I finally figured out why so many people are driving around with American flag stickers on their cars: they are trying to remind themselves what country they’re in. Close your eyes these days and you might decide you’re in another time and another place. We’ve been through all this before, you and I . . . the unspeakable parallels.

Howard Dean, former Vermont governer and two-thousand-four presidential candidate, has just been elected chairman of the Democratic Party. There are some who question if this was a wise move, fearing the attack file the Republicans already have on him from his primary campaign. The sad truth is, however, that the Republicans will attack anyone, anywhere, with any number of malicious lies. It’s obvious that no one is safe.

Atrios, Kos, and a bunch of other leftie bloggers have set up the We’ve Got Dean’s Back fund at ActBlue. The idea is to start Dean out from a position of financial strength so he can right away start building up the party’s grassroots as he promised to do, and as he has demonstrated he is so good at.

Quite a lot of money has already been raised, but I thought I’d put a link here to see if anyone’s interested. I gave fifty dollars I could not afford, but then again, I also felt as if I couldn’t afford not to.

The form below will take you to ActBlue. Click here to see the current donation total.