Stand Up

I think it's great that Ann Coulter and the conservatives at this weekend's CPAC convention in Washington want to slur John Edwards with homophobic slurs and laugh about it. The HUGE irony here is that many at the convention are fretting over the slate of Republican presidential candidates lacking true Christian values.

I think it's great because it shows these people for what they really are----power-obsessed jerks who will summon up all measure of bile and hate just to win an election. A far cry from Jesus Christ's sermon on the mount, don't you think?

To Edwards's credit, his campaign has responded by using Coulter's slur to raise money. This morning on his website, they are trying to raise a little "Coulter Cash" to help end the culture of bigotry that folks like Coulter, Karl Rove and the men they serve----that's you, George W Bush---have created in this country. Inspirational leadership in response to the smallness of the right. I smell a big victory in 2008, which just might consign their anti-gay, anti-environment, anti-woman, anti-poor agenda to the dustbin of history.

A Fantastic Proposal

In today's news, Democrats in the House are coalescing around a plan to hold President Bush and the Iraqi government to a six-month timetable for keeping their promises to quell sectarian violence.

Under the new plan, US soldiers would come home in six months if the government of Iraq doesn't take the measures it supposedly promised Bush (I say supposedly because he has lied at every step of this process, going back to his first beats of the war drum in late 2001) to stop the violence instigated by both Sunni and Shiite militias within its borders, particularly in Baghdad.

Call it a benchmark, call it a timeline, call it whatever you want---but it's past time to do something along these lines. There has been no accountability on the President's part and even less on the part of the Maliki government.

Well, that didn't take long. . .

Democrats in the House and Senate are splintering over provisions to restrict war funding and re-visit the 2002 authorization. Bills may not get a debate outside of committee, much less a full vote. It only took a little under two months in power for the party of good to quit acting like it had a mandate and worry more about preserving its own status.

This is disgusting. Democrats were put in charge of the Congress because they FINALLY stood up to the President last year on Iraq. But now that they have the power, they still cower, like a party firmly in the minority. They are running scared, and the Republicans love it. While the Middle East burns and troops die and lose limbs, folks back home are afraid of their patriotism being questioned by Darth Vader and Puppet Boy.

There's nothing like winning the race and failing to get the prize. And the unwillingness to accept the mantle of power is disgraceful. It's times like this I think about joining the Green Party.