Most historians regard the Alien and Sedition Acts as among the most shameful travesties ever passed by Congress. This isn't the first time in American history that Congress was willing to ignore those inconvenient (yet inalienable) rights of ours because we were atremble in the wake of A Foreign Menace. The French!!! Which goes to show how irrational these fears can seem in retrospect.  

Anyways, in 1799 Congress decided to hand President John Adams authoritarian powers that were clearly contrary to the Constitution.  He hadn't even asked for them.

Imagine the chutzpah of doing that at a time that the framers of the Constitution were still kicking. Of course, we hadn't yet developed the near-religious reverence towards "the framers" that those current underminers of all they stood for now affirm.  But it'd be pretty embarrassing to vote "Yea" on abridging the 1st amendment... and then run into James Madison at a cocktail party.

The FISA law is in the spirit of the original Alien Acts, so let's go all out and also draft a New Sedition Act: an Abridgement of Free Speech for the 21st Century.  It might actually do us some good.  

You can follow my twisted logic after the fold... (don't worry: I won't bite)

I know you're skeptical... but I have proof.

President Bush yesterday signed legislation into law that will bar health insurance companies or employers from denying or canceling coverage, hiking premiums or making decisions on hiring, firing and compensation based on genetic test results.

I imagine the shock you're feeling right now. You may be wondering "how can this be"?  I understand. These feelings are perfectly natural. Own them.

For once in his life, to the astonishment of the angels, President George W. Bush did something right. Something that will benefit the American people, even though it may (perhaps) cut into the profits of health insurers.

More below the fold...

Today we've seen two pretty significant examples of Republicans being challenged on their use of the kind of rhetoric that's become predictably commonplace lately.

The first instance took place on the floor of the House, when Rep. Culberson (R-TX) accused the supplemental spending bill for Iraq of being laden with pork.  Rep. Obey (D-WI) pushed back and asked for a specific instance of pork in the bill.  Culberson had no response.

The second instance was the subject of two recommended diaries: Chris Matthews challenged right wing radio host Kevin James on his assertion that Obama was "an appeaser", like Neville Chamberlain.  Matthews asked James exactly what it was that Chamberlain did that was wrong.  And Kevin James simply couldn't tell him. It was clear that he didn't know the answer.

I think these episodes reveal a fundamental weakness of our opponents that can be key to winning the election this year. Follow me beneath the fold.

This is a heavily edited expansion of a long comment I made, but I think it deserves its own diary.

I just want to say something about the tone of Daily Kos. First, let me say that I'm not going anywhere, and I'm not going to beat my breast and rend my garments over our shortcomings as a community. Regrettably, there's nothing new about progressives bashing each other. It's an old problem. Older than Daily Kos. It can be over the relative priority we assign to our agenda, or it can be petty personality squabbles, or it can be substantive issues that descend into incivility. But we do have some particular history of our own.

Kossacks, to put it bluntly, are people who have had the crap kicked out of us for years. Our kind has been cruelly derided by the right wing since Reagan rode into Washington... and we've been targets of scorn and ridicule in the most slanderous ways. We've been marginalized by the media - those who aren't out and out right-wing hate-mongers themselves, people polluting the radio waves, everywhere in America, Every Single Day.

And we've been repeatedly disappointed by, if not outrightly betrayed by our representatives in Congress.  We helped elect folks who then censured MoveOn.org.

It's not surprising that we're cranky.

More, of course, under the fold.

Hi. I know you're very busy and important people, so we'll be brief.

In 2006, Democratic activists in the netroots and grassroots collaborated to successfully oust Richard Pombo, a 7 term Republican Congressman from a predominently Republican district. The candidate who beat him, Jerry McNerney, wasn't considered to have any chance in hell by the Democratic consultants or the media pundits. He was only one of several such candidates making "surprising" wins last year with our support, despite neglect from beltway Democrats.

Also in 2006, Democratic activists in the netroots and grassroots collaborated to successfully defeat a 3-term Senator, Joe Lieberman, in the Democratic primary. Unfortunately, institutional Democrats didn't fully support Connecticut's Democratic nominee, and thus continue to be saddled with Lieberman, who claims to caucus with the Democrats, while consistently voting with the Republicans.

(There's just a little bit more under the fold. Not much. Just the punchline.)

We skipped out on Osama
Looked to Baghdad for our war
I was feeling trepidatious
When the General took the floor

The press was clapping harder
Opposition had no say
Those who called for more inspections
Were simply waved away

And so it was that later
as the war kept growing foul
that Petraeus came to Congress
just a whiter shade of Powell

We said, "There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see!"
But were told the surge is working out
And Iraq would soon be free

Though it turned out that the benchmarks
Had failed to be met
We must listen to Petraeus
George Bush's favorite pet

Imagine this scenario:

Patient: "Doctor, you know those "Seven Warning Signs of Cancer"? I've got five of them."

Doctor: "OK, I'll order an extensive panel of tests... it's clear that something bad is going on. But I have to tell you up front: chemotherapy is off the table".

Patient: "What do you mean?"

Doctor: "No matter what we find, I'm not going to order chemo for you".

Patient: "What if you find tumors that are inoperable? Or surgery doesn't get the whole thing?"

Doctor: "It doesn't matter. I've seen how debilitating chemotherapy can be. I had one patient who had chemo a few years back, and it really just took the wind right out of him.  As it turns out, he was misdiagnosed: he didn't even need any treatment at all. But the lesson I take from that is that chemotherapy just isn't worth it."

How much sense would that make?

At the Yearly Kos presidential forum, when John Edwards asked the crowd "How many people in this room have a Washington lobbyist working for you?", I was among the very few whose hand went up in response.

Because, you see, while the rest of my fellow Kossacks have been giving their nickels and dimes to ActBlue and Democratic candidates, I've been sending a few dollars, here and there, to a Washington lobbyist that I read about in the news. One of the ones working on behalf of the insurance and pharmaceutical industry.  I figured that I wanted some big guns in my corner... so every now and then I throw them a few bucks.

I think of this as my own personal "Plutocracy Bonds" program.

It seemed like now would be a good time to get them on the phone and see what I can get for my money. Here's a transcript from my call, on the flip-side:

This will be the shortest diary I've ever written on dKos... but I think it warrants a diary rather than being a comment.

The Senate vote on FISA is shocking and disheartening, but if we're standing around talking about how messed up it is and how this is the end of the American Republic instead of flooding the phone banks of our Congress members and making sure this dies completely in the House, than I think that demonstrates an emotional investment on our part in being morally superior outsiders rather than dedicated and engaged activists.

We can't expect our Representatives to do the right thing... and it's not enough to hold them accountable for bad behavior. We need to get to them before they cast that bad vote.

So, even though you're slack-jawed about how the Senate acted, keep in mind that we've got a larger majority in the House... and let's be emphatic and show up in numbers on this matter.

That's now, people. You know what to do. DO IT!

The investigations are starting... and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how the apologists for the Bush administration are going to try to undermine the findings... or even the process of any oversight committee:

"This is nothing but a partisan witch hunt."

It's a good all-purpose dodge. You don't need to substantively argue any of the specific points regarding the merit of the claims, the seriousness of the charges, the violations of whichever laws are at stake. You just dismiss the effort as being motivated by those irrational Bush-haters to score political points against our Commander-in-Chief.

The rejoinder is simple:

No, this is an investigation of a partisan witch hunt.

Because regardless of whether we're looking into Plamegate or any of the myriad scandals that seem to fractally propagate around this administration, at the root of it is partisanship.

"In nature there are neither rewards not punishments--there are consequences."

George, Dick, Alberto, Condi... and the rest of the Bush Administration,

We here at the DailyKos have watched with keen interest, but with horror and indignation, as you arrogated unto yourselves ever greater executive authority. Doing so, you sabotaged the fine machinery of checks and balances on power engineered by the founders of this nation. You shredded to tatters the Constitution you swore to uphold. You crossed your fingers as you signed any legislation that might place any limits on your ability to act with imperial power. You attempted to undermine and silence any who defy you.

You believe that you are not subject to the law, and are beyond accountability.

For a while it looked like that was, indeed, the case. But there's no escaping the laws of physics, and the more power you wield, the more of a reaction you elicit. It's inevitable and inexorable. Some see it as metaphysical justice, and call it "karma", but in any case it is a tangible implication of the use of force.  The reaction may not be immediate. It may not be "equal and opposite". But it's coming at you, right now, like a freight train.

"Some of you in the DNC may see us as barbarians at the gate.
Some of us see ourselves as the cavalry.
The truth is, we are fresh horses."

That was me two years ago, speaking to a room packed with DNC members and 450 grassroots activists who came to address them at the DNC's Western Regional Gathering, shortly before an election for a new DNC chair.  The activists were there to lobby on behalf of the candidacy of Howard Dean who was facing a crowded field of candidates.

That was a great day... and the rest is history. And so, increasingly, are the Fresh Horses.

The grassroots activists who got engaged in the 2003 presidential primary race and have been working in the trenches ever since... are increasingly exhausted.  And the reason why? It's the chickenhawks.

Not the Cheneys and the Limbaughs and the warbloggers... but our very own species of chickenhawk: progressives who think the war on the right wing desperately needs to be fought... but who aren't enlisting.  

Were it not for Howard Dean's ruinous "50 State Strategy", whom among us can doubt that we would not right now hold a veto-proof 2/3rds majority in the House of Representatives? Not to mention a clear and incontrovertible majority in the Senate?  Had not Howard Dean's DNC deprived the DCCC and DSCC  of the essential funds that they needed, yesterday's outcome would have sent an unmistakable message to this White House, and to the world at large. As it is, what small gains we have in fact made can only serve to leave the bitter savor of ashes in our mouths.

To whom it may concern,

I am the family physician for the Republicans, and the party is too sick to participate in this year's election. I hope you will excuse its absence.

In the wake of a series of self-inflicted wounds and having been subject to exposure, the GOP is in danger of hemorrhaging legislators. To compound the matter, we are seeing a serious fracture of its coalition, which may prove fatal.

The GOP is allergic to light and now finds itself under the harsh glare of disinfecting sunlight. It is suffering grievously as a result. It may be the case that all of these conditions will require a long and extensive period of therapeutic rehabilitation.

Signed,
Dr. Frist

Democrats, possessed of a sense of the complexity of world affairs, with a preference for international and diplomatic solutions... are scorned as "weak". We're accused of not understanding a simplistic "post 9-11 reality" painted in black and white.  

The GOP claim to be tough realists. They're not: they are just fear-mongers.

This is reflected in letters to the editor that I read, in which fretful people rationalize the erosion of their civil liberties with "If this is what the President needs to do to keep me and my family safe, then I support the President.".

The stark truth that they cannot face is this: George W. Bush and his ruling party doesn't care about them.  About us. Not the least little bit.  

Below the fold, take a look at their actions, despite their tough words.

THE US DEMOCRATIC National Committee has written to its opposite number in the Republican party to warn them that they have a security hole on one of their websites.

According to Associated Press reports, Democrat researchers have found that a Republican Party website set up to recruit GOP volunteers exposes users' e-mail addresses for all the world to see.

Once you have logged on to the Republican National Committee Web through a standard registration process available to all users, you can download the entire address list.

DNC executive director Tom McMahon told the RNC chief of staff Kelley McCullough that it was pretty important that "participants in our political process should have every confidence that our political organizations and parties are taking every possible precaution to protect them from fraud and identity theft."

More below the fold

I was working at my computer in the back room when my two dogs started barking like crazy, which is typically how I know that someone has arrived at my front door. I sprinted to my door and was astonished at what I saw when I opened it.

For there was George, the chairman of my local neighborhood association standing on my front porch with a tiger on a chain.

"Howdy!", he said in that western drawl he affects (I know for a fact he was born in Connecticut), "we've been havin' a mess o' trouble in the neighborhood and we need to keep y'all safe, so I'm bringin' you this tiger".

"Wha... WHAT!?!", I barely managed to spit out.

"Yeah, this tiger right here. He's a beaut, ain't he?", he said. I could never be quite sure if that was a grin on his face, or a smirk.

Democrats have been playing defense for too long.

Sounds like something we've been saying on this site since, oh, 2002.

Over the past few months, though, something has shifted. When it comes to national security, Democrats are playing offense for a change -- and it's working.

It's not enough to respond to the daily misinformation coming out of the White House, or defend ourselves against outrageous claims from Dick Cheney. We can't let them dictate the national conversation.

We have a fundamentally different vision for our security than the Party of Bush. We want a new direction in Iraq, more competent security at home, and the restoration of America's moral leadership in the world.

"Party of Bush".  I love it.  More under the fold...