Crosposted from Opednews.com
Pardon me if I stretch this metaphor too far.
The cherry season has returned and sweet, juicy cherries are back, at about $4.99 a pound.
I used to be allergic to cherries. Not any more. I used to accept the fact that I had to deal with the cherry pits. Then I got a pitter. I can pit a dozen cherries in two minutes and add them to all kinds of food and now, I think of cherries differently. Imagine if we could have Democrats without the "pits."
Last year I received a cherry pitter for my birthday and I've put it to great use. The cherry pitter is a very simple but also wonderfully handy device that takes a fruit that forces you to bite, chew, then spit out one pit at a time and turns it into a fruit that you can add to all kinds of foods, with no fear of biting into a pit. Imagine if the Democrats were the same -- if we could trust them.
Then, I heard on one of the Sunday talk shows, or was reminded of, the phrase, "Life is just a bowl of cherries." In this case, they were saying it wasn't.
So I took the cherries I bought last night, put 'em in a bowl and as an afterthought, since the cherry pitter has changed my relationship with cherries, threw the pitter into the image.
Then, I started playing with some of the one and two dollar and free iPhone photo image processing apps I've picked up recently. There's the one that creates the images that look like the Obama logo.
Here's the original image:
I put the cherries with the pitter with the word hope. Nah. Then, I put it with the word CHANGE and it hit me. The pitter pulls the pits out of cherries. That makes it easy for me to add them to cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, pastries kugel (get it at Wegmans or a Jewish Deli,) etc. You have to try hot oatmeal with 15-20 cold pitted cherries. Same with yogurt with a dozen cherries -- forget about the eeny weeny bit of fruit soaked with sugar they put on the bottom.
We need a "pitter" for the Congress to get rid of the blue dogs and the sell outs to the banksters and insurers. Jane Hamsher's been doing extraordinary work on it. Markos Moulitsas has been standing up to the Democrats. This is where the nation needs to go. We need battallions of pitters in every state, way ahead of the primaries, to chop out the DINOs, bluedogs and sellouts -- the Liebermans and Baucuses, Mary Landrieus, Ben Nelsons, Barney Franks and Nancy Pelosis who have betrayed their base or operated in a cowardly, impotent manner or as failed leaders. Whoever says Harry Reid did a brilliant job is a whitewasher. If the health reform legislation comes out of conference with serious improvements, then I'll change my tune on Reid and Pelosi. So far, they fit the profile as backstabbers of the middle class.
Some cherries have pits so big they won't go through the hole in the pitter. You have to dislodge them, tear the cherry apart a bit in the process. Maybe the Democratic party has to be torn apart a bit, face a bit of chaos as well. It looks like this November, unless the Dems do some major improvements very fast, they will be simply decimated. They'll be replaced by disgusted voters who, justifiably, felt betrayed. Those Democrats will be replaced by far worse right wing extremists who will accelerate the death of the American middle class. I'm not saying the current batch of Democrats, especially some of the committee heads, are not helping to destroy the American middle class, but the right wingers will speed up the process.
So, what we need are some Democrat pitters. You can get a cherry pitter at Hamacher Schlemmer. You can BECOME a Democrat pitter. If you're a progressive, you have it in you. Find that pit ejector and start putting it into action.
Follow Rob Kall on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robkall
We see Kucinich now investigating Freddie Mac including Rahm Emanuel's involvement in making a hell of a lot of money off them in a really show period of time.
The Republicans have discredited themselves. They're down to the most unpersuadable 40% of the population -- the extreme authoritarians, the hard-core r*cists, the flat-earthers. But those 40% are fired up and ready to have 100% turnout, and they have the clout to keep the party from making much of a move back toward the center. They're even going to make some big gains in this year's congressional elections, because 100% turnout of 40% is more votes than 50% turnout of the other 60%.
If we tear the Democratic party apart now, we go back to the status quo ante: a "centrist" Democratic party, a far-right Republican party, and a large minority effectively disenfranchised on the left. If we elect a few more conservative Democrats, convince a few more conservative constituencies to identify as Democrats, let the Republicans further cement their commitment to a 100%-of-40% strategy, we could have the Democrats exceed a 2:1 advantage over the Republicans. Then a split in the Democratic party could have both pieces be bigger than the Republicans, and the new equilibrium would be the mirror image of the status quo ante: a Progressive party on the left, a Democratic party in the center, and an effectively disenfranchised minority on the right.