MADISON, WI (FDL) – While having dinner last night inside a building with a bank of windows facing the state house, we saw a coterie of hundreds of cops marching into the building. Once inside, they told the crowd assembled that they were ordered to kick the protesters out of the Capitol, but instead they’d be sleeping overnight with them.

This outgrowth from our feeling of empowerment is one that came up yesterday as we discussed the treasures of the ancient world that appear in our museums, ‘collected’ or looted from the world at large as we in the west ramble about taking whatever pops up. Like the Taliban exploding statues of the Buddha that graced Afghanistan for aeons, we take ownership of treasures that aren’t ours, and our world diminishes around us.

If you haven’t been on facebook, twitter, or following the news, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced yesterday that he would be introducing the DREAM Act as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. Univision anchor Jorge Ramos tweeted last week that Reid wanted to move the DREAM Act before November. Now we know how Reid wants to move it. The DREAM Act could come up for a vote as early as Tuesday of next week.

I wish I had taken an earlier flight to Las Vegas Tuesday for Netroots Nation 2010 so I could join the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) demonstration in front of the Statue of Liberty that adorns New York New York’s exterior, where recently discharged Lt. Dan Choi was arrested with seven other protesters.