Progressive Dems Stand Up For Us Little Guys? Ha! Preferred progressive netroots attitude: "Let 'em eat cake."

Good gawd. "Liberal" Democrats might as well be Republican operatives, based on the preferred political posture on fave Dem hang outs. Roughly 45% of households in the U. S. include a dog, and lots of them are having trouble finding housing, buying insurance, and more. How many times can you tell folks you don't give a shit about their problems? How long before voters connect the dots and decide life as a Democrat doesn't make sense any more? Daily Kos crowd: "Suck it up, ya buncha sissies."

Your civil rights aren't my problem.

The general dKos response to the routine discrimination many dog owners face when it comes to purchasing homeowner's insurance: "get a new damn dog".

Now why didn't JFK think of that? Why didn't Kennedy just tell James Meredith to forget about Ole Miss and get a new damn university? Maybe Rosa Parks just needed to find herself a new damn way home, too. Right? So much trouble could be avoided if people would just sit down and shut up--like dKos thinks a good Democrat should. Bill Richardson sells his soul to special interest groups. Yound and restless Dems counter with: "Yeah? . . .So?" As advertised, Bill Richardson--the Democratic Party's Great Latino Presidential Hope--tipped his hand back in December with his "Ten Point Animal Protection Package". The package calls for $ 3.6 million in taxpayer funds to get tossed into an Animal Rights pork barrel critical need to oversee the state of animal welfare, etc., in the Land of Dis Enchantment. During an address to a joint session of the New Mexico legislature on February 14, Richardson reportedly confirmed his intolerance of doggy testicles and other reproductive equipment when he announced support of New Mexico H1106 . The "Pet Owner Responsibility Act" mandated surgical sterilization for all dogs over six months of age in the state of New Mexico. Pro choice? maybe not so much a Democratic value Ironic that so many Dems are ready to go to the mat defending the rights of women to make reproductive choices, yet they have no problem denying the same people the right to make veterinary care decisions about their dogs. Slicing and dicing dog parts over the objections of the people who live with and care for the dogs? Not a problem for many Dems, based on comments like "the law is overkill in some areas but understandable. . .pet ownership is a privilege, not a right."

uhhhh. . .Wrong!

Dems surrender civil rights without a peep

What slows down bigots and political opportunists like NYC Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. , or City of Denver Assistant Attorney Kory Nelson, aka Denver's Doctor of Death, and keeps them from simply sending the stormtroopers to haul my blameless dog out of my house and kill him is his status as my property.

My last defense against that kind of fascism is my ability to protect what is mine. Upheld by bazillions of court decisions. Protected by the Bill of Rights. Located in the U. S. Constitution.

So before anyone starts with that "you-can't-own-your-dog-he's-not-a-rock-or-a-chair-that's-slavery" bullshit, you had better think over what, exactly, you're tampering with.

On the other hand, though, there are a couple of Democrats who appear to get it. For example. . . .

Gun-toting, meat-eating, dog-loving Brian Schweitzer

The Governor of Montana earned himself a national reputation as a new-age Democrat. Takes his dog to work, too! Hell, he's even got a sense of humor.

As battle lines formed, Brian Schweitzer placed himself firmly on the side of the angels, and against the further erosion of our right to privacy, as the legislature of the state of Montana overwhelmingly adopted Montana Senate Joint Resolution Number 19, decrying the loss of civil rights and liberties suffered under the Bush Administration's Patriot Act.

Res. 19 exhorts agents and instrumentalities of the State of Montana not to"record, file, or share intelligence information concerning a person or organization. . .if the action violates constitutionally guaranteed civil rights or civil liberties. . . "

Does it get any better?

Well. . .

In the brilliant blue City of New York, New York New Yorkers aren't going with the "get a new damn dog" recommendation, either. In fact, Democrat Pete Vallone is set to take a beating on what could be the blunder of his career.

After all, does anything say "eat shit and die" to a voter more concisely than a politician that blends racial profiling with a policy set to kill the family dog?

"Get another damn dog?" I'm thinking that's not going to be a winning strategy for grassroots Democrats. How long before New Yorkers take their 31 electoral votes and shop for someone who, ahem, represents them?

Kossacks hellbent on pissing off Democratic voters So, does it matter if some of the Democratic Party's most visible personalities, not to mention their netroot cheerleaders, are more than a little fuzzy on civil rights?

In between the gloating over Dub-yuh's inability to do anything right and the high-fiving over Barack Obama, do Kossacks have any time for the people who actually vote?

That "pet ownership is a privilege, not a right" crap should send Kossacks screaming and falling over each other in a frenzy to put some distance between themselves and the miscreant that came up with it.

Unless they're planning on surrendering their dogs, too.

So are you? Are you ready to surrender your dog in the name of the Democratic Party?

yeah.

I'm talkin' to you.

Equal Rights! We're all for Equal Rights! Truth and justice for all. . . Isn't that the way it goes? Equal rights for women, gays and lesbians, blacks, hispanics, the disabled, pit bull owners, religious minorities, Asian-Americans. . . Oooops--hold on a sec. We seem to have lost someone. What pit bull owners already know: Some people are way more equal than others. You may not have realized it, but this country is busy constructing a brand-new set of second class citizens. Law-abiding owners of certain dogs are rapidly vanishing from the Equal Rights radar screen. What's up with that, anyway? Here's a little sampling of what pit bull owners are looking at-- Privacy? not for pit bull owners Eden, North Carolina, Police Chief Gary Benthin's genius plan was to maintain police files on citizens who have committed no crimes--including their photographs, physical descriptions and places of employment. Why? Because they own pit bulls. Housing? No place at the inn I Find Properties.com , a rent-to-own specialist in Las Vegas, Nevada, pretty much summarizes the prevailing attitude in their FAQ section :

Can I have pets ? You can have any animal(s) unless:

• You are getting into a condo. Some condo associations have weight restrictions. . . .
• You own a pit-bull. We have no issues with pit-bulls. We love pit-bulls! We don't care how well behaved your pit-bull is. Even if your pit-bull uses the toilet and serves tea with a bow-tie, we can't help you. . .

Here's an experiment for you: Substitute the racial or ethnic group of your choice for the words "pit bull" in the above statement. How's it feel? Muzzles (n.pl.): no right to live without Welcome to Hannibal Lechter's domain. In a world where image is everything, its hard to imagine a more devastating form of discrimination than mandatory muzzling. Places like Boston make pit bull owners muzzle their dogs and put "beware of dog" signs on their homes (lettering no less than 2" high). There are other restrictions on pit bull owners, too. "Its not the dogs, its the owners" Talk about a mantra that backfired in a big way. The "its the owners" concept allows self-serving, dog-hating bigots like NYC Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens) to trash both dogs, and their owners, in a single breath. He wants to kick pit bulls out of the Big Apple, and the distinctly racist rhythm of his modest proposal goes : "Dogs are often the weapon of choice of drug dealers and gangs seeking to intimidate and terrorize neighborhoods." So its the pit bulls that have to go. And their meth lab-operating, gang-banging, juvenile delinquent owners can take a hike, too. I hear pit bull owners don't put the toilet seat down after they pee, by the way. Who needs 'em, anyway? Managing stigma, pit bull owner-style Its not your imagination. Discrimination is a reality for pit bull owners, and it is not easy to live with. In fact, the very special people at Tufts University did a study on social deviancy pit bull owners. Managing the stigma of "outlaw" breeds found that . . . ". . .[in ] negative portrayal of pit bulls have been depictions of their "owners" that threaten mainstream America. Media reports of attacks by these dogs were invariably accompanied by value-laden descriptions of their owners as people whom "average citizens" might find dangerous. According to Hearne (1991), these reports often described pit bull owners as white thugs or poor urban blacks and Latinos who kept their dogs in dope dens and fed them raw meat to make them as mean as possible.' But "stigma" is not the issue here. We're not talking about the heartbreak of psoriasis. We're talking about civil rights, and "truth and justice for all". The concept that justice is blind, and that we are all equal under the law. Pit bull owners aren't thugs, deviants and dope dealers. . . Pit bull owners are coal mine canaries. Marginalize pit bull owners at your own peril, because once pit bull owners are definitively stripped of their rights, such as. . . --their right to due process and equal protection under the law, which breed specific laws like California's its-ok-to-require-mandatory-castration-just-of-pit-bulls is all about, or -- their right to privacy--impossible to protect where breed specific mandatory microchipping is the law, or --their right to assert ownership because of "guardianship" laws which allow their property--which would be their pit bull dogs--from simply being seized and destroyed by freaks like Tom Skeldon in Toldeo, Ohio . . . . . .then we will all be so seriously screwed that it won't matter any more. Really. Kicking pit bull owners to the curb is wrong. For many reasons. And equal rights count. They count a lot.