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Nation Editorial: Progressive Movement Can Realize Its Potential No Matter Whom We Nominate For President
Linked to groups: Central Florida for Democracy
In the January 7, 2008 edition of The Nation, the editorial board encourages us to remember a very important point. The current presidential election cycle is historic and represents a tremendous opportunity for us to send a Progressive to the White House. In their inimitable style, the editors offer us many words of wisdom. Some excerpts:
“The calamitous Administration of George W. Bush has slashed and burned its way through Iraq, our Constitution and the remnants of the social safety net. It has pursued imperial aggression, lethal incompetence and crony capitalism as if they constitute official policy, leaving the next President with a multitude of crises, from Iraq to New Orleans to Guantánamo Bay.”
“But to take a page from the free-market gospel: where there is crisis, there is opportunity. Indeed, throughout this uncommonly long election cycle, beyond-the-Beltway progressives have driven their issues to the forefront of the Democratic agenda.”
“With Democrats running left and Republicans slouching right, we believe this election presents a historic opportunity to precipitate a progressive realignment. There is ferment in the air, a yearning for change and for a resuscitation of America's most inspired dreams of justice and equality. The kindling is in place, but the right spark has not yet been struck. There is a danger that many of this campaign's most contentious issues could find resolution in policies even more malign than the status quo.”“What is needed most now is not a candidate but a movement to surround that candidate, to brace his or her resolve, to press for the best platform and to hold him or her accountable for implementing it if elected.”
[more...]
That movement has begun to coalesce. Indeed, it is one of the reasons for the move by Progressive Democrats of America to offer support and boots on the ground for Senator Edwards. His campaign is employing some of the elements needed to foment such growth as depicted in the following clip.
At the same time, let us remember that Congressman Kucinich cleaves closest to our issues and criticism of George W. Bush. As a strong supporter of Progressive Democrats of America since the organization’s earliest impassioned days, I hear Tim Carpenter’s call to support Senator Edwards. I encourage you to think long and hard about whose banner you fly as we enter January and the most important times our democracy has seen in many a year.
To read the entire editorial from the Nation, visit
Great! blog Corbett
I do think though that this election is much more about a yearning for change.
This election is an absolute MUST for Democrats to win it or forever live in a country we would no longer recognize -- one with a Supreme Court out of control and positioned to fulfill every one of the fundamentalists dreams and more.
You are correct is writing we need to movement to surround our candidate and to have the best platform. But we also need that candidate to be strong-willed, well-liked, knowledgeable about laws and the constitution, and who is very energetic (you know, like Howard Dean).
Link to the Boston Globe's questions and answers to candidates (listed by candidate).
But during those two terms in the White House, Mrs. Clinton did not hold a security clearance. She did not attend National Security Council meetings. She was not given a copy of the president’s daily intelligence briefing. She did not assert herself on the crises in Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda.
And during one of President Bill Clinton’s major tests on terrorism, whether to bomb Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998, Mrs. Clinton was barely speaking to her husband, let alone advising him, as the Lewinsky scandal sizzled.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/us/politics/26clinton.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
This election is an absolute MUST for Democrats to win
Then they'd better start being Democrats.
Who am I kidding.
The new thread took us back to the old thread and several of us were left there with no heads up.
There's no way progressives are going to rally around Hillary, since she's a war monger.
********************back to Bhutto
How is it that she stood up just at the wrong time along the motorcade route of thousands of people? She stood up at the precise time that her assassin was right there to kill her - how did that happen? What are the odds against that? Something is very wrong here. Who was in the motorcade with her? Did they survive? Was she advised to stand up just at the right time to die? How long was the motorcade route? How many people were there?
And how come the report of a sniper shot has disappeared off the news?
David Frost/Benazier Bhutto interview 11/5/07
in which she refers to "Omar Sheik as the murderer of Osama bin Laden."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ - 131k
Well, I'm wiped out not just from entertaining but entertaining some people who are a bit more conservative than my tastes. Funny thing though -- they aren't as rightwing as they used to be. Ha Ha. Last night we had some retired football players here with their families. It was a mixed bag of political views -- the consensus was that if they had to they could vote for Obama but If Hillary is the Dem nominee they will all vote against her and it doesn't matter what nut is on the Republican side. sigh...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ
Try this link - if it doesn't work, you can go to youtube and punch in David Frost/Benazir Bhutto interview.
A little of this and a little of that…
Found this on Huffington…
“A doctor on the surgical team said a bullet in the back of her neck damaged her spinal cord before exiting from the side of her head. Another bullet pierced the back of her shoulder and came out through her chest, he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.”
---------------------------------------------------------
Bhutto responded to cheering students and stuck her head out of the car. The bullets indicate a fairly flat if not slightly upward trajectory.
No one has said what type of weapon or caliber of the bullets. Bhutto died on the operating table so the bullets were not fragmentation but probably steel-jacketed rounds. Higher velocity but don’t make as big a hole exiting the body. A fragmentation bullet at that close range would have removed her head.
It doesn’t sound like a sniper as the killer was approaching the vehicle in the open.
As far as a sniper...head shots are the most difficult as the head sets on a multi-plane pedestal (the neck). Any small motion throws the aim off. I never cared for them and went for the center chest (the VC didn’t have flack jackets).
I lean to this being a hit by al Quada. It is their style...dramatic and lots of casualties.
This is classic 4GW against the state. Show the state has no power even though they are supported by the military and the US. bin Laden just got a lot more recruits because he showed the mighty up.
Musharraf benefits a lot by getting rid of his rival who was backed by the State Dept. Now Musharraf can do his phony investigation while taking our money and buying more weapons to fight India.
He will probably buy bin Laden a new dialysis machine.
Here's a diary about the Iowa field offices and where respective candidates have offices. I went through results from 2004 and noticed wherever Edwards did well Dean did poorly which leads me to believe they may have been more conservative areas. Who knows but I wonder.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1...
thanks, denis...you others could have said there's a new thread...
YW mprov but I really enjoyed all of the creativity back there.
its hard to write poems with only 10 syllables...sort of weird haiku...
I've noticed the blog gets quiet this time of night. I'm still on CA time.
Trying to get the David Frost video to play all the way through but the Internet connection is not the best here.
That tiger incident is all over the news here. How awful - and the wall was not high enough. The zoo are in deep you know what.
We have a zoo here called Brookfield Zoo which is an incredible place, as far as zoos go. They have always tried to creat a natural habitat for the animals. I haven't been there in years, though. There are 2 zoos, actually, and both are excellent - again, as far as zoos go. I have mixed feelings about them.
f'ing tiger, go figure...hey honey, wanna go to the zoo????
Arrgghhh...I hate not having my DSL but it builds character I guess...ha ha
10:41 PT
What is it with David Frost? Bhutto drops a bombshell about Omar Sheik killing OBL, and Frost lets that slide by. I would have been all over that!
I'm sending the vid link to Keithie.
Enjoy yourselves; my sense is that things will get much worse.
Follow the money, follow the power. It usually, if not always leads back to the BH.
Denise, her OBL comment is about half way thru. My socks are blown off and on the other side of the room.
article tools: email | print | read more Brent Budowsky
With Al Gore out of the race, I propose that in the Iowa caucus supporters of Barack Obama, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich fire the shot that will be heard around the world and vote for Iowa delegates committed to change the world.
In each local caucus, the caucus-goers can unite behind the leader in that locality with a shared delegate slate that would include supporters of Edwards, Obama and Kucinich.
The headline out of the caucus would be: "Iowa fires the cannon for change," and my hope is that at some point, Obama and Edwards could come together in a formal alliance or ticket with either one at the top.
article continues...
Bhutto's assassination is the latest in a series of political upheavals in Pakistan. What do you think the future holds for the the nuclear-armed state? Go to Blog
So you want to manipulate an election -- and the entire nominating process?
Here are a few pointers.........
Revisiting the 2004 Iowa Caucus
I ended up in Iowa City home of the University of Iowa at the Democratic caucus. I was happy with my decision because I am mostly interested in the youth vote this election. I think they will be pivotal no matter who the candidate ends up being.
I was an observer in precinct three. Precinct three is made up mostly of college students and there are roughly 1,200 registered Democrats. Their caucus was held in the Iowa Memorial Union. I knew something odd was happening as I entered a room designed to hold around 60 people and it was obvious by the long line down the hall that there were more than 60 people. Each candidate needs at least 15 percent of the supporters in the room to receive a delegate. The caucus mathematician declared the number to be 240 even though, by the end of the voting, the tally actually ended up being 249 and they are supposed to round up to 250. It should be noted that the mathematician caucused with the Kucinich supporters....
Like I mentioned above in order to qualify for round two a candidate needs 15 percent of the supporters in the room. According to the incorrect 240 number in order for a candidate to qualify for the second round they needed at least 36 supporters. If the math was done right they actually would have needed 38 supporters. Anyway, the first tally went like this:
Howard Dean = 84
John Kerry = 65
John Edwards = 40
Dennis Kucinich = 37
Wesley Clark = 15
Al Sharpton = 5
Uncommitted = 3
(hmmm...interesting...if the right numbers were used Kucinich wouldn't have made it to the next round, oh well).
My messages to Keith keep coming back like this even tho I send them to countdown.
This is really weird. I have the right address but it keeps coming back. Has anyone gotten thru and if so, will you please post the addy?
I've been sending them to countdown@msnbc
Apparently no one can get thru to Keith. And so it begins with Countdown.........read this and weep. It's the same message I get. OK, now what? Is anyone else here getting thru?
A Wall Between Us & Keith Olbermann; and Blackwater Spies Login to reply Page: « < 1 of 1 > » 03 Nov 2007 - 19:266581 ThelduhJoined: 05 Sep 2006 A Wall Between Us & Keith Olbermann; and Blackwater Spies
Gee...
Remember waaay back when - during the Old American Century - when U.S. citizens' right to free speech was both protected and respected, and it was actually *illegal* for anyone to mess with our communications? Ahhh.... the good old daze.
Look what happened when I tried to send the following email to Keith Olbermann via his Countdown address today. (And it took only 20 seconds for 'em to bounce this one back - instead of an entire week, like the last time.)
So it seems MSNBC's corporate/war-contractor overlords at GE have erected a virtual wall 'twixt my irrelevant peon self and K.O. (Btw, it's not like I was making a pest of myself.... I only sent one email every 3-4 months, whenever a new piece of likely-to-be-buried news had struck me as particularly aggregious/scary.)
Heh, guess maybe I've hit some nerves there. Dunno whether to be more po'd or proud... (-8=
Quote:
Begin forwarded message:
From: eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%70%6f%73%74%6d%61%73%74%65%72%40%6d%61%69%6c%2e%61%64%2e%67%65%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%70%6f%73%74%6d%61%73%74%65%72%40%6d%61%69%6c%2e%61%64%2e%67%65%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b'))postmaster@mail.ad.ge.com
Date: November 3, 2007 12:58:03 PM EDT
To: eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%78%78%78%78%78%78%40%78%78%78%78%78%78%78%2e%6e%65%74%22%3e%78%78%78%78%78%78%40%78%78%78%78%78%78%78%2e%6e%65%74%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b'))xxxxxx@xxxxxxx.net [me]
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
Delivery to the following recipients failed.
eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%63%6f%75%6e%74%64%6f%77%6e%40%6e%62%63%75%6e%69%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%63%6f%75%6e%74%64%6f%77%6e%40%6e%62%63%75%6e%69%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b'))countdown@nbcuni.com
Reporting-MTA: dns;RKFMLVEM03.e2k.ad.ge.com
Received-From-MTA: dns;uctmlef02.e2k.ad.ge.com
Arrival-Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2007 12:58:03 -0400
Final-Recipient: rfc822;countdown@nbcuni.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.2.2
X-Display-Name: Countdown @ MSNBC
From: Thel xxxxxx <xxxxxx@xxxxxxx.net [me]>
Date: November 3, 2007 12:57:43 PM EDT
To: Keith Olbermann <countdown@msnbc.com>
Subject: Wunnnnnnderful....
What happened to Keith's website? It's not been updated for many months.
what the hell is going on? And why is he gone so much?
OK, Gang, let's use our fingers as pitchforks. I just wrote.
We can't let "them" shut him up and shut us out.
We are falling faster and faster, aren't we? Notice how he's doing repeats of past programs? Is he on vacation, or being phased out?
Good morning, everybody
Have you been thinking on what to call the miscreants?
I'm turning "boss" over in my brain.
It's better than "bully" because it doesn't imply a victim.
Bossy Bush or Mr. Bosssy
Well, Sea, the media's enthusiasm for their public tends to be short-lived. I think they liked making lists they could use to tout their viewership or readership and then sell to mass-marketing enterprises, but now the bloom has worn off the rose and all these communications are a nuissance. Who cares what the public thinks? I thought the trend had run its course when I read about consultants "organizing" the grassroots lobby. Talk about herding cats.
So, did we every agree on what Progressives are aiming for? I still vote for equality. I was reminded by Bossy's attitude towards the "earmarks" about how it came to be that there was a need for the federal government to provide funding for local programs. It was mainly because local communities, once they were ordered to provide services on an egalitarian basis simply opted out of providing services at all. Many of us were aware that municipal swimming pools were closed when they were ordered to admit blacks. What wasn't immediately apparent, because it took longer to implement, was that street car and bus lines were first sold off to the private sector and then went into default. Ditto for the community hospitals and clinics. You wouldn't think people would deprive their own children and elderly of community services just so they wouldn't have to share them with blacks. But there it is.
I don't know about other cities in the south, but in Gainesville, the level of service in black neighborhoods was definitely deficient. And what was truly ironic there was that the city didn't get incorporated until after the civil war and when it was about a third of the elected officials were black and it was under their direction that the public schools, the paving of streets, & the building of an electric plant was undertaken. In other words, the city was organized as a city while blacks were being elected and were in charge of things and then, about thirty years later, the Klan took over, intimidating the voters and setting the scene for segregation.
The history books always refer to that period as unsettled and corrupted by the carpet-baggers, but that's a fiction designed to denigrate the achievements of southern blacks. When you come right down to it, what happened towards the end of the nineteenth century was more vile than their enslavement. African Americans had tasted freedom, used their skills to thrive and then it was taken away from them.
The African American community in Gainesville was sending its children off to college at Harvard. Then the whites persuaded what became the University of Florida to move in with a promise of free water and barred blacks from attending.
And now Obama sends out a flier spouting pablum about how good schools are the product of parental attitudes! The fellow doesn't have a clue!
seashell
Olberman is part of the football coverage and they must be scrambling to set up for the Sat. simulcast, plus the writers strike and everyone is in re-runs.
whoever writes ten syllable jingos for a living is safe from me
I have to pick up my precinct package and find a meeting room for the platform committee to meet, so my son and I will catch Bill Richardson. Bill Clinton is nearby too, but I doubt he will be taking questions, and I want to hear Richardson address events in Pakistan, plus Biden on Sat. I'll report
The reason our children aren't getting educated is because they're not sufficiently subservient. Only the obedient deserve to be taught.
I'll give you an example. I have a fourteen year old grandson who likes to wear a leather vest to school. This garment has become yet another reason for some of his classmates to bully, make fun of, or exclude him from study groups. So, he gets called into the Vice Principal's office who asks him if maybe he's bringing this behavior on himself.
See, the whole system is structured to enforce subservience. Why do we have bullying in schools? Because the adults put up with it, if they don't actually encourage it. Now they're setting up "military academies" in the Chicago public schools. They're a rationale for regimentation and the children who sign on will be rewarded with an academic curriculum. In other words, education has to be "earned" or "deserved" by being subservient. Don't get me wrong. I would not counsel a child to be obstreperous. But, there's a difference between being cowed and being independent.
sitka picked as his example the most progressive precinct in Iowa out of 2100 and Kucinich was barely viable and he was campaigning much more there four years ago
yes he would help progressive causes by being part of a team, rather than it being about him
he succeeded
without him being in the race would all of the candidates being on record with a universal health care or an exit strategy?
thank you Dennis whatever the outcome
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
experience
everytime it comes up Dodd and Biden rise in support, I still don't understand why Hillary brings it up all the time,neither of those men are out of the race
Biden is the only one who will gain because of events in Pakistan, my guess is there might have been a shuffling at that race for fourth spot
Monica
I hire some of the kids that don't fit into the regimen of our current schools, and find them self-reliant problem solvers aware of their surroundings, thus good employees, but I organize my day filling in behind employees after they find their own groove.(they all have one)
home schooled kids have problems with following protocols in my experience
society has a mix of the "teach to the test "rote disciplined kids, the drop outs and the home schooled kids
I wouldn't bet that those that are taught to the test are better educated in Life 101
bbl
Moms raise a child or two, maybe three or four. A teacher wipes 30 noses, stops food fights, lets everyone go to the bathroom and get water, keeps everyone safe for eight hours, and still sometimes manages to teach them their ABC's. A little subservience (I would call it cooperation) is generally necessary.
On the other hand, my experience with home schooled kids (in comm coll) is that they have a less jaded attitude toward school.
Annilow, my point is that I have experieced differences, and public school kids have been taught to follow orders, so with them thats the way I give them a days work, as a to do list, those that question authority might get more done if I ask them"what do you need help with today?", public schools do a good job of what they do. all of the kids end up in the workforce. My mother was a school teacher and I went to public schools so I got it 24/7 growing up and I turned out OK lol
Fox Mulder
Thu, 12/27/07
Reply to this
27.
* rdorgan
Thu, 12/27/07
Reply to this
The CM pundits are saying today's tragedies in Pakistan will boost poll numbers for Guiliani, McCain and Clinton -- the so-called national security, experience candidates.
This is all highly suspicious one week before the Iowa caucus------------
You do realize that not everything that happens in the world is intended to influence your own little sphere. To even imply complicity without a single ounce of proof other than your ability to type the words is irresponsible. But that never stops anyone here. Heck, if it snows on causus night (in Iowa, in the middle of the winter) someone on here will claim Bush planned it like he planned Hurricane Katrina and the Pentagon on 9-11-01. It takes all kinds, but this is clearly on the end of the fringe. Your polar opposites on the right are the likes of Timothy McVay.
+++
Oh Fox, where to begin with responding to you ?
Oh yeah, you comparing me (us here) to be the left's polar opposite of the right's extremist killer like Timothy McVay. Boy that's reaching on your part. I bet you really jerked your knee in making that statement. Hope you didn't hurt yourself.
Ok, here' s the prime time, sanitized, editorialized statement of mine (to protect the eyes of people like you from seeing things outside "your own little [neoconservative] sphere") leaving off the last bit:
The CM pundits are saying today's tragedies in Pakistan will boost poll numbers for Guiliani, McCain and Clinton -- the so-called national security, experience candidates.
What's Hillary's experience in dealing with Pakistan ?
Well, she knew Benazir Bhutto (met her once) and she voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq (never apologized for it) -- the same war/invasion that took America's eyes off of the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Experienced ?
Phil, it's my sense that Dodd and Biden are working in tandem, the real social progressives/fiscal conservatives standing up to the social conservative/fiscally irresponsible crowd. Remember "rope-a-dope"?
*rdorgan, What i'm afraid of is that the consultants who have hired on to the Obama and Clinton effort are basically authoritarians and the level of their "service" is determined by how willing the candidate is to be directed. If the candidate is resistant, they simply undermine the campaign, take as much money as they can and run away.
Dodd is clearly in charge of his campaign. There may be a manager, but if there is, I haven't met the person. Dodd is extremely frugal, but he's organized housing for out-of-state volunteers.
Barack, on the other hand, is telling volunteers that if they haven't arranged housing, they shouldn't come to Iowa. And, what I don't like to see is that in the fliers they're sending, the pictures of Obama have been "doctored" to make him look lighter skinned than he is and his hair look light brown.
54. sorry, that strikes me as a waste of talent, time and effort.
53.
that too is your opinion, and that too is not mine (except the part "Dodd is clearly in charge of his campaign. There may be a manager, but if there is, I haven't met the person. Dodd is extremely frugal," - I agree with that, having had Dodd as my U.S. Senator in CT for a long time, when I lived there, I admire Chris greatly)
Well now, there's a hint---
Moms raise a child or two, maybe three or four.
Sometimes. Mine didn't raise even one but palmed me off to relatives and boarding schools.
A teacher wipes 30 noses,
Children who don't know how to wipe their own noses aren't old enough to be in school. And, if they're sick, they should be kept at home.
stops food fights,
In the classroom? The classroom is no place for food. Eating and drinking should be consigned to the schoolyard or the cafeteria.
lets everyone go to the bathroom
By the time children get to school, they should be able to schedule bathroom breaks between classes or during recess (yes, I know, recess is no more, but that's a problem of administration)
and get water,
Same as for bathroom schedule. Of course, schools used to have water fountains before integration. Now they have soft-drink machines that require money.
keeps everyone safe for eight hours,
When bullies are permitted to have free reign of the play-ground and class-room, the children are not safe.
and still sometimes manages to teach them their ABC's.
Most effective learning is a matter of repetition and rote and lots of recitation. Of course, that means the teacher actually has to listen--a skill most teachers seem to lack.
A little subservience (I would call it cooperation) is generally necessary.
The main difference between subservience and cooperation is that the former involves submission to a person, while the latter involves submission to a task. Problems arise when the latter is dependent on the former and there's no evidence that the authority claimed by the teacher is deserved. When the message is "I will teach you, when you behave," there's very little incentive since what "teach" means is unknown. Indeed, from the perspective of the student, learning is something one does on one's own.
I suspect that one of the reasons nuns were such effective educators was because they did it for "the honor and glory of God" and weren't aware of having to serve an earthly master, administrator, or school board. So, they disseminated what information and knowledge they possessed without giving much thought to whether it was appreciated or valued and their students picked up what they needed, along with the realization that knowledge is valuable in and of itself, regardless of whether it's useful in making a living.
I'm only familiar with American public schools from what my children and the children for whom I was a guardian endured. For none of them was it a positive experience, other than to conv
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By Joan* In*Florida on Dec 26, 2007 4:25 PM ESTHoward Dean is the very first one.