This'll be short and sweet.

The Republican party is in the shitter. And it's not because they've failed to "package" themselves with the right "brand." It's about their stupid ideas and crappy execution. And, of course, their corruption.

This story keeps getting deeper and deeper.

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman spent time in prison after a conviction on bribery charges that were likely engineered by White House staffers including Karl Rove.

Now, within the last week, we have news of crimes against whistleblowers in the case, and new revelations of an investigation that was started and then stopped by a special counsel in the Bush Administration who was investigating the US Attorneys scandal.

I haven't seen this diaried yet, and if it was, I'll delete.

Just got this letter and thought I'd pass it along. The Siegelman case is among the most heinous acts perpetrated by Rove and his lackeys.

How I hope Pelosi, Reid, Conyers and Leahy will pursue a real inquiry ino this matter.

If this has already been diaried, I'll delete. -LM

Haven't seen this diaried yet, but CNN reports that uber-egotist Ralph Nader is considering another run for the White House.

Please recommend. Fight! Fight! Fight! In the immortal words of buhdydharma YELL LOUDER!!

The time for triangulation is over.  The time for any SORT of appeasement is through. The time has at last come for us to literally sink or swim.

Goddammit, my friends! We waste time attacking each other and attacking those who point this out while our real enemy plots and deceives and manipulates and continues to Control. We either come together SOON or we are lost.

::

Time is very short. Everything is at the breaking point right now--can't you feel it? It's here. We have weeks, months tops to begin the turnaround that will save Humanity from itself. It's here RIGHT NOW.

I don't subscribe to the most virulent of the gloom and doom prognosticators here on DKos. I don't believe that a meltdown of American society is imminent, though I do believe there are warning signs, and it is a possibility.

We Americans only need to once again believe in simple things, like truth and principle.

The "no confidence" vote coming up in Congress is not tough enough. The lack of action to begin withdrawing our troops from the disaster in Iraq is not tough enough. The lack of action by the Congress on the critical issue of impeachment of the President and Vice-President is not tough enough. The total disregard of the raping of the public by the energy companies is not tough enough. The fact that we still don't have reliable voting systems that are the foundation of our democracy--that's not tough enough.

It used to be that there was a large segment of the American population who were genuinely puzzled as to which direction, left or "right", they wanted the country to move. The two Parties had significant areas of overlap, and therefore many people wavered or sat on the fence. Then, as now, these voters were highly prized by each Party. The difference is now, there seems to be a dwindling few who are undecided on questions of Party loyalty.

The rightfully respected middle of American politics is vanishing. It has been destroyed by many years of Republican corruption and crime that is without precedent in our history. The sacred middle ground of political affiliation has disappeared, through no fault of those on the left side of that scale, in a purge that began around twenty years ago during the Reagan administration and continues with renewed vigor today.

I am so goddamn sick of people who want to tell me how this person or that person is electable and who is or who is not playing the political game the right way. I am sick and tired of triangulation and playing both ends against the middle and amelioration and coddling and niceness and pretending that we are not in dire straits in this country- and therefore in this world. We are being led by the blind and we are blinded ourselves by their idiotic intransigence and lack of vision and denial of reality.

One of the most important things we do here at Daily Kos is to push the Overton Window leftward. We in the Netroots have had some very encouraging successes lately: from the stunning results of the election of 2006, to our successful campaign to kill the Fox "News" debate, to the increasing marginalization of Ann Coulter, we have accomplished great things.

This does not, of course, mean that we can rest on our laurels. Indeed, if you're like me, the successes tend to spur you on to even greater challenges.

Being active in the Netroots is important. In this diary, I would like to tell you all about another way to be involved that is just as much fun, and has the added benefit of being face-to-face, with live interaction among the participants.

This is just a quick diary to tell my fellow Kossacks how proud I am to be a member of this community. Since November of last year, this remarkable group has been largely responsible for many extraordinary things.

*We helped to win a majority for our party in the Congress.

*We have been leading reporters and disseminaters of the Libby case.

*We are on the front lines of the US Attorney's case.

*We have embarrased advertizers into dumping Ann Coulter's website and made prime-time CNN as a result.

*We are now leading the charge to get Congressional testimony from Sibel Edmonds about nefarious activities involving FBI, CIA, Dennis Hastert, and others.

Weird weather in Dixie. A remarkably hurricane-shaped low over the Chicago/Milwaukee area is pounding the Deep South with storms and tornadoes. But it will all be outta here by Sunday. High pressure and sunny skies will be soaked in by the attendees of this exciting event...

Hillary and Obama will duke it out this coming Sunday in Selma, Alabama. I'll be there. Any fellow Kossacks who will also attend please wear orange so we can attempt to hook up.

Of course there won't really be hurricanes in Alabama in March, but the weather is certainly bound to be a subject of discussion at the event.

Over the past few months, there have been a number of diaries that, while addressing subjects that have nothing to do with meta, have ended up being meta in the comments section due to differing viewpoints of our fellow Kossacks.

I am going to try avoid "calling out" specific diarists because of the common-sense and legitimate rules of our wonderful website here, and will instead refer to the two most prominent diarists in question as PO and MD.

Most of you probably would consider me a newbie. UID a hundred and eleven thousand something. But I have been around for a while. Reading. Lurking. Busy with my own campaign and organizing Democrats. I've been around long enough to see that the distinction which has been drawn by these two is an important one.

We have two gifted essayists who are on the same side politically who have created at least a sense of division among our ranks. My point in this diary is that this division is illusory.

This diary is the text of a speech I gave tonight for the South Baldwin Democrats in Alabama. It is quite an interesting group. About half and half Southerners and Yankees (ha ha) with an average age of about 60. We are few, but we are proud and we are growing.

I just spoke to a pilot for Blackwater Aviation(which I didn't even know existed) who told me that Blackwater was planning on buying Boeing 767 long range jets. Several things were remarkable about our conversation:

1. Blackwater has an Aviation department that operates Cessna Caravans for use as executive shuttles between their headquarters in Moyock, NC, and Washington, DC, and a fleet of Casa 212 freight aircraft owned and operated by two companies, Aviation Worldwide Services, and Presidential Airways, Inc.

2. Blackwater is planning to buy at least two heavy Boeing 767 aircraft for their growing fleet.

Several recent stories in the main stream media have highlighted the fact that there are some strange and unprecedented goings on in our weather. The Canadian ice shelf breakup, record high temperatures nearly nationwide, and record high overnight low temperatures are piling on the overwhelming evidence that our world is getting hotter--with potentially disastrous consequences for humanity.

The time for indecision is past. The time for action is now.

I am appalled and frightened by today's decision by the Georgia Board of Education. They have decided to allow witchcraft--WITCHCRAFT! to be taught in the Peach State's schools. What is this world coming to? I have a lot more to say on this subject, so follow me below the fold.

I wonder if everyone who writes and reads dailyKos understands that this work we do is the most important work that is being done in America today. The knowledge, erudition, insight and breathtaking righteousness of our gifted diarists is revolutionary. Modern day Thomas Paines.

We are on the forefront of a movement that is going to change our beloved country. The common ground that we have found in Progressive politics is, I think, destined to reshape the grand experiment that is American government.

We are strong. We are strong because we are RIGHT.  We are strong because we are many and growing. And most of all, we are strong because we have hope and not despair or fear about the ultimate direction our country will take.

There is so much work still to be done. We have won an election, but the problems that we identified and campaigned on in 2006 are growing worse and more complicated hourly. We pause and breathe at our own peril. I'm sorry to be so meta, but a call to arms is what we need. Read on, please. Poll below.