Welcome to the Democracy Cell Project

First??? :)

This looks great and I like the writing.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you on my Democracy Cell and hearing how others are working within their communities.

LAUNCHED!!!

Looking forward to this site growing.

SO much to say, but more than that, feel and observe during this period of transition. Lots of people are looking for blame. But I think our democracy, if we want to keep it, deserves ANSWERS.

Looking forward to more and contributing. Everyone-this is completely new. Let's make it our OWN!

heya gang!...great to see ya! :)

Thank you Dick :)

Thanks so much you guys and girls for all the work you have put into making this happen for us! You are awesome.

Lets make this a place to empower people :) and carry the lessons we learned from blogging on the Kerry Blog forward.

My friend asked me the other day how were we going to affect change~

we know we can't count on the media or the DNC or the current system.....

we have to do it.
wake up person by person

I love the idea that we can regain the community we spent so much time developing and can expand the work we started. I've seen so many amazing emails circulating about the actions that people have already taken already in response to the 2004 election and to the shift further right that the Bush administration and Congress have taken.

Instead of reinventing the wheel in our own communities, we can share experiences and best practices to drive greater impact.

Thank you for our new blog and God bless you

Kangarooo Brisbane Australia

I am so excited about the potential of the ideas and community that will be built here. Looking forward to participating!

Congrats and Best Wishes to Dick and Crew!

I just spent 2 hours packing all my campaign memorabilia up into a box and did it without crying! I am looking forward to this hopeful new venture!!

hey guys this is great to see you all here beat tutt and she has been waiting so patiently love it here

Kangaroo Brisbane Australia

I just spent 2 hours packing all my campaign memorabilia up into a box and did it without crying! I am looking forward to this hopeful new venture!!

Happy Day of Birth, Democracy Cell Project! Welcome to the world--it's a big, wide web out there. Know that you'll have help along the way from fellow bloggers.

May you have a long life, full of great postings, diverse views, and thoughtful comments. May you spawn so many democracy cells throughout the land that we all unite in a truely informed, empowered, and active democractic movement!

Great Job Dick !!!!

Looking foward to our conversation and activism continue to reach the hearts and minds of all Americans, and truly become cells uniting to make this country whole again.

NO SURRENDER !!!!

Hello everybody!

I sure am glad to see you all. Thank you so much Mr. Bell!!!!

Congrats on the new digs! This looks great. I look forward to continuing the sharing of ideas and information with all of you and anyone new who joins us.

Also, Hi DiAnne and all of you from the JK Blog who I haven't seen online since that fiasco called an election on 11/2. :)

...and so it begins.

Wow! Congrats on the new blog. Let's put it to good use and raise some hell in the next election. It's great to see so many familiar faces.

Thank you to Dick Bell and all of those who have followed their convictions, sacrificed their time and dedicated themselves to create a place within which We the People can come together to share our ideas and principles with the desire to bring about the desperately needed change to our communities, our Nation and our world.

A Homecoming

Brothers and Sisters…I say this for we are all brethren…brothers…sisters…sons…daughters…Family. A great American Family. Born of malcontent and dissent, we are by our very nature free-thinkers…Rebels…Patriots. Though we mourn the loss our Natural Rights through a slow, blatant and merciless oppression we are here not to bear witness to a funeral of sorrow and despair but instead bring about by our own will a revival…a glorious rebirth…a renewal of our Homeland…our Nation…our Beloved America.

No adversary…no government can deny us this, our right, to dream a new dawn of Democracy and Freedom or to turn that dream into a reality for the benefit of all.

There have always been those who embrace the worst characteristics of humanity…they are the contrast between the light and the darkness and serve a great purpose...they show us the difference between futility and enlightenment. Just because evil exists is no reason to abandon the brighter light of Truth which serves those who live by compassion, and within this realization is the true wisdom in defeating our own personal challenges…for only then can we truly work together…and when we do there is no task too great for us to accomplish nor obstacle we cannot overcome.

We need not relive our shared history…battles lost or won…our uncommon Heritage or what it means to be an American...for each and every one of us have been created through a unique tale of tragedies and triumphs, failures and successes, loves and losses…these are the forces that define us...that challenge us...ground us…the experiences that make us each rare and precious within our profound existence.

A beginning can be a turbulent time...and yet, we here find ourselves drawn to the chaos to stand united within our Hope.

Longing to have our individual voices heard in harmony, to enlighten those who are seemingly oblivious to the dangers of being mislead down a path of reckless abandon, to restore and improve our governance, We the People have gathered here to forge a Monument to America…not of steel and stone upon the shifting sands of time, but based upon the principles and doctrines which have brought forth this great revolution of conscience guiding us to a better, stronger and brighter future for all of mankind...a Beacon of Freedom calling us ever closer to Home...to America.

Indy

Thank you Dick Bell. This is going to be a great forum for us to share ideas and strategies to take back our Country.

The recount in Ohio then 2006 no matter what happens we have to start dealing with the mess before 2008! We have to take the country back from the "Media" and Bush crazies how? Thats what we are gonna be working on :)I am so glad we are all in here together again the brain power from the blog could have lit LA and NY at the same time!

Hey Indy :) did you email our Bro Marc?? He needs to know about this I just found out :)

Great Sermon :) as always

Hi Indy we are finally all back again soon I hope

Kangaroo

:-) Wow! I just got an email from Indy that said this site was up....

Feels like coming home to a house smelling of fresh homemade bread when I was a little girl....

Hi Everyone! So good to see you!!! :-)

Thanks Dick & Staff for putting this online!!!

Hi all, it's nice to be back on a blog with you again. It feels like home!

do you think we will see JK THK JE EE here or the family at any time

kangarooo

I know many of you are fans of Keith Olbermann's blogs...here is one from today:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

In Connecticut, our Meetup group is morphing into an activist cell with about 20 to 30 people. In fact, they spent Saturday morning in Westport protesting voter suppression across the country - and supporting the recount in Ohio.

Is anyone else out there seeing the same thing happen to their MeetUp groups or ?

Ok lets get to work. Please read the following and sign the petition. Oh by the way I was CarolforKerry on the Kerry blog.
Call for Independent Testing of E-voting Machines
On November 2, voting machines in many states – both "red" and "blue" - had
problems that led thousands of citizens to call a national voter protection
hotline. EFF and VerifiedVoting.org were at the other end of the line, and
we are very worried by what we heard. In several states, voters who chose
one presidential candidate were presented with confirmation screens that
listed another candidate's name. In others, machines crashed and were
rebooted repeatedly, but nobody knows whether votes were lost. And the list
goes on.

There will be no way to make sure that these problems are fixed until these
machines are independently tested. But we need your help to do it. Election
officials are already trying to sweep these problems under the rug. EFF has
written eight detailed letters to counties where these problems were most
pronounced, and now it's time to turn up the public pressure. Add your voice
to this petition, and when 10,000 people have signed it, we will deliver a
copy to each of our target counties. Take a stand for election intregrity
today!

http://www.eff.org/e-vote/petition/

NO SURRENDER !!!

Posted by: KerryDem | November 21, 2004 08:27 PM

Signed and sent out to other :)

This is the latest - received from Grannies for Kucinich!!

New site to advance investigation of voteCheck this site out!

http://www.donotconcede.com/

Subject: Ten Reasons Not to Move to Canada


http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1103-28.htm

Subject: Ten Reasons Not to Move to Canada


http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1103-28.htm

Hey...
Please use preview when cutting and pasting an article in. It allows you to clean up your post before imposing lots of line cutoffs and unneccesary blank space on other readers.

Thanks for the courtesy in advance.

Greetings all former kerry bloggers!
Kudos to Dick, Karen & staff..
This is the begining of a unified voice in fighting for a better life, actual realtime accountability from our elected officials from all of the states that we come from red or blue doesnt matter people are hurting and deserve a voice of truth in our democracy!

Thanks for all the kind words. I had heard from many of you about your hope for a place to continue growing a community of activists. One of the commenters on this thread reminded me of why we wanted to put this site up quickly (we will be adding to it significantly in the next few weeks.) I've posted his comment as the next item on the site, so take a look and see what you think.

Hey Dick and staff, how bout

irc://irc.democracycellproject.net/democracy

eh? eh? :)

It feels great to be back home and see all the familiar names! Let's get working for '06.

Subject: Ten Reasons Not to Move to Canada


http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1103-28.htm

From Otter's undisclosed hospital location:

"Congrats on the new site. I look forward to jumping right in with all forepaws at my earliest operational confluence. Meanwhile, the doctors won't let me have anything with sharp objects and I haven't figured out how to post in crayon yet. (Dick, could you work on developing a crayola interface for version 1.2?")

(Otter is really down for health reasons, not for election-based insanity.)

I know that we are a forward thinking group here....working to effect change in the future..but have any of you seen this article?

http://www.northcountynews.com/view.asp?s=11-17-04/news5.htm

I came across the is on www.dailykos.com.

Posted by: Andrea | November 21, 2004 09:04 PM

Thanks for posting election fraud is relevent in my opinion, it may have affected this election and if its not taken care of now it will affect the next elections 2006 and 2008, the differance is if they are not caught now and the system in place is not changed the Bush Republicans will be enboldened, and it will be even worse.

madame defarge (if that really IS your real name), Otter+hospital=????

Subject: Ten Reasons Not to Move to Canada


http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1103-28.htm

This info thanks to some hard working person at DU

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1380365

These are the Democrats sadly including Hillary Clinton that we have to watch for the next few years if they continue to kiss Bushes Feet even when other Republicans dont they need to be gone when they are up for re-election.

I didn't mean to post 3x - it looked like it wasn't posting

*new thread*

Oh doc... you just want some attention on the other thread!

Actually it's a great discussion topic so let's join in.

This is cool. Thanks Indy for the email to this link. I'm definitely ready to do something!

BTW, on the Kerry Blog, I was star13forkerry.

Happy Birthday Democracy Cell Project!

So happy to be among friends and familiar names. I have had difficulty finding another home.

Our Brooklyn group is adding people and finding ways to support candidates, clean up Albany, but mostly elecion and media reform, meeting monthly to see what evolves.

You can just imagine a pragmatic moderate like me working with the lefty liberals of New York, many arguing style over substance. Here we go again.

I'll come back later when I have more time.

Thanks, DiAnne, for forwarding.

Marjorie G., I'm so happy to see you here. You have SO MUCH to add to this project. I'm looking forward to hearing your stories of what worked, what didn't, and what you're doing now.

Just enough time to add a hug, KJ.

Ok, what am I doing wrong? I can't figure out how to get to the "new thread", and I also notice I checked "remember personal info" and it's not doing that for me.

I am sure we have all run through the very same gamut of emotions here, so I don't think I need to describe them. Recently, I have gone from "still hopeful that this nightmare will turn around, believing that JK is working behind the scenes to uncover the fraud," to what Mark describes as "disillusioned and still in a form of idle shock."

It's been great to be able to stop in and chat with those of you who've been on the irc chat and feel the continuing sense of connection, and also comforting to know that I am not the only one who believes that this election was stolen, and that addressing the voting issue has got to be a priority.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure yet just how I will handle all of this, and so for now, I just thank you for including me in this forum.

Hey,
It's great to see everyone here. Thanks to Dick and all of you who worked to launch this project. I love the name!
Take care,
Maura
***Nurses are STILL for Kerry***

I signed the petition. Did anyone else notice who's names are Number 1 and Number 2? :)

Hello to the gang and thanks to Dick for creating this site.

I'm excited about working with everyone to enlarge upon our past campaign efforts and build a "better elephant trap".

Sam

P.S. Click on my contact info to join the "Swat-zenegger" site. I think we need to start chopping the Australian Oak, I mean, Oaf down to size NOW and send him limping bloodily into the cold night.

Glad to see it's up and running! Hello everyone!

Please take a look at this wonderful site if you haven't already...

http://booksforsoldiers.com/index.php

Bonjour tout le monde,
Morning everybody,

Good to see you all got pretty safe from that earthquake!

No need to tell you, that we are watching at the core of blue America with hope and admiration! Your fight is going on.
You have now a fantastic asset : grassroots, nets, connections... that you can use and over use to be "Visible" and carry your values high!
... and Europe is not about to buy any of Bush's holy crap or doctrine. Nope, the world is blue...

I am very happy to be back in groove with all you old, and new friends, and thank you, Dick and Karen and others, for reestablishing our contact. To share my thoughts with you:

(1)My note to Lee Harrison, the Chair of our Berkshire Democratic Council (w.Mass.)
First of all, thank you, Lee, for driving the point home with such force at the meeting last night, that we are Democrats/members of the Democratic Party. Some of the people last night who were complaining about the party and our candidates, were on the wrong track. Actually this campaign gave us a super-qualified, inspiring, strong, and articulate Democrat, who made a clean and powerful sweep in our primaries, who did all he could as an individual to fight for us, and who had some 57 million Americans (when and if all the votes, including the disenfranchised ones are counted) behind him. In cities of over 50,000 population, he won in a landslide. I expect he will lead the charge in the Senate--he promised he would.
It's been well established by all the good polls, and the enthusiastic crowds, and the money, and the dynamism of his campaign, that the majority of those who voted for him weren't just anti-Bush, they were pro-Kerry. And that as strategized by his campaign (and predicted by George Marcus, our resident expert, Williams College, on elections and polls), Independents and Undecideds and formerly non-voters, went for Kerry by significant percentages from the Dem convention to the election. On the supposed superiority of Clinton as an inspirer, as one woman remarked last nigh--I, too, watched the 125,000 crowd at the Kerry/Clinton rally in Philadelphia in October, and listened to both men speak. Kerry had a greater force and more inspiring and relevant message than Clinton (who, of course, was recovering from by-pass surgergy about 5 weeks before) and whipped up the crowd to a pitch. This was happening in other Kerry rallies through Sept. and October, all over the country, with crowds of 30-50,000 in the large cities. Kerry grew, as we did, as a Democrat. So we all needed to hear from you that what we Democrats need to do is keep building on our successes and the enthusiasm we mustered in this campaign, to gain more power and control of the electorate.

============================================
(2) To James MacGregor Burns, distinguished presidential historian, and a close personal friend:

Jim, you are absolutely right in your insistence that rebuilding the Democratic
Party, from grassroots up, is the key to getting America back into secure shape. Speculating about how Kerry should have done it differently or what his weaknesses were as a candidate, is a mistaken direction to go. The point is that any candidate needs a strong party behind him.
Look at how a strong Republican Party built up their man from an initially dubious candidate in 2000, with enormous weaknesses and only lukewarm support from most of the party, to a figure with charisma (granted, it's fake charisma, but they calculated correctly in what way people like to be fooled).

There are two reasons I'm intent on learning what I can about the vote
count fraud perpetrated by the Republicans, especially in Ohio and Florida:
One is that disenfranchising voters is a cardinal sin in a democracy. The
Republicans must pay for this. The second is, that before we berate ourselves about how badly we did in getting out the vote (as reported in the mainstream media), let's get an accurate picture of how much of the vote we really did get out. In my understanding of polls and the voting process, the Exit Polls tell a much more accurate story, and contradictory one,
from the vote tallies coming in on election night. We have to hold off the
circular firing squad among Democrats, until we get that clear. It's going
to take a while, and may be so muffled by White House power over the media,
and their own Justice Department, that we'll never know for sure. But we
must attack them on this, and hold the Democrats in the Senate and House
accountable to attacking for us. I'm expecting Kerry to lead the charge.
He promised he would.

==========================================

(3)To a friend and Dem activist in Mass.:

I've been following the election fraud on a good website http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/index.phps=6b1908872c55758427181df9aea2a3e3&showforum=64 Look at this one also, a journal "The Free Press", Columbus, Ohio, edited by Bob Fitrakis, a real investigative journalist, lawyer, PhD in Political Science. http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/834

I don't know how much of this you can stand, but I am persuaded that in Florida and Ohio, massive voter fraud was carried out by the Republicans and that the Exit Polls, giving Kerry the win in both states, are the real thing, not the vote tabulations. The way the fraud was carried out--voter suppression, hacking of the central vote-count computers, huge throwing out of ballots by the Sec.'s of State, on questionable or illegal grounds, media suppression--will be hard to nail down, and will take time and determined investigative journalism. Watergate took a year to come out. So will Votergate 2004. There are some legal cases pending, especially one in Florida, that sounds promising.

Here is one of the many summary articles on this:
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4370

Welcome everyone!

I love seeing Marjorie G, and Andree, Maura, and Tela, and all who have become such good friends over the past year-plus. Also, Indy, April, Doc, dwahzon, and everyone we have gotten to know and respect over the past few months--thank you so much for sharing your own resources here.

And I am so glad to be part of building a resource that can help us to take back our country.

Every day bring new concerns, new challenges. We learned over the past year that we can be most effective when we work together, sharing information and successful strategies.

Unpacking how the Republicans managed to create the mythos that they have, will be a critical part of our first steps. They were relentlessly negative and yet managed to propagate an array of lies that caused people to vote against their own identities AND interests.

Through the democracy cell idea, I believe we can counter lies with truth. We know we were able to help people in the urban areas understand what they were seeing and hearing. We need to move out and into the rural areas--where many of you live--and help YOU to create the truthful and effective campaigns that will make a difference.

Welcome to the battles. We have only just begun to fight.

I am happy to wake up & see such "rapid response" from Brooklyn, Massachusetts, LA, WA state & Paris! Right on!! I know a few others who are still struggling with "what is a blog?" but they do care about media reform & election reform & will be pulled along soon!! Am interested to hear what is developing on the ground. Thanks for the great & practical links!

Morning all!!
Reporting for duty!

Dick I do believe the graphics on this blog are even nicer than the Kerry blog. Good job you all !

Indy, check your email.. the offer stands whenever needed.

Great to see everyone again! I was going through withdrawal!

I have been sick since the election. Not physically. Spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, philosophically. . . This morning I received notice of this new Blog site and then I received this from another who is equally as concerned about our nation's future:

Subject: Re: "Marine who is being investigated..." > > >
People will always beleave what they want. Most only hear the bad and don't even hear the good. You can talk until you are blue in the face and it will not change what they think. We are like that as well when you think about it. For what it is worth as long as war has to be fought in the way that most people think that it should be we will always lose. That is why Viet Nam went as it did and other wars will as well.

The people in this country seem to think that we should not fight by the same rules that an enamy does. Well war is not clean and never will be. If an enamy is given half a chance he will kill you and as many as he can. We fought WWII that way and we won but no more will that happen. Only when war comes to this country will things change. When we have to fight to keep our homes and family safe will any changes come to pass.

As for me if it does then everyone that I know that say we do not fight by the rules will just be left on their own to see what they do to ptotect themselves when they try and tell the enamy that that is aginst the rules and that they can't fight that way. If nothing else when if is all done and finished we will have very few cry babies left to worry about. I for one say bring it on you will not findd any rules here except kill me fast are you will die first.

War is kill the man before he has a chance to kill you. Very few men should be put on trial for doing what they have been trained to do. The service turns kids into killers so what should be expected of them. That is what makes it so hard when they come home and are still looking behind them 24/7 Just waiting for someone to jump out and start shooting.

That feeling is very hard to leave behind and explanes why most of us are like we are.

Subject: Fw: "Marine who is being investigated..."
Great truth to ALL of this...Semper Fi! There are two sides to every story, but the media seems intent on presenting only the one that "makes news" in their eyes. Apparently, anything of a "hate America" nature is considered "news."

For those of you inclined to agree with the media, please read the three closing paragraphs - below - of Lance Corporal Schmidt's e-mail home!!! - Good Morning Everybody. The following is an email from my son regarding the NBC report (with embedded reporter Kevin Sites), concerning the Marine who is being investigated for "murdering" the insurgent in Fallaja. I will be sending his mail to every news program's email I can find. I find it sickening that this Kevin Sites is even allowed to be embedded with our Marines, as this isn't the first report I've heard from him that took on a decidely unfriendly tone. My son also gave me permission to release it to anyone that wants to pass it on, as long as it remains unedited. -- Darlene > >>> PMM LCPL Gus > >>> TS DET > >>> > >>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>> This is one story of many that people normally don't hear, and one that everyone does.

A young Marine and his cover man cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with Ak-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor(doctor)!" He is badly wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Marine and his cover man slowly walk toward the injured man, scanning to make sure no enemies come from behind. In a split second, the pressure in the room greatly exceeds that of the outside, and the concussion seems to be felt before the blast is heard. Marines outside rush to the room, and look in horror as the dust gradually settles. The result is a room filled with the barely recognizable remains of the deceased, caused by an insurgent setting off several pounds of explosives.

The Marines' remains are gathered by teary eyed comrades, brothers in arms, and shipped home in a box. The families can only mourn over a casket and a picture of their loved one, a life cut short by someone who hid behind a white flag. But no one hears these stories, except those who have lived to carry remains of a friend, and the families who loved the dead. No one hears this, so no one cares.

THIS IS THE STORY below THAT EVERYONE NOW HEARS:

A young Marine and his fire team cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with AK-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insugent can be heard saying, "Mister,mister! Diktoor, diktoor(doctor)!" He is badly wounded.Suddenly, he pulls from under his bloody clothes a grenade, without the pin. The explosion rocks the room, killing one Marine, wounding the others. The young Marine catches shrapnel in the face.

The next day, same Marine, same type of situation, a different story. The young Marine and his cover man enter a room with two wounded insurgents. One lies on the floor in puddle of blood, another against the wall. A reporter and his camera survey the wreckage inside, and in the background can be heard the voice of a Marine, "He's moving, he's moving!" The pop of a rifle is heard, and the insurgent against the wall is now dead.

Minutes, hours later, the scene is aired on national television, and the Marine is being held for commiting a war crime. Unlawful killing.

And now, another Marine has the possibility of being burned at the stake for protecting the life of his brethren. His family now wrings their hands in grief, tears streaming down their face. Brother, should I have been in your boots, i too would have done the same. For those of you who don't know, we Marines, Band of Brothers, Jarheads, Leathernecks, etc., do not fight because we think it is right, or think it is wrong. We are here for the man to our left, and the man to our right. We choose to give our lives so that the man or woman next to us can go home and see their husbands, wives, children, friends and families.

For those of you who sit on your couches in front of your television, and choose to condemn this man's actions, I have but one thing to say to you. Get out of you recliner, lace up my boots, pick up a rifle, leave your family behind and join me. See what I've seen, walk where I have walked. To those of you who support us, my sincerest gratitude. You keep us alive.

I am a Marine currently doing his second tour in Iraq. These are my opinions and mine alone. They do not represent those of the Marine Corps or of the US military, or any other.
Sincerely,
LCPL Schmidt > > USMC

Hi Dick and Karen (and everyone!)

I, too, am glad to see this up and running. We will continue the fight for democracy, and with this group of people working together, we will win.

Love to all!!

YAY for this new site!!! Thanks to Mr Bell and his friends for getting it up and running! I so missed the old blog! DU and Kos are cool but they're just not the same as our old place. Cyberhug from Texas to everyone!

This is wonderful to see this site, reconnect with people who grew as a community, and expended our awareness..

JJ

I will be sitting in at the Orlando Meeting when all the State chair's will meet to discuss our Democratic issues, what direction should the Dems go from here,what was done right, what was done wrong with the 2004 election..
Any comments or suggestions you would like for me to bring up during the meeting.
Old name on kerry blog was JJ for JK.

The color design easy on the eyes and nice clean uncluttered pages, not sure about the name, cell has baggage other than the image you want,i.e. Subversive, or imprisonment, or monastic - hmm.

Glad you are up and running and all will work positively, and have a request.

Some of us at CommonGroundCommonSense want to promote Max Cleland for chair of the DNC, and of couse we are all neophytes.

But there is a petition on line that we would like for you to sign and circulate the address to your contacts and if you have advice to offer on how to further this grassroots effort let me know or post it over on the topic at CommonGround etc.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?ademin08

I'll be here too from time to time.

lenal

It's so good to see names I haven't seen since Nov 2 and names that pop up all the time on KE Chat. Thanks Dick & Karen. Clearly you have done alot of thinking & work.

Hello everyone. This is great

Now Indy will have room for his sermons

Dan Rather is reportedly stepping down as anchor at CBS in March.

I hope its his own decision as opposed to being forced out by the right.

Heartland.

Indy already has a place for the sermons at the Kerry 2004 Reference Library. They are all collected at:

http://kerrylibrary.forumflash.com/index.php?showtopic=117

The site also has over 2000 articles on the candidates and issues.

We will succeed NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER!!!!!
Kangaroo Brisbane Australia

My point regarding penetrating Red states be they Texas, Georgia, Colorado etc is not some grand plan to suddenly start winning them like some JK bloggers insisted we would, but rather to grow our party in the next 4 years and gain that extra 5% of the vote that we need to take back the country. Having a presence in red states would be symbolic to the cultural right, to folks in states like West Virginia and Arkansas that should be voting Democratic b/c of economic reasons but won't b/c they feel that the Democratic party has turned their backs on them. We need to start sending direct messages to southerners that it is OK to vote Democrat and the time to start is now b/c it will take at least 4 years to make a dent in this national pereception. I totally blame the DNC for this fiasco.Our next Democratic Party leader needs to be southernen; I believe Donna Brazil is from Louisiana and would be a great symbol of our party. Mark Warner or ex governor Beasley should also be given serious consideration. Every 4 years we hear lip service from the DNC about how they will be doing things differently next election cycle and start paying attention to the south. I have not seen one dime or one party leader down here in Texas in 13 years since Bill Clinton's 1991 bus trip throughout Texas with Ann Richards.The more election cycles we continue this insanity the more wasted generations it will take to reverse course. Just think if we had done a few points better in all of the south in polling JK's numbers nationally would have gone up to 51-52% and it would have created a momentum of inevitably that the sorry voters of Ohio and this nation would not have ignored. In the primary debates Howard Dean, John Edwards, John Kerry, and Al Sharpton had sharp words about shotguns in the gunracks of pickups with rebel flags that was belitteld but that was it about the south for 13 months. And that was our southern strategy?

I am not religious and this election has turned me off to religion, but a wonderful Lutheran family in Denver that I stayed with while working on the Colorado presidential effort just sent me this uplifting message that I want to share:

Sometimes, overwhelmed by bills
And ambitions, we find it hard to remember
That life is a GIFT. O but every moment
That life is a gift. O but every moment
Is a bonus. None of us has done anything
Too earn a place here: we are blessed
To be given a life, a chance to feel
The gamut of emotions most especially
GRATITUDE, for the chance to breathe,
And take part in this vast creation.
Our lives are long or short,
But for however long we are here,
We all have an opportunity to know
The possibility of PEACE, the thrill
Of joyous celebration, come now
In the waning days of the year.
We gather on one special day, set aside
For centuries as a day to speak
A happy note of thanks to One above all,
Who has provided us with the wealth
Of life, and our bounty, freely given
In the grace of circumstance
Which fills our hearts with gladness.
Let us rejoice ! We are a free people
And we feast once again, crowned
As we are with exceptionally good fortune.

Freddy Bosco >>
Since Thanksgiving is the celebration of Religious Tolerance and the Pilgrim's leaving Europe to avoid Religious Persecution we should remind the Evangelicals this Thanksgiving that the Democratic Party celebrates Religious Tolerance.

Posted by: irafighting bush in texas | November 23, 2004 11:43 AM

dianne:

I know that you were a very strong JK supporter and this is not a knock on your posts or susan's, but its over and belaboring the point in Ohio is like slamming your head against the wall. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The DNC should not waste one dime in this Ohio recount effort. Personally I am totally pissed off with Ohio voters and don't think they deserve one moment of our time. If there was ever a reason or time for them to vote Democratic 2004 was the time and massive unemployment was the reason. I told me wife last summer that the DNC should not trust Ohions to vote Democratic. They have a screw lose and until they get their own act together and their own state Democratic Party organized, we should move on to concentrate on states like Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arkansas and maybe even Virginia. I don't trust Ohio in Presidential election, never have and never will. Seems to me that the Kerry campaign put the whole election and our futures in the hands of Ohions. From past voting patterns in Ohio I would never have done that.

Ira,
Please don't be so hard on us. We in Ohio worked our fingers to the bone for Kerry. Ohio was stolen. There is no doubt in my mind. It may be slamming our heads against the wall, but it is in an effort to bring justice to the people who voted and to serve notice that the voting process must be changed before 2006 or we are doomed for a repeat.
I had finally managed to quit crying , but here I go again. Please forgive us!
kayforkerry

kay:

I remember you from the kerry blog and the last thing that I would want to do would be to make a fellow Kerry supporter cry. Their were many valiant Kerry workers in Ohio who are just as hurt as I am, but I am truly ashamed of the citizens of your state. That is fine if volunteers want to weed out the fraud in your state, but that aside, the election results are not going to change nor will our next 4 years. I just don't want a dime of DNC money spent on that project. Even Jerry Springer acknowledged that the Ohio Democratic party is in shambles. To think that Ohio lost 1/4 million jobs and still voted for the same old same old sorry economic policies is beyond belief and says a lot about your voters. I live in an ultraconservative state so I don't have much room to talk. But I can tell you that I made at least 10 calls to the Cleveland and Columbus offices in September and October to travel and volunteer to Ohio and your state travel volunteer showed 0 interest which really ticked me off. I ended up joining thousands of volunteers in Denver and feel that I reach a lot of student voters, elderly absentee voters who's ballots were lost and was responsible for bringing in at least 100 other additional volunteers from Austin, Wyoming, Okla City and Topeka Kansas and helped Colorado elect Salazar and a Democratic house. The difference; when I contacted the Denver office they welcomed me with open arms, knew I was a serious Kerry volunteer and hooked me up with a wonderful Denver family. I promised to go back to Denver and help with their next governor's election, but I will not lift a finger to help Columbus or Celveland in the future until I see a tremendous change on how things are run. Someone up there needs to be told how poorly the Ohio travel and volunteer co-ordinator screwed up and turned aways many potential volunteers. Personally I would rather have seen those extra 100 volunteers I broght in to Denver and the 3,000 total out of state Colorado volunteers have been sent to Ohio. We will all hold our collective breaths and wait to see if Ohio can get their political act together. My thought is if they couldn't vote Democratic in 2004 with your absolutely horrible economy it will never happen and we realistically need another alternative. Al Gore was right to have pulled out of Ohio in 2000 and swamp Florida with money and volunteers. I am not at this site to preach or attack you, but this election has real life consequences and I wil never, ever forgive Ohio, excluding you and your friends.

hi Dick and Karen - I have thought so much about you in the last few weeks - so nice to see that you are keeping the fire lit - and let it spread!! lot's of love and support..

xoPatrick
London, UK