Iraq, take 2

I worked for Howard Dean in New Hampshire a year ago last week. After the scream, even. I drove down in an old green Acura, one of my true cars, and went door to door with 300-pound Floridians and the like. We peddled a slogan, simple: "Hope, not Fear". And we believed it.

Let's let that mantra reign on the left tonight and through tomorrow. Let's not lose sight of the brilliant shining light of our goals, even though they be fought by those who we don't believe have our hopes at root. We are for elections everywhere, for freedom of speech and thought and voice and dancing (sorry Aschcroft) everywhere. We need to remember that as the voting begins. There will be carnage and theft and difficulty in voting. Let's refrain from the "I told you so" and say instead, "I tell you anyway".

Hope, not fear. Let the voters in Iraq believe it, through threat and intimidation and all the other shit that has unfortunately resulted from the failed occupation. But we hope for them. We hope. Hope.