Author's posts
Mar 25 2010
Dr. Margaret Flowers – Grassroots Response to Health Care Reform
cross-posted from Sum of Change
(This segment was recorded live on Ustream on 3/24/2001 at 12:00pm EST)
Mar 20 2010
DADT and Desegregation of the Armed Forces
cross-posted from Sum of Change
I was originally writing something up on the conservative response to Lt. Dan Choi’s arrest when I wrote this sentence: “If conservatives want us to stop equating their homophobia to the racism that the civil rights movement experienced, they should stop using the same talking points.” I decided to write the following instead of a typical conservatives-freak-out-at-liberal-activism post.
Let us play a game. I am going to give you a quote about the bigotry of the armed forces. I will redact all names, dates, and any words along the lines of “homosexual”, “gay”, “sexual orientation”, “black”, “negro”, “race.” You try to guess what kind of bigot these perfectly rational arguments came from, homophobic or racist! Sounds fun, right?
Mar 18 2010
AFL-CIO: Not Ready For Explicit Primary Threats
cross-posted from Sum of Change
Just hopped off the conference call with Richard Trumka from the AFL-CIO.
This morning, the AFL-CIO leadership voted in overwhelming favor (higher than 90%) of “active support” for the current health care proposals in the face of slight changes to the excise tax agreement.
Mar 18 2010
Grandstanding at the Rules Committee
cross-posted from Sum of Change
Today, I sat in on the Rules Committee hearing. It was a rather arcane meeting today to authorize suspension bills to be brought to the House floor over the next couple days and the weekend. Currently, House rules prohibit suspension bills from being brought to the floor between Thursday and Sunday without the rules committee specifically allowing it. (Why? I am still trying to figure that out.)
Mar 16 2010
Final Breitbartocalypse Report: Interview with Institutional Left™
cross-posted from Sum of Change
Here it is, our last report on the disaster that is the Breitbartocalypse. We’ve got more from our in-the-field reporter, as well as an exclusive interview with the Policy Director of the Institutional Left™:
Mar 11 2010
Yes, Sen Byrd Stopped Reconciliation For Clinton’s Health Care Reform
Cross-posted from Sum of Change
So, there is a video that is getting a lot of attention amongst the right wing nuts:
Mar 09 2010
[VIDEO] Dean, Billionaires for Wealthcare, and a Public Option Superstar…
Cross-posted from Sum of Change
Today I dropped in on the health care rally in DC. Everyone who’s anyone was there (not literally, but it certainly felt that way when I was there).
Howard Dean was there. We got to ask him if he thinks the Democratic leadership is prepared to move forward without Republicans and if he agrees with the statement that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer made at the health care summit that everyone shares the same goal of covering all Americans:
video below the fold…
Mar 06 2010
Health Care and Abortion
originally posted by Will Urquhart at Sum of Change
I really hate having to come back to this over and over again. Let’s get our abortion-and-health-care basics down folks. The Senate bill does nothing to change the standard we have lived by that no federal funding shall be used for abortion.
Feb 22 2010
Chris Hayes’ Speech At Sum of Change/Grow the Hope House Meeting
Yesterday, we were humbled when folks from the DC/MD/VA area packed into the living room of David Hart, founder of Grow the Hope, for a fundraiser to help us cover the annual Netroots Nation conference. We could not have been more thrilled with the level of energy in the room.
Our featured speaker, Chris Hayes, the DC Editor of The Nation, gave a rather fantastic speech that we wanted to share with you all right away:
Feb 21 2010
Livefeed: Chris Hayes, Sum of Change, and Grow the Hope
Today at 2:00pm we are holding our first house party fundraiser for our efforts to cover Netroots Nation 2010. We have lined up a great set of speakers, opening with Chris Hayes, DC Editor of The Nation. We’ll also hear from Nolan Treadway, the Logistics and Political Director of Netroots Nation, Julie Blust, the Communications Director at the Virginia Organizing Project, Jeremy Koulish, the Executive Director of the Carrots and Sticks Project, Yvette Lewis from Grow the Hope‘s Rapid Response Team, and our host, David Hart, the founder of Grow the Hope.
You can join us at the house party online today! We will be running a live camera feed of the event, so please hang around with us!
Feb 16 2010
Training Tuesday: Part 2 of Organizational Change and the Adoption of Online Tools
originally posted by Will Urquhart at Sum of Change
Last week, we introduced Kenyon Farrow of Queers for Economic Justice, Calvin Williams of the Generational Alliance, and Althea Erickson of the Freelancers Union. They shared with us a brief summary of how their organizations had adopted some online tools.
This week, they delve into some of the challenges they faced along the way, and some insight into how they overcame them: