Took a break, now I'm back.

I was mentally and physically exhausted. As the "holiday" season approaches, things are getting hectic at work and I'm shouldering more and more responsibility by the day. I've got my novels, the necessity of promoting them, and three projects I'm putting together at the same time. Or trying, at least. I'd probably have four if not for the fact that damn near every visual artist I've ever flakes out on me. Sometimes I wish my talent in that department wasn't so...minimal.

Bah. That's life.

I also had to withdraw from the vitriol and venom here for a bit. It's more than just the primary season battles that gnaw at me. It's the whole idea of the direction we, as Democrats, should be taking. There are FAR too many who have no problem with the corporatist agenda that is not only destroying the whole purpose of the party, in my opinion, but also destroying any hope of pulling the U.S. and perhaps the world from the brink.

There are those who can excuse anything by saying "but we need corporations." :shrug: Perhaps. But what we DON'T need is corporations to have more influence over the political process than coalitions of concerned citizens. And they do. Lobbyists who represent corporate and industry interests rather than REAL people should not be considered the same. And any candidate who is unwilling or unable to draw that line isn't the candidate for me. This doesn't make me a purist...it makes me someone who's unwilling to compromise what, for me, is simply a basic principle. This government is supposed to be of, by, and for the people. When it isn't, when it grows increasingly difficult to tell the difference between a "centrist" dem and a "moderate" repug, it's time to clean house.

And anyone who doesn't get that can take a long walk off a short pier. More than any third party voter, THEY are the reason we're in this fucking mess in the first place. If you have no principles, if everything is open to negotiation, all you do is produce a party and congressional body that can't stand for anything.

I will now climb down off my soapbox.

Now back to my Concrete Blonde playlist and my latest book projects.

Play nice.

edited to add the word "and" in the final paragraph

I just said "good night" to DU over in the Lounge,
but I had to make one last response when I saw your post.

Glad you're back! :hi:

But I know where you are coming from. I come from there myself.

you have to believe in something while possessing the fortitude to be able to change as knowledge increases. For instance I have done a total 180 degree change from the day I first came here and you know why that is, its because I learned
good to see you back and refreshed
always good luck on all your endeavors as you wield a mighty big Pen.

I agree completely and I think the misbehaving mega-corporations need the sunshine treatment. Who shapes our media and why - if only that were more widely known.

They don't want any compromise, they want us/our party GONE.

It's distressing that most of our leaders don't seem to take that seriously even though the republicans have told us over and over again as plain as day ... Don't they remember Newt Gingrich and his "drown it in a bathtub" comment? How about Go Cheney Yourself or even I'm going to Rove him like he's never been Roved before? Those comments weren't from the mouths of extremists but icons of their party, for goodness sakes. They should be quoted over and over until people understand what happened and that there was never an apology issued, they MEAN it all.

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to
the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist

:hi:

Thank you for straightening that out. I had the wrong nasty republican!

Here a taste of Newt's attitude on compromise from wikipedia ...

According to Tom Delay, Newt shut down the government because President Clinton hurt his wittle feelings.

"Tom DeLay recounts the event in his book, No Retreat, No Surrender, that Gingrich "made the
mistake of his life" and says the following of Gingrich's mis-step of the shutdown<24>:

"He told a room full of reporters that he forced the shutdown because Clinton had rudely made him
and Bob Dole sit at the back of Air Force One...Newt had been careless to say such a thing, and
now the whole moral tone of the shutdown had been lost. What had been a noble battle for fiscal
sanity began to look like the tirade of a spoiled child..The revolution, I can tell you, was never
the same."
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich


More background on this incident can be found here:

http://www.cnn.com/US/9511/debt_limit/11-16/budget_gingrich/

It is time to clean out "The Big Tent".
When the CEOs of the Health Insurance Indusrty, Big Pharm, Armaments Industry, Big Ag, Oil & Energy, and Wall St Bankers give ME a seat in their boardrooms, I consider giving them a seat in OUR Big Tent.

Until then:
The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.