being able to lead this nation to ever more fulfill its potential as a society committed to the common good, please hear me out.

I knew this past week was going to be a "killer" for me... I just didn't know how nearly that might have been a literal rather than figurative description.  I had meetings scheduled in widely scattered cities in my home state of Oregon, organizing local Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) chapters, and regular Democratic party work.  The weekend was our state Democratic Platform Convention, where I was scheduled to staff a Healthcare Not Warfare petition drive table, as well as serving as a delegate for my rural county.

I know... a lot of folks do much more, and I was actually looking forward to all of this activity, and once they commenced, was enjoying myself thoroughly.  However, things took a dark and perilous turn suddenly.

On this day in 1967, I was preparing to take the written and road tests for my first driver’s license. Several members of the Senior Class at The Dalles High School, including a few of my friends, were enlisting for military service in hopes of finding a better assignment than they would as draftees as the war in Vietnam raged.

There had been a demonstration that year in my school, which included a student walk out and sit in, but it wasn’t about issues of war and peace. A student publication had been banned from campus, and its editors suspended from school, for including articles critical of the Principal and school board policies.

I'm old enough to still lump up at black-and-white pictures of "Robert, Martin, and John," and I think, for good reason.  I've been involved in enough campaigns to think I'm beyond starry-eyed idealism, and tilting at windmills (without, I hope, hopelessly compromising the ideals of my peacenik and bleeding-heart youth, with utterly pragmatic realism).  That is not to say that life does not still surprise and delight me in all kinds of ways, including politics.

Tonight was just such a night, and for reasons that have nothing (okay, unexpectedly little) to do with whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama carried California on this Super Tuesday.  Although I had perhaps one or two too many glasses of wine at our Wasco County (Oregon) Democrats' Super Tuesday Party, I want to share my experience of the evening, and hope you will join me across the fold.

I grew up in a staunch Republican family... albeit one which reflected the influence the historic Progressive and Populist movements had on Oregon politics, but Republican nonetheless.  I came of age in the immediate wake of the Civil Rights struggle, and while the war was raging in Vietnam.  It quickly became obvious to me that the Democratic Party offered the only hope of an America which lived up to its ideals of equality, social and economic justice and environmental responsibility at home and peace and cooperation abroad.  Despite its many flaws, that's why I'm a Democrat.  It's also why I was greatly moved by today's release by the Democratic Party of Oregon (DPO) of its new video, "Why I'm a Democrat."  I think it is especially timely viewing during the heat of this primary season, so I'm posting it here after the jump.

With none of the hoopla of his campaign's kickoff tour through Oregon's populous Willamette Valley, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley began a swing through rural Eastern Oregon this morning with an informal breakfast in The Dalles with local party leaders, activists and office holders this morning.  There were no banners, and no stump speech.  Instead, the candidate for Gordon Smith's vulnerable Senate seat had a frank and unscripted conversation with rural voters -- the very demographic which conventional wisdom views as Smith's remaining constituency.

Highlights of the give and take, which I think was informative for both the attendees and the candidate, follows after the fold.

Yes, I know.  Some of you must be sitting on your typing fingers to resist pointing out the obvious -- that my title ignores the probability that I have already reached rather than am approaching my dotage.  But I sit here in puzzlement, my left arm throbbing from flu and pneumonia inoculations I received this morning, feeling like I may have a low grade fever.  And the chapter of my life I seem to be in bears no recognizable marks.  This is bewildering for someone as opinionated as I, and who has been living a very structured and purposefully planned routine for a very long time.

What the hell is this guy talking about?  Well, for the brave, or just insanely curious, here's an invitation to cross the jump.

Early this Summer, after holding public hearings which included several hours of sometimes very heated testimony, the three members of the Wasco County, Oregon Court sitting as its legislative body unanimously passed an ordinance outlawing discrimination on the basis of real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.  Two Republicans and One Democrat -- Unanimously!

This occurred in the heart of rural Eastern Oregon, within Oregon's 2nd Congressional District which Democrats have long ceded as "safe" Republican territory.

The religious right went ballistic almost immediately, and began beating the drums of fear and hatred.  Recall petitions were taken out for circulation against the two Republican commissioners... apparently their sin was greater, since as Republicans, they should have known better.

That the measure passed, and unanimously, is astounding.  What followed, even more so, as you can see after the fold.

Ever had a great idea for a diary, but felt it was too "Oregon-specific" to post here?  Wanted to talk to other progressive Oregonians about Measure 49 (fixing 37), bridging the gap between the "two Oregons," the Chalkboard Project, Getting "on the Bus," whether Jeff Merkley should throw his hat into the Senate race, or something even more squarely within arcane Oregoniana?

Ever thought it would be great if there was a mini-Daily Kos just for Oregon issues?

If so, and you haven't already heard it somewhere else yet, there's good fantastic news after the fold!

I just caught a "this just in" item on CNN that Bush has signed a new executive order today governing U.S. implementation of the Geneva Accords, especially with regards to detainees.

The text of the order is not yet available, but early information on it and links after the flip.

The text of the order, early reports, and links, after the flip.

As usual, the MSM is tantalizing us with headlines that sizzle, and ledes & soundbites which have lots of drama and conflict... and then move on, after sketchy details and hardly a pretense of analysis, to the next subject.

CNN: Judge tosses out ex-spy's lawsuit against Cheney in CIA leak case

U.S. District Judge John Bates said the lawsuit raises "important questions relating to the propriety of actions undertaken by our highest government officials." But in a 41-page decision, he found Plame and her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, failed to show the case belongs in federal court.

Huh?

Well, thankfully, those tubes on the internets can route us around the infotainment spectaculars.

There are reasons why our local electric utility expected their ballot measure authorizing investment in coal generation to be a "slam dunk."  Even the most optimistic of us opposing it were bracing for disappointment, hoping at best to prevent their success coming in the form of a landslide.

But, lo, a miracle occurred.  Check out the odds against it, and its magnitude, after the jump.

Although it took the suits at Black Rock over a week to decide that Don Imus "crossed the line" by uttering disgusting racial slurs over its airwaves, a General speaking his conscience brought swift and decisive action... one to which I felt compelled to respond.  My letter to CBS follows the jump.

I've made no bones here or anywhere about the fact that I'm an old fashioned trade union Democrat, and proud of it.  I've never crossed a picket line, and I fully intend to go to my grave saying that.  It's getting harder to buy Union.  The Republicans have successfully decimated organized labor in this country.  But I don't have to support notoriously anti-union Amazon.com with my hard earned dollars.

The Christian right has been trying to get the Bible into the schools for decades, through inclusion of "Creation Science" in Biology texts, and "non-devotional" Bible courses.  The Church-State issues are obvious, and opposition from the left justifiably swift and fierce.  The controversy is now poised to take a different turn, and from other than the usual suspects.  Liberal academics are discussing the pros and cons of religious curricula in public schools with some decrying what one calls Americans' "religious illiteracy," professional associations of teachers acknowledging the necessity and distributing sample lesson plans, and first amendment activists promoting the notion (with important safeguards) rather than opposing it as might be expected.

I probably have no right to feel as intensely wounded this week as I do.  After all, my loss in the matter of this diary is so far less than the true victims of the story that the groanings of my heart must seem to many akin to a Southern aristocrat bewailing his plight as an heir of American slavery.  Nonetheless, I grieve, and have many times this weekend been brought to tears...

As has been reported here in other diaries, since her CPAC speech this past weekend, at least four newspapers have discontinued carrying Ann Coulter's weekly column.  Despite pressure by the Human Rights Campaign and others, United Press Syndicate, which claims to distribute the column to "about 100" newspapers, it steadfastly refuses to drop her from its roster of columnists, or even disclose what papers are carrying it.

So, I am compiling list of newspapers which carry the toxic column, with contact information.  I've started by fleshing out the work of Media Matters and HRC with names of editors, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.  Next, I'll start contacting newspapers in my area, and beyond, to ask them whether they carry the column, to identify as close to the full "hundred" as possible.  I could use the help of Kossacks around the country to do the same.
Most Recent Update: Mar 15, 10:52 pm PDT - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA) 9th paper to announce dropping Coulter.
[Previous updates listed at end of diary]

What if the author of a New York Times Magazine columnist on ethics faced his own ethical dilemma related to aiding and abetting hate speech?  I may never know, but instead of going yakkity-yak all day, decided to take it "direct to the source and ask the horse."  For those with any interest I share my inquiry after the jump.  (I will update in the unlikely event I get a reply.)

Time will only tell whether Ann Coulter's most recent Makaka moment will be enough to unseat her as the darling of American conservatism... but very early returns are starting to come in...