The First Steps Are the Hardest

As she spoke yesterday, I thought Nancy Pelosi showed a dignity that should make her detractors cringe.

Wes Clark was guest on Diane Rehm's 1st hour this morning. I'm just now listening, so I can't review yet... blurb:

Rumsfeld Resigns; Gates Nominated
In the wake of what he calls "a thumping" in midterm elections, President Bush announces he's replacing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Diane and her guests talk about the fallout from this decision and its longer-term implications.

Guests
Gen. Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander

Max Boot, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "War Made New" (Gotham Books)

Ron Elving, Washington editor for National Public Radio

link page with audio replays: http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/06/11/09.php#12344

Fe,

Very good comments and lots to think about. In the last few days it has felt like a weight off my shoulders but if I implied yesterday we should forgive and forget then that wasn't what I meant.

Your article points out the things that we have to remember to fight for. Nancy Pelosi is still trapped between and unethical egomaniac and the his servant media as well as the remaining people who orchestrated Clinton's demise.

I'm not sure if anyone caught this about Rush but I gather from his statement that he's going to love to dig his teeth into her and draw fresh blood.

http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=24814

Allen to Concede at 3pm

In a related story... Bubba To Explode!!!

Go Ira! Go Ira! It's yer burfday...

from http://www.SeattleWeekly.com

The sun is out (kind of).

Democrats are back in control of the House, and probably Senate.

Rumsfeld quit.

And there'll be opera on network television.

Topics: Classical Music

How can we feel good about the election results when all our old certainties have suddenly been cast into doubt?

WAS IT REALLY so long ago? Only last Monday, you could comfortably enter a Wallingford pub, order a microbrew, punch up a few Indigo Girls songs on the jukebox, and safely commiserate about Bush with fellow lockstep liberals. Iraq? All W's fault. Katrina? Him, too. Economic disparity and record deficits? That we could blame on the Republican Congress—along with institutional homophobia, the bigotry of the "pro-family" crowd, and Karl Rove's wedge-issue gerrymandering of democracy to suit the donor class and its K Street lobbyists. Yet there was a rosy glow to our discontent, especially after the third pint or fourth. There was a nobility to being on the outs, a camaraderie in our valorous outnumbered cause. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

Then we could rush home to watch The Daily Show from beneath our sheets of organic cotton and quilts of humanely plucked goose down. O! how we laughed—rueful, superior, condescending—at those morons running the country. O! how fortunate we were to live in our insular enclave of good sense, public radio, and Toyota Priuses.

Now, after Nov. 7, the smug certainty is over. Democrats will control the House of Representatives next year and the Senate. Meaning Baghdad just moved into the 98105 zip code. Meaning Condi and Cheney and the new defense secretary nominee, Robert Gates, are now going to be in the same checkout line at the PCC. Meaning Bush is now just another harried parent carpooling your kids to soccer practice.

For six years, wimpy liberals have taken solace in irony, snark, and condescension—the only power they had, really—particularly in Seattle, where a new antiwar documentary seems to arrive every week (see: Iraq in Fragments, currently at the Varsity) and where books like Fiasco and State of Denial and The Greatest Story Ever Sold are top sellers. Now we have to work with these people we once despised and considered so foreign. Clinging to those moss-covered Kerry-Edwards yard signs and bumper stickers for the next two years won't do anybody any good. The microbrews won't taste as sweet, and the jokes won't be as easy anymore—not as the Democrats have to co-pilot our country out of Iraq, debt, and nuclear showdowns with Iran and North Korea.

Suddenly, pencil-necked bloggers and irate stand-up comics will have to reconsider their shtick. Between Bill O'Reilly and Al Franken, the rim-shot binary sniping between red and blue has become all muddled. New House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be fair game on South Park. Conan, Jay, and Dave will have to elevate liberal buffoons like Jim McDermott and Barney Frank to being accountable liberal buffoons.

Our glorious liberal impotence is at an end, and not a moment too soon. Who isn't tired of a world divided between Republican arrogance and Democratic ironies?

http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0646/xlawoeux.php

can we utube link Allen's concession speech?

Republicans try to sneak John Bolton confirmation before adjournment.

It is now 3 pm, November 9, 2006 and Virginia can now be officially colored BLUE.

Posted by: DiAnne at November 9, 2006 03:03 PM

"I didn't know where I was, until you killed my buzz" - The Iguanas

Bubba:

Lincoln Chaffee stated that he will vote against the Bolton nomination.

Bolton nom is dead in the H2O.

Great article on the New Southern Strategy and how Webb and McCaskill went right into the heart of red voters and delivered a populist message to working class voters without hedging their positions on cultural issues. How refreshing that Dems have finally engaged conservative voters on their own turf without backing down or apologizing for who they are or what they stand for.Our dcp member Linda Enterkin(sp?) should be encouraged to read this story.

www.alternet.org/stories/44085

GOP officeholders turned off and lost Republican voters
BY JEFFREY R. LEWIS
November 9, 2006

As a lifelong Republican, I was not surprised by the widespread repudiation of my party in Tuesday's election. Even more, though, I'm frustrated by the reasons behind it -- that congressional Republicans and the Bush administration are more interested in courting an ultra-conservative base and currying favor with their corporate backers than making life better for middle class Americans.

I am frustrated that the party is shutting out and turning off Republicans like me.

My values are fundamentally conservative, and I voted for the "compassionate conservative" who sought the White House six years ago. But ever since, Republicans like me have watched in dismay as the Bush administration turned its back on the Americans who needed compassion the most.
Make no mistake, the biggest issue in this election was President George W. Bush and his handling of the Iraq war. But on Election Day, it was those of us angered at the national party's abandonment of real Republican values who swept so many incumbent Republicans from their seats.
When I grew up, Republicans considered waste a sin and indifference to the suffering of others immoral. Today, the administration's policy on stem cell research has turned both of these injunctions on their heads. If Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy can agree on the value of stem cell research, surely enough common ground exists to support a bipartisan solution. In California, a successful ballot measure backed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Silicon Valley venture capitalists and voters from both sides of the aisle is already helping bring American entrepreneurial ingenuity to bear on the challenges and opportunities of stem cell research.

What could be more Republican than that? Why can't the president follow suit?

This administration's health care policies have been a disaster. If the president had meant what he said about reaching out to those who did not vote for him, he might have begun by using traditional Republican principles as a basis for new health care initiatives that can make a meaningful difference in peoples' lives.

Never has the discipline of a free market, for example, been more needed than with respect to today's pharmaceutical industry. Yet nowhere is the "free market" less free. With drug prices rising at three times the rate of inflation and exploding health care costs hurting increasing numbers of middle class Americans, the administration's rejection of market-based cost containment measures is baffling.

Why on Earth would a free-market administration prohibit Medicare and governors from negotiating directly with drug manufacturers to obtain the lowest possible drug prices -- except to protect pharmaceutical industry profits? And why would the administration insist on using the private sector to set prices, rather than the market itself? Clarion calls for smaller government ring hollow when government edict requires that private companies be paid to do something that consumers can do more efficiently themselves.

Moreover, corporate protectionism doesn't work; drug prices continue to climb, while growing numbers of seniors are being forced to choose between food and medicine, and millions more uninsured middle class Americans simply go without. Foisting a costly and inefficient system on middle class Americans who have traditionally been the heart of the Republican Party is neither compassionate nor conservative.

In the meantime, truly compassionate conservatives would insist on easing the plight of the 45 million Americans who have no health insurance -- men, women and children who die sooner than the rest of us because they receive only about half the medical care of the insured. Further, the share of Americans without insurance is growing, while health care costs rise much faster than wages or inflation. As a result, health care costs are quickly and quietly bankrupting thousands of American families. How does that preserve "family values"?

And uninsured Americans who do get seriously ill eventually end up in hospitals, usually at taxpayer expense. The public cost of uncompensated care amounts to a $30-billion tax burden on people who have insurance. How about a tax cut for us?
I am a Republican who believes government should be responsive to reason rather than special interests, that government should spend no more of the taxpayers' money than absolutely necessary, and that the market is usually the best and most efficient arbiter of prices. But I also believe that problems are really only opportunities to create solutions, and that sometimes we need our government to put politics aside and bring disparate views together to find those solutions. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership and President Bush have stubbornly refused to walk across the aisle to do that.

Ironically, their insistence on playing politics -- by pandering shamelessly to the far right and corporate lobbyists instead of listening to Republicans like me -- has brought about one of the biggest Republican political disaster in a generation.

JEFFREY LEWIS, 52, a Detroit native and a graduate of Henry Ford High School and the University of Michigan, chairs the board of the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement and is a former staff director for the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa.

Posted by: Bubba at November 9, 2006 04:27 PM

Yes, yes, yes. A beautiful thing. Truly. :-)
But then you totally got why I was so overwhelmed with joy yesterday. :-) I haven't yet found the words to describe what it feels like here, what sort of campaign was run. A bit of new, lots of old, hey, just solid good sense. And very real. Rural rightwingers got it as well as long-time liberals. These voices will be heard from again. They are the bridge builders. And they aren't soft.

Bubba,

What happened in Missouri and Virginia was huge. I hope more people read about what they did and how they accomplished their victory. Because what happened is the future... Claire and Jim showed us all how it's done. 'Wingers must be engaged. It isn't easy. Trust me, it isn't easy. And to engage them and change their minds in less than two years is nothing short of a miracle. Well, hard work = miracle that is. ;-)

Thank you for that link. Short article, but gives a good accounting of the style and substance.

So much hope. Claire and Jim showed it could be done. And from what I can tell re: their words since, neither one of them are taking anything for granted.

Ken Mehlman leaving RNC chairmanship...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/9/182627/502

You know, the hell of it is that many Democrats don't care about a person's sexual preference because it's really none of our business. It's as important as whether they like crunchy or creamy peanut butter. But I find it interesting that several republicans in key positions in the party are being outed lately -- from the closet & their positions. And I'll never understand how they can be a part of a political party that hates them.

Tuesday night, I kept my browser window open to the Missouri Secretary of State site and followed two county returns in a separate window. In the county we just moved away from, a heavily rural area, extremely red, McCaskill lost to Talent by only 540 votes. (In that county only two years ago, twice as many people voted for Bush as for Kerry.) In the county we just moved to, less rural, still red, McCaskill only lost by 369 votes. She made inroads into these solidly Republican counties in a stunning, straight forward way that was gratifying to see. Of course the latest scandals and the war and etc. played a part, otherwise we wouldn't see what we're seeing nationwide. But McCaskill did what she did because she knows how to talk to real people about issues that really matter and she isn't afraid to stand up for her views or pull a punch when she has to. I love Nancy Pelosi, but I hope she takes a meeting with Claire, and listens. ;-)

"And I'll never understand how they can be a part of a political party that hates them."
~~Posted by: madame defarge at November 9, 2006 06:41 PM

Money? Power? Status? @;-)

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/cnn-tells-youtube-to-pull-down-video.html
CNN tells YouTube to pull down video outing GOP party head Ken Mehlman

William Rivers Pitt: A Deep, Deep Breath
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110906Z.shtml
Let us be absolutely clear on what has taken place. This was not simply a midterm election, not just a historic running of the table, not just a scathing repudiation of virtually everything the Bush administration has stood for since they swaggered into Washington six long years ago. It was so very much more than this.

Robert Parry | The Secret World of Robert Gates
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110906A.shtml
Robert Parry writes, "Robert Gates, George W. Bush’s choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary, is a trusted figure within the Bush family’s inner circle, but there are lingering questions about whether Gates is a trustworthy public official."

McGovern and Polk | A Blueprint for Leaving Iraq Now
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110906C.shtml
"Staying in Iraq is not an option," write George S. McGovern and William R. Polk. "Many Americans who were among the most eager to invade Iraq now urge that we find a way out. These Americans include not only civilian 'strategists' and other 'hawks,' but also senior military commanders and, perhaps most fervently, combat soldiers."

Gerard Dupuy | Repudiation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110906H.shtml
Lead editorials at Liberation and Le Monde today suggest that the US electorate's repudiation of Republicans has forced President Bush to repudiate Donald Rumsfeld in order to save his own "popularity."

Ballot Measure Losses Stagger the Religious Right
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110906P.shtml
From the country's heartland, voters sent messages that altered America's culture wars and dismayed the religious right - defending abortion rights in South Dakota, endorsing stem cell research in Missouri, and, in a national first, rejecting a same-sex marriage ban in Arizona.

ps and yes Ira, I think Linda E would enjoy the article. Economic issues addressed as such cut across all sorts lines, including race, religion and die-hard party affiliation.

Rangel's itching to evict Cheney

BY AUSTIN FENNER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
New York Daily News
Thursday, November 9th, 2006

Harlem's newly powerful Rep. Charles Rangel wants to stick it to his White House nemesis Vice President Cheney - by taking over his spacious House office.

At the same time, the veteran congressman offered a limp olive branch to the vice president yesterday, saying he regretted publicly calling him an SOB last week.

"I take back saying that publicly. I should have reserved that for him when we were together privately," said Rangel. "Believe me, he would have understood."

Rangel (D-Harlem), poised to become the next chairman of the important House Ways and Means Committee, spoke of the need for bipartisanship with the Republicans, even as he continued his feud with Cheney.

"Mr. Cheney enjoys an office on the second floor on the House of Representatives that historically has been designated as the Ways and Means chairman," Rangel mused. "And, I've talked with [future Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi ... and I'm trying to find some way to be gentle as I restore the dignity of that office to the chair."

The White House declined to comment.

In the past, Rangel has branded the vice president a "draft dodger" and Cheney has predicted that Rangel would destroy the economy as head of the Ways and Means Committee.

Rangel, 76, will soon head the committee, which controls tax legislation and changes to Social Security and Medicaid.He shot down rumors that Democrats plan to raise taxes in 2010, when Republican-approved tax cuts will expire if they are not extended by Congress, and said that the country needs a bipartisan approach

"The American people have given the Democrats a great opportunity to provide leadership. I'm not certain they are in love with us, but one thing is certain is that they were not satisfied with the Republicans' leadership," said Rangel. "The only thing that is clear is that the way we can resolve these problems [the issues] is by working with the Republicans."

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/v-pfriendly/story/469781p-395191c.html

karen:

Thanks for posting that op/ed by Jeff Lewis. I've been waiting for him to drop that other show for a LONG time.

Chafee unsure of staying with GOP after losing election

By Michelle R. Smith, Associated Press Writer
November 9, 2006

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Two days after losing a bid for a second term in an election seen as a referendum on President Bush and the Republican Party, Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he was unsure whether he'd remain a Republican.

"I haven't made any decisions. I just haven't even thought about where my place is," Chafee said at a news conference Thursday when asked whether he would stick with the Republican Party or switch to be an independent or Democrat.

When asked if his comments meant he thought he might not belong in the Republican Party, he replied: "That's fair."

more...
http://tinyurl.com/tzhuz

I meant other "SHOE" not "show".

FROM SF GATE:

PELOSI: Lifetime commitment to politics, Democrats
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

(11-08) 04:00 PST Washington -- Even some of Rep. Nancy Pelosi's closest political allies would never have predicted her rise to national political stardom.

John Burton, the former congressman and state Senate president, remembered being summoned in early 1987 to the Washington deathbed of his sister-in-law, Rep. Sala Burton, the widow of legendary congressman Phil Burton.

"They told me Sala wanted Nancy to run for her seat'' in a special election that would be called when she died, John Burton said. "I thought they meant Nancy Walker,'' a member of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, and not Pelosi, then little known outside of Democratic Party circles.

John Burton was surprised and a little skeptical when he learned Sala Burton meant Pelosi, the former state Democratic chairman noted for her fundraising prowess but untested as a candidate.

"I thought Sala would say she wanted Nancy because of friendship, but she talked about Nancy's talent and commitment to Democratic causes,'' he remembered.

And now the 66-year-old Pelosi is primed to become the first Californian and the first woman elected speaker of the House, one of the nation's most powerful offices, and second in line of presidential succession.

"Here it is, and everything Sala said Nancy had she has in spades,'' said Burton, who is a close Pelosi adviser.

The novice candidate Pelosi won a raucous 14-candidate special election in June 1987 to fill Sala Burton's seat and has been re-elected in landslides ever since. Looking back on her life story, it probably is little surprise that she has displayed a lifetime commitment to politics and the Democratic Party.

The daughter of Baltimore mayor and congressman Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., known as "Old Tommy,'' and his dynamo of a wife, Annunciata, Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi was born March 26, 1940, into a family of committed Catholics and New Deal Democrats.

The family's business was politics, centered on the D'Alesandro home on Albemarle Street in Baltimore's Little Italy. Depression times were tough. Family members remember that wood scavenged from demolished buildings was piled up in front of the D'Alesandro house for the poor to take home to burn for heat. And hungry strangers often ate for free in the family's kitchen.

The elder D'Alesandro kept an office in the front room, where young Nancy at times helped constituents in search of help.

"We all took turns at the desk,'' recalled Pelosi's brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, known as "Young Tommy,'' who served as Baltimore mayor in the late 1960s. "My mother was really the politician in the family, and Nancy was the apple of her eye. She takes after her. She's tough.''

Pelosi attended Trinity College in Washington, D.C., where she watched President John F. Kennedy's inaugural. She met San Franciscan Paul Pelosi, who was attending Washington's Georgetown University. They married in 1963, moved to New York and had five children in six years.

Democratic politics was an obsession for the young mother. Pelosi's daughter, Christine, said one of her first memories is at age 2 going door to door with her mother in 1968 canvassing for Democratic presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey.

In 1969, Paul Pelosi moved the family back to his home of San Francisco and became a wealthy businessman.

Nancy Pelosi dived into Democratic activities as a volunteer and started to raise money for the party and candidates, something friends and critics agree she excels at.

Pelosi eventually served on the Democratic National Committee and in the early 1980s was the state party chairwoman. She also chaired the host committee for the 1984 Democratic national convention at San Francisco's Moscone Center.

After winning her seat in 1987 with the backing of the city's Democratic establishment, Pelosi never looked back. Pelosi entered leadership when she was elected by the Democratic caucus in 2000 as the first woman to serve as whip (the No. 2 post in the minority party), in 2002 as minority leader, and -- expected in party elections next week -- now as speaker.

Just remember, Pelosi did everything Dennis Hastert did. Only backwards and in high heels.

Yes, Ginger.

Question: Isn't Gates as replacement for Rumsfeld just another slap in the face to American voters - a smug self-satisfied act of nepotism (thinking Bolton, thinking Rice) by the little shrub? Wasn't it mostly CIA self-serving "intelligence" that got us all into this debacle, and ongoing tragedy, in the first place?

Tom Vilsak is running in '08 - we should have an interesting field on both sides. More feeling of democracy now - & get rid of those machines.

I think Chafee and others should be Independents - after all, American has about equal parts Republicans, Democrats and Independents in the country. I'm not talking a killjoy like Nader. It would be interesting to have three big parties & a whole bunch of little ones. We do finally have a Muslim. We do have a Socialist - in Congress. Almost like other countries. We are not a one party state!! We have maybe escaped dictatorship/totalitarianism.

Why not have a coalition government? Maybe abolish the electoral system. How about Instant Runoff? Let's hear some ideas. Why not shake things up a little?! Let's question free trade a little - think about globalization. The environment. Let's look at the rest of the world and listen to them at the same time.

Well, off to traffic.

A little more -

I agree with Ted Koppel that it may have been a little dumb to take out Saddam - he was the only thing Iran was afraid of.

I agree with Hosni Mubarak that it might be really dumb to execute Saddam. I believe death penalty is wrong in all cases & agree with Mubarak that we would see "waterfalls" of violence in the middle east.

A superstate should not execute someone who people identify with in a tribal-based society. It just isn't going to work. There would/will be major "blowback."

I also suggest that we butt out of Central America and South America for a while. & while we're at it, let's look a little closer at Israel - they really should not be swooping down on French UN soldiers, to scare them. No one has really taken on even-handed look at why we don't have a nuclear-free middle east since John F Kennedy!

Ok I'm out.

woz --

Yes, but Gates is old-school CIA, not a latter-day PNAC type. What is happening here is that Bush 43 is finally jettisoning his disastrous and contentious neokonzertruppe cohorts and reverting back to the policies & people that worked well for Bush 41. Five years too late, mind you, but still Freudian as all get-out.

but oh those oedipus wrecks,
Otter

Gates was an empty suit that played dumb about Ollie North Iran contra hearings.

More info about Gates;
From the Iran/Contra and his confirmation hearings to head the CIA

http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh11082006.html

He is another Dumbya POS who will probably be confirmed.
The beat goes on.

Bush's phony concilliation attempt really frosts me.
His so called support the troops while they are totally worn out is an insult to all who care about our military. Their equipment is broken, their medical care is being cut back; their enlistments have been extended.
dumbya treats the troops like used toilet paper; flush when done.

More info about Robert Gates (no relation to Bill, of course)

Robert Gates Promoted and Financed Osama Bin Laden

Robert Gates made Osama Bin Laden what he is today. This is not exaggeration. By funding Osama Bin Laden's operations, training camps, weaponry and political influence from 1979 (even before Russia invaded Afghanistan), Robert Gates personally gave us our principal enemy in the "War on Terror".

More frighteningly, all of Robert Gates' support to Osama Bin Laden ran through Pakistan's ISI. ISI has been linked to training and funding the 9/11 bombers, the London bombers, the Madrid bombers, the Bali bombers and the Delhi bombers but is strangely immune from official Washington scrutiny.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/9/34541/0328

Old school maybe, Otter, but Gates must surely be accepting of the current administration stance on torture and murder of prisoners who can't outlast their interrogation - I mean - interview. Otherwise the son wouldn't want him. The only people he ever chooses are those who will carry him, without question, through the crocodile swamps of his own making.

I think the last verse of kumbiyah is sung.

Dems can work with Dumbya only if they trust him. Does anybody think they can trust Dumbya any further then they can toss him?
I doubt it.
Dumbya is dieing to have Dems take the leadership role in Iraq and entitlement program changes so Repubs can blame any failure on Dems.
So my crystal ball sez Bush will make totally outlandish proposals. Dems will make moderate ones. Bush will sabotage them and blame Dems for the policy failures. This president's motto is pass the buck.
It happens in big business all the time.
We need to force Bush to stay engaged on everything; even when he wants to cut and run.
The link describing McGovern and Polk plan to get us out of Iraq is a sound one.
We essentially finance the deal and let local troops from Iraq and their neighbors do the heavy lifting.
The only way we keep control of the Senate and take the WH is to make progress cleaning up the mess made by dumbya.
We also have to make sure the reason for the mess is punished; mainly the Conservative ideology.

The fight we won tuesday is just another skirmish on the way to the 2008 war.

Oh my gosh madame - great name btw - are you knitting as you watch the heads fall? This is another of those "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."

Why isn't this Gates-binLadenmore connection more widely publicised? Preferably before he's confirmed.

Are senate seats being challenged?

Posted by: woz at November 9, 2006 09:56 PM

Thanks, woz. (I do think the guillotine was underrated.)

No surprise that the mainstream media isn't saying anything about Gates/bin Laden. But then, mainstream media is becoming even more irrelevent. This election has proven that it's a whole new ballgame when it comes to educating people with the facts.

So pass the word on about Gates & bin Laden.

Posted by: woz at November 9, 2006 09:58 PM

No. The only senate seat left that could possibly be challenged in this election was the Webb-Allen seat, & Allen conceded today.

(I assume that's what you were talking about.)

(BTW, where in Oz are you?)

Remember the midset during the Cold War. The USSR was funding terror on their own and through Cuba in Africa, Central and South America. We needed our terrorists to battle their terrorists. I use the word terrorist loosly as many were Democraticly elected organizations that opposed us. You are either with us or against us.

So we created bin Laden and turned him loose on the ruskies. We don't care about the needless murders. Why this is nothing more then collatoral damage. The Taliban? Why just another bunch of religious fundamentalists. They ride horses so they must be just like cowboys. Cowboys are cool...just ask Dumbya.
So what if we had to use another terrorist organization or two. We would rather murder them there then here.
Mission Accomplished.

Tasmania here Madame

Iraqi Official Estimates 150,000 Civilians Dead
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/11/09/ap3160676.html
This is 3x the official figure.

Also read "Stars & Stripes" reactions of military personnel to Rumsfeld's resignation. It's pretty obvious they do their jobs, aren't kept very informed & aren't allowed to say much. I've read more critical stuff in same publication before - friend sends it from Germany. Looked like they're really keeping a lid on speaking out, either about him or about the mission there.

A few weeks back, the number of Iraq deaths was estimated at over 650K.
Bush dismissed that number.

Read how that number was computed.

http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/attacks_on_lancet's_iraq_war.htm

Battlebob
Good summary of Cold War policy - it looked as though we weren't at war since everything was done by proxy. I recommend "Blowback - The Costs and Consequences of American Empire" - by Chalmers, 2000.

It takes a pre-9/11 look at our foreign policy. It maintains that plans to maintain and increase Empire cause resentment against Americans (military, travellers, students, businesspeople) that can lead to terrorism, especially those things done in secet.

"Blowback" was a CIA term that referred to unintended consequences of secret policies. What the MSM tended to report as acts of "terrorists" "rogue states" "arms merchants" or "drug lords" often turned out to be "blowback" from secret CIA operations.

When 9/11 happened, I wanted to know why. Was it blind hate or some sort of retaliation? With history of military firing cruise missiles and of US govt supporting repressive regimes when it was to our advantage, I wondered what we didn't know. I read this book immediately after 9/11.

It was the 1991 Gulf War and then Iran/Iraq war and the Soviet/Afghanistan war that got me interested in foreign policy again (after the Vietnam era, the slow-down in US/USSR nuclear buildup, and the fall of the Berlin Wall). & we had also had terror threats, including to our city of Seattle, around the Millenium (not to mention the Cole & the African embassy bombings & the lst attempt at the WTC).

This is from the book, which has hugely influence my thinking and which I relate directly to the appointment of Gates:

"Historical data show a strong correlation between U.S. involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States. In addition, the military asymmetry that denies nation states the ability to engage in overt attacks against the United States drives the use of transnational actors [that is, terrorists from one country attacking in another]." The most direct and obvious form of blowback often occurs when the victims fight back after a secret American bombing, or a U.S.-sponsored campaign of state terrorism, or a ClA-engineered overthrow of a foreign political leader.

More:
In pursuing the war in Vietnam in the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger ordered more bombs dropped on rural Cambodia than had been dropped on Japan during all of World War 11, killing at least three-quarters of a million Cambodian peasants and helping legitimize the murderous Khmer Rouge movement under Pol Pot. In his subsequent pursuit of revenge and ideological purity Pol Pot ensured that another million and a half Cambodians, this time mainly urban dwellers, were murdered.

And:
Take the civil war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, in which Soviet forces directly intervened on the government side and the CIA armed and supported any and all groups willing to face the Soviet armies. .... the defeat so destabilized the Soviet regime that at the end of the 1980s it collapsed. But in Afghanistan the United States also helped bring to power the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic movement whose policies toward women, education, justice, and economic well-being resemble not so much those of Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran as those of Pol Pot's Cambodia. A group of these mujahedeen, who only a few years earlier the United States had armed with ground-to-air Stinger missiles, grew bitter over American acts and policies in the Gulf War and vis-a-vis Israel.

Other examples where we are at risk from "blowback" from our own policies:
Congo, Guatemala, Chile, Turkey. Many more.
We have overthrown regimes in central America in order for our corporations to benefit. Read about Pinoche!!!! We chastised Saddam for killing Kurds but looked the other way when the Turks did it. Between 1991 and 1995, the United States supplied four-fifths of Turkey's military imports, which were among the largest in the world.

Here is what I mean (from the book):
" The U.S. government, in turn, depends on the NATO base at Incirlik, Turkey, to carry out Operation Provide Comfort, set up after the Gulf War to supply and protect Iraqi Kurds from repression by Saddam Hussein-at the same time that the United States acquiesces in Turkish mistreatment of its far larger Kurdish population."

Why do we do it? We can make money selling arms. We can get ahold of oil. This government has never cared about religion, communism or terrorism so much as profit. There is no conscience when it comes to selling weapons or using up the planet's resources. Money is the root of evil.

I grew up in an arms race (US/USSR). I knew these were two competing empires. We were always told the conflict was between democracy and totalitarianism but it was between colonialism and national independence movements. The Europeans did not want to give up their colonies - that's why France was in Vietnam before we were. Algeria was their other Vietnam. Poor North/South Korea - pawns following WW2.
We sponsored dictators like Chiang Kai-shek, Marcos, sadistic Generals in Vietnam and Cambodia and Thailand, Suharto in Indonesia, Laos,

Reagan and CIA launched operations in Central American covertly to support insurgencies against the Sandanistas (and Ortega has just come back to power!) After the Cold War was over, we kept covert operations going just to keep our bases and imperial interests. We are overstretched.

The other brilliant book is called "Empire" - I don't have it right here - it outlines every empire that has ever been. I think we were number 60 something. Empires fall.

America is watching the rise of China and India and rest of Asia - economically, demographically inevitable. Our threat is our belief in our own propaganda. We need our foreign policy to be no longer planned by military-minded people. We need more ambassadors and diplomats with knowledge of languages, history, culture. We can't keep relying on cruise missiles, stealth bombers, arms sales and bribes.

Even though we don't know what all was done in our names, we pay every day in every way. .

Battlebob
If you're talking about the Lancet study, I have no quarrel with the methodology.

Battlebob - thanks for the link there to the lancet report on deaths and injured. We keep letting our leaders get away with their lies. And that's the problem - liars actually end up believing their own lies. And some of us slip into a state of self-doubt.

I'll have to go and draw some attention to this one also.

"Blowback" was a CIA term that referred to unintended consequences of secret policies. What the MSM tended to report as acts of "terrorists" "rogue states" "arms merchants" or "drug lords" often turned out to be "blowback" from secret CIA operations.

When 9/11 happened, I wanted to know why. Was it blind hate or some sort of retaliation?"

Posted by: DiAnne at November 9, 2006 10:58 PM

Me too. When bush said ' They hate us for our freedom', I had a sudden moment of clarity and thought to myself..

'There is only one reason why anyone murders, en mass, 3000 people. Money.'

Since I first thought it, I can not get over how...shaky?... it makes me.

You do NOT work , plot, and plan to kill 3000 people or more, because you hate their 'freedom'.

I think when this nation gets into the lies of Iraq, they will also have a terrible moment of clarity, as they realize the lies of Iraq were told to directly cover up and obscure the truth of 911.

When this nation realizes what really happened to us that day, there will be no stopping the 'blowback' that is going to explode right in georgies lap.

Why did 3000 people die on 911? Why did bin laden kill them? Why did georgie allow him to get away with it?

Money is the only answer.

It can not be a coincidence the two main beneficiaries of 911 was both the bush and bin laden families.

Something so wicked happened to us that day, we still do not even think to ask why.

We can not 'move forward' as a nation until we understand the truth of the recent past.

Oh and I am not trying to bug yall but...

I would like to clarify something about the candles and this search being set up.

I created the candle website itself for my cousin, but the 'fundraising' part is totally within the hands of Karrie.

I will not have access to your orders or account info. Only Karrie will.

Also, just to point it out, if you would prefer to just donate the money instead of buying a candle I know she would absolutely appreciate it.

The donations are fantastic because she can send 100% of it to Texas Equusearch instead of the 50% on each candle.

You know, even if you don't buy or donate, please consider sending Karrie just a message, you know, just to let her know you are there. I know she gets real upset sometimes, and I'm not sure how else to comfort her except to let her know she is not alone anymore.

Her email is

klrummell@yahoo.com

And ofcourse the candle site is

http://www.candlesforaline.blogspot.com/

Thank you guys. I will try not to bug you, but if I do please overlook it just until we can hit that 3500 mark.

Hey All:

Chuck in Houston here still stupidly maudlin, but wanting to share a thought on Rumsfeld/Gates etc.

Well first, can we get out the "flip-flops" for "stand-by-your-man" Bush who just a couple of days ago affirmed that Rumsfeld was his man and now runs him off like a red-headed stepchild???!!! So Bush family. When I can use you, I will. When you become a liability, you're toast (cf: Noriega). Loyalty is a one-way street with that mob. Oops, I guess I shouldn't go there. Nevermind.

Anyway, lots of interesting speculation about what worm is turning, especially vis-a-vis the mess we created in Iraq, and that is a horrible, painful, cruel and viscious mess. But what to do? And (unlike Vietnam) there are actual, real, national security issues at stake (energy indepedence anyone? Please?).

In a sense, our brave commander and CINC has just been brought to heel by papa (Gates, Baker, with the sanction of Warner/Lugar), based on the new political realities in America. Now we have a possibility of legislative oversight (they would never deal with us until we have some sort of actual power).

That is the state of play now that Jim Webb and John Tester are in the Senate as of the new session and now that Chafee of RI, bless his heart, has said (in effect) -- "I'm off the [GOP] reservation, so fire me already." (The Maine Senators may follow suit -- who knows?)

I would love to hear what Andree in France would make of all of this.

Chuck in Houston

PS: Florida_Dem -- if you are lurking -- I just have one thing to say to you:

YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAW!

And with respect to Missouri, I just have to say:

KJ!KJ!KJ!KJ!

Your new senator's mama didn't raise no fool!

Missouri showed me somethig a couple days back>

Chuck in Houston

Hey Ira:

God bless you and yours. Look at this:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/4321792.html

All politics is local politics because all people live in some locale. Ideas + no organization = fantasy. Ideas + organization = victory.

Chuck in Houston

PS: I contributed nothing to this except my vote and some lean-on-the-fence conversations with neighbors, so we are still not reallt organized to my mind. Lots of work to do.

So I guess as things stand now if Bush and Cheney are impeached and convicted (and the bill of indictment would surely apply to both), Pelosi would be POTUS, right? (Oops, sorry, can't go there now -- looks too much like "piling on" -- 15-yard penalty to me. Plus no way we could get 2/3 of the Senate, not that that stopped Tom Delay.)

Chuck in Houston

Come to think on it, isn't "d'Lay" a French name? What's with that? Somehow I never noticed that before. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, understand me).

Chuck in Houston

Posted by: battlebob at November 9, 2006 10:07 PM

Mission Accompliced.

Posted by: battlebob at November 9, 2006 09:34 PM

Interesting. I thought when I saw him that he looks benign, but knew he couldn't be or else he would not be being appointed.

Do George, Rove, and Cheney think we are blind?

Sure he knows alot about the "war on terror".

O.M.G.

Truth:

IMHO, the Gates thing is part of a larger effort by the national security establishment to cut junior out of the loop and to put in the "A-Team" (by their lights, which are not necessarily all dim-bulbs) to try and rescue a disaster. Gates is Bush Sr. / Brent Scowcroft / Good Soldier all the way. They are in deep damage-control mode, to my mind, and I mean damage in the sense of damage to our vital national interests as they see it. Sow the wind....

Chuck in Houston

Lame-duck George Jr. = George Sr. begging dems to let by-gones be by-gones and to please don't do unto us as we did unto you because it will be a disaster for everyone, and that, to my mind, is US international and domestic politics for the next two year. And that, to my mind, is an improvement over what we've had to endure for the past six years. Let's see how this unfolds.

Chuck in Houston

And, of course, the second they escape disaster they will pin the blame on someone else and be back on our throats again. If we let that happen, that is.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice... I won't get fooled again.

Isn't that a "Who" song? Help me out on that monkey!

Chuck in Houston (nee "Baku")

Lyrics from "The Who," you know, Peter Townsend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, et al....:

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they are flown in the next war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Chuck in Houston

PS: I don't necesarily ascribe to all of the sentiments that may be imputed to the above, but it is a good song.

"I would love to hear what Andree in France would make of all of this."
~~Posted by: Chuck at November 10, 2006 12:24 AM

I thought about her all day yesterday, wondering if she'd pop in and post her thoughts. Vokoban was over at the JK blog the other day. :-)

Yes, Poppy's Men are set to take the reins. Wonder how Bab's and her Beautiful Mind are doing these days.

Nancy Pelosi is an Ace. Had a chance to see/hear her at the Women Revolution thingy in Boston and thought she was an absolute force of nature. Go, Nancy. Also think she will be smart enough to listen to newcomers like Webb and McCaskill to learn how to reach into the previously written-off areas of the country and find out just what makes up the concerns of the rural voters.

For far too long the concerns of rural and midwest/south voters have been either stoked with fearmongering by the right wing or pandered too with long, involved, jargon-phrased academic speak by the left.

These people aren't stupid. They just don't have time for lattes and the internet because they're working two jobs and the kids have games and they don't have healthcare so they're working on the side for their chiro to trade out services and get some vitamins at cost.

People hear listen to Lou Dobbs. They like Lou Dobbs. They think Lou Dobbs is the only person today who gives two cents about their lives.

Webb and McCaskill got that. Maybe Washington will get it too.

And these people-- just barely-- gave the Dems control of the Senate. We treat them to the party, or loss them in two years.

a perspective similar to Jeffrey Lewis (see
Posted by: karen at November 9, 2006 04:36 PM), but from the Democratic side:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/11/10/the_democratic_center/

introductory paragraphs. . .
The Democratic center
By Paul Waldman | November 10, 2006
CONSERVATIVES searching desperately for a silver lining in the cloud of Tuesday's defeats have tried to argue that Democrats only won because they ran conservative candidates. And they've gotten support from key members of the mainstream news media.

"These Democrats that were elected last night are conservative Democrats," said CBS's Bob Schieffer the morning after. "The Democrats' victory was built on the back of more centrist candidates seizing Republican-leaning districts," said The Washington Post. The press is busy preparing portraits of those moderate Democrats who may be pro life or pro gun, to demonstrate that they are the face of a new Democratic Party, one that won by becoming more like their opponents.
Coming from media that never tire of telling us that America is a fundamentally conservative country, it isn't too surprising to hear. But it's just not true.

. . . . .
and conclusion:
So, despite what the press and pundits seem to believe, Democrats did not win by moving to the center; they won because at the moment, they are the center. According to exit polls, independents voted Democratic by 57 to 39 percent. And those describing themselves as "moderates" voted Democratic by an even wider margin, 61 to 38 percent.
Even in places where more moderate Democrats won, it reflected fundamental shifts away from the right. Jim Webb won election to the Senate in Virginia because the state is moving from red to purple, as population in the more Democratic Northern Virginia suburbs has exploded. Democratic victories in states like Montana and Colorado came not because of conservative candidates but because independents and moderates have become alienated from a GOP dominated by its Southern social conservatives.
For years, the news media have told us that Republican victories showed they were the party of the "mainstream," where "real" Americans found their home. But now it is the Democratic Party that appears to occupy the center ground. It didn't happen because they changed their opinions on issues or turned their backs on their traditional base of support. With control of the White House and the Congress, the Republicans had every opportunity to implement their conservative vision in both foreign and domestic policy. The public repudiated that vision, and in the process left the GOP a smaller tent than it had been. As we assess what this election means for the future of the parties and for future elections, we might want to reevaluate what constitutes the "center" in American politics.

Putting Rahm Emanuel in his place…

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2671649

As referenced yesterday by the Bubbameister ...

Key Republican joins Dems in opposing Bolton

This is probably not what President Bush had in mind when he stressed bipartisanship after the Democratic Party's midterm elections sweep. A key Senate Republican has joined Democrats in opposing one of Bush's initiatives for the lame-duck Congress: John Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Chafee, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that he did not believe Bolton's nomination would move forward without his support.

"The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy," the Rhode Island moderate told The Associated Press.

"And at this late stage in my term, I'm not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out against."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/10/bolton.congress/index.html

The vindication of Howard Dean's 'crazy' strategy

RAW STORY
Thursday November 9, 2006

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, the former presidential candidate who was once in danger of being remembered for an angry scream, has come full circle. Dean's "crazy strategy of rebuilding the Democratic Party across all states" helped the Democrats achieve success as they captured Congress in the midterm elections, writes Joe Conason at Salon.

"Only weeks after the Democratic National Committee chose Howard Dean as its chairman last year, the nasty whispers began to circulate around Washington and among longtime party donors and activists in cities from New York to Los Angeles," writes Conason. "'He's going to be a disaster,' they muttered. 'He can't raise any money. He doesn't know what he's doing. And what does he mean by this crazy 50-state strategy?'"

Despite his struggles with power brokers in a party he was selected to lead, Dean persevered and is now "enjoying vindication far earlier than he ever expected," the article says.

"What Dean and his organizers created ... was an environment that allowed insurgents and outliers as well as the party's chosen challengers to ride the national wave of revulsion against conservative rule," Conason writes. "Faced with many more viable challenges than anticipated, the Republicans made mistakes in allocating resources -- and were forced to defend candidates in districts that are usually safe."

Conason says that Dean has "reached a peaceful accommodation" with his party adversaries, in part motivated by his popularity among the "unruly netroots." While deliberation over the continuance of the 50-state strategy will continue, Dean has in the meantime "won the argument" he initiated in the planning for this year's midterm.

"There would have been much less for the Democrats to celebrate on Election Night," concludes Conason, "if Howard Dean hadn't been so 'crazy' -- and so persistent."

Excerpts from the adview-required article follow...

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/The_vindication_of_Howard_Deans_crazy_1109.html

Hey CHUCK!!!!! :)

Boxer pledges shift on global warming policy
Incoming Senate environmental chair say 'time is running out'

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Sen. Barbara Boxer on Thursday promised major policy shifts on global warming, air quality and toxic-waste cleanup as she prepares to lead the U.S. Senate's environmental committee.

"Time is running out, and we need to move forward on this," Boxer said of global warming during a conference call with reporters. "The states are beginning to take steps, and we need to take steps as well."

Boxer's elevation to chairwoman of the Senate Environmental Public Works Committee comes as Democrats return to power in the Senate. It also marks a dramatic shift in ideology for the panel.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15652004/

I'm hearing the latest frames from the media:

1. Democrats are going to screw things up by taking on too many things at once.

2. Democrats will waste money on hearings.

3. The corrupt Republicans were really Democrats.

4. Bush is working towards bipartisonship. If the Democrats hold hearings the bipartisonship will disppear.

5. There is a divide between conservative Democrats and liberal Democrats so they won't be effective.

The Republican Party is doomed...
Read it here (and on DailyKos)

http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=6ED4AA6EAF1FA4DACC59AB676B0F0C64?diaryId=12820

Sparrow
I'm being selective who I listen to. So far I have heard Murtha and Webb. I need to let what they said sink in. I don't think there's going to be a unified position because the Democratic party is a big tent now. I think alot of nonsense will be written in the next few weeks because nobody expected the Democrats to take both the House and the Senate. When there are about as many Independents as Democrats and Republicans, it's really not surprising that people didn't listen so much to the quiet middle (like the old "silent majority") but to the much louder left and right ends of the spectrum. Now I'll bet there will be a big fight to control the middle (think McCain, H Clinton etc).

I'm still sitting back with my popcorn, watching
The media has no crystal ball. I have been talking to young people and one asked me, "Did the Democrats take over ALL the seats in the House and Senate?" So the media isn't doing a very good job of informing people or getting them interested.

Posted by: sparrow at November 10, 2006 11:47 AM

"F" em... I say we turn our sites on the media next. Talk is cheap, and if this new majority is smart, and I think it is, it will let their actions do the talking, without being muddled by a bunch of corporate-driven tabloid tested bullshit.

Let the media frame it anyway they want, right now their rantings appear as rediculous as the currently disgraced regime and it's minions.

Indeed, the air feels less oppressive out here already.

Americuz

These people aren't stupid. They just don't have time for lattes and the internet because they're working two jobs .... KJ

I read the MyLeftWing thing - yes the Republicans have lost support by not upholding their standard of being fiscally conservative but if the Republicans organize more toward the center, they are still a threat. American politics has always moved cyclically. The center of gravity if usually in the middle and the left and right tend to cancel each other out. When it goes too far to the left for middle America (as after Vietnam) or to far to the right for middle America (as after 9/11), it cycles back to the middle.

The Republican party is far from doomed. I have lived too long to believe that. There are always budding Roves and Atwaters. Make no mistake.

Posted by: dwahzon at November 10, 2006 08:46 AM

I like what Kos has to say about all this...

Taking a bow

--snip--
Those who think that the DSCC and DCCC don't deserve credit are idiots. Those who think Dean doesn't deserve credit are idiots. Those who think the netroots and grassroots don't deserve credit are idiots. We all had our roles to play, and we wouldn't be where we are today without them.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/10/11335/627

Posted by: DiAnne at November 10, 2006 12:00 PM

I agree. And sometimes corruption swings both ways too and will pull a party down.

Posted by: monkey at November 10, 2006 11:58 AM

I didn't hear "media reform" in Nancy Pelosi's first hundred days address. I would have put it there. Same as election reform.

I hope as well that they make DC a state. (While they can!)

Somebody just reassure me that they learned their lesson!

Also, the more I read about Emanuel and Reid and Shumer the more worried I am about what they are going to do for us.

Posted by: sparrow at November 10, 2006 12:22 PM

Media reform is more up to us than it is the government. It's more about money. We can have an impact on making or breaking the media.

I know there are things you'd expect the government to do, but let's do all we can as consumers so that our newly elected government can prioritize & focus on the biggest issues in the first 100 days.

Also, RE: media reform - plan to attend the National Conference for Media Reform in Nashville in January 2007. I went to the 2005 one in St. Louis & highly recommend it.

http://freepress.net/conference/

Posted by: sparrow at November 10, 2006 12:25 PM

You're going to make yourself crazy if you don't stop worrying & give them a chance. It has been only 3 days from the election & already you're working yourself up.

I know that I'll never agree 100% with any elected official or person in power, but I'm willing to give them a chance to prove themselves via their actions, not just their words.

Sparrow, Kay and others that worked with the Ohio Democratic Party, hopefully are aware that the media has given very little attention to the seismic shift in the political structure of Ohio, and why we at the dcp need to continue to push Ohio towards real democratic election and party reform BEFORE the 2008 presidential race. All of their leadership now has our ear, we need to keep pressure on them to usher in reform b/w now and 2008. Not only did Ted Strickland and Sherrod Brown win by large margins, but Lee Fisher is their new Lt governor and more importantly Marc Dann won their A.G. race and Jennifer Bruner now replaces Ken Blackwell as Secy of State. Dann has already promised in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that one of his highest priorities will be "integrity in elections and an end to corruption in their election process." Since Ohio will most likely be ground zero again for the Presidential election, election reform needs to be a high priority after ethics and economic policies especially in Ohio.

These are some of the problems I observed and certainly kay and sparrow can add to my list:

1. Photo I.D.s were required of all voters even those with current voter registration cards although electric bills accepted. That created problems for the elderly and poor with neither;

2. Cayahoga Cty set out to hire 7500 new election judge assisants and technicians to cover 650 precincts unfortunaly they fell short because they started looking for workers in late September when I first got there rather than in January to give them sufficient time;That was a noble gestture on their part but poorly planned;

3. Cayahoga Cty hired 200 workers to help Nursing Home residents,senior centers and cty jail inmates and hospital patients absentee vote. That was an amazing gesture but far too few workers were hired to cover the 150 nursing homes and senior centers alone in Cleveland.

4. I believe that Diebolt was still their voting machine operator. They still don't have optical scanners or a paper print out like other states;

5. Several of their precincts opened 1-2 hours late and the Ohio Democratic Party was required to go to federal court to keep them open. Blackwell urged and succeeded in making votes b/w 7-9 in these polling precincts to count as provisional ballots even though not the fault of voters;

6. The Ohio Democratic party used a computer data entry system called SAGE which was extremely slow, antiquated and non operational for a considerable time during the campaign and desperatly needs replacement;

7. The Ohio Democratic voter list and phone numbers had not been updated for several years.

8. Voters who had not voted in the previous 2 election cycles were purged off the rolls and new registration cards not mailed out;

9. Acorn and other progressive voter registration groups were given draconian penalties for turning in new voter registration cards that needs to be rescinded.

10. Absentee application were sent out to everyone in Cayahoga Cty, except to residents in nursing homes, and unfortunately free postage was not provided on the absentee applications;

And finally Gene Schmidt needs to be defeated in 2008 by Paul Hackett.

We have a new team of ethical and dynamic leaders in Ohio. Lets not forget to let them know that their work is just beginning and that we expect massive fair election laws to be enacted in Ohio by the 2008 Presidential election and that members of the dcp will be reminding them of that. We should also praise these new group of Ohio leaders as we see some of these reforms instituted to let them know that dcp members appreciate real election reform, but please don't take Ohio for granted ever again. It took over a decade to wrestle it away from the corrupt Ohio Republican party.

I told my mother this morning WE ARE NOT DONE, just because we won the house and the Seante does not make us done, we still have to pay close attention to what our representives are doing, we can not take everything they say on faith anymore than we could with the Republicans in control we have to be vigilant I do not want to become them. Saying they said(those in power)I want to still read research and watch. Winning isnt everything its what the winner does with the win that counts.

Fantastic Planet Of Love
Marshall Crenshaw

The way you smile, even when heartbreak
Is closing in around you
You know that's one thing
I ought to learn how to do
Won't you hear my plea
Come by and see me
'Cause every time I see you smile
You make my world
A fantastic planet of love

What new battle will this day bring?
Just this morning I felt like trouble's plaything
Believe me darling this is true
It's only when I'm next to you, that I ever dream of
A fantastic planet of love

Right now I feel it
I feel something closing in around me
It's in the headlines of the tabloids
And I heard it on TV
Come see about me, can't wait to be
Hanging 'round with the one who makes my world
A fantastic planet of love

Don't get angry
Yeah, that's what you say!
Save your anger, you shouldn't look at it that way
Come over and I'll be satisfied
It's only when I'm by your side
That I ever dream of
A fantastic planet of love

Posted by: monkey at November 10, 2006 01:36 PM

Love it. ;=)

As always, my comments return to voting.

More on CIA Director/Iran Contra/Rumsfield replacement, Robert Gates. According to Bev Harris at BBV, he was director of a voting machine company.

Gates was on the board of directors of VoteHere, a strange, small company that was the biggest elections industry lobbyist for the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). VoteHere spent more money than ES&S, Diebold, and Sequoia combined to help ram HAVA through. And HAVA, of course, was a bill
sponsored by convicted Abramoff co-hort, Bob Ney, and K-street lobbyist, Steny Hoyer.

sparrow:

I appreciate your concern and caution, but defarge is right. Let our new leaders settle in.

What we can REALLY use right now is continued pressure to make sure the current 109th COngress DOES NOT pull a fast one before they leave in December. We need to watch every single last move they make. Remember opposition parties love to leave little time bombs for the new party in power to come upon and blow themselves up.

Put nervous energy into present moment alertness.

AND DON'T EVER STOP. EVEN AFTER THE NEW CONGRESS IS SWORN IN.

I agree we have to keep up pressure for media reform, election reform including campaign finance reform. Fairness. I doubt Pelosi will do it because she will have to build bridges in order to get things done. I also agree very much that we have to be vigilant about the current Congress (til 2007) trying to sneak things through quickly as lame ducks. I personally am not that concerned if the country seems to have gone somewhat to the middle because I think that's where the country actually is, if you average it. It's historically true too. Doesn't mean we personally have to be middle-of-the-road.

Read this, sparrow. I hope it will make you feel a little better...

The new media narrative
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/10/13731/592

Good things are starting to happen already...

DEMOCRATS WILL REVISIT MILITARY HABEAS DEBATE
Likely Chair Leahy Objects to Limits on Detainees' Rights

WASHINGTON - An effort to restore habeas corpus rights for enemy combatants could be the first test of the Democrats' resolve to change course in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who is expected to become chairman, confirmed Thursday that he is drafting a bill to undo portions of a recently passed law that prevent terrorism detainees from going to federal court to challenge the government's right to hold them indefinitely.

http://pda-appellateblog.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_pda-appellateblog_archive.html#116317805789890859

87% THINK BUSH SHOULD BE IMPEACHED!

Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? * 319172 responses

Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial.
87%

No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."
4.4%

No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just be a political lynching.
7.2%

I don't know.
1.8%

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/

I know what Dean said, at this point to hell with Dean too.

EIGHTY SEVEN PERCENT.

There is no reason at all to wait.

Prosecute him and set an example to the world.

It is our only way out of this.

87%!!!!!!!!!

Now I am celebrating!!! May the will of the PEOPLE be done!

Posted by: Christy at November 10, 2006 03:28 PM

You think you're celebrating now....

Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse

A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo

By ADAM ZAGORIN
Friday, Nov. 10, 2006

Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

more...
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1557842,00.html

George W. Bush must be tried in a court of THIS nation and no other. It is our responsibility and ours alone, God forgive us.

I think we should give over Rummy to be tried in IRAQ.

Thank you everyone for trying to cheer me up. I guess all this backstabbing between all these people has depressed me.

Madame, thank you for the kos link. It did cheer me up. But this one cheered me up even more:

DEMOCRATS WILL REVISIT MILITARY HABEAS DEBATE

and this one too:

Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse

I worried that the first one would be forgotten out of some sort of 08 fear.

And the second one is great news because we need to get testimony and hold these people accountable for their evil actions.

Maybe my outlook on those issues was changed a little bit by helping so much with Jesselyn Radack's book and seeing her experience with her own 'Inspector Javeer.' But it really hit me hard on how much our government went after one person and how the layers and layers of cover-ups exist out there in many areas--not just with the area Jesselyn Radack worked in--but all across this administration.

I'm glad to know those issues aren't forgotten in the 'glory of the moment.' AND I'm dying to know what Debbie Stabenow will vote for now we've taken Congress.

I'd also like to know what the heck happened that 3 days after a wonderful cleansing of facism, I hear all this garbage about DCCC, DSC, Netroots, etc.. all congratulating themselves or blaming others for everything this election!

People dissing Seals and Duckworth and calling them "Milqueweed" or people going after Dean's neck.

WTF people?

Just WTF!!!

A military hero and a DNC Chairman who just brought the democratic party out of the wilderness to one of its greatest victories in a generation, and we attack these folks? That is insanity. I agree that some of our candidates did not possess all the politicial skills needed to handle a campaign but why would that justify criticism? As you recall many, many progressives attacked the choice of Sherrod Brown over Paul Hackett claiming he was not a real Democrat b/c his positions were not pure enough and that he would have no chance against Mike Dewine. Last time I checked he cleaned Dewine's clock by an overwhelming 15% margin. Schummer, Dean and others at the DNC were roundly criticized for supporting Brown over Hackett and were threatened by those who claim they would not support Brown. Brown turned out to be a fine candidate who had the money and political skills that Paul Hackett, a great progressive candidate did not. I think that what this has taught us is that politics is a serious business that is often best served by those like McKasill, Casey and Brown who have been in the political trenches before and have the training to run against the Republican slime machine. That does not mean that Hackett should not run in '08 against Schmidt, it just means that the odds of their success are less than those of candidates who have fought the good political fight before.

In Harris's district they are having a problem with the votes. Apparently, over 18,000 voters didn't vote for Congress but came out to vote for fire chief or whatever.

The campaign heard from voters that the final screen was not showing their vote for the Democrat. This tipped them off.

I heard this on Randi Rhodes.

Posted by: DiAnne at November 10, 2006 12:00 PM

I have to catch up on the reading, but scrolling up I saw your comment to me. I haven't read the MyLeft Wing thing, so I'll have to comment again once I do, LOL

Spent the day in urban KC. Was that nice for a change. Also a friend brought up a topic that I just posted on Ron's blog, re: locations of polling places. Now to go read WTF Sparrow is WTFing about. What happened today? Nevermind, will go read.

We need investigations into how the war started, where did our tax money go, why was the VA underfunded and why were detainees mistreated.
Impeachment should have happened in 2000-2002.
I had my sign up.

Senators Levin & Reid will be able to subpoena people like Doug Feith (Office of Special Plans) who pushed fake intelligence from teh likes of Chalabi and lobbied for pre-emptive strikes against Iraq. The hearing should try to get to the bottom of why there were TWO intelligence agencies within the Pentagon. Pat Roberts tried to sidestep it and if Feith, Cheney etc. refuse, the Legislative branch can refuse to confirm Gates.

Bush will want to legalize wiretapping, get Bolton in and pass nuclear technology to India despite their failure to cooperate with nonproliferation treaties and will want to overturn all restrictions on the Executive Branch that were put there after Vietnam and WaterGate. He'll want to do all of this during his "lame duck" period so the more distraction, the better for him.

I believe it's appropriate to start a suit against Rumsfeld and in Germany. Old Europe can't stand him and there is quite the heritage there for trying war criminals. Condi Rice is proceeding as if there has not been a mid-term election at all. Perhaps she is in denial.

It's going to be interesting with the neutered neocons. China and Russia are not fond of the Democrats anyway because they tend to be pro human rights and pro union. It'll be interesting to see what happens with trade policy in general, especially NAFTA, CAFTA and with leftist governments in Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba. If Gates gets in, he's going to be spread quite thin if he's going to run an old school CIA operation on several fronts at once. Don't even like thinking about North Korea but not convinced Rice is the person to go anywhere off the ranch.

Fallujah is under insurgent control again and many troops do not know the Republicans have won or even who Rumsfeld is. They are getting most of their news from the Iraqis. The Tabeban are surprising everyone with the ferocity of their attacks. Australia is taking notice of our election as theirs approaches and it may be bad for Howard. Canada has a growing antiwar movement just based around how Afghanistan is going.

Israeli generals are talking again about pre-emptive strikes against Iran again, which would be suicidal. They did it 25 years ago but now everything is dispersed and buried. They have also come close to striking German and French UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, which is uncalled for and will result in "blowback" such as terror strikes. Gates is discussing getting Israel/Palestine talks going again but no one since JFK has really advocated a nuclear-free
middle east. There has been a double standard.

I think it makes more sense to study history, geography - anything but listen to the speculation of the talking heads. I read a little Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd and some speculation by the likes of Jason Leopold but right now I don't think anyone really quite understands the psyche of the American public nor can they predict what will happen in 2008.

What would be the dynamic in the event of another terrorist attack? Can you step in the same river twice? If anyone should worry, it should be the UK and I'll bet most of the problem comes out of Pakistan. & as long as we're in Iraq, it's a breeding ground for terror too. We're so obviously making the situation worse.

I guess I have nothing to add here, after all! LOL

I'm much like DiAnne (although not nearly as informed or as active as she is)! I don't watch news or anything real time, we Tivo the shows we watch and they have nothing to do with reality. Fiction vs. Non-fiction, if you will. I also don't read dKos or MyLeftWing or HuffPo or much of anything, really anymore. I scan *widely* for headlines, catch the drift or flow or narrative and then let it go. (And I've read virtually nothing since the election.) What other people are putting out as reality doesn't interest me in the slightest. I care about what people around me around me are saying and feeling and thinking and how they've processed the (what I think is mostly crap) from the "experts" that have brought us this wonderful life we call America in 2006. Otherwise, I just plain don't give a d@mn. I've pretty much had it with the lot, left and right.

Again, I agree with DiAnne and mbk above. America has moved to the center. All I want to do is help define what that means to the people in my hood, you know? And then write about it. And talk about it. And decide who's going to run for county commissioner next. And btw, who is in charge of deciding where the polling places are located? As a friend pointed out to me today, why in the world are they located in private churches instead of public schools? Who made that decision? How can we change it?

I'm grateful for the 50 state strategy. I don't care whose idea it was or who implmented it. That's out of my scope of ability to influence. I'm just happy old Misery wasn't left out of the election $$ and I thank everyone who send a dime.

I'm doing the old, "Think Global, Act Local." It's quite frankly the only way I know how to work and not burn-out after all these years. And I have burned out before because I took too much information in and had no where to go with it all. Not going to make that mistake again. ;-)

And as many of you know, I've been a political volunteer since I was a kid (again, like DiAnne). (DiAnne, I don't mean to link you with me, lol!) I'm an alpha female who has gone her own way from the age of 16 to present, and don't really care what someone else tells me they think I need to care about. I've never listened to Randi Rhodes. I hear she's great, but I don't need her influence, you know? I want to know what my next door neighbor thinks, because there, maybe, I can make a difference. Everyone does their own thing based on their own beliefs and their strengths.

And if I understood numbers, I'd be all over the voting machines thing. But I don't, and that's not my strength, so I leave it to Marjorie. ;-)

Think Global, Act Local.

Gees folks we won.
All the bridge jumping should have been done after November 2004.

Dems have a lot on their plate. Each action must be weighed by time and political capital and deciding who is going to get involved in the decision making? How do we bring the public along?

Do we come up with an exit plan in Iraq?

Do we come up with plans do design and implement universal health care? How do we pay for it?

Do we increase taxes on the wealthy to pay for social projects?

How do we reconfigure and resupply the military?

What do we do about global warming?

Do we roll back the insidious affronts to civil liberties?

Do we go after Dumbya and his cabal? How much time do we spend? Where in the list of issues does this fall? First? Top 5? Top 10?
Does the public consider this more important then say health care?

Do we raise the minimum wage?

The point is if we charge down the halls and try to impeach all who fouled up we will not get important changes made.
If we don't get things done the public will be justified tossing us out in 2008.
Obviously, many things can be done at once.
The Dem leadership is looking at a wide array of possible actions. I am sure they dreamed of the day they would get the chance.

Not all can be started at once. Some are more difficult then others. Some are more important then others. Some are blocked by others.

Hang me up and pelt me with tomatoes, but I don't think we need to spend any time in the next two years dealing with the past. Let it go, for now, and deal with the present and the future. Want to hold up the Gates nomination? Great, in the meantime, guess who will be around, Rummy. Want to impeach Bush? Great, in the meantime, Iraq is crumbling and in case no one's noticed, so is the country most of us live in. Phone calls to Pat Roberts? Been there, done that, he didn't listen and I'll just have to string him up later. Same with Bush, same with Rummy. String them up five or ten years from now. Because from my point of view, we need as many hands on deck re: the restoration of this country's economy and future.

Doesn't mean I don't think all those things shouldn't happen, I just think we're in too bad a shape to deal with them right now. I think that time would be better spent fixing the problems they created and dealing with the later.

The roof is leaking. The house is on fire. What do you do first? Hire a lawyer to sue the roofer and the electrion? I'd stop the fire, fix the roof, then nail the b*stards. But that's just me. ;-)

Um, nevermind. What battlebob said.

Serving green tea. Pulled out my secret stash of jasmine buds and brewed a whole pot. :-)

We're going to be fine.

Democrats planning the investigations:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-investigations10nov10,0,1887142.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Well KJ remember I know you!

What I pretty much do is catch NPR and BBC on my commute & I speedread World then National news on Google. That tells me what I want to hone in on. I get TruthOut and read what I've missed & I get emailed alot of OpEds, humor & blog links. I have bookmarked blogs that I check but that always comes after reading newspapers on line. If I watch television, there is seldom anything I haven't seen but much more commentary and it's so entertainment-oriented it's not useful. I'd rather be doing photography, drawing or laying on the couch doing nothing.
I do occasionally like Front Line or 60 Minutes & I keep hearing about these guys called Jon Stewart & Keith Olbermann LOL. Seriously, I do watch some of the uTube and tv links people send me, time permitting. I've always been kind of a nonfiction person and lately I've hit the library and I'm reading an anthropological book on shopping malls.

Congratulations on your state KJ. I think America on the average has gone to the middle, but sectors are still more right, more left. Like where I live, people will still go for the Greens, Socialist etc. which is fine - but they can't expect the whole party to be pulled as far to the left as they want them to be. It won't happen.

I agree KJ - I did start politics at 15 (Eugene McCarthy's "Children's Crusade") - so I was a Deaniac before there was Dean. LOL I agree that taking a break or a general-to-specific view, time permitting, does help prevent burnout.

Remember in Boston when Patti F dreamed she was watching tv and she was kicking and swearing in her sleep? I can't remember what she said but it was funny as hell. KJ and Marjorie G were there too. It would have been a good reality show. That I would watch!

One blog I want to plug is Mark Barrett's because he's such a good writer and thinker.
http://www.thepremise.com - that I do read.

87% FAVOR IMPEACHMENT....!

THAT little tidbit of an unofficial online poll needs to be sent to the newly elected and re-elected Representatives... especially the ones who say 'impeachment is off the table' (ahem, Pelosi). She will be Madame Speaker, but she does need to listen to her constituents and the rest of the citizens of this nation who do not think it would be a waste of time to impeach the bam dastards who have brought us to such a low point in the history of this nation. As long as the other things can be taken care of, I favor gridlock while impeachment proceedings take place.

True, this will involve MULTITASKING. Ending an unconstitutional and illegal war, ending torture and closing illegal prisons, crappy legislation, et cetera, will all have to be dealt with at once, because these things have horrified people of conscience in this nation since they began, clear back to the SCOTUS decision of 2000 that gave Dumbya his office.

True, Leahy will need our support. (BTW, I saw one network last night have a D by his name when they said he'd be the new chair of the Judiciary committee, but last I ever heard was he's an I...! Can't remember if it was CBS or ABC or both; I was doing some fast channel surfing.) The WHOLE MCA '06 needs repealing since ALL of it is unconstitutional and/or illegal. Repeal it and shred it, and don't let any other tyrant in the mold of W ever bring toilet paper legislation like that to the floor again! Leahy had me in tears twice during the debates for the MCA '06, only because everything he said was correct and heartfelt.

Then after the MCA is repealed, the next to go will have to be the Patriot Act and it's amendments and the other crappy legislation that has so encroached on our rights, privileges, and privacy.

Multitasking will have to be the word of the day for several months to come.

And, never let up on contacting Reps and Senators to keep pushing them to do right by us for a change. Many people have died for their misdeeds, and we need to undo what we can, even if we can't, unfortunately, bring back those who have died in vain for the sake of lies and oil.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1557842,00.html
Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse

A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo

Excerpt (more on link):

A spokesperson for the Pentagon told TIME there would be no comment since the case has not yet been filed.

Along with Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Tenet, the other defendants in the case are Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone; former assistant attorney general Jay Bybee; former deputy assisant attorney general John Yoo; General Counsel for the Department of Defense William James Haynes II; and David S. Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Senior military officers named in the filing are General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top Army official in Iraq; Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of Guantanamo; senior Iraq commander, Major General Walter Wojdakowski; and Col. Thomas Pappas, the one-time head of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib.

Germany was chosen for the court filing because German law provides "universal jurisdiction" allowing for the prosecution of war crimes and related offenses that take place anywhere in the world. Indeed, a similar, but narrower, legal action was brought in Germany in 2004, which also sought the prosecution of Rumsfeld. The case provoked an angry response from Pentagon, and Rumsfeld himself was reportedly upset. Rumsfeld's spokesman at the time, Lawrence DiRita, called the case a "a big, big problem." U.S. officials made clear the case could adversely impact U.S.-Germany relations, and Rumsfeld indicated he would not attend a major security conference in Munich, where he was scheduled to be the keynote speaker, unless Germany disposed of the case. The day before the conference, a German prosecutor announced he would not pursue the matter, saying there was no indication that U.S. authorities and courts would not deal with allegations in the complaint.

In bringing the new case, however, the plaintiffs argue that circumstances have changed in two important ways. Rumsfeld's resignation, they say, means that the former Defense Secretary will lose the legal immunity usually accorded high government officials. Moreover, the plaintiffs argue that the German prosecutor's reasoning for rejecting the previous case — that U.S. authorities were dealing with the issue — has been proven wrong.

"The utter and complete failure of U.S. authorities to take any action to investigate high-level involvement in the torture program could not be clearer," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a U.S.-based non-profit helping to bring the legal action in Germany. He also notes that the Military Commissions Act, a law passed by Congress earlier this year, effectively blocks prosecution in the U.S. of those involved in detention and interrogation abuses of foreigners held abroad in American custody going to back to Sept. 11, 2001. As a result, Ratner contends, the legal arguments underlying the German prosecutor's previous inaction no longer hold up.

Whatever the legal merits of the case, it is the latest example of efforts in Western Europe by critics of U.S. tactics in the war on terror to call those involved to account in court. In Germany, investigations are under way in parliament concerning cooperation between the CIA and German intelligence on rendition — the kidnapping of suspected terrorists and their removal to third countries for interrogation. Other legal inquiries involving rendition are under way in both Italy and Spain.

U.S. officials have long feared that legal proceedings against "war criminals" could be used to settle political scores. In 1998, for example, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet — whose military coup was supported by the Nixon administration — was arrested in the U.K. and held for 16 months in an extradition battle led by a Spanish magistrate seeking to charge him with war crimes. He was ultimately released and returned to Chile. More recently, a Belgian court tried to bring charges against then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for alleged crimes against Palestinians.

For its part, the Bush Administration has rejected adherence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on grounds that it could be used to unjustly prosecute U.S. officials. The ICC is the first permanent tribunal established to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

DiAnne,

There is definately a reason you have the degrees you do and I, uh, don't. ;-) Also that you are in an uberGreen area and I'm here with the, shall I say, more basic-minded folk. Which was part of the great joy of being with you, Patti and Marjorie in that room that I kept steaming up with super hot showers, because we all seemed to 'be' where we were from. That part sort of cracked me up. I was a wreck that week, but would relive it again in a heartbeat. Down to Patti yelling at the television (I think it was to Tweety) in her sleep.

What I was trying to say above is let's resume the conversation about what is important to us, as individuals, and then go about doing those things in a way that is manageable. As Battlebob said, the top five or top ten. If someone can do 20, more power to them. But we all won't be staying on top of 20 things, that's for sure. One person staying on top of one thing is extremely powerful and effective and of great value to the collective if they share their knowledge.

I wouldn't try to stop Christy from going all out for impeachment any more than I would try to stop Marjorie from her work on voting machine fraud. Or you from reading the 14,000 things you not only read, but comprehend and can discuss. But I limit what I take in. I chose, as best as I can control, who and what gets in. Not in a head-in-the-sand way, in a self-aware way, that is, I know my own limits and when my effectiveness is lost because really and truly, we're bombarded with information and we've been bombarded with lies and corruption by this misAdministration.

And yes, I read Mark. And Ron. And Battlebob's links on the military sites because the military sort of fascinates me right now in a "well I sort of want to know, but not too much" way. It's a foreign world.

Actually, my real interest is in international fiction, the descriptions of societies. The us vs them the individual v the collective and where and how they meet and what happens when they do. Not much to do with Democracy, only in a peripheral way, but does have to do with what happens when and if cultures clash. Finding areas of commonality that can be explored to the benefit of each culture.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_go_co/democrats_oversight

Waxman set to probe areas of Bush gov't

LOS ANGELES - The Democratic congressman who will investigate the Bush administration's running of the government says there are so many areas of possible wrongdoing, his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.

{More on link. Memo to Henry Waxman: It's called MULTITASKING. Hire good people with the ethical standards of Fitzgerald, and you'll soon figure out a top twenty list of things that need immediate attention....}

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_bi_ge/enron_fastow

Enron's Fastow assigned to La. prison

HOUSTON - Former Enron Corp. financial whiz Andrew Fastow will serve six years in a federal prison in Louisiana for plundering the company while concealing its feeble financial condition from investors.

{See link for more.}

DiAnne,

One the great strengths of the blog where we all met was the various talents that not only gathered there, but were encouraged to flourish there. Patti could tell you what anyone said on any show that all seemed (to me) to be airing at the same time. Talk about multitasking television! Even in her sleep! And fedup was the resident C-Span junkie... and on and on. We chose our roles and then set about doing them. As the place grew, the talent grew.

One thing about where we all are now is clear, we're three years down the road and not centered around a particular candidate for nominee in an upcoming election. But we all seem to be centered even more in our determination to effect even greater change in our chosen areas of interest. I celebrate that. I celebrate the collective, based on what we do as individuals.

And I serve green tea if I think anyone is becoming overwhelmed. It always calms me down, anyway. It's a ritual. :-)

I like this "Let it roll" on kos.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/10/184736/14

Off to read both Mark and Ron. :-)
I read Ron daily but Mark I read in chunks every couple of days.

Oh my, I'm going to have to start reading Mark every day, not every couple of days. Like Ron, he gets right to the crux, heart, and marrow of the issues that matter the most to me.

Posted by: madame defarge at November 10, 2006 12:20 PM

Actually I agree and that post by kos appeared after the DU item. I think his was the most reasonable and logical statement. Particularly the segment you chose to quote. That leaped right off the screen at me when I read it over at dailykos.

I did see Rahm in a talking head appearance taking all the credit and I can see where it did piss some people off.

Rahm is a doink.

Rahm wasn't bilked in a day.

R.I.P. Jack Palance

surprise (not)

McCain to Launch 2008 Exploratory Panel
la times: http://tinyurl.com/yyewez

o_O

Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse
Time.com http://tinyurl.com/ycdd63

A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo

Bubba- Thanks for the link to that article. It's what I've been saying all along- that if the Democratic party would only stop the games they've been playing with the South for several years now, they could retake the leadership in this country. During the 2004 Election cycle, there were numerous blog posts on the Kerry blog, as well as on a lot of other Democratic blogs, explaining the mathematical formula by which you could take the election without taking a single Southern state. Since a lot of our party leadership actually believed that fallacy (Howard Dean not included in that bunch), the war was lost before the fighting even began. Imagine a boxer planning to win a match by only seriously fighting 8 rounds of the fight, knowing that if he lost the other 7, it really wouldn't matter. That was the Democrats strategy last election- to ignore this part of the country completely and focus on the more cosmopolitan and in their minds, therefore, more intelligent areas of the country. Specifically, everywhere but the South and the Midwest, who were considered hopelessly mired in such a pit of ignorance that there was just no hope for them at all. As the article stated, if this election proved anything, it was that Howard Dean was right- a national strategy is absolutely vital. It also proved that the Democratic party can take at least 33% of evangelicals when they focus on moral issues such as lying and corruption in government. And it proved that Southerners will vote their own interests if the Democratic party just reaches out to them and proves that they are serious about pursuing those economic issues that are important down here. The minimum wage is one of those issues, and outsourcing is another. The crop of Democrats who came into office this year are not globalists, not by any stretch of the imagination, and that appeals to Southerners with their "America First" ideologies. Now if the purists in the party will just accept that many of the new freshman are moderates, and not ignore them because they think that as liberals they have some sort of moral superiority, we can have the kind of big tent party that both parties used to be back in the 60's and 70's, before Ronald Reagan came into office and completely polarized the country with his stubborn dogma. Americans are sick of polarization- the Republicans are too stupid to understand that, but the Democrats seem to have begun to "get it" with this election. And if we keep on this course, we may just have seen the last gasp of the Republican party with the election 2 years ago. I truly hope so. Anyway- thanks for that link. I really did enjoy the article.

Posted by: aimzzz at November 10, 2006 09:40 PM

Sorry-posted before looking... I guess it doesn't hurt to repeat some things...

And for what it's worth- I agree with kj. Always did, pretty much. It would be great fun to go after Dubya for what he's done in the past but that's not what this election was about. It was about change, and if we do nothing but engage in partisan bickering the next two years about what W did or did not do, if we decide that an impeachment would be fun,we'll lose the voters that have come our way this election. Focus on the positive- bring down drug prices, raise the minimum wage, give the Iraqis a deadline, and forget the last 6 years. Except, of course, to bring back all the civil liberties that have been stolen from us over those years. That's what people in this part of the country want- not a partisan bloodbath. I'd love the revenge myself, but that's not what most voters want. And we need to listen to the voters, not to our own worst natures.

And what's all this fuss about Bolton, anyway?

I mean, he hasn't had a hit in *years* now.

Linda I read that article and it just read like it was written specifically for you.

Economic populism seemed to be the message of the southern strategy. Fortunately Linda some other factors seemed to fall into place. For one the Foley/Haggert stories seem to neutralize the Republican advantage on cultural issues. Secondly the Dems have learned,again thanks to Howard Dean that gun control and abortion are not winning issues especially here in the south. Our Dem candidate for Delay's seat, Nick Lampson, ran commercials boasting that he is endorsed by the NRA as did Tester and one of our other Houston Congressmen, Gene Grene. that would have been unherad of in prior election cycles. We have also learned that we need to keep abortion out of the political picture. Catholic voters I learned especially while in Cleveland have many one issue voters and its all about abortion. When confronted in a Catholic neighborhood called Treemont in western Cleveland by several Catholic voters who asked about Sherrod Brown and abortion, I told them simply that we were not discussing abortion in our campaign because the economic suffering by the good people of Ohio deserved all of our time and attention. Don't know if that convinced the one issue antiabortion voters, but seeing how Ted Strickland won by 26% points it was obvious at least in Ohio that as long as told that the candidate was not discussing abortion or gay marriage because there were issues like jobs, the economy and trade much more important to the Ohio voters lives, it seemed to get through. Som here might argue that that is not honest politics but at least in the south and parts of conservative midwest, it is the only way towin elections. For those who remember the prominence of the Democratic party here in Texas in the 70s and 80s, it compromised primarily conservative Democrats. I am afrad that some of these cultural wars are just going to have to be left to another place and time, or perhaps kept out of politics all together, something I believe Linda as a southerner would agree with. And that is why I now choose to be known as Bubba.You see Linda we are not all of one mind here and understand fully the need to be smart about our politics, even though privately we don't agree with some of those stands. We have grown in our thoughts here at the dcp.

Hey All, Just spent two days that felt like thirty dealing with issues at work and just now catching up on reading. This blog is hopping and it is so nice to read intelligent discussions!

I also want to add that we are beginning to think about next steps, for us personally as well as with everyone here. No sense of any direction yet, but lots to ponder and discuss. Watch this space...

We have opportunities and the need for vigilance. But all of a sudden the tasks are clear--messages in to lawmakers, messages out to the netroots, and messages across all of us so we can organize and act at will.

Off to bed now but thinking...

Linda
I agree that Reagan polarized the country with his stubborn rhetoric. I did not appreciate seeing him lionized.

I would like to visit more of the south.

Posted by: Bubba at November 10, 2006 10:44 PM

I think it was smart politics, Bubba. Let us always remember that the war was wearing heavily on people's minds. That factor alone neutralized alot of the neocon's abortion and gay marriage political power.

I remember saying after Roberts and Scalia went to the SC that the Reich would have a much harder time getting their base to the polls to vote, because those one issue voters are exactly that. They get out of their worlds and go vote for those two issues (they were counting on stem cells this year but it didn't work for them)after being told to do so by their priests and clergmen.

I did get a little worried as the votes were being counted this year, and here is why:

Rural America still pulls a great punch because as I travel these small rural towns in the heartland I see rows and rows of cars on Main St. USA on Sunday morning......right in front of the Catholic and Protestant churches. Plus they had Rove's team calling and toying with people over the abortion issue.

It's the height of hypocrisy, which is why I will NEVER vote Republican again. I'm no longer an Independent either. I am a Democrat.

And yes, Linda, our views on SOME things do differ greatly and largely here at the DCP. So never feel unwelcome here. We just don't focus on the specks of issues we disagree on here, and we agree on some things for certain:

We don't want thugs and hypocrits, murderers and liars and thieves in office in the U.S.A.

We want true values to return to our system of government.

We want peace when we can get it.

We don't think everyone needs to think alike - that is the beauty of a pluralistic society. The blend is what makes it so beautiful.

I have learned that I can relate to and communicate with people here that I don't agree with every single jot and tittle. But we agree to one another's right to their thoughts and opinions.

It's good to have you here when you come by to share.

Oh, and to finish my thoughts, Bubba, I know that the Foley and Haggard scandals did neutralize the punch, along with the Iraq war.

It was good that you didn't focus on abortion, because the talking heads are saying that many of the Dems that were just elected were appealing to moderates and indies.

I don't think '04 should have been as much about abortion as it was, but I'll tell ya, that issue gets alot of conservatives seeing red (like a bull), and you can't even talk them past that wedge issue. I remember when the abortion issue was brought to the forefront during the '04 debates, and I think a short one sentence answer should be used next time.

Count on Rove et. al to use it over and over, time after time.

Next time there might not be the war to concern moderates to conservatives like there was this year. And abortion will take a vote over the economy, unless they are starving. We have to come up with very smart ways to handle that issue. I know not everyone here agrees with me on that, but we DO talk things over and air our views once in a while, and the rest of the time we focus on what we all agree on.

I think you guys campaigned the smart way, and I thank you to the bottom of my heart!!!!

Thank you, Bubba, for all the many, many months you gave yourself 100% to the cause of our democracy.

The crop of Democrats who came into office this year are not globalists, not by any stretch of the imagination, and that appeals to Southerners with their "America First" ideologies. Now if the purists in the party will just accept that many of the new freshman are moderates, and not ignore them because they think that as liberals they have some sort of moral superiority, we can have the kind of big tent party that both parties used to be back in the 60's and 70's

Posted by: Linda Enterkin at November 10, 2006 09:47 PM

Very well put, Linda, and I agree with you.

I just joined a new Northwest Peace Action group, for good measure, since I believe there must be other than military solutions to alot of the problems we face.

Posted by: NonnyO at November 10, 2006 06:03 PM

I was just thinking of this today, NonnyO, because I had a conversation with someone yesterday who thinks impeachment is too good for this administration.

People are very angry and fed up. Even in this little purple (ex-red) area of the country.

P.S. Y'all....

Rummy gone and Bolton out.

What a difference a day makes! Twenty four little hours!!!

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at November 11, 2006 12:39 AM

The crappy legislation the Rubber Stamp Congress passed could all be repealed within six days in an up or down vote, two weeks max, if Democrats are in favor of restoring the pre-2000 status quo. That would mean no more MCA-'06 dictator who approves (in our names, no less, which is beyond shameful), torture, unconstitutional and illegal wars based on lies for the sake of the control of oil, and returns the balance of power between the legislative, judicial, and executive branches, no more so-called Patriot Act and it's amendments, no more of any idiotic legislation (passed out of fear of being labeled unpatriotic and fear of a few criminals who should have been hunted down by international law enforcement - 'war on fear,' my big fat arse!) that infringes on our rights and responsibilities as given to us in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

We need the guard and reserve troops brought home on the first transport planes out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the regular military redeployed ASAP. That can be managed at the same time as the crappy legislation is all repealed. It didn't take more than a few months to get them all transported over to the unconstitutional and illegal wars, and it should take the same amount of time to bring them home. Pay reparations to the countries we've so badly damaged, and let them rebuild in peace and/or settle their own civil wars in whatever fashion suits them best. It's their countries after all, not ours. We need to heal our own country in our own way, they in their own way.

We need sanity and common sense in our legislators, in the legislation they pass, in this country, to once again prevail.

If that means impeaching the liars and criminals who have gotten us to this point, so be it. They need to be held accountable for their lies and their crimes. I'm sick and tired beyond endurance of being lied to by our "leaders" - of whatever political persuasion - and I'm sick and tired of Dems and Indys falling into lock-step with the neoCons. Enough already!

There was an interesting online poll question on the PBS NOW web site asking if the presidunce and new Dem legislators could work together. The overwhelming answer was no. I voted no for the simple reason I know full well the presidunce and his minions will do their darndest to impede any progressive legislation by whatever underhanded methods at their disposal. If we've learned any lessons over the last six years, we know that 'working together' for him and his regime means 'do things his way or no way.' He'll still try to do the same to the Dem majority.

So, first the new Dem majority needs to get good legislation passed and get us the hell out of those stupid wars based on lies; then they need to impeach the liars and criminals. If they get enough people jamming their inboxes and phone lines in favor of impeachment, they'll have to listen to the will of the people, no matter what.

Eleven New And Happy Things
Santorum dead, religious right imploding, Bush whimpering in the corner. Can we all exhale now?
By Mark Morford

1) (Chant, in happy sing-song voice, while holding bottle of wine, Astroglide and copy of Rob Brezsny's Pronoia): Rick Santorum is gone, Rick Santorum is gone, oh praise Jesus, Rick Santorum is gone. The third most powerful and first most reprehensible "Christian" Republican lawmaker in Congress was also arguably the most homophobic, misogynistic and small-minded of them all, especially given his sticky sheen of fundamentalist goo.

Remember Rick? He's the one who equated homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality. He championed intelligent design, tossed Terry Schiavo's lifeless body like a political football, voted against Plan B and funding for contraception education and voted to ban abortions on military bases (among many, many other attacks on women's rights), thus earning himself a whopping 0 percent rating from NARAL. He also voted to cut the NEA, increase school prayer, pursue ANWR drilling and on and on. Ricky's voting record is the ethical equivalent of a pie full of nails left over from the "Passion of the Christ" bake sale. Women, the sexually awake and Dan Savage fans rejoice: Rick Santorum is gone. Praise Jesus and pass the wine.

2) While you're at it, all hail the happy defeat of Dick Pombo, Christian Coalition/NRA poster boy and powerful GOP "eco-thug" from Tracy who oversaw the House Resources Committee and whose agenda on environmental and social issues reads like a rundown of the murder techniques of a serial killer. What, too extreme? Check the voting record, baby. Dick and Rick were two peas in a savage, misogynist pod. This guy made trees weep. Good riddance.

3) A loving, bittersweet farewell to Don "Black Soul" Rumsfeld, a nasty, otherworldly hunk of wartime lizard leather who should've been fired three years ago but whom Dubya clung to like a terrified child clings to a ragged, spit-soaked security blanket. Downside: Rumsfeld's bizarre utterances and unmatched aura of bemused evil will be missed by comedians and caricaturists alike. Downside No. 2: Word is that Rummy's replacement nominee, Robert "I (Heart) Iran/Contra" Gates, is even worse than Rummy -- which, if true, would seem to defy the universal laws of evilness. ...

(To read the rest, click link)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/11/10/notes111006.DTL&nl=fix

Paul Krugman | The Great Revulsion
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111006P.shtml
"I have a vision - maybe just a hope - of a great revulsion: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country" writes Paul Krugman. "The election wasn't just the end of the road for Mr. Bush's reign of error. It was also the end of the 12-year Republican dominance of Congress. The Democrats will now hold a majority in the House that is about as big as the Republicans ever achieved during that era of dominance."

Excerpt:

Two years ago, people were talking about permanent right-wing dominance of American politics. But since then the American people have gotten a clearer sense of what rule by movement conservatives means. They've seen the movement take us into an unnecessary war, and botch every aspect of that war. They've seen a great American city left to drown; they've seen corruption reach deep into our political process; they've seen the hypocrisy of those who lecture us on morality.

And they just said no.

Hill Demographic Goes Slightly More Female
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/111006WB.shtml
The House and Senate elections this week added at least five women to the next Congress, the only notable demographic shift in an otherwise dramatic political upheaval.

Jason Leopold | New Senate, New Probe Into Pre-War Intel
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111006J.shtml
With the Democrats now in control of both houses of Congress, the new majority leadership is ready to start wielding their power by revisiting a hot-button issue that Republicans never provided answers to.

Group Urges Probe Into House "Bid-Rigging," "Kickbacks"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111006S.shtml
Earlier today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales requesting an immediate investigation into whether a senior aide to Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) hindered a House Appropriations Committee investigation into mismanagement, bid-rigging and kickbacks in regard to Capitol Hill security upgrades.

The New York Times | Bipartisanship on Hold
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111006K.shtml
Editors of the New York Times write: "Mr. Bush made it clear that, for now, his idea of how to 'put the elections behind us' is to use the Republicans' last two months in control of Congress to try to push through one of the worst ideas his administration and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill have come up with ... a bill that would legalize his illegal wiretapping program and gut the law that limits a president's ability to abuse his power in this way."

Rice: Democrats Won't End Iraq Mission
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111006B.shtml
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the Democratic wave that won the party control of Congress did nothing to deter the Bush administration from continuing its Iraq mission until "the goal that took us to Iraq" is reached.

Cleric Details CIA Abduction, Torture
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111006R.shtml
In an account smuggled out of prison, a radical Muslim cleric has detailed how he was kidnapped by the CIA from a northern Italian city and flown to Cairo, where he was tortured for months with electric shocks and shackled to an iron rack known as "the Bride."

The CIA, the MCA, and Detainee Abuse:
Everyone knows that after the crime, comes the cover-up. In this case, the government is not only taking aggressive steps to prevent its crimes from coming to light, it has also tried to ensure that when and if these crimes come to public attention, the perpetrators are protected from punishment.
http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/mariner/20061108.html

David Swanson | Off the Table: A Farce in One Act
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111006C.shtml
David Swanson sets the stage in "Off the Table: A Farce in One Act" with the darkly madcap adventures of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi in the lead, supported by a cast of prisoners, a complicit media, mysterious interrogators, and a cat.

{{{This is bloody BRILLIANT...! I'd love to see a YouTube enactment of this short one-act play...! I've sent it on to my list of people - and to my Rep....}}}

Saturday in the Park
by Chicago

Saturday in the park
I think it was the fourth of July
Saturday in the park
I think it was the fourth of July
People dancing, people laughing
A man selling ice cream
Singing italian songs
Can you dig it (yes, I can)
And Ive been waiting such a long time
For saturday

Saturday in the park
You'd think it was the fourth of July
Saturday in the park
Youd think it was the fourth of July
People talking, really smiling
A man playing guitar
Singing for us all
Will you help him change the world
Can you dig it (yes, I can)
And I've been waiting such a long time
For today

Slow motion riders fly the colors of the day
A bronze man still can tell stories his own way
Listen children all is not lost
All is not lost

Funny days in the park
Every days the fourth of July
Funny days in the park
Every days the fourth of July
People reaching, people touching
A real celebration
Waiting for us all
If we want it, really want it
Can you dig it (yes, I can)
And I've been waiting such a long time
For the day

Thank you, Monkey, that song is now on a repeating loop in my brain.
(Ah, Chicago, wasn't it always 26 to four on that day in the park?)

BTW, we live on the edge of town but there is a small building next door to us that has housed various businesses (hub's extended family sold the land and we have to live with their decision!). Currently, it houses a payday loan/gift/tool shop. (Remember where I live, this is a common.) Okay, well, they've been flying a flag now since Tuesday. Tiny building, normal sized flag. Since Tuesday.

Got this email from my dad yesterday:

Last night we went to a Yale Club annual dinner with a speaker, Lt. General William Odom, who is a professor at Yale now, but had been Director of NSA at the White House for George Bush Sr. He had also been responsible for the intelligence and "communications security" there.

I expected to hear something conservative on the need for domestic surveillance. Instead I heard one of the best talks on why we should immediately get out of Iraq. He said that discussions and negotiations would just take a lot of time and cost many lives, that our mission is unclear, that we are not wanted by a majority of the Iraq people, and that local politics is not an issue for the US.

He talked about the various feelings the neighbors have for Iraq, and that European countries who have been happy to sit back and snipe at the Americans would now come in to act in their own interests, which are many. He said the country there with the most things in common with the US was actually Iran, if we gave them a chance, and that they looked with distaste on Iraq.

A last and very good idea of General Odom: Raise a big tax on gasoline and use the income to fund a "Manhattan Project" to develop alternate energy so we don't have to depend on foreign sources.
At a Q&A session after his talk, someone asked why his views weren't expressed in the White House. He said he wrote many letters on the subject, including to the Washington papers, but they were censored.

I think the owners are happy campers. :-)

Btw, we've met the couple (they live out in the country and this business is one part of their livihood) and I told them to come over to our house in the event of a tornado. (We have a basement.) That little tiny shack with the tin roof would be blown apart in seconds. They voted Dem.

Nonny I read the play, but I gotta say, I was for Nancy P. paying attention to the health care for the kid. ;-) But all will unfold as it will. There are enough of us to do many tasks.

Carol,

I have heard good things about William Odom. I love, love, LOVE his idea for a Manhattan Project. The Apollo Project was what I wanted to see as the centerpiece of the 2004 campaign. Maybe now is the time. Maybe now the country is ready and enough people are on board.

See? More hope. Just gotta love all this hope. :-)

I'm a big fan of the Apollo Porject as well, and I really hope them dems will push for funding for it.

I was heartened to hear Barbara Boxer on NPR yesterday, talking about becoming the chair of the environmental committee. She be replacing Inhofe, and they are diametrically opposed on the issues.

He's the one that thinks global warming is a crock.

?????

It was so refreshing to hear her speak and to think that we might actually make some progress in this most important area.

"I don't think '04 should have been as much about abortion as it was," said truth.

unfortunately it was truth and that is a challenge that we must overcome between now and '08. For instance, it was claimed, wrongly so that Governor Casey was prohibited from speaking at the '92 convention b/c of his stand on abortion. Actually it was b/c he refused to endorse Clinton. The question will then be if allowing his son to speak in '08 in the Denver Convesntion will be a smart message to send to the folks I met at our booth at the Treemont festival in Cleveland who were our one issue voters we tried to redirect to the more important issues to Ohions of economic populism or would that just open old wounds we would rather not get into? Either those one issue voters it is unlikey that we will ever persuade, should be ignored or it must be done with authenticity, not pandering.
In Colorado the Hispanic liason told me that we would have won Colorado in '04 had we not been flooded by tons of very late money targeted directly to cultural conservative Hispanic voters in rural parts of the state like Pueblo. We had a Hispanic Senatorial candidate and a wonderful state operation that put 90% of our effort into carrying Denver for JK and Salazar, which the campaign campaign did by an unprecedented 76% but that was still not enough to overcome the conservative parts of the state. Claire McCaskill smartly learned from her mistakes from a previous run for state office and targeted rural voters this time. But we need to learn one thing from this election: the Iraq war and ethical lapses by Republicans are unique to '06 and we should not presume that this opportunity will repeat itself in '08. There will be new challenges in '08 that we have not even thought about yet.
Unfortunately while we made much progress this election cycle we still have miles to go to reach out to rural and antiabortion voters. Spreading the Air America voice to channels in rural America and the Hispanic Air America voice, while discussed ere last year by chuck and others, never materialized, perhaps b/c of Air America's financial problems. Curious what others dcp members in different parts of the country learned from their '06 experiences with voters, since we are here at dcp to learn and grow and to prepare ourselves for a grueling and all important Presiential campaign not that far off.

OT, but....

I wanted to introduce you all to our new governor in MA - Deval Patrick. The first dem in the goverenor's seat in 16 years, and the first African American governor in state history.

He came from the ghetto in Chicago, and rose up to where he is now. There are now whisperings, and indeed he must prove himself as governor, but I could see this man in the white house in a decade or so.

Take a look, and relish what you see and hear. You will feel such hope!

http://www.devalpatrick.tv/?bcpid=86311306&bclid=15810061&bctid=301961654

Posted by: Carol at November 11, 2006 09:59 AM

OOOOPS!

I meant to say there are NO whisperings.

That's how rumors get started! a simple mis-type.

NO whisperings - other than the ones inside my head (and probably some other folks too) :0)

Carol, very nice speech by Deval Patrick. You're right, young energy, so clear and full of hope. I know my friends in Massachusetts (we used to live there) are so, so happy about his win. Deval Patrick is our future. :-)