Politics In Style

It's very fashionable to jump on the anti-Blagojevich bandwagon, but that's one ride I'll skip.

Blagojevich tries and does the right thing even when it's not popular with the state's political machine.

He worked for cheaper prescription drugs for seniors and health insurance for all Illinois children. He even joined the Stop Global Warming virtual march. Now, he's joined the oh so very few politicians who will speak out against Bush war profiteering policies. Rawstory reports that Blagojevich wrote to Rumsfeld about doing business with companies that use forced labor.

I've seen what is happening in the Illinois anti-war and anti-patriot act movement and the movements for other progressive issues like a moral budget and choice for quite a while now and one thing that is most notable is how our local leaders avoid these critically important issues like the plague. It is rare to see a local politician at any of the local issue-oriented events and it saddens me how few will publicly and loudly stand up for what should be obvious, the Bill of Rights, anti-torture, and anti-slavery. Blagojevich has taken many public stands for the people of his state. He gets my kuddos and my last post of the year.

Happy New Year Rod, Illinois and the USA!

Greta and Nora

At a previous job, I worked with two Russian women, Greta and Nora, both old enough to have lived most of their lives under Soviet rule.

Greta and her husband Alexander (Sasha), very educated, had been engineers in Russia. However, they were unable to keep employment because they were refuseniks, Soviet Jews who wanted to emigrate to the US for freedom to practice their religion, but were repeatedly denied. They eventually left when the USSR collapsed under its own corruption and mismanagement. Greta told me several stories of life in the USSR, having no control over your destiny, you school, your career, your family. They were at the constant mercy of some government decree, shortage or bureaucratic whim.

While I was working with Greta there was an incident with a nuclear submarine in Russia, the Kirsk. All 118 crewmen died despite the fact that 23 had survived the initial explosion. Those last 23 deaths were attributed to the government's refusal to accept foreign help to rescue the survivors, the Russian government insisting that the entire crew must have died in the blast. They didn't. The last 23 suffocated. We listened to the radio at work a lot and as the incident unfolded on our American news, Greta was fuming. She told me that it was just like when she lived there in the old Soviet Union. The government had no accountability to the people; the people, now supposedly free, did not even know how to make their government accountable, so officials could do whatever they felt most benefited their own power. The Russians did not want foreign sailors to see the inside of a Russian nuclear submarine, so they allowed those 23 men to slowly die of suffocation.

Nora was a friend of Greta. She was very sweet and friendly but still struggling to learn English which eventually cost her the job. She was married with a young daughter. She had had another daughter, but that daughter was never born. She was a victim of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. Nora was married to her first husband and pregnant with their first child in Kiev in 1986. When the reactor blew at the nearby Chernobyl power plant, Nora and her husband felt lucky to have survived, but later Nora miscarried their daughter. It destroyed her first marriage.

These incidents in their Soviet homeland were par for the course to Greta and Nora because their government was completely unaccountable to the people. The people had no rights to complain and no recourse in the courts for damages. Consequently, their government could do anything to them, their officials providing a badly engineered and constructed infrastructure out of inferior materials and in their economy they had only inferior products and services, when they could get anything at all.

Since 9/11, Americans seem to be very willing to give up their rights and freedoms. I see web posts and LTEs from people arguing that Americans must give these up to gain government protection from the terrorists. There was an LTE in the Sun Times yesterday by a woman arguing in favor of the Patriot Act and spying on Americans. Another man had previously called the Bill of Rights a "suicide pact". These people generally argue that we have to give up our rights to free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom from arrest without knowing the charges, without a speedy trial with legal representation. That it is necessary for us to survive in this new world of terrorism. There are also other rights that we have given up under Bush/Kirk and Co. rule that are unrelated to protection from terrorism like the right to sue and get damages without an award cap. No explanation from the Bush administration or congressional republicans why taking the courts away from people who have been damaged by a corporation or HMO will save us from terrorists.

By giving up all these rights and freedoms, Americans are handing complete unaccountability over to our government and connected corporations. They will be able to do whatever suits their power or profit needs. Americans don't get what this means because they have lived so long with their rights and freedoms that they don't know what it is like to live without them. I predict that Americans will miss these rights and freedoms as their control over our lives and family diminishes, as the products we are sold deterioriate in quality, as the quality of our infrastructure, utilities and public services diminishes, and as we are told to keep quiet with our complaints and refused use the courts to redress our damages. It's like the schnitzel at the Berghoff. Most of us haven't gone over there to get it in years, but when it's gone, we'll all miss it.

Americans do not realize what they are so willingly giving up. Greta and Nora know.

Bill of Rights not a suicide pact

My LTE made the Sun Times today. Here's the electronic version, or go out and buy a paper if you can beat my mom to it.

It wasn't my best writing effort, but I was pretty honked off at a defender of the Bush spying policy who had written an LTE calling the Bill of Rights a "suicide pact". He was arguing that we had to suspend our Bill of Rights protections because, by not changing to meet the threat of terrorists we would be beaten as the British were by the colonists back in 1787. Sorry, but that was just about the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life.

First, the colonists did not beat the Brits. They merely failed to lose. It was the brilliance of Franklin playing the French and the British off each other that caused Cornwallis' ultimate surrender to Washington at Yorktown. Second, becoming the terrorists is not the way to beat them. Third, the victorious colonists fought to ensure our rights, the rights they felt they had as Englishmen under the Magna Carta.

The Bush policy of taking away our rights is more like an act of the mob or a street gang than one of our glorious revolutionaries. They are simply requiring us to pay them the protection money. They scare us by saying our world neighborhood is dangerous. They foster and perpetuate incidents to exhibit the danger. Then, they require payment in exchange for protection. In this case, payment by loss of our civil liberties. They are nothing but simple thugs and it's a bad idea to buy into it because, like any other extortion, it's never ending.

As our rights slowly dwindle, we can no longer speak out against disagreeable government policies. The wars continue on and on. Taxation becomes more and more regressive. Corporations run rampant and unchecked in labor and consumer dealings. People are backed into the victim corner as the wealthy and powerful take the spoils.

Buying into the Bush agenda is the real suicide pact.

Not to be missed

Click on the title link for a not to be missed editorial from yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A year of Pro-Warriors and Pro-fiteers

I saw a retrospective on Cindy Sheehan this morning on CNN. In one scene, they showed a young man shouting in her face that we have to be willing to fight for freedom. The CNN hosts talked about Sheehan's plight, but made it pretty clear that they only saw Sheehan's struggle as a personal loss and were lost as to her anti-war based on lies message. It's obvious that something is wrong in this country when Sheehan's motives are questioned and her mission is ignored, but a young man not in uniform yelling at her about fighting for freedom under these circumstances is considered just fine.

The scene reminded me of the few pro-war protesters in DC on September 24th. Lee Goodman hung out with them that day and interviewed several of them for their perspective on the war and the anti-war protest. Those interviews can be seen on program he put together about the event. I've seen it, it's pretty interesting, particularly the unusual incidence of ailments preventing the pro-warriors from enlisting themselves. Someone should report that to CDC. Maybe there's a connection between these illnesses and the frequent viewing of Fox News. Lee's description of the program and how you can get a copy is at the end of this post.

The shouters comment to Sheehan about fighting for freedom might have made a point if we were actually doing that in Iraq, but it is more and more evident every day that we are not. Nothing has been done to stop use of forced labor by war profiteering contractors in Iraq as several defense lobbies have opposed regulation and we all know about the struggle to stop torture coming to the sad ending that, despite what Kirk says in his press-release laden blog, the new hard-fought-for restrictions actually allow it under a revised version of the Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. These two issues, forced labor and torture, should be no-brainer no-ways for Americans, but for some inexplicable reason, the Bush administration has gotten the A-OK on both of them.

The happenings and non-happenings over the past year on the issue of the Iraq war say a whole lot more about the pro-warriors and those who just as soon not pay attention to any of it than Sheehan. Sheehan is a mother trying to turn her son's death around to do something good for our country and the world. It's a hard uphill battle for her and she doesn't get to play too sick to go.

See Lee's tape:

Pro-Warriors: In Their Own Words

In this honest, in-depth documentary, ordinary Americans who are active with the pro-war movement tell you the real reasons they support the war on Iraq and what they think is motivating the people who are against it. Entertaining, informative, and sometimes shocking, this video will give you new insight into what is causing the polarization of American politics.

Filmed on location in Washington, D.C. at the largest anti-war demonstration since the Viet Nam war, Pro-Warriors features rare interviews with leaders of the grass-roots pro-war movement. The characters include Judah the Catholic Soldier, Doctor Bill, Club Gitmo Man, and Corporal John. This video is more than history, it is historic. This is the story the networks don’t tell. This is real!

Available only online, at www.Pro-Warriors.com. Running time: 56 minutes. Price: $3.99 Profits will help support www.AtCenterNetwork.com and the Northbrook Peace Committee, Inc.

Nothing to hide nothing to worry about, but who let the cat out of the bag and why?

Found this one on Pensito Review:

1995: Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), then chair of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, investigated whether taxpayers were footing the cost of stationery and postage for the fan club dedicated to President Clinton’s cat, Socks. (They were not - and it turns out Barbara Bush’s dog Millie had a fan club too.)

Some read stories like these and focus on the hypocracy of the gop which made so much of so little in the Clinton administration and now is happy to ignore very real and dangerous illegal activity by the Bush administration. Americans were wound up into a frenzy over Monica, the White House Travel Agency and the Socks fan club, but now an illegal war and destruction of our Constitution is nothing more than a big yawn to them and they find themselves spouting facist justifications in Bush's defense: "If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't be worried about wire taps and email spying, right?"

Ever wonder from where that expression came. A lot of people attribute it to Nazis and Soviets. I'm not sure where it came from, but found a good debunk of it in a history on the Fifth Amendment explaining why a person should not be forced to incriminate himself. It comes not from logic, but from experience says the article.

The right is one of those things that is really based on experience rather than logic. Logically, why shouldn't an accused be compelled to answer? An innocent man has nothing to fear and a guilty man should be prosecuted and found guilty. But history has taught us repeatedly that when an accused can be compelled to cooperate in his own prosecution, it all too frequently leads to prosecutorial abuse. The right helps ensure an accusatory system of justice rather than an inquisitorial one.

Of course, the Fifth Amendment applies to one already standing accused while the Bush administration is apparently spying on anyone they choose for any reason they choose. The real innocent, not standing accused, have no reason to worry at all, right? Wrong. The long and short of it is that the Bush administration's spying has less to do with catching terrorists than chilling free expression among everday working and thinking Americans now questioning the Bush policies and failures. Americans may say the spying is ok to catch terrorists, but they will know that abuses are sure to follow and will act to prevent themselves from getting caught up in them. They'll keep quiet even when something happens they know is wrong.

The desired slowdown of speech is probably why the spying story came out now when it was held for so long. Now that folks are starting to talk about the illegal Iraq War, the war profiteering, the failure in Iraq, the failure in New Orleans, the vote fraud in the 2004 election, it's less valuable to just spy on them and more valuable they know you are doing so. It will slow down the discussion, quiet things down before the next time they see fit to raise the terror warning level.

But we all know the real issue here is what ever happened to Ernie Bush, the six toed Bush family cat. Why is it all quiet on Ernie? Why don't we ever see him and why doesn't he have a fan club? Bush and the twins should come clean on Ernie. If they have nothing to hide, they shouldn't be worried, right? Maybe we need congressional hearings. This should be a topic around which Americans can wrap their imaginations. Maybe Linda Tripp took him.

A Game of Hide and Go Legislate

So, it appears that Mark Kirk is feeling the pressure trying to stay popular with the Texas gop money folks while making his district believe he is just another caring moderate type of guy. So, what is he going to do? He's coming out fighting in 2006, fighting to divert attention, that is.

Kirk is going to pick 20 issues that polled well in the inurbs and try to turn them into legislation, quickly for the 2006 election. The title link mentions some of the issues we can expect to see processed and sent out on the diversionary conveyor belt:

Twelve of the issues polled over 80 percent positive, and only two polled under 70 percent (while still receiving majority support). The top four were approved by 90 percent or more: teacher checks (95 percent), tax credits for small businesses that provide health insurance (93), portability of health insurance (93), and mandatory Internet filters (91).... The 14th--highest polling issue (79 percent approval) was barring states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. The 20th was a flat tax at 20 percent to replace the federal income tax. Fifty--seven percent favored it, 55 percent of swing voters.

"If we talk about stuff like this," Kirk says, Republican strength in the suburbs will "snap back quickly.

I guess it's a good idea to stick to teacher background checks, internet filters and tax credits while your leaders are busily creating a police state out of a once great republic. I just hope he doesn't get to issue 20 before he's retired by the district in November 2006. The flat tax, Mark? Must you work for the most regressive type of tax around attacking the poor and middle class as your ultimate diversion from the Bush agenda? Can't you just go around kissing babies and petting puppies while Bush dismantles the USA?

District Trending Democratic

I found a link to an article in the Weekly Standard in my inbox courtesy of Google Alerts and found it interesting enough to delay my planned post-Christmas, no-work-because-Christmas-was-on-Sunday shopping trip. The article really says nothing more than what we Tenth District residents have known for a long time. The District is moving away from Kirk and his Texas handlers.

Mark Kirk is a worried Republican who represents a House district in the suburbs north of Chicago.... But all around him, Kirk sees the Republican party crumbling. And it's a pattern in the Midwest and East....

The article goes on to explain that there are exurbs and inurbs and that the inurbs, of which the Tenth is mostly comprised, are trending Democratic.

In political terms and in lifestyle, the suburbs have changed dramatically in the past two decades. Cities have spilled into suburbs, which are now densely populated and filled with singles, minorities, and people with an urban temperament. By the millions, families with children have migrated to the outer suburbs or located there in the first place. "The Republican party is doing very well in the exurbs," Kirk says, "but not so well in the inurbs." (I will add here: with the possible exception of when the republican party shows so little regard for its constituents in the exurbs that it continually puts up an incumbent who has a myriad of personal problems and infrequently showed up to congress to vote as they did in the now Democratic exurb-y Eight for years.)

The article says that Mark has a pet theory to explain the trends:

The exurbs are home to entrepreneurs and managers who run family--owned companies or are in sales. They deal constantly with government-IRS, regulatory agencies, bureaucrats of all types-and find the experience frustrating. They vote for Republicans who would trim government. Professionals-lawyers, architects, professors-tend to live in the inner suburbs and they have few conflicts with government. They vote for Democrats on lifestyle issues such as abortion and gun control.

I have a pet theory too. The republican party has abandoned all but the top 1% of wealthiest of Americans, which is too wealthy for event the pricey north shore. They have also used extreme right-wing fundamentalist Christianity to convince those no where near the wealthiest 1% to vote against their own self interest. The whole thing is just plain old offensive to the independent and educated voters of the inurbs and that feeling is spreading to the educated and increasingly independent exurbs. Voters who actually pay attention are seeing the decaying of our Constitutionally created structure of checks and balances and separation of powers. They are offended by the war based on lies and maintained by corporate profiteering, Robin Hood budgets, the ruination of our environment, government control over our medical care and bodies, and now illegal spying on Americans.

Oh, and all those entrepreneurs and managers that are supposed to remain loyally in your corner, Mark. Forgetaboutit. The entrepreneurs are seeing what the repubican party rejection of universal health care and adequate child care is doing to their payroll and employees. Their businesses can no longer compete with European and Canadian busiesses where there is single payor government sponsored health care and support for child care. Their employees cannot insure and secure their families adequately increasing absenteeism and stress. The managers within larger corporations are watching their profit requirements soar and their benefits and staffs shrink with republican-sponsored corporate greed incentives decreasing the service they can afford their customers and increasing their stress in running their departments.

Mark's solution, which he appropriated from rnc chair Ken Melman, is to focus on local issues, be a "federal mayor" because people like mayors; they solve problems. That does make a certain amount of sense because when the federal government is the sponsor of so much that is offensive, the best way for Mark to keep his seat could be for him to avoid federal issues completely and stay focused on train whistles, lake Michigan and traffic flow. The problem with that solution, however, is that we do have a federal governement and what it prioritizes affects what is happening on the local level. Ask Mayor Nagan of New Orleans. His city and state could not afford or engineer a levee system on their own. What state or city could? So, they relied on the federal government, but the federal government turned its back on them, so New Orleans flooded in what is now know to have been only a category 3 hurricane and thousands are still suffering and the federal government still has its back turned.

Mark, how about this for a new pet theory: Why don't you really work to address the concerns of the people in your district and in the country rather than spending your time and energy trying to figure out how better to fake it.

More on this interesting article later. I want to see if I can find a winter coat at a cheap sales price. Coat-zilla from the Iowa Kerry campaign in the snow has seen better days.

A Christmas and Chanukah Miracle and a Riddle

OK, Bush is still president. The miracle is that I cooked.

A Riddle: What does George W. Bush have in common with Garfield Goose?

(answer in the comments)

What the Democat wants from Santa

we have a winner

2005 Democrat of the Year

is

John Hmurovic

Hurray!!! Yippie!!!

Woo Hoo!!!

(Pictured with Wife Bev, another great Democrat)

John Hmurovic has made his mark in Tenth District politics as chairman of the Administrative Committee of Tenth Dems, and editor-in-chief of its monthly newsletter. John was instrumental in the organization's creation and extensive growth. His analytical and media skills help keep the data flowing, communications streaming, committees working and volunteers joining. His cheerful and humble demeanor make him one of the easiest and best people to talk to and work with. I will always remember John as he was when I returned from Wisconsin on election day 2004 and walked into Stash's. I found John at his computer intensely analyzing the returns as they came in with the hubub from the crowd all around him. He managed to stay cheerful even though the results were not what we would have wanted. John can always find the bright side of things and reported back to the group a hopeful analysis for the future. While often quite and thoughtful, John is always willing to help out on a project and talk things through with anyone who needs to. He is also a terrific public speaker.

John works hard every day for truth, justice and freedom with skill and excellence. For all this and lots more reasons, I am very happy and proud to announce John Hmurovic as Ellen's Illinois Tenth CD Blog's very first Democrat of the Year.

The final results were:

John Hmurovic 22.3% 150
John Murtha 20.8% 140
Lauren Beth Gash 10% 67
Ross Nickow 9.7% 65
Barry Bradford 8.3% 56
David Borris 7.1% 48
Randi Rhodes 6.7% 45
Dick Bell 2.8% 19
Barack Obama 2.5% 17
Dave Swanson and John Bonifaz 2.1% 14
Dick Durbin 1.9% 13
Al Franken 1.8% 12
Paul L. Hackett 1.8% 12
Nancie Blatt 1.6% 11
James Rosen 0.6% 4

total votes: 673

Thanks to all the nominees, nominators, voters and readers for making this a real contest and fun.

Vote Vote Vote Vote

Polls Closed.

Ohio's time machine back to 1214

Thanks to Madame D. from DCP for calling my attention to this one, although it absolutely ruined my day.

Apparently, Ohio has decided that the Bill of Rights no longer applies within it's borders. Does that mean it is seceding from the Union?

The Ohio Patriot Act has made it to the Taft's desk, and with the stroke of a pen, it would most likely become the toughest terrorism bill in the country. The lengthy piece of legislation would let police arrest people in public places who will not give their names, address and birth dates, even if they are not doing anything wrong.

Go to this link to see how the Ohio Patriot Act violates all sorts of Constitutional protections including the right to not self incriminate, the right to free speech and the right of assembly. I would imagine the Ohio law also violates the principle of federalism as there is US law that covers the concerns supposedly addressed in the Ohio law.

So many people today have bought into the bill of goods that they have to give up their rights for protection. It seems they don't remember why we have a Bill of Rights. Here a little short history of the Bill of Rights through English law from which it sprung with help from this site for students:

For most of the history of people in western Europe, the regular plain old working people of the world had no rights. Kings, lords and the church owned the land and the people for the mostpart. Often taxes were imposed and people had to work them off in farming or the military (sound familiar when we have reservists stuck in Iraq who only wanted a college education?) Anyway, a small group of businessmen, non-royals, started to make some money and got a little power. Their power grew with their purses and by the year 1215 they were able to force the king of England to sign the Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta granted certain rights “to all freemen”. King John agreed (ok, they were going to kill him if he didn't agree):

• to preserve the liberty of the church and to hear petitions from the barons (our First Amendment);
• to remove foreign armies from England (our Third Amendment);
• not to seize land to pay for debts (our Fourth Amendment);
• not to take life or liberty without due process or compensation and to restore property taken unjustly; (our Fifth Amendment);
• not to delay court proceedings or punish without testimony from witnesses (our Sixth Amendment); and
• not to issue excessive punishments and to repay unjust fines (our Eighth Amendment).

In 1628, another King, Charles I, disbanded Parliament and started taking away the rights enjoyed under the Magna Carta. Charles was sort of like Bush in that he thought he had absolute power granted to him by God. Members of the House of Commons created the Petition of Rights to remind Charles of the Magna Carta. Charles complied for a while, but stopped and things went downhill for him thereafter as the people fought for their rights, and, of course, Cromwell fought for and gained his own brand of oppressive power because the rights of the people have always been won in small doses with lots of setbacks.

In 1689, under William and Mary, Englishmen reaffirmed and extended their rights in the Declaration of Rights and the Toleration Act. The Declaration included freedom of speech, peaceable assembly, the right to bear arms, protections of property and liberty; rights for the accused and criminals. The Toleration Act included freedom of Worship.

Suffice it to say that lives were ruined and lost in the fight for these rights from 1215 until 1689. These rights were not completely had though and when Englishmen could no longer tolerate their lot in life they moved to the new world, here, and the various colonies began to issue their own statements of rights, among these were Massachusetts Body of Liberties in 1641, New Jersey’s Colonial Charter 0f 1677 , and Pennsylvania's 1701 Charter of Privileges.

The American Revolution was fought over King George's failure to recognize these rights of Englishmen in his and Parliament's enactment of taxes, the Quartering Act, and the 1774 Coercive Acts which restricted freedom of the press, free speech, the right of assembly the right to bear arms, took away property right protections, and protections of the accused to speedy trial. Upon Franklin and France's victory over the English on our behalf, our founders drafted the Constitution and many states ratified it. However, New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts did not want to ratify the Constitution without an enumerated list of rights. A group called the Federalists did not think a Bill of Rights was needed because of the limits on the federal government contained in the Constitution. The anti-Federalists, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, believed a Bill of Rights was necessary to protect the people from a central government sure to eventually encroach. James Madison, originally of the Federalist group, ended up writing the Bill of Rights based on anti-Federalist, George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Throughout the years, Americans have had to continue the fight to gain these rights and retain them, particularly women and minorities. There was an early attack on the Bill of Rights when under Adam's presidency, Congress enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts which attacked imigrants rights and freedom of speech. The Sedition act was used by the Federalist Party to muffle the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans (no relation to the current republicans). These acts were never enforced much and were allowed to die out by the subsequent Jefferson administration that won the presidency partly from the backlash against these laws. However, it is generally agreed that they were unconstitutional.

We have also watched people of other nations struggle for the freedoms we have enjoyed through civil wars, genocide and misery.

Why the history lesson? Because many Americans seem to need one. They seem to have forgotten what was sacrificed for these rights and how long it took to get them to stick and how fragile they really are. republicans like Sen. Cornyn and the freakshow that is running Ohio want you to think you have to give up your rights for safety, but that is not what we Americans are made of and it's written in our history and our Bill of Rights. Don't let the fear stirred up by Bush/Kirk and Co. send us back to 1214.

You can visit the Magna Carta at the British Library in London or virtually here. It was my first stop during my first hours in London back in 2000 when Ohio was free. The Magna Carta is just feet away from an exhibit of Beatles songs hand written by Paul and John on old envelopes and torn pieces of paper.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My offering to end the war on Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

A flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the second day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the third day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Three spying apologists (Cheney, Gonzalez and Cornyn), two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Four Christmas warmongers (here, here, here and here), three spying apologists, two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Five republicans filibustering, four Christmas warmongers, three spying apologists, two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Six more months of Patriot Act abuses, five republicans filibustering, four Christmas warmongers, three spying apologists, two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Seven O’Reilly lies, six more months of Patriot Act abuses, five republicans filibustering, four Christmas warmongers, three spying apologists, two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the eight day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Eight republican challengers, seven O’Reilly lies, six more months of Patriot Act abuses, five republicans filibustering, four Christmas warmongers, three spying apologists, two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Nine state Christmas cards, eight republican challengers, seven O’Reilly lies, six more months of Patriot Act abuses, five republicans filibustering, four Christmas warmongers, three spying apologists, two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Tenth Congressional District Democrats, nine state Christmas cards, eight republican challengers, seven O’Reilly lies, six more months of Patriot Act abuses, five republicans filibustering, four Christmas warmongers, three spying apologists, two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

Eleven months ‘till elections, Tenth Congressional District Democrats, nine state Christmas cards, eight republican challengers, seven O’Reilly lies, six more months of Patriot Act abuses, five republicans filibustering, four Christmas warmongers, three spying apologists, I’m getting tired, two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my leaders gave to me,

An unfinished twelve step plan, eleven months ‘till elections, Tenth Congressional District Democrats, nine state Christmas cards, eight republican challengers, seven O’Reilly lies, six more months of Patriot Act abuses, five republicans filibustering, four Christmas warmongers, three spying apologists, two censure resolutions and a flipping lobbyist who wants to go free.

The Arrest Yesterday and Today

NOTE: To vote in Democrat of the Year 2005, scroll down.

A friend of mine once said that she used to wonder about possible innocence of anyone who had been arrested. She felt they must have done something to have been arrested. Then, her dad was arrested and she came to the conclusion that it could happen to anyone.

If I am remembering her story correctly, her dad, middle aged approaching senior status at the time, got into an argument with a woman in a store. He touched her on the shoulder and she got very angry and called the police. The police came and arrested him. They probably did a background check and found no prior arrest history. He called his wife who called their attorney and they got him out. I don't even think he had to be bailed out. I believe the charges were dropped or maybe none were filed and nothing more came of the incident.

That was in America circa 1970s or 1980s. Today, the story might be quite different.

Let's suppose that my friend's dad touched the woman's shoulder today and she called the police. The police would come and arrest him. They would do the background check and find no priors. However, they might see that he belonged to a few organizations over the years. They might see that he was in a democratic party organization or that he gave a few bucks to PETA. Maybe they'd see that he was a Quaker (here too) or in the multi-racial, multi-cultural United Church of Christ or perhaps he was a Jew or Moslem. Maybe he gave a few too many dollars to one of the organizations the Bush administration doesn't like. So, they decide to hold him as a potential terrorist. They don't call his wife and he gets no attorney. His wife is frantic when he fails to return home, but gets no help when she calls the police. Since he's not a terrorist, it never occurs to her that he was arrested and held. She thinks he's dead, injured or lost. She doesn't know what to do. The government decides to take the hypothetical dad overseas to a prison in Eastern Europe and who knows what happens to him there and at his age if he could survive it. His wife was of course associated to him and the rest of his family and he owned a business, so he had business associates. Then, they decide that maybe it's time to secretly search his condo and tap a few phone calls of his friends, family and partners, and search their homes too. Maybe some of them belong to some disfavored organizations and so on.

Do you really think this could never happen? It started to happen during what we now call the McCarthy era, but some courageous Americans stopped it before we allowed ourselves to go off the deep end. Now, many Americans don't even want to stop it.

Too many Americans over the past few days have been too willing to allow Bush the extra-constitutional powers he wants. After all didn't Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) say “None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead,” and that seems to make sense to a lot of people. What these people need to realize here is that little by little they are throwing away every shred of what made this country great. The founders didn't decide to weed out Tories by advocating secret warrantless searches, holding people indefinitely, torturing and withholding attorneys. Instead they wrote this:

Amendment IV: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia [speaking only of the actual soldiers not civilians], when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.;

Amendment VI: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

This country did not grow strong on the fear that Cornyn promotes. Times haven't changed so very much that we have to throw our rights away. After 9/11 all we heard from the administration and their propaganda machine was that the world had changed forever. They were pretty quick on the draw with the talking points too. It was a bad reaction to 9/11 at the time and it's worse now. If we do this, let this happen, our children and their children will never forgive us.

Jefferson wrote to Madison in December 1787:

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

Are we to be mere quivering shadows of our former selves?

Are we to be mere quivering shadows of our former selves? Did our founders fight and die in vain? Is American gone for want of courage, no not the fake let's attack a middle eastern country for the oil and corporate war profits, but the real courage required to stay free?

Here is an interesting exchange that occurred in the Senate as reported in the Hill (title link):

“None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a former judge and close ally of the president who sits on the Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who has led a bipartisan filibuster against a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, quoted Patrick Henry, an icon of the American Revolution, in response: “Give me liberty or give me death.”

He called Cornyn’s comments “a retreat from who we are and who we should be.”

Now might be a good time to tell Congressman Kirk where you stand:

Washington, DC Office 1717 Longworth HOBWashington, D.C. 20515Phone: 202-225-4835 Fax: 202-225-0837

or

707 Skokie Blvd., Northbrook, IL. I cannot find his new phone and fax numbers, please provide in the comments if you know.

Where are the republicans here? Are the so far gone that they do not see or do not care about what this country is all about? This should be something upon which we all agree.

House Resolutions

Resolutions introduced in the House to investigate and censure Bush and Cheney here, here and here.

VOTE FOR DEMOCRAT OF THE YEAR 2005!

41% of Americans want to exchange Bedford Falls for Potterville

Hellllloooo. Wake up and smell the hot coffee Americans!

In the little CNN poll at the bottom of their home page earlier today the question was posed asking whether or not folks agreed with President Bush that wire tapping was needed to keep Americans safe. 41% said yes. 59% said no.

More than sadly, the fearmongering tactics of the Bush administration work on 41% (ok the CNN poll is no more statistically significant than this blog's Democrat of the Year contest, but still??!!) That many people want to throw the great principles of the US down the toilet so they can feel like George W. Bush is protecting them. I wouldn't trust George W. Bush to protect the Democat's litter box much less our country. If they were interested in protecting us, Osama bin Laden would have been captured at Tora Bora, we would have continued to concentrate our efforts of Afghanistan instead of draining our resources in Iraq, we would not be wasting gargantuan amounts of money on corporate profiteers in Iraq, al-Zarqawi would not have been released, right wing hate groups would be on terror lists instead of sweet cookie baking Quaker ladies, that charming couple Mrs. Anthrax and Dr. Germ would not have been released. They don't want the real perpetrators captured and brought to justice. They want to be able to tell our children at night that the scary people are still out there and after them. They also want to be able to spy on any group that disagrees with them. If you think they are only spying suspected terrorists, think again, but of course, they consider anyone who disagrees with them to actually be terrorists. If you think they need to conduct illegal spying to protect Americans, think again and again because there is a law that is supposed to address the very issue. It's called called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and was enacted after Nixon to prevent these abuses. Bush could have presented evidence to the secret court mandated by FISA and been entirely within the law going after real terrorists, but for some reason, he chose not to do that. What, afraid the secret court would tell you no, Mr. President? Maybe the secret court would not have allowed you to spy on that scary terrorist group, the Quakers.

As George Bailey said after he figured out the old miser's tactics for taking over Bedford Falls and turning it into a ghetto style Potterville: "Potter isn't selling, Potter's buying." Bush is attempting to buy Americans and America in exchange for protection. We've seen his style of protection. Our liberty should not come so cheaply.

You 41 percenters out there, call CNN and change your vote, now!

Peter Daou wrote an interesting essay on why Bush gets away with the unthinkable: http://daoureport.salon.com/synopsis.aspx?synopsisId=a6da2e05-c808-4f7e-9ab2-3d2a01a82a15

Voting for Democrat of the Year goes on

Polling places close at 5:00pm Friday, December 23, 2005.

No one has to wait in line for 8 hours like Ohio.

There is only one rule: there are no rules. Vote early and often.

Tell your friends. Feel free to campaign for your favs in the comments.

Military Dictatorship

Just heard Alberto Gonzalez justify the President's spying on Americans saying he is allowed to do so as commander-in-chief and under the authorization to use military force in Iraq. Strange. I did not think we lived in a military dictatorship. I did not think we were all soldiers or that we were all subject to military law. I thought we had a civilian government and that civilians are governed by US law which requires court review and issuance of a warrant for wiretaps.

Hey Alberto, if you decide to do one of those sneak and peak searches in my house, here are a few tips:

• Don't antagonize the Democat, it's nap time no matter when you come in and her bite is worse than her bark.
• It wouldn't kill you to vacuum.
• You can watch cable, but I'm not giving you the parental control code to watch porn or O'Reilly.
• You can eat anything out of the fridge, but I'd watch that tuna, not sure how old it is, and if you can identify that black thing in the back, let me know.

Have your waterboard and eat it too

Remember to vote for Democrat of the Year 2005 starting Sunday!!!!

W: Uncle Cheney??!! You're alive!
Cheney: Of course I'm alive George. What did you think?
W: I heard the Vice President died yesterday.
Cheney: Where did you hear that George?
W: On the news on TV.
Condi: Sir, that was E! Entertainment news and you heard that the actor from The West Wing whose character is running for VP on the program died yesterday... the actor John Spencer. Not the real VP.
W: Someone should do something about the press' bad reporting. Get on it Karl.
Silence
W: Where's Karl?
Condi: You're not speaking to him, sir. Don't you remember? That business with the CIA woman. Valerie Plame? and the special prosecutor...Fitzsomething from Chicago....?
W: Oh. OK.... Yeah.... You know, I knew nothing about that. I don't care what Novak says.... I knew nothing about that. Still know nothing....
Condi: More than you know, sir.
Cheney and Condi (chanting): God Bless Conrad Black.
Cheney: Let's get down to business, George.
W: OK, Uncle Cheney. What business is that? Glad you're not dead. Have to do something about the press, don't we Uncle Cheney.
Cheney: Sure do George. Anyway, we were smart yesterday to ban torture with McCain. We're getting major points for that.
W: McCain? Didn't he father a black....
Cheney: Save it for 2008 George. Again, that was a smart move. We stemmed the tide of complaints...took the wind out of their sails. Poll numbers are going back up.
Condi: except maybe for that Jib Jab cartoon, sir. (giggle)
Cheney: It wasn't that funny, Condi.
W: What???
Cheney: Never mind, George. It doesn't matter.
W: I love cartoons.
Cheney: Never mind George. Back to torture. Good thing McCain is an old army man, relied on the definition of torture in the Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation .
Condi: And we were smart enough to have Rumsfeld change that before we acquiesced! That 10 page CLASSIFIED addendum that contains new, highly-permissive interrogation standards will let us keep doing what we are doing. Brilliant, sirs! Sure made my trip to Eastern European secret prisons easier, but the shoe stores there...ugh....
W: D'ja mean we can still tickle 'um with their heads under water. I like that one.
Condi: It's not exactly tickling, more like drowning....
Cheney: Alberto thinks we can continue using that and other techniques, George. He's busy writing more secret legal opinions as we speak. Too bad that kid reserved the only copy of Mao'sThe Little Red Book. We could sure use a copy for more ideas.
W: I'm sure relieved we can still torture Democrats...er...I mean terrorists on the waterboard. That little guy from Illinois thinks it's a great technique. That Marky Rooster fellow says everyone cracks in under a minute, or at least he did in intelligence training.
Condi: McCain says they might talk but what they say might not be the truth. He says it's illegal as a mock execution.
W: We talk and it might not be the truth either...tee hee....
Cheney: Alberto's out on the circuit parsing and spinning. We'll get the credit for ending torture and get to torture too. Fine work everyone. We deserve a nice holiday season.
Condi: Christmas, sir.
W: Whatever. I'd sure like to go shopping for Laura.

A New Hope

A few hours ago, in a part of the galaxy called the US Senate all the way in Washington, DC....

It is a period of divisiveness.
But the Democrats in the Senate, having stuck together and having found 5 republicans to take their side, won their first victory against the Evil Bush/Kirk Corporate Empire.

During their work to gain support for the filibuster of Patriot Act renewal, the New York Times revealed that the Bush Administration was spying on international calls and emails without warrants, a story that they held for over a year. This action by the Bush Administration is simply spying on Americans and clearly illegal.

Pursued by lying right-wing pundits, Christmas warriors and a justice department that operates on classified legal opinions, Democrats, prosecutors, and grassroots progressives continue their work to have the Patriot Act repealed, Rove indicted, and a new Congress elected, the only ways we can save our country and restore freedom to our part of the galaxy.

Democrat of the Year Eyes on the Prize

Nominations are officially closed. Thanks to everyone who nominated.

The prize for our friendly little Democrat of the Year contest is:

drum roll

I will donate One Hundred Dollars to the winner's favorite Democratic organization, so long as same can be done legally under all applicable state and federal laws.

and

a commemorative certificate from Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog and the Democat.

Voting begins Sunday.

Feel free to campaign for yourself if you are a nominee or for someone else in the Comments of any recent post or using any of your favorite communication channels.

Constitution saves itself

Under our Constitution, there are two houses of Congress and today's proceedings in the Senate illustrate why that is. Cooler heads prevailed today in the Senate to defeat the Fake-Patriot Act reauthorization that passed the House with Mark Kirk's A-OK.

Funny, the founders thought that the House would be closer to the people than the Senate. However, current campaign financing realities and a two year term align House Members more closely with the wealthy and powerful. Nonetheless, the structure of our government with 2 houses elected for different terms, serving different jurisdictions and under different rules saves the Constitution for another day.

Now we have to work on further campaign finance reform to bring the House back to the people as it was intended in the first place. Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we just stop big dollar campaign financing completely? Rather than multi-million dollar campaigns, we should have candidate information on a neutral internet site and televised debates on television paid for publicly. We need to take back what is left of our government from the corporate PACs and other wealthy interests.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Zane Smith who filed as a candidate for US Congress for the Illinois Tenth District today.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a primary contest.

Last chance to nominate Democrat of the Year

Friday will be the last day of nominations.

The prize will be announced Friday night.

Thanks to all who have participated in the nominations. I really appreciate your enthusiasm and the care that was taken in the nominations.

A couple of things to think about:

I am thinking of disqualifying our wonderful 2006 Tenth District Democratic Candidates for Congress from the voting to take place next week because I do not even want the appearance that this little contest is even trying to approach a microcosm of the primary...not that it ever could.

It would also be unfair given the voting rules I've been considering: The only rule will be that there are no rules. I've been alluding to it in some of the previous posts: that the voting will be done old Chicago style, vote early and often. This means that I will open up the blogpoll to allow more than one vote from any one browser or computer because otherwise folks with access to greater than one computer would have the advantage and because part of the contest is gathering enough dedicated grassroots support to get a lot of people to vote for you or your favorite nominee a lot of times, and I kind of like the openness free for all of it all...after all, we are not electing leaders of the free world here. No, I don't recommend this style of voting for Ohio in 2006 although I guess it couldn't be much worse than what happened in 2004, just the opposite of supressing the vote.

Anyone have strong feelings about this? Please state them in the comments. I will take all opinions seriously under consideration, but will make the final decision.

...and everyone please remember the spirit in which it was originally concocted, to have some year end fun and think about all the folks who "done good" this year.

Fake Patriots and Real Patriots

Yesterday, Mark Kirk voted for the reauthorization of the fake Patriot Act, you know, the one that mistrusts Americans so much that it allows the government to secretly spy on us and collect and store the data. It looks like the Senate might save the day. Specifically, Russ Feingold and Dick Durbin leading a bipartisan group of about two dozen Senators.

Meanwhile, we find out that Bush secretly authorized eavesdropping on US Citizens in a 2002 presidential order. Of this report, Brent Mesick of The Chicagoland Coaltion for Civil Liberties and Rights said, "This is not "eavesdropping". This is a country spying on its own citizens. Notice that the Times delayed for a full year the publishing of this report."

Fake patriots like Kirk and Bush will cry and moan about protecting Americans from terrorists, but they don't seem too concerned about terrorists when it comes to selling them guns. Real patriots like Feingold and Durbin know that the protection sought by Patriot Act suporters is really for the administration. One thing seldom discussed that bugs me the most about the Patriot Act is how quickly it was passed after 9/11. Ever read the original Patriot Act? It's huge. If you click on the title link and hit print preview, you'll see it comes to 163 pages. Take a look at it and it amends a lot of other laws, so it's not a straight forward stream of conscienceness dictation. I've seen years of agonizing over writing legislation in my area of the law for far less complex and shorter bills. How in the world could this have been written as a reaction to 9/11 when it had to have already been written well before 9/11? No one could write something like that so quickly unless they had an army of people who had pre-researched related laws to know what to amend and pre-agreed on basic principles and small details. Since we have no idea what really led to this document, we should stick to the document we know all about...our Constitution, written by real patriots.

Here is a terrific resource on the Patriot Act.

Nominations for Democrat of the Year Continue

Thanks for the great response. Keep putting nomination in the comments.

Thanks to The Inside Dope for mentioning the contest and welcome to their readers.

John Murtha, congressman who spoke out against the Iraq war, nominated and seconded.
John Hmurovic, Tenth Dems Administrative Committee chair, newsletter editor, statistics analyst, nominated, seconded and thirded and fourthed (is that a word?).
Barack Obama, Senator from Illinois.
David Borris, NSPI board member, peace organizer, nominated and seconded.
Ross Nickow, Tenth Dems Events Committee Chair and general putter together of almost everything, nominated, seconded and thirded.
Lauren Beth Gash, Co-Chair and founder of Tenth Dems, Moraine Township Dems Chair, state party committeewoman and more, nominated seconded and thirded and fourthed.
Dave Swanson and John Bonifaz, After Downing Street, Progressive Democrats of America.
Al Franken, comedian, author and AAR host.
Randi Rhodes, AAR host famous for great research and frank discussion.
Paul L. Hackett, Iraq War vet and candidate for Senate in Ohio, nominated and seconded.
James Rosen, Crankyboy blogger, columnist for former Illinois for Kerry website.
Dick Bell, John Kerry for President webmaster and Democracy Cell project founder nominated.
Dan Seals, 10th District Candidate for Congress, nominated and seconded.
Zane Smith, 10th District Candidate for Congress, nominated and seconded.
Nancie Blatt, Tenth Dem, Moraine Township Dems super volunteer.
Barry Bradford, activist, high school teacher.

Posthumous nomination to Sen. Eugene McCarthy

Carl: Since this is Democrat of the Year (2005) I only added your 2005 choice, but do agree with your past nominees!!!

The prize will be announced on Sunday!

Communication Channels

One of the major problems with current homeland security evident from the Katrina response was also the major problem on September 11th.

Communications

Yup, even in this age of mobile email and cell phones, communications are a problem.

It is also an issue in campaigns and social movements.

Today I attended the Northbrook Peace Committee discussion/party and leader Lee Goodman asked the question, what should we be doing in the future for the peace movement. I think that we need to make sure that we use all of our communications channels to keep a steady stream of communications between our peace organizations and concerned citizens who want to get involved in order to get more of them involved and to help direct their efforts.

There are still many people out there who are concerned about the war, but are only hearing the mainstream news media which is now harping on the couple of percentage points Bush has gained from his soap opera set after noon speeches. They may still feel like they are in a minority in their feelings against the war. I know when I marched in parades during the summer of 2004, we met several people in many parts of the Illinois 10th who thought the were the only Democrats in their area and were happy and relieved to see that there we others and others willing to show their affiliation and beliefs in public. We still have to be out there in that world.

Of the internet communications channels, we have several resources including yahoo group, meetups, websites, blogs, and email lists. We also have to make sure that we have non-internet channels as well because there are still a lot of people who do not like to use computers or simply don't have them. There are lots of non-internet ways to communicate including friend to friend cards, coffees, precinct walking, public forums, movie events and discussion parties like the one I attended tonight.

You might be thinking ok, ok already, we know this stuff, Ellen. Couldn't you think of a blog topic tonight?

The reason I am bringing this up is because we need to constantly remind ourselves to keep the channels of communications open, amongst our current groups and also with a wide open door for new members and volunteers. We need to remember that attending functions is important and even fun. We need to remember that if we go away, it is easy for our leaders to keep going down the wrong path. We need to lead them back by assuring them that we are not going away.

The example I use to prove the point is the only victory reason has had during the Bush administration. There was a real, bipartisan 9/11 Congressional Hearing. The only such hearing since Bush took office. That occurred only because the 9/11 victim families assured their congressmen and senators that they were not going away. They showed up to the offices of their congressmen and senators every day, day after day. The only way to maintain something like that is with a steady stream of volunteers and the only way to get that is through the use of every available communication channel.

In that vein, congratulations to the groups that visited their congressmen's offices today with two messages, Americans' demand for a moral budget and 1000th day of the Iraq war. You can see the Illinois 10th congressional offices on atcenternetwork.com. A petiton of 1200 signatures of Tenth District voters asking for removal of troops from Iraq was presented to Mark Kirk's aid. That was one of the largest petitions presented today in Illinois, but it is certainly small compared to the thousands and thousands of people who agree and might have signed had they known about them.

We need to open up new channels of communications and keep using the ones we already have.

Nominations still open for Democrat of the Year

Here is where we are now:

John Murtha, congressman who spoke out against the Iraq war, nominated and seconded.
John Hmurovic, Tenth Dems Administrative Committee chair, newsletter editor, statistics analyst, nominated, seconded and thirded and fourthed (is that a word?).
Barack Obama, Senator from Illinois.
David Borris, NSPI board member, vigil organizer, nominated and seconded.
Ross Nickow, Tenth Dems Events Committee Chair and general putter together of almost everything, nominated and seconded.
Lauren Beth Gash, Co-Chair and founder of Tenth Dems, Moraine Township Dems Chair, state party committeewoman and more, nominated seconded and thirded.
Dave Swanson and John Bonifaz, After Downing Street, Progressive Democrats of America.
Al Franken, comedian, author and AAR host.
Randi Rhodes, AAR host famous for great research and frank discussion.
Paul L. Hackett, Iraq War vet and candidate for Senate in Ohio.
James Rosen, Crankyboy blogger, columnist for former Illinois for Kerry website.
Dick Bell, John Kerry for President webmaster and Democracy Cell project founder nominated.

Keep those nominations coming. You can put new nominations and seconds etc. in the comments of this post.

Make sure to get all your friends ready to vote early and often next week.

Prize will be announced this Friday.

Nominations for Democrat of the Year Continue

So far we have:

John Murtha, congressman who spoke out against the Iraq war, nominated and seconded.
John Hmurovic, Tenth Dems Administrative Committee chair, newsletter editor, statistics analyst, nominated and seconded.
Barack Obama, Senator from Illinois.
David Borris, NSPI board member, vigil organizer.
Ross Nickow, Tenth Dems Events Committee Chair and general putter together of almost everything.
Lauren Beth Gash, Co-Chair and founder of Tenth Dems, Moraine Township Dems Chair, state party committeewoman and more.
Dave Swanson and John Bonifaz, After Downing Street, Progressive Democrats of America.
Al Franken, comedian, author and AAR host.
Randi Rhodes, AAR host famous for great research and frank discussion.
Paul L. Hackett, Iraq War vet and candidate for Senate in Ohio.
James Rosen, Crankyboy blogger, columnist for former Illinois for Kerry website.

Nominate or second or third the nomination of your favorite!!! The Democat and I are going to weed it down to 5 by seconds and thirds if we can. Voting begins next week. Spread the word!

The prize is good (not fake or gag and no, I am not giving away the Democat) and will be announced later this week.

You can put new nominations and seconds, thirds etc. in the comments of this post.

Will we be parties to our own swindle?

In the hard light of day, over 4 years after September 11th, will we allow Congress to take away our civil liberties and privacy? Will we stand for roving wire taps, secret access to our records, undisclosed searches?

Will we allow the demonization of Senators threatening to filibuster the Patriot Act Reauthorization? They can accuse, but American's don't have to accept it. Will we? Will we accept that they are soft of terror like the congressmen who voted against the Iraq war?

The wapo article in the title link headlines the rush GOP leaders are in getting the bill passed. I don't know about you, but I have noticed that when someone rushes you into something for no real good reason, they may be swindling you.

Ooooops!

Forgot to give you the outcome of the vote on December 8th. I warned you it was coming and we all figured what he would do, but he did, in fact, do it....

On December 8, 2005, Mark Kirk voted Yea to H.R.4297 extending tax cuts for investors while New Orleans stands in ruins, the cost of the Iraq war mounts and increases our debt...to China, heating bills rise and funding for assistance programs is not increased, and Medicaid, student loans, temporary assistance for needy families, food stamps, and child care assistance are cut.

See roll call 621.

The only thing more predictable than Kirk's votes against the wishes of the people of this district is the walk our Waukegan Road homeless guy takes every Saturday afternoon between Waukegan and Lake Cook Road and Waukegan and Deerfield Road.

First Annual Democrat of the Year

Please enter your nominations for Democrat of the Year in the comments. It can be a local or national person, famous or less famous as long as they are famous with you. Nominate yourself if you like.

If your nominee is already nominated, feel free to second the nomination as I might have to weed out the field to get a good race going at the end.

Voting will begin next week in the blogpoll and I will ask you to spread the word and vote early and often.

There will be a prize, but I haven't thought of what it will be yet.

Please spread the word. I'd like to see a lot of nominations and votes.

Ellen

Baiting Bankrupts Part II

The second most important thing to know about the new bankruptcy rules is that there is now a means test to force debtors with "sufficient available net income" (a term of art under the Bankruptcy Act) out of chapter 7 which allows a bankrupt to begin with a clean slate and into the chapter 13 payment plan. "Sufficient available net income" is determined under complex formulas, however, a creditor can ask the court to dismiss a case if a debtor has available net income of at least $10,000 over a 5-year period for repayment of debts. You have to be pretty destitute to be eligible for the clean slate type of bankruptcy that has been available since we decided debtor's prison was a bad idea.

Also, to be eligible for a bankruptcy discharge, the debtor has to attend credit counseling sessions. The credit counseling industry has been plagued with fraud and complaints about the high cost. So, while it sounds like a good idea, it may not be all that helpful.

The long and the short of all of this is that the credit card companies and advertising agencies work overtime to tempt people into incurring debt and make lots of money on them when they get over their heads, but there is little protection anymore for the debtor. We are headed back to the time of Dickens and not the sweet memories of razzleberry dressing and warm "God bless us every one" wishes, but the miserable lives of the poor and destitute used and scoffed at by a wealthy ruling class. I guess for all those right-wing, corporationist Christmas warriors out there, that is a good idea. For the rest of us, it just means we have to be very careful.