A fascinating sword has been found in England.  No, it is not Excalibur.  But it is a remarkable discovery.   And in the line of protecting our past too bad the anti-immigration crowd in Arizona don't do something constructive and try saving it's unique past.

I think this may apply to some of the unrepentant RINO Republicans.  Schizophrenia can be the result of childhood abuse.  I know, I'm being tacky, but I'm so sick and tired of these people and their rude, abusive, vicious behavior.   They have discovered that while genetics plays a certain role in the disease (not rude behavior) childhood abuse is a major player in the disease. 

Then there's the one about an alligator trying to attack a man - in Pennsylvania.    And  along that line, they've discovered that fish with lopsided brains can multi-task.  Evidently that's why I can multi-task, my brain is lopsided!

It finally dawned on me why I am so ticked with this emerging extreme right brand of conservatism.  They are so disgustingly, unrepentantly rude.  Yes, they are RUDE.  They are nasty.  They don't give a you know what about anyone's opinion but their own self-righteous opinion, mostly about their special brand of ideology.  Anyone who disagrees with them is THE ENEMY to be purged from the Republican Party.  In their own determination to remake the Republican Party into a place where they feel comfortable, they have either forgotten, or may not know that Republicans are polite people.  We are all sorts of people, blue-bloods, country clubs, golf-courses, baseball diamonds, Worth Avenue, Fort Worth, small towns, big cities (well, the suburbs maybe), Black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Native American.  We are liberal, moderate, and conservative.  We are Christian, Jew, atheist, Islamic, gay and straight, man and woman, single, married, divorced, widowed.  We are every person.  We are united by a love of country, freedom, hatred of taxes and big government, and an abiding and lasting respect and admiration for those who are and have defended our country.  We also believe in a strong national defense, the right to pray, and we believe in individual rights, among those the right to think, speak, and write as individuals without fear of attack or imprisonment.  Get it?  You, with your lofty ideas of Conservative purity are imposing your own version of cruel, vicious, nasty fascism upon people who do not deserve to be treated this way. 

Such behavior was never a part of the Republican party until the past few months.  In all honesty it can not be blamed on Rush or Hannity.  Do you have any ideas about it it began?

In the immortal words of Wyatt Earp, "You wanted a fight, well now you have one."

Yesterday I posted my Ode to the Minutemen,ET AL. over on The Singing Canaries.  You will want to check my William Greene links.  One of these days we are going to wake up and realize we are being manipulated.  Just check out the fact that you can send Greene just $119 and he will blast fax everyone in Congress for you.  Isn't that special.  I can't wait to see what comes next.  We know Tancredo's bunch is selling bricks for the Senate.  I guess Greene will next start selling indulgences or the bone chips of long dead anti-immigration saints or something as insane.  I keep telling you there are money problems with Simcox's bunch. 

One of these days Greene is gonig to come up with anti-immigration TV or something resembling Jim & Tammie.  I can just see Connie Hair, complete with Tammy Fay eye-make-up, with black mascara tracks running down her face.  And then Chris Simcox if

So it's the stupid immigration stupid?  Cannon has a lead in Utah.  Jacobs isn't helping himself, that's for sure.   In PA, which is NOT a border state, immigration is an issue.  I'd like to amend that - anti-Hispanic bigotry is the issue. Frankly, I think if a person doesn't live on the border they should shut up already yet and let us deal with it.

As yesterday's Opinion Journal put it:  "Looking at House Republicans who are vulnerable this year, we can't find a single one who will lose because of support for President Bush's comprehensive immigration reform. That isn't Heather Wilson's problem in New Mexico; she always has a tough race and favors both border security and a guest worker program. Chris Shays also won't save his seat by rallying the bluebloods in Greenwich, Connecticut, against their Mexican maids and construction workers. On the other hand, J.D. Hayworth could lose his seat in Arizona despite taking his anti-immigration riff to any radio or TV show that will have him."   Like I keep staying, Stupid, it's the immigration - stupid. Stupid is as Stupid does.  And right now, the GOP Congress is behaving stupidly.

Seems like people are finally picking up on what I've been saying about Tancredo, Malkin, and their associates.  Check out Called as Seen  and over on Stolen Thunder, they have picked it up, also.  To me the most gratifying news of the past few days is the fact that people are finally getting enough of Tancredo.  At least it is a start.   I think that Opinion Journal piece on him has helped, much.

DJ Drummond in Wiz Bang Bomb posted, “The reason he (GWB) gets no credit for this is sad and simple - people do not tend to pay attention to 'downstream' issues but only the top concerns, which is why borders and immigration were ignored by so many Congressmen and even Republicans for his first term. Also, people like Tancredo, who have turned a valid perspective and honest discussion into personal empires and 'face time' for influence advantage, have soured discussion and destroyed opportunities, because they refuse to work under the leadership of the elected Chief Executive, instead using him to blame for every petty arrogance.”

I like the way the bloggers at Tancredo Watch have discribed Team America. It is vicious.  For those who still allege to be the heirs of Reagan, they are breaking his first commandment, "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican"  (NOTE:  Yes, I am sinning by doing this but disparate times call for disparate measures)  "Tactics such as TeamAmerica's, a PAC founded by Tancredo, are mobilizing responsible Republicans against him. The viciousness of TeamAmerica's attacks on conservative Republicans such as Chris Cannon and Mike Pence has to be seen to be believed. It's really gutter politics."

The thing that bothers me the most is the way Team America is inspiring immitators, vicious immitators.  The contents listed under "Downsiser  found its way into my inbox the other day.  I've been holding it to investigate its source and have discovered a distinct libertarian bend here.  Just where do these people get off doing this? 

The whole thing has made me seriously ask questions about my actions during the Clinton years.  No, I was not blogging.  Yes I complained.  But I don't remember the GOP being this nasty to Dems during those days.  Oh, we were and Rush drove them crazy, but they were such good targets.  I don't think legislators deserve being 'destroyed' for their voting records and what they are doing. 

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

Sigmund Freud famously asked, "What does woman want?" He also famously asserted that "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Downsize DC not-so-famously asks, "Is Congress a gang, and does it need to be abated?"

And we not-so-assertively assert that "Sometimes Congress could be a gang, depending on the future use and misuse made of Senate bill 155 -- the Gang Abatement and Prevention Act." And so could your motorcycle club, your chess club, your rose growing league, and potentially any association under the sun, including Downsize DC.

It all depends on what the meaning of is, is. Sigmund Freud's use of the word "sometimes" would seem to suggest that sometimes he thought a cigar was not just a cigar (Bill Clinton probably agrees), and Congress's historical relationship to the Constitutional words "Congress shall make no law," would seem to suggest that sometimes a club, or association, could also be a gang.

The definition of "gang" could depend on the answer to the question, "What does Congress want?" Congress clearly wants to have a "living Constitution" that can have any meaning at any time, with no actual words ever being changed. And they may also want a "living S. 155" so that any group could be labeled a gang, if the Feds felt a need to abate or prevent that group.

S. 155 is the brainchild of Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein of California. This bill has many different versions, under many different names. It seems to mutate faster than the HIV virus. It also, like most Congressional bills, shows a tendency toward promiscuity. It could be joined with another bill, with a different subject, at any time. And a major disease could result.

S. 155 would make it a crime to belong to a group, or to recruit members to that group, as long as that group is called a gang. S. 155 would also do all sorts of other things, many of which are unknown to us because the bill is long, and we haven't had time to read it yet. WE ONLY JUST LEARNED ABOUT THIS BILL FROM SECRET INFORMERS LAST NIGHT! But remember, Congress won't read S. 155 either, before they attach it to "The Sweetness and Light and Everything Good Act" in the dead of night, and rush it to a vote.

Indeed, the gang known as the Senate Judiciary Committee is having a secret conspiratorial meeting (otherwise known as an executive session) right now, to consider S. 155. And rumor has it that they may join S. 155 to some kind of "we hate sex offenders" bill that no one will dare to vote against. There are so many things wrong with all of this . . .

* Neither gang abatement nor sex offenses are the business of the federal government.
* Criminal law is a state function, under our Constitution, not a federal function.
* The Judiciary Committee should meet in secret.
* Bills should not be attached to other bills. * Bills should be available to the public for at least a week before a vote is held.
* Laws should not engage in prior restraint, or criminalize free association.
* Laws should not be vague, leaving the concrete details to bureaucratic discretion.

But there's more. S. 155 has all the makings of another RICO Act. RICO is the law that, among other things, allows the government to charge your property with a crime, and seize it under a civil procedure with lax standards of evidence. Do we really need another RICO Act?

In the movie "Little Caesar," the gang leader Rico, played by Edward G. Robinson, is shot down. As he lays dying he asks the great existential question, "Is this the end of Rico?" The answer is yes. Rico dies. The RICO Act, and all its clones, like S. 155, should suffer the same fate. Congress should not deal with lawless gangs by becoming a lawless gang. But that's exactly what they're doing. And the time is short to thwart this criminal conspiracy . . .

We don't have time to mount one of our standard Electronic Advocacy campaigns. Phone calls are needed. Make the Senate Judiciary Gang nervous. If you see one of your Senators on the Gang Roster below, call them and tell them to oppose S. 155 and all its variants. If your Senator is not on this list then call the Senate Judiciary Gang Leader, Arlen Specter, and tell him to stop S. 155.

* Make a note of what you want to say before you call.
* Be polite yet firm.
* When you're done, please email feedback at DownsizeDC.org and let us know how your call went.

Please do so now. It will be fun, and it will only take a minute. Here's the list of gang members . . .

Arlen Specter - CHAIRMAN, PENNSYLVANIA - 202-224-4254
Orrin G. Hatch - UTAH - 202-224-5251
Patrick J. Leahy - VERMONT - 202-224-4242
Charles E. Grassley - IOWA - 202-224-3744
Edward M. Kennedy - MASSACHUSETTS - 202-224-4543
Jon Kyl - ARIZONA - 202-224-4521
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. - DELAWARE - 202-224-5042
Mike DeWine - OHIO - 202-224-2315
Herbert Kohl - WISCONSIN - 202-224-5653
Jeff Sessions - ALABAMA - 202-224-4124
Dianne Feinstein - CALIFORNIA - 202-224-3841
Lindsey Graham - SOUTH CAROLINA - 202-224-5972
Russell D. Feingold - WISCONSIN - 202-224-5323
John Cornyn - TEXAS - 202-224-2934
Charles E. Schumer - NEW YORK - 202-224-6542
Sam Brownback - KANSAS - 202-224-6521
Richard J. Durbin - ILLINOIS - 202-224-2152
Tom Coburn - OKLAHOMA - 202-224-5754

SPEAKING OF GANGS:

Our gang of monthly pledgers grew dramatically yesterday. We're still processing and will have a report for you soon. If you would like to join the gang by making a monthly pledge of $3 or more, or by making a one-time contribution to cover our June costs, you can do so here.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.

Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

Then over at Chuch Muth's News and Views Neil Bortz has a piece telling us to desert the GOP.  Oye!  

"LEAVING THE PARTY PARTY