For All Our Irish Friends

Wherever they may be:

Our very own part-Irish President goes HOME to claim his heritage! President O'Bama, whose ancestors come from all over our world and whose relatives live in every part of it.

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Is It Just MEEEEEE?

Or are the protestors in WI drowning out the Witch of Wasilla?



Something like 6,500 people showed up in WI today. Why? Skanky Wailin'Failin'Bailin' Palin was giving a word-salad speech. AP (worthless corporate cocksucking shills that they are) claims that "hundreds" of te@b@gging Kochroaches showed up, and were met by "hundreds" of union supporters. But, if you look at this clip, it's pretty obvious that "hundreds" of teabaggers might have showed up but they were completely and totally outnumbered by THOUSANDS of union supporters. Who managed to shout Skanky's speech down. Go, WISCONSIN! Show us how DEMOCRACY'S DONE!

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Not Dead Yet

Goddammit.



Rumours of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.

This is the best fucking ad I have ever seen in my life.

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Politics: Sarah Palin

Image from ClarkBlog

is stepping down as the Governor of Alaska.

I know what you're thinking, cos that's what I'm thinking: WTF has she done now? Is National Enquirer about to reveal the facts of the sleazy affair she had with her husband's business partner? Or is Mark Sanford about to reveal that she was one of the women that he "crossed the line" with? Or is an indictment coming down?

Who knows? All I can say is, Whoo-hoo! Now, if she'd only resign from teh Hoomin Race, with which she has, really, nothing in common.

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Politics: Your Happy News For Teh Day

According to the New Yorker, in a recent article titled "The Bush Six," by Jane Mayer, war crimes trials for some of the criminals in the previous administration might be available sooner than we think. The lucky ducks who could qualify for an intimate view of the Hague and matching cool orange-stripey gear include our old friends Dough Feith (no typo, aka "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth," General Tommy Franks, see Woodward, Plan of Attack); John Yoo, who coined the term "enhanced interrogation techniques" as a substitute for what honest people call "torture"; David Addington, Snarl Cheney's secretive legal counsel and right-claw shadow; and Alberto Gonezales, the second fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth, aka, "I Don't Recall." Undoubtedly, the two others are Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

What you will find heartening about this report is reproduced here for your enjoyment:

[...] Gonzalo Boye, the Chilean-born Spanish lawyer [...] last week filed the criminal complaint against the Bush officials, on behalf of five former prisoners who were, they allege, tortured in the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay.

It is hard to predict what will happen next, but, if arrest warrants are issued, the Obama Administration may be forced either to extradite the former officials or to start its own investigation. Sands, who admires Obama, said, “I regret that I have added to his in-box when he has so much else to sort out. But I hope he does the right thing. There’s not much dispute anymore: torture happened, and the law is clear—torture must be punished.”

Meanwhile, Sands reiterated a warning that he made in his book. “If I were they,” he said, referring to the former officials in question, “I would think carefully before setting foot outside the United States. They are now, and forever in the future, at risk of arrest. Until this is sorted out, they are in their own legal black hole.”

Admittedly, we don't know if warrants will be issued, or if these lowlife thugs will be arrested and tried and forced to serve their time. But think of it this way. From the day Philippe Sands' expose was first published to the day they die, these swine will, every single day of their lives, wake up wondering if today is the day they get schlepped before the court.

If you've ever been involved in a court case, even when you're the innocent party or the plaintiff, you know how stressful it is. Every single day until the day they're in the pokey, if ever, these schmucks will be looking behind them, waiting for the hand on the shoulder. Every piece of mail, every phone call, every knock on the door, every invitation that requires them to travel outside the continental United States will be a source of fear and trepidation and unease. May their ulcers eat them alive.

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Animal Stories: For Jacqui and Lizzy

Sometimes you think you'll never get over that wall:



and then some kind soul comes along with a backpack and a couple of bags.

Sometimes all it takes is a helping hand.

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Politics: Telling It Like It Is

Damn, I am SO proud of my President! Again! I haven't stopped being wildly happy about President Barack Obama's election win since November 5th, 2008.

Today's good news comes from Jake Tapper of ABC, who rarely writes a pleasant word about our President. However, this was just too good to miss out on. Apparently, our President intervened in an argument between Nicolas Sarkozy and Hu Jin-tao at the G-20 meetings, an argument that was getting quite heated before President Obama spoke with each party. He pulled each of them aside and only the fly on the wall knows what he said to them, but it appears the Chinese premier and the French prime minister saw the good sense of what he was saying and are now back and making nice with each other again.

Can you imagine something like this happening in the era of the loudmouthed arrogant idiot blowhard who dragged our country through the mud the past eight years? No, that fool was good for nothing but talking with his mouth full, addressing other foreign leaders by yelling "Yo!" across the room, groping foreign dignitaries, and generally acting like a stupid drunk on an eight-day bender. Just look at the picture of him trying to drag the Chinese premier around by the sleeve, or the unbalanced, red-faced gin-blossom expression at the Olympics for a quick and painful refresher.

Our President makes us all proud to be who we are, proud that we have elected him.

Bonus FYI: If you write him a letter, there's a pretty good chance that he will read it. According to ABC, President Obama reads ten letters a day from his fellow Americans. In addition, he reads letters from children, so write the man!

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Obamanomics vs. Reaganonics: Let's rumble! - new article by Paul B. Ferrell

Just a short post here to alert readers to a new article by Paul B. Farrell on MarketWatch. Paul Ferrel takes Steve Forbes and all the Reaganeers to task for their claptrap and predicts a historic transition in our economy under Obama. To which I say, hear hear! Oh, and doesn't the Reaganeers remind you of something, like maybe out of a Stephen King nightmare like The Langoliers? I think they both had about the same affect on things.

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Human Rights: CA. Proposition 8

The election results made us so joyful with Obama's win that we couldn't bear to tarnish the excitement with thoughts of the passage of California Proposition 8 or, as the voters here now refer to it, Proposition Hate.

However, we've been seething about it ever since it passed and sooner or later we have to share the seethe. California, hello? Excuse me? What the fuck did Arnie put in the water that people actually marched to the polls and voted against their LGBTQ brothers and sisters?

La Casa de Los Gatos is well aware that not all of California is progressive. SF, LA, Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto, Monterey, Carmel, Mendocino, maybe a few other small towns here and there, are pretty forward-thinking and have a significant population of LGBTQ people. Orange County has a fair number of pinheads, and military areas like San Diego are pretty fucking hopeless. But still, people! Why you wanna do this for? What business is it of yours who does what with their naughty bits? You want people checking around in your bedroom? No? Then get the hell out of our bedrooms!

This is ridiculous, and we're not going to put up with it. Civil rights should never be left to the will of the majority because the majority tends to oppose civil rights for minorities (of any ilk). Imagine if we had asked the people to vote on slavery. There were only a few people brave enough to oppose it at the time. The majority would have happily permitted it to continue or merely ignored the issue.

In the same way we cannot leave the right of LGBTQ folks to love and marry who they will in the hands of those who have no understanding or empathy on this issue. Straight people say, "Well we don't care who you have sex with, just don't flaunt it in our faces. You can have civil unions. You'll have the same rights. Leave us marriage." (No, we don't personally know anyone who actually says such things because we strive not to associate with troglodytes. However, such things and much worse can be found in a few minutes of perusing teh InnerTubes.)

Unfortunately, this is a myth. It's simply not true that gay people have all the rights that straight people have through a civil union. For one thing, in community property states, married people who own property in common cannot sell or give away any part of that property without their spouse's explicit consent. Upon one spouse's death, the other spouse inherits the entire property as a whole — no part of it can be alienated without the surviving spouse's consent, and no probate is required for the property to pass intact from one spouse to the other.

A civil union confers some benefits on the partners thereto, but consider the case of Lisa Pond who was traveling with her partner and children when she suffered a brain aneurysm. Her partner and family were not permitted to see her on her deathbed. Would that happen to a straight couple? No. Consider the case of a gay couple who spent twenty years or more building a home and family, acquiring property together. Should one partner die, regardless of any contract or property arrangement to the contrary, the same biological relations who kicked the dead partner out of their home for being gay could descend upon the couple's property and contest the will and boot the survivor out of the home in which they had invested a lifetime of earnings and hopes. Could that happen to a straight couple? The family could try it, but the courts would most likely rule for the survivor.


Well, the time has come to insist on the same spousal rights for gay couples, and quite frankly we don't care what the hell you call it — civil union, marriage, schtuppenpupik — if it will allow a partner at their dying partner's bedside in any state in the country; if it will guarantee that two people in a loving relationship can legally inherit one from the other to no less an extent than any other people in such a relationship despite their sexual preference; if it will give LGBTQ partners the same tax breaks and family rates on health care and child care and family matters, then call it what you will but give us our rights.

Today is the day that LGBTQ people all over this country march in support of gay rights, and against such antigay legislation as California's shameful Proposition 8. They'll be marching in Portland; InTheNameOf8 lists groups that will be working against Prop 8 nationwide; JoinTheImpact gives pointers on how to organize yourselves, including a site that tells you how to find your local protest.

Fellow digger and gay activist Scoyboy of OnTopmag has a fine piece on the spontaneous marches erupting across the nation.

In good news, many Mormons are disgusted enough by their church's shameful support of this equality-denying proposition to up 'n leave. Thank you to those of our Mormon brothers and sisters who stand with us.

We urge our Catholic brothers and sisters to take a stand against the hate being perpetrated by their religion. Jesus did not teach hatred and discrimination. He taught love and acceptance. He sat with beggars and prostitutes and dined with publicans and outcasts. He did not, as the fathers of today's church do, wine and dine on gold and silver with the wealthy and powerful while turning his back on the poor who starve among us. If you profess to believe in him, then you must act in support of his message and stand up for the rights of your LGBTQ brothers and sisters and not permit Proposition 8 to take away the rights of a loving couple to marry and raise a family — a right that you yourselves possess and take for granted.

To do something about this shameful and discriminatory proposition, you can go here and sign the pledge.

Be sure to write the gubernator, who will be getting an earful from the bigots and haters who poured millions into this campaign.


Finally, for those who think that the record numbers of Black American voters who turned out for Obama were responsible for the passing of Proposition 8, stop it, OK? Just quit. Go read this first, and then come back and flap your gums if you still can. To imply that Black Americans are responsible for this hateful proposition passing is to hold all White Americans, gay and straight, harmless on the issue. And how could that be, when Black Americans comprise a whole six fucking per cent of the California electorate? Do you think if even half the White churchgoing population had voted against this proposition, it would have passed even if every single Black voter voted for it? And, furthermore, are there no LGBTQ Black Americans, or people of Tint among the ranks of the various LGBTQ folks? Is it not a clear manifestation of prejudice to assume that all LGBTQ persons are White, that White is the default colour of LGBTQ people?

Prop 8 passed because of gullibility and misinformation. The religious churchgoers were told that if it did not pass, their churches might be shut down, their preachers jailed. We don't find that a compelling argument, but religious people we're not. So we understand that they voted out of ignorance and fear. Such ignorance and fear must not dictate our lives though. Already the forces of provocateurism are at work, with "unknown individuals" mailing packets of white powder to various religious factions. We doubt that LGBTQ people were behind that, but if they were, we urge them to remember to whose detriment such actions redound.

Much as we may dislike it, we have to reach out to our churchgoing religious friends and neighbours and engage them in discourse. For a perfect love casteth out fear. And quite frankly, it's time everybody got over this fucking fear hangover that's been chewing our hineys to ribbons for nearly a decade.

So get out there, people, and wave a flag or a banner or a poster for those of us who can't stand up. We're with you in spirit. This fight ain't over, but we all have to fight it.

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2008 Elections: Entertainment!

We never saw the original. Yes, it's the same guys, X years later.



So? Waaasuuuup?

Say ... didn't these guys used to be in an ad for CindyLou Hensley McCain's beer distribution company?

Vote. Choose wisely. Choose well.

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2008 Elections: Something You Can Do

As you probably already know, Senator Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, recently fell and broke her hip. She is home now, but her condition appears to be worrisome. Senator Obama has canceled political events this week to fly home and be with his "Toot," (diminutive of Tutu, Hawai'ian for "grandmother"). She is currently being cared for by Senator Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.

Mrs. Dunham has followed the elections with interest, even going so far as to have a corneal transplant performed earlier this year so she could watch television coverage of her beloved grandson's campaign. Her birthday is on 26th October (this Sunday), and if you want to send her a "Get Well" card or a birthday card, or a simple note of thanks for having raised the Senator to be the fine human being that he is, you can do so simply by addressing your card or note to:


Mrs. Madelyn Dunham
In care of: Obama for America
Honolulu Headquarters
1050 Ala Moana Blvd.
Suite D2590
Honolulu, HI 96814

Thank you, Mrs. Dunham, for instilling in your grandson those worthy values that have made him so important to so many people all over the world. We here at La Casa de Los Gatos sincerely hope you recover and get to see your grandson and great-granddaughters in the White House.

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Announcement

Teh Happy Couple With Their Mothers At The Wedding

Today is Barack and Michelle Obama's 16th wedding anniversary.

La Casa de Los Gatos would like to take this opportunity to wish Senator and Mrs. Obama a very happy 16th anniversary. May you have many happy years together.

The Happy Couple Sixteen Years Later

We here know how difficult it is to weather more than a decade with a partner. Especially when you're young and struggling to make it. Senator and Mrs. Obama only paid their school loans off a few years ago.

Young and In Love

It's even harder when you have young children, although judging from how the love flows within this family, they did good in having their two beautiful daughters when they did.

With The Kids, July 4th

Wish we could give you the weekend off to celebrate your anniversary, Senator. Hopefully, you'll sweep the elections and take the White House and next anniversary, we can hear you say:

From ICHC

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2008 Elections: Wake Up Call

The Mighty Munchkin of Justice, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, issues America's wake-up call:



Y'all better pop yer peepers open and listen to the man. It's time for the tide to turn. Jobs, prosperity, health care, retirement benefits, peace, what's not to like?

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Politics: Obama Inspires

Dave Stewart to offer up this prayer:



Oh, my. Oh, man. I think La Casa de Los Gatos is over the bout of the (pain-induced) grouchies, now. Why, I haven't wanted to strangle a single person since I saw this.

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LGBTQ: An Activist Addition To The Blogroll

La Casa de Los Gatos welcomes Queers United to the blogroll and thanks them for this very interesting post on the formation of the LGBTQ Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. The post links to all the LGBTQ Caucus members so you can thank them yourself, and includes such progressive stalwarts as Fortney (Pete) Stark, Lynn Woolsey, Robert Wexler, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Niki Tsongas, Henry Waxman, and our very own dearly beloved Barbara Lee!

You rock, Reps! Fifty-two members, count them.

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2008 Elections: Your Next President

Should be someone who has the energy, the dedication, the commitment, and the mental acuity to multitask. Because, face it people, this is what the 21st century is all about. Gone are the days when we could work on one thing at a time. These days, we have many irons in the fire and they require work all the time, all round.

Barack Obama makes his case once again.

In the middle of a hard-fought primary, while his opponent was flinging kitchen sinks and associated hardware at him, the man found the time and energy to begin moving the nation towards total transparency in the economy.

Reaching across the aisle, as he said he would, he convinced Congressional colleague and erstwhile (and current) ally Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to work with him to give us ALL information about how our government spends our tax dollars.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) today introduced the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008 (S.3077), which would expand the information available on USASpending.gov, as well as make the data more accessible and readable. USASpending.gov (aka "Google for Government"), created by the Coburn-Obama Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 and launched in December 2007, makes public information about nearly all Federal grants, contracts, loans and other financial assistance available in a regularly updated, user-friendly, and searchable format.

The morning after the final primaries of Montana and South Dakota, the man was in Congress introducing this bill.

What would you be doing the day after a year-long campaign had finally come to an end? Most of us would probably be lying in bed, or lounging on the couch, feet up, resting after one of the most exhausting, gruelling campaigns in the history of this nation.

Not Senator Obama. Here's a little more information on his bill:

"I'm pleased to have the opportunity to work once again with my Senate colleagues to improve the transparency of federal spending. This bill is a continuation of our efforts to give taxpayers the power to know exactly what their money is being spent on and to help us in our efforts to root out waste and fraud. This legislation makes it much easier to hold agencies, contractors and others who receive federal funding accountable for their activities and their performance," said Senator Carper.

In April 2006, Obama and Coburn introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590), which would publicly disclose all recipients of federal funding and financial assistance through a website to be established and maintained by the Office of Management and Budget. The President signed this legislation into law in September 2006 and USASpending.gov was launched in December 2007.

La Casa de Los Gatos is socially progressive and fiscally conservative. Very conservative. We would much rather spend taxpayer dollars in healing the sick, helping the poor, educating the ignorant, giving working people jobs, comforting and caring for the elderly, disabled, and young people. But &mdash we do not support throwing money away.

Having worked hard for every penny since our earliest youth, we resent our money being spent on professional "poverty pimps," bloated bureaucracies, waste, poor management and mismanagement. We'd rather pay working people a decent wage that enables them to support their families than pay CEOs and directors and middle managers one hundred times what the average worker earns. The people who clean up our shit &mdash nurses, teachers, doctors, street sweepers, police, firefighters, food service workers, physical therapists, childcare providers &mdash they are what makes our society.

Not the businessmen who take huge risks with shareholders' money but the entrepreneurs who see a need and exercise their creative imagination to fill it and treat their employees well. We don't need the first type of person. We need lots more of the second type of person.

To that end, we want to know where every penny of our tax dollar goes. We don't want it going to make Halliburton's middle managers and bigshots obscenely rich. We would rather it went to soldiers who did their best to obey the orders they were given. We would rather see them get a decent wage instead of taking payday loans at between 200 and 900 per cent interest rates. We want them, and their families, to have decent health care &mdash the kind of health care that Dick Cheney and John McBush enjoy. We don't want them lying in pools of piss at broken-down military hospitals full of mold and rats.

Thus we are very grateful to Senator Barack Obama for making this process transparent. This is a start. It is now OUR duty as taxpayers to visit USASpending.gov regularly and keep an eye on what our government is doing with our money.

If this is how Senator Obama will govern as President Obama, then give him your vote if you believe in accountability, equity, transparency, fairness, and freedom.

There's a new sheriff in town and he's going to help us, the people, clean it up!


YES. HE. CAN! YES. WE. CAN!

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Natural Disasters: China Update

The latest information on the earthquake that devastated Sichuan province in China is available here.

The Chinese government has cut its national budget in several areas to ensure that victims of the earthquake will have the aid they need to reconstruct their homes and lives. Currently, they have set aside $13 billion in funds for that purpose.

They are also appealing to the world for tents and other temporary housing assistance to shelter the 5.2 million survivors of the earthquake.

The housing ministry Thursday ordered the construction of one million small homes by August 10 made of light steel, plywood and other materials that are both safe in earthquakes and "recyclable." The houses are supposed to last up to five years.

Well, mud in your eye, America. We still haven't rehoused those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. NOLA's survivors wander the nation, displaced, three years later, often unable to meet voter ID requirements because their records disappeared in that terrible event.

And "recyclable," too. What has happened to this great nation? How far have we fallen that China, until very recently an extremely poor nation with nowhere near our educational levels, our healthcare, our robust economy, our military might, our first-rate infrastructure, can take care of a whole devastated province better and faster than we can take care of one city?

Heckuva job, Georgie. The Chinese government is also taking steps to assist the displaced and traumatized population in many different ways, at every level:

At a sports stadium in Mianyang where thousands of homeless are living, more than 1,000 children attended classes in hastily erected tents, reflecting government efforts to restore some semblance of normality.

"Many of the children don't know each other but that's OK. Kids of that age make friends really fast," said geography teacher Chen Qian, 27, as the children stood up to sing the national anthem together.

The health ministry said it had started sending thousands of the most seriously injured people by trains and planes to other parts of China from the overwhelmed hospitals in Sichuan.

Authorities also sent out the first team specialised in treating disabilities, which are expected to afflict many of the 288,431 injured people.

In a bid to cheer up survivors, organisers announced that they would bring the Beijing Olympic torch through Sichuan from August 3 to 5, making it the final stop before the Games open on August 8.

Wow. You think maybe the Chinese government cares for its people? You think maybe Kanye West was right, when he said George Bush doesn't give a damn about Black people?

For a list of organizations to which you can donate, click here.

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Animal Stories

Someone sent us this today.

Hurricane Katrina did so much damage, and all these years later, people &mdash and their beloved animals &mdash are still suffering the aftermath. For the longest time, we just felt like there was no upside to any of it. It was horrible, just plain old fucked up, an oozing sore in our consciousness.

Then we found Casa de Charlotte della Luna and Gentilly Girl, and and realized that the wonderful people of New Orleans fight on and look for the positive, no matter how hard it is. Life goes on, and people look for the beautiful and revel in what they have.

Then this.


Meet Molly. She's a gray speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners in the wake of Katrina. She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were stockpiled. While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier, and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected and her vet went to LSU for help. But LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes.

But after surgeon Rustin Moore met Molly, he changed his mind. He saw how the pony was careful to lie down on different sides so she didn't seem to get sores, and how she allowed people to handle her.. She protected her injured leg. She constantly shifted her weight, and didn't overload her good leg. She was a smart pony with a serious survival ethic.

Moore agreed to remove her leg below the knee and a temporary artificial limb was built. Molly walked out of the clinic and her story really begins there.

"This was the right horse and the right owner," Moore insists.
Molly happened to be a one-in-a-million patient. She's tough as nails, but sweet, and she was willing to cope with pain. She made it obvious she understood (that) she was in trouble. The other important factor, according to Moore , is having a truly committed and compliant owner who is dedicated to providing the daily care required over the lifetime of the horse.

Molly's story turns into a parable for life in post-Katrina Louisiana . The little pony gained weight, her mane felt a comb. A human prosthesis designer built her a leg.

The prosthetic has given Molly a whole new life, Allison Barca DVM, Molly's regular vet, reports.


And she asks for it! She will put her little limb out, and come to you and let you know that she wants you to put it on. Sometimes she wants you to take it off too" And sometimes, Molly gets away from Barca. "It can be pretty bad when you can't catch a three-legged horse", she laughs.

Most important of all, Molly has a job now Kay, the rescue farm owner, started taking Molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers. Anywhere she thought that people needed hope. Wherever Molly went, she showed people her pluck. She inspired people. And she had a good time doing it.

"It's obvious to me that Molly had a bigger role to play in life", Moore said, "She survived the hurricane, she survived a horrible injury, and now she is giving hope to others."

"She's not back to normal," Barca concluded, "but she's going to be better. To me, she could be a symbol for New Orleans itself."

This is Molly's most recent prosthesis. The bottom photo shows the ground surface that she stands on, which has a smiley face embossed in it. Wherever Molly goes, she leaves a smiley hoof print behind!



Molly, you brave, beautiful little pony, you rock. We'll quit whining about being a gimp. At least we still have all our limbs.

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Politics: Oh Pleez Oh Pleez Oh Pleez Oh Pleez

Can it be? Will the Democrats finally get up on their hind legs and subpoena that worthless fat turd and shit-impersonator (he'd need a couple of eons of evolution to be able to impersonate humans) KKKarl Rove, and throw his pasty, flabby, tuchus in jail if he fails to comply?

Pleez Mr. Conyers, Pleez Oh Pleez Oh Pleez!

The Birmingham News is reporting in a breaking story today that the Democrats have rejected Rove's offer to flip them off and refuse to testify in person about his role in the Justice Department scandal regarding the firing of attorneys tasked with enforcing the nation's laws, and in the unethical prosecution and imprisonment of former Governor Don Siegelman.

If you have a religious belief, please light a candle/sacrifice a relative/braid flowers in your hair and dance naked around the garden in the moonlight or whatever it is your particular religion prescribes. This vile slimebot must be forced to testify, then prosecuted and jailed for his role in corrupting the very meaning of justice.

If you don't have a religious belief, or just want to express yourself differently, blog the issue, write Conyers and thank him, write your Rep. and thank them for taking this belated and long-awaited stand, or urge them to vote with Conyers to hold Rove responsible. Here is a PDF copy of the letter Conyers sent to the slimebag and his attorney. Read it and dance around the house with your underwear on your head. But draw the blinds first. There's a limit to the tolerance of neighbours and passers-by.

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2008 Elections: The Democratic Party's Nominee

In his own words:

My job, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, isn’t to scold people for their lack of ideological purity. It’s to persuade as many people as I can, across the ideological spectrum, that my vision of the future is compatible with their values, and can make their lives a little bit better. Thus, while I may favor common-sense gun control laws, that doesn’t keep me from reaching out to NRA members who are worried about their lack of health insurance. I favor affirmative action, but I’m still going after the votes of white union members who oppose affirmative action, because I think I can convince them that it’s Bush’s economic agenda, and not affirmative action, that is eroding their job security and stagnating their wages. And while I may object to the misogyny and materialism of much of rap culture, I’m still going to spend the time reaching out to a hip-hop generation in search of a future.

In other words, I believe that politics in any democracy is a game of addition, not subtraction. And I believe deeply enough in the decency of the American people to think that progressives can build a winning majority in this country, so long as we’re not afraid to speak the truth, and so long as we don’t write off big chunks of the electorate just because they don’t agree with us on every issue.

Found while perambulating around DailyKos. These words were spoken in 2003, as part of an interview.

This is what President Obama's message is: let us reach out to each other. There will always be things about each other that we don't like or don't agree with. But together, we can tackle the things that really hurt us. Together, we can change them and make them better. For ourselves, our loved ones, our nation.

Politics in a democracy is a game of addition, not subraction. Yes!

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