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I have not heard that Rep. Anthony Weiner has charged usurious interest, foreclosed wrongly on anyone's home, maintained an unsafe workplace that caused worker deaths or injuries, raided anyone's pension, issued no-bid contracts to cronies, polluted the air or water, or busted a union. Until those who did are punished to the full extent of the law, Weiner's critics can just piss off. And so can anyone who doesn't think this is a proper diary.

I have been a union guy all my life, and even in “retirement,” I’ll be union till I die.

I support the public employees in Wisconsin and everywhere else. I was proud to attend the rally in the WA state capitol of Olympia on Monday February 21, when we packed the Capitol Rotunda with more than 1,000 supporters.

I did what I could to promote Saturday’s rally in Olympia, which drew about 2,500 people, far outnumbering, by an estimated 10 to 1,  the pathetic turnout of Tea Party supporters of the execrable Scott Walker.

But I had other business, and once I heard about this one particular event, I knew it had to take priority.

Tired of the circular firing squads? Tired of liberal angst? Tired of wondering what we can do to send President Obama a sincere, positive message that will help reinforce who we are and what we stand for? Want to demonstrate what even an old, jaded cynic like me considers some real, genuine "netroots" power?

All credit for this idea must go to my Governor here in WA, Christine Gregoire, may she live forever, who posted this on her Facebook wall. Please read on.

I am in this campaign up to my eyeballs, my precinct in western WA is semi-rural in a mostly urban District, and my duties as Legislative District Chairman keep me from banging every door.

Fortunately, there's the telephone, and the most robust, well-organized phone contact and data entry interface I have seen in years of field work. That is how I first met my neighbor, Mark Rutherford, and how I heard his story.

When Mark started talking, I could not put the phone down. When he told me about the path he had taken to become an Obama supporter, I wondered if he had written that down. As it happens, he had.

Mark had written a letter that he wanted to distribute to his community of hunters and sport fishermen. Here it is, posted here with his full permission. I hope people will find it as compelling as I have.
 

Barack Obama! I want YOU to filibuster this odious attack on our Constitutional rights when the Senate considers this bill next week.

I know you're discussing your options with your staff. I know damn well a filibuster is one of the options. It has to be, in any thorough contingency planning.

I know this is a high-risk strategy. I know that if if backfires, it could torpedo your presidential bid. I know that would mean disaster for this nation and for the world.

This will be a short diary, because I have to go take a shower, with Lava soap and steel wool, to wash off the stink of right-wing hatred and unvarnished racism that festers like a boil in my own mostly liberal home state of Washington.

Even here we have our right-wing hate cult, which operates at a blog called Sound Politics, where the local rightards have their little echo chamber.

I get on there often and call them out. They ban me from time to time, but never for long. When I read this one, though, I figured I'd call in some help.

Don't be kind.

Al Gore was my first choice for president on the Democratic ticket. When he wouldn't run, Edwards was my man. Now that Edwards is out, I am for Obama. If Clinton gets the nomination I will be there for her. Will somebody please explain to me why I should give a flying F--- in a rolling donut who any politician, no matter what their caliber, endorses?

I'm for Edwards till the last rooster crows. I see no evidence that Obama "brings a new way of thinking." I continue to support Edwards because of his clearly stated priorities. I remain wary of an Obama candidacy because I have seen no evidence that Obama shares Edwards' priorities -- not only the "what," but the "how."

But there is an upside to an Obama candidacy that readers of this blog should consider -- and it is as significant as it gets. It comes from my personal experience and from some of my deepest convictions about this country and its people.

According to USA Today:

"We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats, just swapping the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington insiders of the other," Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards plans to declare today in what the Associated Press is calling his "toughest" attack yet on his rivals for the party's presidential nomination.

It's in the New York Post, so let's wait for some independent verification, but if this is true, this is good news indeed for newspaper readers online, and let's hope it's a trend.

Have we torn our hair, beat our breasts, rent our garments, donned sackcloth and ashes, bemoaned the loss of our Constitution, thrown our arms toward heaven and cried "O Lord! O Lord! Why hast thou forsaken me?" following Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence?

Have we attacked our fellow Democrats enough by now as gutless, spineless, chicken, and "unfit to govern," even though there aren't the votes for conviction even if impeachment goes back "on the table?" and will not be for the duration of this Congress?

Well, let's look at what this does get us, and how we might make political hay of it.

From my fellow curmudgeon, Joe Bageant, entitled Dispatch from the Chinese Landfill.

But you have to go to the jump to read it.