"They don't even know who we are."

I know we're all occupied with the holidays (the good) and the tragedy in Southeast Asia (oh so very bad) so the last thing any of us want to think about right now is more politics. And no, this isn't going to be a high-pitched rant about the Shrubbery's latest dickheadedness, of which there are multitudinous multitudes.

No, tonight, I'm (briefly) talking DNC reform. More specifically, a reform candidate for the DNC Chair because whether the DNC establishment knows it or not, they are speeding the Democratic Party toward utter extinction. No matter the lazy media, the right-wing spin machine, Bush and his evil cronies, the grinding pathology of corporate fascism...none of these things is any more to blame than the completely spineless Democratic Party as it exists today. The DNC establishment has gotten entirely too comfy and insulated in their political power games that matter not a whit to the 99% of the rest of the Party and have absolutely zero to do with representing us. They'll take our money and gladly benefit from our hours and hours of campaigning, dollars we can ill afford and time that none of us has.

But they aren't fighting for us, they appear to have very little interest in being a true opposition party, and though they seem genuinely disgusted by Bush et al, it's in a rather detached, aloof sort of way, the kind of perspective that's the luxury of those who aren't truly desperate and are the least likely to be affected by what the Republicans are about to wreak on our country and the world. Oh sure, they may be out of power, may find themselves without the control they're used to, but none of them worries about losing their home, paying for college, whether they'll have tiniest of Social Security nets to catch them in old age, going to the doctor, being able to breathe clean air, or being able to buy a fucking bag of groceries.

(Yes, I know some of them care very passionately about some or all of these causes. But I defy you to find one who will be the first to lose their home when the economy plummets after Bush's reckless stewardship or who will be sacrificing a son or daughter when the draft cranks up. I defy you because you won't be able to find one, I guarantee it.)

Kid Oakland over at Daily Kos has more: bloggers and citizens

Howard Dean gets this. He knows that the biggest obstacle to Democratic Party ascendancy in the years ahead is the Democratic Party establishment. Look, I don't care whether Howard Dean was your candidate in the primaries or not. I don't care if you thought he was too liberal or too conservative or too moderate, whether he was too angry or outspoken or whatever. The fact is, he's our best hope for rescuing the party from itself, for Democrats like you and me to take it back from the people who either have a vested interest in the status quo or who don't remember (or never knew) what it's like to be just a citizen.

Jerome over at MyDD has more on Dean's chances. (They're excellent, but click the link anyway.)

Oh, what a wonderful world it would be

A world without Donald Rumsfeld?!? I know what I'm asking Santa for this year...

A Not So Wonderful Life

Via Pandagon.

We interrupt this blog for a moment of vanity

No More Mister Nice Blog has posted a copy of an email he was sent by someone who may or my not be me (by the author's permission, of course) about a topic that I may or may not know something about. I have nothing meaningful to add, other than it never fails to surprise me how often seemingly useless knowledge has an unlikely application.

Of HOAs and the ex-prospective candidates for the Department of Homeland Security

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Dr. Dean does the DNC

Howard Dean gave his long-anticipated speech today about reforming the Democratic Party from the ground up. And Ezra at Pandagon has a nicely bulleted summary of Dean's main points.

Pandagon: Dean Speech Summary

You might remember that the state memberships have agreed to vote as a single bloc and they're looking for some big things from the future DNC chair -- namely, extensive party reform and a targeting of state and local races, not just the presidential. Looks like they've found their man.

(you can read the whole speech at Democracy for America)

My man John

Just when I think I'm over the choking-up phase of dealing with Kerry's loss, there's something like this to bring it all home again:

This is what John Kerry did today.

George Bush is President in name only. I'll be looking to my man John for the leadership and guidance this country should've had from the White House for the next four years. And I'll be watching "Going Upriver" on Inauguration Day.

More pictures in the comment thread of that diary.

Godmium is the new black

Since Bush & Co. have decided science is just an inconvenient nuisance to their Grand Plan and that hundreds of learned scientists and entire bodies of work meticulously cultivated by some of the brightest minds of humankind are both inaccurate and stupid, what need of science? And Fafnir, being a good and patriotic American, has kindly obliged by creating a convenient New Science. Helpful topics include:

"GODOLOGY! Why believe in God on crummy ol faith when New Science proves for a fact that he absolutely has to exist? Trained Godologists have determined that God orbits the earth in the celestial empyrean beyond the ninth sphere of the primum mobile. He is composed of 23% copper, 12% zinc, 4% nickel, and 61% Godmium, a special metal only used in the processin an manufacture of God. NASA Godnichians are hard at work buildin a space probe to launch into God by 2015!"

Godology: coming soon to a highschool science textbook near you.

The rest of the Party gets it

So we all know I'm pushing a Dean/Rosenberg co-chairmanship, or at least a Dean chairmanship at the DNC. And you'd have to be mentally deficient not to recognize the DNC needs reform in a major way, hence the push for a reform candidate. Unfortunately, the old school power brokers of the DNC and DLC aren't on the same page and could doom us to another 4 years of misery and marginalization.

But Kos has a nice piece about the possible winds of change a-blowin', with an excerpt from The Hill about the county and state DNC members who are pushing for reform, including a recognition of grassroots campaigning and the need to focus on electoral races at all levels, in all states. Hmm, is there an echo in here? Apparently, they're ready to play hardball with the old school factions to get their way, too. That doesn't necessarily mean a Dean chairmanship, but it does mean some serious reform. Apparently, they don't like getting their heads handed to them any more than the rest of us. Awesome.