By David Swanson

Progressive Democrats of America marked the beginning of its seventh year with a three-day conference that brought hundreds of activist leaders from all over the country to a Cleveland, Ohio, hotel this past weekend. Participants heard from and met with star speakers, and split up and strategized in groups organized around issue areas and geography.

PDA activists engaged in similar work in distant states -- opposing war funding, promoting single-payer healthcare, protecting civil rights, and advancing progressive candidates' campaigns -- were able to compare their tactics and success rates. Many commented in the closing plenary on how much they'd benefitted. Videos of many of the weekend's events are being posted at http://pdamerica.org

By David Swanson

Most commentary on President Barack Obama either beats him up unfairly because he's not a Republican or cuts him extra slack because he's not a Republican. If, in the privacy of your own home, you want to pause and review the main events of the first year or more of this presidency, as recorded by someone who obviously doesn't care about partisan boosting, I recommend Paul Street's new book "The Empire's New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power."

7.19.10- David Swanson,author of Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union, talks politics with Coy Barefoot. Today’s topics include Perriello’s recent decision not to debate Hurt, government spending, the House vote to increase war funding, the Obama Administration, and the up-coming Congressional elections.

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From the Charlottesville Podcasting Network

By David Swanson

Bruce Fein concludes his new book, "American Empire: Before the Fall," by demolishing the worldview of Henry Kissinger as expressed in a Washington Post column last year. Of course it's also the worldview of the Washington Post and most of its readers. We must continue wars to save face. We must imagine we can win wars because facing defeat is too painful. We must talk about winning hearts and minds while increasing the bombings. We must plow ahead at full speed to demonstrate our determination, regardless of what it is we've determined to do.

A group of local political activists, citing what they say is a widespread feeling of disenfranchisement with Benton County government, are holding a public meeting at the library this Friday to discuss ways to make it more responsive.

“We’re not prescribing anything,” said peace activist Leah Bolger, one of the meeting organizers. “We just want to have a civil discussion where people can throw out their ideas on how to improve county government.”

By David Swanson

During the past five years since I moved back to Charlottesville, Virginia, I had yet to observe the slightest violent incident, prior to the recent spree of horrific mass murders. There was crime, but I hadn't ever seen it. I had only heard about it in the local media. First there was a young woman picked up hitch hiking and murdered. That was many months ago now. Then there was a man from Charlottesville attacked out of the blue up in the mountains, not actually in Charlottesville. Most recently, a University of Virginia student was alleged to have killed his girlfriend; this made national news, apparently because they were both Lacrosse players.

By David Swanson

When I think about secession, my first thought is of the Conch Republic (motto: "We Seceded Where Others Failed"), the briefly lived independent nation of Key West, Florida, now reduced to a joke and a tourist attraction. But would it necessarily be a joke to have an independent nation with some conchs, if you know what I mean, holding BP to higher standards than BO is willing to?

By David Swanson

The "supplemental spending bill" in the House has peace groups against it because it funds the escalation of a war in Afghanistan that a majority of Americans oppose, makes us less safe, and kills human beings. It also has environmentalists against it because it subsidizes nuclear power, the industry that cannot compete in a free market except in the arena of catastrophes, where it may out-do BP some day. But the peace groups and environmental groups are not exactly coordinating together as they could be.

Today, for Five Dollar Friday I just donated $5 to the Freedom From Religion Foundation in appreciation of its successful effort to end the "National Day of Prayer." Specifically, I donated to their Legal Fund, so as to avoid the insanity of helping them fund an advertisement in the New York Times, an institution for which I think we should invent Unsubscription Saturdays.

By David Swanson

With the Senate So-Called Homeland So-Called Security Committee subpoenaing documents from the Justice Department and the Pentagon, has the power of subpoena been restored? I'm not so sure. And most people had no idea it was gone.

During 2007 and 2008 dozens of government officials were subpoenaed, right on up to the Vice President, who simply showed Congress their middle fingers and went on their merry way. During 2009 and thus far in 2010, as far as we know, and with a weird partial exception involving Karl Rove, none of those scofflaws have been resubpoenaed.

By David Swanson

Here's a popular "Letter to America" and a new reply from America below.

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn't get mad when we spent over 600 billion (and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn't get mad when you saw the Abu Grahib photos.

By David Swanson

Here in Virginia where we're addicted to the practice of killing people in order to teach them not to kill people, there are certain things that must not be said about the moron(s) who cut a gas line to a backyard grill at the home of the brother of a congressman who voted for a health insurance bill.

Stage 1: Media debate between Republicans in power and what the people and the Democrats want.

Stage 2: The people give the Democrats complete control.

Stage 3: Media debate between the hideous proposals of the Democrats and the powerless Republicans.

Stage 4: A debate between the proposals of those in power and what we the people demand begins to percolate up through the internet and grassroots organizing.

Stage 5: We take control or lose it completely.

By David Swanson

I've followed the struggles of progressives within the California Democratic Party from the opposite coast and admired their achievements but wondered about their limitations. They're the first to pass resolutions opposing wars, but for the most part their members in Congress vote to fund the wars just the same. I'd rather have a party that "supported" wars but didn't fund them, if that option were available. I'd rather have a brand new party, if that were possible. But, given the dominance of the Democratic Party, passing progressive resolutions and working to someday elect progressive representatives looks like an admirable project, and -- at least from afar -- one imagines that it must be having an impact in Sacramento if not yet in Washington.

By David Swanson

I'm not a big fan of post-partisan America, a notion that seems to amount to running the government through two political parties but taking care that one of them not perform in any significant way better than the other one. But I am a fan of the idea, which nobody ever seems to consider, of actually disempowering parties.

Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico has put an honest description of the antidemocratic filibuster rule on his website.

According to Jon Walker at FireDogLake Udall plans to call a point of order at the start of the next Congress to eliminate the filibuster rule.

This is the real solution that we need (although not all experts agree it has to wait for the start of a session), not asking the Vice President pretty please to declare the rule unconstitutional as Thomas Geoghegan suggests or supporting a filibusterable bill or pushing for a vote of -- even worse -- 67 senators (see the FireDogLake link above).