Apr 01 2009
cross-posted at The Dream Antilles and dailyKos
At about 12:30 today, I walked across Route 203 and cast a ballot in the First District, Town of Austerlitz, Columbia County, New York in the NY-20 congressional election. I’m in the southern part of NY-20, right up against the Massachusetts border, and I’ve lived here for more than 20 years. I know that Murphy now has one vote.
Dec 16 2008
Eight months ago, the Vote Energy Smart, not Energy Dumb! effort began.
The opportunity is before us to bring focus to [energy and global warming] across campaigns, across the United States, and make Energy/Global Warming a winning issue come November and a higher priority for serious Congressional and Administration action come January 2009.
The Energy Smart Act Blue page worked on the philosophy of supporting underdog challengers, who were not “expected” to win when added to the page. And, most importantly:
The challenger understands energy / environmental issues and will bring a radically different perspective to the Hill compared to the incumbent.
Join below the fold for a recap of the 2008 candidates and the Energy Smart list and a look forward to 2009.
Nov 03 2008
On Tuesday voters will go to the polls to participate in what shall undoubtedly be yet another sham election in which the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is determined (but not necessarily by the voters). Either Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama is going to be dictator, but regardless of who it is come January, we’re still screwed.
This entry assumes Barack Obama shall become dictator Tuesday, but it can just as easily be applied to McCain should he cheat his way into office.
We had our chance to get Obama to listen, but far too many Democrats decided it was better to shut up and get in line behind him rather than force him to adopt left-wing policy positions. What’s worse, we frittered away our chance to hold Congressional candidates to the proverbial fire. I think the only way we can shape things is to work toward 2010 by making sure progressive independents and Democrats are elected.
Primary runs are only half the equation. If they succeed (as they did in states such as Maryland), great, but we also need to have independent candidates ready to challenge recalcitrant Democrats in general elections. If politicians don’t fear losing the elected seats they hold, they won’t have any incentive to represent their constituents. I can’t think of a better way to put the fear of electoral loss in right-wing Democrats than the prospect of losing their seats of power to strong independent candidates or, if those persons fail to win, the Republican candidates.
If you haven’t already started locally, and I presume people have done this across the country, I strongly suggest spending the next two years building up to state-level offices. Pick a local political party that has a record of getting results (e.g Progressives in Vermont and Washington, Greens in California, and so forth), and get disenfranchised progressives to join and organize. Hold meetings to figure out which members are best suited to run for public office and then pool money to get them on the ballots in your communities. Candidates should be screened for potential scandals, have records to match their rhetoric, and be able not only to communicate effectively, but seize and maintain control of the discussion.
Do that and you may be able to shape things in time for the 2010 midterm elections. The time to start is not then, but now, in 2008. Time’s wasting, so let’s get busy!
Oct 29 2008
On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, we can make history. Yes, we can. I am absolutely thrilled at the possibility before us. I cannot wait to walk across the road– maybe I’ll go in my pajamas– to the polling place at the Spencertown Fire Department and pull a lever for Barack Obama. I will then smile, and I will continue to smile. I’ll smile because I never thought this could happen. I never thought we’d actually get out of the Bush years alive. And I never thought a candidate, a black man no less, could unify the forces of light in America. And I think that by voting and getting out the vote in this election we can actually restore the rule of law, fairness, equality, justice, peace, and even prosperity in this country. Yes we can.
As I’ve said before, if Barack Obama’s presidency is one tenth as effective as his campaign, if his presidency is one tenth as creative as the musical explosion the campaign has brought about, we’re all, all of us, going to be just fine.
And so, with less than a week to go, let’s go back to this and let’s get it done:
Please vote. Please help to get out the vote. Please talk to your relatives, children, friends, colleagues, associates and urge them to vote. This election can make history and it can bring hope and it can change the course of the nation. Yes we can.
Oct 29 2008
A whole bunch of vital races tend to get lost amidst big media’s obsession with the minutiae of the ‘big’ races, especially in presidential years. One of those races is mentioned this morning in the Seattle P-I –
The campaign to be the state’s next commissioner of public lands is one of the tightest and most polarized political races this year.
It is also the least understood, though the office determines the management of 5.6 million acres of state timber and aquatic lands, shorelines and agricultural fields for a trust that funds public schools and universities throughout Washington.
Crossposted from La Vida Locavore, more below the fold…
Oct 21 2008
Crossposted from ePluribus Media
Dennis Greenia, Vampire Slayer
I first learned about Jack Abramoff’s successful plot to help Heather Wilson ambush and bleed dry my good friend, Richard Romero, in two separate New Mexico congressional elections while strolling with dengre down K Street. Both times, Abramoff employed a stealth PAC purportedly championing health care reform. By 2004, New Mexico’s political aquifer flowed red.
I’m not the first person to learn about Abramoff from dengre. He’s one of the brave few whose nocturnal obsession with vampires unearthed Washington’s Empire of the Undead for the slumbering masses.
Dengre, aka Dennis Greenia, reminds me of Van Helsing. He wears rumpled plaid shirts and seems to sport a permanent case of bedhead. He talks about Abramoff all the time. I’m not sure if he sleeps.
Oct 17 2008
In this election, to vote as a citizen of the state of Michigan, I will for the first time have to present photo identification at the polls, or sign an affadavit stating that I do not possess one. Michigan joins just seven states that now require photo ID.
In total, there are twenty-four states that require voters to present ID, although in seventeen of them no photo is required. In those states voters are able to vote with birth certificates and social security cards, forms of ID with no cost to acquire. This makes it possible for essentially all citizens to vote.
This is not the case with required photo ID laws.
Sep 22 2008
All right, Chicken Littles. You wanna play “the sky is falling?” Okay, I’ll bite. How ’bout these possible outcomes?:
Cheney becomes Temporary President in January, 2009…or… casts a tie-breaking vote in Senate balloting to determine who will be Succeeder to the Decider…or…Obama is elected President, but is saddled with Cariboucuda as his Vice President…
All this misery – and more! – can be yours, for the simple price of an Electoral College vote of 269-269. Join me, if you will, in the Cave of the Moonbat, where tonight’s theme is “The Implausible and its Potentially Apocalyptic Consequences upon Humankind.” The subject is the ticking time bomb represented by the Twelfth Amendment – and just for fun, let’s look at some best- and worst-case scenarios it might spawn in the event of an Electoral tie. The suggested headgear for the evening is a tinfoil hat; umbrellas might also be helpful, since everyone knows that the sky can’t be falling if you can’t see it headed toward you.
Sep 12 2008
FT: “Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama’s faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election. Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain’s jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence. A Democratic fundraiser for Congressional candidates said some planned to distance themselves from Mr Obama and not attack Mr McCain.”
RealClearPolitics reports McCain beats his opponent in the polls, on favorables, and on Intrade. But that’s not the most worrying news facing Dems: the generic congressional gap has closed to 3 points, as even the popularity of George W. Bush continues to inch upwards, although Dubya is still loathed at a rate of roughly 2:1.
Dem internals are probably far worse. This week saw the candidate of hope scrambling to spin an ‘innocent’ version of his ‘stinks like old fish’ remark, lining up one of his celebrity buddies to find a place for him. Letterman clearly didn’t get the job done cause a second appearance on Saturday Night Live follows this weekend. That may have been the plan all along.
Or the candidacy may be cratering. Smooth to slick to creepy is not the transformation the campaign had in mind, but Obama’s famous smile seems increasingly forces and there’s a tension in his strut that suggests the writing on the wall is coming into sharper focus. Obama has been pandering to the Republican base. Young people are famously fickle. Time to shuffle the deck.
Goofing for the camera; and abasing himself for a few cheap laughs may add some temporary lustre to a campaign clearly gone stale and cold. What comes after that? Another temple? More insults? Obama has nothing new to say, although it seems clear a large number of Americans are still waiting for a message. Therein lies the tension. Obama has nothing new to say other than ‘I’m cool’. So what?
With no meaningful response to offer, other than ‘we’re cool, together’, enthusiasm for the Obama campaign wanes. The ‘what ifs’ are endless. Had the press decided not to protect John Edwards a different candidate might have won the Dem primary. But the real blame can be placed on the shoulders of the candidate himself, who continues to alienate voters with his arrogance, his elitism, his breezy condescension and his volatile impatience with any who question his honesty and integrity.
Dems are paying attention and are genuinely fearful of finding themselves on the wrong side of a President America trusts and admires.
Domestic and foreign policy concerns meet on the questions of energy and Iraq. Jobs, government expenditures, national security and the environment are all affected.
An American victory in Iraq is necessary and achievable. Victory means political stability, with bases for US troops who will remain the ME fulfilling the mission of the Carter doctrine. Complete support for US troops and their families is the cornerstone of McCain’s policy. Service merits nothing less. A ticker-tape parade or two is likely in the offing as well.
Nuclear energy is America’s only option if Americans are serious about reducing dependence on foreign sources of carbon fuels. McCain will build 45 new nuclear plants, creating energy and jobs. McCain’s pro-nuclear position and clear specifics stands in stark contrast to that of the Dems.
President John McCain and Vice-President Sarah Palin, along with a reformed and genuinely chastened Republican party are ready to lead America into the reality of the 21st century. The alternative is a dream.
Sep 10 2008
Greetings, Docudharma denizens! This morning I got an email from an old friend, and it definitely got my juices flowing. I’ve received so many right wing hit job emails making fun of liberals, casting dispersions on Democrats and liberals, and generally boasting about the greatness of conservatism that the wasted electrons could light Las Vegas for a month. Today, I have received the antidote. I included it below in all its glory. Feel free to copy, paste, spam, and repeat (editing as you see fit)!
Update: edger, in comment below, pointed me toward the origin of this text, John Ridley at the Huffington Post. I include the link here.
If a black Democratic presidential candidate was an affirmative action selection (akin to the legacy selection for McCain) at the Naval Academy and graduated 894 out of 899, Fox News and the conservative right would push this story as the basis for his disqualification for the nation’s highest office. The rest of the media would then be forced to report on it, giving the story wide exposure.
If a white Republican presidential candidate graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, he would be celebrated as an intellectual giant ready to lead the country in bold new directions. But since we are talking Obama here, his education fits into the “uppity” and presumptuous narrative.
If you’re a Harvard and Princeton-educated black woman married for years before having her first child Fox labels you a “Baby Mama”.
If you are a white woman who eloped and had a baby eight months later you are Sarah Palin
If you have studied international affairs for several decades, you’re “inexperienced at foreign affairs”
If you live in a state that is geographically near a foreign country, you have “foreign policy expertise”
If you both write and present your own words, you just “give good speeches.” If you read someone else’s words from the teleprompter-a “superstar is born.”
If you are Obama, your greatness must be measured by what you’ve done and its NEVER enough, NOT by any of the profound speeches you wrote yourself, or the repeated grillings you’ve taken in the press.
If you are Palin, your greatness is measured by…just one speech, written by Bush II’s speechwriter, and no you will not be taking any questions from the press.
If you attend two of the top ivy leagues schools in the country, you are surprisingly “articulate.” If it takes you several colleges to graduate and you deliver a speech with the phonetic “new-clear” on the teleprompter, you’re a poised and eloquent speaker.
If your staff is so dumb they mix up Walter Reed Middle School for Walter Reed Medical Center in your convention’s big night, it’s because you wanted to focus on education & it would have been political to use the soldiers in that format.
If Obama had done that, he would be eviscerated for not knowing the difference between the two, hating the troops/America & would be dangerously unqualified to be CinC.
If your a a liberal mayor and you ask for government financing, your a “fan of big, tax and spend, corrupt government.”
If your a conservative mayor and wind up on John McCain’s “worst pork” list in 2001, you are “”disgusted” that small towns like yours are dependent on earmarks,” even if your town had no earmarks before you became mayor.
A white woman talking tough is an advocate of women’s rights, a black woman is angry and bitter. A white man talking tough is a straight shooter and a conservative, a black man is a angry gangsta rapper.
If you’re a GOP’er you naturally wouldn’t see what the problem with any of this was, even if you slept for 20 years on a dictionary opened to the word ‘hypocrisy’.
If you’re a Republican and you talk to America’s enemies, it’s diplomacy.
If you’re a Democrat and you talk to America’s enemies, it’s appeasement.
If you’re a Republican, you swear Jesus is a registered member of your party.
If you’re a Democrat, you appreciate that Jesus was a community organizer.
If you’re a Republican and you wind up on the cover of People magazine, it’s because you’re a “regular American.”
If you’re a Democrat and you wind up on the cover of People magazine, it’s because you’re a “celebrity.”
If you’re a black Democratic man who can fill a stadium with 80,000 people (or worse, a German atrium with 200,000), you’re a vapid celebrity. If you’re a white Republican woman who can get a room full of fire breathing evangelical right wingers to holler, you’re a star
If you are a Democrat, the days are counted down since the last time you have been to Iraq.
If you are a Republican, you have all the foreign policy experience you need because your state is close to Russia.
If you’re a black woman, with advanced academic degrees, and you have children while married, you’re a “baby mama”
If you’re a white woman who barely graduated from college, and you get knocked up and then get married after you’re pregnant, you’re a “SuperMom”
If you are black and your daughter is pregnant, unmarried and has an uninvolved baby daddy, you are a statistic…but if you’re a white and your daughter’s baby’s daddy has an explicit MY Space page where in between 4 letter words, he exclaims he “don’t want no kids,” you get to run for Veep.
If you’re a Black presidential candidate that has wide appeal and the ability to motivate over two million Americans to re-engage in the political process you’re an egomaniac with a messiah complex seeking the spotlight.
However, if you’re a right wing conservative – you’re applauded for your “likeability” and called a “unifier for the Republican base”
If you’re white, win a beauty contest, attended 5-6 colleges before finally graduating, join the PTA, are voted to be mayor by 1000 people, govern a sparsely populated state for a almost two years now, and randomly get chosen at the last minute to be VP…you’ve lived the American dream, “she’s every American”.
But if you’re black, raised by a single mother, lived on food stamps, help the community, get into Harvard, become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, build a great campaign organization from scratch, and are voted to be the presidential nominee by millions of people, you are just “uppity”.
If you are a democratic candidate and people around you complain about the MSM vitriole toward you, you’re a whiner.
If you are a republican candidate and you won’t answer the questions the MSM attempts to ask about your qualifications for the second highest office in the land, you’re being victimized.
If you are a white republican mom with a special needs baby, you are suddenly the advocate of all special needs families in the US.
If you are an Alaskan democrat mom with a special needs baby, you just saw state funding cut for programs like special-ed. You’re on your own.
If you are a black democrat home-owner that was preyed upon by mortgage companies and your house is in foreclosure, you made bad choices and don’t deserve a house.
If you an older white republican who can’t keep track of how many houses he has, then he deserves another one.
Sep 03 2008
Upfront: I’m not attached to nor have anything to do with the group below, except as an Old Voting Adult.
Yesterday I received a little booklet in the mail, I’m sure many others have as well. In case you hadn’t I thought I’d pass on who sent it and how you can get one.
Aug 31 2008
Hello, douchebags!
Not exactly a winning way to start a conversation, is it?
Yep. Too bad Dems haven’t learned a fucking thing about dis-respecting folks on the basis of gender.’Beauty queen’, ‘virgin’, and ‘no-nothing’ from `bum-fuck` Alaska is how a mother of five is being greeted by many of the morally and intellectually superior souls ‘transforming’ America for the better. Faking a down-syndrome pregnancy? Openly comparing Gov. Palin to older porn stars? The bumper crop of crap at Huffpo is my favorite.
Change for the better?
If that means Andrew Sullivan on the front page of the Good Ship Lollipop insulting Governor Palin as a ‘beauty queen’ you can keep it.
Forget that fact that Sarah Palin almost certainly knows a lot more about firing a gun than Sully. Or that Sully’s notion of ‘taking on the elements’ is a day on a P-Town beach without sunscreen; or an afternoon of rugby in wet underpants that really bunch.
Andy also seems to have forgotten that the last candidates he deemed fit to lead America created Abu Ghuraib. Not exactly a record of objective judgment to be proud of. Silly Sully still creams at the mention of murderous Maggie Thatcher and the man who did so much to bring the bomb to Pakistan: Ronald Reagan. But I digress.
Sarah Palin is a Governor for fuck sake. And Gov. Palin enjoys an 85% approval rating from her many constituents, which is a lot better than the candidate for change and the grandfather he drafted to butch up his campaign with ‘experience’ and ‘bare-knuckle’ toughness.
Governor Palin is a flake? Well, the flake sure is generating a lot of ink for a soul so light and facile. And if Dems are breathing an enormous sigh of relief, they’re doing a stupendous job of hiding it.
Given the enormous amounts of energy expended attacking McCain’s game-changing VP pick in just the last 48 hours, it seems Dems finally understand that McCain just might win the White House fair and square, unless Dems can make the charges of ‘racism’ stick. Dems may have already gone to the well once too often with that canard.
I was never going to support Obama. The cynicism of all three leading Dem candidates was a wake-up call for me. Edwards lied his fucking face off about banging his campaign staff while using his wife’s cancer as a shield to fend off pesky reporters, all the while bilking good, honest folks out of their nickels. Talk about a new standard in low.
Forget 75,000 screaming fans. America already has. The point is: Gov. Palin has shaken the Dems to their core. Dems can’t wait to pile on, and pile on the manure. Nice temple, btw.
Everyone is talking about Gov. Palin and the twist she puts in the race. You can smell Dem fear and the reason is simple: paint Gov. Palin as you like: Sarah Palin still represents a side of American life many of us love, respect and admire.
Gov. Palin is John McCain’s Dan Quayle? Maybe, but not quite yet. Truth be told, Gov, Palin still has to live up to that ‘high’ standard. Which makes the current panic all the more telling.
At first glance Gov. Palin more than fits the bill. Gov. Palin looks and sounds the same as Dan; and will definitely appeal to many of the folks who supported Hillary Clinton. The only one around here who really seems to understand the dynamics, and to be willing to talk openly about the threat Palin poses is Jay Elias. No surprise there.
As for the rest, whistling past the ice-cream stand, ask yourself this: how exactly did Dan Quayle spend the years 1988-1992? And if Palin really is McCain’s Quayle, what does that say about grandpa Biden, his thirty years in Congress, and the message of change?
Crack off about McSame all you like. That kind of comment hasn’t dented McCain’s support a bit; or raised Obama’s numbers.
Planning to volunteer in Obama’s wars to restore America’s image abroad in Pakistan or Afghanistan? Better give that one some thought, cause preaching peace Obama ain’t. More people are likely to end up dead with Obama trying to act tough than with McCain.
One thing for sure, should team ‘change’ carry the day: Obama’s daughters and family aren’t going to get any closer to combat than Dubya’s did. That job will fall to you or your kids.
McCain and Palin will stay the course and provide the support the Carter doctrine demands for US troops in the Middle East. Obama and Biden will tell Americans that the war in Iraq is over/lost and that American troops are leaving Iraq.
Problem is Obama and Biden will be sending US troops straight into Afghanistan and beyond.
Suck on that.