I discovered Howard Dean after the "What I Want to Know" speech. He was a breath of fresh air in a stale party. Back in those days I don't think he really thought he could be president. He just wanted to help change the direction of the party. I believed he could be president and many here did. We, the little people, help propel him into front runner. Of course, it didn't work out the way I wanted it. One thing Dean said over and over was that we first had to take back our party before we could take back our country.
The NC Democratic Party has redesigned their website and added a blog to it. This is great to see we have a blog now. With Jerry Meek as State Chair I think it will be a great avenue to have your thoughts heard by someone in a position to do something. So, far, there aren't any comments on the current topics. They have WYSIWYG for us HTML challenged individuals. Please go take a look and NC residents should get registered and particpate to make it useful and sucessful.
A friend has been researching Oregon's Vote-by-Mail program. She has been working on getting the state legislature to consider vote-by-mail. In her searching she found that Cherie Poucher of Wake County has been working on this since some time after HAVA was passed.
On January 29, NC will elect it's state chair. Two years ago Jerry meeks was running for the position. He was pressured to step aside and did so with a nod that he would be next, here in 2005. For some reason unknown to me Gov Easley has endorsed Ed Turlington, who was the campaign manager for John Edwards.
I'm self employed and have been for 10 years. When we first bought our health insurance we paid about $200 a month with a $1500 deductible. Not too bad and it saves us from the poor house if something catastrophic happens. Last week we got another rate hike. We now pay almost $500 a month with a $5000 deductible. That will be just under $6000 in premiums this year. $6000 is ALOT of money to me.
Many in the past couple days have stated that we need a simple message that resonates with Average Joe. Let's use this thread to toss out ideas. I know most of us like complex thought and discussions. Well, can it, this needs to be short and sweet so EVERYONE understands easily. I suggets 6 words MAX. If you see a suggestion you like please comment, regardless of whether others alreaday seconded it. the more comments it gets, the more popular it is. I do believe we can start this idea here. We have seen ideas that sure seemed like they started here being repeated before. I will suggest first
The recent upgrades of the rec. diaries and the "response to comments" feature have truly been a life saver. There is so much great information and analysis that comes through here that it is very hard to pass up reading everything. Even though I am sorta unemployed these days I am doing GOTV and have a family to pay attention to(not to mention 4 dogs and 5 cats).
There is no way I could possibly read everything that comes through here in a day. I was having a hard time several months ago when trafiic was much less than it is now. I loved the recommended diaries from the start. It made it much easier to check out what is worthwhile. I don't have the time to go back and check the past 12 hours diaries and this is so much easier. AND I love the fact that lazy journalists can wander in and find stories with research just waiting for them to show up.
It seemed like a lot of bitching and moaning was going on when the diary format changed but everyone seems content now.
So, thanks to Kos, for saving what little is left of my life.
I would like to see the response from everyone who is doing GOTV work this year.
A year ago it seemed like most everyone around here was a Clark or Dean supporter. A few of the others here and there but not very vocal. I was and still am a Dean supporter(first one to say "he lost, get over it" can kiss my ass). I was sad to see Dean go and get heartbroken whenever I see him giving W a redass but I do believe it is remotely possible(lots of conviction there, huh?) that Kerry has made a better nominee than Dean would have.
Regardless, I do believe Dean has made the largest contribution in evicting W and possibly winning Congress back. Without him I don't think the Dems would have grown a spine in time(if at all) and I think Dean has inspired a tremendous number of people to work their collective asses off who otherwise probably wouldn't have.
Let's see a show of hands on who you supported during the primaries.
A federal appeals court ruled that fears of a terrorist attack are not sufficient reason to search people at a protest rally. The 11th circuit court ruled unanimously that protesters could not be made to pass through metal detectors.
Judge Tjoflat said that 9-11 "cannot be the day liberty perished in this country."
I just came back from meeting Patsy Keever(NC-11) and a group of Dems at our local BOE and cast my ballot for Kerry and the Dems on the ticket. This early voting is nice and should be available everywhere.
I cast my vote but now I need to make sure others in my area do the same. I took home one book for an entire precinct and will call every Dem voter and get them to go vote, early preferably. Here in rural Polk County there were 8200 votes cast in 2000. We have about 5900 total Dems registered. if we can turnout our base we can win, even in a county that went almost 2-1 for Bush last time.
This is crunch time. I think we have Bush on the run and everything we do now will ensure victory. Get out there and do something to help out. This is too important to let someone else take care of it. Call your local Dem ofice and ask what you can do. Calling registered Dems and getting them out to vote is very easy and very rewarding. Even in Deep Red states. They enjoy hearing from another Dem and it gives them hope. the hardest thing is getting them off the phone so I can call another.
They mention the blog speculation and the fact that a square bulge can be seen in Bush's jacket. The WH declined to comment on what the bulge is. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Go visit and rate up the story. There were only 5 votes when I was there minutes ago.
Here in Western NC we have a sizeable community of Latinos. There are lots of Mexican grocery stores dotting the area. I am not sure how many are able to vote but any extra votes we can get will be helpful. I want to put up some flyers in these grocery stores encouraging them to vote and give them some reasons to vote Dem. With my limited amount of Spanish I am not capable of translating anything worthwhile and I cannot find anything useful on the Kerry website(I miss the Dean campaign still). Does anyone know where to point me?
This is something that could be done in many places where there are Latino groceries. It's easy and doesn't take much time.
I think some of the disconnect in the Iraq war has to do with the American psyche. We see ourselves as a great nation that always does the right thing. In Al Franken's book "Lying Liars..." he explains how Reps love their country like a 3 year old loves mommy. Dems tend to love their country like an adult. I don't love my Dad any less because he had a drinking problem or any of his other faults. I just realize that mistakes happen and bad decisions are made along the way.
Still some 40% or more of the people believe that Iraq had something to do with 9-11. They believe that Saddam was harboring terrorists. Part of the problem does lie with the media refusing to do their job and check facts and report those instead of just being parrots. BUT, many Americans do not want to believe that we invaded another country without just reason. They would hate to think that they were manipulated and that we are sending our soldiers to die for no good reason. Like others have said, many will come around in time and see that yes, this was a bad idea and we shouldn't have gone down this road.
Holy Shit! The gall of these people. The gov't is actually thinking of getting competitive bids for work in Iraq and a Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar says that if the work is dividedly too deeply then "we're going to jack the margins up significantly,"
They hose the taxpayers day and night making obscene money and not even doing the job they were paid to do and if they can't have things just the way they want then will pitch a fit and raise their rates. Unbelievable.
On Tuesday new records were "found" relating to W's service in the the Texas Air National Guard. There doesn't seem to be much new in them. Restates that he skipped a medical exam and was unable to fly afterwards and seems to have disappeared after April of 1972 until October saying that he did not report for duty according to his pay records. This will go well with other stuff coming out tomorrow. Maybe, just maybe a reporter might ask W why he skipped his medical exam.
CBS has an article analyzing W's 2000 campaign promises. It first goes after W's comments about going to war.
"When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming,'' said George W. Bush in 2000, when accepting his party's nomination.
They do a good job deconstructing W's words. I hope this series continues. they could do a different topic every day until election day and not run out of easy material.
During a taping for the "Today" show, W was pressed about his and Kerry's Vietnam service. He replied "I think him going to Vietnam was more heroic than my flying fighter jets. He was in harm's way and I wasn't."
Wow, a real high bar to clear for Kerry. It's amazing that anyone would even consider W hanging out by the pool "heroic".
