CLICK TO ENLARGE

All Clear after Security Alert at White House... that was the headline from a Reuters article this morning.  It talked about the fact that the White House was temporarily shut down for the third time in one day due to somebody leaving behind a mysterious package.  Same thing happened about two weeks ago, and last week they arrested that guy, Brian Lee Patterson for jumping the fence for the third time.  Granted, Patterson seemed to be a half-bubble off plumb and reportedly was trying to warn the president about something.  But, I think that Brian and all the packages seem to be sending a message.  

In a recent diary I wrote about my discouragement at Oprah Winfrey's tacit endorsement of a Hillary 08 run. Political Cortex has a really cool feature where related news articles come up when you read the diary. However, I think we need to refine that feature.

I'm new around here, so I don't mean to be overly critical. I love this site, and I look forward to being a part of its growth. I think the format is awesome, and I think the related news feature is cool too.

But something has to change here, in my ever so humble opinion.

Details over the flip...

It has become obvious that the opening salvos of the fight we have been waiting for have been fired. Over the last three years a huge on-line community has sprung up in large part as a reaction to the Bush Administrations push to war in Iraq. Although we have had many small victories in our quest to get the truth out to the American people, (the Downing Street Memo and  Jeff Gannon to mention two) I believe now comes the true test of our ability to shape opinion and policy.

As the polls show us, more Americans each day are questioning the validity of the Iraq War and the veracity of the claims made by this administration to justify it. In response to this growing discontent, the administration has launched a counteroffensive of misdirection and misinformation. As usual, their method is to attack the messenger rather than confront the message.  The attack on Rep. Murtha is only the latest example of this tactic.  

The general Republican defense seems to be that even to suggest that the administration might have misled the American people when making the case for war is a bold-faced lie, and making such a false accusation is nothing short treasonous.  We've seen the tactic used many times before, from Joe McCarthy to Richard Nixon, but this time there is something new in the equation: us. 

*** Join Political Cortex with a FREE member account. It only takes a moment, but the benefits last a lifetime! ***

That's what Armando argued last week in a diary at My Left Wing titled "Community Owned Blogging Is a Fantasy."  The diary was based on a comment I made at Booman Tribune in a diary titled "Banned from MyDD."

Let's see, counting Armando, frontpager at Dkos, that's four major liberal blogs mixed together in this.  All play valuable roles, but none of them functions as a democracy. And Armando argued that none could be. Needless to say, it boggled my mind that a citizen of democracy could say such a thing. And it delights me no end that here we are, in a so-called impossible place.  It reminds me of one of my favorite slogans from the 1960s, from the Paris Uprising of 1968: "Be realistic. Demand the impossible!"