orichalcum

1. A friend (more friend of friends, cuz we've never managed to live in the same state, but a very good and cool person) had successful surgery for her sudden brain aneurysm, and seems to be recovering well, and, we pray, without significant permanent brain damage.

2. A Hispanic lesbian woman got elected Sheriff of Dallas, Texas. Change, it is coming.

3. It looks like Ashcroft may be resigning. Giuliani is mentioned as a likely replacement. He has to be better. Unless, oh dear Lord, unless they're thinking of bumping Ashcroft up to the Court.

4. A. is sane again, and gets a three-day weekend of not working at all for the first time since mid-July.

A lot of folks have been talking about how the Democratic Party needs to redefine itself, not so much on issues but in terms of having a value structure that is clear and comprehensible and is appealing in the way that pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is.

Here's one idea, adapted from a set of rambling on Kos or Atrios or somewhere -can't honestly remember at this point:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

We should be the party which defends our God-Given Rights -  to equality before the law, to life (freedom from dying in unjust wars, the death penalty), liberty (freedom from government intrusion, freedom from arbitrary arrests, freedom of speech and the press, freedom to have control over our own bodies), and the pursuit of happiness (freedom to marry whom we want, freedom from discrimination, freedom for equal opportunities).

Take back the Founding Fathers and Mothers, and the Creator along with them, I say. Define the fight for gay rights as the fight for every American's right to pursue his or her happiness. Define the fight against the Patriot Act as the fight to preserve traditional American liberties. Define the right to life as the right to have the government pursue all options to extend and preserve our lives, with new research and medical funding and health care.

Basing our party and our goals around this trifecta loses us some things, but honestly, the most divisive things, like it makes it harder to argue on gun control and abortion. But I think it's a great definition of the fundamental liberal values, and gives us something concrete to hang our hat on.

What do folks think?