Eye on Congress

After listening, tonight, to the radio announcer talk about the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by wars in Iraq, those directly and indirectly caused by U.S. invasions since 1991, it is disconcerting how psychically removed, by and large, our nation has been from the wars as well as from the poor policy choices made in our name, as though we cannot be bothered to do something about it, like at least vote out imperialist politicians. All of which makes William Jennings Bryan's standoff with President Woodrow Wilson in 1915 all the more remarkable. Bryan, a former three-time Democratic Party presidential standard bearer, became Wilson's Secretary of State. To make a long story short (since we don't have time for a long essay at this time), Wilson wanted to take a confrontational stance and defy the Kaiser's declaration that the British Isles were a war zone, whereas Bryan wanted to maintain strict neutrality in the matter of the European war. Wilson, as president,

(revised on 6/29/09) [The Party of Commons is looking for candidates to join our party and run in the 2010 congressional races in Washington, Oregon, northern California and Idaho, and the 2012 Washington senatorial election that Senator Maria Cantwell will probably run for re-election in. The following condensed post about her is from our affiliate former blog, "Evergreen Representative," and first posted on 11/11/06.] Evergreen Representative: Unlike [representatives] Dicks & Smith, Ms. Cantwell has never apologized for her [Iraq war resolution] vote .... From a psychological viewpoint, she probably wants to prove that even females like her can be tough and callous, as if that wasn't already known from history and current events. Since the election has now been posted, it is obvious that [Cantwell's] "Lara Croft" has played over well with the people now that she has won nearly 6 out of every 10 votes -- supposedly from an electorate that largely opp

The Party of Commons did well in the southern counties of Clark and Skamania in the 2008 "Top 2" primary (for Secretary of State), and we consider southern Washington, along with parts of eastern Washington, our most popular base of support. The southern northwest commons also includes Oregon, northern California and southern Idaho. This blog will focus on this very important part of the Pacific Northwest. [revised on 7/29/09] Copyright 2009, Party of Commons TM The Party of Commons does not sponsor or produce advertising.