OK, before the cute stories, fess up, when did you finish hiding the Easter stuff last night? Midnight? 2 AM? Claiming you were done by 9 p.m. and expect the rest of us to believe you? When did you make up the Easter baskets? Yesterday? Always have them a week early?

See poll to answer the When questions, and see the flip for more commentary and the chance to tell YOUR story of the cutest thing that happened with your kids. Or your sweet memory of times when your children were little. Or non-Easter cuteness.

With three minutes to go on Monday, 21 January, 2008, Martin Luther King day, I don't see a single diary that addresses the subject.

Not one that talks about participating in a march. Not one that talks about participating in events to commemorate MLK and his legacy. Probably can't type quite fast enough to get this up before midnight, and that's a shame.

Because today, out on the streets of Seattle, people of every income, race, nationality, marched together for peace and justice.

What about you? Did you march? Do you usually? Were you surprised not to see more commentary about the event here?

More below.

[Published with permission]

Suzanne Swift's Mom writes:  
Perpetuating the Cycle of Military Sexual Violence

171 days since Suzanne's "arrest" and the Army, General Dubick and Colonel Miller specifically, are bound and determined to ignore the fact that their Sergeant sexually abused my daughter. Instead, they are making her abuser's prophetic words to my daughter a reality. "Swift, you look like you are going to tell someone about what happened between us. Nobody will believe you."

Suzanne believed him then -- and now she is learning that he spoke from experience. Suzanne was sexually abused in a combat zone in Iraq by her squad leader, a Non Commissioned Officer who took an OATH to protect the soldiers working beneath him. By ignoring that fact, Dubick and Miller give other sexual predators in the military the green light. Their message is that victims of sexual abuse in the military are systematically punished and not believed, while the perpetrators go free to abuse again.

Shame on them.

Dear Friends,

Bev Harris, who has provided such wonderful leadership on electronic voting machine issues, is the bright light behind the documentary film "Hacking Democracy," which aired Nov. 2nd, 2006 on HBO, and will show again. The film is dedicated to Andy Stephenson, whose tireless work to expose the problem cost him his health and his life.

What you will learn from the film is that, if Diebold designed their ATM machines the way they design their voting machines, none of us would have a dime left in our bank accounts. Such remarkable facts are usually not the result of incompetence, but of design. When the top man at Diebold promised to deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush, you are allowed to be a little paranoid.

For those of us who resist paranoia, we can take some comfort in the fact that exit polls give a good indication of how voters really voted. However, it should be noted that the Republican leadership in Florida and Ohio have attempted to outlaw exit polls, so the old neck hairs of paranoia do tend to stand up.

Dear Jake,

I know it has been very difficult for you to watch me work night and day to protect your sister, Suzanne, and the hundreds of other people sexually abused and harassed in the military.

It has been hard, but nothing compares to the stress we went through when Suzanne was in Iraq for that very long year.

I watch your face as Suzanne tells her stories of being in Iraq and being shot at more times that she can count. You have been so strong and loving through this all. For a 12 year old boy you are very compassionate and intelligent. I was so proud of you for wearing your "Impeach Bush and Cheney" shirt today and that you want to be V from "V for Vendetta" for Halloween.

It makes me smile to know you have a mind to see what has to be done in our nation to begin to regain some national pride.

Color me excited, and then RAISE that alert level, because I'm about to be part of the future, not the past. The Solar Revolution, not the Oil Devolution. Saving the Planet, versus Polluting the Planet.

Baby, baby, baby, I'm finally doing my part to bring us into the world we should be living in, the world we WANT to be living in -- a healthy world for people, kids, animals and plants. A world of sustainable energy.

Won't that be something, when we get there? Won't that world be great?

Follow me below the fold to read details of what I'm getting...

Well I finally decided to become a Democratic PCO in my local Precinct. Tiny area, but it's my area. I'd been saying no for years. It's a thankless job than no one ever wants. You sign up for it, and it's yours. Right?

Reasons NOT to sign up:
--Hate the local District meetings, they're deadly boring
--Lots of wierd icky politics in the local District meetings (I mean, over the top wierd)
--Might be work involved
--People might pester me to do the work
--How would I find the time?
  (Reasons TO sign up, and a Surprise Twist below fold)

Did you know? Did you know it's really happening?

Pvt. Anderson said he supported the war at first but changed his mind after he was ordered to shoot at a car speeding toward his checkpoint in Baghdad. He held his fire and saw the car was carrying a family with two small children.

"I did the right thing because they were innocent, but my superior said I should have fired anyway," Anderson said. "Right then I decided I'm not going to fire my weapon unless I absolutely have to."

He thought he had to when the tank he was riding in came under fire a few days later and he suffered a shrapnel wound in his side. He tried to shoot back, but his gun's safety lock was on, and he saw that he almost shot a young boy who was running with a stick.

"I thought,  [cont. below]

North Seattle area -- near Crest theatre, email in profile for directions.

Please bring a friend... you've just got to see this guy in action.

Eat, drink, and be merry... and painting party. Two big cement spaces to paint on, so there's room for YOU!! Yes, you, this invitation's for you.

Come get inspired, learn the basics, see how darned easy it is! Help produce a bunch of signs to go up in the Seattle area.

Yes, you, this invitation's for you.

Come get inspired, learn the basics, see how darned easy it is! Help produce a bunch of signs to go up in the Seattle area.

"Look at their faces" at WaPo:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/...

Then change the "View By" to view by Age.
Here are the 18-year-olds:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/...

This is to honor those soldiers who've died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, between the ages of 18 and 26. Below you will find statistics for numbers of service men and women who've died in each age group, and individuals from each category, with links to learn more about them.

18 years old: 21 Soldiers, 19 Men, 2 Women

Pvt. David Evans
Hometown: Buffalo, New York, U.S
Age: 18 years old
Died: May 25, 2003 in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Unit: Army, 977th Military Police Company, Fort Riley, Kan.
Incident: Killed while performing security when his steel shelter collapsed during an explosion.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/...

More below.

I type because my friend Ralph was drafted as he left high school and sent to Vietnam. Ralph's father had died of a heart attack, so his mother didn't have enough money to send him to college for a deferment. Ralph was killed on his first day in Vietnam, as were over 900 other young men.

(See Cheney et al, who avoided serving in Vietnam via college deferments.)

Please join in: read names in your area.

MAY 2004
  4 killed on May 1, 9 on May 2, 6 on May 3...

Ramon C. Ojeda, 22, Army Specialist, May 01, 2004; Oscar D. Vargas-Medina, 32, Army Staff Sergeant, May 01, 2004; Trevor A. Wine, 22, Army Specialist, May 01, 2004; Joshua S. Ladd, 20, Army National Guard Sergeant, May 01, 2004; Ervin Caradine Jr., 33, Army Specialist, May 02, 2004; Jeremy L. Drexler, 23, Army Private, May 02, 2004; Todd E. Nunes, 29, Army Staff Sergeant, May 02, 2004; John E. Tipton, 32, Army Captain, May 02, 2004; Michael C. Anderson, 36, Naval Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class, May 02, 2004;

I'm not impressed. I'm not depressed or repressed. Instead, I'm pretty much done with them.

Throwing expensive parties for votes merely tells me that a candidate does NOT think like I do, their consultants don't think like I do, and most importantly, they don't have a clue about global warming and its threat to humanity or they wouldn't be doing silly wasteful stuff like that... and frankly, it reveals much more about them.

Howard Dean asked ME to give money for his campaign. He didn't try to buy or flatter me.

Some of these farmers have been moved two times already by military base expansion, once before by the USA.

Oh, but the expansion is for important things... like a swimming pool, running track and gym facilities.

Wait a sec... my country tossing senior citizens off their land in South Korea?

Let us honor:

Everyone who didn't serve, but went to jail instead, or worked stateside when refusing was more acceptable.

Everyone who sacrificed hundreds or thousands of hours of their life working for peace.

Everyone who missed precious moments with their children... because they were working for peace.

Everyone who fled their homeland, because they wished to find peace for themselves and their children.

(more below)

This diary is to further the dailyKos discussion of race. Theory: let's talk about positives. Let's praise what's praiseworthy. Let's get the good out of the closet, as well as the bad.

Follow me below for rules of engagement, as well as a short list of my own.

Robert W. Fuller has written a brilliant article which lines out what one word, one simple key word -- Dignity -- can do for Democrats.

What basic, compelling idea can do for Democrats today what "The New Deal" did for FDR; what "The Great Society" did for LBJ? Can progressives create a slogan to match the conservatives: "lower taxes", "less government", "strong defense", "family values"?

They can do so with a word. That word is "Dignity."

From that word comes a unifying slogan: "Dignity For All."

I wrote a poem for her to help her sort stuff out. I think most of us have our tale of woe of some sort -- for some people, the tale is just worse. Virginia Satir said she thought four percent of families were functional, and her colleagues said she was too optomistic. That leaves 96 percent of us with "issues".

I'm totally serious about the copyright on this poem, AND you may use it for the purpose of helping any child, teen, depressed person, etc. No publishing it. The poem's after the bar.