In an earlier post, I wondered whether John McCain might shift his stance on same-sex marriage to attract support from social conservatives.

I would like to discuss another possibility: does the California ruling create an opening for a socially conservative third-party presidential candidate?

In 2003, Roy Moore, then chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, gained national attention for his refusal to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama courthouse. Because of his actions, Moore was removed from office and, according to the Associated Press, "became a hero to the Christian right."

Here are some numbers liberals should keep in mind for the upcoming presidential election: 88, 75, 68, 69.

This week was Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. It also was the fifth aniversary of Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech. This aniversary was unique in that for the first time the Bush administration has admitted that the banner was a huge mistake...though John McCain blamed it on the military, excusing Bush for the fiasco. The Republicans are finally acknowledgig the dismal failure of "Mission Accomplished" but refuse to take the blame. Typical. Absolutely typical. Republicans wouldn't know responsibility if it bit them in the ass.

"It is the quality of patriotism to be jealous and watchful, to observe all secret machinations, and to see publick dangers at a distance. The true lover of his country is ready to communicate his fears, and to sound the alarm, whenever he perceives the approach of mischief. But he sounds no alarm, when there is no enemy; he never terrifies his countrymen till he is terrified himself. The patriotism, therefore, may be justly doubted of him, who professes to be disturbed by incredibilities..." Samuel Johnson

The stage is covered with American flags, draped and propped and perched everywhere, to the left, to the right and behind the speaker's dais, which itself is covered with flag bunting and a covey of microphones nearly buried in a spreading nosegay of ... flags.

The wall at the rear of the stage is covered by a gigantic "Old Glory" and every participant, from the high and the mighty to the clipboard bearers, coffee servers and floor sweepers wears a flag on his lapel or near her heart. Ubiquitous is the term that comes to mind, sleazy is another, frightening yet another.

The people, the true believers in the audience are waving smaller versions of the national banner in a crazed, grinning, drooling frenzy of nationalistic sentiment, carrying signs, and banners, wearing shirts, hats, and neckties on which the same theme is repeated, ad nauseum projectillum.
All in all, there are more flags in attendance at this rally than swastikas at Hitler's lovely Nuremberg torch light soirées of the thirties.

Such is the face of American politics, American policy, in the 21st century, lurid, self righteous and jingoistic, the face of rabid, belligerent sanctimony.

There is significant part of this crowd as all the throngs in attendance at these events who wish that, along with the flags there would be represented, with equal prominence, the cross, the symbol of the God that they believe has led them to ravage large portions of the world, to slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocents, to maim, to cripple and traumatize, and to displace millions more, to drive hundreds of millions of others to despise with a nearly everlasting hatred, the very symbols that they display in their leering, insensate, mocking pride.

As a blogger I get invited to many political events Now as a parent and scientist I can't make many of them, but I still meet more candidates and politicians than the average voter. So I hear lots of political speeches. Usually, since I am meeting similar minded people, I like the speech. But only occasionally do I find the speech to be dead on and exemplary of what ALL Democrats should be shouting from the top of every hill. Things like: Liberal IS patriotic, pro-Choice IS pro-life and marriage equality is about nothing but fairness. Oh, yeah, and how about we have to get out of Iraq. This is what I heard from Steve Harrison, a fairly traditional man running for Congress, and I would like to introduce you to him.

New York City has only one Republican Congressional Rep, Bush Lap Dog Vito Fossella. This guy opposes securing America's ports, flip flops on privatization of Social Security, and has voted to support Bush's Iraq quagmire at every opportunity. Fossella has voted the Bush Republican Party line more than 90% of the time. Hence his designation as Bush Lap Dog. Steve Harrison is the man who can defeat Lap Dog Fossella and actually represent New Yorkers.

The Progressive Democrat Newsletter grew out of the frustration of the 2004 election. Having organized protests against the Republican Convention, I found I had a core of activists who were looking to me for support after Bush "won" re-"election". My carefully thought out suggestions as to where we could go from that defeat led to this more-or-less weekly newsletter.

This week I discuss a very personal conflict with Homeland Security. Yes...my wife is at the center of a battle for our Civil Liberties and my diary about that on Culture Kitchen went platinum with WELL over 12,000 reads in one week. I also cover recent Republican attacks on our troops, Rudy Giuliani's campaigns disguting exploitation of 9/11, and I put out a personal appeal to you to help us here in NYC take one more Congressional seat: NY-13.

The Progressive Democrat Newsletter grew out of the frustration of the 2004 election. After much pressure from readers, this email newsletter is now going the blog route. I update the blog once a week focusing on both national issues and issues of interest to particular regions or states. In general, NYC, California, New Jersey, Virginia and the Midwest get special attention simply because those are the areas where I seem to have the most readers. However, these days I am too busy to give each region the attention I used to. As my readership on Daily Gotham and Culture Kitchen goes up, I have to spend more time on those sites. So this newsletter is fading a bit. I hope it is still usefull to you, though.

This week I disucss the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I also discuss some revelations about the 2000 stolen election in Florida: it looks like at the center of it might have been the touch screen machine industry itself. I have more local focus on New Hampshire, North Caronlina, New Jersey, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. I also continue a new feature that started with an unexpectedly recommended Daily Kos.

The Progressive Democrat Newsletter grew out of the frustration of the 2004 election. After much pressure from readers, this email newsletter is now going the blog route. I update the blog once a week focusing on both national issues and issues of interest to particular regions or states. In general, NYC, California, New Jersey, Virginia and the Midwest get special attention simply because those are the areas where I seem to have the most readers. However, these days I am too busy to give each region the attention I used to. As my readership on Daily Gotham and Culture Kitchen goes up, I have to spend more time on those sites. So this newsletter is fading a bit. I hope it is still usefull to you, though.

This week I am disucss the growning power of bloggers in NY State, STRONGLY urge all of you to fight global warming but helping plant trees worldwide, talk alot about Iraq and cowardly Chickenhawk Republicans, and discuss local elections in Michigan and Washington State. I also continue a new feature that started with an unexpectedly recommended Daily Kos.

Illustrating The Joys Of Theocracy

All of the talk lately about the religious preferences of the presidential candidates or their lack of them has me concerned for the direction of the current campaign and the fact that religion has any place in this discussion at all.

Yesterday, while drinking my second cup of coffee and mentally preparing for the second week of moving to a new residence, a letter to the editor of USA Today caught my attention.

One Harold Burnett of Palmdale, California seems to have gotten his evangelical shorts in a wad over an op-ed piece titled "What is a 'real' Christian?" written by Dan Gilgoff in USA Today on May 21. Mr Burnett writes:

I agree with Focus on the Family's founder James Dobson, who seems to believe that a Christian should be the GOP presidential nominee ("What is a 'real' Christian?" On Religion, The Forum, May 21).

If for no other reason, a Christian would balance the power of the left, the atheists and those waging open war against many conservatives.

But where is this real Christian who is willing to run for president? The fact that Mr. Dobson is not considering it illustrates the problem Christians in this country face. It seems there is a perception that real Christians don't get involved in politics. Though we are willing to support someone who meets our conservative criteria, we are not willing to be him.

Could it be that many professing Christians are not real Christians and are afraid of being exposed as hypocrites? It seems to me that a religious conservative is the best we can hope for this time around.

Perhaps, due to my past exposure to various "Christian" denominations, and various experiences with other religious groups, sects, cults, klaverns, whatever, I no longer claim a religious affiliation of any kind and hope to quietly live out my days as far from religious authority, zealotry, bigotry and lunacy as possible.

I think that it was Einstein who said, "If God did not exist, man would have to invent him" or something along those lines.

Hello everyone!  It has been a while since I last wrote a diary.  I miss it, and the connections with all of you, and I am going to make sure I get to write more often.  For those that don't know, I am Sherri Welsh, and my husband is Barry Welsh.  He blogs too as many of you know, and those that don't can Google or You Tube to learn about him.  He was the man that stood up and challenged Mike Pence two years ago (we started the campaign in 2005).  If you don't know the name Mike Pence, here are the latest links.

Lisa Vorderbrueggen has an article in today's Contra Costa Times, titled, Bloggers take Tauscher to task. The article has a number of huge problems, let me list some of mine and I'm sure other bloggers will have their own complaints.

First off, I don't see how this story could be written without mentioning that the exact same thing happened to Congressman Jeffery Cohelan in the next district over. OK, maybe not the exact same thing because Cohelan went into his unsuccessful 1970 primary with strong labor support. But the complete lack of historical perspective does damage to the analysis.

But not as much damage as this:

Yes, Tauscher voted to allow President Bush to start the Iraq war. But so did every other Democrat in the nation except one.

That is a lie. A lie in the pages of the Contra Costa Times. In reality, Tauscher was one of only two Bay Area Democrats to support the unnecessary, unilateral, invasion of Iraq with the vast majority opposed. In all, only 81 Democrats voted the wrong way on the biggest issue of our time with 126 voting no, meaning 60% of house Democrats were opposed.

This failure to understand even the most basic dynamics and history means this isn't the type of article I would recommend people reading.

This is an unfortunate follow-up on this post.

The fallout from the deal Ellen Tauscher cut with George Bush has claimed the 300th Californian. This didn't have to happen, but Tauscher cut a deal to allow it. She needs to be held accountable for each death, because none were necessary.

None of them. But Tauscher thought she would use the seat she bought to try and prove that she knew better.

#300:

Spc. Nicholas P. Steinbacher, 22, of La Crescenta, Calif., died of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV in Baghdad, Iraq, on Dec. 10. Steinbacher was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

I am disgusted by Tauscher and I'm too pissed off to write what I really think. I don't mind swearing in blog posts, but I lack the words to describe how I fell about Ellen Tauscher.

If predicting the outcome of the election was the national sport in the weeks running up to November 7th, interpreting the results has been the obsession of the aftermath.  Republicans have drawn comfort from some mystic streak of "conservatism" in the new class that's undetectable to anyone but themselves (and their pals in the media).  The DLC sees a triumph of "the third way" despite the fact that an economic populism that's the opposite of DLC policy seems to be the one universal among the victors.  

But rather than dwell on how so many interested parties are desperately scanning the bottom of the cup, looking to find something that looks like a hopeful sign for the failed policies of conservatism and corporatism, there's another set of tea leaves equally open to misinterpretation.  Instead of worrying about the meaning of the election, I'm more concerned about the meaning of the campaigns.

You know, I started this post as a serious criticism to Giuliani's presidential ambitions, but the further I got, the more I realized that it was largely a waste of my time. Giuliani already did the work.

So, in case there was any serious speculation about Rudy making it as the GOP's choice in 2008, I feel it is my duty to remind the world of Rudy's... uhhhh... prior escapades.

Though it was clearly in good fun, we all know that the Republican base has a sense of humor akin to a horse's ass.

So buh-bye Rudy, and let's not waste our time with him. Rudy will be but a diversion to the 2008 race.

First some pics:

And then the BIG SHOW: Check out this YouTube footage of Rudy in Drag with the Donald!!

"... Rudolph Giuliani and, yes, President Bush, he wasn't a hero of 9/11, but he played one on TV. And like Mr. Giuliani, he was quick to cash in, literally, on his undeserved reputation."

-- Paul Krugman (01/07/2005)

I was sitting in the middle of our trading floor, several positions already established, admiring the sun's brilliant rise over Brooklyn. Wall Street was beginning to buzz and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.

I was particularly at ease that morning and was waiting to see what the morning's data releases were going to unleash on the markets.

In the background, I could hear the guy sitting behind me chatting on the phone with his wife who was strolling past the twin towers only a few blocks away.

The morning was September 11th, 2001.