"I Went To A Garden Party" (with apologies to Ricky Nelson)

..Everyone was there.
A liberal guy from academia,
a flower child with long hair.
But it's all right now, I've learned my lesson well.
The liberal's blather on too long, and try to please themselves."

Okay. A little brutal on my friends. But after having spent time at a MoveOn love-in this past weekend I came away more depressed than ever. What was billed as a "next steps" (hate that idiotic, PowerPoint-ese phrase in and of itself) kind of meeting, the 50 or souls at this event took way too much time to go over already well-tilled soil, without adding any more fertilizer. And I fear the winter wheat will suffer because of it. Now, mind you, this was only one of something like 1400 similar meetings happening nationwide. That alone should give me hope. It means that people got off their duffs on a Sunday night, gave up "Desperate Housewives" (or Divo'd it) and decided to go meet with some fellow travellors. That, ladies and germs, is DEMOCRACY IN ACTION.

What bothered me was the blather. Too much talk about pet peeves, too little discussion of a winning strategy. Like I said, perhaps I'm too harsh. I'm not a joiner. So any sort of meeting where fat black markers touch large sheets of paper is usually off-limits for me. Throughout the meeting I kept thinking; would this be more organized and focused is the Republicans were running it? Maybe so....

So, note to my fellow Liberals, Progressives and others who are on the side of the angels; forget about the war, women's rights, the environment, healthcare and Diebold voting machine hacking and remember the words of the famous political philospher Al Davis; JUST WIN, BABY!