Rove Gone, Problems Remain

It has been observed that I did not comment on the departure of Karl Rove this past week. I was, as you recall, on vacation. (more about that below - Pictures!) I am back now and thought I would take a stab at it.

It is good that he is gone, as many have declared. He was the "architect". But the building he created remains. The administration did not crumble with his departure. He probably had a hand in filling every appointment. Have those people all left too? No. We are still faced with the most corrupt, partisan, dangerous administration we have been forced to endure in my lifetime, and possibly in my grandparent's lifetime. I long for a parliamentary democracy so we could have a vote of "no confidence" and get Bush out now. Then we could have a full scale change in the executive administration. He still has time to do more damage.

As a letter writer said today in the paper, now Rove is free to work for the Republican National Committee, with no accountability at all. He'll try to "swift-boat" the next Democratic nominee. He's twice as dangerous now.

Rove's departure means one less voice for insanity in the administration. There remains a chorus. We have much work still to do.

Write all your elected officials, especially your congressional representative and your Senators, about what is important to you. They all have web pages with email forms that make it easy. I write my Congresswoman, Rep. Eshoo, so much that she now sends me letters by postal mail when an issue comes up that she thinks would interest me, based on what I've written her. She's always spot on. I get her general newsletter too.

Know the legislation in Congress by signing up with One.org (for humanitarian causes), HRC.org (for gay rights) or whatever issues matter to you. Pick one or two and stay informed. They do the hard work for you by keeping tabs on Congress and the Administration. Use their knowledge and sign up for legislation email bulletins. Then write your email to Congress or the President. Or write a general position email so they know what side their constituency favors. Just write. They work for you.

We can all participate in our Democracy. Otherwise we have no Democracy.

We must look to ourselves.