Happy Birthday to Violet!

Happy Birthday Violet!!!

H - A - P - P - Y Birthday, Violet!!!

Happy b-day v-babe!

!!!Happy Day!!!

I'd like to second Mr. Bell's special thank you to Violet as expressed in the above thread header.

Two years ago the Democracy Cell Project rose phoenix-like from the ashes of a certain Senator from Massachusett's candidate-for-office blog. It took on a life of its own, a mission of its own, and a role in the small-d progressive blogosphere that still exceeds anyone's expectations for it.

The DCP started out as a shoestring grassroots effort by a handful of dedicated believers who just plain refused to let something so special as the virtual community that had developed around that old purpose-driven blog die an entropic death.

And now? The DCP is still here. We're still here. More importantly, YOU'RE still here -- that very special virtual community is still here, and its unique voice is still being heard.

And you know what? None of that could have come to pass without the seemingly endless efforts of our own multi-talented, over-achieving, non-shrinking Violet here.

So give her a heck of a big hand, you guys, because she sure as heck deserves it... and then some.

What can we say:

Violet ROCKS.

BIG APPLAUSE!!

STANDING OVATION!!

You GO Girl.

Happy birthday violet....
May there be many many more.
Thank you for all you have done.

Happy Birthday, Violet!!! :-)

May your sorrows in life be very few, and may the happiness you've given others and the good you've done for others come back to you ten-fold in a very long and very satisfying life!

Happy birthday, Violet!!

Bonne anniversaire à toi, mon amie...merci très beaucoup!

Happy Birthday DW.

Happy Birthday Violet! Enjoy the day!

KJ...

So let me get this straight...

If I even mention the word 'impeachment' again you will just take your ball and go home...?

And EVERY TIME I mention it, you will just refuse to hear any of it...and 'log off'?

What an interesting reaction.

Most certainly since you, yourself, admit he has committed impeachable offenses.

I am sorry if the word makes you uncomfortable, but I 'feel' that is an unfortunate condition we all suffer from in one form or another.

He has committed impeachable offenses, that is not in dispute.

What is in doubt is our ability to uphold our own Constitution and impeach him.

'In his prepared remarks, Gonzales dismissed as "myth" the charge that civil liberties were being sacrificed in the fight against terrorism.'

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/18/gonzales.ap/index.html

interesting article on Segelene Royal of France - I talked to several friends in France today who are Socialist and yes they're glad to have a potential first woman President. They also felt she is a weak candidate though, too much of a demagogue and without a firm enough platform. It sounded like if we got a candidate who was progressive but not viable for winning. Sarkozy will be formidable because he's the "law and order" type and there are quite a few concerns about the high rate of immigration. It's hard for an influx of immigrants to compete in a very competitive society with a shrinking tax base and an aging demographic. It's a little familiar to an American!

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2241698,00.html

that's the link about Segalene Royal - very interesting as it references blogs as well as periodicals. LA Times also had a good article on it today.

Christy
Mark Barrett discusses Gonzales tonight at http://wwwthepremise.com

Woo Hoo! Happy birthday, Violet!

I hope you have had / are having a great day!

And thanks, Christy, for making sure to drag the previous thread's worn-down thrash over to this one as well.

Ahem.

Good article on Pelosi - I'm lovin it with more women in politics. Love having a woman governor and both Senators women in WA.

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2006/11/16/ap3183091.html

I read that Claire McKaskill did well because of the urban vote coming in from St. Louis and Kansas City. The vote is skewed in favor of rural voters since sparsely populated rural states have the same Senate representative as highly population states with large population centers. Some states will start to turn bluer as their population centers increase, such as New Mexico. The suburban voters also started to turn away from the conservative tickets this time.

This is the tale end of a long, long piece on Carville. It's scary.

top story now at http://www.thepremise.com

James Carville sleeps with a woman who would gladly throw every member of the Democratic Party to the wolves if she could. She’s already helped launch a war, she’s unrepentant in sticking up for people like Dick Cheney, and to my mind it doesn’t matter whether she’s doing it out of a deep sense of personal commitment or simply because it pays the bills. That’s who she is, and that’s who James Carville spends his time with, and whether they talk about politics at home or not, that says something about him.

What it says is that the Democratic Party shouldn’t trust him.

– Mark Barrett

Thanks for the link to Mark's article on Carville, DiAnne. It just serves to remind us why, in the final analysis, we should never assume that man is on anybody's side except his own.

Is he smart? Is he savvy? Yes.

But can we trust him? No.

and you can take that to the bank (but not his),
Otter

Posted by: DiAnne at November 18, 2006 10:47 PM

Ha ha. I could see FOX salivating over the exact reverse statement made about Mary Matalin. And yet they trust her...

Happy, happy birthday to my dear (virtual) friend. Someday (soon, I hope), we're going to meet in person & share a (huge) glass of wine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIOLET!
Hope your day was filled with joy and that you have many, many more just as special.
A votre sante!

V
You have a point!

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1951706,00.html

excerpt re Bush trip to Vietnam:

Why were five million innocent lives wiped out? Orphanages are full of children born deformed by chemical defoliants: 10,0000 people have been blown up by landmines in the years after a war that killed 50,000 American soldiers. And all so that a US President could return, 30 years on, to talk tariffs with a regime that his country vowed and failed to crush. The final irony is that communist rule was empowered, not weakened, by the bloodshed.

Truly, as the President says, there are some lessons for Iraq. Only they are not the pursuit of victory to which he still aspires. Nor are they simple. Iraq never was Vietnam and it never will be. Saigon bears little more resemblance to Ambridge than to Basra, where Gordon Brown spent his Saturday. Tourists will not, three decades from now, be drinking smoothies in Baghdad's Shock'n'Awe American diner or firing E20 cluster shells for a dollar a go.

Reaction to Blair's "Gaffe" - his Tony Snow is dancing around this!

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair provoked a storm Saturday after apparently admitting that the invasion of Iraq by the United States and Britain was "a disaster."

Blair did not use the words himself, but appeared to agree with the assessment of the interviewer Sir David Frost on Al-Jazeera's new English-language channel.

Blair's Downing Street office insisted that the British leader's views had been misrepresented and that it was "disingenuous" to portray it as an admission, the UK's Press Association said.

During the interview, Frost suggested that the West's intervention in Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster."

Blair replied: "It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It's not difficult because of some accident in planning, it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy -- al Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other -- to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

Opposition MPs seized on the comment as evidence that Blair has finally accepted that his strategy in the Middle Eastern state had failed.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/18/iraq.blair/index.html

In 2000, tens of thousands of Hanoi’s residents poured into the streets to witness the visit of the first American head of state since the end of the Vietnam War. Mr. Clinton toured the thousand-year-old Temple of Literature, grabbed lunch at a noodle shop, argued with Communist Party leaders about American imperialism and sifted the earth for the remains of a missing airman.

On Saturday, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, conceded that the president had not come into direct contact with ordinary Vietnamese, but said that they connected anyway.

“If you’d been part of the president’s motorcade as we’ve shuttled back and forth,” he said, reporters would have seen that “the president has been doing a lot of waving and getting a lot of waving and smiles.”

He continued: “I think he’s gotten a real sense of the warmth of the Vietnamese people and their willingness to put a very difficult period for both the United States and Vietnam behind them.”

Perhaps, but the Vietnamese have barely seen or heard from Mr. Bush. He spoke at his first stop, Singapore, promising that “America will remain engaged in Asia.” But the response was tepid — the invited audience somehow missed several of built-in applause lines — and one senior Singaporean diplomat, declining to be quoted by name, said there was little in the speech “that his father didn’t say to us 15 years ago.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/world/asia/19vietnam.html?hp&ex=1163912400&en=ac28a7081c62faa6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

excerpted from Curious George in Vietnam

Violet:

Your patience, tenacity, and good common sense have always been a rock for me here in our virtual world and beyond.

May you have a special, luxury-filled day with champagne, a bubble bath, a good massage and lots of worry-free hours spent with friends and loved ones. You work too hard here and in your life to deserve anything less.

And always remember, I will fight to the death for your right to disagree with me. Its what makes us virtual warriors strong in this world.

Best,

FYI........

I don't know who needs to fix it, but the section where one leaves messages on the new thread needs to be fixed. As is, new messages start on the far left, the type is in white, and the message is invisible except for the part that shows up on the blue left border.

Happy Birthday, Violet. You've earned a well-deserved pat on the back!

Good morning all. Thank you so much for the birthday wishes.

My family dragged me away from my computer yesterday afternoon and I haven't been back to visit. I just found all your wishes and it's so sweet.

I'm really glad to be a part of this community we've built together. And despite what Dick says I was part of a team that built this and though I took on responsibilities when others had to move on to other tasks, I want all of us to be proud of what we've built together. We help each other learn and live. That's what counts in my book.

And yes, I had a very nice birthday celebration with my family. Thanks for carrying on here without me.

Happy Day, Violet! (better late than never!)

Through thick and thin, peace and strife, you've stuck with us and helped this community together. and you've kept us up and running.

I'm so glad to "know" you, and hope we'll see each other again one day soon.

Peace,
Carol

Happy Birthday, Violet! You rock!!

The Ghost (of Ho Chi Minh)

"When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and we knew exactly who the they were. I was us versus them, and it was clear who the them were. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there."

George W. Bush, 1/21/2000

"When I draw nearer to that stone to which you point," said Scrooge, "answer me one questions. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they the shadows of the things that May be only?"

Still the ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.

"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which if persevered, they mut lead," ad Scrooge. "But if the course be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!"

(Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol)

Posted by: Christy at November 18, 2006 10:15 PM

It's isn't about taking any ball and going home, it's about me not engaging in a conversation on-line about a subject I have no desire to talk about. Advocating for impeachment isn't the work in front of me to do. :-) I have a lot on my plate right now that I'm excited about, so unless the topic runs to the draft, I doubt I'll be chattering away here as I have been the past couple of weeks. That's all I meant, Christy. Maybe to you that's taking my ball and going home, I don't know, it certainly isn't what I meant.

Big congrats to you on your home!!!

Posted by: DiAnne at November 18, 2006 10:38 PM

The St. Louis City/County, Kansas City votes and the countries just around them, put Claire over the top in the final count. Those of us who were following the race that night, with the smaller, rural county results coming in early, realized she had a very, very, very almost maybe chance of winning once the StL and KC numbers were in. It was her inroads into the rural areas that won her the election. The "bookends" of StL and KC always go Democratic. They did for Kerry as well. D*mn proud of Claire here, but you've heard me say that before.

Another Happy Birthday to Violet. :-)

Actually DiAnne, now that I think about it, this example is probably a good way to describe living in this part of the country. Claire lost by only 300 some votes in this county and 490 some in the county I just left. We consider that a victory in the rural areas, to not lose by *much.* LOL

All night, when the rural county results were coming in, (as I remember it) she stayed less than 10% behind Talent, ususally only 4-5%. Which gave me hope that once StL and KC were in, they'd been enough to push her over the top. No way in hell Talent was going to take the urban areas.

Darn,

I have been without my personal laptap for the past three days and overwhelmed with work. I just checked in to see what was happening. Only one of the most important event in most of our lives: Celebrating Violet's Virthday, a person whom without we wouldn't have our happy little community of free thinkers. Thanks Violet. and I hope you had a happy one.

Violet,

Happy birthday--belatedly of course! I'm glad you had wonderful celebration with your family.

Violet --

You're the greatest, and we wouldn't have survived without you. Hell, I can hardly get into the forum without you....

Anyway, thanks for all your hard work.

Your techno-backward pal,

Victoria Ellen