And if not, why?

I only mention Senator Clinton as opposed to the other candidates because she is the one that makes them the most apoplectic but it certainly would apply to any other Democratic candidate.  For me, the answer is an obvious no, but most likely for very different reasons.  

You see, I think the whole “unitary executive” nonsense is just that – nonsense.  As such, it should be abolished, destroyed and quite frankly ruled unconstitutional, just so it can be stricken from the realm of reality.  Warrantless wiretapping is illegal.  Plain and simple.  And nobody should have that power – not a Democrat, not a republican, not anyone.

I have health insurance through my employer.  I guess that makes me “lucky” in some respects.  I have also been fairly lucky with my health in general (knock on wood) and have not really had to navigate the hell that is Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois.

Yet.

Every November, we receive a batch of information related to the “employee benefits open enrollment period”, which allows us to make any changes to our elections for the upcoming year.  Pretty basic and self-explanatory.  And while there is the usual bit of frustration when realizing that I have to choose between bad or worse versions of the same one insurance provider’s plans, this year was different.

I mean that as a sincere question.  And I know that there are those who will view this as a “hit piece”, but so be it.  She is the frontrunner, yet she has offered few details of her vision for this country.  Or to that, even an overarching theme for her campaign as to why she wants to be President of the United States.  I said many months ago that we need someone that not only wants to be the President but also has a campaign whose purpose and direction can be easily understood, discussed and supported.  We do not need, nor can we afford a candidate that wants to be called the President more than they want to BE the President

So far, she has largely skated by without really saying or doing much – not even as much as she can in her current role as United States Senator.  Sure, she has been a more than capable Senator and has done some pretty damn good things for NY.  And yes, her voting record is largely progressive-ish, at least not much different from the other candidates when you take those “which candidate do I agree with most” tests.

As some of you already know, the missus and I are expecting a clammyc junior (or juniorette) in a few months, and I have been excited as can be about this.  Of course, with the complete immersion in the events of the world and this country that I am involved in, it is also a bit scary and disconcerting to think of the world that he/she will be entering in a few short months.

Over the past few days, I have been thinking of a diary around the theme of “undoing the damage” – damage on a world stage, damage to America’s reputation, damage to our collective psyche, damage to, well, pretty much everything I can think of.  Some of this is a long term decline, while a lot of it was over the past 7-10 years. 

And while, of course, I am not apologetic for bringing another life into my family or this world, I do want to make an apology and a promise up front.  Who knows when I’ll be able to share this with him/her, or when it will even be understood.  You see, I was lucky to avoid trauma and upheaval in my life until my late 20’s when I had a few very trying years as I watched my (former) marriage and job (and employer) crumble all around the time that 9/11 happened and turned this country on its head.

Rahm tells freshman Congressional officials and candidates to take a harder stance against illegal immigration at a time when republicans are turning off entire segments of the population because he doesn’t want the republicans to attack Democrats as being weak on immigration.

Nancy Pelosi takes impeachment off the table before any investigations are even underway, leading to Contempt of Congress charges being ignored because, well, the thought is “what are you going to do about it anyway?”. 

A horrific FISA bill was passed in August because, well, a number of prominent Congressional Democrats didn’t want to stand firm and were afraid of being accused by the republicans as “soft against terror”.  Never mind the fact that it is the same republicans who rubber stamped a cut-and-run from Afghanistan, the escape of bin Laden (still at large if he is still alive), the reconstituting of al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan pretty much unfettered and have been the party of torture.

Some of you know that me and thereisnospoon are managing BlogTalkRadio’s progressive radio lineup at Heading Left.  And for those who didn’t know this, please check out Heading Left for some real good progressive podcasts.

But that isn’t really why I am posting this.  I am posting because one of the things that I really wanted to do was get more and more of us from the netroots involved, and one of the ways to do that was to use BlogTalkRadio’s “Debate Central” show to give us progressives the chance to show off what we got and stick it to our right wing counterparts.

A lot has been made of the success in Anbar, even though the so-called “surge” had absolutely nothing to do with Anbar, and the tactics used in Anbar are vastly different from those used in Baghdad.  And while metrics such as Sunni-Shiite violence being down in Baghdad and other areas are good, the fact that this decrease is related to sectarian cleansing is nothing to really be proud of.

A number of people have been touting the success in Anbar and even talked about this model as something to emulate in other areas of Iraq.  Taking the fact that one of our “allies” was recently killed after a visit by Bush, and that the US is almost as unpopular in Anbar as al-Qaeda out of the mix, there is something that is being ignored which has larger ramifications.

I was very close to making the title a call for a new Senate Majority Leader, but I am holding off for now.  I fully realize that there is a slim, if any, majority for the Democrats in the Senate, and I fully realize that it is pretty easy for the minority party to make most things get 60 votes to even get the “upperdown vote”.

And yet, when Reid was minority leader, he couldn’t (wouldn’t?) pull off the same tactics when it came to horrible bill after horrible bill was rammed through.  However, this isn’t really my reason for writing this diary today.  It is one thing to have your hands tied by procedural maneuvers, or even to be gun shy for political reasons – but it is another thing to actively do things that would undermine the values that this country (and presumably the Democratic Party) holds dear, especially when it is behind the scenes and in a sneaky manner.

You have to feel for our conservative, neoconservative, right wing and keyboard kommando brethren.  I mean, there is just so much that they are up against.  With total control of Congress for over a decade, the White House and the Judicial Branch for at least the past 6 years (longer if you count how many Supreme Court Justices have been appointed by republicans) and near total control of the political, economic and foreign policy agenda – it is tough to find others to blame when shit meets fan and it all blows up in their face.

Now, it isn’t totally that simple, but it really is that simple.  This has been the general modus operandi for the republican party – at least over the past decade.  Forget about governing, forget about issues, forget about any discourse or even heated debate.  It is either you march lockstep completely on everything or your life will be destroyed.

This starts at the top and works its way down throughout the party apparatus – the administration, the Congressional leadership, mainline members of Congress, the “mouthpieces” like Rush, Hannity, Malkin, Coulter and the like, and of course the “keyboard kommandos” at LGF and at Freeperville.  This is precisely why the level of discourse in this country has devolved to, well, next to nothing.  This is why we ended up in Iraq and have the major issues with respect to all of the problems facing the country.

Well, not everything – but at this point, it is about time that even the most timid of Democrats can use the out of control amount of money being dumped into Iraq as a sledgehammer for just how much of a trade off Americans have had to (or will have to) make with respect to Iraq

Since there is such a low percentage of people in this country who are actually making a sacrifice for this failed ploy at world domination, unless Americans see the stark numbers of where their tax dollars (and their children’s tax dollars) are going to, and all of the much needed and neglected services they are no longer getting, all of the opinion polls about the growing percentage of people who want funding for Iraq cut or want our troops out of Iraq won’t matter at all.

My note:  As I am writing this, the House of Representatives just passed a bill that would subject ALL contractors to US law, so this is a big step in the right direction.  Of course, the White House opposes this and my guess is that it will be vetoed if passed in the Senate.  The House vote was passed with an overwhelming vote of 389-30.

***************

With all of the news and the controversy surrounding Blackwater USA over the past few months (or years), I have been waiting for a couple of questions to be asked and answered.  I can come up with a partial answer to some of them, but it still doesn’t sit well enough with me and I think it should be discussed a bit further.

First, the questions, and then a bit of analysis and “likely answer” to some of this, but still something that falls far short of something that is acceptable, especially given the events that have happened with Blackwater employees over the past few years.