Though no lawyer, or for that matter constituional scholar (though I am a scholar), it has long been my understanding that the second amendment guarantees the ability of the people to rise up once again against tyranny.

Isn't it about time?

One more question - isn't suggesting something untoward happen to a member, or members, of the judiciary... illegal?

There is slight hope now that liberal blogs have realized since the 2004 election the strength and influence of the evangelical fanatics on the Republican Party. The real question is when will corporate media recognize that radical ideologues have taken control of the federal government?

As long as they keep getting their tax cuts, maybe never.

Steve, well Karl Rove would run such commericals in a heartbeat. Democrats? Well, probably not. That's the difference. We just don't go for the jugular like the opposition Party, and it is costing us dearly (of course, Toby would have us believe that we are just as bad as his party).

Thomas,

As to your second point, I have found myself wondering the same thing. Considering how little one has to do to get a friendly visit from the Secret Service, plenty of right-wing commentary has crossed the line recently in comparison regarding judges. Have any ideas as to which law enforcement agency is charged with physical protection of federal judges?

Personally, I see some parallels between what we are currently hearing said about judges, and what eventually happened to abortion providers. In the latter case, they were reviled for years as baby killers. Eventually, people like Paul Hill, James Kopp, and Eric Rudolph took this rhetoric to heart and assassinated doctors or bombed clinics.

Likewise, people who talk about 'impaling' federal judges (I think 'head on a pike' is the image they are trying to evoke.) are laying the groundwork for judicial assassinations. Of course, when the inevitable tragedy occurs these people will protest that their rhetoric was misconstrued. However, without a doubt, their statements make such a thing more, rather than less, likely.

Steve,
dream on! The dems are cowardly corporate whores - they will do nothing about this. the dems will continue to cower in a corner while the repubs destoy our country.

They need to understand the necessity for seperation of church and state. They need to understand the distinction between religion and politcs, between laws and beliefs, between democracy and theocracy.

It's called hate speech, and it is intended to cause harm to others. Isn't it interesting that we allow people like Coburn to make such statements without consequences, but go after those in the world of academia without restraint.

The Dems could come up with absolutely stunning television commercials that accurately portray the modern Republican Party in their true colors.....but tell me, what television station would actually play them? The networks are either so in thrall to the extemists (or so intimidated by them) there is little chance anything the Dems create would see the light of day.

As a registered Democrat, who are the "Dems" everyone keeps referring to? I can't think of any "A" list Democrats left with a spine. So when people/we say "they" must do this or that, exactly who are they/we talking about? Just curious...

shscotty,
some fools (like Steve Soto) are under the delusion that there is an opposition party called the democrats. Ha ha - what a joke!

Time for a third party.

ds180, you are probably correct in your assessment.

I think all this talk about radical Republicans who want to kill judges and turn America into a theocracy is a ruse designed to make us forget about wishy-washy policy-oriented Democrats who need to have their feet held to the fire. We CANNOT allow concern for the very survival of the country to obscure even the slightest transgression on the left, even if it is of no consequence beyond offending us true believers. Only by remaining absolutist ourselves can we hope to purge the Democratic Party of the moderates who are infecting our precious bodily fluids.

Jack,
didn't you have some kind of "accident" in the bathroom?

Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors, Judith.

Operators are standing by.

OK, folks, here's how this one is going to play out.

Powerline will insist that Blumenthal made the comment up. The mainstream media, led by Howard Kurtz and the good people at Newsweek and Time, will back up Powerline and insist that the Democrats disown Blumenthal for his lies. A Republican witness will then come forward and back Blumenthal up, but this will be ignored; Blumenthal will then be accused of taking the quote "out of context", and the attack will shift to a discussion of "desperation" on the part of the Dems. Then discussion of that Colorado academic who called the World Trade Center victims little Eichmanns will be revived, and some obsure left activist who threatened a judge three years ago will be found.

Meanwhile judges will quietly hire bodyguards.

Steve,

I completely agree with you. How can we get the message across to the policy shapers in the Democratic party (e.g. Howard Dean)?

Jonathan.

Using the GOP's own rhetoric against them is not only a fabulous idea, it's common sense.

As a result, safely bet your next paycheck, your mortgage, your retirement funds and your children that the Democrats won't do it. Trying to encourage the DNC to be more aggressive and tell the truth is like talking to a wall.

Tough crowd.

I will say one thing to people who voted for scumbags like Coburn. "You asked for it, you got it". Too bad, so sad.

jj,

I don't know about the others here, but I for one am getting rather tired of your sniping.

cls180 points out one of the problems. Maybe you could direct your ire at one of the barriers that is keeping the Dems from developing a spine.

Believe me, I have been quite vocal in pushing the Democrats into real live opposition, and they seem to have, led by the example of our rip roaring Senator Boxer, been doing so. You just haven't noticed because we don't have the votes or the media in our back pockets.

But something must be getting through; bush's approval is plunging, schwarzenkopf's approvals and plans are plummeting, oh sure, there's lots to do, they've got a long way to go, but the boat is moving upstream, not headed downstream for the falls.

So how bout a little positive reinforcement? We've got to take these people down one at a time. Maybe toss out some suggestions or scripts for the Dems to consider? People do read this blog you know. Not just bloggers, either.

This post illustrates a fundamental weakness of the congressional Democrats. Many of the Democrats want to find common ground with Republicans. They want the Republicans to like them.

The Republicans on the other hand want to shove a stick so far up the Democrats' asses that blood spurts out of their eyeballs.

Duckman GR,
I have continually made suggestions. If like you say some dem leaders read this blog, maybe they will get the message that we are sick of their cowardly ways. I am not sniping - I am making my point.

mysteve has hit the nail on the head.

Amen Brother Steve

Duckman,
On further reflection, you are probably right - not about not making suggestions (because I do) but about sniping. I do that and I apologize and Steve Soto, I apologize to you also- honestly. The dems drive me to wild depths of anger! I admit it. But I also feel that as long as the dems are corporate whores..... well, they are going to act like corporate whores and will really not fight the GOP. I don't know what the solution is - I really don't. But I do know that we have the GOP waging a war on our democracy and the American people and we have the dems who care more about self-preservation than they care about the people they represent. Yes I'm an idealist. I'm looking for the PARTY to represent the people, not the corporations.

JJ, well said. I second that.

jj, you owe me no apology, as I share your frustrations.

Yeah, whatever happened to Howard Dean? Is he being quiet or has he been silenced? I'm so sick of it all, I put a Bush face with TWIT HAPPENS on my back rear window two days ago. I've had people honking at me....oooh. One guy flipped me off; lessee, some dude stuck his tongue out at me; cigarette butts thrown at me. I don't think that was in protest. I think these folks were telling me that they thought I was the bomb 'cause I was so cool to have MF on my car window(one must remain optomistic)--whatever.

LeftCoaster Rocks, though the Liberal Media story is boring....

paradox,

Yeah, a tough crowd.

Pissed off.

Isn't it about time?

How do we take back control of the democratic party? How about funding their campains with grassroot financing and ending their dependency on corporate money. We started doing this with the Dean and Kerry campains. And honestly, the Republican K-street project is already helping us out as well.

If corporate money starts drying up and we give the Dems enough money to win elections anyway, well why on earth would any politician give a shit about what some corporate lobbist says? Hopefully corporate lobbists will never darken a Democratic door again.

Personally, I think that these wheels are already in motion without any central plan. And politics is not all that expensive in the grand scheme of things. The Repugs are doing us a favor by sucking all of the corporate money away because we can afford our own political campains.

RE:What happened to Howard Dean? I read the other day that he was giving some kick-ass speaches in, I think, Kentucky, presumably working on firing up the grassroots.

jj, I'll accept your apology, although I don't think you really owe me one, and I owe you one too, for ragging on you!

I get a little snarky sometimes too at the Democrats failures and limitations. And everytime I get an e-mail that tells me BIG NEWS from the Democrats and then tells me, well, really, just give us some money, I want to return the e-mail with #!%#$ @$#%$ $#($)# &#*$ comments. But I just look and delete.

But I also know that a lot of what they, we, do doesn't register very loudly, and that a lot of what we do doesn't get reported either, for a variety of reasons, some of which are not tin foil hat reasons.

Just look t it this way. There was 1 Democratic vote against certifying the election. Then there were 2 Democratic votes against Condiliesalot in the committee vote. Double the no action. Abu gonzales got what, 36 NO, you slimey bastard votes in his confirmation.

Progress is being made, but there's a long way to go, so keep yelling. And Growth Factor makes a good point, a really good point. And that's what Howard Dean is working on right now.

Bottom up. That's why they didn't want him as President, or DNC Chair. If you can find it, and it might be pre-internets, the Wall Street Journal had an article about Dianne Feinstein and campaign contributions, and what and how she spent her time getting them, and how much she had to raise. It was quite the eye opener. I'm talking like 1988 or something. What a difference it would make if they could just put out "the bat" as it were, and collect the dough, and spend time working, not whoring. Toss in a bunch of public funding, and force the news media to provide the access, we might get democracy back. Who knows?

Indeed Growth Factor is correct in that a party that depends very little on corporate contributions can take effective stands. In Europe the labor-social democrat model depended on union and other non-corporate scorces for their funding. The result? An effective center-left movement in all the western european democracies.

In the 1960's some Goldwaterites like Richard Vigeruie figured out that small contributions by a large number of people could make a difference. The internet gives us a chance to accelerate that process. 2004 was a good beginning and it needs to be built upon.