Sometimes, when I talk about the foibles of our policies, people ask me, "well, what do you propose?" which is a good question. I prefer strategies which really look to the future, so here are some fun ways for us lefties to think two steps ahead:

1) Regardless of what Karl "The King of Plausible deniability" Rove did or didn't do, the entire affair will now be called "<b>Turdblossomgate</b>."

2) Propose <b>a real national security plan that respects civil liberties</b>. We need to shred the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act and find a real technocratic solution. (I just love spelling it out with the periods in between the letters to emphasize how ridiculous the Act is.) The best way to stop terrorists from striking is to stop them from striking, not create more of them by killing people Muslims think of as freedom fighters driving out occupying troops.

The thing is, security is going to change, things are going to get less free as a necessary consequence, and so if we don't take charge of this, the other guys will use the issue to push their agendas, and we'll only lose more liberties.

The majority of Americans now understand that the invasion of Iraq doesn't make them any safer–the Dems need to be the party of real anti-terrorist policy, not just advocate a pullout.

We need to make an issue out of the dismal Homeland Security megamerger. We need to formulate a plan that libertarians and civil libertarians can live with. Everybody knows the Democrats lack (among other things) <i>Vision</i>, and they need to counter the Republicans' percieved 'strength' with real strength on terrorism.

3) <b>Start demanding a posthumous war-crimes trial for Saddam Hussein now, before he 'mysteriously dies in prison.'</b> Saddam is like a mob witness–there's too much incriminating stuff he can say about the U.S. for him to really go to trial. But if we have the trial anyway, even after they kill him to avoid it, it'll totally confuse the shit out of our gorvernment.