Something to be thankful for.

While America regresses, Britain moves forward. The House of Lords have approved 251 to 136 to legalize Civil Partnerships for same-sex couples.

House of Lords backs Civil Partnerships

It warms my heart to hear of it.

Where once there were blinders, please let America begin to see as well!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Quick Note of Interest

You'll be intrigued to know that embedded within each color copy is a code that could be traced back to you:

Government uses color laser technology to track documents

Oh, and by the way? It's been in there for *years*.

Add to that the passage of the massive $388 billion omnibus spending bill, including a special provision that allows the Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees or their "agents" to review any American's tax return with no restrictions whatsoever, and I'm starting to think Big Brother's already here!

Or, as the esteemed Joshua Marshall put it here:

Talking Points Omnibus recap

...

Specifically, none of the privacy law restrictions -- or the criminal and civil penalties tied to them -- would apply when the Chair or anybody he or she designates as his or her "agent" looked at your tax return.

The exact language of the provision is as follows ...

"Hereinafter, notwithstanding any other provision of law governing the disclosure of income tax returns or return information, upon written request of the Chairman of the House or Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service shall allow agents designated by such Chairman access to Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein."

The provision was slipped into the bill at the last moment. And, at least on the Democratic side, no one was told about it until some Dems caught it at the last moment.

Senate Republicans quickly backtracked, calling the provision a mistake or snafu and insisting they knew nothing about it. You can see some of the back-and-forth that took place on the Senate floor in this AP piece at CNN.

Sen. Stevens of Alaska, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, originally blamed the provision on a 'staffer'. But later, according to the AP, Sen. Frist and "congressional aides" said it was inserted at the behest of Rep. Istook.

And in case you're wondering, Istook's staffers are apparently telling constituents that Rep. Istook had to step out of the room for a moment when the DeLay Rule was being voted on.

Maybe he had to finish reading over Ronnie Earle's tax return?

Who needs conspiracy theories?

My Hero!

This is worth printing in its entirety. Travis County, Texas DA Ronnie Earle's response to Tom DeLay and his cronies' recent slanderous comments against him in regards to an ongoing investigation that has already indicted three people directly tied to him:

A Moral Indictment
By RONNIE EARLE

Published: November 23, 2004

Austin, Tex. — It is a rare day when members of the United States Congress try to read the minds of the members of a grand jury in Travis County, Tex. Apparently Tom DeLay's colleagues expect him to be indicted.

Last week Congressional Republicans voted to change their rule that required an indicted leader to relinquish his post. They were responding to an investigation by the Travis County grand jury into political contributions by corporations that has already resulted in the indictments of three associates of Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader.

Yet no member of Congress has been indicted in the investigation, and none is a target unless he or she has committed a crime. The grand jury will continue its work, abiding by the rule of law. That law requires a grand jury of citizens, not the prosecutor, to determine whether probable cause exists to hold an accused person to answer for the accusation against him or her.

Politicians in Congress are responsible for the leaders they choose. Their choices reflect their moral values.

Every law enforcement officer depends on the moral values and integrity of society for backup; they are like body armor. The cynical destruction of moral values at the top makes it hard for law enforcement to do its job.

In terms of moral values, this is where the rubber meets the road. The rules you apply to yourself are the true test of your moral values.

The thinly veiled personal attacks on me by Mr. DeLay's supporters in this case are no different from those in the cases of any of the 15 elected officials this office has prosecuted in my 27-year tenure. Most of these officials - 12 Democrats and three Republicans - have accused me of having political motives. What else are they going to say?

For most of my tenure the Democrats held the power in state government. Now Republicans do. Most crimes by elected officials involve the abuse of power; you have to have power before you can abuse it.

There is no limit to what you can do if you have the power to change the rules. Congress may make its own rules, but the public makes the rule of law, and depends for its peace on the enforcement of the law. Hypocrisy at the highest levels of government is toxic to the moral fiber that holds our communities together.

The open contempt for moral values by our elected officials has a corrosive effect. It is a sad day for law enforcement when Congress offers such poor leadership on moral values and ethical behavior. We are a moral people, and the first lesson of democracy is not to hold the public in contempt.

For more information on the current machinations within our current Administration, I suggest you read the following:

Welcome to the Machine

And just to let you know, DeLay has been trying for over a year to get Ronnie Earle out through dishonest means. DeLay has already used redistricting as a tool to consolidate power for the Republicans. It's time Congress was reminded it's against the law.

The next redistricting target: Ronnie Earle?

Wake Up, America!

Women’s rights are under assault. We are facing the very real possibility of losing a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.

The Fundamentalist movement that is currently in power has been zealous in their obsessive hatred of women’s reproductive rights, and we continue to be under attack. The most recent loss? An anti-abortion provision tucked right into the $388 billion just passed spending bill.

(Negotiators add abortion clause to spending bill)

We have let their diseased hatred of women’s reproductive rights infect our political system. We have voices, and need to speak out just as vehemently against anti-abortion nominees as the Pro Life groups do for them! We the people still have the power to threaten, cajole, encourage, and most importantly contact, and contact often, all of our Congressmen and let them hear *our* thoughts as well. We can make it too politically costly for our Congressmen and women to jump each time President Bush asks them to.

To do this we must be as devoted, dedicated, and determined to protect the rights of women in America as our opponents have been to strip us of them. And make no mistake about it, if ever there was a time to become politically active, it is now.

It is time to stop being Pro Choice and start being Pro Abortion. I am tired of avoiding conflict by not going toe to toe with rabid zealots just to avoid an argument; of being polite and conceding that ‘they’ have a right to have their opinion. They do not believe I have that right. Because this is considered such an emotionally ‘sensitive’ issue, we have danced delicately around it while they have bludgeoned us all.

I am here to speak a truth that no one dares utter. These Christian Fundamentalists care little for life – unless *you* are one of them. Think of all those individuals who have become heroes in their eyes for bombing abortion clinics or killing pro-abortion doctors. Hypocrites!

Mark my words: Fundamentalists know making abortion illegal will not stop desperate women in desperate circumstances from seeking them. But they will prevent them from finding a medically safe place to get them. They KNOW women will turn to back alley butchers, coat hangers, and other unsafe self-induced practices, and that up to fifty percent of women who undergo unsafe abortions have complications. Fifty percent!

It is estimated by the World Health Organization that 80,000 women die each year due to complications from unsafe abortions… These Christian Fundamentalists know these numbers as well, and DO NOT CARE.

They believe four zygotes are more important than a woman’s life. How are we not outraged?! How is this possible that our politicians are listening to them?! These zealots believe a woman SHOULD risk death or becoming sterile if she decides, whatever the circumstances, to have an abortion.

This is not the American way. Those who have the President’s ear are not the majority. Instead of being terrified at the upcoming four years, be ready to fight - fight long and hard! We have been silent too long, and look at where it has brought us. Wake up America, and get involved! Now is the time!

In this day and age, with the Internet at our fingertips making email access to members of Congress just a few clicks away, why have we not signed up to email our opinions every time we disagree with something that has been said?

Contact your local Planned Parenthood Federation of America, your local chapter of the National Organization for Women, your local Democratic party, and be prepared to not just donate: Be willing to commit time and energy, and not just in the upcoming months, but in the upcoming years. Set aside time each week, meet with each other, develop ideas and strategies, work within your community as well as nationally. We lost an election, but we cannot give up the war - we must not. Too much is at stake, and now more than ever we MUST be heard.

It's my first official Cat Blogging Day!

A lovely quote to take heart from Garrison Keillor during 'A Prairie Home Companion'

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to it's true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt......If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

--Thomas Jefferson, 1798

More on Tom DeLay's lack of principles later... *drum rolls and cymbals crash* Thank you, thank you. Be sure to tip your servers well. Ah, the irony of it all.

Follow-Up from previous post

The New York Times has an article that sums up the issues I was putting forth in the previous post very nicely. Be sure to read it!

Lame Duck Confit

The Truth Will Set Us Free

Ah, but what is the truth, you ask? Good question. To explore that question, I suggest looking at two separate angles of it.

The first and ultimately the most important question is: What is the ultimate goal of the current Administration agenda? What does cutting funding for government agencies and programs, allowing the deficit to continue to run rampant, and giving huge tax breaks year after year in the face of said deficit mean for us as the average citizen?

Tuck in the back of your mind the second question, which is “How are they accomplishing it?” Now, scroll down to the November 15th article written by Kevin Drum titled "Stealth Conservatism".

Political Animal

The author's point is: ""Republicans are mostly nibbling around the edges, not taking a chainsaw to liberal programs." And why is this a problem? Because it's hard to mobilize widespread opposition to conservative policies when they're put into place a little bit at a time. It's the old boiling frog problem."

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it refers to putting (figuratively, not literally. No live frogs were harmed during the writing of this blog!) a frog in a pot of boiling water. Immediately the frog will struggle to escape.

However, if you place a frog in a pot filled with room temperature water and then slowly raise the heat, his internal survival mechanism will not be triggered and eventually he perishes.

This is certainly where we find ourselves today. The Emperor has no clothes, but his constituents are just as convinced he's clothed as he is. Who is the tailor, then? Carl Rove? Grover Norquist?

I highly recommend the following article:

Starving the Beast

In a nutshell, could the ultimate goal of such fiscal irresponsibility be aimed towards a specific end? Republicans appear terrified of government. Taken to its extreme, won't such reckless spending ultimately force shrinkage of government in its entirety without having to actually cut popular programs that Democrats and Republicans alike would fight for?

Who needs to take on the Environmental Protection Act, Social Security, OSHA or protecting civil rights when bankrupting the government into powerlessness will effectively do it for them?

The water’s boiling, dear Republicans, and I ask that you fight with me to get out of the pot. Government is not a bad thing. It keeps the water you drink clean, insures that your work environment (or home, for that matter) won’t kill you, and provides help when the catastrophic happens. Nip this harebrained philosophy in the bud before the damage requires generations to repair it rather than decades. This is not the Democratic way, and it certainly is not the Republican way. Our children will thank us for what we do today to stop this.

Take it to the people

This is my first political post - the first of many, I'm sure.

I hear the argument over and over about where the Democratic message got lost, and the most reoccurring answer I have heard makes the most sense.

We *have* spent too much time defending. Defending false accusations and ridiculous labels. The truth hurts, and clearly our fellow citizens will go to great lengths not to see it. We have spent entirely too much energy defending against the most basic of children's strategies: "Look over there."

I have no doubt that the arrogance of the current Administration will at some point go too far and forever alienate itself from the American people. However, I had *hoped* that that tolernce level was already met by Abu Ghirab and the proof of neither weapons of mass destruction nor ties to Al Qaeda. November 2nd proved that hope false, so here I am today.

The greatest enemy of any citizen is apathy. My time as an armchair quarterback is at an end. The America I grew up in, the American dream I believe in, does not allow for intolerance, discrimination, and using hatred as a political party platform. It believes in not only equality, but equal opportunity for all of its' citizens.

I begin from the beginning, by reading the Constitution and listening to what this country's forefathers had in mind when they set in writing the groundwork of a nation.

For too long I've been silent in the face of opposition, too polite to argue with those who practically spit in my face in defence of their radical ideals. No more. Welcome to my world. Together may we change America for the better.