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It really is a Democratic Congress

Should it go without saying that the current Congress is Democratic?  The Democrats have the majority, control the agenda, and chair and hold a majority on every committee.  But does that make the Congress Democratic?

Liberal commentators averse to criticizing Speaker Nancy Pelosi have begun flailing around for a reasonable explanation for the behavior of her Congress.  Matt Stoller has latched onto the idea that, even though there are more Democrats in the House than Republicans, the Republicans secretly have a majority.  This is an appealing proposition, since all of us on the left view the Republicans as worse than the Democrats.  We'd like to be able to blame them for everything, not just most things.  And, as an added bonus, this theory transports us into the enjoyable realm so often inhabited by those on the right, the realm of thoughtless belief in utter nonsense.

Stoller's argument is basically that the conservative, or "blue dog" Democrats insist on voting with the Republicans.  True enough.  But that's not the whole story.  Stoller also acknowledges in passing a couple of other problems:

GENERAL STRIKE IN USA on Sept. 11, 2007 – 9/11 “No School * No Work * No Shopping. Hit the Streets”

This is our country. And our world. We just have to stand up. A general strike is proposed for the United States on September 11, 2007, the sixth anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks on New York City and Arlington, Virginia. The general strike movement has no clearly named leadership. It’s described as an Internet viral effort. Wikipedia defines viral efforts on the Internet as:
An object (or an idea) is viral when it has the ability to spread copies of itself or change other similar objects to become more like (it) when those objects are simply exposed to the viral object. General strikes, more common in Europe, are events that shut down the normal operations of a city, state, or nation for a period of time. These strikes aim to force awareness and action on a single issue or broader set of concerns. The 9/11/07 General Strike has a central location - Strike 911 - on the Internet, which is linked to and reproduced on a variety of other internet sites. The site states the rationale for the effort:

Bush's Library/Legacy

When W builds his library,
I have a plan,
an old-fashioned 3-holer,
an outhouse set in quicksand.
A throne for Bush,one for Cheney,
one hole left for friend or dignitary.
Could be Powell,Bolton or Scooter,
letting Rice sit in would be a hooter.
Ashcroft,Rumsfeld,Brown and Blair,
all could visit,leave input there.

Wolfowitz,Perle,Kristol,Neocons
of "Progress For a New American
Century",
could send their bloodsoaked
regards from Hell or world
penitentiary.
Perle introduced Bush to Chalabi,
felon and presidential wannabe.
They planned a "new world order",
plagiarized from works by Hitler,
which destroyed America's image,
made us all look littler.
Guantanamo could send barbed wire.
Guards are from Abu Graub's lasting fire.

Matalin,Hughes,Gonzales,DeLay
remember Enron and "Kenny Boy" Lay.
Karl Rove,Scalia,and James Baker
share the hole as the royal king maker.
Big oil dug it deep.
Haliburton spread it wide.
Bush built his legacy
cronies and criminals by his side.

Big love's big problem

Big Love can't have it both ways.

            Mitt Romney can't claim to be the new darling of the Religious Right while claiming it's wrong to bring up religion in discussions about his presidential aspirations. Of course religion matters.

            Even though the Founding Fathers intended for there to be a separation of church and state -- and I agree -- there is no separating religion from a presidential candidate's background. It is part of who he or she is. Mitt Romney isn't just a casual practitioner of his faith; he has held church positions. I know good Catholics who never were part of their parish councils. I know Baptists who never taught Sunday school. When you take the step to ascend your church's hierarchy, it does suggest some passion, to say nothing about ambition.

Tell Congress: End Aerial Gunning of Wolves

Aerial gunners have killed over 600 wolves in Alaska since 2003, and now Governor Sarah Palin wants to offer $150 bounties to encourage hunters to kill more wolves. Even worse, Idaho and Wyoming have proposed aerial gunning programs of their own, meaning that soon the wolves of Yellowstone could be gunned down from airplanes if they leave the safety of the park. Congress needs to act - urge your representative to co-sponsor new legislation to end aerial gunning now!

Under Alaska's cruel aerial gunning policy, marksmen can shoot wolves from the air or use airplanes to chase them in deep snow to the point of exhaustion then land and execute them at point blank range. It's time to end this brutal practice. Representative George Miller (D-CA) will be introducing legislation in September to do just that - his bill would close a loophole in the Federal Airborne Hunting Act to prohibit aerial gunning. Click here to send a message to your representative and ask them to co-sponsor Rep. Miller's bill to end aerial gunning

Resistance of one

There is something else we can try.  If you've given up on staging marches and rallies, or if – like me – you haven't but you want to try something else as well, and if you've given up on lobbying Congress as pointless, or if – like me – you haven't but you want to try something else as well, and if educating your fellow citizens as to exactly how completely corrupt the whole system is seems like an incomplete answer, and if staging a general strike or taking over the capital only seems like a good idea if you can get millions of others to join you, there is another approach that can be taken right away by a single person, a small group, or a crowd.

Commenting on the black commentator

I've been a reader and contributor to the Black Commentator since it began, as well as to the Black Agenda Report, which split off from it.  The July 23rd sit-in in Congressman John Conyers' office, in which I took part, has led to quite a brouhaha in both publications.  Last week the Black Agenda Report printed a column I wrote about that action, and the Black Commentator published a column by Rev. Lennox Yearwood who also took part, as well as a response from Larry Pinkney criticizing our efforts and specifically denouncing me as racist and arrogant.  This morning the Black Commentator published various readers' responses, more opinion from Pinkney, and an article of mine about impeachment (despite my arrogant racism, I guess).  Also last week, Rev. Yearwood and I discussed this topic on the Pacifica Radio show "Voices of Vision," and this morning Pinkney and I are scheduled to discuss it again on the same program.

Look at who runs our boards of elections

At 10:03 A.M. on August 7, 2006, one month before Judge Algenon Marbley ordered all 88 Ohio Boards of Elections to continue to preserve the ballots from the 2004 presidential election, Jacqueline J. Neuhart, Director of the Guernsey County Board of Elections, sent an e-mail to "All Counties" asking if they were aware of a website called savetheballots.org. Her exact wording was: "Good morning, everyone. Has anyone else heard about this? I wonder how far it will go."

Pursuant to a public records request, Matthew Damschroder, Director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, graciously provided us with responses to said e-mail. Here they are:

Monday, August 7, 2006, 10:30 A.M. From Lorain County Board of Elections
"Someone should tell them to give it up. The election is over. They lost."

Monday, August 7, 2006, 10:32 A.M. From Brown County Board of Elections
"YES BROWN COUNTY HAS HEARD ABOUT IT"

Monday, August 7, 2006, 10:32 A.M. From Allen County Board of Elections

The dog ate my homework continues: inter-office Ohio Board of Elections email prompted by SAVE THE BALLOTS website gives a glimpse into the attitudes of Ohio election officials

A record request of August 6, 2007 made to the Director of Franklin County’s Board of Elections, Matt Damschroder, has turned up some very interesting records.

Additional proof that all of Ohio’s Boards of Elections knew that they should retain the 2004 election records. Deputy Director Denny White was in attendance at the time of the delivery of the request. I now am in the possession of interoffice emails where they discuss the records, and their repulsion for those of us that seek to know what the story is, which only the actual documents can tell.

Disciples of Yossarian

Following on the heels of his flirtation with violent "decisiveness" toward Pakistan, Barack Obama got twisted up even further in the conflicting loyalties that complicate the lives of Democratic presidential candidates and the people who vote for them. Pretty soon the other candidates were in there with him, like cats in the yarn.

After declaring in a speech last week that he might order military strikes on Pakistan border areas to take out suspected al-Qaida camps, he was asked by an AP reporter if he’d use nuclear weapons against al-Qaida in Pakistan.

I pause here a moment to ponder the insanity of this question, or what I might call the "Yossarian moment" it produces, referring, of course, to Joseph Heller’s notorious central character in the World War II novel "Catch-22," whose everyman sanity stood in constant amazed contrast to the routine insanities of war, like people all the time trying to kill each other. This is a Yossarian moment on steroids, reporter to almighty-deity-in-chief wannabe: When killing thine enemies, sir, would you be inclined to take ’em out 50,000 at a swath? A hundred thousand? A million?

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