Still Fighting

Activism

Tom DeLay's defense fund grows by the day. Companies like American Airlines, Bacardi and Verizon have all contributed to DeLay's pot. We urge you to "Drop the Hammer" by contacting these companies and letting them know that you will refuse to support them as long as they continue to fund DeLay. Here's hoping enough negative press will make them realize that this is probably not a worthwhile investment for them.

News

Frist likely to push for ban on filibusters. It's getting closer. Apparently Frist seems all but certain to go for the "nuclear option", and part of us wants to see him do it. Sure, we're concerned about the effectiveness of the possible Democrat response, but so far they've been doing a bang-up job. And with it hopefully still fresh in people's minds that Republicans are the ones trying to undermine the judiciary, it should be pretty obvious why they're making they're move. It's so disgusting, unconstitutional, and unprincipled that it makes us want to scream. At the same time, since the GOP is going to act in that manner no matter what, it's reasonably likely that if they continue to abuse their power so publicly, the citizenry will catch on. But that's why it's also important that you do your part and stay informed, and inform others about how and why the Republicans have gone completely off the rails. It's all about power, arrogance, and greed.

Read Between the Lines. Members of the uber-right-wing Washington Times sat down with Tom Delay for an interview, and peppered him with questions on everything from ethics to immigration. What DeLay said is just as interesting as what he didn't say. For example, he talks about limiting government. "Limiting the government in your life, regulatory, social issues and all that and shrinking the size of government or reprioritizing - or as I like to say it, 'redesigning' - government to reflect our values are very important." That seems a little at odds with his impassioned plea about Terri Schiavo, no? But DeLay doesn't mention Schiavo's name once in this interview. DeLay wants to spend money and military personnel to send all illegal immigrants back to their home countries just to have them apply for a "guest visa." And, of course, instead of coming clean about his ethics issues, he attacks Democrats. DeLay was given softball questions, and not really pressed on anything, yes still manages to look like a complete jackass. We recommend you read this transcript, if only to see how often he contradicts himself. (By the way, in the interest of "full disclosure," DeLay lied when he said that he voted against No Child Left Behind. The proof is here).

Paying Up and Hunkering Down. With 7 months left until the governor's election, fundraising is taking center stage in Virginia. Already, Timothy Kaine (D) and Jerry Kilgore (R) have raised more money than was raised for the 2001 election, with Kaine raising the most. He's also received a large amount of money from Howard Dean, which is good news indeed. Republicans surely want to take this state back, and you can expect the media blitz to be fast and furious over the next few months. Thankfully, Kaine seems to be well equipped to handle it. Virginians are a bitterly divided bunch, with the northern part of the state heavily Democratic, and the southern part heavily Republican. This promises to be a very close race, with every dollar and every bit of effort making a difference. Will you do your part?

Editorials

Teachers for Peace. Last month, a group of anti-war teachers met with like-minded activists in New York City. Their goal was to find new ways to oppose the war in Iraq. Why should teachers be relevant to a political or military operation? Well, aside from the well-know statistic about colleges being quite liberal, it seems that Bush's dismantling of the education system and the economy has actually been beneficial for military recruiting. Obviously, if you can't find a job, and the military is deluding you into thinking that enlisting is your ticket to success (because they're heavily recruiting on campus), well, maybe you start thinking about that option. But if teachers can start to fight back, and educate children about their career options, and get them to realize that war is never a good answer, then these kids can hope for something a little bit bigger than just being a grunt in an unnecessary war. Maybe we can train them to be diplomats!

The Biggest Tax Cheats. The problem with writer Robert Kuttner, if it can be called a problem, is his naivete. In his latest column, he poses the question of "How can we possibly reduce the federal deficit and find enough money for high-quality public services without raising everyone's taxes?" It's a fair question, and his answer is to get serious about collecting money from tax cheats. Specifically, those who hide money tax shelters. An estimated $7 trillion in assets sits hidden and isn't taxed. If we're going to get serious about balancing the budget, why cut discretionary programs? Why pull Medicaid funding from states? Why not spend a little more money on IRS enforcement to ensure that *every* American pays his or her fair share in taxes. Of course, a lot of those who get away with paying less are friends of the president, and he can't risk alienating them, can he? He's already alienated half the world as it is. The difference, of course, is that these people are willing to pay through the nose to make sure those in Washington continue to let them steal from the rest of us.

Disaster, Not Diplomacy. Richard Cohen discusses why the nomination of John Bolton is a bad idea. Having seen him in press conferences in his role as a White House spokesman, Bolton's idea of diplomacy is pretty meager, to say the least. He's hardly in control of his emotions. He "needs anger management," according to Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Certainly, Bush is allowed to nominate anyone he wants. But, as Cohen says, why he would want someone with such a fundamental lack of diplomacy skills is beyond us. Then again, he did nominate Wolfowitz for the World Bank, so it stands to reason that Bolton's nomination is just another "Thank you." Unfortunately, it surely means that the rest of us will suffer.

Humor

A dose of Friday afternoon humor for you. dNeXT has created some humorous videos on Bush, and are constantly updating their site with more. You'll need sound, and it may take a little while to load, but the end result is worth it.

Activism

Suggest Your Own Slogan. Ah, here's a fun way you can get involved. Flex those creative muscles! Go to the link and suggest a slogan that DFA can use for a billboard in Tom DeLay's congressional district. Ousting DeLay would strike a great blow for democracy and human decency. Certainly you can think of something clever, can't you?

News

Eric Rudolph and Abortion. By now you are probably aware that Eric Rudolph has pled guilty to the bombings that occured during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA, as well as to two other such acts. A defiant Rudolph explained that he could not abide by a government that would sanction what he calls "abortion on demand," and used the platform of the Olympics to "embarass the U.S. government in front of the world." Although Rundolph says he regrets the loss of "innocent" life, his actions are nonetheless heinous and despicable. Although it may sound trite to say that "violence is never an answer," it is nonetheless true. Our question is, how many more Rudolphs are being fostered by the vitriol that the religious right is spewing these days? Judges, doctors, lawmakers have all been threated - it seems that "sanctity of life" is really just a catchphrase these days.

They Call it Progress. And it is, of a sort. Connecticut is poised to become the second state to establish civil unions for same-sex couples. The state also passed an ammendment that defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman. It appears that the amendment was necessary for Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell to sign the civil unions legislation. Connecticut is the first state to pass such civil union laws without being directed by the courts. Of course, neither political side is happy, as Democrats lament the amendment, and Republicans lament the civil unions. To us, it appears that Democrats came out ahead, because as Rep. Alfred Adinolfi (R) said, "This bill is the same as same-sex marriage, it's just called civil unions." It provides the same tax breaks to civil union couples as to married couples. We hate preaching patience on issues that should be obvious in 2005, but baby steps seem to be what's going to get it done.

Violence Over Afghan Opium. A few weeks ago, the U.S. decided to crack down on the drug trade in Afghanistan, probably because they realize how much it is affecting Americans. Of course, Afghanistan's opium trade is nothing new. So it shouldn't be surprising that the first raid in Afghanistan turned into a bloody battle with American mercenaries. What is surprising is that the American contractors who led the raid thought it would be a peaceful, low-key mission. Mark our words - this will become much worse before it gets any better. And the conventional wisdom is that Afghanistan is in much better shape than Iraq.

Editorials

The GOP Is Harboring Domestic Terrorists. We talked a little about this earlier in the week, but Jill's justifiable outrage over the "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference, and its speakers, needs to be heard. Jill quotes Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) who said last week, "I'm a radical! I'm a real extremist. I don't want to impeach judges. I want to impale them!" As Jill reminds us, the penalty for threatening a judge is six years in prison. But will Coburn see the inside of a cell? Hardly - he'll barely feel the effects in his constituency. And that is the real problem. We're kidding ourselves if we think rhetoric like this doesn't somehow fuel sociopaths like Eric Rudolph.

Lacking the Political Will. Two million people have died in Darfur (that's about 2/3 of the population of New York). An additional 4 million have had to flee their homes. Food is running in short supply. And the ICC has yet to do anything about it, aside from verbally condemn the leaders of the janjaweed. It's a good thing that international donors recently pledged $4.5 billion dollars in aid. Now, if we could only get someone to, you know, stop the war.

Bush Reaches into New Jersey To Screw Up Our Prescription Drug Program. We don't live in New Jersey. And aside from their wonderful turnpike, we don't spend a lot of time there. But New Jersey does have a problem that is probably reflected in many other states - Bush's new prescription drug plan clashes with the state's drug plan. Foreseeing this, a nonpartisan commission was set up to look at issues like this. According to the author of this editorial, "The commission agreed that seniors should get the highest drug benefit, with no additional paperwork. This is done through automatic enrollment by the state into whichever plan is better for the resident. Minimal paperwork, maximum benefit. Simple." Not so simple, as Bush said No. "[He] decided that seniors in New Jersey must pick among a myriad of confusing options for their drug benefit. In addition, New Jersey and other states that already have prescription drug benefits lose Medicaid money from the Federal government, raising costs to state taxpayers." How is this fair to taxpayers? To the state? To the seniors already on their plan? The future isn't looking too hot, folks, and it is getting more and more frustrating trying to figure out how to fix it, when we have a man hell-bent on destroying it.

Activism

Ah, who could forget the days of the Fireside chat? (If you're old enough to have been around when FDR started them, that is.) Well, Harry Reid has started the tradition again, digitally. Go here to watch Reid's first chat on, what else, Social Security. While there, you can also sign the Democrats' pledge to protect Social Security.

News

The More Things Change...You know, back in 1995, when the Republicans took control of the House and Senate for the first time in 781 years, Newt Gingrich's message had been that Democrats were "drunk with power," and it was time to take back Congress "for the people." We all see how well that worked. It's funny, but now Democrats are using the same message. Of course, it doesn't take a beltway insider to see just HOW drunk Republicans in Congress are. As the House Democratic Whip, Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said recently, "They're not playing by House rules, by the ethics rules, by the Senate rules, even by the rule of law in the Schiavo case." Now is the ripe time for Democrats to continue the assault on Congressional Republicans, what with so many recent extremest ideas and decisions by the GOP. We certainly aren't going to let up.

How Many Polish Soldiers Does it Take to Fight a War in Iraq? Poland's Defense Minister, Jerzy Szmajdzinski, thinks the answer is zero. And really, can you blame him? It's been over two years since the occupation began, and with Bush's assertment that "trained Iraqi troops now outnumber U.S. forces," well, what need is there for Poland to stay? In fact, what need is there for us to stay? You've gotta wonder what he means by "trained Iraqi troops". Remember when Rumsfeld and Rice claimed that there were over 100,000 trained troops, and Joe Biden found out it was much closer to 4,000?

No Time, Love and Tenderness for John Bolton. Carl W. Ford Jr. testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday about John Bolton, saying that he is "a 'bully' who abused his authority and power, intimidated intelligence analysts, and damaged the integrity of the agency." Well, this certainly seems like the kind of man we want representing the U.S. to the U.N.! Ford is the former intelligence chief for the State Depamrtment, and the details of his testimony are in the link above. But what gets us is this line from the article: "He [John Bolton] has been a longtime critic of the United Nations, and backers say he is the right choice for ambassador at a time when Bush has made reform of the world body a priority." This sentence pretty much sums up the arrogance of the Bush administration in one fell swoop, now, doesn't it?

Editorials

Misleading.gov. A few weeks ago we talked about the new government website 4parents.gov, and how the facts on the website are misleading and skewed towards a conservative agenda. Now comes Chris Mooney, writer for the American Prospect, who deconstructs the website and reveals the truth. He sums it up better that we could. "It is a sad day, but we can no longer doubt that it has arrived. At least in the area of sexual health, Americans can no longer rely on their own government for balanced, objective information." This isn't about politics, it's about the well-being of American citizens! Sigh...

Flirting With Deficit Disasters. David Ignatius discusses a pair looming crises that Bush has been ignoring: The collapse of the dollar and the growing budget deficit. He talks about about financial guru Warren Buffett's annual letter, which this year took on a quite ominous tone. Buffett predicts a continued decline in the dollar due to our massive trade deficit. Additionally, sometime hack Alan Greenspan is concerned about the budget deficit threatening our long-term stability. (Of course, that doesn't mean his call for tax cuts was wrong...) Fixing these problems is going to require true leadership, and possibly some political sacrifice. But it won't happen, because there's too much political hay to be made attacking judges and inventing fictional crises. Ultimately, we're all going to pay the price.

The New Congressional Assault on the Right to Die. After the Schiavo case got so ugly, it would have been nice if the whole episode was just removed from our national consciousness. Unfortunately, the mess did happen, and there are some lasting effects. Some positive ones might be that citizens are more aware of the need for living wills, and that the violent hatred of the so-called "right-to-life" movement has been exposed for more to see (and hopefully defeat). But it would be naive to think that there aren't long-term negative effects as well. In the short-term, it was painful for the Schiavo family, and completely embarrassing for our country. Additionally, it seemed to further embolden those on the right who are looking for justification to overthrow (or eliminate?) the independent judiciary. But this editorial talks about another way craven right-wing politicians are exploiting the Schiavo case: They're proposing laws that would take away our right to choose death without suffering. It's sad, pathetic, and scary, and the power grab of the religious right has got to be stopped.

Activism

John Kerry has created an online ad asking people to contact Senator Lincoln Chafee, head of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and urge him to block the nomination of John Bolton to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. In order to effectively run the ad, Kerry needs your donations and support. Go here to see the ad and donate. We need to use every available weapon in our arsenal to stop Bolton from being pushed through and then rubber-stamped. Diplomacy is important, gosh darn it!

News

China Modernizes Weapons. China's military advancements, which might be trouble for U.S. ships in the Pacific, have Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice and Goss concerned. China has been slowly but surely increasing their military to be more compact but far stronger than it has been. You know, if Bush's idea of diplomacy wasn't to stick a gun in another country's face, we'd have more hope that peaceful relations could be maintained. Instead, we fear that this administration will see it as provocation, and act with the blind stupidity that led us to the War in Iraq and the Terri Schiavo bill. We certainly don't have the right to tell China what they can and can't do. We can, however, learn to live with them.

When Is a Bill Not a Bill? When it starts out as a military appropriation for Iraq, and ends up having every Senator's pet projects added to it. Mineral rights for Mississippi, road reconstruction in California, and even the new stadium for Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals are all projects that got tagged onto the bill, because the bill is a "must pass." Democrats and Republicans alike are at fault, and we just wonder why Senators think this is acceptible. We sure don't.

Gov. Dean Announces Half Million Dollar Investment in State Parties. We haven't heard a lot from Dean recently, but you know what? That's fine with us, as long as he's doing important work behind the scenes. This little news post is just to reassure you that Dean does seem to be building the party back up from the ground. Investing in state parties, in every single state, is a great start, and we hope he continues to execute his plan for Democrats to compete in every race in every state.

Editorials

A Culture of Death, Not Life. The right thrive on it. In the thirst to portray themselves as the Culture of Life, the right have done an excellent job of portraying a Culture of Death in the media. So says Frank Rich, and he's dead on, pardon the pun. From Fox News spending three days "prepping" for the Pope's death to the entirety of Terri Schiavo nonsense, conservative media outlets have been using this Culture of Death to proselytize the right's view of the "sanctity of life." It's not just television, though...movies, print media, even publishing have all been affected. We don't know any cure for this problems, except to hope that media outlets cut it out. Of course they won't, so we bet we're stuck with this trend until...well, until the new right-wing catchphrase takes hold.

Fix Health Care First. David S. Broder writes about what no sitting President or Presidential hopeful wants to hear - the health care crisis (which actually is a looming crisis). When compared to the fictional "crisis" of Social Security, there's no question as to which is more vital to the long-term stability of our country. Broder interviews writers David Baker and David Rosnick, from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who have recently written a book about the "phony crisis," as they call it. Baker and Rosnick write, "Politicians and commentators who claim to be concerned about the living standards of future generations of workers seem to be misdirecting their energy by focusing on the comparatively minor problem of Social Security. Clearly the inefficiency of the U.S. health care system poses a far larger and more immediate danger to the [living] standards of our children and grandchildren." Now, why can't we get this administration to acknowledge and do something about health care reform?

End This African Horror Story. Quick, before you click on this article, name three hot spots on the planet. Got them? Chances are you thought of Iraq, North Korea and Darfur. Chances are Uganda hasn't crossed your mind. Chances are you've never heard of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Chances are you didn't even know Uganda is plagued by a war that has lasted for 18 years. Uganda isn't a "sexy" story, and so it doesn't get MSM press. Sure, maybe the occasional story (like the John Prendergast editorial linked above), but nothing to draw major attention to this country. The head of the LRA, Joseph Kony, is an Old Testament zealot who would make James Dobson seem liberal. Yet the MSM doesn't cover Uganda (in fact, the Washington Post online's "Uganda" section has only two articles this year, both indirect, and doesn't have a news article relating to Uganda posted since September 2, 2001). The International Criminal Court is just now starting to examine Kony's actions, but the situation is dicey. Read this editorial, and wonder how a story like this could go untold for so long.