If the founding ancestors of this country had desired to see  the country evolve in only the ways that they envisioned, wouldn’t they have set up a dictatorship instead of a democracy?

They must have known that giving the citizens the right to decide who should represent them would open up the chance that they would elect people who would take the country in directions the founders never imagined.  We don’t think of the founding ancestors as particularly naive people.

It seems particularly ironic that there are people arguing that we should not be allowed to deviate from the founders’ vision on the details of what this country should look like in a future the founders never could have imagined.

Here is where we get to the title of this piece.  We have been catching mice in a live trap all winter.  I take the traps outside every morning and open them up.  Frequently the mice seem reluctant to leave.  I have to poke them a little to get them to take advantage of their newly restored freedom.  This winter, when I introduce them to the cold, cruel free world, the mice seem to want to stay in the comfort of their prison.

Are some of the men and women of this country so comfortable in their prisons of founding ancestors’ intent that they are reluctant to take advantage of the freedom that these founders have given them?

See Rachel Maddow’s evidence that John Boehner Is Bad At His Job.

The New Republic published the article The Worst Case: How health care reform really could get repealed—and why the repercussions would go well beyond health care.

This describes the prior Supreme Court decision that forms the philosophy underpinning the efforts to repeal.

A few years later, in Lochner v. New York, a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court held that New York state had indeed overreached—that government had no authority to exercise such “police power” over what was, after all, private economic activity. In the three decades that followed, the Lochner Court, as it became known, would continue to strike down key pieces of Progressive era legislation and, eventually, the New Deal. In some cases, including Lochner, the Court cited a supposedly sacrosanct right to private economic decision-making, free from interference by the states or the federal government. In others, the Court relied on a narrow interpretation of Washington’s authority to regulate interstate commerce, effectively limiting it to the management of trade that literally crossed state lines.

I won’t spoil your read by quoting the rest of the story.

I received the following email.

	Steve, Sign the petition–Draft Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts Senate in 2012. If Democrats are going to win in 2012, we need to do a better job connecting with the millions of Americans who are suffering real economic hardship. This requires a populist economic message that separates us from both Republicans and Wall Street, and also a record that backs up that message with results. That’s why at Daily Kos we think Elizabeth Warren would be an excellent Democratic nominee to challenge Republican Scott Brown in the 2012 Massachusetts Senate election. We’re starting a campaign to draft her into the race. Join that campaign by signing our petition in support of Warren now. We’ll deliver the petition to Warren in person, along with your supportive comments. Virtually no one has done more than Professor Warren to fight against the bloodthirsty excesses of today’s financial sector. She exposed corruption in the Wall Street bailout, and basically created the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on her own. She picks fights, wins them, and packs a populist punch in the process. Click here to read her bio on Wikipedia. Right now, Warren is working to set up the CFPB as a special Assistant to the President. However, it’s extremely unlikely she’ll ever be confirmed to formally lead the new CFPB. That means she’ll need a new fight in a few months, and this one just seems perfect: Sign the petition now–Draft Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts Senate. Last week, we polled our Massachusetts members to see what they thought about the idea of drafting Elizabeth Warren. The response was overwhelming: 89% supported a campaign to draft her into the race. With Massachusetts as one of the few good Senate pickup chances for Democrats in 2012, we can’t squander the opportunity by nominating an unenergetic, milquetoast candidate. We need a standard bearer who will deliver the populist economic message and grassroots excitement that will make Ted Kennedy’s seat blue again. Elizabeth Warren, who was 2009 Bostonian of the Year, is that candidate. Please, take 30 seconds of your time, and sign the petition to draft Elizabeth Warren for Senate. Keep fighting, Chris Bowers Campaign Director, Daily Kos
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Truth-out has published a transcript of  Bill Moyers’ speech;

History Makers is an organization of broadcasters and producers from around the world concerned with the challenges and opportunities faced by factual broadcasting. Bill Moyers was the keynote speaker at the 2011 convention on January 27, 2011, in New York City.

It is always depressing to learn from Bill Moyers exactly how bad is the state of telling the truth in the United States today.

Bob Herbert wrote the column When Democracy Weakens in The New York Times. My friend MardyS brought this to my attention by posting it on his Facebook wall.

A few brief parts of paragraphs from the article follow:

As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only.

and

It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance.

As I have watched the revolution in Egypt unfold, I have heard the journalists tell about the leaders of other Middle Eastern countries and how worried they are that this sort of thing would spread to their countries.

I have been wondering how nervous the leaders of the USA might be.

Maybe the Tea Party members will revolt against the raw deal that the rich people in this country are getting.  The rest of us might revolt against the raw deal the rich people in this country are giving to the rest of us.

Hosni Mubarak Resigns As President on Al Jazeera has video and text.

At the top of the story they say:

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has resigned from his post, handing over power to the armed forces.

Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, announced in a televised address that the president was “waiving” his office, and had handed over authority to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Suleiman’s short statement was received with a roar of approval and by celebratory chanting and flag-waving from a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, as well by pro-democracy campaigners who attended protests across the country on Friday.

At the bottom of the story they say:

In a statement read out on state television at midday on Friday, the military announced that it would lift a 30-year-old emergency law but only “as soon as the current circumstances end”.

The military said it would also guarantee changes to the constitution as well as a free and fair election, and it called for normal business activity to resume.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tahrir Square said people there were hugely disappointed with that army statement, and had vowed to take the protests to “a last and final stage”.

The article Magician James Randi, Skeptics Launch Attack On Makers Of Homeopathic ‘Drugs’ in the Los Angeles Times begins with:

Magician James Randi, who has devoted the latter part of his career to exposing fraud, scams and charlatans, and a network of skeptics known as the 10:23 Campaign launched a major campaign Saturday against the manufacturers of so-called homeopathic drugs, charging that the companies that sell the drugs are packaging worthless products that are cheating customers out of their money.

The article includes a pointer to the following video:

In the video, James Randi mentions a web site 10²³ HOMEOPATHY THERE’S NOTHING IN IT

The 10:23 Challenge is a follow-up to the ‘overdose’ protest staged by the 10:23 Campaign in 2010. International protesters from more than 10 countries, and more than 23 cities will gather for over the weekend of February 5-6 2011, to make the simple statement: Homeopathy – There’s Nothing In It.

The article For the US in Egypt, Blowback Is a Bitch by Michael Winship is just another nail in the coffin of the Change (In Foreign Policy) That We Can Believe In.

For good measure, you can read The Arab World Is on Fire, a very mild piece by Noam Chomsky standards.

I’d like to think that the missteps in foreign policy are coming from Hillary Clinton.  Her pronouncements make my skin crawl worse than anything that President Obama says.  However, he appointed her, he keeps her in office, and he seems to follow her advice.  As Michael Dukakis once so elegantly put it, the fish rots from the head.