Lives of the patriots: Declaring his independence

The committed activist – let's call him "Dodd Crowley," my old Movement buddy whose passionate personal politics combine peace protests with powerful poetry – calls to exult about the possibility former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John "Shark-Fin" Timoney may temporarily take charge of U.S. law enforcement in Baghdad, which could mean, essentially, coming down with edicts like "don't mess with the chief's bike."

Perfecto!

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I had nearly overlooked that delicious detail. While you may have slept through the original proceedings, John Timoney was in charge of Philly cops when the City of Brotherly Love hosted the Republican National Convention, and hundreds of demonstrators were busted for flimsy, unsubstantial police-state-type charges, most of which subsequently didn't hold up in court.

At the time, besides effectually criminalizing legitimate protest – still another insidious national trend eroding the rights of individuals – Timoney's men seemed to single out a band of radical puppeteers, the Spiral-Q Puppet Theatre, for special, um, attention. Well, my friend Dodd Crowley wickedly suggests that rehearsal would be a great credential preparing The Commish to dispatch puppet regimes in Iraq and elsewhere.

Maybe, I suggest, even in the USA.

But, Dodd informs me, a Philadelphia alternative weekly paper reported Timoney probably won't be in Baghdad too long, because he's supposedly slated to head for Miami and assume duties dealing with security issues arising from the upcoming NAFTA protests.

Meanwhile, Dodd's wife "Lora" was trying to decide whether to pay her $250 fine for being arrested in a recent anti-war demonstration, rather than go to trial where she risked facing up to five years behind bars.

Somehow, buying her freedom wasn't exactly the kind of protest she had in mind.

To make matters worse, their good friend "Devlin," who was also arrested with Dodd's wife and some 100 others, is currently in Baghdad on a humanitarian mission with some academics-watchdog group, and when he doesn't show up for the hearing, there'll be hell to pay-- either a warrant for his arrest, or a contempt citation, or both. Dodd heard Devlin say on the phone to someone, "Just tell 'em I'm in Iraq," as if that would sway a judge.

I ask Dodd if he's voted in MoveOn.Org's online Democratic presidential primary, which purports to be at least as large, and potentially influential, as Iowa's. "The MoveOn primary," they claim in a recent e-mail, "has allowed hundreds of thousands of ordinary voters to speak at a time when usually only pundits, pollsters and wealthy donors have influence."

Nice sentence, guys.

Not surprisingly, however, my buddy Dodd, as a true political progressive, doesn't want the Dems – that lame and equally corrupted vehicle of the corpoRATocracy which poses no significant threat to the right-wing Republican death-grip. Instead, he wants to redouble his efforts working for a Third Party with clout. He doesn't buy the "anybody but Bush" approach of some pragmatists.

No, the Democrats are not the answer, in Dodd's opinion, the Green Party is. Yet, he believes, and I concur, the Greens first must get elected on a grass-roots level – to school boards and city councils – as a strategy to launch massive political change reaching the highest levels of government.

By the time this July 4 rolls around, Dodd will have declared his own independence – by retiring from the demanding job he's held for two decades. But no LaZyBoy leisure recliner chair for him. His real work has only just begun – working full-time to bring our beloved country back to its shining greatness for all.

Speaking of which, how about ultra-peace candidate Dennis Kucinich, who polled nearly 23 percent of the online primary's vote?

Yay!

"Other Democrats promise guns and butter. They say we can't cut a Pentagon budget that rivals the military spending of all other countries combined," Kucinich asserts in a campaign e-mail. "I offer common-sense cuts in a bloated military to pay for enhanced domestic programs of environmental cleanup, sustainable jobs programs, fortified Social Security – at no added expense to middle class taxpayers."

Fireworks, anyone?