...and I should, perforce, add a disclaimer: Everything I say in this post does not apply to anyone who ever voted "yes" on a mill rate increase or bond issue, or to anyone who believes that the solution to America's future lies in paying more taxes, for the right investments in America's people, not in giving bigger tax breaks to corporations and billionaires. Got that? Okay, on with the rant... I have had it up to the back teeth and beyond with parades. I have reached the point where I wa...

...in a community in a town in a state in a nation where: I can get up in the morning and see out my window through air that is healthy and invigorating to breathe. I can go into the bathroom and brush my teeth using clean, healthy, drinkable water that flows from the faucet, provided by my local government water authority at rates that reflect only the cost of providing that water and don't include a profit for some corporate sleazeball. I can use the toilet and shower, and know that my loca...

"Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not." Robert F. Kennedy (hypothetical) "I see things as they are and say 'OK, what can I do with this?'" Barack H. Obama It's an interesting contrast. I think it's at the root of the divergent opinions of the President here on DU. I'm not saying either version is "better." Sometimes one is better, sometimes the other. Both may be rooted in a desire for positive change. Both may be powerful ways t...

Lest we forget... our neighbors are still reeling from the destruction. A friend of mine sent this out to several of her friends and relatives. It is a vivid picture of what life is like on the GA/TN border right now. The devastation here is - I can't describe it. I could send you a link to a set of photos on local news, but even that doesn't really show it. Entire neighborhoods are gone. Schools are gone. Churches are gone. Small forests are gone or splintered. I drive down South Terrace ...

Rose Bertin was a small but pivotal cog in precipitating the end of the French Monarchy. She was more than a fashion designer; she was the fashion designer. She exclusively served the wealthiest and highest nobility; her most prominent client was Marie Antoinette, first as Dauphine (crown princess by marriage) and then as Queen of France. A creation by Rose Bertin--a single outfit--was likely to cost upwards of twenty times the annual income of an ordinary working class Frenchman. The Queen'...

(Link) Short answer: It's not that the prices at your Co-op are so much higher, it's that the prices at your average chain supermarket are so much lower. In fact, they are artificially low. Here's how: First, most of the minimally-processed items (produce, meat, eggs, milk, etc.) at your supermarket are produced at giant food factories that no longer even remotely resemble farms, but are eligible for large "farm subsidies" that keep their costs of production artificially low. They also (ge...

...for some arbitrary date after which you are legally entitled to recall him? Are you going to watch as he slowly disembowels the proud progressive democratic tradition of your state? As he sells off the infrastructure that Wisconsin citizens bought and paid for with their tax dollars to his billionaire owners? As he grinds the faces of the working men and women who keep your schools open and fix your roads and issue your license plates and check out books at your libraries into the cold, ha...

Here is a copy of what she sent to Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar, Michelle Bachman (yes, she lives in that district, poor dear...), Mark Dayton, and her state Senator and Representative: Dear public representative, Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is (withheld for privacy), married 8 years and mother for 3 years. Our family has been struggling ever since the birth of our son, (name), who was born at 28 weeks weighing 1lb 12oz. We are part of the working class. I work in retail and my h...

The magnitude of the horror and the disaster in Japan is almost impossible to comprehend. But not for the Japanese. It's happened there before. I looked at some of the gut-wrenching images coming from northern Japan. Before and after pictures of areas hit by the tsunami, with beautiful little towns full of orderly-looking homes with colorful roofs and green gardens... and brown devastation, water, mud, debris. Pictures of the Fukushima plant with the terrible plumes of radioactive smoke in ...

The Founding Fathers wanted us to have a small government. After all, they’d just gone through the horrendous struggle to free the Colonies from a large, tyrannical, costly, and (for the era) bureaucratic government that had been oppressing them with (gasp!) excessive taxes, demands for compliance with irrelevant and stifling commercial and social laws, and other Evils of Big Government. They knew whereof they spoke. Errr... wrote. They wanted things, by and large, left up to local communit...

I don’t dislike the man. I respect him. I disagree with some of his policies and actions (in some cases quite vehemently,) and agree with others. He is, at least, competent and unembarrassing as a Chief Executive. Perhaps my expectations have been more than a little depressed by recent history, but even so, I’m reasonably satisfied with him overall as President. But frankly, from this point forward, I can do without him. Not because of who he is, or what he’s done, but because of what he i...

A friend of mine (I'll call her Ann) has a brother-in-law (I'll call him Terry.) Terry is married to Ann's sister Kelly, and they have an adopted son John, who is almost twelve. Terry wants to dig a well in Sudan. Ann, Kelly and I all agree wholeheartedly with Terry that Sudan desperately needs more wells, that the people in Sudan are in deep and terrible distress, that it would be an excellent thing if another well could be dug. Kelly, Ann and I also agree wholeheartedly with Terry that rel...

Yep, that's a line. A real, honest-to-goodness "line in the sand." Right there, in Wisconsin. Excuse me? What's that, you say? I guess it HAS been a long time. Such a long time, maybe, that few of us remember what a line in the sand looks like, what it symbolizes, what it's FOR, even. We live in a world where lines blur and change and writhe and rearrange themselves based on profit and self-interest and laziness and comfort and delusion so often that maybe sometimes it seems like lines ha...

First let me clarify that I am not "advocating a third party." Rather, the Bull Moose Party was what the Democratic Party SHOULD be, should always have been, rarely attains, but should never stop striving for. And this is, as illustrated below, nothing new. * Address at Milwaukee, Wis., October, 14, 1912. Just before entering the auditorium at Milwaukee, an attempt was made on Colonel Roosevelt's life. The above speech is from a stenographic report, differing considerably from the prepared ma...

I don't know. All I can do, as a student of history, is point out what happened last time. "Last time" started in 1848, often called "the Year of Revolutions" for the numbers of violent upheavals, mostly (but not entirely) in Europe. France, Italy, the various German states, Hungary and Austria, Poland, Slovakia... all were among the states that saw their people take to the streets, making outrageous demands like a voice in their own governments, mitigation of the economic exploitations that...

Let us compare and contrast, good friends, between the Progressive, Liberal version of government, as represented by our esteemed Admins here at DU; and the Libertarian/Conservative, er, "Paradise" at F***R******* (henceforward F***R.) Progressive Liberals believe that the role of Government is to safeguard the benefits of civilization; strive continually to improve and increase those benefits; and ensure that they are equitably distributed. We try hard to meet everyone's needs. Libertarian Co...

Dear Baggers, Dear Sarah Palin, etc., Please let me clarify: I am NOT "holding you responsible for the shooting" of Congressional Representative Giffords, the deaths of six people, and injuries to a dozen others. Jared Loughner, by all accounts, is a pretty classic paranoid schizophrenic who could have latched on to any wacko ideology that fed into his mental illness, and acted violently regardless of the nature of that ideology. As with the 9/11 criminals, there are some criminal acts--hein...

A young man walks into a member of Congress' informal meet-and-greet and opens fire, killing at least four and injuring 18 more, including the Congressional Representative... A man walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, because it is full of "liberals." A man walks into a police station and opens fire, because 'they might take my guns.' A man walks into a Church and shoots a doctor he believes is a "baby killer." A man walks into a museum dedicated to the Holocaust and opens fire, ki...

Just when I think our Oligarchs and their corporate helots have demonstrated the absolute apex in cluelessness, they prove me wrong... again, and again, and again. I'm genuinely awestruck by this latest outbreak of cluelessness: on the backs of their institution and the Oligarchs on its Board of Directors. Someone must have told them about Teh Tubes. Oh NOES!!!! They could get MOCKED! Wikileaks has announced that "soon" they will reveal things about SOME major banking institution that ar...

Today we took another step towards acknowledging that my sister, my uncle, my best friend in college, and millions of other Americans are human beings and citizens worthy of full civil and human rights. We're not there yet. But we took another step. I'm happy for all the GLBT people who have fought and organized, for the ones who will now be able to proudly serve our country on the same basis as straight people, for the ones already serving our country who will be able to come out of the clos...

About this series: A few thousand people live and “work” at the most rarefied levels of our economy. The decisions they make affect our lives in ways we cannot even begin to imagine. These few thousand people are the Oligarchs, the string-pullers, the law-buyers, the elected official-owners who rule our world in the most practical sense. We should know more about our rulers, shouldn’t we? So now and then when I have the time, I'll select an Oligarch from one of the helpful websites that tra...

I don't know if anyone has posted a link to this site yet. It has a rather irritating Flash intro, and you have to click through it to get to the site itself. It's worth it. The information on this site needs to be widely known. Even though it is a trifle out of date as to specifics (based on 2004 data) the reality is that at this level, the players don't change substantially. "They Rule" ( (Link) ) is a site that allows you to map the interconnections between the power structures controlli...

Please don't misinterpret these questions. I believe in the idea that information wants to be free. That free exchange and availability of information are the last defense of democracy in the face of the growing power of oligarchy. That governments should be transparent and accountable to the people governed. I believe in all of those things, and yes, if it was demanded, I would probably be willing to give my life for them. But. I am a private individual. I like my privacy. I've made a l...

Because, with great thanks to Allen Lutins, whose site (Link) provides a timeline that illuminates the great arc of change that produced the now-defunct American middle class and the beginnings of its destruction, I would point out that change does not come from electing politicians who agree with the change agenda. Here is just one sample: >>20 June 1947 The Taft-Hartley Labor Act, curbing strikes, was vetoed by President Truman. Congress overrode the veto. 20 April 1948 Labor leader W...

It's entirely possible this was a calculated move on Keith's part to expose the Constitutional hypocrisy that enables corporations--INCLUDING MEDIA CORPORATIONS--to funnel limitless boatloads of cash to support any party or cause they want. But an individual commentator (not even a news anchor or pseudo-objective 'analyst') can be prevented by a corporate policy from supporting what they believe in and make no secret of believing in. If so, I think we are going to see this play out in a VERY i...

Seriously, the last two years around here at DU have been tough. Circular firing squads everywhere. The-mods-have-banned-"pony"-so-now-we-need-to-find-a-new-way-to-putdown-them-we-disagree-with. The "constructive criticism only" crowd versus the "freedom of speech" crowd. The "ideological integrity" caucus versus the "pragmatic compromise" caucus. The demonization of every POV that varied from our notions of What Is Right And Proper For Progressives. Or even What IS Progressive Officially ...

It's damn' hard to have any kind of hope under the relentless barrage of bankster-funded anti-change propaganda. It's damn' hard to have any kind of hope in the face of the frighteningly dumbed-down level of "civic discourse" holding sway in America today. It's damn' hard to have any kind of hope with the fear being monged wholesale, 5-for-1 at a 95% discount on all sides these days. But I still have hope. Two years ago, I VOTED FOR A NON-WHITE CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. ...

I have no words. Just watch it. Twelve agonizingly beautiful minutes. Worth it. (Link) humbly, Bright

And thank you, Congressman Grayson, for the meme. And thank you, Congressman Grayson, for joining us on the live-blog today. You DEFINITELY rock! appreciatively, Bright

Did the sun not come up this morning? Are there no leaves turning beautiful colors in your neighborhood? Did you not see anyone to smile at today-- to exchange a smile with? Is there no music for you to listen to? You tell me that bad things are happening-- so true. Yet... bad things are always happening. Bad things happen to everyone every day. But good things also happen to everyone every day. What does anger do to change the things that need changing? By itself, nothing. Anger rai...