The limitations on discussions of issues is not limited to the Iraq war. If you want to discuss any of the pressing issues the same process described by Greenwald regarding the war exists. The "responsible" debaters on health care act as though a serious presentation of a single payer system is a waste of time. Thus we get the Democratic candidates limiting the discussion to proposals which, if implemented, will not solve the health care problem. The Obama/Clinton proposals are a bad joke but you would never know there are serious alternate proposals that are never discussed much less a side by side comparison done of what the "responsible" proposals will do compared to a single payer system. Who ever heard any serious discussion of land use restrictions and alternate, non-automobile means of transportation as part of the mix of solutions to the global warming crisis. Who discusses serious attempts to deal with income distribution problems. Who addresses the incredibly wasteful military budget. Who discusses serious reform of the sclerotic political system and the forced exclusion of those who do not buy into the two party dance of corruption and unethical conduct.

In all of these areas, "experts" carry water for a corrupt political elite who benefit immensely from any serious discussion of true reform. Of course this fits into the vested interests of the so called progressives like, for instance, the Daily Kos people, who are dedicated to restricting the discussion for their own reasons.

I attempted to donate money for the Telecom Immunity issue from the link in the Glenn Greenwald article. When I clicked on that link, I was take to the Act Blue site. I saw no indication on that site that the money would go exclusively for the purpose I was willing to donate for. Act Blue is a fundraising organization for the Democratic party. I do not support the Democratic party and will not donate funds to them. I called Act Blue and they informed me the money would go to the Blue America PAC and to contact them about how they handle donations. I then asked for a phone number for Blue America and my contact could not give me that number.

I am opposed to Telecom Immunity and would like to give a donation to work against the Bond compromise legislation and to oppose the all to familiar sell-out by the Congressional Democratic leadership. I will not donate, however, unless I receive iron clad assurances that the money will NOT go to the Democratic party.

I admire Glenn Greenwald's analysis, especially on the FISA legislation, and read in dismay as he comes to the same old mistaken conclusions. He documents quite well the anti-constitutional bent of both the Republicans and Democrats, their continued warmongering that leads us ever deeper into unmanageable debt and destroys our credibility overseas. The US pursues its imperial grasping for oil in the Middle East, as the two parties legislate the building blocks for an increasingly oppressive surveillance state. Unfortunately he limits his time frame, going back only to the 2006 midterm elections. If he cast his net further back he could add many more examples of the Democratic Party's wholesale enabling of the worst possible tendencies in our political life.

It is not a passing fancy that the Democrats embrace when they further what some Democrats fiercely hope is an aberration. It is a central and ongoing devotion to building the authoritarian, militarized state that the Democrats further at every step along the way.

Greenwald's solution is to work within the Democratic party by raising money to support a few folks who have not yet been socialized into the realities of Washington power. His $350,000 pot looks pretty anemic besides the $40,000,000 that will be raised by Mr. Farber who represents the real power in the Democratic party and who will work in a structured and knowledgeable way to parley his dough into access and favorable policies for his real clientle, the corporations mentioned in Greenwald's piece.

The strategies outlined by Greenwald and the Daily Kos folks will fail to budge the existing power structure in Washington by a nanometer. The people who continue to preach the hard, practical realities of staying within the Democratic party are only insuring that nothing important will change. They are not hardheaded realists. They are idealistic, romantic dreamers, totally out of touch with reality.