It's now 36 hours after it became clear we'd done it Tuesday - we'd won the House and were on our way to capturing the Senate. But the magnitude of what we accomplished is just hitting me.

Do you realize what we did on Tuesday?  

We took our country back. We took it back from the most extreme, venal group of ideologues who had pledged to wipe out their opposition forever. They foresaw a permanent Republican rule, and they were changing the system to make it so. They began dismantling checks and balances. They started changing laws so that they'd never need to worry about oversight. They gerrymandered districts so that even if constituents started to wake up and get pissed off, their power would be safe. They controlled the messaging from the media, whom they had intimidated into doing their bidding. They have been completely out of control, and they were well on their way to dismantling the foundations of our government to ensure that they stayed that way.

A little over a year ago, shortly after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez won his recall referendum vote, I came across this great column by Greg Palast. As someone who didn't follow oil politics very closely, I found it a great primer on the demonization of Hugo Chavez.

Here's a portion; check out the rest. It certainly makes crystal clear why BushCo has refused to condemn Robertson's comments.

It's a fascinating moment when you realize that your own gut feeling has become widespread; that your personal take on a situation is now shared by many, perhaps even most, people.  

For us, that moment is now.

Mary Schmich, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, published an excellent piece today affirming that America is finally waking up to the idiocy of the Iraq war. Our position, for so long maligned as treasonous and un-American, is gradually, almost imperceptibly, becoming mainstream.

Yesterday I caught my husband reading a Kathleen Parker column in the Chicago Tribune. I saw a picture of Howard Dean and the headline "Loud and Loony." I batted the newspaper away.  

"I hope you're taking anything she says with a grain of salt," I said.

"Actually, she's defending Howard Dean," my husband said. "She's says he's right in his observations about the GOP, but that he's too heavy-handed in his delivery. She thinks he needs a lighter touch."

You have to wonder: What does Rush Limbaugh have against students? That is, students who actually study the world around them; whose education is not limited to Fox News and creationist textbooks.

Frederick Clarkson posted an excellent diary Monday about the Harvard students who came under attack by Rush for staging a play about the horrors of Abu Ghraib. During the discussion, I mentioned that within the last month Rush had also smeared my local high school in Evanston, Illinois. A number of Kossacks encouraged me to post a diary about the dust-up, so I thought I'd offer a little more information about the curriculum and Rush's allergic reaction to it.

The school, Evanston Township High School, instituted a global studies requirement in 1988. Since then, wrote the Christian Science Monitor in a May 10 article,  "international history, culture, and foreign policy have infused the curriculum to an unusual degree."

Ah, the wooing, the courting, the promises made to the swing voters during the 2004 election. But what happens after the conquest ends and the suitor is revealed to be nothing more than a callow opportunist? As someone who spent a lot of time trying to persuade swing voters in Wisconsin last year to vote for Kerry, I have to wonder.

MoveOn is calling for nationwide emergency rallies at courthouses and federal buildings on Wednesday, April 27, to protest the GOP's attempt to kill the filibuster.

I admit it: I'm stumped. I am up against the cornerstone of the Far Right's philosophy, and I don't get it. I don't get their obsession with "evil."

"Axis of evil." "Evil-doers." "Evil empire." Homosexuality as "evil." Liberals as "evil." So much evil in the world. According to them, we're living in a swamp of "evil."

I just don't see it. Granted, I've never been the victim of a violent crime, never lost anyone or anything to some wanton act of destruction. But like all of us, I lived through 9/11. I've had to forgive a fair number of people, and I've had to be forgiven myself.

Barack Obama may have cast some less-than-thrilling votes since taking office in January, but at least he's putting his money where his mouth is. The Chicago Sun-Times reports today that Obama has raised more than $1 million since Jan. 1 for Democratic senators up for re-election next year.

Apparently his most recent on-line appeal, via MoveOn for top GOP target Sen. Robert Byrd, set some sort of a record: $500,000 after nine hours online, and a total of $834,000 by the time the three-day pitch ended on March 31.

In addition to undermining our public schools, the No Child Left Behind Act allows the military unprecedented access to our kids' contact information. Yes, under Section 9528 of the much-reviled act, the military is entitled to every junior and senior's name, address and telephone number - unless parents specifically decline to make that information available.

Parents have to process a ton of paperwork each school year, so it's easy to imagine many if not most  forgetting to write that letter, or not getting around to it. Plus, many school districts don't even let parents know they can withhold their information from the military.

So I was gratified to learn recently that at our local high school in Evanston, Illinois, almost every family is refusing to turn their kids' contact information over to the military. Just 17 names appeared in the last directory handed over to military recruiters - down from more than 1,000 the first year the law was in effect.

When Parade Magazine, home of celebrity drivel and the meaningless puff piece, starts sounding the alarm on government secrecy, you know it's time to get worried.

Today's issue includes a bite-sized article urging readers to "Shine the Light on Government Secrets." Sandwiched between blurbs on where to get tax help and a CBS biopic, Parade outlines the sweeping new restrictions in public access to information over the past few years.

But not once do they mention the person responsible for this incredible new level of secrecy: George W. Bush.

Here in the Midwest, we look for small signs of spring wherever we can find them: a cardinal in the back yard, crocuses pushing through the snow. Similarly, I'm watching closely for signs that the GOP's appeal to the "moral values" crowd may be crumbling.