Facing a gaping enthusiasm gap and overwhelming Democratic opposition to the war in Afghanistan, delegates from the California Democratic Party sent a letter to the Democratic congressional delegation calling on them to show real leadership on ending the war.

On the 9th anniversary of the war, more than 25 state and local elected officials write to the OR congressional delegation calling on them to take action to end the war in Afghanistan.

Today is the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. I was 12 years old way back then and remembers his impressions of the time. Without knowing all of the history and politics behind the revolution the impression to a tween was that the Shah was not someone who you could like, but the students around Ayatollah Khomeini were really happy and joyful.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

That impression changed when members of the Revolution stormed our Embassy and took the diplomats there hostage for so long. Being a kid on the cusp of puberty, my emotions were easy to swing and jingoism has a dark luster that even adults find hard to resist. So Iran and Iranians became an evil enemy, they were bad people who could not be trusted.

For most of my life, the impressions of Iran and its political system have come from the outside. The view of a country, which underwent a revolution that was religiously based, taints the point that it was a revolution against a monarchy and in favor of a form of democracy. True it is a theocratic democracy and that makes an atheist from the country that which founded the idea of separation of church and state shudder in horror, but it is a democracy none the less.

Over at the Washington Note Shane M. has a great essay about what the celebration of this day has become in Iran. He makes a great point that the Revolution is viewed from the outside world as a fact of history, while inside Iran, it is a work in progress. From his article:

We watch this history replayed every year on television, but the Revolution is not about history. It is a thirty-one-year old story cut out of sequence, edited back into the programming, made current. One thing that must be understood about Iran, about living here, is that the Revolution is never officially discussed as a finished event. Here, revolution is transitive, a work still in progress. Last year a reporter asked a young man-on-the-street regarding his opinion about the Revolution on the occasion of its 30th anniversary. The man replied that he wished to be around in 90 years to see the Revolution at 120. One hundred twenty. Such talk is surely dissonant to ears conditioned to think of revolutions as conclusions. It is perfectly normal here. Here, revolution is transitive.

We asked folks at the March for Life on the Roe v Wade anniversary this past Friday if they could explain their claim that proposed health care reform would fund abortion with tax dollars.