Now that Rick Santorum seems to be surging, yes even charging, to the forefront of the Republican primaries, I’m excited at the prospects for the National debate on key philosophies, doctrines and concepts.

You see, for me, this is the idea Jefferson had in mind when he talked about a “revolution” is needed now and then.

Internally, the GOP is already struggling, and I may add poorly,  with the issues that need to be discussed nationally.

The GOP is split in a three-way power struggle between two fringes and a moderate in this debate.

Let’s have the Nation debate those social issues, religious doctrines and business ethics the far right holds near and dear.

Those issues they seem to know were in the minds of the “Founding Fathers” and especially inspired by God.

Let’s see once and for all if their self-righteous false virtues, land of opportunity for the select minority and only 1% of “All men are created equal” is a concept held by all.

Let us face head on the debate of Corporations are people too but not when they are to be held responsible for crimes against people.

Let us face the debate head on about the morality issues, civil rights issues and all those quality of life decisions that conservative talk about but show a different face to reality.

No matter which candidate emerges from the GOP pack we can have a true debate on the American “concept.” From the GOP moderate, who put many out of work to make a “buck”, to a GOP isolationist with economic destruction tendencies and finally a  self-righteous and pious politician who has been called “one of the most corrupt” politicians in Congress, we can truly have a nationwide debate that will shape our future in the world community.

Yes, let us have the debate and as “progressives” not fear being heard as the voice of reason.

It would seem that I’ve lost a sense of passion for both the Holidays and for the “Political Season.”

I’ve watched, like a spectator at a NASCAR event, the GOP debates. Waiting for the anticipated big crash to happen, and as I wrote on this blog right after the election defeat of McCain/Palin, that crash would lead to the disarray of the Republican Party.

Dare To Dream predicated that the new “Tea Party” movement was akin to the 1960′s Dixiecrats and would follow the same course as that movement did. I feel the events over the extensive debate process of the GOP has shown us right.

So as I pick up the key board to put down my thoughts, I felt I should start with a series of “tidbits” of observations that I have made during the many months of hibernating from the blog world.

These are not in a particular order but a random coalition of thought.

1. Gringrich’s  assertion that the Palestine people were an “invented people.”. Okay, this boggles my mind. Aren’t the majority of today’s nations and people in the world an invented people? For example, America. We are a combination of so many cultures and people who were not original to this continent.

Another example of invented people might be the English. The true native “Brit” is probably in the mountains of Wales, for as the Angles; Saxons; Vikings; Danes and others invaded the island the original residents fled west.

2. Romney must not sit down to a dinner table in restaurants  uninvited. Just because a person (who turned out to be gay) has a Viet Nam veteran’s hat on doesn’t make him a conservative or an anti gay marriage proponent. Gay’s have served, fought and even died for this country too.

3. Parents who roll through stop signs while their children are in the car should not expect their children to follow their rules at home.

4. Progressives and Democrats should be using the term “working poor” more and more to describe the demise of the middle class. It’s time that Progressives define the rhetoric.

5. If you believe that Gringrich has changed and has found “God”, plus the moral way, then you must accept the word of a convict who says he is changed and found “God.”

6. How can it be alright that the “Tea Party” members can hold rallies where they openly wear weapons but Occupy Wall Street protesters are thugs and hooligans?

7. Why is it that a GOP “wanabee” Presidential candidate can “miss speak” historical facts  yet they accuse the President of not “understanding America.”

8. Figures show that marriage among straight couples are at an all time low yet conservatives feel “gay marriages” will destroy the institution.

These little “tidbits” will have to do for now.

Another Christmastime is upon us and I start my seasonal reflection on the many  years gone by.

Dad always told me that “the older you get the faster they go!”

It would be wonderful to have him around one more day so I could tell him how smart he got the older I became.

Don’t know why it is at Christmas but I always seem to like to write a poem or two. It might be my “Victorian” side, as my Mom would say, coming out and expressing itself.

The first Christmas Pageants I can remember was when I was in fourth grade and I had a short solo.

The song was the old carol, The Holly and The Ivy.

Mom said that simple grade school pageant, plus my solo, made The Holly and The Ivy her favorite “Christmas carol.”

Every year at Christmas, my Mom made sure that song was playing on the record player as we celebrated the Christmas dinner.

Even after I reached adulthood and I would come home for the holiday, I was greeted with the smells of cookies, turkey, twinkling of Christmas lights and the sound of that carol ringing throughout the house.

Now I’ve reached my 66th Christmas. Everyone from my past seems to have gone, but I still see my parents gathered around the dinner table and hear that childhood carol ringing in my ears.

Ah Christmas, such a magical time of year.

The Grade School Pageant.

I close my eyes,
And quietly slip into the sanctuary of memories.

There,
Echoes of a tune
That I sang in childhood.
A simple melody of my youth,
A carol of Christmas pageants gone.

Its centuries old refrain
Lingers among the hazy vision
Of specters now at rest.

Ancient words
Numb the body like a Winter chill
As I see the child I was
In the comfort
Of those who protected me.

Dizzy senses filled with pipe smoke.
Crackling fire lit logs,
Dancing bubble lights upon the tree,
Her gentle hand,
His warm smile,
Forever haunting.

The choir of my school days softly sings,
“Of all the trees that are in the woods,
The holly bears the crown.”

*You can read Tristan’s complete collection of poetry, along with other Christmas selections, at All Alone in a Crowd.

It was one of those questions that you really don’t think about, but Bob thought for a minute and replied.

“You meet, you date, then later you move in together and one night you go to bed and you find yourself 20 some years later, waking up together.”

It just happened and in that happening, I found my “rock”, my mate, my partner and my best friend.

When we first met, I wrote a short poem and in it I stated about Bob, “You are the dawn of a day dream’t of but almost forgotten.”

I have another dream and that is the dream of our 22 year relationship being equal to our many married friends.

The dream that the Nation I served protecting and honoring during conflict, would also be the Nation who would protect my rights, my “family” and honor our relationship.

We struggle like our neighbors, paying a mortgage; insurances; taxes; working hard at our jobs; making the budget work and trying to be up-standing civic minded members of the community.

Yet, there is a BUT…

Some Facts You Should Know:

*There are an estimated 3.1 million people living together in a same-sex relationships in the United States.
*Fifteen percent of these same-sex couples live in rural settings.
*One out of three lesbian couples is raising children. One out of five gay male couples is raising children.
*Between 1 million and 9 million children are being raised by gay, lesbian and bi-sexual parents in the United States.
*At least one same-sex couple is raising children in 96 percent of all counties nationwide.
*Same-sex couples live in 99.3 percent of all counties nationwide.
*The highest percentage of same-sex couples raising children live in the South.
*Nearly one in four same-sex couples include a partner 55 years old or older, and nearly one in five same-sex couples is composed of two people 55 or older.
*More than one in 10 same-sex couples include a partner 65 years old or older and nearly one in 10 same-sex couples is composed of two people 65 or older.
*The states with the highest numbers of same-sex senior couples are also the most popular for heterosexual senior couples: California, New York and Florida.

Currently in the United States, same-sex couples in long-term, committed relationships pay higher taxes and are denied basic protection and rights granted to married heterosexual couples. Among them:

*Hospital visitation. Married couples have the automatic right to visit each other in the hospital and make medical decisions. Same-sex couples can be denied the right to visit a sick or injured loved one in the hospital.
*Social Security benefits. Married people receive Social Security payments upon the death of a spouse. Despite paying payroll taxes, gay and lesbian partners receive no Social Security survivor benefits resulting in an average annual income loss of $5,528 upon the death of a partner.
*Immigration. Americans in bi-national relationship are not permitted to petition for their same-sex partners to immigrate. As a result, they are often forced to separate or move to another country.
*Health Insurance. Many public and private employers provide medical coverage to the spouses of their employees, but most employers do not provide coverage to the life partners of gay and lesbian employees. Gay employees who do receive health coverage for their partners must pay federal income taxes on the value of the insurance.
*Estate taxes. A married person automatically inherits all the property of his or her deceased spouse without paying estate taxes. A gay or lesbian taxpayer is forced to pay estate taxes on property inherited from a deceased partner.
*Retirement savings. While a married person can roll a deceased spouse’s 401 (k) funds into an IRA without paying taxes, a gay or lesbian American who inherits a 401 (k) can end up paying up to 70 percent of it in taxes and penalties.
*Family leave. Married workers are legally entitled to unpaid leave from their job to care for an ill spouse. Gay and lesbian workers are not entitled to family leave to care for their partners.
*Nursing homes. Married couple have a legal right to live together in nursing homes. Because they are not legal souses, elderly gay or lesbian couples do not have the right to spend their last days living together in nursing homes.
*Home protection. Laws protect married seniors from being forced to sell their homes to pay high nursing home bills; gay and lesbian seniors have no such protection.
*Pensions. After the death of a worker, most pension plans pay survivor benefits only to a legal spouse of the participant. Gay and lesbian partners are excluded from such pension benefit

Here’s to the dream and that by next year, 23rd Anniversary, some of these inequalities might be remedied.

We also mentioned that it seems ironic she would use this as a campaign issue when she herself “hired” many of her Wasilla friends, neighbors and classmates when serving as the half term Governor of Alaska.

In Dare To Dream’s research on this subject, we found a related article in the September 14th, 2009 issue of the New York Times, which had the following lead on the story:

WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

It would appear that the former defeated GOP Vice-Presidential candidate is quite familiar with “crony capitalism” and how it operates.

Patti Davis, Ronald Reagan’s Daughter is reportedly on record stating the next day that “The moment that would have broken my father’s heart was the moment when applause broke out at the mention of more than 200 executions ordered by Rick Perry in Texas. It was stunning and brought tears to my eyes. This is what we’ve come to? That we applaud at executions?”

When the applause was given to Perry, my mind went to the gruesome scene from the Tale of Two Cities.

Madam Therese Defarge sitting by the side of the guillotine knitting; the drum roll; the sound of the sliding metal blade plummeting to the bottom; the loud thud and then the crowd cheer.

Governor Perry’s answer to the question of whether he was comfortable with Texas’s executions might have come from Defarge her self as she spoke to her husband: “Tell the Wind and the Fire where to stop; not me!”

And lastly, what about that applause?

Have we in this great Nation become that crowd by the guillotine?

Are we now the crowd shouting for blood as tho we were sitting in the Circus Maximus watching the lions attacking the Christians.

Have we become so callous towards life of either the innocent or the guilty that we cheer the “pale horseman?”

One saving grace was that it was on C-Span and I didn’t have to endure the psycho “babble” of a media commentator, before or after, and I could get my thoughts together on what I heard and saw.

We have had many earlier posts on Dare To Dream about the former half term Governor of Alaska, so this is not new territory for us to explore and rate.

Dare To Dream has compared the “Tea Party” to the former Dixiecrats of the 60′s and still stand behind that comparison. Tho I now must add that Palin introduces a “tent meeting revival fervor” to this modern-day movement which is lacking in the presently declared GOP candidates.

Rick Perry may be the closes to being Elmer Gantry to Palin’s Amiee Semple McPherson but we’ll have to let the debate show us that or not.

We have stated before that this splinter section, “Tea Party”, of the GOP may be its down fall in the long run, or, just what’s needed to bring the Republicans back to some sort of normalcy once the “fringe” is finally cut loose as were the Dixiecrats in the 60′s.

Listening to the defeated one time GOP vice-presidential candidate today, was a lesson in control for me. Instead of yelling back at the many “same old” talking points, I tried to evaluate and listen.

The only distractions came when Palin would try to make a point in  screeching tones that resembled the sound of chalk on a black board.

Once back in lower tones she would charge on as tho on a holy crusade against all things Obama.

Her one big issue, that may become a “dead horse” from her whipping it so often, is an attack on what she calls “crony capitalism.”

With veiled rhetoric that might have been directed at Rick Perry, and a few other Republicans, Palin charges ahead on her perceptions that most, if not all, career politicians are tainted with “crony capitalism.”

As Palin kept harping on this point I strayed into thought of her ties to Rupert Murdock and Fox News, and in those thoughts, I wondered about how  that would be justified in her “crony capitalism,” plus “trooper gate” and all those “Wasillans” that surrounded her during the “half term governors” time in office.

Yes, there is a distinct difference in Palin’s philosophy and progressives.

So, Yes Sarah, let’s finally have it out like it was the1960′s again.

Let’s have the debate. Let’s discuss the ideology of the future with your ideology tied to the past.

You, be the standard barer of your ideals, your concepts and your philosophies.

Please Sarah, Run Baby, Run!

Summer and politics, to say the least, has been depressing.

There have been so many things to grumble, complain, and stand amazed about over this past Summer, that it could send one into a general “Network” movie like mode, standing outside yelling, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not taking it anymore!”

Yes, I must say that I am very disappointed with “our” President. Saying that I add, I am truly scared of those running for President on the “far right fringe” and thereby I’m not about to abandon the progressive movement now.

So here I sit, looking at many weeks of blankness from my keyboard, vowing to re-join the fray.

The one bright spot is that if Perry, Bachmann, Cantor and all the GOP elite keep spewing forth their dribble, I’ll definitely have a bountiful harvest for Dare to Dream’s Fall posts.

Judge Hand is also called America’s first “free speech judge” and his expertise on “tort law” is still used by the courts today.

The following is his speech presented in New York’s Central Park in 1944 during “I AM an American Day”. Later to be published in his 1946 book entitled The Spirit of Liberty.

Of course I am partial to the dynamics of his speech but I truly feel that it’s one to be shared again and again, for it loses nothing over the time of years since it’s utterance.

We have gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a common purpose, a common conviction, a common devotion.
Some of us have chosen America as the land of our adoption; the rest have come from those who did the same. For this reason we have some right to consider ourselves a picked group, a group of those who had the courage to break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land. What was the object that nerved us, or those who went before us, to this choice? We sought liberty – freedom from oppression, freedom from want, freedom to be ourselves. This then we sought; this we now believe that we are by way of winning. What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few – as we have learned to our sorrow.

What then is the spirit of liberty?
I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of those men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interest alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten – that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side-by-side with the greatest. And now in that spirit, that spirit of an American which has never been, and which may never be – nay, which never will be except as the conscience and courage of Americans create it – yet in the spirit of America which lies hidden in some form in the aspirations of us all; in the spirit of that America for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying; in that spirit of liberty and of America so prosperous, and safe, and contented, we shall have failed to grasp its meaning, and shall have been truant to its promise, except as we strive to make it a signal, a beacon, a standard to which the best hopes of mankind will ever turn; In confidence that you share that belief, I now ask you to raise you hand and repeat with me this pledge:
I pledge allegiance to the flag and to the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands–One nation, Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.*

*Under God was added to the pledge in 1954.

I truly wish the political factions of today would heed the very wise words of this progressive and far sighted jurist.

Maybe to hold public office we should have the elected candidate be required to take a basic High School American history quiz before assuming office, or even better, take the “naturalization” tests which we give to immigrants becoming American citizens.

It’s so very sad when you hear Republicans talk about cutting funding for education, especially when their leaders show a lack of knowledge.

First we have a “Tea Party” favorite, Congresswoman  Michelle Bachmann, moving Lexington and Concord MA to New Hampshire for the “shot heard ’round the world.”

Now her lack of geography and history knowledge is joined by Alaska’s Ex-Governor Sarah Palin’s assertion that Paul Revere’s “midnight ride” through the countryside was to “warn the British.”

Of course they will explain these “gaffs” by simply saying they miss-spoke.

I also admit to being somewhat amused on how Palin was able to turn the historic ride of Paul Revere into a second amendment issue, when at the time of his ride, the Constitution was not even a glimmer in any Founding Fathers’ “eyes.”

I can hear my good Republican friends now, “you know what they meant so it’s not an issue, they just miss-spoke.”

Guess facts get in the way of the ideology.

Recently I had stated in a previous post, Mother’s Day, the International Aids Candlelight Memorial and Memorial Day, May is truly the month of “Memories”.

Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was first called, was first observed 143 years ago to honor those who had fought in the “Civil War”. Now it has become a way to honor those brave souls plus all those who have served our nation proudly.

Recently I’ve been going through and taking stock of the family photo albums and documents.

Among the piles of snap shots was a photo of my Grandfather, tall and young, in uniform astride his horse in France. He’s 18 and it’s the “War to end all Wars”, WWI.

I got to meet my English Grandfather when I was twenty and he rarely talked about his experience in that war. I do know he was “gassed”, which was to effect him in later years, and he spent sometime in a German POW Camp but not much else was every said or spoken.

During WWII he spent his time as a firefighter on the docks of Liverpool and again I never heard many stories of those days either.

Another photo/postcard shows my Great Uncle James in his WWI uniform. Sad to say I never got to meet Uncle James to hear his experiences.

I have many of my Father and Mother in uniform. Dad with the 8th Army Air Corp in WWII and my “Mum” in her RAF uniform as a control tower operator. I even have one with both in uniform together.

Neither of my parents talked much about the war but I bet they made a great looking couple, arm in arm as they walked down the cobblestone streets of Oxford.

In one album I found a photo of myself from the 60′s where I was dressed in Air Force “blues” and overseas.

I’m sure that I’m like other Americans with many of the same style photo’s and memories of those who went off to answer their “Country’s Call”. Every Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day we bring those photo’s out, get a lump in our throats and our chests swell with pride and honor: “All Gave Some, Some Gave All.”

“Lest We Forget”

BASIC TRAINING

With some unknown sense
I felt his stare
upon my neck.
He stalk’d me,
trail’d my every move
and now
victory was in his reach.
I turned slowly,
gazed into my enemies eyes
and knew I was finished.
He laughed,
smiled and taunted,
then fired.
I grabbed my burning stomach,
and fell to the ground
still hearing his laughter.
I would get even
after lunch,
for war was only a game
when we were young.

I started this post many months ago, during the rash of teenage suicides, hoping to make some sort of statement that might help a younger person to cope, or take courage or simply pause and reflect but I found myself at a loss for words to do justice to the vastness of the problem.

So to those who are looking that suicide is an answer, I join the chorus of many who have said, “…take courage. Hang in there. It will get better.”

There are those who will listen to your stories and those who will know the exact loneliness and despair you feel but have survived to forge a future in a world changing towards the better.

Check for phone hot-lines or churches that are inclusive. Look for LGBT out reach programs and talk to them. Be yourself and be proud of you, for I have always believed, “God don’t create no junk.”

I knew at the age of thirteen that I was “different” and since  the term gay hadn’t been coined as of yet,  I only knew I was a “queer”, “puff”, a “fag-got” or a “homo.” So I wrote, plus wrote more, and there on the pages I saw my feeling brought forth bare and naked in words.

I’m lucky I grew up in the 60′s, the age that was going to make the world better and then followed by the “flower power” age which gave way to expression of self. Also I admit that my deep faith in a loving God, a God who created and cares for this creation, was at the core of my daily struggles.

So with faith, the 60′s and 70′s combined with my dream of being a writer, they shaped my values, my life and saved me from my own destruction.

Just a note of introduction to this poem, Seeking Soul, for it was my first attempt at poetry and written some 50 year ago. It started my love affair with the English language.

As a frustrated 16 year old and used my poetry to extinguish and fan those flames of youth at the same time. As I look at this poem, it is with love, for it is the images that I tried to convey that I hold most dear. This poem was followed many months later by Port of Call.

Seeking Soul

Billowing white capped waves kiss the gray horizon,
As each
Ripple messages to a far and distant shore.
Dark wooded mountains reach for a star-filled heaven,
And make a celestial offering to the One maker of peace and understanding.
The final note is added to my symphony
As the wild call of the plains is heard,
For no-one disturbs this awesome tomb of death.
The sea, the plains, the mountains,
All seek the same peace my soul seeks.
The sea struggles for her freedom in the raging storms
And through her gentleness of the night.
Cold rushing streams,
Tall eternal evergreens,
Gray immortal stone,
This is the mount seeking freedom.
The plains,
Burn’d,
Scorched beyond compare,
Stretched out so far even the people living there know no ending,
Yet in this vast and wasted land
Is a harmony of peace and beauty.
Freedom a country? No!
Freedom democracy? No!
But it means the unceasing longing of my soul.
For like the sea I rage through life.
Yearning for a heavenly being
Makes me like a mountain,
Or like the plains, I lie dormant,
Endless,
Searching for something but finding nothing.
Tho I lie dormant,
Or rage at my fellow man,
Believe me when I cry,
I seek the one and only peace.
Freedom of mind, soul and body,
I seek our ultimate end,
Death.

*Copy Right Tristan-Paul Hand, All Alone In A Crowd

Now I’ve had some time to think, ponder and re-read.

I am somewhat shocked at Rush Limbaugh questioning of the President’s memorial statement about nine year old Christina-Taylor Green, murdered on a fateful Saturday as she was trying to see her Congresswomen in the old fashion American tradition of a “meet and greet.”

Limbaugh wonders aloud why “we should see America ” in the vision of a nine year old girl?

My mind goes to the Gospel of Mark where Jesus said: 10:14

Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

Even if Mr. Limbaugh doesn’t want to look at New Testament then let’s look at the Old Testament.

Psalm 8:2

From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.

Throughout the Old Testament, Exodus; Deuteronomy; Chronicles; 2 Kings; Samuel and many more, all show God’s pleasure at children and their praise.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 encourages early piety

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them.

If God, assuming one believes in a higher power, can relish the praise of children, surely we can relish the “vision” of what America was, is and should be, to a nine year old child.

Happy New Year to all from Bob and myself. Wishing everyone much bounty, joy and love.

New Year’s Eve

So it has been,
So it will be.
In the middle of a Winter’s night,
We mortals deem to end
A cosmic fragment we call a year.
With a solemn stroke,
A clang of chimes,
A blow of horns,
With shouts, hugs, kisses.
Watch the dawn
And yearn for Spring.

Christmas night.

I close my eyes,
And slip into the sanctuary of memories.

There,
Echoes of a tune
That I sang in childhood.
A simple melody of my youth,
A carol of Christmas pageants gone.

Its centuries old refrain
Lingers among the hazy vision
Of specters now at rest.

Ancient words
Numb the body like a Winter chill
As I see the child I was
In the comfort
Of those who protected me.

Dizzy senses filled with pipe smoke.
Crackling fire lit logs,
Dancing bubble lights upon the tree,
Her gentle hand,
His warm smile,
Forever haunting.

The choir of my school days softly sing,
“Of all the trees that are in the woods,
The holly bears the crown.”

*You can read Tristan’s complete collection of poetry, along with other Christmas selections, at All Alone in a Crowd.

The Wall Street Journal said Obama’s tax deal “proves again that Republicans win the economic debate when they make the case for lower taxes for everyone in the name of faster growth and job creation.”

I don’t think they “won the debate.” In the first place, they agreed to add
almost $1 trillion to the debt, which flies in the face of all the principled statements they were making up to Monday night.

What the compromise really proves is that GOP unity trumps Democratic
disunity every time.

Just before the above statement, the Journal said, “Much credit” for the
deal “goes to Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans for holding together against the class war attacks of Chuck Schumer and other Democrats. By holding firm, they divided the opposition.”

The NY Times reported: “Mr. Obama was propelled to his decision in part by a Nov. 18 meeting with Democratic Congressional leaders that persuaded him the Democrats were not unified behind a realistic plan for moving forward.”

Liberals in Congress are attacking Obama again, but the real fault is with
the party as a whole, not the president. It is absurd to expect Obama to
lead Democrats in a fight without knowing the vast majority of the party
will stand behind him.

The deal itself isn’t bad. With the compromise on the tax cuts and
inheritance tax, Obama got stuff that otherwise would have been
unattainable.

And by the way, it is NOT a death tax. It IS an inheritance tax paid by
living people who got control of money they did not EARN. If the dead person had spent his or her money, there would be no estate to tax. Any Democrat who uses the term death tax should have to write the words inheritance tax on the blackboard 100 times and be required to read FDR’s defense of the tax.

That said, a 35 percent tax on estates over $5 million sounds to me like a
reasonable compromise between the old rate and the zero rate the GOP wants. If it this rate is made permanent, though, the $5 million should be adjusted for inflation each year.

I think many will agree with me that this is not the man and policies we voted for.

As a former delegate to the 2004 Democrat National Convention, one of my major disappointments was that John Kerry didn’t fight back against his attackers, especially the “Swift Boaters.”

Now we see the same thing in this President and his administration.

Why is it that Republican’s seem to have no problem going for the “jugular” and Democrats don’t, can’t and won’t, even when the issues, such as stopping tax cuts on the wealthy, favor them.

Maybe it’s time for the Progressive/Liberal Democrats to start looking elsewhere for someone to champion their causes and to take on the President in the next primary.

I’m still hoping that President Obama might find his “campaign style” again and quit “waffling”, for the door that was heard slamming this passed November was the door on “equality,” the “disenfranchised” and the “middle class.” If not corrected, the storm that soon will engulf us will be the storm of a “cultural war.”

The Progressive/Liberal Democrat wing do have alternatives which to take on The President in the primary.

Congressman Anthony Weiner, New York, has shown himself a fighter with principle and as does Congressman Alan Grayson from Florida.

Even tho Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich seems never to be taken seriously, he still is a “voice crying in the wilderness.”

Another Ohio name that should be considered is that of Senator Sherrod Brown.

Weiner, Grayson, Kuncinich and Brown have shown courage of conviction, courage of thought and courage to stand and be counted with the people.

I’m sure that these are not the only voices that “coffee cup liberals” could find but now is the time for us to stand up and hold our ground. It is time to send a message that we hear the people too and we don’t hear the same voice that is sending us down the same path that got us into the problems we face today.

If the President won’t bring about the “Change” we voted for, then “Yes we” will find someone who “Can.”

People are obviously doing with less but seem to be sharing more.

Maybe the biggest lesson this Thanksgiving, and the up coming Holiday Season, will be the striving to get back to basics.

From this small corner of the world in Northeast Ohio, Bob and I, along with our “family”, Snowball, Teatro and Shadow, wish you and yours much Bounty, Joy and Love on Thanksgiving Day, and may it stretch through the year to come.

This post is based on a comment made by a DTD reader and a previous post on the subject. Our commenter passionately feels that is where America is heading and that it will be to late when people realize the fact.

When the Supreme Court ruled this year on campaign financing, one could argue that, in their precedent setting decision, the Court opened the door to a new political party and to a new form of American Government?

As seen since that ruling, much money has flowed freely into the far-right’s so-called third-party, the “Tea Party”,  from big corporate donations and most hidden from public scrutiny.

In stating that basically corporations are people too, the Court has set America on the path to Corpocracy and could Tuesday election be the signal that is the direction America is headed?

Corpocracy, or Corporatocracy, is a form of government where corporations, conglomerate or government entities with private components, control the direction and governance of a country.

As much as the “right” rants against the Obama Administration taking us down the path of socialism, Corpocracy is considered to be a form of fascism.

Corpocracy has two factors: campaign finance and special interests, also can include government ownership.

Corporations provide financial support to competing political parties and major political party candidates. This would allow corporations to hedge their bets on the outcome of any choice so they are assured to have a winner who is indebted to them. As politicians are increasingly dependent on campaign contributions to become elected, their impartiality on issues which have corporate interest is compromised.

I believe this is far from what our “Founding Fathers” envisioned when they wrote the Constitution.

Under a Corpocracy, former corporate executives could be appointed as powerful decision makers within government institutions. They would be in charge with the regulation of their former or future employers which would lead to regulatory capture. Rules for lobbying would be a thing of the past. One can get a sence from John Kasich‘s recent staff appointments, as Governor elect, that this might be happening in Ohio.

Those who dismiss the Corpocray theory, will say the only way it is possible is if it were legal to buy the votes of our politicians and that is illegal. However, under the terms of at-will employment, corporations can require their employees to vote certain way in exchange for (continued) employment.

It does not take an overt effort to buy a politician’s vote. Making a substantial donation to a certain politician’s campaign is a signal that the money is there if they vote in a way the corporation desires. Conversely, the money could be donated to an opponent if the vote does not go the way of the corporation.

President Dwight Eisenhower even saw fit to argue against the strengthening corporacy and the evils of such a government. I join him in that argument but fear the path has been set, both by the Court and now by the electorate.

As expressed by a Dare To Dream reader:

I think our Democracy is done…Although we have been trying we have lost our message they want a Corporate Theocracy most people won’t know that until it is too late…

Is it to late? I fear it might be.

Election night I sat watching what might become the precursor of the eventful future.

By using the  Republican‘s own joyful description of the election results being “a Sunomi,” “a landslide,” “an earthquake,” plus “a hurricane or tidal wave,” and knowing that these are phenom that have, and do, kill many tens of thousands of people that stand in the way, the Republican’s may have given us a glimpse into their dream.

Those that heard the sound of the door slamming shut on Tuesday night, realize that it was the door slamming on “civil liberties“, the door slamming on the “middle class and the disenfranchised.”

That door slamming shut brings America obviously terribly closer to cultural warfare.

If the words of the newly elected Governor of Ohio are any sign of what’s to come when he stated, “Get on the bus or be run over…”, we are in serious trouble.

I have been, for the last year and a half, posting my fear of the far right. It would seem my fear was founded in reality for the “voice of the most is not always the voice of God.”

So I thought I’d share it with you.

Nature’s Ballet

There was no fanfare,
No blast of trumpet sounds,
No mighty orator to announce the falling.
Just the simplicity of Autumn’s last leaf
Descending to the hardened earth below.
Falling,

Falling,

Falling,
Till with a quickness of movement,
The bronzed leaf was carried upon the back
Of a guiding breeze across the meadow.
The leaf floated,
As did the magic carpet
In Arabian tales of old.
Every twist, turn and swirl,
A part of nature’s ballet.

For Bob and myself National Coming Out Day, which since 1988, is usually observed October 11th, is a day we call special in our relationship and it gets tied in with October 15th and our Anniversary.

October 11th, 1989, Bob finally “came out” and started to work in a local Akron Ohio bar called Tear-Ez Too.

Four days later on a Sunday afternoon, over a glass of wine, we met and this October 15th we celebrate 21 years as friends, lovers, partners and soul mates, everything that embodies a “family.”

The second most notable, plus the most moving, Coming Out Day was one we observed in Washington DC in October 1996 when the entire AIDS Quilt was displayed on the “Mall”.

This sad and dreary day was one were we paid tribute to so many of our friends who had passed away, especially David Cook, owner of Tear-Ez.

Oh, we realize that in the listing of “Holidays” these two don’t even rank in the Hallmark Card section for special events but they are “mile stone markers” for us as we daily go about our lives as a “family.”

To all our LGBT “Brothers and Sisters”, Bob and I wish you a day, month and years of Pride, Peace and Love, in fact we wish it for ALL the family of humankind.

My Dad was a cross of an Eisenhower Republican, “follow the General anywhere” sort of guy,  and a Truman Democrat. I attribute a lot of my Dad’s politics  to the fact he came from North Dakota, which has a strong farm labor tie, and his being a WWII serviceman.

My Mother’s roots in politics has a European flavor, since she was English born and bred, until coming to the States in her early twenties. I must add that she was a strong Ronald Reagan Republican before her death.

The issue that prompted this post was the defeat of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” legislation in the Senate this week, coupled with Georgia Senator Saxbe Chambliss’s office email to Joe.My.God.com web site calling for the death of “faggots.”

The homophobic rhetoric of the Republican party, and especially those who have been found hiding in the darkness of the closet, is appalling.

The minimal protest from the Log Cabin Republicans, the GOP answer to Stonewall Democrats, is so lame as to be laughable and even worse, ineffectual.

The burning question I have to my Republican gay friends is, “How can you be Republican?”

Now I understand that I started out as a GOP follower but Goldwater believed in “small government, strong defense and the government should stay out of people’s private lives.” When asked, before he died, about gays in the military he stated, “…the only thing needing to be straight in the military is the bullet coming out of the weapon.”

This is a Republican you can live with and admire.

But how can you admire those who call for your “death” or putting gays in “concentration camps“?

How can you admire those who state you’re an “abomination” or “mentally sick”?

How can you believe in a political system that states it’s core value is based in/on the constitution yet deny people their “civil rights and liberties”?

How can you vote to give someone legislative authority over you that wants to destroy you and curtail your freedoms?

Voting Republican in November and being gay is like oil and water, they don’t mix.

Yesterday, as I watched the live broadcast of Pope Benedict the XVI’s visit to Westminster Hall, I marveled at what was taking place. Oh not for the modern implications but for the historical time line that it brought along with the event.

There in the oldest standing medieval hall in Europe, Westminster Hall (1097), yesterday’s visit by the Pontiff would have given William Shakespeare pause to show and write volumes in marvelous flowing words of epic proportion.

As the Pope stood in the very spot that Sir Thomas Moore defied King Henry the VIII‘s pressure to succumb and deny the validity of the Act of Succession and the Papal Supremacy, my thoughts raced to what Moore’s reaction would have been to see there on the dais, this man from Rome speaking as the Archbishop of Canterbury sat listening?

What would have Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protectorate of England and whose Parliament issued the death warrant in 1649 for King Charles I in that very spot, have thought as he saw Prime Minister‘s Thatcher; Major; Blair; Brown and Cameron, sitting and intently listening to this man who Crowmell would have believed was the “devil” himself?

And lastly, what would the “Bard of Avon” have done with the fact that the first elected Jewish Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, gave a praising and eloquent introduction to Benedict the XVI, a German Pope?

If Dare to Dream is any indication, it would seem that there was much interest on the web in Beck’s rally since a posting on DTD, March 3/13/2010 entitled, Is Glenn Beck Setting Himself Up As The Anti-Christ?, has received the second most hits on the blog and pushed it to number two in popularity and all since Beck’s Saturday rally.

After watching the rally, listening to Mr. Beck, before and after in interviews, plus coupled with the other speakers, I believe our March posting was pretty prophetic.

Again I must revert to a favorite quote by Sinclair Lewis, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.” I truly fear the far right would have us head down this road but hidden in some majestic call to purity.

“Gantry” Beck talks of “Christian values” yet doesn’t mention Christ.

Doesn’t Jesus tell us in scripture that He “is the truth and the way…”? Ah, but that would conflict with his Mormon beliefs.

He talks about the “Founding Father’s faith” yet he omits things like the 1797 Tripoli Treaty that declares:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Mr. Beck should in all honesty research which two of his favorite founding fathers were involved with the writing and signing of the treaty…Washington and Adams.

Lastly, Mr Beck called a fly over of the reflecting pool of Canadian Geese a “divine sign” not the common occurrence that they are in DC.

Now I truly believe a “divine sign” would have been the “parting” of the reflecting pool as the geese flew over, more than, as Emerson would put it, seeing  “God in Nature.”