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Republicans, The Loss of Balance, Loss of Sanity, Loss of Relevance

When you are involved in politics there is often a level of paradox. There is the need to stand firm on your agenda, yet there is the requirement of being open to compromise if you are to get that agenda enacted. There is the need for cold, hard eyed realism, yet there must be passion to push forward, even when it looks as though you are going to lose. It all seems to come down to the idea of balance, the Yin and the Yang, constantly opposed, yet each needed to balance the other, if there is to be a harmonious whole.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Today Is The Day To Know You Acted For Equality!

All of us have had this experience, we give to a candidate or political campaign, and then we wonder what exactly our money was spent on? It is hard to know, especially when you give to a Senatorial or Presidential campaign, was my $250 dollars spent on talking to voters or was it spent on a Starbucks run for some mid-level staffers? Today you have a chance to not only know what you would get for your money in the general but in the very specific.  

Weekly Torture Action Letter 22 – Thank You Sen. Feingold

Happy Monday and welcome to the Weekly Torture Action Letter series. This is a letter writing campaign for torture accountability. The basic idea is every Monday (yeah, the Dog knows, it is Tuesday, but the hound had to do a Labor Day post out of solidarity) the Dog writes a letter to the nations decision makers urging them to take action towards full accountability for the illegal Bush Administration state sponsored torture program. The way you get involved is by either cutting and pasting the letter over your own signature or using the topic of the letter as the jumping off point for your own. In either case the Dog provides the links to make this as easy as possible. The whole point of this campaign is to make sure our leaders don’t get distracted and forget their duties under the law to investigate and prosecute any act of torture.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Thinking Of The Union Members I have Known

Today is Labor Day. Hopefully you will be taking some time off and either are reading this after taking a break from yard work or better on Tuesday. Labor Day has always had a special place in the Dog’s life. The Dog is the Grandson and Nephew and Cousin of several life long UAW workers. Growing up in Michigan this is not an uncommon experience, but living here in the West, he finds it stunning how people view unions and the Labor movement in general. Today the Dog would like to take a little time and give a bit of tribute to the Union members in the Dog’s family.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Is There A Fair Trade For Giving Up The Public Option?

To achieve anything in politics or anything else in life one critical factor is to have a clearly defined end state. Without this you can not know when you have actually crossed the finish line. We all know, either from watching politics or being involved directly, how easy it is to get so focused on the fight you lose track of the over all goals. It seems to the Dog this has become the case with Health Care Reform in general and the Public Option in particular. Over the last few months the Netroots has been strongly engaged in trying to get a version of the public option enacted as part of the over all health care reform.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Dark Soul Chapter Thirteen

appy Saturday and welcome to the Dog’s serialization of his novel Dark Soul. This is a work in progress, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions, don’t be shy about offering them up. Sorry this is posted a little later than usual. There were internet connectivity issues here at the Dog house.

If you have just started reading this, you can find the previous chapters at the following links:

Dark Soul – Chapter One

Dark Soul – Chapter Two

Dark Soul – Chapter Three

Dark Soul – Chapter Four

Dark Soul – Chapter Five

Dark Soul – Chapter Six

Dark Soul – Chapter Seven

Dark Soul – Chapter Eight

Dark Soul – Chapter Nine

Dark Soul – Chapter Ten

Dark Soul – Chapter Eleven

Dark Soul – Chapter Twelve

This serialization is only available here at Docudharma!  

Matt Barber Brings The Full Scale Insanity.

Crazy Matt Barber of the Liberty Council is at it again! Somehow the Dog wound up on Mr. Barbers radar and is now subjected to weekly spamming. Since Mr. Barber e-mails these to the Dog, there is no question of being able to reproduce the whole thing and then show exactly how bat-shit crazy Mr. Barbers points of view are. As a glimpse into the deranged mind of the deranged Right, serves two purposes; first to know what our opponents are saying to each other and second it gives the Dog a chance to mercilessly mock this mouth-breathing race and sexuality baiting asshat.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

ACTION: Call The White House, Demand The Public Option

There were many things the Dog thought might happen with the debate about Health Care Reform. It was always going to be a tough fight, the amounts of money involved and the absolute cravenness of the Republican Party made this a foregone conclusion. However the list of things which he could have predicted did not include the President who ran on the premise of a public option failing to fight for it was never on the list.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Mr. President, It Is Time For You To Lead.

Below is the letter the Dog sent to the President today.

Dear President Obama;

Mr. President, you are in a trick bag. You have a speech to make to the Joint Session of Congress and there are no easy options for you. Health Care Reform is a signature issue for you; this is why you put it in the agenda for the first year of your first term. You have made the quite case for this being the place where your administration will have to spend the most political capital of all so all other issues from DADT to accountability to the rule of law must take a back seat so this issue can be resolved.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

So You Want To Take Over The Democratic Party? Okay! Come With Me.

Last week the Dog wrote a post about laying out the difficulties of starting a new political party to the Left of the Democratic Party. If you want to read it you can find it here. The challenges are extensive to say the least. Since the Dog thinks that is a bad idea he urged those who might be thinking of this path to stay and work within the Democratic Party. While not everyone agreed (we are all Liberals after all) there were a couple who pointed out while the Dog was showing a problem, he did not really offer the means to a solution. This is a fair observation and so the follow is some practical advice for those who want to take over the Democratic Party and move it more to the Left.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Weekly Torture Action Letter 21 – President Clinton, Time To Get Involved

Happy Monday and welcome the Dog’s on-going (never ending?) letter writing campaign series. This series, for those new to it, is all about getting accountability to the rule of law for the apparent Bush Administration state sponsored torture program. The basic premise is the Dog writes a letter each Monday to decisions makers, urging them to take action on this issue. How you get involved is by either cutting and pasting the letter so it goes out under your own name, or using it as a jumping off point for your own missive. Then you just use the links the Dog provides to send it around. It is, admittedly, a small thing, but it by being consistent and getting as many people as possible to write weekly we keep this issue alive when other things like Health Care reform are taking up most of the news.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

So You Want To Form A New Party? Hmmm, Come With Me.

From time to time over the last few years there have been some of our fellow Progressives/Liberals who despair of the Democratic Party getting its act together and thus out of anger or frustration float the idea of abandoning the Democratic Party and forming a new one to the left of the Democrats. The Dog is not in favor of this, but he thinks he has not been very clear in why it is a bad idea. First off if you want to bail on the Democratic Party, don’t wait! You have a hell of a lot of work to do in order to get an agenda passed so why are you hanging around here? In the spirit of being helpful, the Dog would like to offer a bit of a run down in what it will take to get your new party up and running.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

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