I am from the very Republican, very Conservative town of Jacksonville, Illinois. In our local newspaper, the Journal Courier, we have a section on the back page called the "Open Line" where people can call in and voice their opinions on different matters. During one such opinion, a caller refered to the Democrats as the "anti-American Democrats". The following is my Letter to the Editor in response:

I am a Democrat. From a recent comment in the Open Line, it appears that at least one person thinks this makes me anti-American. I, however, beg to differ.

Mr. Speaker,

Since we are a nation of laws, we must see to it that the laws are upheld and applied equally to all citizens. That principal is what this nation was built on; it is for what our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

And it is in this great legislative body that we are charged with making the laws that govern our nation. To permit the chief executive enforcing those laws to cast them aside as he pleases would, in effect, sanction such actions. To do nothing would be to place a stamp of approval on illicit conduct and transfer power to the executive branch, thus upsetting the system of checks and balances devised by the Framers. It would cheapen the law, which, in turn, would cheapen the work by this House.

Apparently I'm not the only one who gets ticked off when the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee refuse to have the Attorney General sworn in before a hearing. All the Democrats on the committee voted to have him sworn in and all the Republicans voted against.

Although, this has to be one of the few gems from the hearings:

I'm sorry, Mr. Attorney General. I forgot you can't answer any questions that might be relevant...

-- Sen. Patrick Leahy, Feb. 6, 2006 questioning Alberto Gonzales during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on illegal NSA wiretapping and domestic surveillance

Last night I had the misfortune of having a nightmare that made sense. I am a volunteer for the John Laesch campaign. John Laesch is working to unseat incumbent and current House Speaker Dennis Hastert in the Illinois 14th Congressional District. In the dream, I had the revelation that given the fact that animal right's protesters have been deemed terrorists by the Bush administration, that political dissidents or political opponents might also be.

I have taken part in two protests while I've been at Northern Illinois University. Revelations that the NSA has been performing warrantless wiretapping of American citizens make me worry that I might become a target of such unwarranted wiretapping.

Well, not much has been posted in the past month. I've tried to keep this site solely consisting of original items - thought experiments, papers, rants, my own views, et cetera. Lately, I've been working on a large piece on my view of morality and government. I hope to have that done sometime within my lifetime and when it is, I will post it. I might end up working on it a chapter at a time, each time posting the newest chapter. That is only a possibility.

Also, I am going to be working on migrating the site to a new server in the coming week. I am going to mirror the site on the new

After the 2000 presidential election in which Ralph Nader garnered a whopping 2.7 percent of the popular vote, and as high as 10.1 percent of a state's popular vote in Alaska, Democrats were blasting the Green Party and Ralph Nader for the loss of Al Gore. They claim that Nader took enough votes away from would-be Gore supporters that Nader cost Gore the election.

Although, it wasn't that long ago that Ross Perot was getting 18.9 percent of the popular vote, and as high as 30.44 percent of a state's popular vote in Maine. Many Republicans believe that Perot acted as a spoiler to George H.W. Bush, casting the election to Bill Clinton.

I was reading in the Northern Star Wednesday a Letter to the Editor made by the NIU College Republicans. They were challenging the College Democrats to a debate. During the course of the letter they mentioned socialism and pointed to the fall of Eastern Europe as evidence that socialism does not work. Bringing up socialism in context with a debate against Democrats was meant to equate the Democratic agenda with socialism. This is a classic scare tactic that prevents the US from moving forward with nearly all other industrialized nations in assuring all citizens a base standard of living.

Unfortunately, as I've been posting entries in the Daily Dissent category, I've not been gathering more material. So, I'm taking a small break to get more stuff to post. Whoops!

I went to an anti-war rally today at Northern Illinois University. While there, I signed up to volunteer for the John Laesch for Congress campaign (IL-14 Congressional district, Dennis Hastert country).

Now, I strongly believe that in order to support the right to free speech, one must also support that same right for those with whom one disagrees most. However, just because I think that one ought to have to right to free speech does not mean that I believe all kinds of speech are always appropriate at all times. It was at the rally that I believe free speech got in the way of a coherent message.

It really saddens me that the only cognitive dissonance I can find through conversation is people that agree with my political beliefs. Of course, even people on the same side never agree completely and that is where my little dissonance is found. However, I want to be able to talk to people that are on the Right without being called un-American. I want to be able to talk to people on the Left without being accused of being fascist. I want to be able to talk to people who vote for politicians that I find to be completely abhorrent without them getting angry that I dare question their choice. It is painful to see the media failing at its task of creating an informed electorate, but it is downright excruciating that people are not stepping up to the plate to discuss things on their own.