Sharing the Love and Hope on Capitol Hill

Repost from last thread, a very important one:

'Please' email the hackettforcongress.com site to all of your political activists friends(like a chain letter) with your outlook address book, for the next 4 days and tell them that an Ohio soldier needs our help to Help Clean Up Congress.

Posted by: Ira at July 28, 2005 07:43 PM

Now, perhaps more than ever, we need to put our money where our mouths are. How badly do we want to defeat this neocon agenda? What are we willing to give up?

A caller to Ed today said (I'm paraphrasing here) "All we have to do is look in the mirror to see why we Dems are struggling. The DLC came about because we the people are not financially supporting our party. The party needed corporate funding because we weren't giving." Something like that. It takes a hell of a lot of money to win elections.

The Ohio race in which our candidate Hackett is running is a test of our commitment to fighting with more than just words on a computer screen.

My husband and I have pledged one day's pay per month, each, for the Democratic party, from now until the Nov. 08 elections. We're not going to threaten to pull our donations if this or that happens, if this person or that person gets this or that nomination, if so-and-so votes on one issue in a way we don't agree with. We're COMMITTED to reversing the present anti-working-people trend and defeating the neocons. We're INVESTING in a better America, where working people have a strong voice.

Our party, in order to win elections, needs money throughout every year, to hire the kinds of researchers, speakers, etc that the Republicans can afford to hire. We are waaaaaay behind in our fundraising, and many in the party are starting to blame our chair. Are we going to let that happen?

Let's all get together and make a committment to support Dean and support the ousting of the neocons. Starting with sending a donation to Hackett.

We have a daughter heading to law school, high medical expenses, increased insurance premiums, higher local taxes, etc etc etc. Just like everyone else. Still, we're giving up one day's pay a month each. It's not easy, we've had to postpone some home repairs and put off buying a new car indefinitely. My garden this summer was less extensive than usual, we haven't been able to go out to dinner in ages, and we barely make it to the end of each month. I even bought my husband's summer clothes at Goodwill.

But this is important to us. We're committed.

My Representative voted against CAFTA, as well as other Dems, and even a Republican, from MN. I have a local phone number and email address for someone who works for my Rep so I can write or call. Whether or not he ever sees anything I have for input, I don't know, but I'm trying....

The CAFTA Agreement:
How Did Your Representative Vote:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll443.xml

BTW, if you want to check on how your Representatives have voted on anything, this is the main page for that web site. (I have a PoliSci file where I mark web sites like this.)
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/

Kelpie Wilson | Kill the Bill
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072805A.shtml
If anything merits drawing the filibuster sword out of its sheath, Kelpie Wilson believes, it is the energy bill that came out of a House/Senate conference this week.
{{{ Excellent article, full of details....}}}

Deal for DeLay district added to energy bill, Democrat says:
A top House Democrat is accusing GOP leaders of slipping a provision into a sprawling energy bill to give hundreds of millions of dollars to a private energy consortium in the suburban Houston hometown of House
majority leader Tom DeLay -- a consortium that includes energy giant Halliburton Inc. as one of its most prominent members.
http://snipurl.com/gkic

Waxman letter in full: $1.5 Billion Giveaway Secretly Slipped into Energy Bill:
In a letter to Speaker Hastert, Rep. Waxman writes that after the energy legislation was closed to further amendment in the recently concluded conference, a $1.5 billion provision benefiting oil and gas companies, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas, was mysteriously inserted in the text.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9599.htm
{{{ Full Text of Waxman's letter.... }}}

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/energy_policy
House Approves Massive Energy Bill
AP
WASHINGTON - The House by a wide margin approved a mammoth energy plan for the nation Thursday that sends billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies to energy companies, but is expected to do little to reduce U.S. oil consumption or dampen high energy prices. "It is not a perfect bill," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. But he called it "a solid beginning" to diversifying future energy sources, improving the nation's aging electricity grid and fostering more energy conservation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050728/ap_on_go_co/energy_bill_36
(Full Story)

{{{{{ My Question: Given the fact that the Gulf of Mexico is the site of (usually yearly) hurricanes, isn't it just a matter of time before a hurricane takes out an oil rig in the Gulf, thus releasing oil straight into the ocean??? Sounds to me like a disaster waiting to happen.... Only this year one of the last hurricanes knocked an oil rig askew, although there was apparently no permanent damage to the environment... this time. WHY would anyone do deep drilling - using explosives that apparently disorient dolphins, whales, other ocean creatures - in a region where an oil rig could be destroyed by a hurricane and oil released into the ocean, which would eventually end up on beaches, but much of ocean life would die or be endangered or affected in various ways before or after any drops of oil would be found. Doesn't it make much more sense to develop alternate sources of energy - like now, not later when it becomes an emergency situation?!?!?}}}}}

Salaries of private security guards in Iraq as much as $33,000 per month:
A nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued Thursday reveals that the U.S. is spending as much as $33,000 per private security contractor per month -- some $396,000 per year on individual guards
http://snipurl.com/gkhm
{{{ This Raw Story web page wouldn't open for me past the maroon background, so I don't know what this one said, but the whole thing of the US military hiring mercenaries is disturbing to me - and I know at least two of those "private security companies" - KBR and DynCorp are owned by Halliburton or its subsidiaries - and they make a heckuva lot more money than our military personnel who are dying for Bu$hCo & their cronies all for the sake of oil....}}}

ISP 'censored' anti-war email:
A US broadband provider and a security services company have been accused of blocking emails relating to an anti-Iraq war protest.
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/smh65.html

Center for Digital Democracy: Public Interest Groups Urge Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Open Meetings to the Public
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0728-06.htm

Opponents Want Bush Barred From Summit
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0728-07.htm
Excerpt:
Mendez said she was afraid potential copies of the terrorist attacks in New York, London, Madrid and elsewhere would make it too dangerous to have Bush here.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050728/roves_nuclear_threats.php
Rove's Nuclear Threats

OPERATION: ENDURING PRESENCE
Sam Graham-Felsen, AlterNet
The issue of permanent bases cuts to the heart of not only how long we intend to stay in Iraq, but why we got there in the first place.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/23755/

THE CASE FOR A DEMOCRATIC MARKER
Christopher Hayes, In These Times
Rick Perlstein, author of 'The Stock Ticker and the Superjumbo,' explains how the Democratic Party can pull together by simply never backing down.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/23723/

'Universal Democracy' Is the Goal As Congress Eyes New Legislation
Tucked inside the House version of a bill that authorizes spending on foreign aid is the language of what is known as the ADVANCE Democracy Act. The act instructs American ambassadors and embassy staffs to draw up democracy transition plans for unfree regimes, with input from nonviolent opposition movements in the various countries.
http://www.nysun.com/article/17604

{{{ WHAT?!?!? After the debacle of having Bu$h 43 as our pResNitwit, the USA needs to shut up about exporting democracy.... Other countries would interpret that bit of hypocrisy as an intent to declare war on their country after they aided them (which is exactly what happened regarding Iraq). Karen Hughes is the new Propaganda Czar for the US, and it sounds like the money for this idiotic piece of legislation would go straight to her for propaganda campaigns overseas.... Or will Hughes be promoting the ideals of PNAC?!?!?!? This piece of legislation is Bull$h*t!!!}}}

Pukes attempt end run

"This takes one more issue away from the Democrats," said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.). "The speaker is taking control of the ethics issue."
________________

House GOP Asks Ethics Panel to Vet Trips

Seeking pre-approval of members' privately funded trips is aimed at defusing criticism from Democrats.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-072805ethics_lat,0,1295041,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

The House Republican leadership, seeking to seize the initiative on ethics issues after being criticized for months by Democrats and watchdog groups, has called on the Ethics Committee to pre-approve members' privately funded trips.

Such travel has been politically embarrassing for Republicans since news media reports this year raised questions about trips taken by House Minority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), the second-most powerful figure in the Republican-controlled House.

Although House rules prohibit lobbyists or foreign agents from paying for members' trips, news reports indicated that lobbyists paid at least some of the expenses of a trip DeLay took to a Scottish golf resort in 2000, and an organization registered as a foreign agent underwrote a trip he took to South Korea in 2001. DeLay has said he did not knowingly violate House rules.

The stories about DeLay's travels triggered a rush by Democrats and Republicans in the House to amend travel reports going back several years — evidence, Republicans say, that the rules governing travel are confusing and hard to follow for everyone.

In a letter delivered Wednesday evening, Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) directed the Ethics Committee to institute "specific and comprehensive guidance to members and staff" on travel issues.

Some Republicans said Hastert's action was meant to defuse what has become a potent political issue for Democrats, who have attacked the Republican majority as being lax on ethical issues as members prepare to head back to their districts for the monthlong summer recess.

"This takes one more issue away from the Democrats," said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.). "The speaker is taking control of the ethics issue."

~snp

Now that the committee has more resources, Hefley said, "it is a good idea" to pre-approve all plans to travel privately.

"What you want to do is keep people out of trouble at the front end rather than prosecute them on the backend," he said.

One watchdog group, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, which has harshly criticized DeLay and the ethics process in the House, said that it was wrong to shift the burden of responsibility for ethical conduct from individual members to the committee.

"The problem never really was that the rules were unclear," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the nonprofit organization. "It is that everybody was violating the rules. This is a new way for members to avoid responsibility for being ethical. Everybody else in America has to be ethical and follow the rules. Why is it so hard for members of Congress?"

Smart move- keep pugs from whining that Dems want too much (tho they will whine abput what Dems do want)
___________________

Democrats Limit Scope of Roberts Document Requests
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-roberts29jul29,0,5607823,print.story?coll=la-home-nation

WASHINGTON -- Democrats are preparing to send the White House a request for documents from fewer than 20 of more than 300 cases in which Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. played a role during his time as a political appointee in the administration of George H.W. Bush, a key senator said Thursday.

The request for documents, expected to be delivered to the White House as soon as Friday, would be "limited and targeted," focusing on Roberts' work on constitutional issues, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters in a news briefing...

Faith1 - this is for you re: DLC and why there is a controversy regarding them - they seem to be Republican Lites or DINOs (Democrats in Name Only) because they so often vote with the neoCons. There are several links throughout the article, so if you click on the links you can find out more, too.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050727/the_democrats_2008_choice.php
The Democrats' 2008 Choice
David Sirota
July 27, 2005
The 2008 Democratic presidential candidates this week are busy genuflecting at Corporate America's alter—otherwise known as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). Now, it's true—the DLC is really just a group of Beltway-insulated corporate-funded hacks who have spent the better part of the last decade trying to undermine the Democratic Party's traditional working class base—a base that had kept Democrats in power for 40 years and now, thanks to the DLC, has been forfeited to the Republicans. Even so, the fact that these presidential candidates feel the need to bow down to the DLC is a troubling sign about whether the Democratic Party is really serious about regaining power in America.
(More on link....)

Ira,
I thought you might enjoy reading a couple of articles in a southern Ohio Republican leaning paper. The article before the one about Paul Hackett is about the legal troubles of a former worker for Gov. Taft. The last sentence is about Tom Noe of Coingate
fame.

Paul Hackett was talking about Social Security in the next article. His last sentence was, "What happens if those private investment firms start investing my tax dollars into rare coins? What would we do then?"
Needless to say I have contributed to his campaign and have urged my friends still living in the Portsmouth area to put on their shoes and get out and walk for him! It would be so nice to pick up a congressional seat this year.

http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/news/index.cfm

Bid to Speed Death Penalty Appeals Under Fire

Conservatives and former prosecutors are among foes of a bill, before a Senate panel today, to curtail 'endless' delays in cases.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-deathpenalty28jul28,0,7710758,print.story

The Senate Judiciary Committee will take up legislation today meant to streamline the death penalty appeals process — something critics fear could lead to the execution of the wrongly convicted.

Opposition is mounting to the Streamlined Procedures Act introduced in the Senate by Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and in the House by Dan Lungren (R-Gold River). Concerns come not only from death-penalty opponents but from individuals and groups not often thought of as vocal supporters of the rights of criminal defendants.

Among the critics are the Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal group that specializes in religious freedom and antiabortion issues; Bob Barr, the conservative Republican former congressman from Georgia; more than 50 former prosecutors; and more than a dozen former federal judges.

The legislation, opponents say, would dramatically restrict federal courts' ability to consider habeas corpus petitions from state prisoners who claim that their constitutional rights have been violated or that they have evidence they are innocent.

Habeas corpus is the centuries-old method of challenging allegedly illegal imprisonments by giving inmates a day in court to assert that a serious error has been made in their case.

Kyl and Lungren introduced virtually identical bills in the Senate and House to remedy "endless delays" between convictions in capital cases and executions.

They say that restrictions Congress imposed in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 are not enough.

Kyl said the number of habeas corpus petitions pending in federal district courts had increased to 23,218 in fiscal year 2003, from 13,359 in fiscal year 1994, citing Administrative Office of the Courts data.

The bill would impose a host of restrictions on an inmate's ability to get a federal court to hear a habeas corpus petition.

A group of former federal judges, in a letter of opposition, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that "there are now too many instances to ignore in which innocent people were sentenced to prison, or even to death, and it took years for the evidence of their innocence to come to light."

Kyl said the bill had an exception that would enable innocent people to obtain relief from a wrongful conviction.

But the former judges — including William H. Webster and William S. Sessions, both of whom served as directors of the FBI in Republican administrations — countered that "the language of the exception is so narrow that it will cover virtually no one."

The former jurists also said the bill would overturn several recent Supreme Court decisions interpreting the 1996 death penalty act "as well as several other decisions of the Rehnquist court, many of which have helped to further streamline the system and eliminate delays. It serves no one's interests to engender the kind of delays that this bill will create" by precipitating more litigation.

Moreover, the judges said, the impact of the bill would be "far more sweeping" than death penalty cases. The restrictions it would impose would cover "every state criminal conviction," including cases involving businesses, firearms and the environment.

The sweep of the measure is troubling and unwarranted, Barr said in a letter sent Wednesday to Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

"I stand second to no one in believing in swift and certain justice," wrote Barr, a former prosecutor and one of the authors of the 1996 law. He said he thought the law was "working well to restrict [habeas corpus] petitions" and had seen "no evidence to the contrary."

"As a former member of Congress, I know that unfortunately there are times when political pressures lead to imprudent decisions that can be destructive to basic constitutional liberties…. [This] is an example of legislation that is being pressed without sufficient deliberation, and without any real evidence that it is needed.''

Among the former prosecutors against the bill are Ira Reiner, who served as Los Angeles County district attorney from 1984 to 1992, and Gil Garcetti, who held the position for eight years after that.

Reiner, who is a proponent of the death penalty and sought it dozens of times while running the district attorney's office, said he strongly opposed "this ill-conceived bill … whose transparent purpose is to strip the federal courts of their jurisdiction to review state criminal court proceedings."

He said it would "eviscerate the role of the federal courts in ensuring that innocent persons are not mistakenly convicted of crimes and that state courts do not send people to prison in violation of their constitutional rights."

At the first Senate hearing on the bill, Kent Cattani of the Arizona attorney general's office testified in support of the measure. Specter asked him whether Congress had "the authority to strip the courts of jurisdiction on constitutional issues." Cattani replied, "Yes, I think Congress has the authority to do so."

At the same hearing, Seth P. Waxman, who was U.S. solicitor general in the Clinton administration, described four death penalty cases in the last four years in which the Supreme Court found major constitutional violations overlooked by state courts. In one instance, prosecutors hid critical information from the defense. In another, the Supreme Court found that prosecutors had improperly kept blacks off a jury. If the Kyl-Lungren bill had been in effect, none of those cases would ever have been reviewed by a federal court, Waxman said.

"The title of this bill suggests that it would streamline the processing of habeas corpus cases," Waxman said. But Waxman said he found "something else entirely: Section after section of the bill would eliminate federal court jurisdiction to decide federal questions" in such cases.

Attorney Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, which had played a key role in freeing more than 100 wrongly convicted people — eight of whom had been on death row — said a number of those people would be in prison or dead if the proposed legislation had been in effect.

Scheck told the Judiciary Committee that the proposed law turned the lesson of those cases "on its head. It threatens to make what is already a torturous, difficult mountain for the wrongfully convicted to climb into a wholly impenetrable steel wall."

"Finding innocence is a fits-and-starts kind of process," said New York attorney George Kendall, who has litigated death penalty cases for more than two decades. "Habeas corpus was never supposed to be about innocence alone. It was always about whether the state courts faithfully applied federal constitutional law.

"This bill turns that on its head," insulating state courts from any meaningful review, he said.

Six people exonerated as a result of federal habeas corpus proceedings attended the first Senate hearing, including Thomas Goldstein, who was freed last year after 24 years in prison for a wrongful conviction in a Long Beach murder.

Goldstein's challenges to his conviction fell on deaf ears in state court. But five federal judges in California who reviewed the case found that his constitutional rights had been violated by prosecutors who used an unreliable jailhouse informant and by police who steered an eyewitness into incorrectly identifying Goldstein.

I sent the Hackett web site link to a cousin in OH who is a Democrat - he does not live in Hackett's district so he can't vote for Hackett. My cousin's additional comment was: "He's running for representatve against an entrenched Republican woman who seems to only wear red dresses!"

BTW, I'm listening to Air America. They mentioned that Hackett will be interviewed later on Air America.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/opinion/28herbert.html
Oil and Blood

When Mr. Bush claims he has no knowledge of the outing of Ambassaor's Wilson's wife - he is just Plame ignorant !

Karl Rove is a traitor to our country and to ALL of us - Dems, Indys, and Repubs, too.

Nice! What a great groups of well-read bloggers!

I'm wondering what people think about:

- the split in the AFL/CIO - will it help or hurt or both or do we know?

- estate tax ("death tax" is a euphemism as the voter associates the tax with death) - I have heard the liberal (Reich) and conservative (?) viewpoints the last 2 days on the drive home (NPR)

- Boy Scout jamboree - is it fair to let young boys drop from the heat on a military base just waiting for the guy who wants to make them cannon fodder soon?

- Are we being vigilant enough about Social Security? It's not really on the back burner as Bush is touring with his mom.

- Is the new US/Asia environmental proposal as good as the Kyoto treaty or a smokescreen? Big birds like Cormorants are washing up on our beaches here because they aren't getting up upsurge of cold water which is full of what they eat.

In other news:
The Florida couple who changed their registration to Democrat in time to vote for John Kerry in the primaries and vowed to leave the country if he didn't win have been accepted as "nominees" for Canadian immigration.

The Parisian 20 year old who is travelling the US by Greyhound has finally gotten in touch with me - he is among the "Mormmons" and his conclusion so far from his travels is: WITHOUT TRUCKS AMERICA STOPS.

Glad to be home. I'm sitting in the computer in sweltering heat and haven't even eaten or changed out of work clothes. That's a DCP blogger!

EPA Holds Back Report on Car Fuel Efficiency
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072805Q.shtml
With Congress poised for a final vote on the energy bill, the Environmental Protection Agency made an 11th-hour decision Tuesday to delay the planned release of an annual report on fuel economy.

Supreme Court Nominee Is Highly Questionable on Women's Rights
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/072805WB.shtml
Roberts's record is thin, but highly questionable on issues of women's health, safety and privacy. However, his opposition to Roe v. Wade is clear. President Bush missed three important opportunities in his nomination of John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court.

http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sfile=db050728&vts=72820051847
Doonesbury, the continuing chat between shrubbie and rovie....

Hi DiAnne.... Grab a tall glass of iced tea.... :-)

To answer your questions:

I don't know for sure about the union split.

I don't have any relatives or friends who are rich enough that their descendants would have to pay an estate tax when they die. The only group of people that tax affected in the first place was the super-rich. I suspect it wouldn't have any affect on the vast majority of Americans - just people like Bu$hCo cronies who are becoming super rich off of taxpayers who foot the bill for things like no-bid contracts in Iraq... etc.

No, I don't think those boys should have had to suffer in the heat to wait for pResNitwit to show up.... Why couldn't he have come by car, not plane or helicopter? They've changed the date he will show up for the speech, so he will apparently show up at some point, weather permitting.... :-( Poor kids....

I doubt we are being vigilant enough about SS. The last swing through this state with pResNitwit was to try to talk seniors and disabled people into signing up for their prescription medicare cards (very, very few have - it's wa-a-a-a-ay too confusing, and even government people don't understand it). As I understood it at the time it passed Congress, there was an auto-die date on the bill that got that piece of garbage through (think pharmaceutical industry was a big backer, would benefit the most) - so if it expires, there's no need to try to resuscitate it to get more $$$ out of seniors and disabled people for the drug companies.... Signing up for the cards was pretty pointless - there was a high deductable on it, so it was useless for most people.

Probably a big smokescreen re: US/Asia environmental thing.... If the US wouldn't sign on to the Kyoto Treaty, why bother to sign on to something that would allow the US to have higher emissions standards than the rest of the countries? It would still be a way for pResNitwit to protect his corporate buddies whose companies seem to do the most polluting....

I saw a PBS show that had a segment explaining why and how the huge Greenland glaciers are melting, why they're going to the sea so fast... and another show had info about the Arctic ice melting and not being replaced, which could put polar bears on the endangered species list... which has nothing to do with cormorants (?I think?), but all of that, cormorants starving included, does speak to environmental problems happening at an accelerated rate that I'm sure administrations like pResNitwit's aren't concerned about in their race to control the oil fields in Iraq.... The neoCons are concerned with how much money they can accumulate, not how the environment affects people, animals, or how high the sea level will rise before it puts their coastal mansions underwater....

All of that, IMHO....

State Dept. Now Says Bolton Interviewed

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
11 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - John Bolton, President Bush's nominee for U.N. ambassador, mistakenly told Congress he had not been interviewed or testified in any investigation over the past five years, the State Department said Thursday.

Bolton was interviewed by the State Department inspector general in 2003 as part of a joint investigation with the Central Intelligence Agency into prewar Iraqi attempts to buy nuclear materials from Niger, State Department spokesman Noel Clay said.

The admission came hours after another State Department official said Bolton had correctly answered a Senate questionnaire when he wrote that he has not testified to a grand jury or been interviewed by investigators in any inquiry over the past five years.

The reversal followed persistent Democratic attempts to question Bolton's veracity just days before Bush may use his authority to make him United Nations ambassador after Congress adjourns for its summer recess. For months, Democrats have prevented the Senate from confirming the fiery conservative to the post.

"It seems unusual that Mr. Bolton would not remember his involvement in such a serious matter," said Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "In my mind, this raises more questions that need to be answered. I hope President Bush will not make the mistake of recess appointing Mr. Bolton."

more... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050729/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_leak_bolton

Amy-Defarge and others:

Chuck and I started the donation train going today to the hackett campaign and I am thrilled to see others now involved.
We are trying to energize and mobilize those that come to this site regularly or even just drop by to help make a marginal difference in political campaigns starting with next week's special election in Ohio. I have emailed hackett's campaign office to see if we can make any cell calls for them this weekend. I am open to others with ideas of how to help and still stay within the rules of the dcp. Its our fast test since Nov and a longshot but what a shockwave it would send to W and Rove if he pulls off the upset.

Amy late money is especially important to any campaign and all of us appreciate the scarifice you and your family have made for democracy and the cause.

My idea is to push the hackettforcongress.com for volunteers, contributors thru push emails to friends, families,neighbors and co-workers throughout the country,and any hand we can give that fine soldier. In the old days we used to call them chain letters, perhaps we can reinvent that strategy as chain emails(but not the illegal kind).
Thank you guys, its these moments that keep me going, knowing there is hope out there.

The Anointed of America

In fundamentalist circles, the Christian doctrine of love and devotion blends sheer hypocrisy with a primitive agenda of enforced ignorance and intolerant control.
By William Marvel

It has been my observation that the sincerity of a person’s religious devotion can best be gauged by how vocal that person is about it: the greater the volume, the less genuine the spirituality is likely to be. Whenever people introduce themselves as Christians, ask what church I attend, or voluntarily announce a personal devotion to their lord and savior, I usually work a couple of fingers into the pocket where I keep my wallet, just to make sure it’s still there.

Plenty of people manage to follow a particular faith with varying degrees of credence in the literal truth of its sectarian doctrine, and even to incorporate their beliefs into their daily lives, without hammering their neighbors over the head with the need to follow suit. That fails to satisfy many of the faithful, however, and they must raise the subject at every conversation, stubbornly insisting that their obsession become yours. This seems especially true among those who make a direct or indirect living off such discourse, as though they feel the need to practice their skills on every innocent victim who falls within earshot.

On a recent trip to Kansas it was my misfortune to attend a convocation of in-laws that included a host of real and would-be preachers. I can hardly say which disgusted me more, for both the ordained ministers and self-anointed truck-stop preachers engaged in an Olympic contention to determine who could praise and worship Jesus the loudest and longest. They managed to turn a friendly family gathering into a fundamentalist camp meeting, hijacking a folk-music jam and transforming it into a gospel-fest, drowning out and driving off any who found it obnoxious. Obviously they enjoyed the spotlight in which they cast themselves, and that affection for attention may, after all, explain their attraction to the raised pedestal on which they place themselves.

How strange, though, that those of the most pious rhetoric seem to be the greatest parasites of their circles, happy to let their wives, daughters, or parishioners support them and their families while they contend for the choice seats in heaven. How odd that those advocates of self-help and personal responsibility demand such hand-and-foot service from the distaff sides of their families. Perhaps women do, indeed, have no purpose except to serve man. Man, meanwhile, has no purpose save to serve God and obey the president—so long as he may be Republican and vociferously Christian.

It was perversely amusing to note how consistently those professional proponents of self-restraint and sacrifice (and their families) all seemed conspicuously oblivious to the admonitions against gluttony, sloth, and avarice. Obesity seemed the norm, rather than the exception: one minister’s wife looked exactly like a blue-ribbon turnip from the state fair, while another sprawled like a sperm whale, watching her blubbery little girl lurch from table to table to siphon off hot dogs and hamburgers. Arguments against earthly materialism also found precious little sympathy, especially among the ministers’ own families. Their children all expressed impatience for the next planned purchase, from a tract house to some useless piece of Wal-Mart trash-to-be.

The bile would not rise so sharply in my craw if such comfort-loving, Bible-spewing cultists did not intend to impose their beliefs on me, but that is the plan. Christians across the country plot their places in the political hierarchy, from which they can inflict their hidebound superstitions on society at large. Colleges, like Patrick Henry in Purcellville, Virginia, specifically prepare Christian undergraduates for careers in governmental evangelism. Students learn all they need (avoiding evolution and other heretical "theories") to turn their fantasy of a Christian nation into an enforced fact—just as their parents and teachers would impose their primitive ideologies on a family reunion.

Such scenes of indoctrination and deliberate isolation help me to understand why the otherwise sensible people of Kansas so quietly accept their role as national laughing stock for the Jumping Jesus school of biology espoused by their state school board. The advocates of the New Christian Nation seem perfectly innocuous and inoffensive until they achieve a seeming majority within any medium, including a backyard picnic. Only when they take actual charge does it become obvious that their professed doctrine of love and devotion disguises an agenda of studied ignorance and intolerant control.

*William Marvel is a free-lance writer and U.S. Army veteran living in northern New Hampshire. His books include Andersonville: The Last Depot and Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox. You can send your comments to Bill@interventionmag.com

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1107&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

The Great White Father

Our government now treats us with the condescending air of an imperious patriarch, minutely monitoring our behavior and expecting instinctive obedience to increasingly ridiculous rules.
By William Marvel

As a naval officer my father grew accustomed to obedience, and he never seemed to recover from that expectation. My mother often doubted the wisdom of his ways, and her noncompliance drove him to imperious monologues on the proper management of a household, to which she would listen patiently. When he had finished she would say "Yes, O Great White Father," and then return to the same activity that had inspired his peroration.

Occasionally I hear myself delivering similar dicta to the teenagers who inhabit my home, and with similar results. That should be no surprise, for the society of 2005 recognizes even less parental authority than that of 1965. Now schools and parents more often take instruction from children than vice versa, thereby effectively acknowledging the assumption of superior adolescent intelligence. Apparently, people are now thought to grow increasingly immature and irresponsible with age. Adults consult with children before deciding whether to regulate their behavior, while government micromanages adult society with hardly any consultation at all.

Late in July the House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the so-called Patriot Act. Only a few days before that vote I attended one of Congressman Jeb Bradley’s "town meetings," my congressional represenative in New Hampshire, at which I asked him whether he intended to vote for the reauthorization. He said he did, and then he launched into a defense of the various intrusions and impertinences of that insidious legislation. He noted repeatedly that a judge’s order was necessary before the government could snoop on American citizens. I asked him what comfort that offered, since the judge had no discretion to refuse the order.

"That’s not how I understand it," Bradley said.

In other words, Bradley did not understand the Patriot Act very well at all. A federal agent seeking, for instance, to tap a citizen’s telephone or bug his home is required by the Patriot Act only to "certify" that "information likely to be obtained by such installation and use is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation." The judge is then required to issue a warrant for that surveillance, whether he believes that agent or not. Given the notorious dishonesty among federal officials in the Bush regime, we are left with precious little protection against Big Brother. Of course that poses no immediate threat to knee-jerk supporters of the Bush agenda like Jeb Bradley, but what if they should ever disagree -- however slightly -- with Bush, DeLay, & Co.?

----------snip--------------------

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1119

NonnyO

Thanks for the answers. I especially value your opinions!

In exchange, I'll give you some amazing dirt on Grover Norquist. He is married to a Muslim & it was in a Jewish ceremony. He collects snow globes and also Polish toilet paper (because it has things written on it). He's more of a Libertarian than anything and I wish we could flush HIM down the toilet instead of the government.

I have the John Kerry suite all cleaned up for Marc!!

Calling All Vets/Calling All Vets/Calling Any Hackett Volunteers. This is a call to arms. URGENT,URGENT!
I just spoke with Patrick with the Hackett campaign at 513-735-4310 a few minutes ago.
Any helping calling this weekend thru the Hamilton Cty Ohio party will be appreciated.
Suz we have done this before they can use your help with cell calls this weekend. Any vets here can be especially helpful. They are still up for any volunteers to call them tonight its 11:20 pm in Ohio.
Lets send W and Rove a message next Tues. The Dems are back and we are coming to Clean Up D.C.
Help is on the Way with Paul Hackett.

Hackett for Congress
2nd Congressional District
27 N 2nd St
Batavia, Ohio 45103
(513) 735-4310

Ira

Sent to all the Vets for Peace & Kerry Yahoo

Thanks Dianne.

Great thread Karen, thanks!

---
Faith1 - this is for you re: DLC and why there is a controversy regarding them - they seem to be Republican Lites or DINOs (Democrats in Name Only) because they so often vote with the neoCons. There are several links throughout the article, so if you click on the links you can find out more, too.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050727/the_democrats_2008_choice.php
The Democrats' 2008 Choice
David Sirota
July 27, 2005
The 2008 Democratic presidential candidates this week are busy genuflecting at Corporate America's alter—otherwise known as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). Now, it's true—the DLC is really just a group of Beltway-insulated corporate-funded hacks who have spent the better part of the last decade trying to undermine the Democratic Party's traditional working class base—a base that had kept Democrats in power for 40 years and now, thanks to the DLC, has been forfeited to the Republicans. Even so, the fact that these presidential candidates feel the need to bow down to the DLC is a troubling sign about whether the Democratic Party is really serious about regaining power in America.
(More on link....)

Posted by: NonnyO at July 28, 2005 08:44 PM

----------------------
Thanks again nonny, but still asking...
although not as scattered as i was at lunch:)

if the dlc isn't the party
and the dnc isn't the party
"Where's the party?"

i can work at it..
but where do we send the ordinary guy
who calls himself a democrat

i raised thousands for the dnc
and kerry...
i won't do that again

"i raised thousands for the dnc
and kerry...
i won't do that again"

I will and have already started fundraising for '06 and '08 for JK and candidates I care about and will continue the good fight until midnight on election night of '06 and '08.

and NonnyO why is it necessary to try and split the DNC and DLC down the middle. Could you please explain how savaging the business wing of Dems does anything but help Rove, Mehlman and the RNC. Go ahead, drive them away folks. I am sure that Rove will have a welcome matt out for them and business folks like me that aren't 100% pure. It kind of makes my blood boil when we worked so very hard for JK and are up late at night trying to make a difference in the 2nd District of Ohio.
NonnyO I had a pretty sick feeling on November 3, 2004 that I really never want to ever experience again in my life.I just don't see see things in the same pure way that you do.

Ira,

She was just trying to answer some of my questions.

I love John Kerry, always have and always will.

But you gotta admit, he caved, and then he cut us off, period. I love him but i will never give him money again. What does he need my money for?

Nonny was helping educate me because I ASKED.

What party do you support
DNC or DLC?

Did hillary CHOOSE DLC
or did dlc CHOOSE her?

posted really at 6:08PM Hawaii time

Is Kerry with DNC or DLC

and who set the tribbles loose at the DNC blog?
They are the ones driving away honest democrats...

Until the dems QUIT abiding and betting with the "OTHER" side we have learned and gained NOTHING! CAFTA passed by TWO votes..TWO votes! Norm Dicks just got a scathing letter from me as he's our rep in this district. No wonder we always come up short,take a back seat and have no red meat hanging out in front. The past few days have been so disgusting. C-span just viewed Frist, and the other reps stating; " how well the passing of the HW ,energy bill and working together with dems will bring great change over the next ten years. Then touted Bush's leadership(PUKE,PUKE and MORE PUKE)...We can work the lines, the phones,be involved to the extent our own daily lives become so disrupted and neglected,but until the dems begin to show LEADERSHIP we will LOSE and the money will just STOP coming in to help our cause and the important races to come!! The dems in the house and senate need to grow a stronger spine and get rid of the egg on the face image. CAFTA would never had passed if not for a few...actuallY TWO!!!!

We can work the lines, the phones, be involved to the extent our own daily lives become so disrupted and neglected, but until the dems begin to show LEADERSHIP we will LOSE and the money will just STOP coming in to help our cause and the important races to come!! The dems in the house and senate need to grow a stronger spine and get rid of the egg on the face image. CAFTA would never had passed if not for a few...actuallY TWO!!!!

Posted by: Patti Ferschke at July 29, 2005 12:14 AM

I feel exactly the same way!

Thus my questions...
Very hesitant, and unsure where
to plug in at.

only know I embrace this blog for it's...
"Quality of discussion!"

What party do you support
DNC or DLC?

Both

Did hillary CHOOSE DLC
or did dlc CHOOSE her?

Neither she chose the America I Love and Believe In.

faith I am a lawyer, business person, investor class, progressive, and believe none of those concepts are incompatible. We can be green, believe in equal justice and yet still invest in stocks. I screen my investments for profits, gains, and social values. I won't invest in Haliburton or Walmart even if Jim Kramer yells buy/buy/buy. My wife works in an executive position in a fortune 500 company and we appreciate the JK health plan and what it was intended to do for kids and how it would help American Corps. become more competitive with fewer burdens for healthcare. In fact Paul Krugmen wrote a great editorial yesterday talking about how Toyota left Alabama b/c of their poor public schools and 17% rise in healthcare costs and moved to Canada.
Chuck and I have had long convesrations about how the party and hoepfully those at the dcp will be more tolerant of us business dems. I am still supporting JK precisely b/c of his business ideas (along with many other great ideas) and would support Hillary if she becomes the nominee.I just don't believe she is the strongest candidate IF she decides to run, which i really don't expect.
I am not threatend by the DLC anymore than I am threatened by a Bob Casey, who will be a great Senator but whom I personally don't share his stand on abortion.
To have a nation that I can identify with will require a Democratic President and Congress who will only win if we become the big tent party we profess to be. I am not interested in garnering 48 or 49% of the vote because my candidate is not 100% pure in agreement. I took that position for a year on the JK site and I am sticking with it. I don't intend to be the polar opposite of the other side.

Can someone please explain why we as Progressives can not be Pro American Responsible Business? I have asked that question for months and no one has ever given me a response.

Note: I am probusiness but have posted 2 detailed posts today with quotes and detailed info on why we need to oppose the energy bill. It is not even pro energy independence and is opposed by the Heritage Foundation it is such a
joke. Sorry I have just not followed CAFTA and don't understand all of the objections and nuances to it. Just seems like Frist is trying to do exactly that. Ram through legislation before the public or Congress pays attention to it or completely understand what they are voting on.

I think the DNC / DLC business is crap, like the McCain / Bush. The former are all Dems, the latter are all Repubs. There are a middle group of people who might be torn between the left of the right and the right of the left, but that's not why John Kerry isn't President.

It's because the GOP can't be trusted near a voting booth and because they have business supporting their think tanks and demographic studies and helping them link to conservative churches.

There is a woman who blocked my email and used the Cheney F phrase to me just because I wouldn't agree with her about the DLC and DNC. So be it. There aren't enough liberals and progressives on the whole internet to swing the election alone - remember Dukakis? McGovern?

Democrats may be better at plugging their nose and voting than Republicans but it's only because they have to right now.

I will donate and work for the party even if there are only 20 of us left.

About CAFTA - it's not such a big deal - the countries they're talking about have the combined economy of one of our small states.

Now NAFTA - that was a big deal, and it wasn't even close like this.

It depends whether you want to keep your job in a car or textile plant or whether you want to see lentils to Castro.

Did hillary CHOOSE DLC
or did dlc CHOOSE her?
Posted by: faith1 at July 29, 2005 12:08 AM

I do not know the answer to that, but I wish I did!!!

I didn't invent the split between DNC and DLC.... I WISH there was NOT a split... more than I can possibly say. However, it exists, much to my horror and dismay; I have to attempt to reconcile that in my mind, and I'm not sure I can. I would far, far rather there be a unified Democratic party.

Quite frankly, I wasn't aware of the DLC being so strong or that so many Dems seem to be associated with them... and ignored the few stories about them that have mentioned the organization in the last few months... until the link about Hillary upsetting mainstream Dems for aligning herself with DLC and accepting the leadership position with them. When I read the info on the link that I posted for you, all kinds of lights went on in my head... and it explained more than I was aware of (and wish I didn't even know, now, because now I have to deal with the fact that there is a split that I wish didn't exist).

Everyone on this blog - and on other web sites and in articles newsletters provide - have lamented at length about the fact that so many of our Dem legislators have voted with the neoCons, which has upset all of us and left us all asking "WHY?" Each of us on this blog, in different ways, have been repeatedly wishing our Dem legislators would get some backbone and stand up for us, the American people, and stop siding with neoCons and big business... and I remember significant rants by several on this blog who have been just as upset as I have been about so many Dem legislators voting with the neoCons. IF those same legislators are allied with DLC and big business and their PACs, it says to me that those Dems will support legislation that favors the corporatization of America, and that they are not any different than the neoCons, other than the self-defined word "Democrat."

I have been in a major funk since reading Sirota's article.....

"Progressive" is a big euphemism - it started because people didn't want to admit they were "liberals" & I also know people who use it because they think the Democrats and Republicans are almost the same but they will vote for a very very "progressive" Democrat.

It's a big joke - because we're VOTING not RUNNING. I have a friend who says the candidate has to represent HIS values or he won't vote for them.

If I took that attitude I might never have voted. What's next? The candidate has to have my favorite color and favorite food? Or as my dad used to say, I won't vote for him if I don't like the way he parts his hair?

It would be different if America were still a "free country" "democracy" etc. LOL

No folks, sorry - I agree with my friend Emily who used to be in the Socialist party and now believes we have to move in "small incremental baby steps away from the right." Her first move is to counter the religious right, petition for petition. They stand on one street corner, she stands on the other.

We are in it for the long haul.

Faith1

Kerry is part of an organization that tried to get elected. We still don't have discovery on the machines, and can't prove what we need to for opinions to change. There were many stories of fraud, and they didn't all stack up, immediately, when the media and attention wanted instant solution. This fraud was complicated, long time in planning, and so, he didn't fall on the sword.

I was at a purist conference the day after the inauguration, and at DC when Ohio stood. Both events had harsh rhetoric about Kerry. As much as I would have liked him to be there to lead the charge amd have their hearts and minds in gratitude now, I can see both sides.

I'm with Ira. I don't want to suffer that pain again, or continue to feel constant frustration and doom from the purists who can never see the worth of a complicated candidate or a tough election, needing to get votes from the dumb, scared or misinformed.

We are the big tent party. How can we have an economy without busines, after all.

DiAnne I agree with most of what you say here.
"It's because the GOP can't be trusted near a voting booth and because they have business supporting their think tanks and demographic studies and helping them link to conservative churches"
There is the Chamber of Commerce crowd and the Elliot Spitzer crowd. There are green business investors and there are folks that want to shield gun manufacturers. To just say all people that believe in business are just wrong, let me just say we should agree to disagree.
An yes the Chamber and the RNC are funding scholarships for laws students and business students who believe in their crap and sending them to their think tanks.
But DiAnne if you read Don't Think of An Elephant a critical part of his book was his Lakoff's contention that our progressive business leaders are underfunding progressive think tanks, so too a certain extent we need more of their money to become competitive not less. Sarbanes/Oxley and the ADA are positive business initiatives that were supported by the DLC and opposed by the Chamber. All business folks are not alike, but again we can disagree without being disagreeable. I belive we had this exact discussion late one night in March if I am not mistaken, and no ones minds seem to have changed.
The church linkage and the violation of IRS regs chaps me DiAnne the most b/c no one is willing to take on that fight.

The DLC is because the Democrats lost the majority in Congress and Senate and had to work across party lines to accomplish anything.

We stopped being able to pick and choose in about 1992. The GOP controls all 3 branches of Congress, the Treasury, the military, the tax base, many governorships, the biggest churches, the media.

We need to win. The way to win is to vote as a bloc to keep all power we can in 2006, then a moderate Republican has to run in 2008 - to make the party split off and run a 3rd party candidate who is further to the right. Then we need a Democrat who can attract Independents (sorry - that will have to be somewhat moderate) and also the usual suspects (leftist nose pluggers).

By the way, my beliefs may be to the left of alot of people I know who say they won't vote Democrat or that they will vote in the generals only but won't work for one or donate. Those losers have no right to complain, as they, lacking pragmatism, are no more helpful than those apathetics who don't vote or who vote against their own interest.

I worked for McCarthy and McGovern. This is not the right country for that. 1 in 12 belongs to a union and 50 years ago it was 1 in 3. The AFL/CIO just splintered.

Alot of Dems became independent after Clinton lost. GOP is courting Latinos and blacks and
the "me generation" and their exurban families as we speak, urging corporations to donate to black churches, repealing estate tax for the rich and trying to privatize social security.

We don't have the luxury for this DLC vs DNC crap. It pollutes Democratic Underground and Kos.com and is a waste of time. Also the GOP opposition researchers will have a field day wedging open the gap, once identified.

After being 4JKB4IA I feel even stronger about all of this. I also live in the middle of "plug nose and vote Democrat at the last minute" land and agree with most of the pluggers on most issues, but they need to wise up.

I am not an advocate of the DLC but I don't think this is a hideously conservative Manifesto either:

The New Democrat Credo

In keeping with our party's grand tradition, we reaffirm Jefferson's belief in individual liberty and capacity for self-government. We endorse Jackson's credo of equal opportunity for all, special privileges for none. We embrace Roosevelt's thirst for innovation and Kennedy's summons to civic duty. And we intend to carry on Clinton's insistence upon new means to achieve progressive ideals.

We believe that the promise of America is equal opportunity for all and special privilege for none. We believe that economic growth generated in the private sector is the prerequisite for opportunity, and that government's role is to promote growth and to equip Americans with the tools they need to prosper in the New Economy.

We believe that government programs should be grounded in the values most Americans share: work, family, personal responsibility, individual liberty, faith, tolerance, and inclusion.

We believe in community; that we can achieve our individual destinies only if we share a commitment to our national destiny. We believe in an ethic of mutual responsibility in which government has an obligation to create opportunity for citizens, but citizens have an obligation to give something back to the commonwealth.

We believe America has a responsibility to lead the world toward greater political and economic freedom.

We believe that as advocates of activist government, we need to reinvent government so that it is both more responsive and more accountable to those it serves and to the taxpayers who pay for it.

REMEMBER - BILL CLINTON WON, at one time.

Before I go to sleep I would just like to know why the words business and corporations seem so dispised here? Do we not have friends, families, neighbors, working for, receiving healthcare, vacations and retirement benefits from "Corporations"; some of them might even be fortune 500 companies. Again Chuck if you are out there tonight help me; all corporations are not the enemy.

I just want to get a good night's sleep and figure out what more I can do this weekend to help Paul Hackett replace a right wing Republican Congress person in Ohio's Second District.Why are we once again getting so distracted when there is a real Congressional race next Tuesday?

Any takers?

Grover Norquist even says I am right - that Dems have to vote as a bloc. He is a Libertarian type who wants government flushed down a drain but he doesn't hate foreigners. He has to hang with Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum (and Michael Savage) who do. The Republicans have some real real real strange bedfellows, even more than we do, I think!

We can definitely get some of the Libertarians and Independents and should be able to attract some moderate Republicans. I'm sorry but the lefties will have to vote for whoever they get. I knew last time that they did not really "have the power to take back the White House." That was as much of a con as the GOP did on the fundies, letting them think Roe v Wade would be abolished or there'd be a national DOMA.

My son is right - the far left and far right get "used" but it's the middle that decides unless the election is very very close. Now that elections are rigged, it's getting hard to say what's going on.

Ira

I think it's the multinationals that are getting people up in arms. That makes it seem like corporations vs people. Those with a populist streak don't take that well. Also I think people are not considering enough the difference between a formerly industrial area and one that benefits more from free trade. There has to be a happy medium. We need to be "nuanced" not B&W like you know who.

I can name a good benevolent corporation.
Costco. They're the best!!

I also used to have my own business, and I did very very well under Clinton. Under these so-called "pro-business" guys I've pretty much had it go under, and now I'm just an "employee" who punches a time clock despite 14 years of post high school education.

sorry DiAnne I can't even agree with you here (LOL)
"I worked for McCarthy and McGovern"

Because I supported Bobby before McCarthy and worked as an 18 year old grunt in Austin's national McGovern Hdqtrs.What a memorable time in my life when there was real passion for politics. I lost a girlfriend over it b/c she thought my support of McGovern at the time was insane(30 years later she has had a change of heart-about McGovern, not our relationship).

Dianne: before I go to sleep I need to ask if you have read What's The Matter With Kansas?
One of the most humerous and pathetic premises in the book was his reference to how the working stiff(not exactly his words) have been used by the RNC convincing the $8/hr laborer that the RNC really cares about them. How in the world have we let blue collar workers believe that crap?
Al Gore was the last candidate with a Populist Message that I regret was not used last year. The RNC with their Pioneers and limousines appealing to blue collar workers, that's the lunacy we need to uncover and stop.

Ira
I completely support McCarthy and McGovern.
I just wouldn't work that hard for a candidate for the same reasons because now at this age I want us to win, period. Someone like McDermott is fine in Seattle and I love someone like Kucinich a whole lot but I do not believe they can win in the current US of A. It's the fault of the populace, to a large degree. I'm not going to make apologies for how they vote against their own interests. I could do the same thing.
I still admire McCarthy and McGovern and keep track of them (both have recent interviews). I just by now consider each issue rather than taking knee-jerk liberal or progressive positions. CAFTA is a perfect example and so is the DLC. Plenty of people know exactly how they feel about it but may not be "up" on them. I admit I'm not, so my feeling about them is not as strong.

Ira

You know - I need to read What's the Matter with Kansas and my son has been after me to do so for 6 months. It's sitting right on my coffee table and I'll get right on it. I've also read most of the Lakoff book. Thanks! You know the other night when I read the long article in the New Yorker about Doug Feith the Neocon? He was saying that Disraeli believed the workingman was basically conservative. The Grover Norquist was on NPR today (that's one reason why I'm obsessed with him - also read an article on him today) - he also talked about how most people who WILL NEVER BENEFIT from the repeal of the estate tax - support it's repeal. If they are told that the person is "taxed twice" - once when the money is earned, once when it's given to an heir, they think it's not fair, EVEN IF THE PERSON is worth over 3 million dollars and we'll have a 1 trillion deficit if the tax is repealed.

It never ceases to amaze me how people vote away their right to organize their labor, to have a decent education and healthcare and retirement. I also heard on NPR today about a region in West Virginia (I think) where 3 in 5 people do not have any health insurance. A bunch of medical people volunteer their time and take over a fairgrounds and do things like dental work & glasses fitting, mammograms and colonoscopies. Thousands of people show up and wait up all night to get in line for the health care.

I found it a damning story as far as this country and whether it's out of the Dark Ages or heading back in.

The rep congress and Bush's poll #'s are at the lowest ever,tanking so low we have a grip to be had....so why aren't the dems taking advantage of this time and show the necessary leadership the country so desperately wants? The people don't like what's happening to the U.S.A. as they see now,but they don't trust the dems to do anything better either.We've never been at a better vantage point and we BLOW it !!! So do we wait until the reps get the messaging for the 08'election and meanwhile the dems take all the crap thrown at us??
Sorry,but CAFTA "IS " a big deal. Siding with China and trade "IS" something that the effects will be felt for years to come. Norm Dicks represents one of the MOST liberal areas of Wa. State and voted for it..much to our dismay. The pain will come when it's totally out of anyone's control....our jobs,the environment....and workers....not to mention our security! Have you noticed that words ie "war on terror" have now been changed to "fundamental idealism"!If you agree with CAFTA(say the thugs) you're for "fair trade"(huh),but if you're against it you're a "protectionist". Watch out..08' will be here before we can say boo! Will we be ready? I don't think so. My rep friends that voted for JK/JE won't be here to support us again as "they" will find someone who "gets it." Not to mention the problem with voting machines and the Ohio debacle,which BTW, NO one wants to touch.

Ira
Last year the main populist was probably Gephart ("socialist with no eyebrows"), then Kucinich, then Edwards. I think Kerry picked some of it up, certainly more than you know who.

I don't know - my son said even McDermott is a free trader and that CAFTA will support our area because it'll open up new markets & that we aren't industrialized here (car and textile factories). I'm just saying..

I'm not even for CAFTA - just Devil's Advocate.
Did Norm Dicks say Why? How did McDermott vote?
(I've beeen working) Is it because this area benefits? Just curious.

CAFTA is supposed to have a smaller impact than NAFTA and NAFTA was passed much more overwhelmingly.

Patti
"Fundamental Idealism"?!! Yikes!!

--Off topic but any lawyers in the house?

http://citizenspook.blogspot.com/

Supposed to be a new angle on Rove. Don't know the statutes or the law. This is from Elizabeth.

Hasta La Vista!

If you don't stand for anything, you don't stand for anything! If you don't stand for something, you don't stand for anything!" —George W. Bush, Bellevue Community College, Nov. 2, 2000
"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." —George W. Bush, LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

"Reading is the basics for all learning." —George W. Bush, announcing his "Reading First" initiative in Reston, Va., March 28, 2000

You do the math! How in the HELL can people making 2 bucks an hr. buy our goods,let alone put food on the table? We don't need any more of their junk...IMO ! Walmartization "IS" what CAFTA's about to shut up the common folks in the USA telling us we "get cheap goods" so don't complain! Just wait till we all have to buy car parts from afar and laugh Detroit off the map! We're being sold down the river and outta sight!

Supposed to be a new angle on Rove. Don't know the statutes or the law. This is from Elizabeth.
Posted by: DiAnne at July 29, 2005 01:46 AM

:-) Fascinating!

I've been wondering if/when someone was going to hit their local law library or do an internet search of legal sites and look up criminal statutes that could/would apply to the leaking of Plame's identity. I'd love to see an in-depth analysis of federal statutes that could/would apply to this case (there must be many of them besides the ones that "citizenspook" referred to).

Calling All Vets/Calling All Vets/Calling Any Hackett Volunteers. This is a call to rms. URGENT,URGENT!
I just spoke with Patrick with the Hackett campaign at 513-735-4310 a few minutes ago.(last night)
Any help calling this weekend thru the Hamilton Cty. Ohio party will be appreciated.
Suz we have done this before they can use your help with cell calls this weekend. Any vets here can be especially helpful. They are still up for any volunteers to call them tonight its 11:20 pm in Ohio.
Lets send W and Rove a message next Tues. The Dems are back and we are coming to Clean Up D.C.
Help is on the Way with Paul Hackett.
All Volunteers willing to use their cell minutes this weekend need to please contact Patrick. Mention that you read about it on the dcp site and the name Ira.

Hackett for Congress
2nd Congressional District
27 N 2nd St
Batavia, Ohio 45103
(513) 735-4310

Calling All Vets/Calling All Vets/Calling Any Hackett Volunteers. This is a call to Arms. URGENT,URGENT!
I spoke with Patrick with the Hackett campaign at 513-735-4310 last night. Cell calling this weekend is needed.Contact him today, please.

Officials: Bush may appoint Bolton next week
President may use recess appointment to get his man at U.N.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush may use a recess appointment early next week to install John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, two senior administration officials told CNN Thursday.

The move would likely inflame some Democrats who have said Bolton doesn't have the temperament to hold the U.N. post.

The administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, refused to put an exact time frame on when the recess appointment might occur.

But they suggested the White House is planning to make the move as early as next week.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan hinted at the scenario Monday, saying it might be need for "people ... that have waited far too long to get about doing their business."

"If the Senate fails to act and move forward on those nominees," McClellan said, "then sometimes there comes a point where the president has needed to fill that in a timely manner by recessing those nominees."

more... http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/28/bolton.appointment/index.html

New post to help Castro 'demise'

Castro accuses the US of fomenting unrest in Cuba

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced the creation of a new post to help "accelerate the demise" of the Castro regime in Cuba.

Caleb McCarry, a veteran Republican Party activist, was appointed as the Cuba transition co-ordinator.

Ms Rice said for 50 years Fidel Castro had condemned Cubans to a "tragic fate of repression and poverty".

Mr Castro accuses the US of funding unrest and vowed that dissidents would never bring down his government.

'Castro's tyranny'

The post was recommended in a 2004 report on Cuba by a commission headed by Ms Rice's predecessor Colin Powell.

The report outlines the steps the US is prepared to take to bring about regime change in Cuba, such as subverting Mr Castro's plans to hand over power to his younger brother.

Introducing Mr McCarry at the State Department in Washington, Ms Rice said the US was working with advocates of democratic change on the island.

"We are working to deny resources to the Castro regime to break its blockade on information and to broadcast the truth about its deplorable treatment of the Cuban people," she said.

She said the aim of the effort was to "accelerate the demise of Castro's tyranny" on the Caribbean island, which he has ruled since 1959.

Earlier this week, in a speech marking the anniversary of the Cuban revolution, Mr Castro accused the US of financing dissidents and false propaganda.

"No other revolutionary process has been able to count on as much consensus and overwhelming support as the Cuban revolution has," he told supporters in Havana.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4726301.stm

Posted by: monkey at July 29, 2005 08:45 AM

Got hubris? Oh yeah, this regime has plenty of it. It stinks that they would go ahead with Bolton, especially since they have acknowledged that he lied about (oh sorry, in their parlance "mistakenly omitted") the fact that he testified in front of the Grand Jury in the Rover case. (And need I mention all the other reasons why he's totally wrong for the position?)

But you know, even if they do appoint Bolton, that doesn't minimize his involvement or stop Fitzgerald from uncovering just what role Bolton played in this mess. Perhaps there will be enough to indict him as well...then let's see how this regime "spins" that...

(Go ahead, monkey and sing me a few bars of "Daydream Believer"...)

http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2005/07/federal-law-suit-to-reform-ohio.html

On the other hand, it makes absolute sense that Bolton would get a promotion in this regime; he has met the qualifications of lying to Congress...

State Dept admits Bolton gave inaccurate answers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department reversed itself on Thursday night and acknowledged that President Bush's U.N. ambassador nominee gave Congress inaccurate information about an investigation he was involved in.

The acknowledgment came after the State Department had earlier insisted nominee John Bolton's "answer was truthful" when he said he had not been questioned or provided information to jury or government investigations in the past five years.

"When Mr. Bolton completed his form during the Senate confirmation process he did not recall being interviewed by the State Department inspector general. Therefore his form as submitted was inaccurate in this regard and he will correct the form," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Earlier, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said he had information Bolton was interviewed as part of a State Department-CIA joint investigation on intelligence lapses that led to the Bush administration's pre-Iraq war claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger.

--snip--
"A recess appointment of a man who did not tell the truth to the (Senate Foreign Relations) committee and only admitted the truth when he was caught would send a horrible message," Boxer wrote.

"It seems unusual that Mr. Bolton would not remember his involvement in such a serious matter. In my mind, this raises more questions that need to be answered. I hope President Bush will not make the mistake of recess appointing Mr. Bolton," Biden said in response to the admission that Bolton's information was inaccurate.
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1068664&tw=wn_wire_story

My son has set the alarm - it's radio & he's not turning it off. I can hear the crying mother of a man who came back from Iraq and shot himself - he had to wait months for a mental health appt at the VA for PTTS. Our region has been doing a good job of publicizing the dire straits our VA is in with this influx of returnees with problems, and Senator Patty Murray is a great advocate.

Sorry, on to another hot nomination topic...Roberts. Check this out from the LA Times... Let's see how they'll get around this one...

Privilege Claim May Not Apply to Roberts Papers
# His ex-boss, Kenneth Starr, won a ruling against the protection during Whitewater.

By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The White House is citing the attorney-client privilege as the basis for refusing to reveal memos written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. when he was representing the government before the high court. At the time, Roberts was the top deputy to Solicitor Gen. Kenneth W. Starr.

But it is not clear that this legal privilege shields the work of government lawyers from the eyes of government investigators — thanks to a legal ruling won by Starr himself, when he was independent counsel investigating President Clinton.

Usually, the attorney-client privilege protects private lawyers from being forced to reveal what their clients told them. It also shields their notes and memos from prosecutors. This rule of secrecy is seen as vital to the adversarial process.

But in 1996, Starr challenged the notion that White House lawyers who worked for Clinton could invoke the attorney-client privilege when Starr sought notes they had written.

Starr argued that the lawyers worked for the people of the United States, not for the president.

Democrats are making a similar argument in Roberts' case: that the solicitor general represents the public interest.

http://tinyurl.com/clvmc

NC Legislator from textile family votes for CAFTA, following pressure from Hastert:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/29/AR2005072900209.html

It's not a B/W issue and with corruption rampant, wouldn't want to be one of these government officials, between a rock & a hard place!
Many are up for election soon, so it's time for voters to speak up!

Republican Senate leader snubs Bush on stem cells

WASHINGTON, July 28 - In a break with President Bush, the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, has decided to support a bill to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, a move that could push it closer to passage and force a confrontation with the White House, which is threatening to veto the measure, the New York Times reports Thursday. Excerpts follow.

more... http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Republican_Senate_leader_snubs_Bush_on__0728.html

Our DSL is down at the house, so I am just catching up on all of the discussions here. I want to respond to several:

Can someone please explain why we as Progressives can not be Pro American Responsible Business? I have asked that question for months and no one has ever given me a response.

Posted by: Ira at July 29, 2005 12:27 AM

I think Ira that my particular issue is not with responsible business. And JK certainly was not--ever--against such. The issue with the DLC that I have (and this is MY opinion only!)is the level of compromise they have had to make with large, multinational corporations that--too-often-- believe they can then call the legislative shots. ENRON is hardly an anomoly, altho' they were arrogant in the extreme.

I have written about this before, but one of my original political wake up calls was a time when DIck and I were riding in the car and listening to NPR--it was early in the Enron revelations. I asked him "When did we begin to conflate the notions of democracy and capitalism?"

He thought for a bit and said that he thought it was around 1883, when the SCOTUS decided that a corporation could have the same access to redress and tax breaks as an individual.

So corporations, to put it simply, have many of the rights of a citizen, with very little of the responsibilities of a citizen.

The inherent greediness that is produced as a result of this imbalanace is, IMHO, a good part of our current dilemma. The "death tax", the coporate power grabs, the campaign finance laws, and the K St. lobbying culture are all evidence of a democracy gone mad with greed.

"All pigs are equal, but some are more equal than others."

Workers followed up with the labor movement, attempting (and in many cases succeeding) to rebalance the economic power, such that profits in a business benefitted the workers and not only the stockholders.

So, in answer to DiAnne's question--and we had a good talk with Tom-our-friend-and-former-labor-organizer the other night about this--the split in the AFL-CIO is both good and bad, according to Tom. It's good because it's a wake-up call that the unions need to pay some attention to the people and their needs. It's bad because it divides an already-weakened labor movement. It's also bad because it gives the bosses joy.

As at any crisis point, there is also opportunity. I listened to Dennis Kucinich the other day with, perhaps, more idealism than I can remember having recently. I find I tend to take a great deal of comfort these days from JK, DK, Lynne Woolsey, Bill Moyers, John Conyers, Dean, Ted Kennedy, and others--Voinovich too, at the moment he spoke up--who seem to never give up.

(And faith--it is not well known at all how JK did not give up behind the scenes--he investigated Ohio, Florida, New Mexico, and other states relentlessly--had they been able to pursuade people to talk--and they tried MIGHTILY--we would be in a different scenario now)

I am not touting the Democrats here over the Republicans, or any particular party or ideology--I am begging us to look at the merits of an argument first, to step back from our prejudices and long-held beliefs about religion, culture, and politics and to look down the road at the possible EFFECTS of our choices now.

I agreed with Dennis Kucinich the other day when he said that cynicism is the enemy. We need to be thinking about strategy, not for winning the battle, but for changing the world.

So, I propose that whenever we get bogged down here about one ideology or definition over another and begin to quibble among ourselves--that whenever any of us begins to feel like we are with the wrong tribe here at the DCP and goes out looking for just the "right" belief system, that we try to step back and take the long view.

We are a community (and this is true of ALL our communities) NOT because we all agree with each other all the time, or even because we identify with the group, but because we take the time to COMMUNE, and we find COMMON ground, and then we COMMUNICATE that to other groups and individuals.

Democracy is messy and challenging and fascism can be comforting, yes it can.

We are all and each working out a lot of stuff here. That's as it should be. The very very hopeful part of this journey is that there is a lotta love here. Even though many of us have never met each other, we have seen the content of the hearts here (to channel MLK).

That is the most important part of learning. To listen, consider, seek to understand, to struggle.

Jacob struggled with the angel in order to learn--to me that is a metaphor for our time as well. We are all struggling with angels. We seek the blessings of a just and wise world. We have to hang in there, we simply have to.

Karen: I believe you read my post yesterday talking about the lousy energy bill and how exEnron execs are poised to run a Wyoming Clear Coal Plant under this bill and how the Heritage Folks are railing about how bad this bill is and its pork laiden upon pork and how it does nothing for energy independence. So I am not a knee jerk business propoent nor was JK.We have a bright line we won't cross.

As a lawyer I am incensed with the latest Gun Mfg protection bill, and yes I hope there is a bright line Dems won't cross about gun corp protection, asbestosis abusers protection and Pioneer give A Ways in the energy bill. Unfortunately it is also filled with ethanol subsidies and heartland Dems won't oppose that.

Again folks my message today Karen and others is to 'Please' call today and help the Hackett campaign by making free cell calls this weekend and letting families andd friends know its not too late to contribute.

Ira, I read ALL the posts and value each one.

As you know, the DCP is nonprofit and nonpartisan so we cannot endorse a particular candidate for office, although we can highlight good actions when they occur. As participants however, you are free to state your opinions about candidates and to tell others why you support them. You have been an indefatigable voice for justice and progressive and sane values and I hope you continue to speak your mind and heart for a long time to come.

I have written about this before, but one of my original political wake up calls was a time when DIck and I were riding in the car and listening to NPR--it was early in the Enron revelations. I asked him "When did we begin to conflate the notions of democracy and capitalism?"

He thought for a bit and said that he thought it was around 1883, when the SCOTUS decided that a corporation could have the same access to redress and tax breaks as an individual.

Posted by: Karen at July 29, 2005 09:48 AM

Good one Karen! I've always thought of the blur between democracy and capitalism as one being produced by confrontations with communist dictatorships.

As we know, there have been PLENTY of capitalist economies ruled by dictatorships as well. Like most of Latin America, especially the likes of Nicaragua (and we are joining their ranks fast, politically and economically, at our current pace). In Asia, South Vietnam was one, and so were South Korea and Taiwan (the latter two are now more democratic, fortunately).

In fact, the only capitalist economies that were democratic were, in my books, most of Western Europe (excluding Franco's Spain), plus Canada, Australia, and NZ. I won't count South Africa because of its apartheid history.

O.K., Mama K.

You are right. Whoever chose the issues people will fight over and polarize over, did his homework.

Like Dick said a while back: "We have to get out there and cry 'The Redcoats are coming, the Redcoats are coming!!!!!' " If they can keep us splintered over ideology, they can take us down for the count.

And here, at the DCP, we get to see Democracy in Action! We all get along, then we swat each other because some of our ideologies are at opposite ends of the chart. Welcome to democracy, folks! :) Once in awhile I feel
like runnin' to the hills myself, to be with people who are just like ME. :)

Yes, we are learning. And we have a ways to go.

I really think we have a chance now agin' them Redcoats, but it might be our last one. Make it count!!

Jeez, it is so nice Karen, to have leadership that is wise! You know what's going on in this process, even when we don't. Thank goodness!

Ally,

You've got mail. Code Pink.

My hot and hunky representative voted against CAFTA even after pressure from Microsoft. He's so cool! (Jay Inslee in case you are wondering from WA)

Karen:

"As you know, the DCP is nonprofit and nonpartisan"

Just want you to know that I fully respect our nonprofit status (unlike the fundamentalist churches) and I am doing everything I can to respect that, abide by that,and not cross that line. That is why I didn't post the fundraising link as tempting as that is.

Please tell me if and when I cross that bright line. I am a passionate supporter of Progressive folks especially was heroes like Paul Hackett and will do everything I can within the parameters of this site and your's, Casey's, and dick bell's guidelines.

We as bloggers will be endorsing candidates from time to time hopefully as long as we don't link fundraising sites we are being OK with this site. Chuck and I had a long talk about this very issue and perhaps some day we can talk in further detail. Thanks for your understanding, Ira.

Good one Karen! I've always thought of the blur between democracy and capitalism as one being produced by confrontations with communist dictatorships.

Posted by: AllyMcLesbian at July 29, 2005 10:19 AM

Ally,

I am going to try and get a hold of a script from a play Howard Zinn wrote called "Marx in Soho", in which the character of Marx is kicked out of heaven by Plato and the gang because they cannot stand him another minute--he is sent back to Soho--but it is Soho NY, not London.

He muses about exactly what you state--how communism went so bad and capitalism prevailed.

In the ideological wars between communism and capitalism, both stray far from the ideals that originally created them as systems. But capitalism was helped greatly by the courts and power structures that democracy created, or allowed to be created. And communism was hurt by the same greed that drives good men and women to amass power against that of the neighbors'.

I often wonder what we do with pure democracy if we ever got it? Would it work? Could we even HANDLE it?

Maybe it's the discussions and struggles THEMSELVES that get us to truth and justice. I wonder...

Ira --

While the DCP cannot endorse candidates due to our non-profit status, no organization, DCP included, has the right to tell individuals if and how to support a candidate of their choosing.

The blog is an expression of a multitude of individual voices, and you are all entitled to share your opinion.

Keep swinging.

The DCP will worry about crossing the lines:)

Thanks, Karen, for your wisdom, as always!

We have to remember that the other side has not always been, and is not even today, totally united around every issue. They have moderates and extreme-ists just as we do. They had more folks vote against CAFTA than we had vote for it (that's a simplified example, but an example nonetheless:) They just happen to be in power right now.

We can't fall back into the trap of the previous cycle of grasping at straws for a candidate, and giving the impression that we're voting for anyone who isn't W. I hear that again here - we just want them out of power - we don't care who we get as long as it's not "them". That's exactly what they want us to think, because it makes us act irrationally.

I think we've been saying here that we want an independent thinker, someone who speaks truth to power, someone who is honest. Will we agree with them on every issue? No - of course not. But the reason LOTS of people will vote for McCain is just that. He's an independent thinker. I have many conservative Rethug aquaintances who repeatedly say to me - if only McCain had won...or if only McCain would run... Do we agree with him on everything? No. On some things? yes. Same goes for the other side. He's lost the honesty card now, but you get my drift?

We can dislike what someone does some of the time without kicking them out of the family. We are a family - dems and indys(here)- dedicated to honest government for the good of our people, the country and the world. If you don't feel comfortable donating to the party, then donate to the local candidates, like Ira's Paul Hackett (today), or my Jason Altmire('06), or the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. But don't let the redcoats win by discouraging you from participating in the process.

end of rant!

What party do you support
DNC or DLC?

Is Kerry with DNC or DLC

Posted by: faith1 at July 28, 2005

I support the Democratic Party-- the party of the people.

Kerry is with the people.

I wish we would stop thinking of ourselves in factions like this-- it's weird.

On another note, I think the posts are great today, and Ira-- thanks for posting the info on Hackett. I will do everything I can for him, and I'm contacting an old friend in Ohio who I know is a devoted Democrat.

I liked the quote on the main page today:
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." Edmund Burke

I was sitting here musing about our family. It's Friday, so how about a little light thought from one who has been wrestling angels this week.

I was thinking, we can't be the odd couple, but,
picture this....Us in a cartoon setting of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (I said it was Friday.....) Who gets to be Happy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Grumpy, etc? Yes, it's been a longgg week.

Here we go - "High Ho, High Ho, it's off to work we go..., the Redcoats are coming, the Redcoats are coming........"

TSP,
Today I am SLEEPY...

And a little SNEEZY too.

Heading home to see if the DSL has returned...

Love you ALL!

Bye Karen, Have a good weekend.

Gee, I've been reading the whole thread.

About CAFTA, we are just doing the opposite in France, in order to protect our big companies. I won't say I like the expression used by our PM, Dominique de Villepin (you know, the guy who opposed Bush in UN about the Irak war and got applauses, which had never ever happened before) but you don't have to read it in the Bush's way.
He talked about "economical patriotism" in order to save local jobs and big companies...from raiders. This started with PepsiCo/Danone....but there were too many small farmers, local workers and small share holders involved.
So now, we're gonna have a law agaisnt the big, big companies who only rely upon profit and don't care about workers.

http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/067/article_37770.asp

Yes, it's in French, but at least you have the picture of my handsome PM, a writer and a poet too. I don't think George would be able to catch a word out of 50, of what he writes or says.

Karen -

The link on the main page to the MoveOn Rove slogan thing works, but if you enter a slogan/comment that way, it shows up with your (Karen Bradley, Washington DC) name by it.

Thought you'd want to know!

PS - if anyone wants to post a slogan, do it through your own connection to the site.

Excellent thread, guys! Really great!

I'm in on Hackett. Great idea Amy, and Indy and everyone here is full of ideas and inspiration, and fightin' spirit!

BTW, I was in on Hackett on pricinpal about two weeks ago. Then I saw his opponent, and gave a little more--she's a pond bottom feeder. Then I saw Paul Hackett speak. I'd vote for him for President. Just LOVED the guy.