Right on. That's a great idea. I'm headed over there too.

I hope they get injured when the cops drag them out. Radical protesters in her office = votes for McGavick. Radical protesters being dragged out of her office by force = votes for Cantwell.

That is a great idea. Too bad nothing will come of it.

I'm sure Bush is happy with the help we've just given oil-soaked McGavick.

What about the amino acids... if someone is going their, bring some amino acids with you. Those protein bars and bottled water will only take them so far.

Trail mix would be good as well, but I am almost sure though that the vets in the group made sure of the basics. Never mind.

county lock-up will make sure they are well feed. But I have heard that if you are arrested after 2pm, then by the time you get through processing and stuff, you will miss chow.

oh wait, they might be going to a federal lock-up... I am sure they will be ok in feds. I wonder who has jurisdiction in this sort of situation. I guess it would depend on if the senators person is there?

FNARF- take a break, you dont have to be a prick all your life.

Rich gamble is not some loony radical and the folks who lost loved ones over there as well as the member of the Abe Lincoln brigade at least have the balls to do something, and theyre expressing their disapointment with a position peacefully. You can disagree, you prick with ears, but to wish them ill just because they are protesting peacefully is fucked up, even for a centrist right mo fo like you.

Nothing like presenting a senator running for reelection with a lose-lose situation, huh? She has already all but signed onto the Kerry plan in principle, but if she replies as such, then she looks like she's caving to a handful of protesters. On the other hand, if she has these people removed, then she looks like some pro-war, authoritarian police stater.

This is why Democrats are a minority party.

She brought it on herself by going along with Bush's rationalizations.

It's candidates like her and Kerry that have made Democrats a minority party.

I totally sympathize with these folks and what they're trying to accomplish...but Dems are so close to taking back control of the Senate. If Dems are in the majority they can then launch real and legitimate investigations into pre-war intelligence, Abu Ghraib, wire tapping, White House leaks, etc.

The power to investigate the corruption and cronyism of the Republican Party will go so much further towards addressing the issues that progressives care deeply about than forcing Maria Cantwell to co-sponsor legislation that stands no chance of passing.

And, Mr. Jensen, who is your candidate, and how well have they done?

Goldy,

This really isn't why we're the minority party. I'd hope that they would do something similar with Mike! What'shisname. Also, she hasn't agreed with Kerry's position, she's repeated the weak kneed talking point about a year of transition. That sort of thing is much more the reason why we can't elect Dems than 6 protesters.

Josh,

Where are you getting this info?

considering that we just found out that my sister's fiancee is suppose to head to iraq in december, i'm a big fan of this idea. he's a cool guy. ROTC math major. used ROTC to pay for college, thinking that things wouldn't be like this four years later. i almost did this option too, though i would have just pulled the gay card to get out of it.

I'm not a prick all of the time, just most of the time. When it's richly deserved.

If you make a contribution to the betterment of the world, I'll say something nice. See the Jane Jacobs item. If you take a crap in the middle of the public discourse, I'm not so nice.

Protesters taking over offices is NOT public discourse. It's childish antics that had already lost all of their not very impressive power 30 years ago. Nothing -- NOTHING -- of interest or value has ever been accomplished by taking over the dean's office, kids.

I'm not saying I'm in love with all of Cantwell's positions, but refusing to talk to these ineffectual bozos is the right strategy here. Washington state voters almost unanimously agree with me. The constituency of these people is NO ONE. They're playing the same game that turned off all of the civilized people back when they were still protesting the war directly.

I think Gamble and the others are being robotically mind-controlled by the McGavick campaign, just as they have in the past worked tirelessly for Bush.

I prefer the more reserved approach that is being taken by the Roots Project over at www.firedoglake.com. We went to both Murray's and Cantwell's offices last week and presented a written request that they respond to the issue of preemptive use of nuclear weapons in Iran. Once we get the responses, we will forward them to Pachacutec at FDL for wide dissemination. The NY state delegation took a video of their visits to Clinton and Schumer's offices and it is presently running on the crooks and liars website.

Carl,
One of the 7 called me from the conference room where they're doing their sitting in.

All I can say is that within about my first 3 posts to the Slog ever, I had FNARF comparing me to bin Laden. If that's not taking "a crap in the middle of the public discourse", and if advocating violence against non-violent protesters (including 92 year olds) is somehow polite and reasoned speech, then I guess it's nice to know someone's shit doesn't stink...

Richard,

Really? It's candidates like Cantwell and Kerry who make the Dems a minority party?

Gee... I thought that one of the things necessary to hold the majority is to actually HOLD OFFICE, and the last time I checked, both these two were US Senators.

Cantwell is the nominee, period, and there's nothing you or me or anyone else can do about it. The Dems have a shot at taking the Senate, and with it, the power to investigate the corrupt Bush administration, and to preempt and attempt at a preemptive war in Iran.

If you want to sacrifice that so that you can make a principled stand on the issues, that's up to you, but it plays right into the hands of the Republicans.

And this is more than just about Cantwell's seat... how she does at the top of the ticket will influence all the races down ticket, and if the Dems have to sink resources into saving her seat, they're going to pull it out of other races here and elsewhere. Democrats attacking Cantwell is just plain bad strategy.

I work for Maria Cantwell.

So I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies.

Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about.

But trust me.... You don't.

I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you don't know what you are talking about.

This is how bad info gets passed around.

If you don't know about the topic....Don't make yourself sound like you do.

Cuz some sloggers believe anything they hear.

Hmm. Sloggers don't know anything, but you won't inform them of what errors they're making? That's lame. What's the "bad info"? Let's have it, Cantwell stooge.

"Really? It's candidates like Cantwell and Kerry who make the Dems a minority party?"

Yup, that's what I said.

You're right about John Kerry being a senator. Seems like he was trying for a different job not so long ago, but I forget.

And if Cantwell and her oh-so-pragmatic tacticians and consultocrats didn't want peaceniks squatting in her office she shouldn't have taken a more skeptical stance toward handing war powers over to the Neo-Con junta.

The Dems are a minority party because they are a generation or two away from the public crises that clarified their political principles and set them in a heroic light.

There are new crises now that present new opportunities for a new beginning and some in the party recognize this (Check Conyers, Feingold, Dean, The Fighting Dems, even Darcy). Cantwell, unfortunately is not one of these. Kerry may know what's up, but he didn't act like it while he was a candidate. Same goes for Gore.

Yes, I think that's why those Democratic candidates lost, lost and lost.

All I'm saying is quit blaming citizens for the bullshit in the air when they call bullshit on bullshit politicians.

. . . . .she SHOULD have taken a more skeptical. . . . . .

(Really should use that dang preview tab.)

Richard...I ask again...which candidate is it that you support that actually is in a majority position?

Dear Timothy,

I think that's terrible red herring of a question that has very little to do with my contribution to this discussion. For one thing, one doesn't really know one is in the majority until the election is over and one's candidacy has ended. Right?

In any case, I have already elaborated on my views above. I offered these in response to Goldy's remark that somehow the tactics of these protesters were symptomatic of the blight that aflicts the Democratic Party.

"This is why Democrats are a minority party.
Posted by Goldy - April 25, 2006 02:33 PM"

I said simply that if Cantwell had taken a more skeptical stance toward the policies and tactics of the current administration (well, I said Junta) over the last six years, she wouldn't be facing these protests today.

For some baffling reason, she has made the political calculus that projecting an open-mind about Bush's wars and security agenda back to her electorate at home is of greater benefit to her than projecting herself as an opponent of these intitiatives.

Of course, she is not the only Democrat that has made this same calculus.

For my money, this is the symptom that might lead intrepid investigators to a cure for the "minority" condition Dr. Goldy diagnosed in the Democratic party.

At this time I can't support Cantwell, not after the letters I wrote to her begging her not to give war authority to George Bush, not after begging her to support the filibuster of Bush's architect of executive supremacy to a position on the US Supreme Court, and not after begging her to support Senator Feingold's call for the President's censure.

As I expresed above, I believe there is a passionate spirit embedded in the Democratic Party that is committed to realizing the best of the American republic's founding ideals. Pragmatically speaking, I think the party is America's best hope for advancing several crucial reforms to our manner of governance, starting of course, with a vigorous prosecution of all high crimes and misdemeanors related to the present Executive's fradulent justifications for war, endorsement of myriad illegal security practices including torture, and rampant war-related profiteering. The Party should guarantee hard time for all white collar war crimes. Nothing less could possibly redeem the humanity of this generation of Americans in the eyes of the world. Sorry, dude, but we really fucked it up.

Do I see Cantwell as my ally in this project? Tactically, sort of maybe, for a squeamish minute, since I agree that the only shread of a chance of locking up our war bandits will come from having a majority of Democratic Party asses in those antique leather chairs back east.

But I'm convinced that Cantwell's politics are those of a former era. She is representative of why, in Goldy's words, "the Democrats are a minority party." I'd really be pleased if she chose to step aside and let a real antagonist to the Neo-Con agenda run in her stead.

For some reason that is not entirely clear to me, no one seems to acknowledge that the next election Cantwell will participate in is the Democratic primary in September. Her registered opponent, or at least the only one I've heard of (I believe the former Black Panther Aaron Dixon is running as a Green) is Mark Wilson. He seems a little disorganized, and he has a lot of local hata's, Party people mostly (and I don't mean the fun kind) who will point out that he has run previously as a Green and Libertarian. Though it is not impossible, I grant that it is highly unlikey that he will win the nomination. Still, when I go to his website I find that I support everything posted there. Not so your dear Maria.

www.votemark.org/

Good luck suckas. The Dean craze your leadership hated was the signal your meatloaf was done. The good news is that your Party will be popular again when your Liebermans, Shrums and Cantwells have been excused to spend more time with their families.