They all seem to have appeared on the right lately.  Not that long ago we had them on the left as well. Actually I'm inclined to ask where the left has gone, but that is a circular thing, isn't it?  That is, what used to be radical left is gone.  What used to be left is also just about gone.   I expect  a bunch of comments pointing out that we have a left that is alive and well.  The problem with such claims is that when we had a radical left it would have been more than clear that these are really moderates.  So if there is no real radical left why should I expect there to be radical left journalists?  Which is chicken and which is egg?  My inspiration for such babble is that I have started a fascinating book: American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone by D. D. Guttenplan. There are things happening in this country right now that are very radical.  They scare me.  Read on below and I'll say more about Stone and about the absence of a voice like his and what it means for all of us.

The midterm elections in a president's first term are often difficult for his party, however, I believe that between now and November we have a chance to turn things around and make our progressive coalition stronger. In order to do this, we have to make some very difficult choices. The last few weeks have been encouraging with the health care summit, Obama coming out strong on health care, the support of progressives for Bill Halter, the success of the coffee party, and there are many other encouraging signs. However, one place that I am seeing support lacking, that desperately needs your help is in the support of a true progressive in PA, Joe Sestak. When we waffle we fail, when we stand tall as progressives, we will prevail.

   You don't get more Establishment than an Ex-President.

Bill Clinton Throws His Support To Blanche Lincoln

In a boost to embattled Dem Senator Blanche Lincoln — and a bit of a blow to primary challenger Bill Halter — fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton is throwing his support to the incumbent Senator, his spokesman confirms to me.

Halter’s entry into the race had kicked off a round of speculation about who Clinton would endorse, given that he hails from the state and remains very popular with Dem primary voters. If Clinton had remained neutral it would have been a big boost to Halter.

Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna tells me, however, that the former President is supporting Lincoln.

"Senator Lincoln asked President Clinton several months ago to support her reelection," McKenna says. "He said he would, and he does."

theplumline

     
    Yes, the Democratic Establishment can kiss my DFH ass.

More below the fold

Two pieces recently in the news show how at least one faction in the foreign policy establishment is going to great lengths to create victory for Ahmadinejad. The first, appearing in Politico, provocatively entitled Ahmadinejad won. Get over it is a sister piece to the second The Iranian People Speak, which appeared in WaPo yesterday. Come below the fold to see how consent is manufactured in the US media....

    Why the hell did they even invite Jeb? Does the GOP really think there is anybody left who is gonna fall for that for the first time?

    This is not a failure to communicate, dude, this is a failure of principals. Trying to trick us into voting for principals that have failed will only lead to more failure, which America can not afford.

    Today it was announced that the GOP will fight the label of the "Party Of NO!" by forming a new group called the "National Council for a New America"

    So far, Jeb Bush, John McCain, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have signed on and Sarah Palin and others have been invited. RNC Chairman Michael Steele has not been invited along.

   
    More shit in a guarenteed box below the fold.

    Here are just a few of my favorite ideas for future infrastructure spending, but if you have some of your own, don't be afraid to say so in the comments below.

    Good thing we voted that one in, or the only infrastructure we'd be building would be new oil drills and a bigger army in Iraq. I don't know where we'd be if Old Man/Flight Attendant08 had won. I am glad and thankful that I will never learn.

    For some good ideas, and endless possibilities, go below the fold.

Every Black person knows that when you see black folks in horror flicks, they are ALWAYS the first ones to die.  Well America is currently a horror show so I expect that Michael Steele will soon be fired and President Obama soon impeached.

I wrote this post on my own blog for a more general audience, but thought I'd share it here as well to get feedback. I'm trying to define "The Village", or "the Washington Establishment", for people unfamiliar with the blogosphere usage of the term, and I would welcome comments on my definition and if these sorts of diaries are a useful idea!

Next week Barack Obama will be sworn in as the new President, after promising a campaign of "change". I hope that we will see real leadership, the type of leadership where the Establishment is suddenly put on alert.  Here's what I mean (below).   Obama please take notes.


Leadership Part I:


Watch and Listen to President John Kennedy's words very, very carefully  (several times if necessary).

When have we ever had  an actual President Of The United States,  ever stand before us and talk to us in  this way before??

To follow up on Joan's post (and Digby's observations therein) on the nixed Brennan nomination for CIA head, I have to note that the attempts to blame cruel bloggers for the pulling of Brennan's nomination seem very much part and parcel of the new, sulking "establishment outrage" that's being built up against the notion that there might be even the barest hint of consequences for actions taken in the Bush years. It's only marginally about Brennan in particular.

I mean sure, now everyone in politics can vaguely agree that we shouldn't go torturing people and then coming up with bullshit justifications that make it sound all legal and stuff. After this being a controversial or even anti-American notion, according to the foundational premises of the Bush years, all the usual suspects are, begrudgingly, recognizing that this new maybe-illegally-torturing-possibly-innocent-people-isn't-such-a-great-idea idea is the way the wind is blowing, and for them to say otherwise might, you know, suck for them.

But the thought that there should be consequences for prior endorsements or justifications for pro-torture positions, or advocacy for pro-domestic-espionage, or illegally premised detainment, or advocacy for utterly incompetent military strategies -- that's still a crazy, freakish notion in Washington or in politics. A bridge too far.

If there's one thing that nearly every politician and appointee and hanger-on in Washington can agree to, it's that no matter how bad some heinous or flagrantly illegal action was, prosecuting someone for it would be simply inconceivable. And even punishing them for it by reducing their upward career mobility would be outrageous. And even just criticizing them for their past actions would be unnecessarily "divisive" or "confrontational," the sign of a sick and addled population bent.

After all, if we were to agree that torturing a few now-known-to-be-innocent people required even the barest, most minimal minuscule punitive actions be taken against those who facilitated that torture, where would it end? Next thing you know we'd be all up in arms about all the other corruption and legal violations, and that'd be as divisive as all hell, especially for all the people who would possibly be looking at jail time (or at the least, a possible pay cut.) Don't forget, we've passed into a new era when there isn't the slightest thing wrong with the premise that the President can declare any American he likes an "enemy combatant", and that simply nullifies every Constitutional right that American possesses, on his say-so.

For some reason, politicians facing consequences for illegal acts is always "divisive". You or me or anyone else breaks the law, nobody gives a flying crap about "divisiveness." Someone in a position of power does it, though, and it's apparently a f'ing crisis of our f'ing legal system to contemplate taking any action against them. We'll even get tsk-tsking comments directed our way by f-ing f-stick apparatchiks if we so much as express displeasure towards those poor, put upon souls.

So when anonymous figures in Washington pin John Brennan's failure to be appointed head of the CIA to meddling, know-nothing bloggers and their cruel whims, instead of, say, pinning that failure on John Brennan's defense of programs that should be roundly indefensible, it seems self-evident that they consider the current public mood and thought of consequences in general to be the problem, and not the underlying philosophies, failures or even past crimes themselves.

But what do any of us know?

Defeated, demoralized, and hopelessly out of touch with Americans, Republicans can't stop Obama from becoming a great president. At the moment the primary barrier to progress is the corporate-backed DC establishment. We have nothing to fear but Fareed himself.

Beltway pundits, pols, consultants, and lobbyists are, as usual, speaking with one voice; the country is conservative-leaning, they say, and if Obama governs more than a notch or two left of center, he will fail. They are poised to turn on him.

During the campaign, Obama successfully courted--or perhaps co-opted--the guardians of conventional wisdom. They helped him win. But now Obama has little choice but to welcome their enmity.

Almost instantly after he reached 270 EVs on Tuesday night, the opposition blogosphere began new uproars over the appropriate staffing of an Obama administration and howls of protest at the impending selection of Rahm Emmanuel as chief of staff. Already, these opposition-born institutions are showing that they are going to, at best, have trouble supporting the sausage-making of a liberal agenda more than painting a utopian picture on a blank slate in opposition. This same problem had a lot to do with Ralph Nader’s popularity in 2000, which was enough to be a necessary but not sufficient cause of Al Gore’s defeat. Worse, in 2000 these institutions didn’t exist. Will they create an anti-Obama frankenstein that is more like Ross Perot than Ralph Nader in 2012?

More on the flip…

Wise up, America . There’s nothing special about 50% plus one. Truth and justice cannot be determined by a show of hands. We are not the government. Voting is not a sacrament. And as it stands today, when we’re only given a choice between two Establishment approved candidates, voting is a joke.

A number of thoughts and outrages have been swimming around in my mind lately.  Yesterday, I read with great interest a Daily Kos diary talking about the House hearings relating to Rep. Kucinich's impeachment resolutions, but which were studiously arranged not to seem like impeachment hearings. One thing in particular about the diary resonated deeply within me:

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Your Brother is The One Who Thinks Like You

The raging controversy over Barack Obama addressing the issue of irresponsible fathers in the Black community, clearly demonstrates that many of the old-school thinkers in the community are living in a time warp. We now have a Black man who is very likely to be the next President of the United States, yet there are those in the community who want him to keep quiet about the fact that we have soiled toilet paper hanging from our inaugural tux. Instead of saying, "Thanks, let me clean up my act", they're saying, "Why are you picking on me–I saw a White boy with do-do on him too–why didn't you say something to him?"

Last Thursday, Rep. Linda Sanchez called for Karl Rove to be arrested for failing to comply with a Congressional subpoena and appear before her Committee. While I applaud Congresswoman Sanchez's sentiments, I seriously doubt Karl Rove will face such action and I blame Sanchez and her ilk in Congress. Sanchez wrote:

"After my ruling that Mr. Rove's claims of immunity are not legally valid, Congressman Conyers and I gave him one last chance to comply with the law. He ignored us. As he let yet another deadline slip by this week, Mr. Rove's disregard for Congress has become intolerable..."

Translation: "I subpoenaed Mr. Rove and he didn't show up. Then I warned him and gave him one last chance, and he still didn't show up. Then I double warned him and he still didn't comply. If he refuses to comply any longer, I may have to super-duper double-secret warn him and see if he complies then..."

I sent my last blog to my sister and her response was a direct and honest question. It went something like, "why don't they create a media outlet that simply tells the truth no matter what?" I really felt the curiosity and simple sincerity of her question. But then, after lingering awhile I realized that the real question lurking was far more simpler, "First, what is truth, and then, what is the truth?" Is there indeed some ultimate, absolute, objective truth that can be realized in the mind of a man and if so, could this truth ever be communicated? Well, maybe, but so far if such a truth has been communicated, it certainly has not been universally accepted. In fact quite the opposite state of affairs exist with a plethora of proffered truths all clamoring for recognition. So what's a thinking, curious human to do? How on earth does one ever sort all this out?

Jim Neal is the progressive candidate in North Carolina's Primary this Tuesday May 6.  He is up against Kay Hagan, a conservative Dem who was apparently nudged by the DSCC to run soon after Jim affirmed in a press interview that he was openly gay.  I first learned about Neal through the netroots and through an article on 365gay.com about his candidacy his candidacy.  After hearing about the campaign, I decided to take a look at the candidates' sites themselves.  Even a quick glance reveals tremendous differences.  Jim is a true progressive on everything from healthcare to gay rights to the Iraq War.  He is also taking a great step forward for all gay Americans by having the courage to be himself and run for office.  We must band together and do what we can to get Jim elected!  Please visit his site, donate, spread the word, and read below the fold for more.