose, pyrrhic victories, or how to talk about ending the occupation?

A clear and growing majority of Americans wants to end the occupation.  Yet many people are opposed to defunding it.  So, not enough of us have learned that you cannot end this occupation without defunding it.  And far too few of us fully understand that ultimately we'll need impeachment before the occupation actually ends. 

The Bush Sycophants brought down a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, whose only mistake was to lie about wetting his whistle while married.

            Yet, the Dithering Democrats can't derail a lowly attorney general. A no-confidence vote? Why don't Democrats just offer Alberto Gonzales a buyout?

            The Double Ds have Jimmy Carter so flustered that he's shrieking like a parrot trying to tell his owner that the house is on fire. Give 'em hell, Jimmy!

            Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein were dressed for a funeral when they announced we'd have to wait until June to give Gonzo his sense of the Senate slap. It's mourning in America.

            Gonzo disrespects the laws he swore to uphold. He agreed to go around the FISA court to unlawfully spy on citizens. He saw nothing wrong with outsourcing torture or violating the Geneva Conventions.

The FCC recently launched an official inquiry into Net Neutrality. They're already hearing plenty from AT&T, Verizon and Comcast - who want to be the gatekeepers deciding what you can do online. Now they need to hear from you.

This may be the best chance we have this year to demonstrate to Washington that protecting Internet freedom is an issue that matters millions of Americans. Please Tell your story to the FCC: Save the Internet

I remember when Memorial Day meant that we had learned that war was not the solution to any conflict, and vowed never again.

I remember when mothers who held their children close to their breast were not the same mothers who supported the killing of other people’s children.

I remember when ‘Support the Troops’ meant giving them adequate protection in combat, and bringing them home alive, but did not mean supporting their mission of the murder of other human beings.

I remember when sons taught their fathers about peace by being conscientious objectors to another war that was supposed to be ‘the war to end all wars.’

I remember when fathers learned from their sons.

I remember when supporting our veterans meant that though we may not have agreed with the reasons they went to war or the irreparable violence and destruction they inflicted upon others, we had the decency and respect for the time and lives they gave to their country, (time forever gone,) to not cut their health benefits, and steal their personal information.

The cave-in on Capitol Hill -- supplying a huge new jolt of funds for the horrific war effort in Iraq -- is surprising only to those who haven’t grasped our current circumstances.

Public opinion polls aren’t the same as political leverage. The Vietnam War went on for years after polling showed that most Americans opposed the war and even saw it as immoral.

Slick phrases about the need to bring our troops home can easily become little more than platitudes on wallpaper in media echo chambers.

No matter how many Democrats are in Congress, they won’t end this war unless an antiwar movement develops enough grassroots strength to compel them to do so.

Unfortunately -- and unnecessarily -- for years now the Internet powerhouse MoveOn.org has often functioned as a virtual appendage of the national Democratic Party. That close relationship has largely squandered MoveOn’s opportunities to help build strong deep independent activism for the long haul. And, on crucial issues of the Iraq war, MoveOn has failed to back the positions of such gutsy progressive visionaries as Reps. Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey and Maxine Waters.