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DFA Staff Talk Politics
DFA Staffer Dina Wolkoff and I drove down to our alma mater Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT last night to attend a panel discussion on political careers and activism organized by the College Democrats.The panel was composed of current students and alumni, both Republicans and Democrats, who are currently working in political careers. While at the meeting, we met up with a number of former Dean/DFA staffers, including Mike Yedinak (2nd from left, former DFA staff), Ginny Hunt (2nd from right, Iowa State Director of GenDean) and Andrew Savage (we tried to get his picture, but he escaped, Vermonters for Dean).
The panel re-affirmed what those of us involved with DFA already know: a major component of a successful career in politics is, quite simply, showing up! This is true for candidates, staffers, and volunteers alike. The panel also agreed that two very important skills for success in politics are writing and critical thinking (Want practice? Write letters to the editor!). Another recommendation from the panel was to read a newspaper every day.
Everyone agreed that people with all kinds of personal and professional backgrounds can be involved in politics. Dina and I are case in point; we came to Dean for America with a variety of professional experiences, but with hard work and a willingness to be flexible, we have been able to make a difference.
As an aside, Dina is restarting the Middlebury Meetup, so if you're in the area, please join her new group!
Also we need a national campaign to let other Americans know about DFA. The Sierra Club advertises. Why, oh why, can't we?
"Rent a Priest or Spiritual Advisor"
(AP)Pinellas, Fl.
It was reported today that the priests and spiritual advisors that worked for the Schindler's, are available to be spokesman for others who want their loved one exploited.
Their spokesman, wearing a rented monks cloth, said that since their time at the hospice was done, could move to any area of the U.S. with only a days notice.
Funds must be paid in advance, as well as 4 star hotel rooms and per diem for food.
All advisors come with their own script with the host only having to insert their "loved ones" name.
Said advisors are experienced in exploiting any issue and have congress people and legislators on retainer if needed.
Please email all requests to grieve4you@falwell.com.
[From the Who Cares? department...]
Ted Koppel leaving ABC News at end of year: Veteran news anchor has hosted ‘Nightline’ for 25 years
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7347335/
-------------
Ted Koppel produced a few good memories for me. I don't know if y'all saw or remember the exchange he had with his colleague, Charles Gibson, concerning the ground invasion of Iraq in late March 2003.
Apparently there was a big stink about whether the professional news media ought to show the dead corpses of GIs to the American public. Charles Gibson's position was that the photos shouldn't be broadcast. I guess the fear was that a family member might recognize one of the corpses. On the other hand, Ted's position was that they should. He stated that the media didn't have to take photos of the corpse's face but just the body. He said the media does that all the time....that it wasn't extraordinary.
I believe the reasoning for Ted's viewpoint was that these images needed to be broadcast to serve as a reminder of the harsh realities of war....also as a way to temper our desire to rush to war before exhausting all other means of diplomacy - as had happened with this current foreign policy disaster.
That particular exchange earned my respect.
-----------------------------------------------
yes lindab,
I suppose the catholic church and priests have to start doing something to improve their image....I mean, lets be honest, their record the last few years has not been too stellar.......
The Pope, should have gone to iraq just before our attack..and became a human shield...I would have really respected that of him.........
everyone, I mean everyone is on retainer.
With apologies to Robert, this is a fine country, but what has come over our national identity? It was indeed with hysterical incredulity that my former incarnation, a 20 year-old Human Rights Party member was, metaphorically, rolling on the floor laughing his (my) ass off at this absurd turn of events. Today's mythical "Middle American" is yesterday's member of the John Birch Society.
An ill wind is blowing across this country. That wind blows the seeds of destruction and threatens to undermine the system of checks and balances described in the Constitution and the fundamental rights we hold dear. Our Constitution is the rock of our nation and has withstood every challenge for more than 200 years. But today, the Constitution is under attack and needs your help.
I carry a pocket-sized edition of the Constitution with me every where I go, whether I'm back home in West Virginia or speaking out on the Senate floor. Now you can too. You can download and print the DSCC's exclusive personal Constitution by clicking here:
http://www.dscc.org/constitution
Senate Republicans are ready to nuke debate in the Senate and stand the Senate rules on their head by severely restricting our right to filibuster these nominees. They want to change the rules in the middle of the game so they can force on us far right-wing judges, all in an effort to gag the world's greatest deliberative body.
We cannot let them do it. ....
I won't disagree that Koppel has had moments of clarity...
But, more importantly...
I've tried unsuccessfully to incorporate two new punctuation marks into the American language...
The first is to repurpose the tilda (~) to indicate a paraphrase, like:
George Bush said: ~I'm really not very intellectually curious...~
The second is to use a mark to indicate a rhetorical interogative... So, instead of writing "Who Cares?" -- where the "?" causes the reader to mistakenly have a raised inflection at the end of the sentence -- I propose a new symbol...
But I don't know what it should be...
Any ideas?
Maybe a "()" or a "+" or...
(Mostly kidding, but if you can figure out a way for me to get rich with this, let me know...)
Are you reading any of rich's suggestions?
He would like more posts about the DFA staff.
(and I always enjoy pictures of smiling faces)
I'll be sending this to all my US Reps.
Dear _____________,
Now that we have proof the President is knowingly lying, I have decided that I will be sending you a daily reminder that we DO NOT want Social Security Privatizing.
Even with so many people not being exposed to what the President’s plan is, the people who have are speaking loud and clear that they do not want his proposed plan. Now we all know the President has to be aware of this fact, but yet he is hitting the campaign trail saying “his plan is starting to galvanize” with Americans. Are you kidding me? He is using a lie as propaganda. There is NO excuse for this.
So apparently this nonstop repeating is considered the norm, and it appears I will have to do the same. Therefore you can expect a daily reminder that WE, THE PEOPLE, DO NOT WANT SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZING.
I thank you for your time and attention.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
casey wrote on March 31, 2005 01:30 PM:
Leaving now to go keep the Bastrop Democrats office open this afternoon. Bye!--Texascasey
I've been unable to download from the dscc site, have you?
If so, how did they get it on one page? I borrowed the text from usconstitution.net and in 8 point type it takes six pages.
If GWB wants to "err on the side of life" then he should promptly be removed from office because as I see it he is far from ever being "on the side of life", ie, we can start with the war in Iraq, then we can go forward with all of his funding cuts for the poor and disabled in this country.....This nation needs to be reminded of his "erring on the side of life".....
Zach
Are you reading any of rich's suggestions?
He would like more posts about the DFA staff.<<
What I requested this morning was bios of the current staff so we'd know their background. There are many new/unfamiliar names on the staff list.
let them go back and check
tara probably noted it
you have had a lot of good suggestions while you have been filling in for Robert
Conrah Burns a Rep from Montana seems to be having some ethical problems too. He votes against the best interest of his state. Like voting against extending unemployment insurance extensions. He is a US Senator. His reelection in 2006 is in doubt. He may not run again. No Dem has entered the race as yet.
It is my opinion that any new staffer be required to read a weeks worth of every post over here in the peanut gallery to get a sense of where the support for DFA comes from.
Joining us occasionally too.
Anyone offerring constructive ideas and criticism like you do should be listened to.
After realizing yesterday that mule head big critter is plunging ahead on Social Security we do need to keep that at the top of the page for a while more.
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/Exit_Polls_2004_Edison-Mitofsky.pdf
Scientific Analysis Suggests Presidential Vote Counts
May Have Been Altered
/Group of University Professors Urges Investigation of 2004 Election/
Officially, President Bush won November's election by 2.5%, yet exit
polls showed Kerry winning by 3%[1] <#_ftn1>. According to a report to
be released today by a group of university statisticians, the odds of a
discrepancy this large between the national exit poll and election
results happening by accident are close to 1 in a million.
In other words, by random chance alone, it could not have happened. But
it did.
Two alternatives remain. Either something was wrong with the exit
polling, or something was wrong with the vote count.
Exit polls have been used to verify the integrity of elections in the
Ukraine, in Latin America, in Germany, and elsewhere. Yet in November
2004, the U.S. exit poll discrepancy was much more than normal exit poll
error (and similar to that of the invalid Ukraine election.[2] <#_ftn2>)
In a recent survey of US members of the world's oldest and largest
computer society, The Association for Computing Machinery, 95% opposed
software driven un-auditable voting machines[3] <#_ftn3>, of the type
that now count at least 30% of U.S. votes. Today's electronic
vote-counting machines are not required to include basic safeguards that
would prevent and detect machine or human caused errors, be they
innocent or deliberate.[4] <#_ftn4>
The consortium that conducted the presidential exit polls,
Edison/Mitofsky, issued a report in January suggesting that the
discrepancy between election results and exit polls occurred because
Bush voters were more reticent than Kerry voters in response to pollsters.
The authors of this newly released scientific study "Analysis of the
2004 Presidential Election Poll Discrepancies" consider this "reluctant
Bush responder" hypothesis to be highly implausible, based on extensive
analysis of Edison/Mitofsky's exit poll data. They conclude, /“The
required pattern of exit poll participation by Kerry and Bush voters to
satisfy the exit poll data defies empirical experience and common sense
under any assumed scenario.”/
A state-by-state analysis of the discrepancy between exit polls and
official election results shows highly improbable skewing of the
election results, overwhelmingly biased towards the President.
The report concludes, “/We believe that the absence of any
statistically-plausible explanation for the discrepancy between
Edison/Mitofsky’s exit poll data and the official presidential vote
tally is an unanswered question of vital national importance that needs
thorough investigation./”
Ph.D. statisticians in America who have seen this group's preliminary
exit poll study have not refuted it. This new study is a much more
comprehensive an analysis of the exit poll discrepancies.
The report is available on-line:
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/Exit_Polls_2004_Edison-Mitofsky.pdf
An executive summary of the report by is available at:
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/Exit_Polls_summary.pdf
*Contributors and Supporters of the Report include:*
*Josh Mitteldorf*, PhD - Temple University Statistics Department
*Steven F. Freeman*, PhD - Center for Organizational Dynamics,
University of Pennsylvania
*Brian Joiner*, PhD - Prof. of Statistics (ret) University of Wisconsin
*Frank Stenger*, PhD - Professor, School of Computing, University of Utah
*Richard G. Sheehan*, PhD -Professor, Department of Finance, University
of Notre Dame
*Paul F. Velleman*, PhD - Associate Prof., Department of Statistical
Sciences, Cornell University
*Victoria Lovegren*, PhD - Department of Mathematics, Case Western
Reserve University
*Campbell** B. Read*, PhD - Prof. Emeritus, Department of Statistical
Science, Southern Methodist University
*Jonathan Simon*, J.D., National Ballot Integrity Project
*Ron Baiman, *PhD* *– Institute of Government and Public Affairs,
University of Illinois at Chicago
The funny part of his stop was the sea of white hair inside while he professed caring for young workers, and all the young people were lining the streets holding signs of protest.
Don't worry, young people get it too.
Jim & Edna
>Jim and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital.
>One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool,
>Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of
>the pool and stayed there. Edna promptly jumped in to save him.
>She swam to the bottom and pulled Jim out.
>When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act
>she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital,
>as she now considered her to be mentally stable.
>When she went to tell Edna the news she said, "Edna, I have
>good news and bad news. The good news is you're being discharged; since
>you
>were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving
the
>life
>of another patient, I have concluded that your act displays sound
>mindedness.
>The bad news is, Jim, the patient you saved, hung himself right after
you
>saved him with his bathrobe belt in the bathroom. I am so
>sorry, but he 's dead."
>Edna replied "He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry.
>How soon can I go home?"
>
That reminds me of the article about the Faith-Based Presidency, I think it was, that made a similar point...
That Bush is so insecure, in reality, that the yes-people are around him -- not because of loyalty -- but because he is so unsure of himself, he doesn't allow any opposing views in order to preserve his thin veneer of confidence.
Because, deep down, he's pretty sure he's probably wrong most of the time...
I wish I could remember exactly which article and what the point was, but it was similar... Unlike Bush, at least I admit what I don't know...
And as they say in the East... ~To know you don't know, means you know...~
"Mrs. Schiavo's death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo's friends in this time of deep sorrow."
Check it out: Tom DeLay is threatening the judges, the doctors, and Michael Schiavo.
AARP lost me as a member over Medicare, but they did a good job on the local newscasts countering Bush yesterday in Cedar rapids.
=============
If they have sincerely repented from their backsliding, I may forgive them.
After all, but for the wonders of hairdressing, I would be one of the white-haired crowd myself.
Really...
--
Why did the woman get a Botox treatment?
So she could actually look surprised when Bush destroys the world.
--
Out of the mouths of babes...
"...
The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today.
..."
======================
Definitely a pri!ck! But the words can also be seen from our perspective as making sure that DeLay answers for HIS behavior. It would be very nice if that COULD happen today.
Richard Morrison, if you run again, you will have LOTS and LOTS of campaign contributors!
Rich:
I've always found you to be an eminently sensible poster, but here I'm going to have to agree with Holly J and others about Schiavo.
Both the sad, sad Schiavo case and the Jacko freak show are what Frank Rich aptly termed mediathons. Both dance (moonwalk? :) all over the same hot buttons that so agitate the radical right.
One is entirely politically relevant -- the other deserves not many words from the blog.
Don't get me wrong -- I am *personally* fascinated by the Michael Jackson trial -- in a shameful kind of way, sure. It tickles my black-humor funnybone and whets my appetite for gaping at human absurdity. Same reason I enjoy reading about The Darwin Awards :)
But the Shiavo case almost provoked a Constitutional crisis. When you have one of the most conservative justices on the Federal bench -- a man who ruled to ban selling sex toys in Alabama because "the state has an interest in discouraging the purient interest in autonomous orgasm" (heh, tell that to the pen|s pump judge -- a federal magistrate in Colorado just de-benched because you could hear squishy noises on the court transcript tapes that came from a pen|s pump under his robes he entertained himself with [speaking of The Darwin Awards] -- but I digress :) reaming out Bush and Congress for trampling on the Constitution and slandering the judges in the Schiavo case for practicing -- hah! -- "judicial activism" -- then what you have is an issue that speaks directly to the potential fragmentation of the GOP electoral coalition.
When you have "Terri's Law" evoking precisely the same penumbral-doctrine "substantive due process" that conservatives have been decrying for 30 years in Roe v Wade and Affirmative Action -- then Houston, we have a problem.
The problem of a president, congress and rightwing activists who have zero principles when they see a goal they'd like to attain. And you can thus use the same slippery-slope arguments against ends-justified moral reasoning they've been hurling in OUR faces for the last 30 years. This presents us with a magnificent and thoroughly relevant opportunity to re-frame the debate.
But the lessons from the Schiavo case run even deeper than this. What it illustrates so signally is that so-called "pro-life" conservatives value life in proportion to its *conceptuality*. Terri Schiavo was only "alive" in the most provisional sense -- her "life," therefore, becomes precious beyond all imagining or reasonable allocation of resources.
When a 23-year-old minority kid from the projects gets railroaded in a capital murder case because his PD was drunk, drastically overworked or otherwise incompetent -- oh, no. That guy *fries*. The appeals process is limited for a *reason*, you know. That guy was a *person*.
Terri Shiavo may have been "alive" -- but she lost her personhood 15 years ago with her cerebral cortex. Fetuses are likewise alive, and certainly "potential human life" whatever your religious beliefs or non-beliefs are about when human life starts -- but neither are they persons in the womb. They have no personal identity beyond their genetic structure. Not being a person = human life precious beyond all imagining or reasonable allocation of resources.
Being a person = provisionally valued existence, snuffable by the state in wars or capital punishment.
This is a wedge we can drive directly into Rick Santorum's bunghole :)
Bob
1) all staff should read thru the blog now and then to get a feel for who we are and what we think
2) they should blog with us once in a while to stay connected to us.
I know they are very busy ALL the time, so please have patience with them!
Howard has asked that we not let him sidetrack us; but I think they are in an attack mode on privacy and this is a framing exercise for them.
While I'm sure a staff and volunteer directory with photos will be useful, I'd like to see HQ engage us on something more substantive.
In case you missed the point (these academic types tend to be a bit obtuse), the polling firm has so far refused to release it's raw data, so the experts can't come to a definitive conclusion where things went wrong. Somebody with subpoena power has to demand that they produce the date.
A congressional panel called by a member of the minority (Conyers, for example) does not have subpeona power, but the chairs of Congressional committees do. So, we need to work on those Republicans to do the right thing and get to the bottom of his matter. After all, any one of them could run affowl of these crooks (Chafee and Specter have both been targeted by the Club for Growth) and some Republicans may well be next.
Indeed, Specter, having been narrowly re-elected might well have enough honor to launch an investigation. Isn't he head of Judiciary now?
Actually, if you pay attention to Stephen Moore, "reforming" the judiciary is the third leg of their four legged stool. The repeated references to "frivolous lawsuits" are clearly aimed at the judges for the simple reason that no lawsuit goes foward unless a judge agrees that it has some merit. There's a first level review which may occur at the same time as the defendant's automatic filing of a motion to dismiss, but no entirely frivolous law-suit actually goes forward, although people are free to file any damned thing they want.
No, it's the judiciary that's the target and the reasoning is quite simple. The proponents of the relations between people being handed over to the "invisible hand" of the free market, perceive a system where events occur automatically and nobody is responsible for anything. So, of course, there isn't any reason to have any laws that hold people accountable for their actions and no need for any judges at all, nor for any law.
This isn't anarchy because it assumes that the "laws" of the market will take care of everything. Sort of a law of nature (like gravity) applied to the affairs of men. Everybody just gets to do whatever he wants.
----
Well said. The 1500 dead American soldiers and all those innocent dead Iraqi's must mean nothing to GWB. Err on the side of life, indeed...
AARP is not being entirely altruistic. The discovered, perhaps belatedly, that Bush's Social Raiders are after their membership. That's what USANext is aiming at. $12.50 a year may not look like a lot of money, but when you consider that names and addresses collected from web sites are going for $300 per thousand, plus a percentage of any revenue the list generates, people signing up and PAYING for a membership, are a gold mine.
AARP dropped the ball on Medicare and Medicaide because they thought that their insurance "products" would benefit from participating in the drug program. Then they discovered that the legislation is written to benefit the drug industry, not the middlemen.
USA stood for United Seniors Association. USANext is simply the next version. Sort of like DFA 2.0
That their advertising has been particularly disgusting is not surprising since the principals are the same as were involved with the Club for Growth.
Anyway, AARP may have been caught flat-footed and a little over-confident in the loyalty of their membership. But they aren't slime line the Club for Growth and USANext. The people who running the polling and doing the advertising for Club for Growth are former staffers of guess who?
If you guessed Tom DeLay you're right. Bet you didn't guess that Dan Quail's people and Paul Coverdell's are also involved.
Dear Friend,
As you may know, I have been both a national and Virginia leader in establishing "Do Not Call" lists. I learned recently that in a few weeks, cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls on your cell phones.
You can go to http://www.donotcall.gov/ and register all of your numbers on the Do Not Call list.
Or call this number from your cell phone: 1-888-382-1222. It is the national Do Not Call list. It blocks your number for 5 years. You must call from your cell phone. You may want to distribute this information to your friends and family.
With your help, I will be a Lieutenant Governor who protects consumers from marketers invading your privacy. If you would like more consumer updates please register with our web site: http://www.lesliebyrne.org/. Also, while you are there if you can help me achieve our fundraising goal by MIDNIGHT TONIGHT - it would be greatly appreciated. Just click here: Donate Now.
Let us hear from you!
Kindest Regards,
Leslie Byrne
He's done so much yet there's so much more I know he'll do...
Governor Dean is going to Seattle - be there April 13! Please join Governor Dean for his very first Seattle event as DNC chair.
RSVP today!
Seattle Breakfast with Governor Dean
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
8:00 - 9:30 AM
VIP Reception (for hosts and VIPs): 7:30 AM
Columbia Tower Club
701 5th Avenue, 76th Floor
Seattle, WA
To join the host committee or to RSVP and pay by check, please contact Seth Rosenbloom at 202-488-5019 or by email.
Please contact Addy Gross if you are interested in joining the Chairman's Circle, a new DNC leadership group. The Chairman's Circle is open to individuals that contribute or raise $5,000. Addy can be reached at 202-863-7155 or by email.
1. Choose the number of tickets
$125 Ticket
$250 VIP Reception
$1,000 Host
I couldn't agree with you more bob.
As expected, the 24 executive directors of the World Bank unanimously voted Thursday to elect Paul Wolfowitz president.
Wolfowitz, 61, was nominated by U.S. President Bush to lead the 184-nation development bank. Critics of the appointment pointed to his role as a leading Bush administration proponent of the war in Iraq.
CNN reported
President, Nebraska Farmers Union
As a recent New York Times article on ag subsidies clearly shows, family farm agriculture is now reaping the public perception and political backlash that the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Corn Growers Association, National Soybean Growers, National Association of Wheat Growers, and the U.S. based grain traders set us up for and created in 1996.
They transformed traditional farm programs from price supporting programs that forced the grain traders to pay up for grain commodities, which caused the cost of farm programs to be relatively low, and the majority of farm income to be realized through the cash market into income transfer programs that look, feel, and taste like welfare programs to most observers.
The fact that the actual structure is a "make up allowance" of sorts for lost market place value lost is seldom if ever recognized. The common perception becomes the reality, which is the current structure of farm programs is politically indefensible and fiscally vulnerable, just as Farmers Union said it was in the 1996 Farm Bill battle.
When we compare the 1996 value of the national production of six crops: Corn, Wheat, Soybeans, Grain Sorghum, Rice, and Cotton for the years 1997 through 2003, farmers were paid an average of $14.6 billion less for their crops. That amounts to $102.45 billion less money the raw material processors paid farmers for their crops during the 1997-2003 period.
So, who are the primary beneficiaries of the "farm subsidies"? Not the family farmers who lost more market place value than they got in income transfers -- and produced most of their crops most years at below the USDA's Economic Research Service estimated cost of production. Not the consumers who did not pay proportionally less for the processed food products they bought. The food processors and food retailers.
They continue to steal raw material food production from farmers and ranchers for below full cost of production, with the help of our national farm and trade policy, which continues to be driven and supported by the food industry conglomerates with the political support of the very organizations that are supposed to be representing America's family farmers and ranchers.
What is worse, the very same set of big agribusiness players and their political supporters are now positioned to use the growing federal deficit and the direction of WTO negotiations to further carry out their self serving economic agenda to reduce and eliminate domestic income supports which are now called "subsidies". The new Congress leadership and the White House both support this agenda.
American farmers and ranchers are being fed to the U.S. based international corporate sharks by their own public officials, commodity organizations, and the American Farm Bureau Federation. Our traditional system of independent, farmer and rancher owned food and fiber production is being destroyed and dismantled in favor of the industrialized, top down corporate owned and controlled version of the failed former Soviet model.
In the last election, rural voters, just as the low self esteem victims of prolonged domestic abuse often do, once again helped their own abusers further beat and humiliate them.
John Hansen is president of the Nebraska Farmers Union
Bring ‘em on: One US soldier, two Iraqi civilians killed in Mosul car bomb attack.
Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed in Baghdad patrol ambush.
Bring ‘em on: One US Marine killed by land mine near Qaim.
Bring ‘em on: Three Romanians, one US citizen taken hostage in Baghdad.
Bring ‘em on: Shiite pilgrims attacked by gunmen near Mahaweel.
Bring ‘em on: Shiite pilgrims attacked by gunmen near Latifiyah.
Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi soldier killed, 10 wounded in car bomb attack near Kirkuk.
Bring ‘em on: US convoy attacked by car bomb near Abu Ghraib.
Bring ‘em on: Six Iraqis killed in attack on police checkpoint near Mosul.
Bring ‘em on: Seven Iraqis killed in ambush of US patrol in Mosul.
Bring ‘em on: Iraqi police captain assassinated in Mosul.
Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi soldiers killed in car bomb attack near Samarra.
Bring ‘em on: Three Shiite pilgrims killed, 19 wounded by car bomb near Tikrit.
Bring ‘em on: Six Iraqi policemen wounded in car bomb ambush near Basra.
Mission accomplished? Yes the Whitehouse and the Pentagon are off the hook for bad intell. It was all the CIA and FBI faulty intell that got us in this war.
Give me a break here, please! The neocons and their Office of Special Plans wasn't even mentioned.
Control of the media has its advantages, that's for sure!
www.swingstateproject.com has lots of interesting information about future elections. It tells who is running ads against TD.
Conrah Burns a Rep from Montana seems to be having some ethical problems too. He votes against the best interest of his state.
That is our goal at Meetups is to unseat Conrad Burns. There are currently four good possible candidates on the Dem side to replace him.
Even the older school Repubs are mad at him.
I was on earlier about trying to get appointed to the County Assessors Position.
I just had an idea and wanted to run it by you for feedback.
I am asking influential people for letters of support that I can send on to the Central Committee, but also will be taking excerpts out of to send in a letter to all of the Precinct Committeemen.
Should I contact the current Assessor? Talk with him about my qualifications and ask if HE would endorse me?
What do you think?
You have nothing to lose and all to gain, go for it!
Ended up not really being around last night, but will try to read your classical music spam...
I'm not very edumicated in that there genre, but I like to learn...
Take care, everyone...
Until another time...
The BFA Community: We Show Up (Still)
That's what I'm taking about baby, show us the manganello!
Last night Howard was at his Howardly best in Philadelphia. The place was packed and buzzing with excitement. We were energized and enthusiastic about Howard’s remarks even though we have read or heard much of them. Met a quite a few registered Republicans who like the message and the messenger. Howard looked good, relaxed and funny and totally accessible as always-smiled when I said “2012”. Many faces from Dean for America era now part of the DNC. Crowd responded to “staying on message” and elected Democrats being more “disciplined”. He clearly articulated that we all must be able to find common ground in this “Values” conversation, and not ridicule each other however illogical our thoughts and fears might sound. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and definitely got a boost about staying focused in doing my little bit in making this a truly compassionate world.
Spread the rumor that all illegals crossing the border are not born again. Fundies will line up in mass at the border and scare the intelligent job seekers back to a more sane country.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Zack Manganello lover in SF (aka Tanner, I presume).
And yes, I do read the posts here on the blog as often as I can.
Let's take our country back!
Reverend Ernest Angley. I see these two gentlemen heal the ill and the disabled on TV all the time. Why couldn't a good Christian like Randall Terry use his influence to bring one of these ministers to Terri Schiavo's bedside?
If they could have only stopped posturing in front of the television cameras for a couple minutes to think this out, Ms. Shiavo could have walked out of that hospice and proclaimed the glory of a televangelist miracle!
Hello Bob. Email space is easier to get back homethen phone lines so take a few moments here. Don’t know when I’ll get to answer however.
Frankly I don’t get what your rant is. I tried to check upthread but you didn’t reference a post by Rich. So I don’t know what he said… but what are you going on about?
It is not a Constitutional Crisis when we exercise the language in the document and it works. I don’t know the FL constitution, but the US one was not in a crisis. Politiicians in an ill found scheme worked the system and the judiciary which is an independent branch said “thank you but no” and did so repeated times. The law that was passed was really bad law (as I said here multiple times) but bad laws are based all the time, the Courts are not just so fast on shutting them down as they were on this one.
Frankly I welcome the extreme right attacking the judiciary because it will be I think yet another example, a perfectly obvious one TO MOST AMERICANS WHO DID NOT LIKE The LAW, that the extreme right went badly off the track somewhere and really should not have any serious influence whatsoever. There was no “moment”; the Constitution worked because Americans believe in it.
I thought it a great moment.
The odd thing is that the extreme right is losing/lost the Schavio thing for the same reasons that the far anti war left just constantly loses===they don’t really get American politics.
One of the joys of enforced stepping back from the blog is that stuff which you have gotten use to “hits” you anew. Gee the anti war people on this blog have for the most part COMPLETELY lost perspective. “Bush lied” or “throw him out of his church” (paraphrases) or the quote “But Powell is not like that. He knows what he did was wrong. He knows he is largely responsible for the needless death of thousands.” Is moral sophistication run amoke.
Most of the anti war group here (and I was opposed to going into the war) have assumed the same “we know the truth and you don’t get it” attitude that I saw on the newscaste every night from FL and the protestors. As a result the American people routinely spew them out of the group that makes decisions.
I kept wondering how many times it Jerry Fallwell going to parrot Mike in Raleigh’s lines that if the “American people just knew the real story they would change their minds”. How many times were the parents going to go with the same old arguments? And the answer was how many times are we going to hear the same old tired arguments from the anti war people?
My point Bob is that moral superiority isn’t just the home of the right wing extremist, the folks on the left have it to. Problem is, as I told someone else, the folks on the left just don’t know how to express their moral superiority as well as the folks on the right.
Of course it doesn’t matter both lose.
And I would add—not soon enough. We really need to regain the sensible center back in the country. Desperatly.
Robert
latimes.com has a piece about the founding of a new catholic order, whose exclusive mission is to fight abortion, the death penalty, and euthanasia. father frank pavone, one of the spokespersons for the schindler family, is the founder of the texas-based group. is this a religious political action committee?
Ken Mehlman, chair of the RNC, will be on C-span tonight. Time for Howard to make a showing of some kind very soon.
Phil, this article needs to be translated into simple English. While I deduce that the main benefit has gone to the middlemen, the traders, rather than producers and consumers, the verbiage is unnecessarily bureaucratic.
Ms. Shiavo could have walked out of that hospice and proclaimed the glory of a televangelist miracle!
~~~~~~~~~
This got more political attention even though it all backfired. I guess they just didn't think anything out beforehand.
- dina wolkoff
I don't know if it was at this event, but KOS has a diary where Dean is quoted saying that Santorum's kids, living in Virginia, are being supported by a Pennsylvanis school district to be instructed by computers at home. What kind of a scam is that? Howard is quoted as suggesting Santorum pay back a $100,000. How many kids does this fellow have?
Kevin - Great food for thought. Some groups who can manuever this should be seriously planning to do just this. In addition to the digital sound recorder, someone needs to be holding a camcorder.
Being a believer in the love and power of Jesus, I pray that He can bring some meaning out of all of this pain.
need a ride? call me 951-354-6965 or email me
Javier Couso Joins Amy Goodman Live in LA. Javier is the brother of Jose Couso, the Spanish cameraman killed when a US military tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad nearly two years ago. Javier is in the United States to call for an independent investigation into the death of his brother and the prosecution of those responsible. Here's the lowdown:
An Evening with Amy Goodman
Special Guests:
Javier Couso:
Brother of Jose Couso, the Spanish cameraman killed when a US military tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad nearly two years ago. Javier is in the United States to call for an independent investigation into the death of his brother and the prosecution of those responsible.
Pablo Paredes:
Sailor in the US Navy who was classified as a ''fugitive deserter'' by the military for refusing orders to board a ship heading to Iraq last December. On Friday, the Navy announced it was bringing charges against him.
WHEN: Thursday, March 31, 2005, 7 -10 PM
WHERE: Immanuel Presbyterian Church3300 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles (S.W. corner of Wilshire & Berendo-Parking on the street and at UTLA parking structure north of Wilshire off Berendo.)
TICKETS: $10.00 Donation at Door. There will be a pre-event Dinner 5:30 PM that will cost ya a $50 Donation. You get a copy of Amy's book, In The Exception to the Rulers too. (with the aid of her brother David Goodman, Amy exposes the lies, corruption, and crimes of the power elite. An elite that is bolstered by large media conglomerates) Copies of Goodman's the newly released paperback edition of The Exception To The Rulers will be available at the event with a book signing to follow.
I like the suggestion of having blog comments be required reading for new (and existing!) staff, volunteers, and interns. thank you.
- dina wolkoff
LOL - I can just see the frustration with some of the threads ...
Next, two Congresional phonie balonies asked if 1500 American troops killed in iraq died in vain because the intelligence was 100% wrong on Iraq....
OF COURSE THEY DID!!!!!!!!!! Most of us have been saying this all along!!!!! And NOW we are stuck there!!!!!!!!!! Of course, the Iraqis have some elections and cool looking purple thumbs......woopty doopy!!!!!!!!!!!
My blood pressure..............
who will dems run against him in 2006?
The pope has been given last rites. I am sorry that he is so ill. I haven't always agreed with him (I'm Jewish, so I doubt that my views are much of an issue with him,) but the end of a life is always sad.
But perhaps some good can come out of the pope's empending demise. Perhaps it will shove Delay out of the limelight.
MSN=MSM. I have no idea what MSN is reporting. No cable.
I really agree with the people here outraged at Delay's comments. Especially coming from someone with his record on ethics.
He is the biggest scumbag in politics.
>With total respect to the Schiavo and Schindler families for their grief, I am sickened that so little attention is being given to our soldiers who have died, and to the thousands of Iraqis who have also died in Iraq.<
The truth about the major networks of today is they are all about entertainment.
Thats why they spend all their time on soap opera like personal interest stories like the Schiavo case, and the Micheal Jackson trial and before that the Scott Peterson trail.
And they never talk about the things that truly effect the whole country. Like the millions in poverty, the decline of the environment, the millions without health care and whats going on in Iraq.
Its about entertainment not news.
Fox gets alot of attention for the conservative bias, which they do have but every network has a case of the entertainment bias.
well you're on a roll. agree.
george carlin had it right when he suggested you watch the news for pure entertainment. oh and "dont believe anything the goverment ever tells you"
well, ok... he was right about alot.
ok, guess i should finish working.
Robert:
Hi, Robert! Hope all is well with your trip and that you'll be returning safe to us soon.
Rich was saying that he believes the Schiavo case is a distraction -- a fundamentally personal matter with little relevance to the concrete issues DFA should focus on. I and others have disagreed. I see it, rather, as an opportunity -- and deeply relevant to our quest to reframe the rightwingers and thus the debate itself.
I thought my post about it was pretty good -- if I do say so m'self :) But after posting it, I did wonder if the phrase "Constitutional crisis" was overstating it. I agree with you: In this case, the bench ruled and the Constitution worked as intended. Gods bless the Constitution :)
I absolutely agree with you that when right-wingers attack the bench -- they lose. When they attack the bench in the name of a judicial activism they've been working to discredit for 30 years -- they have the potential to lose big-time :) They look like hypocrites who'll justify any kind of violation of proceedure or principle to achieve a desired outcome. That's the same criticism they've been slathering on liberals who use the judiciary ever since the Warren Court.
We -- DFA -- can and should figure a way to get this message out. It is a powerful condemnation of the Bush crowd as unprincipled and craven -- the very charge they love to level against Democrats.
My other point in that message is even more important, though, I may have hit on a way to re-frame the entire issue by calling ourselves PRO-PERSON. Right-wingers will spare no expense for the braindead non-person Terri Schiavo -- but gods forbid they provide for the competent legal defense of a destitute kid who could wind up on Death Row -- who *is* a person.
Fetuses are human life to be sure -- but they aren't persons. The mother is a person.
I AM PRO-PERSON, ROBERT. HOW ABOUT YOU ? :):):)
Sure sounds better than "pro-choice" -- which makes the whole debate sound kind of frivolous ... like you were staring at a menu trying to decide between a Big Mac or Chicken McNuggets.
I am at this moment no longer pro-choice. I AM PRO-PERSON :)
As for your comments on the antiwar movement ... well I don't agree with you. There are one or two bloggers here who are antiwar to the point of unreason -- but most antiwarriors here I think can look at the wider context and apply rationality to the situation. We are, after all, posting on the Howard Dean blog and not the Dennis Kucinich blog. We've obviously forgiven Howard for not being philosophically antiwar ... and those who haven't, well, are individual cases.
I don't think what we're doing in Iraq -- in the name of Peak Oil -- is going to create democracy any time soon. There was just a food fight in the Iraqi Assembly that may have the effect of pushing back Constitution-writing another six months.
They kicked the news media out of the deliberations. These folks just aren't ready for prime time.
And they had no prayer to Allah of being ready for prime time any time soon. Once again, I instruct you to read Benjamin Barber's Jihad vs McWorld.
Democracy is a very fragile bloom. Without the cultural soil that will support it, attempts at democracy tend to create demagogic despotisms, instead.
And that's borne out by history.
Bob
Thats a great article kimmy.
You know it was Ron Reagan who said that today's Republican Party is not the party of his father. He said the party is a mucher meaner party and one that has been co-opted by the relgious right.
And as usually Reagan was right.
And we need to show people that true face of the party.
Uh oh spaghettio-s. Reagan? oooooooooooooooo lord have.. wait. RON Reagan talking about .. ahhh gotcha!
:)
I dont know what that guys up to but if he was a true patriot he'd get his a s s over to NY and help out CBGB's. What kinda punk is this guy anyway? Sheesh. The noive.
anyone know a song about procrastination? i can only think of- "destination unknown-its like so strange."
This is O/T. Sorry, but most of the posts above are fiddling while Rome burns.
the posts, not the people. i can dig that.
ok back to work
party poopers
no shows
lol. Yeah I too have a lot of differences of views with former President Reagan. But I got to give him credit for one thing. He and Nancy raised a highly intelligent son.
Now I only wish Bush Sr. could have said the same. We'd be in much better shape today.
Eric:
"... pulling the shores from beneath our economic future ..." is one of the funniest multiply-mixed metaphors I've seen in a long time :)
Thanks!
Bob
Wish him luck next week!
--Toscha
Toscha,
Just as long as he's not going to be making any decisions which might affect the teaching of English ...
Bob
Toscha & Eric:
I'm sorry guys. That was a snide comment.
Eric -- I wish you all the luck in the world!
Carpe diem and all that there!
Bob
Good post. I will save it to digest it more for later.
You wrote:
"It is not economically possible to create new school textbooks that do not include creationism at least side-by-side with evolution."
Could you please elaborate on this sentence?
hershe:
I don't know exactly what Eric was citing, but there have been a few articles about this in the NYT.
It seems that more and more school districts are balking at ordering science textbooks that simply mention ... science. They're afraid of being complained about by the very loud minority of parents with fundamentalist Christian views and would rather avoid the hassle. So they order textbooks instead which also treat "creation science" or "intelligent design" and, while they duly also mention Darwin and evolution -- are quick to point out that evolution is "only a theory."
Which shows a contemptuous ignorance of the concept of hypothesis in the scientific method -- but there you have it.
And I would suppose Eric's point alludes to the fact that without a certain guaranteed market of school districts to buy your textbooks -- it becomes economically unfeasable to sell any of them at all -- because you have to sell a given, planned-for amount in order to at least recoup production costs. This wouldn't require a national policy or even an organized boycott. Just a critical mass of school districts that will no longer buy your books with just evolution in them.
Bob
You have had a lot of good suggestions while you have been filling in for Robert
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LOL Phil!
Really
Yes, it was at the Philadelphia event that Howard pointed out Santorum bilked the PA tax payers by having five out of his six kids attend the cyber charter school while residing out of state in VA.
I don't think what we're doing in Iraq -- in the name of Peak Oil -- is going to create democracy any time soon. There was just a food fight in the Iraqi Assembly that may have the effect of pushing back Constitution-writing another six months.
They kicked the news media out of the deliberations. These folks just aren't ready for prime time.a<<
Bob:
Greetings. To me these are ALL VERY GOOD SIGNS. If the folks at the Convention had come to some quick deal, I would have smelled a rat…or a fix. Democracy if fragile but its also pretty messy.
I’ve read an enormous amount about the 1787 Constitutional Convention. I’ve also read about the German and Japanese efforts after WWII. It is all very messy and to quote Donald “untidy”. But it indicates that deals are being worked through, concessions made etc.
A classmate gave up her fairly lucrative job in DC as a Constitutional lawyer (she has tried lots of cases before the SCOTUS) and got the USN to activate her reserve commission. Pamela is helping the process kick along there and is very impressed. She told me that I would just love the back and forth on a lot of the issues.
As for the media I don’t think that “The Founders” would have wanted the media at a lot of the 1787 Convention. One reason that it worked so well is that the media was quite different then what we have today. Imagine Fox covering a Constitutional convention.
Ours was really really messy. We struck a lot of compromises that eventually amendments and a Civil War and a near Civil War in the 1960’s more or less undid. We still have messy problems.
As for culture. I really don’t think that only certain cultures can deal with democracy or more correctly elected represenation. Inja more or less has a functioning democracy and their culture is very very different then ours.
“Pro Person” is perhaps a good frame. The devil of course is in the details. I think your on tap with things like good representation for people on death row (it’s the only reason I am opposed to the death penalty BTW). “Fetus” as potential people well it depends on what you mean. That’s not going to deal with third term abortions. Sorry that’s an issue that cant be framed in Dems favor. It just cannot.
As for the antiwar movement. I think that most of them have their heart in the right place but mostly its just a left rendition of the rights play with Schaivio. It is a lot of rhetoric and people who don’t deal with reality to well. I really do not care for a lot of their characterization of the troopers or other efforts in Iraq.
It is a tough battle and the overwhelming majority of the people doing it feel a certain sense of pride in what they are trying to accomplish. I would not have gone to war in the first place; but that is irrelevant to the future.
We may fail but that is possible anywhere. People who are betting on failure who just constantly say how “it is gona collapse” really are not “pro” anything. There is a latent anti Americanism that runs through a lot of the war. This country is the greatest Republic the world has known. We are desperatly trying for the most part to do the right thing in Iraq. TO make those people’s lives better then what they were. I am so tired of people who say “it is so bad there now”.
They don’t know history. After the Revolutionary War the economy of this country was on the verge of collapse.
For better or for worse this is the track we are on. The nation has discussed this over and over and had an election over it. Get over it, the Kussinich wing lost.
Robert
Gee, but they are still around.
Sounds like to you are telling them to get over it.
I'm sorry--either I was never issued my rocket to English dictionary, or maybe it was lost in the mail, but is this another strategic misspelling like "Goggle" instead of Google? Or do you just not know how to spell Kucinich?
Excellent point. Your analysis is laser sharp.
BTW How did the Kerry wing do?
Once, again. Your analysis is laser sharp.
It's not just the FEC bloggers need to worry about. Local governments will likely try to get into the act, as this ridiculous San Francisco effort proves.
Just when you thought the Federal Election Commission had it out for the blogosphere, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took it up a notch and announced yesterday that it will soon vote on a city ordinance (PDF) that would require local bloggers to register with the city Ethics Commission and report all blog-related costs that exceed $1,000 in the aggregate.
Blogs that mention candidates for local office that receive more than 500 hits will be forced to pay a registration fee and will be subject to website traffic audits, according to Chad Jacobs, a San Francisco City Attorney.
The entire Board is set to vote on the measure on April 5th, 2005. I wonder if they'll be forced to register their own blogs!
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