End of Day 1

Excellent pictures! Keep up the great work, DCPers, I am living vicariously through you until Friday!

Thanks. This is fun!

Thanks for keeping us posted, y'all. The pictures are great - helps to catch the energy, and almost feels like we are there.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the great pictures and fabulous updates and info!!!!!!
Thank you so much, Karen (and all you guys!!!) for keeping us informed and for representing us!!! Thank you for all of your hard work!!!
You're all special, wonderful, and profound difference makers!
Have a great day tomorrow with John Edwards & Dr. Dean! ** I'm so jealous that you got to hang with Donna Brazille.....she's so brilliant!** And I'd love to meet Antonio V...I used to live in LA and wish we'd had him as mayor when I was there!

This is truly wonderfull, Actively seeking the struggle and not waiting until 2007 to organize. This is Democracy defining itself.

This community is going to achieve great things; organize grassroots, focus voter registration, Gather Millions of voices and combine them into a single crashing roar.

Our Nation has issues, none so great the people on these pages cannot solve them. We back them, provide Voter support, organization, do our job as Citizens and progressives, We can change the Direction and state of this Union.

We have resources no other Nation has, a government capable of directing massive amounts of Capital, we will solve problems affecting the world, and affecting this Country as a result.

We can stop trying, and actually make things better. There is no Honor is Mediocrity, nothing to be proud of in good enough.

Our Tax system should be building schools, and isnt. Should have preventive Health care, and dont. We need an educational system that makes schools the focal point of our society, not an afterthought. We need to Aim for these greater goals, and accomplish them.

We are going to stop wasting the resources this administration cannot bring itself to acknowledge, the Human Resource.

Hope its a fruitful meeting...can't say that I am thrilled about Donna~had to listen to lots of stupid remarks from her during primaries & election.

Voting rights

Peace

Truth

He has it right. I think that Justice goes in there too (that might cover Voting rights)

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you
would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

President Dwight Eisenhower, Republican, uttered these words on November 8, 1954.

(I hope this source is authentic - I got this from Kerry 2008)

You'll be happy to know it's true.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/ike.asp

~snip~
Save for a few minor details, however, the quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower cited at the head of this page is in fact an accurate one. It wasn't something he uttered (it was instead something he wrote), and the version reproduced above omits Ike's reference to a specific Texas oil tycoon (H.L. Hunt), but it otherwise is taken verbatim from a letter President Eisenhower penned to his brother, Edgar Newton Eisenhower, on 8 November 1954:

"Now it is true that I believe this country is following a dangerous trend when it permits too great a degree of centralization of governmental functions. I oppose this--in some instances the fight is a rather desperate one. But to attain any success it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything--even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon "moderation" in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Politically, Ike was a classic small-government Republican. He was of the opinion that the federal government had grown too large at the expense of local and state authority since the advent of FDR's New Deal in the 1930's, a situation which had been exacerbated by the national emergency that was World War II. Since the Depression and the war were over by the time he took office in 1953, President Eisenhower felt it was time to return to the "middle way" — pruning federal subsidies of industries such as agriculture and power companies, which he believed no longer needed government assistance. At the same time, he wanted to sustain and even increase funding for programs he thought had good track records, and Social Security was paramount among these.
~snip~

Even Steven Chapman, the very conservative columnist from Chicago Tribune, admits we're failing in Iraq. My kudos to him for breaking his silence. (But I still won't resubscribe to the Trib...)

The sobering reality of the Iraq war
Suicide bombings have gained adherents not because so many fanatics are looking for an excuse to throw away their lives, but because they work

Published June 2, 2005

Watching the recent frenzy of violence in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney is not perturbed. Quite the contrary--he sounds practically elated. "We're making major progress," he said Monday. Iraq, he explained, is "in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

You know that secure, undisclosed location of his? I think we can be sure it's not on this planet.

On the same day Cheney was savoring his delusions, suicide bombers were striking in Iraq.

--snip--
In Iraq, everything that should be rising is falling, and everything that should be falling is rising. Fatalities from car bombings and suicide bombings have soared fivefold since November. Attacks on U.S. forces have been running at 70 a day, double the rate in March and April.

--snip--
We are not seeing major progress, and despite the wishful thinking in the White House, we aren't likely to anytime soon--if ever. One reason is that we're fighting a new kind of war that our leaders don't understand.
The administration depicts suicide bombings as a sign of desperation by vicious thugs who know their cause is doomed.

In fact, they are part of a conscious strategy that has a record of success in other places. Suicide bombing has gained adherents not because so many fanatics are looking for an excuse to throw away their lives, but because it works.

--snip--
The dilemma the U.S. faces in fighting the insurgents is that military methods are not enough to solve the problem and may make it worse. If the movement is a reaction to the U.S. military presence, keeping American troops in Iraq amounts to fighting a fire with kerosene.

That explains why the longer we stay, the more suicide attacks we face. And it suggests that the only feasible strategy is to withdraw from Iraq and turn the fight over to the Iraqi government.

The alternative is to stay and keep doing what we've been doing for the last two years. But that approach has shown no signs of fostering success. It only promises to raise the cost of failure.

http://tinyurl.com/agtp8

Howard Dean said, "President Bush and many neoCons are the culture of corruption; we are the culture of reform."

He spoke of the Enron and Tom Delay.

Good morning patriots! I see that Howard Dean and Arianna Huffington are starting today's events -- nothing like charging your batteries early.

Hey everybody, if you have a question or comment for any of today's conference superstars -- Howard, Arianna, Thomas Frank, John Edwards, etc... please post them on the blog. Karen and the rest of the DCP crew are visiting here throughout the day, and will take our questions and concerns to the conference.

MTV censors Nine Inch Nails for wanting to play a song with photo of George Bush in background. Song attacks war in Iraq. MTV states they don't want their acts to make political statements.

Could you imagine MTV trying to censor Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Crosby Stills and Nash or John Lennon's antiwar songs if they were around in the 1960s. This is the new America that Bush wants.

NEWS FLASH-BUSH STILL A LIAR
(just ask Harry Reid)

http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/reid_060105.htm

Terrific photos!
I caught the end of Howard Dean's and all of Arianna Huffington's speech via CSPAN-2 earlier.
The remainder of the day's events will be covered on CSPAN, including John Edwards address to the group. For those of us who could not be present, its great to be able to be there via CSPAN.

Checking news stories online, other than more DeepThroat rehash, I found this at the end of a story on the yahoo page, about Bu$h discussing what he does or doesn't worry about:

"Bush was practical about his proposal to create private retirement accounts within Social Security, saying that the program's long-term solvency problems could be fixed without them
but that he'd rather not."

http://tinyurl.com/bg8vm

Don't Bight the Hand that Feeds You is the name of the Nine Inch Nails song which replicates the song Monster from Step In Wolf. Maybe someone like Indy could post those lyrics which MTV finds so objectionable.

Posted by: Ira at June 2, 2005 10:32 AM

Ira, a young friend of mine just told me that! He said that MTV told them they could not use the backdrop photo, but that they could still perform. But NIN said, "No deal." Good for NIN for sticking to their convictions.

"Don't Bite the Hand that Feeds You." Anyone familiar with this countroversy?

thanks defarge didn't see your post but would still like to see those controversial lyrics.

Here you go, Ira

Nine Inch Nails
The Hand That Feeds

You're keeping in step
In the line
Got your chin held high and you feel just fine
Because you do
What you're told
But inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold

Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

What if this whole crusade's
A charade
And behind it all there's a price to be paid
For the blood
On which we dine
Justified in the name of the holy and the divine

Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

So naive
I keep holding on to what I want to believe
I can see
But I keep holding on and on and on and on

Will you bite the hand that feeds you?
Will you stay down on your knees?

http://www.lyriczz.com/lyriczz.php?songid=16424

STEPPENWOLF lyrics - "Monster"

Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope
Like good Christians, some would burn the witches
Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

And once the ties with the crown had been broken
Westward in saddle and wagon it went
And 'til the railroad linked ocean to ocean
Many the lives which had come to an end
While we bullied, stole and bought our a homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

The blue and grey they stomped it
They kicked it just like a dog
And when the war over
They stuffed it just like a hog

And though the past has it's share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But it's protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it's a monster and will not obey