I Don't Know Who You Are, But I Thank You.

HeHe.. I just wrote this piece check it out.

How to talk to a bush supporter,.. If you MUST.

http://rebellenation.blogspot.com/2005/10/hey-busheviks-whos-your-daddy.html

Polly,

Good idea!!

Something positive is just what the Dr. ordered.

My we add our thank-you's?

Or, err, may we add our thank-you's?

Okay, Shrub is under 40 percent in two national news polls and Zogby. NOW will the MSM call him unpopular or are we waiting for the 10% who still think the moon landing was a hoax?

FYI….The AP poll was my local paper’s lead story today, with the headline “Bush Loses Ground”. Of course my paper chose Kerry, but hey it’s a start.

Poll: Groups unhappy with Bush performance

By WILL LESTER
Associated Press Writer

The president’s overall job approval is at 39 percent - with 21 percent strongly approving.

The number of people who strongly approve of Bush’s job performance has eroded over the last year, most notably among key groups like evangelical voters, down from 49 percent who strongly approved in January to 33 percent now; Republican men, down from 57 percent to 42 percent; Protestants, down from 36 percent to 25 percent; and Southerners, down from 32 percent to 22 percent.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_AP_POLL?SITE=FLDAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

"The base" is down to 21% then - those that see a think the halo US News & World Report put on his head is real.

Here are some fairly interesting Howard Dean plottings and schemings:

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1005/267005.html

Posted by: not my president at October 8, 2005 06:37 PM

Sounds like he's heard about the DCP.

:-)

Thought this was an appropriate tune. Let the imploding begin~

The Harder They Come, The Harder They Fall
- Jimmy Cliff

Well they tell me
There’s a pie in the sky
Waiting for me when I die
But between the day
You're born and when you die
Oh Lord, they never
Seem to hear even your cry

And as sure as the sun will shine
I’m gonna get my share of what’s mine
And then

The harder they come
The harder they fall
One and all
Oh the harder they come
The harder they fall

Well the oppressors are trying
To get me down, trying to drive me
Under the ground, and they think
That they have got their battle won
I say: "forgive 'em Lord
They no not what they’ve done"

And as sure as the sun will shine
I’m gonna get my share of what’s mine
And then

And I keep on fighting for
The things I want, though I know
That when you’re dead, man you're gone
But I’d rather be a free man in my grave
Oh, than living like a puppet or a slave

And as sure as the sun will shine
I’m gonna get my share of what’s mine
And then

The harder they come
The harder they fall
One and all
Oh the harder they come
The harder they fall

Truth Shall Prevail

I think what DCP is doing is complementary but I hope we can pull in not just Democrats but Independents, dissident/questioning Republicans and those hoping to vote Green, etc.

I predict that both the Demoratic and Republican parties will be very split during the primaries and so there will be attempts to pull both further left, right and even to form third parties. In the end, it will come down to two individuals, and some will back them strongly and others with noses plugged (either one or both nostrils).

I really hope that a progressive agenda is developed which will work for a really "big tent" - there are so many who could benefit and may not be aware of it.

Posted by: not my president at October 8, 2005 08:17 PM

I think you are correct, in fact, I have already seen alot of the splintering in the past year. Seems most folks at this stage want to cluster with like kind, be it far left, left, moderate, right, far right, etc.

Now that you mention it, I can see that is exactly what is happening, and people at this stage on the internet(S) are dis-satisfied and feeling isolated in their groups, clusters, or as we call them here at the DCP, their cell groups.
Why? Maybe because the stage is not yet here where they all raise their voices in unison behind one candidate.

Hmm. Interesting. For this thing to work we have to continue to get out there and get our cell groups bonding and reaching out to others in accelerated fashion.

I am seriously moving, and then I'll have more chance to grow a cell group when I have more to talk to than fundamentalist religious people and cows. At least the cows are still talking to me, LOL.

And, from my point of view, everything is looking up from there, LOL.

And, you know, hats off to the DCP, too, and to each of us, because we are about as diverse a group as anyone will ever see, aren't we?

Your statement made me think of something else, too.....maybe a reason lurkers don't jump in here sometimes is because from day to day they may not be sure who they are identifying with. We are very diverse, like a democracy and free country is and should be. However, in the beginning stages of learning new and different information, it is critical, I think, that we trust our sources, and that we have some idea of who it is we are joining ranks with. Onlookers from day to day here read posts by all of the above - hard left, left, moderates, conservatives, and well, very conservative.

I wonder if there is a way we could advertise to more people, and have subsections, or sub-blogs?
And we could have a news blog, and a question and answer section in the IRC, something like that.

Then we could have a big blog where we all share once a week, or once every other week, or something like that, but we can all read what other people are doing. The forum also plays a big part in the subsections, I am sure.

Just thinking....

One of the best things about this place is that we are diverse, but we are strong individuals who are not afraid to say what we think and mean. And I have learned alot from everyone....ALOT.....
Things like, to be more tolerant of views other than my own. To speak my mind, and temper my manner (still working on that one), and how to be brave enough to jump in there and participate and develop a voice as I learn new information. When we have had our disagreements, thinking back on it, it was usually a disagreement between a person from one "station" if you will, and a person from another "station". We have all survived it though, and are better for it.

Posted by: Christy at October 8, 2005 03:21 PM

Good job!

Vatican to allow gay priests

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/10/07/gay-priests1007.html

Hmmm how is America going to deal with this?

Truth Shall Prevail

It's interesting this time because the 2006 elections are so important. There is the question of cheating in 2000 and 2004 so there is vigilance and skepticism. There is the realizatoin that the right wants to consolidate power in all 3 branches of government and permanently. So maybe people will work more together than usual and be pragmatic.

For 2008, it's also going to be very chaotic just because both the Democrats and Republicans don't have any incumbent. Bush is a "lame duck" so someone else will have to be selected. I can see that the Republicans will have a mad scramble, with some wanting a moderate and others an arch conservative. Then there will be the business and social factions - hard to find a candidate pleasing to each. Then the Democrats will also be torn between their moderate and liberal elements and then there will be the radical fringe (who often aren't as "out there" as they like to think, but sometimes so idealistic they aren't practical). There will be the whole dynamic about whether we need a strong honest message or whether we want to be all things to all people.

It's going to be wild! I think this time I'd like to think in terms of issues and what makes sense and less in terms of people or personality, then become more partisan and focussed as it comes closer to the big moment. I think alot of people will feel that way. But when it gets down to brass tacks, I've never wanted to be single-issue because I think it's unrealistic. It comes down to the best candidate overall.

I really don't want to be thinking about it too much yet but it just seems like people are already jockeying for position. It's impossible to tell how much of this disagreement about Miers, this distancing from Rove or Delay, and criticism of the current administration from their party members is sincere and how much is about positioning for elections. & then all the local candidates (such as Congressmen and Senators) have to please their constituents. So you get a "liberal" like Patti Murray trying to get alot of military funds, you get some "conservatives" trying to open up agricultural markets to people Bush doesn't favor, etc.

Posted by: not my president at October 8, 2005 08:17 PM

not my president...make sure you sign the dcp progresive pledge!

My great hope for the DLC is to rewrite a NEW contract for America. Then we'll have a chance!
Watched the c-span maraton today where Randi Rhodes spoke spoke "truth to power". She had the moderators cracking up,thinking ,and wondering why she hadn't ever been on before. Watch for a repeat performance. She brought up how Brownie perjured himself last week and how Bush has repealed the working law in N.O.. The right went crazy, in denial of their beloved pres,but Randi held on for a great ride...all the way home!!

I wonder how many on the right even know that their beloved President repealed the working law in New Orleans.

Step right up, folks, got yer slave labor right here. When you have lost everything and need to start over and are hanging on by your teeth, these compassionate hearers of God kick ya in the slats.

I think somebody mistook God's voice for a cash register. Ka-Ching. (Oh, don't make me go there....)

I heard it's 25th anniversary of C-span.

Re New Orleans, head hunters are also recruiting as many skilled workers from there as they can - physicians, nurses etc. Also skilled laborers and building contractors.

Even if it's rebuilt, it will have a large segment devoted to tourism and so a large service industry. Many of those people were and will remain uninsured as far as health care, so they'll need to rebuild the two charity hospitals that are damaged beyond repair. Right now they're using a big sort of tent.

Saturday Night Live has a funny satire improv bit with "Harriet Miers and President Bush"...

friend says:

BUSH IS TRYING TO DISTRACT US WITH SMOKE AND MIRRORS

WHEN HIS POLICIES AND ACTIONS ARE KILLING OUR COUNTRY HE WANTS US TO BE CONSUMED WITH A FLU THAT HAS KILLED 60 PEOPLE IN TOTAL.  WHAT ABOUT THE THOUSANDS THAT HAVE DIED IN IRAQ.  MAYBE WE SHOULD BE MORE WORRIED ABOUT THAT.

Or how about going to Mars?!

Conservative British newspaper, The Business, had this to say yesterday:

"This newspaper is second to none in its pro-American sentiments; in the early Bush years it devoted much ink to defending the President against the often malevolent and ignorant attacks of a congenitally anti-American European media. But we know a lost cause when we see one: the longer President Bush occupies the White House the more it becomes clear that his big-government domestic policies, his preference for Republican and business cronies over talented administrators, his lack of a clear intellectual compass and his superficial and often wrong-headed grasp of international affairs – all have done more to destroy the legacy of Ronald Reagan, a President who halted then reversed America’s post-Vietnam decline, than any left-liberal Democrat or European America-hater could ever have dreamt of. As one astute American conservative commentator has already observed, President Bush has morphed in the Manchurian Candidate, behaving as if placed among Americans by their enemies to do them damage."

I picked this up off Andrew Sullivan's site. He was on Bill Maher this week and he was brilliant, and to be commended for his patriotism and his brand of faith. I don't always agree with him, and I generally don't like to see him on Maher because he has that Republican-scripted shout-over thing down pat. However, he managed to be conversational this week instead of in-your-face, and as a result he won my respect, so I visited his site.

Posted by: DiAnne at October 8, 2005 09:09 PM

This is at odds with what Benedict wants though... Benedict was flushing gays out of all American seminaries!

I need to make sense out of all these news items.

"9) Frank Sinatra because he was Frank Sinatra."

Frank recorded this song sixty years ago this year.

The House I Live In

What is America to me
A name, a map, a flag I see
A certain word, democracy
What is America to me?

The house I live in
A plot of earth, a street
The grocer and the butcher
Or the people that I meet

The children in the playground
The faces that I see
All races and religions
That’s America to me

The place I work in
The worker by my side
The little town the city
Where my people lived and died

The howdy and the handshake
The air of feeling free
And the right to speak my mind out
That’s America to me

The things I see about me
The big things and the small
That little corner newsstand
Or the house a mile tall

The wedding and the churchyard
The laughter and the tears
And the dream that’s been a growin
For a hundred and fifty years

The town I live in
The street, the house, the room
The pavement of the city
Or the garden all in bloom

The church, the school, the clubhouse
The million lights I see
But especially the people
- yes especially the people
That’s America to me!

Now instead of "Is the Pope Catholic?", I'll say "Is the Pope gay?"

Here is a review of a book I've read, called "Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence."

http://www.mountainpridemedia.org/oitm/issues/1986/12dec1986/nuns.htm

In alot of parts of the world, one way to get away from harassment if you were gay or lesbian might be to join some sort of cloistered order. Or if you want to join a same-sex environment, how about the military!!

I had a friend who was a very naughty girl and her mother said, "There are islands where girls like you are sent" and she said, "really?!!!"

9) Frank Sinatra because he was Frank Sinatra

On my birthday one year, I was told to "dress to the nines" but not told where I was going.

When we drove to the Hilton in Reno I saw FRANK SINATRA on the lighted marquee. I was so excited because I had always wanted to see him perform in person.

I had been to other floor shows, but Frank's was different. The man was brilliant - and oh, so talented. He had the electricity and showmanship to change the mood of the entire room with each song. Before he sang each song, he gave an introduction of the writers, producers, and the year of origin, then told a little story about it.

Up till then I always liked his singing, but thought he was a good singer who got lucky, maybe because he had connections.

I found out differently. The man was a superb artist. So incredibly talented that words cannot adequately do him justice.

9) Frank Sinatra because he was Frank Sinatra

My Fave:

One for My Baby (from "Duets")

Writer(s): Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen

It's quarter to three,
There's no one in the place 'cept you and me
So set 'em' up Joe
I got a little story I think you should know

We're drinking my friend
To the end of a brief episode
Make it one for my baby
And one more for the road

I got the routine
Put another nickel in the machine
Feeling so bad
Can't you make the music easy and sad

I could tell you a lot
But you gotta to be true to your code
Just make it one for my baby
And one more for the road

You'd never know it
but buddy I'm a kind of poet
And I've got a lot of things I'd liketo say
And when I'm gloomy, won't you listen to me
Till it's all, all talked away

Well, that's how it goes
And Joe I know you're gettin' anxious to close
So Thanks for the cheer
I hope you didn't mind
My bending your ear

But this torch that I found
It's gotta be drowned
Or it soon might explode
So make it one for my baby
And one more for the road