Dissent

I see the world largely through the prism of women's lives, our rights and our issues. It's not, in anyway, at the exclusion of men, but I believe no matter what the struggles men have are, women are always trying to catch up, as it were. Many things have helped shape who I am today but none of them moreso than who I spent my first 51 years of life with, Sister, my only sibling. She was and continues to be the most powerful influence I've had.

There are many other women who have been changed my life in significant ways. One of these women is Lorraine, she teaches me things I've either forgotten or have never known about women. She brings the past of who women are and have been and blends it with the present, it's a gift of eloquence and sharing of knowledge I appreciate more than I can say.

That I have been invited to be a frontpager at Culture Kitchen is humbling and an honor. I thank Lorraine and Liza for that and will try my hardest to be worthy of their confidence in my writing and also in who I am, as a woman, as an American and a citizen of the world at large.

As a way to introduce myself, as a telling of how I became a Democrat and why I hold the present leaders of this party's feet to the fire is because they can do better, they must do better, they keep saying they are trying, it's time they understand it's not in the trying, it's in the doing that counts.

The lame-duck presidency of George W. Bush has begun with Lincoln Chafee 's rank breaking move.

Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who was defeated in this week's election, said he would block Bolton's nomination.

Chafee, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that he did not believe Bolton's nomination would move forward without his support.

"The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy," the Rhode Island moderate told The Associated Press.

"And at this late stage in my term, I'm not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out against."

The committee, dominated 10-8 by Republicans, requires a majority vote to send the nomination to the Senate floor. A tie would be the same as a no vote.

After months of quietly stonewalling John Bolton's nomination, yet not strongly enough so as not to ruffle any Republican feathers, now Chafee finds the resolve to kick Bolton out. It seems the senator from Rhode Island finally grew a spine. Does this make him a prodigal politico? Has Lincoln Chafee sprouted a conscience and finally seen the moderate Republican light?