In India, Lakshmi, a little girl was born with a siamese twin which gave her the appearance of having four arms and four legs. The twin was basically dead. Watching Lakshmi,before the operation to remove the extra twin and its appendages, reveals a joyful, playful little girl who probably has no idea what a freakish appearance she manifests. The medical team that did the removal surgery had to cut and carve out organs, flesh, in what must have been a butchershop of cutting. At the end, they declared great success, with both the kidneys, which were considered at great risk, working well. I have this vague feeling that the USA has, with the help of right wingers and corporations, metamorphosized and metastasized into another horrific freak of nature-- a murderous, heartless monster that, throughout the world, supports dictatorships, economies, energy systems, and ecologies that are dangerous and threatening to the human race, democracy and the future. I am a patriot, but I am awake enough to know that when we allow the worst president in history, the worst secretary of state in recent memory, a huge team of incompetent administrators appointed based on tartisan loyalty rather than competence, we put our nation and our future at risk. When we continue to allow a war criminal, a repeat offender violating the constitution's laws run free-- run the country free, then we are failing to meet our responsibilities as citizens. Sure, we have to deal with scheming, cowardly legislators who smarmily plan to keep the REpublicans looking bad-- and buy that strategy by avoiding prosecution of our nation's laws. But ultimately we have to face ourselves each day. Have we all done all we could do to end the law-breaking, the shameful torture, even the sad situation that allows close to 50 million citizens to be without health care? We know that there are some, like Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright, Medea Benjamin and others who have taken the step of civil disobedience. In other nations, people fighting for democracy and justice do far more than civil disobedience. Jefferson said ""The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure." It has become clear that there are few patriots in congress willing to risk shedding their political blood in pursuit of justice. What will it take for the elected members of congress to do something? Whatever those on the left have done so far, it has not been enough. One problem is a lack of clear leadership. Who are the leaders of the left? There is no clear hierarchy, and that may have to be accepted as the way things are. We do have some people with influence. Recently, the UK's TElegraph put together a list of influential US liberals. But it's a contorted list, done by Brits, who consider Joe Lieberman a liberal. Soon, here at Opednews.com, we'll have polling software that will allow us to do a poll of actual progressives, to get a feel for who really is the most influential. My guess is there are some members of congress and former politicians(Feingold, Kucinich, Boxer, Ellison, members of the progressive caucus, Al Gore, Tom Hayden) some radio talk show hosts (Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz, Rachel Madow, Mike Malloy, Jon Elliot, Stephanie Miller) TV personalities (Bill Moyers, Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher, Amy Goodman,) liberal Think tank leaders (Robert Borosage, John Podesta, David Brock) publishers and bloggers (Arianna, Katrina Van Den Heuvel of the Nation, Kos, Wonkette, Josh Marshall) some writers (Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, Glen Greenwald, Greg Palast, Robert Parry,) some activists(Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin, Ann Wright, Ralph Nader,) some wealthy contributors (George Soros, the Rappoports,) celebrities (Ed Asner, Mimi Kennedy, Mike Farrel, George Clooney,) liberals running organizations (Moveon.org, DFA, PDA< Progressive Majority) This is a quickly thrown together list. I am sure our readers will add the names I've missed in the comments. But the fact is, these folks haven't been elected. They don't coordinate together very well. If the progressive community COULD come together, then we might be able to do something about AMerica the Freakish, America the unfertilized, in the spirit of Jefferson. We might find we had much more clout, more influence than the liberals the Telegraph listed, like Hillary and Bill, Joe Lieberman, Stenny Hoyer and some of the many other DLC dems who are just plain betraying the people who voted for them. Until then, the USA is need of emergency surgery, to do something about the mutating, malignant freak that it has become. There must be many ways to treat the toxic right wingers and limp, weak, worthless dems who ignore the mandate they were elected under. It is a sad time for true patriots who believe in democracy. WE must not give up though. We must work harder and more creatively to find new, more effective, more aggressive ways to reach solutions.