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Road to Surfdom answers accusations of naiviety in actually believing Bush and co about those Weapons of Mass Destruction

Representative, accountable democratic government, therefore, comes down to the fact that elected individuals have to tell the truth about what they are doing in our name and if they don’t, they either cease being our representatives or get their lying arses into jail, depending on the seriousness of the deception.

These conditions are non-negotiable. They are not something to be bent like a pipe- cleaner to fit the crevices of the latest political miscalculation. They are the thing through which we judge how well those who work for us are doing their job.

At this stage, we don’t know if they lied, if they just got it wrong, or if something else happened. The reason we don’t know is because they won’t tell us. Until such time as they do, the only people burying their head in the sand are the ones who won’t ask the questions in the first place.

Nathan Newman argues that the Democrats should sponsor Tom Delay’s new taxbill:

But I support Delay’s version for more cynical reasons. In a year or two, when the major tax provisions start being sunsetted, there will be another big tax bill to make all the provisions permanent.

If the Delay bill gets passed, they won’t be able to include the child tax credit as a provision of that bill, since it will already be permanent. And what that means is that the bill presented will be that much more skewed towards the wealthy, since the child tax credit is the only part of Bush’s tax cuts that have helped working families.

Without the bait of the child tax credit, making the rest of the tax giveaways to the rich will be almost impossible to sell to the public.

So Democrats should happily endorse Delay’s bill. It’s the best way to make sure the rest of the tax cuts aren’t permanent.

Ruminate This on supporting the Democratic Party:

From a personal perspective, I am more inclined to support individual candidates than I am the national organization at this point. I come from the What Has the DNC Done For Me Lately School of Thought, and I’m not able to recall much in the way of serious activism – at least not that which could be instantly identified. Unlike their Right wing counterparts, our national party seems to have avoided taking hard, loud and public positions on important issues at a time when hard, loud and public positions are so desperately needed from the Left. Another issue is my want for the Democratic Party to bring together…to coalesce all it’s various factions. A broken party will do us no good come 2004. While it’s true that the DNC’s presidential candidate is for all intents and purposes the only game in town in terms of beating Bush next go round, I tend to think that direct giving to that likeminded candidate or through a progressive policy organization like Moveon.org makes better use of my limited resources. At the last mid-terms, Moveon really pushed the envelope for online soliciting, and when visiting their website, you could see which races your money was headed to…which candidates were most in need and how they were faring. I was favorably impressed by the organization’s reach and influence.

Another reason for my going the Moveon.org route v DNC: I’m not able to wrap my head around the idea of supporting a Lieberman, should he be the Democratic choice. If all I were being offered was a Republican- Republican or a Democratic-Republican, I’d rather not enable that particular DNC adventure. My hope is that the party will instead provide us with a real choice. Bush v a Democrat. Time will tell. For the time being, I’m waiting for the national party to offer me that choice before writing any checks.

Kicked off the left

Mac-a-ro-nies and Silver Rights, because of Mac Diva’s continueing and ill founded crusade against Natasha of The Watch.

New to the left

Every now and then I list the blogs new to the linklist. Want to be added? Use the form, Luke. Entry does not guarantee winning. No purchase necessary. Offer void where prohibited. You must either be a fiery liberal spirit or be in the vanguard of the workers revolution to participate. At a pinch we’ll take dedicated left anarchists and the like as well. No wishy washy centrists need apply. The decision of the judges is final.

Prometheus 6

“What I want to do here is talk to the town criers. And I’ll be talking more about people than politics.”

GlobBlog

A blog about globalisation. By General Glut.

Musings and Migraines

Chicago liberal’s musings on war, peace, Jon Stewart, art, media and the likelihood of having an aneurysm before Election 2004. By
Lenora.

Sasha Undercover

Observations and commentary on politics, women, culture, and daily life. Not for the faint of heart.