MARY LYON FROM THE LEFT: The Chirping Cricket Party

[Tace]

By Mary Lyon -- World News Trust

Ah, the sweet sound of non-representation. All quiet on the western front, and the eastern one, too, and the west, and even the south now, too. Crickets chirping in the gaping silence. Makes me feel like a throwing a crate of East India Company tea into the drink. I know how the protesters in Boston Harbor must have felt. Their complaint was “no taxation without representation.” I’m amazed, by now, to see how much I’m still taxed without having much, if any, of my views and wishes represented in my own government now. I guess not offending the bullies in the House, Senate, or White House is more important than standing up against breaking the law, trampling on the Constitution, or – heaven forbid – listening to your constituents. The Democratic Party has as its mascot a donkey – ostensibly a kicking one. But it’s times like these that make me wonder why they don’t just trade in the donkey for some of those crickets. After all, they seem to be everywhere when Democrats are expected to stand up to Bush and his buddies.

Many of us have tried, ever since this particular nightmare began, to outshout the crickets. When somebody like Russ Feingold (yes, one of ours) comes along actually wanting to hold Dubya accountable for even one of the apostasies of his policies, all you see are Democrats scurrying for cover, as though you shone a high-powered spotlight on their nightly romp in the backyard. I’ve called my own senators, a few in the opposition, too, as well as leaders Reid and Frist, and certainly Feingold, himself, because SOMEBODY has to let him know he’s on the mark about this (his colleagues sure haven’t). Plenty more have called in their support for him also, according to senatorial staffers reporting on their phone traffic. I support Feingold’s call for censure of George W. Bush, even though I don’t think it goes far enough (we should be pressing, full-tilt, for IMPEACHMENT). But you have to start somewhere. It’s too bad that so many Democrats still see this as a nonstarter, and why they seem to be running from the proposal like so many bugs when you lift the rock up and expose their hiding place. Crickets do scatter like that. But at least crickets make some steady noise about this stuff. Sure beats what the Democratic Party-proper is doing these days. They’re letting the crickets do the talking.

Somebody tell me -- what is with these people? Are they so cowed, so numbed, so despondent, that they can’t even work up a good fight anymore? Have they been hiding in some Michael Jackson oxygen chamber or Dick Cheney undisclosed location whenever the results of a new public opinion survey are released -- and hashed out by talking heads on the airwaves and in print from coast to coast? Have they been told that when your opponent is on the ropes, make sure to give him enough wiggle-room to get out of danger again -- so he can regroup, and pound you into the ground? How about, when your doctor finds a malignant tumor in your body, and decides the best strategy is just to wait it out and see if it’ll go away by itself? How ‘bout if the “Swift Boat Swifties” start attacking you -- is it really better to wait for everything to blow over because it’s considered far more noble to take the high road and not dignify the attacks with any comment whatsoever? And we ALL know that “swiftboating” will indeed just harmlessly blow over, now, won’t it?

It makes me almost shriek with frustration to see no one exploiting the multiple opportunities the Democrats are now being handed on so many silver plates. Let me count the ways: the latest AP/Ipsos poll that finds Junior at 37 percent in job approval, what this survey sees as the lowest of his presidency. It’s almost seven out of ten people who say the United States is on the wrong track -- a six point jump since February. Even the writer of this staid Associated Press story describes most Americans as wondering “whether Bush is up to the job.”

more

http://worldnewstrust.org/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=2709

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I just sent this to my two sentaors

SUPPORT FEINGOLD

Time to SUPPOET THE CENSURE RESLUTION and stop cowring before the GPP. If not now when?

Oh and if you and the rest of your democratic colleages continue to cower, we will be looking for alternatives to the Democractic party... may I remind you.... parties HAVE BEEN REPLACED in US history... not recently, but they have.

Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

[calimary]

11. Thank you! What an honor!

YES. It is TIME to support this censure resolution. And a LOT more beyond that.

[ClassWarrior]

2. K&R...

And ask your Senators the Magic Question...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2512789&mesg_id=2512789

NGU.

[calimary]

12. TRULY. Are they with us or agin' us?

You're either FOR the law or you're AGAINST it. Senators? Which is it?

NGU. NNNGU.

[Sparkman]

3. What was that sound? "IGNORE" buttons all over DU-Land. Get it up, DEMS!

We have no interest in our democracy, if we worry about offending the RW supportors, OR the Dem's who have no fear of the tromping our civil liberties and our right to association has suffered by the neo-cons' figure head.
Can you imagine an anti-war protest, WITHOUT the government cameras and monitors?!
"You're either WITH us, or you're with the terroists", this is the answer to the question, is the U.S. still a democracy.

[calimary]

13. Frankly, I think that the more the rw supporters squawk and gnash

their teeth, and the louder and nastier and more strident they become, the more proof that is, for us, that we're on the correct path.

Whatever makes them miserable is MORE than okay by ME! Because if it makes them miserable, it's BOUND to be good for the rest of us Good Guys.

Cheers to you, Sparkman!

[papau]

4. A nice article - well written and on point

:-)

[calimary]

14. Thank you!

:hi:

[pberq]

5. Kick & Nominated - great article!

[calimary]

15. I appreciate that!

Thanks much! :thumbsup:

[Triana]

6. K & R

She tells the Dems where the bu$hit in the buckwheat and rubs their cowardly noses in it.

[calimary]

16. Yep. Well, trying to, anyway...

Spines are actually kinda nice to have, dontcha think?

[underpants]

7. Fell right in the trap didn't she?

Look don't let a censure motion being actually filed turn into a wedge issue. Oh well no wonder the Dems can't get anything done-they actually do something and every falls all over themselves to complain about how it is perfect in every way they dreamed about it.

This is a amazing. I read this and I read the Milbank WaPo junk piece about how the Dems are letting this lay out there for people to talk about. For crying out loud doesn't anyone else see that letting this sit out there SHOULD make it the topic of all the talk shows but NO the press complains about the Dems and everyone falls right in line and W gets what appears to be WIN without ever doing anything.

Amazing.

[calimary]

10. Not at all!

The MOST important part about the censure is the fact that it finally exists. It's out there officially now, and as of this writing, we have a couple of other senators (Harkin and Boxer) who are signing on with it. Whether people think censure will shortstop IMPEACHMENT is beside the point. It's the FIRST attempt by anybody, in any really serious forum, to hold this jackass accountable, and apply penalty for even a tiny fraction of the shit he's pulled and gotten away with so far.

It would get talked about on the talk shows and in the papers and online far more vigorously IF we had MORE than simply Harkin and Boxer onboard. Unfortunately, the tendency among far too many of our representative Dems is to play it too safe. They're paying WAY too much attention to those naysayers who denounce IMPEACHMENT as a pipedream, impossible, not-gonna-happen. Well, maybe that's true NOW, in mid-March, 2006. The November elections and an increasingly likely republi-CON blood bath are still to come. I've certainly been wrong before, but it seems to me that if the trend continues, and the coattails keep shrinking and more republi-CONS get tighter sphincter muscles and more Dems start gaining a little spinal strength, this dynamic may change. And change a LOT.

I think we're reaching critical mass. Censure won't be much of a wedge issue - UNLESS WE ALLOW IT TO BE. WE are the engine that drives this train. The Dems on the Hill are reacting to US. I submit that the Feingold censure call is but a beginning. Censure's okay if that's all we can realistically try for, now. But it's more important to get it out there ON THE RECORD. This is only the first step. I think we'd move faster toward all-out IMPEACHMENT if we had more Dems onboard with this. At the moment, they're still too gun-shy. I think that's all gonna change after November, and by then, the momentum will be hard, if not impossible, to stop. And remember, this is censure on but ONE and ONLY ONE of a MULTITUDE of crimes and sins that bush has committed, any one of which is worthy of IMPEACHMENT. If he's censured on domestic spying, we oughta push for IMPEACHMENT on something else, Plamegate or the war or some such thing.

This is only sitting out there as it is, in the talk shows, BECAUSE WE HAVE SUCH PATHETICALLY WUSSY, indeed, almost NON-EXISTENT "SUPPORT" for it. THAT is my complaint. The whole complexion of this would be different if you had a united front of Dems all working together and pulling in the same direction. THAT'S my complaint.

But this is one little baby step, this censure. It'll keep going, at least for awhile, until the bad guys find a way to shoot it down. But there'll be more. They got rid of the first insurgents in Iraq, too, early-on. But there were more. LOTS more. And they nabbed a whole bunch of those "playing card targets," but if you'll notice the big announcements every so often, they keep arresting or killing the number-two or number-three guy in al Qaeda. And the way bush plays it, you'd think that once that number-two or number-three guy is arrested, that's it and there'll be no replacements for him. Think AGAIN. I think once people get a taste for this, there will be MUCH more. I just want our DEMS fired up NOW. Not later. With Feingold, the orchestra is merely warming up. We haven't even gotten through the overture yet.

I also believe that, as long as we don't give up, and we DO keep complaining about the Dems falling "right in line," combined with the changing dynamics in this country's politics THIS YEAR, and bush's steady loss of strength, charisma, and unreasonable and unearned good luck, Feingold's move won't be a stand-alone move. And if it succeeds, that does NOT mean it shuts down anything more that might come after it. Pretty soon, I suspect, as more Dems see the numbers now starting to terrify the republi-CONS, they'll start to realize that they can try some other approach than merely to "fall right in line" again.

But I'm tired of waiting for it. I want to see it NOW. If you go for broke, sometimes you do make things happen. Aim HIGH. Go BOLD. Frankly, it's worked for the bad guys. I think we oughta start making it work for OUR guys, too.

[TankLV]

19. Thank you for putting it so succintly, like all the others, too.

The spineless will have to be molded continually by us to become upright - tall and proud and strong - once again.

I am WAY past impatient.

Why, oh why, can't we take a tiny, miniscule page out of the repuke play book and START to bash them JUSTIFIABLY, just like they have been HARSHLY and LOUDLY bashing us UNJUSTLY - just a wee bit?

They better do something SOON otherwise, 2006 will be over again before they know it!

[calimary]

31. No kidding. It's. Just. Time.

Dammit. I, too, am WAY past impatient.

[sendero]

8. Very nice..

.... K&R'ed :)

[calimary]

17. Thank you!

Cheers back atcha! :D

[ClassWarrior]

9. .

[ClassWarrior]

20. .

[Jeffersons Ghost]

18. Dems should trade the donkey

Trade it in for a fat yellow chicken, ready for the fryer.

Here's a new mascot for the Rethugs:

[radio4progressives]

24. !

[calimary]

30. LOL!

We'll have to find that song about doing the Funky Chicken.

[Atman]

21. I got yer Chirping Cricket right here!

Really, I do!

[radio4progressives]

23. wow that's great! did you create that image?

[Atman]

26. Yes, I did it today after reading the Lyons article

Thanks...did you check out the avatar?

[radio4progressives]

32. I just now see it! it's great! seeing yours last night, inspired me

to look around on the net, and i posted a few of those at my journal..

[IndianaGreen]

25. That's a very nice looking chirping cricket!

Where I like to hear crickets chirping is outside, in the background, on a pleasant evening, not in and around Democratic Party offices or operations. The Democrats should be all over this stuff like yellowjackets at a sushi picnic. I think they’d gain more converts if they did. And they better start, or come November, they’ll be squashed like so many bugs, and there’ll be nothing left, for our democracy OR what’s left of our Constitution, much less our hapless political party, except the sound of crickets chirping.

http://worldnewstrust.org/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=2709

[calimary]

29. Isn't it, though?

I like it a lot!

[calimary]

28. Pretty darn funny!

Good work, and I also like the avatar!

[radio4progressives]

22. Excellent Article...

Kicked and recommended... well said..

[calimary]

27. Thanks back atcha!

Cheers!

:toast: