Jesus is taking them to NH on the Ron Paul Blimp.

Geez. Why you got pick on the poor ol' Rockefellers? The formula is pretty simple:

Rockefeller + Bad = Conspiracy Theory

QED

All I can say is "so what?" This kind of bs has been going on in this administration since day one. It is now patently clear that regardless of what this administration does, what investigations the Dems launch or what evidence of illegal activity is uncovered, there isn't a congressman currently sitting who will do any damned thing about it. There is such overwhelming evidence for impeachment already and yet no one can muster the courage to even say the "I" word. So it appears Nancy Pelosi is right after all...this is nothing but a monumental waste of time.

I think I now have a better idea of what your objection to plunging the nation into, what I will euphemistically refer to as, a cathartic period of darkness is. The civic body being too far gone to resist no matter what occurs certainly seems to be an argument that carries some force, especially in light of the last few years (man, I miss my habeas corpus. JUST KIDDING HOMELAND SECURITY GUY! LOVE THAT COMMANDER IN CHIEF!!)

Still not exactly sure what the ‘something different’ you are in favor of is, though.

You don't reform police departments from the inside. You reform the city or state governments which sanction them.

I might also add that police department reforms imposed from the outside which don't change the internal culture of the department usually fail. The revolving door at the LAPD, for example, hasn't changed anything of real significance since Chief Parker first recast it as a professional paramilitary decades ago. In such cases firing everybody, changing the name, the color of the uniforms, the training program, the rules of engagement, etc., might work, but in such a case, what would be gained by denying that you'd actually replaced the institution?

-- William Timberman

You raise some interesting points and I would say it depends on the level of corruption and how widespread it is, and is it a symptom of greater political corruption in the city and county at large. Great bit of research on the subject if you care to: On the Take: From Petty Crooks to Presidents

http://www.amazon.com/Take-Petty-Crooks-Presidents-Midland/dp/0253202981

20 years of research in Seattle back in the 70s. probably my favorite textbook. Read like a novel.

http://www.gwu.edu/~chamblis/home/main.html

Damb. Nobody even knows what a decent cadre is anymore.

How the mighty have fallen!

Note to LWM: I maintain we long since went over that "cliff" we keep fretting we're about falling off of, and the Titanic hit that iceberg long ago. We can't prevent what's already happened.

And to RMP and any others who see my view as "virtual hopelessness": apparently I'm not communicating well enough, because I'm not hopeless at all, nor do I think we're in a hopeless situation, nor have I given up.

Despite all the reality the lefty blogosphere community is supposedly based on, I see almost as much fabulizing on this side as on the other. I wish, I really wish, Feingold and Durbin and Whitehouse and the rest of them who speak out from time to time would actually, you know, DO something. Any one of them in the Senate could have... they won't. Well, Dodd says he will, and maybe he will, good on him if he does, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Feingold has been in a position to put his foot down and stop or at least significantly delay some of the worst abuses of the Busheviks for years, and he's always talked a great line. What's he done? Ever filibustered bad law? Nope. Ever stopped a Bush nominee? Nope. I used to have some faith in him; no more. Sorry. The Senate is a failed institution. Any of them could start reversing that failure tomorrow. So far, nope. Comity is more important than anything. And yet, when Feingold called for something as mild as censure, he was bitchslapped from one end of the Senate to the other, by members of his own party. Comity my ass.

The House hasn't been much better. It, too, is a failed institution. What the Dems did to Cynthia McKinney -- making an example of her -- was shameful. But that was and is the standard they're still operating on. OK. That means that nothing will be done to interfere with Bush's bloodsoaked joyride. A lot of talk, you bet. No action.

There are a handful of Senators and a somewhat larger cohort of House members who seem to believe the nation is capable of something better than the Busheviks and are trying to push their colleagues toward that better future, but it is often an exercise in futility. The Big Picture just doesn't enter the majority thinking in our Congress.

Doesn't mean we should stop trying, it means what we're doing isn't working. Maybe we should try something else.

What would that be? (Cadres! We need cadres!)

Well, it is not to turn the whole thing over to the fascists and their running dogs, for that really is giving up.

"Oh, but they'll make it so much worse for everyone, surely the masses will rise up as one and crush the monsters we let loose. That's the ticket!" Bullshit. No they won't.

Truly. The American People will not rise up. I am convinced they cannot. The only element in our society that has even an inkling of "uprising" left in it are the wingnuts and fascists. Real Leftists are endangered species and nearly extinct. I blame Reagan, but what really happened is more complex.

So. What do you do with no chance for a real uprising from the left (and honestly, there is none). I say you take your cues from the Progressives of yore, and how they did it; they did it nonviolently, essentially subversively, and they took over by force of will as much as by ideological rigor. They did it through elections, but not just through elections. What they did was pull the rug out from under the grossly corrupt and wildly inefficient government/plutocracy amalgam and replaced it with something better.

Progressives of yore were not The Masses, far from it. They were... cadres.

Well, that's another essay for another time.