Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

The 2020 Democratic primary has narrowed down to two long-time politicians, centrist Joe Biden and progressive Bernie Sanders. Many folks on my Facebook and Twitter feed already seem to be assuming that Biden has already won, but the primary is months from its actual conclusion. Super Tuesday has come and gone, a week prior to Super Tuesday Sanders was the clear frontrunner. Now Biden is now leading in number of delegates. The media will spend a lot of time reporting on the percentages of votes candidates will earn in any given, but it truly comes down to a candidate's acquisition of delegates. That is how the eventual nominee is decided at the party's summer convention. Immediately before and a couple days after Super Tuesday candidates quickly dropped out of the race when it became clear they had no path to actually winning the nomination. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen Amy Klobuchar dropped out, consolidating the centrist lane of the race. Meanwhile enthusiasm remained wit...

Happy Birthday to Dr. M. L. King Jr. (his actual birthday was Saturday); we are given a federal holiday for a great man! A man of amazing vision, a revolutionary (on a spiritual/ethical plane) leader, and someone with a prophetic message. Here's one of his quotes, as some of us will be protesting at the FBI Building (due to crack downs on nonviolent peace activists in the Midwest) and Quantico (where Bradley Manning has been held in solitary confinement for more than 7 months): "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere..." I have come to realize that much of this nation -- especially the government -- has reached the spiritual death that Dr. King warned about in his 1967 Riverside speech. This speech was made when King was being criticized for denouncing the war the U.S. waged in Vietnam. Below is an e-mail exchange I had with a devout liberal Democrat. This shows you that many still believe pleading with the politicians of the two wings of the corporate-domin...

By Allison Kilkenny February 24, 2008 The Democrats like to cast blame for why they continually lose elections. Karl Rove's dream of a permanent Republican majority, while eventually thwarted because of Bush fatigue, was only possible because the Democrats failed to form a compelling ideology for a globalized economy. Definition through negation works in some preliminary stump speeches, but eventually voters want answers. It's not enough to be Not-Republicans. How, exactly, are Democrats different than Republicans? Spouting tired rhetoric about the New Deal and social welfare worked for a country teetering on the brink of Socialism during FDR's reign, but what now? How are the Fat Cats in the Democratic party different than the Fat Cats in the Republican wing? And Universal health care hardly seems like revolutionary thinking when the very insurance companies who have been exploiting sick Americans are invited to the negotiation table. Well, to be fair, they paid for their ...

By John Nichols, The Nation When it comes to the question of impeachment, the difference between Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Joe Biden and Department of Peace champion Dennis Kucinich is merely a matter of timing. Biden says that if George Bush attacks Iran without a formal declaration of war by Congress, the president must be impeached. Kucinich thinks it would be smarter to act before the bombs start flying. The distinction was illustrated during Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas when Catherine Jackson, the mother of an Iraq War veteran – Marine Christopher Jackson, who told the audience, "Our troops need to come home now" -- expressed her fear that "members of the Bush administration and neoconservative members of Congress are beating the drums of war again." Ms. Jackson asked what the candidates what they would do to prevent an attack on Iran. Biden was especially pointed in his response, saying of the president: ...

A well-written piece, and maybe Obama will listen. Hayden is clearly more hopeful about the Dems than I am! I don't think I'll be returning to the party in this lifetime. In addition, I am not convinced that the polarities are false; other progressive Dems should also be abandoning the corporately-controlled party. An Appeal to Barack Obama By Tom Hayden "The Democrats have been stuck in the arguments of Vietnam, which means that either you're a Scoop Jackson Democrat or you're a Tom Hayden Democrat and you're suspicious of any military action. And that's just not my framework." - Sen. Barack Obama. Barack, I thought Hillary Clinton was known as the Great Triangulator, but you are learning well. The problem with setting up false polarities to position yourself in the "center", however, is that it's unproductive both politically and intellectually. Politically, it is a mistake because there last time I looked there were a whole lot more ...

This is truly frightening, and it pretty much sums up our current political environment. Ralph sounds as great as ever!

What a busy week for me, the Washington Peace Center and the peace movement in general. The week began with those of us regular readers of afterdowningstreet.org and the DailyKoz knowing a full 24-hours ahead of most folks that Cindy Sheehan was calling it quits on being everyone's official peace mom. I have met Cindy on a couple of occasions, and think she is smart, warm and funny. She's articulate, marches to her own drum and has a sharp sense of humor. It turns out she has been both worn down by the demands and competing egos within the movement, and also by the continuing personal slams and death threats against her. She needs time off, and so she originally wrote that she is quitting. She says she felt betrayed by the Democrats who recently took power, and she wanted to see more of us in the peace movement actually begin to make sacrifices in order to change the murderous path that the U.S. government has been on for the last few decades. I share much of Cindy's frustr...

Marine Mom Arrested at Speaker Pelosi's Washington, DC Office By Kevin Zeese Today, Monday, April 16, 2007, Marine Mom Tina Richards was arrested at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. She was seeking to deliver a letter on behalf of a “Women’s Delegation for Peace” (see letter below with bios of the delegation members). VIDEO OF THE ARREST AVAILABLE FROM WHYNOTNews.org. The video is on YouTube search “Tina Richards Arrested” or visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9XTl1Nou8g The event was organized by Code Pink to welcome Congress back and urge an end to the war. Also participating were members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Vets for Peace, Voters For Peace, Iraqi Voices for Peace, Democracy Rising, Washington Peace Center, Grassroots America (Tina Richard’s educational organization) and other organizations and individuals. The arrest occurred in the hallway outside of the Speaker’s office as the delegation was protesting the media being forced to l...

I guess many of us are anxiously awaiting to see the results of the Senate and the House's joint conference on the supplelemental bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush asked for approximately $99 billion, the Democrats newly installed in power, turned around and are willing to give him more than $120 billion. At this point approximately $500 billion has been spent on these disastrous and immoral invasions (November 2001 and March 2003 respectively). The Senate's version has a March 2008 timetable for withdrawal, while the House has an August 2008 date (two months before the Presidential election which the Dems are now expected to win). Anything smell political here? Sure! Not only are these timetables for withdrawal timed to gain the Dems as much political power as possible, there's nothing about them that can be enforceable when dealing with a reckless and completely morally empty commander-in-chief. Then throw in this weekend's interview of Sen. Carl Levin b...

The former first lady, Hillary R. Clinton, has announced her formal candidacy for the Democratic nomination of president. If the party selects her as president it would be a grave mistake. It would be a solidifying of the Democrats' timidity, an embracing of a hollow middle ground where it becomes more Republican-lite than a true opposition party. Of course there are the dumbasses that can't resist the cool factor of voting for a former first lady, or the need to vote for any female Democrat running for president. But I think in the end, most Democrats will look into their souls and realize that not only do they no longer want to be the party of timidity, they'll realize that Hillary doesn't really stand for much at all. I mean what the heck are her core values? It sure beats me! Hillary stepped away from universal health care when it failed during her hubby's tenure in office. Now, in her recent announcement, she says she wants to secure health care for "more...

I actually like Jeremy, and this was a mostly civil exchange, but the debate between the progressive anti-war Greens and the "stay the political course" Dems continues: Jeremy Zilber writes: Happy holidays to you as well, Pete. I agree that many factors played a role in the Iraq war, and some Democrats MAY have had something to do with it when SOME of them authorized a use of force AS A LAST RESORT, but even that isn't clear. It isn't at all clear that a lack of authorization from Congress would have stopped this war. Bush didn't heed the words of the authorization itself, as it clearly required that he exhaust peaceful strategies before taking military action, which he didn't do. Moreover, Bush has demonstrated time and time again that he believes himself above the law and the Constitution, and he claims to be getting his instructions directly from God. I sincerely doubt that if Congress has not voted for that authorization he would have suddenly said, "...