Go, Democrats!

Read Glenn Greenwald, on getting over yesterday's pro-tyranny legislation and focusing on the upcoming election. He makes the well-reasoned and persuasive case that even though the Democrats suck, it would still be far better to have them in control of the Senate than the Republican Bush-zombies.

But that's all besides the point at the moment, because -- right now -- everyone has to answer for themselves these questions: (1) do you believe that the incalculable damage imposed on this country by the Bush administration and its followers (including in Congress) can be impeded and then reversed and, if so, (2) how can that be accomplished? For those who have given up and believe the answer to question (1) is "no," then, by definition, there is nothing to discuss. You' ve decided that there is no hope, that you're done fighting and trying to defend any of your beliefs and principles, and you're ready to cede the country to those who are in the process of destroying it.

But for those who believe that the answer to question (1) is "yes" (and I believe that emphatically), then the answer to question (2) seems self-evidently clear. The most important and overriding mandate is to end the one-party rule to which our country has been subjected for the last four years. Achieving that is necessary -- it is an absolute pre-requisite -- to begin to impose some actual limits on the authoritarian behavior and unchecked powers of this administration -- because, right now, there are no such limits.

One particularly important point he makes is the future of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The only branch of government that has shown any residual willingness to defend the Constitution and the rule of law is the judicial branch. But critical Supreme Court decisions such as Hamdan -- which at least affirmed the most minimal and basic constitutional protections -- depend upon the most precarious 5-4 split among the Justices. One of the five pro-Constitution Justices, John Paul Stevens, is 86 years old. If George Bush has free reign to replace Stevens, it will mean that the Supreme Court will be composed of a very young five-Justice majority of absolute worshippers of Executive Power -- Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Alito and New Justice -- which will control the Court and endorse unlimited executive abuses for decades to come.

So if you were outraged yesterday, or if you're outraged today, or if you become outraged tomorrow ('bout damn time, too) - don't just sit and fume. Do something. Give a hundred bucks to a Democratic Senate candidate (pick one in a pink or light blue state on the Electoral-Vote.com map if you don't have a close race close by). Write a frickin' letter to the editor every time you get riled up. Buy a pro-democracy and/or anti-Bush t-shirt, button or bumper sticker. Buy ten of them, and give them to anyone that will sport them with you. Call in to talk radio, and fight the good fight. Buy Glenn Greenwald's book, read it as fast as you can, and give it away to someone else who'll read it.

This may be now or never.