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Thanks for the Support - Thanks to all
I wish to send out a sincere expression of gratitude to Blog for America, Democracy for America, and the entire DFA family for making Roy Carter one of your DFA finalist.
DFA was founded to revamp the Democratic Party across the country, to win back the red states, and to wage serious campaigns in formerly written off districts.
That is why DFA has flourished, and it is their commitment that keeps you coming here, and keeps your hopes hope.
You asked that those of us, who had given up hope, come out of the woods and take up the fight again.
And here, in the mountains of North Carolina, we did.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070813/moser
(Click Read More for the rest of this post)
Gaining national attention by taking Dean’s strategy to heart.
And you rewarded us by supporting our candidate, Roy Carter.
We are thrilled to have finished in the top three, out of 98 candidates, when initially we had no national notability, and hadn’t been at this for three years.
I ask of you know to donate to Roy’s campaign, and help us build on this momentum.Take the change out of your couch cushions, or cup-holders.
If you could send fifty, or ten, or even just one dollar to our campaign, for every little bit will help.
If you could round up the change on you counter and send it, I’d personally be very grateful.
Even though ya’ll have gotten to know me fairly decently, I thought I’d remind you why I’m here, how I got here, and why you should help me help Roy.
I've learned so much just by reading all the wonderful post on here, which allowed me to pick the brains of so many wonderful and thoughtful minds, all of which are dedicated to making America a better place.I'm reaching out to you because this is perhaps the most critical time in modern American history. But more than that, I'm reaching out to you because, for some reason, even though I've never met you, we are engaged in a struggle together, thus joining us in righteous bond.
We have a chance to change things in this country. But that window for change is creaking smaller by the second.
But we must act, and we must act together, for jobs are at stake. Our environment is at stake. Our children deserve affordable healthcare, and their older siblings deserve affordable college.
Since I'm going to posting here more often, and since hopefully you'll be willing to fight along side me for change, there are a few things you ought to know about whom I am and why I'm here.
Only a handful of things in life used to really bother me, but what did always get under my skin as a child, back home in the mountains of North Carolina, was seeing the local Wal-Mart.
Inside “The Wal-Mart” there was a McDonald’s. The problem was, right outside, 100 yards or a smooth pitching wedge from the sliding exit doors was another McDonald’s.
Due to corporate influence we were losing our small town atmosphere.
But even the corporations turned their back on us eventually.
As the birthplace of Lowe’s Hardware, my hometown had enjoyed being the location of its corporate offices, until they outgrew us. Once we declined to build them a luxury airport, Lowe’s bolted off faster than a pop star goes through rehab.
Now abandoned office buildings line the streets, and empty “mini-mansions” formerly occupied by the bigwigs of the hammer and nail industry fill our neighborhoods.
My father, who worked for Lowe’s since the day he left college in the late 70’s, watched helplessly as his own job was relocated. Now he has to wake up at the crack of dawn each morning to drive an hour and half to his job.
The original location of the very first Lowe’s Hardware is only a block away from my mother’s used bookstore in our quiet mountain downtown.
I was raised in that bookstore as an avid reader, one who would grow up to question anything he couldn’t prove with facts.
While a fan of fiction, non-fiction was my cup of tea. The journeys of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the meddling of Tom Wolfe and the drunken escapades of Norman Mailer were my favorites.
I read anything political I could get my hands on from biographies of past presidents to the notorious ponderings of Bill Maher, Bill Bennett and Ann Coulter.
My father, god bless him, had trained me to be a loyal Republican, one who would follow lockstep inline with the rest of one of the reddest of the reddest districts.
Our county has never voted for a Democrat in the presidential election. They even sided with Lincoln, against the rest of the south, during the election of 1860.
During the presidential election of 1996, I strolled around the neighborhood donning a straw hat with a Pat Buchanan button on it. Forgive me though, because of course I had no idea what he stood for, I was merely enamored with the process and wanted to be part of the excitement.
In the car my father would always have it on Rush, and at home constantly mocked Bill Clinton for being "slick."
By my senior year of high school my political ideology had switched dramatically and rather rapidly.
To be fully honest, I had initially registered as a Republican, in early 2004, because of intense pressuring.
They shouldn’t have allowed you to register to vote in the school cafeteria, next to a table of fresh Marines trying to recruit you to enlist as well, and all this right after the country had just gone to war and it was treasonous to not be patriotic and a Republican.
Like many of my friends I considered it ok, normal even, to be pro-choice, anti-war, for universal healthcare, against the war on drugs, for regulated industry, and even for stricter gun laws and still refer to myself a Republican.
But by the grace of the almighty, something changed during my last semester of high school.
That semester I had a teacher who would shatter everything I had come to believe, from believing the lies Fox News spewed, or just not wanting to break away from the mold.
The class was "Current Issues," and I only signed up for it because it was supposed to be taught by my golf coach, who normally let his students play board games the whole time.
And I was bummed to learn the class was going to be taught by someone else. A woman by the name of Mrs. Watts, who I owe great deal to now for opening my eyes.
She had a son in the military that was getting ready to be sent of to Iraq, and didn’t want us new voters sending him to his death without knowing all the facts.
So in the spring of 2004 we spent our last semester of high school researching the candidates like our own lives depended on it. She handed us a 300 page detailed summary of each candidate’s position, on every single issue you could possibly think of.
Soon I realized my own ideology was much more like that of Dennis Kucinich or Howard Dean than George W. Bush.
Heck, I wasn’t a conservative at all, but hadn’t fully realized until then.
By watching Bill O’Reilly call liberals cowards and terrorists on television I had just assumed, immaturely, that it was wrong to be to the left.
Looking through those packets was sheer enlightenment.
I was opposed to the war on drugs, against tax cuts for the rich, but for civil liberties, and felt that women should have the freedom to choose on abortion,
I had already concluded that the U.S.’s foreign policy in the 1990’s was to blame for 9/11, and was for some gun control measures in the aftermath of my cousin’s head having been blown off with a sawed off shotgun by an ex-boyfriend.
I’d already known what I stood for, but it took an awakening to learn once and for all that no Republican would every stand up for me or my beliefs, all they had were just those catchy slogans.
And now I honestly believe the if every so called “conservative” was forced to sit down at a desk and comb through thousands of pages of candidate platforms, voting records, and the consequences of those votes, they change their perspective, and their party in a heartbeat.
So all it took was one dedicated teacher to turn and already liberal into one who was totally aware of it.
The sad thing was that the class all this was happening in wasn’t Social Studies, or U.S. History or any other required course.
It was a crip elective course that the jocks and potheads usually took to play those board games or debate the deeper meanings of Dale Earnhardt’s win during the previous Sunday.
Our teacher had taken re role seriously, unlike her predecessors. And thanks to her I wasn’t a child left behind.
Unfortunately most newly registered voters, or high school seniors aren’t forced to research, or delve deeply into what each side actually stands for, and thus they ignorantly form their own ideologies and stances based on what was passed down to them by their parents or their church.
During the first couple years of college I focused on my studies in journalism and getting drunk on the weekends.
Political interest was placed on the backburner, though I did vote for Kerry in 2004.
While in school I embarked on my childhood dream of becoming a world renowned sports journalist, and worked my way up the ranks, eventually contributing to several national publications.
And by staying on that path, my professional opportunities would have been endless and quite lucrative.
But I found it boring, watching game after game, recording mind-numbing stats, and covering something that truly didn’t matter.
So risked all I had built and switched to music writing, and began interviewing people like Saul Williams, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Primus, Mike Patton, Wu-Tang Clan, Perpetual Groove, The North Missippissi All-Stars, The Chairmen of the Board, Public Enemy...
By talking to wise folks like Saul and Chuck D from Public Enemy I started to really become aware of the social injustices going on, not just against minorities or the poor, but against all of us.
So I began focusing more on political journalism.
Doing stories on families that lived in poverty, soldiers dealing with depression. Somehow I was able to score interviews with local political officials, and then even former CIA directors.
What struck me at times was just how cynical and depressed about our future as a high school dropout might be.
At that time, in the fall of 2006, I was working for a small town AM station near the university I was attending.
Using the few connections I had, I began producing a special radio program about 9/11 where I would give an hour of air time to at least to skeptics of the "official story," Dr. Kevin Barrett and Bob Bowman.
The show turned out splendidly, and the editing was beautiful.
However the manager of the station refused to air it because of his own personal politics, and instead a rerun of the Neal Boortz show aired instead.
Naturally I protested, he fired me, and never even mailed me my last paycheck.
It was then when I started to learn that I’d be much happier relying on my principles, rather than sucking up to prejudiced opportunist.
Meanwhile I watched as my best friend couldn't afford to take his bride on a honeymoon because he was living on minimum wage.
I began to feel as though my efforts were focused in the wrong direction, there was only so much truth that my columns or pieces could convey, because of the editors who were bought and paid for by corporate interest both local and national.
So I couldn’t remain neutral on the sidelines any longer, while my childhood buddies were stuck in firefights in Iraq, while our university had become a police state following a string of murders, and with the nation in the midst of a “Cold Civil War” over immigration.
With that I had to get back in the game, so in the October of 2006 I volunteered my evenings to the local Democratic Party.
We went door to door, through apartment building after apartment building, in a desperate effort to right wrongs.
I had doors slammed in my face, argued fiercely with giant athletes over the war, had to convince many a sorority girl into even voting at all, and worst of all was informed rather often by somebody that they couldn’t talk or even hear me out because “House” or “Idol” was on the television.
Even still, the Democrats carried the day in November, winning every seat on the ballot except for U.S. Congress in the town where I was residing.
We knocked off a corrupt sheriff, do-nothing county commissioners, and ignorant state Representatives among others.
It seemed like a valiant effort but one almost in vain. Were we really going to have to come back in two years and do this all over again?
Were we really going to have to knock on the same doors and call the same numbers to convince the same folks, yet again, that voting against Habeas Corpus and their own economic benefit doesn’t make any sense?
Why couldn’t we do it once, turn them all to our side, show them the light, and get it over with? Those people in the “solid south” were no different than those in Vermont or in Massachusetts, they hadn’t missed a step on the path of evolution, they’d only been forgotten. That’s all.
And we the people of that district had forgotten too, about what’s really important. Like our own children or their education. We’re distracted by what was on the television, finding out if Earnhardt won the race, gossiping about who’s sleeping with whom, and distracted even by intentional distracters in the media who focused on missing rich girls.
So votes often would be cast based on the single letter preceding a name on the ballot. It took everything we had to change some of those votes and defeat a corrupt Sheriff and do-nothing state representatives.
But it was just another skirmish, part of a long history of such battles waged when the leaves began to turn. We were ready for the final battle.
One does not go to war for the sake of fighting it, they sacrifice because they want to prevail and their ideals to prevail.
Since then I’ve regained the belief that a single individual can make a difference, and I shed a lot of personal cynicism.
During that fall, amidst our work on the campaigns, I discovered the organization Democracy for America on the internet and soon applied for an internship.
They hired me, and soon it was off to Vermont.
Before I left, I paid a visit to my grandmother. She was so proud that I was making a commitment to something so important, and wished me good luck, but not without asking of me a promise.
A promise that, even though I’d be leaving for the summer, before I left home for good I’d make sure I left the High Country of North Carolina a better place, than it was when I was born there. I gave her that promise, kissed her on cheek, and ventured off.
I struggled with that idea as I geared up for the trip to Vermont. How could I leave home a better place? Certainly I could pick up one piece of garbage off the sidewalk and throw it away. But that’s not what she meant, and I knew that.
So my drive from North Carolina to Vermont was full of ponderings, and a hope that up there I’d obtain the grassroots political skills that could make a difference back home.
To that point I’d hardly ever traveled much away from home, but more worrisome than that was the vacillating plan to switch over to the political arena for good.
My expansive passions incorporated a lot of fields but journalism had seemed like the most intriguing path to pursue, that could at least afford me a livable income.
Politics though was becoming a guilty pleasure of mine. I’d closely follow all the races and campaigns, all the election results and all the bickering.
I learned the game, the players and above all the winners and losers in the sport.
What equivocated my understanding was what went on during the so called off-season, in the breaks between the annual fall fights to the finish, and what was really at stake.
Like an arm-chair quarterback, I now knew every statistic, highlight, blooper, and triumph of the pastime known as politics dating back to the days of the Whigs and Jeffersonians.
However, I lacked knowledge of the methods and tactics of how the game was essentially won. In other words, like Dick Vitale, I could’ve told you anything you wanted to know about what you were seeing, but if handed the chalkboard and pen myself it would have been a disaster.
Also though, it had only been recently when I finally awoke and started paying attention to the “why” of politics and the high stakes of losing.
To that point it had all seemed like part of an annual fall festival celebration with parades picnics, speeches and debate, the town decorated with blue or red banners and a bunch of signs with catchy slogans and portraits of old men on every lawn.
Winner take all.
What was that winner, in our case back home, Virginia Foxx, taking? What was she doing with it?
And what were we getting in return? Not until 2006 did I even pay attention to her votes, the bills going through the House or the overall outcome. The sad thing was, though, I wasn’t in a minority.
Virginia was “pro-life,” and a conservative, so while the district went through an inexcusable economic downturn, the public brushed the negative aside because at least two dudes couldn’t get married, and the community did look prettier constantly decked out in mini- American Flags because we were at war.
Certainly I wondered what I was getting my self myself into coming up to Democracy for America, hoping it was the life-raft I was searching for, that possibly I could learn the cure, the antidote for a lifetimes worth of conservative rule that plagued my home and forced poverty upon it. Howard Dean has inspired many a man, woman and child for various reasons.
But I however knew little about his background or track record.
It was his commitment to a strategy for all the states, every last one that won me over. He wasn’t going to simply hand over Mississippi, or wave the white flag in Utah, throw in the towel in Alabama, call Kentucky a lost cause, or give up on us back in North Carolina since our county had never voted for a democrat for president.
There’s always a first time and Howard saw that when others were blinded by simple ambition or traditionalism, or dare I say - triangulation.
Truth be told, I learned more about how to win the next political fight that’s coming during our first early morning meeting at DFA than I had in three years of study in political science. I was able to learn from true experts with an expertise not harnessed for personal glory, rather something greater.
Some get into politics for fame, glory, to impress the opposite sex, or for land, position, title, money, some other kind of loot, maybe because they were bored working in their own profession, and others joined because it’d looked like it might be fun.
Those at Democracy for America got involved, though, because it was the right thing to do.
They were willing to pack it all up and move to a job where there are often little thanks and occasionally even a measurable result. Theirs is a commitment I only began to understand, and hopefully one day fully will.
Good can conquer evil. The truth can prevail. And NASCAR fans can one day learn to recycle. It will take exertion though, and at times an unnoticeable toil and many long hours.
Doing what’s right is much harder than hopping over to the other side of the fence to fill a personal bank account and please a trophy spouse. Those involved with DFA, not only at the office in Vermont, but across the country, have remarkable intestinal fortitude and it’s their efforts, like Howard’s, that give those of us out here, once forgotten, hope for a better tomorrow.
As I sat at my cubicle, during my last day on the job at DFA, I gazed out the window across the historic blue waters of Lake Champlain.
Sitting there, sad about leaving, and anxious about returning home, I recalled the promise I had made to my grandmother.
We’d done great work up at DFA rebuilding the party, and had laid the groundwork for taking getting Beshear elected in Kentucky.
But I was concerned that day because no one had announced their candidacy to take on Virginia Foxx back in the mountains of my own district.
Then Jim Dean walked up to me, high socks and all.
With a big grin on his face, and by just looking at him I remembered the why I had come to DFA and the responsibility they so nobly encourage. I had gained a useful political dexterity during the internship, and had learned the strategies and methods I’d need to liberate my home, and bring forth the change my grandmother wanted, but that my knowledge would be in vain if no worthy candidate came forward to run.
But to me the DFA Commitment means this:
“The burden is on you. All you need is a candidate with whom you can agree with on most issues, and who you can respect. It doesn’t matter if they’re a janitor or a ditch-digger with no name recognition. If you agree and respect the person, then the burden is on you to get them elected. You’re ready, and if you really want to change things it’s up to the average citizen, and it’s up to you to get them elected. Now go down there and get it done.”
Soon after I returned home such a candidate did step forward. His name is Roy Carter and he’s lifelong high school teacher.
I called him the day he announced, and offered my services. Now I’m going to class every morning, finishing my degree, and hitting the campaign trail every night to fulfill that promise I made to my grandmother.
And I’m proud to know that I’m not alone in this fight, for there are others like me doing the same. Donating the change out of their pockets, making the calls, doing the canvassing, protesting, rallying, and exerting every possible effort to somehow make their home, their town, their state, and most especially their country, better than when they found it. Better than it used to be.
We are not alone, we’re standing up.
We’re going to reach out and bring others to our cause with a zeal that’s never before been witnessed, with a passion that will make headlines and a commitment that will carry over for years to come.
We will take to every street, travel down every dirt road, climb every mountain, and walk every field spreading the seeds of redemption.
We’re going to engage our friends, and our family with affection, for if we truly to care for them, we wouldn’t dare let this opportunity to free their minds pass them by.
The elections of 2008 shall be historic, and to remain neutral is to willingly no longer matter.
We’re going to win, not only be conveying issues, but by sharing our values and appealing to the heart as well as the mind.
And most importantly by telling the truth, and telling it to all.
For it is the truth that shall set my High Country free, and our America free, free to spread advantageous ideas, free to dream new dreams, and free to rekindle the dreams our ancestors dreamt when they settled in this land to start a new life.
And now we must make America better than when they first found it
www.roycarterforcongress.com
Sincerely,
Mike Cooper, Jr.
Mike obviously spent a lot of time drafting that main post.
I give up ... I went to announce the new thread ... twice ... and ended up somewhere in the middle.
Hope that I don't displace anyone here. In case I do, Deans are first.
linda b is in for an exciting time in VA. You go, girl!
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I wish that I could vote for Donna Edwards in MD. But I don't live in Montgomery County and my Rep will be pretty much of a shoe-in.
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REALLY glad to see that so many have read Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale." Given that she wrote it more than 20 years ago, it was a remarkably presicent novel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmai...'s_Tale
er... that would be *prescient*
3950
I don't know whether anyone remembers this rather mysterious little episode that occurred back in 2004. I wonder what might actually come out in this trial or whether Mann will be let to live long enough.
If you remember, Mark Thatcher (son of Lady Margaret), was also briefly arrested by the South Africa police for what was leter determined to be a fringe role.
There were also some Texan connections.
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Mercenary Mann to be tried for Equatorial Guinea coup plot
James Sturcke and David Pallister
Thursday February 7, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
The former SAS officer Simon Mann is to go on trial in Equatorial Guinea, charged with plotting to overthrow the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the country's government said today.
In its first official acknowledgement of the mercenary's extradition transfer from Zimbabwe last week, the government said Mann would be tried for his "abortive mercenary coup attempt against the regime and democratic institutions of Equatorial Guinea in 2004".
The news came as the law lords in London refused to continue hearing a case brought by the west African country against Mann because lawyers were not being allowed access to him.
Nine law lords adjourned the case indefinitely unless the oil-rich state agreed to abide by assurances given yesterday that Mann's lawyers would have access.
Mann is a respondent in the case in which Equatorial Guinea is appealing to the House of Lords over a refusal by the courts to allow it to bring a damages action over a failed coup attempt in 2004.
Mann, the alleged leader of the aborted coup, was secretly flown out of Harare on Friday evening after his appeal against extradition was refused, before he could lodge a final appeal with the supreme court.
A spokesman for the judicial office at the House of Lords said: "The appeal has been adjourned indefinitely. It is now up to the parties to tell us how they wish to proceed."
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33241...
Romney maybe out is interesting. I guess he decided he didn't want to spend any more money on what looked to be a losing effort, and nobody was going to contribute at this point.
So, if it's McCain vs. Huckabee, what happens? I'd say Huckabee gets about a quarter of the Romney vote, McCain gets about half, and the rest stay home.
Now, onto Virginia, since I live here.
Most people seem to be putting it into Obama's column, but the Virginia Democratic party is a very establishmentarian group. I see Obama winning the north, Hillary winning the Tidewater (Norfolk, Va Beach, etc) and the race decided in the parts of the state that never vote for Democrats (and by the margins in the other two areas).
Since I think Obama's margin in the North will be greater than Hillary's in the Tidewater and the rest of the state will pretty much split, A narrow Obama victory, although I would not be at all surprised if it went the other way.
roger rankin
Thu, 02/07/08
Reply to this
3950
+++
rr -
Thanks for doing what the CM should be doing more of -- talking about the costs of this ongoing occupation of Iraq.
12:38 PM EST
This is one of the reasons (if, as Stat Man has alerted us to, it becomes a fact later today) as to why Romney will be dropping out of the prez race -- he only bested McCain by 10 pts in MA:
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/primaries/mass_primary_gop_results_by_town/
9:48 pt 12:48 et
Obama raises $7M post Super Tuesday
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_el_pr/obama_32;_ylt=Au3XaQ6XofTj3JQN0NfiZg8E1vAI
Time is on Obama's side. Super delegates better not piss off the base or they'll get President McCain
12:53 PM EST
If it becomes true that Romney drops out of the prez race today, IMO that will have an impact on the dem side in two ways:
1) indys and moderate repubs that had voted in open primaries (evidence NH, etc.) for McCain, in order to stop the possibility of a rising Romney, can now have the luxury in future open primary states to have a more impact with their vote (IMO Huckabee is not really a threat to McCain) by voting in the dem primary/caucus for Obama, in order to stop Hillary;
2) the war in Iraq (signature piece of McCain's recent voting and public exposure of "surge is working") will come back into the campaign as a more important issue than it has in recent months -- this would help Obama over Hillary in that she indirectly authorized the war in Iraq with her vote in 2003.
12:56 PM EST
After all, the ongoing war (occupation) in Iraq is definitely having a negative effect on the U.S. economy.
More comments on gender: I think that some may be distorting what I am trying to say. The fact is that the gender issue is with us. The more that attacks on Hillary are perceived to be directed towards her BECAUSE she is a woman ... and some distinctly are ... the more women, especially those of my era, hear bad echoes of what they themselves have experienced. That tends to make them react with a vote for her where they may not otherwise have done so.
It is not the point that one has had both male and female managers in their career. I, for example, have actually been one of those women managers, although I was one of the first in my particular field, which was until then dominated by males. Since my experience, where I had to work twice as hard to get even one-tenth the acknowledgement, that has changed and there may even now be a slight preference in favor of women in my area. Now, there are LOTS of highly qualified men and women in the field.
One of the remarks about Super Tuesday that I found to be most significant is this: that Barack and Hillary each had only about 500,000 or so votes less in total than ALL Republican votes that were cast in the Republican primaries.
Although I must admit that I have not done the talleys myself to verify this, it is important for both sides NOT to alienate each other's supporters. Because while we will need more than those 500,000 or so votes to win in November, the last thing that either Dem candidate should wanr is to lose those Dem votes that are already there.
WE here are NOT The Enemy, whichever candidate we support in the primary.
And I, for one, am still undecided between the two, for many reasons, although I have always tended more Obama than Hill on two significant points: the initial IWR and Kyl-Lieberman.
I probably will not even know which one until the moment that I cast my ballot. And there is always the third option, which many here advocate against and some for, and that is to go with Edwards since he is still on the ballot.
Big news. Nancy Skinner wins the Grassroots primary! Way to go, Nancy!
Great news about Nancy, Tom!
This blog does feel more and more like Karnak. LOL
But I guess that Phil is right ... we have to take the lumps with the gravy.
Thanks to everyone for their great support for Nancy Skinner's campaign. I feel confident in predicting she will beat Joe "Know Nothing" Knollenberg like a drum, and you will love having Rep. Nancy Skinner in the House.
Romney To Drop Out, Sources Say
1:10 et
"I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney said in remarks prepared for his appearance and released by his campaign.
"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win," the statement says. "And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."
well, Mike Cooper, Mr. Roy Carter, DFA and the rest of us are very lucky to have you behind us! thank you so much for sharing your story and an even greater thanks for all that you do. I don't think Phil would mind if I award you with a 'Howardly' - your story, like those of so many others, is why Phil came up with the award in the first place! just click on over to Hannah's Blog to see the tropy for yourself...
Romney maybe out is interesting. I guess he decided he didn't want to spend any more money on what looked to be a losing effort, and nobody was going to contribute at this point.
The pundidiots all said he could stay indefinitely in the campaign because of his fortune. But when it came crunch time, he only willing to spend other people's money and that all dried up.
What's amusing about his quitting speech is that it's the first time I've heard him sound like anything but a robot. If he had presented himself with such forceful self-assurance before, it might be McCain quitting today.
JudyforDean
Thu, 02/07/08
Reply to this
More comments on gender: I think that some may be distorting what I am trying to say. The fact is that the gender issue is with us. The more that attacks on Hillary are perceived to be directed towards her BECAUSE she is a woman ... and some distinctly are ... the more women, especially those of my era, hear bad echoes of what they themselves have experienced. That tends to make them react with a vote for her where they may not otherwise have done so....
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Hillary is where she is today because she da master's wife
GORE endorsement rumor from Huffpo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clem...
~*~*~*~*~happy dance~*~*~*~*~
you all probably already heard this, but I just learned that Liberman has lost his dem superdelegate status! next he should be stripped of his committee assignments and any perks he may have gotten over the years as a democrat - he is, after all, a party unto 'himself'! ;)
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/early-brokering-for-democrats/?ref=opinion
Jo is right ... and I second the Howardly!
(Hope that this comment ends up below Jo's ... sigh)
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Just in case the human species survives global warming and anyone here needs a reminder about this (note: nothing to do with the elections):
==============
Smoking could kill 1bn in century, WHO warns
Sarah Boseley, health editor
Thursday February 7, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Tobacco could kill 1 billion people in the 21st century unless governments act now to dramatically reduce smoking, the World Health Organisation said today.
The UN agency said no country in the world was doing all it could to curb tobacco use, which it estimates will kill 500 million people who are alive today.
It called on all nations to adopt a six-pronged strategy to dissuade people - especially women and young people - from smoking and to help them quit.
Raising taxes to as high as 75% or more of the pack price would be the single most effective strategy, the WHO said. Higher taxes would also provide funds to counter tobacco industry marketing tactics.
"While efforts to combat tobacco are gaining momentum, virtually every country needs to do more," said Margaret Chan, the WHO director general.
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33242...
More comments on gender: I think that some may be distorting what I am trying to say. The fact is that the gender issue is with us. The more that attacks on Hillary are perceived to be directed towards her BECAUSE she is a woman ...
I've seen nor heard no one attack Hillary because of her gender -- not even snide innuendos such as have been directed at Obama because of his pigmentation.
As for these issues being "with us." it's only so if we choose to pay them any heed.
travel not advised through Iowa still, Madison just set the all time record for yearly snowfall too
nothing like what those folks went through with those tornadoes that were part of that clash of air masses
extreme will be the norm with global warming according to the models
I'll be following Gore's words closely if he does endorse...
Jo ... thanks for the news about Lieberman! I hadn't heard.
The Dems probably won't strip him of committee assignments only to keep their Senate majority because he technically caucuses with Dems.
But seeing him beaming away behind McCain over the past days has made me want to vomit. This makes me feel a bit better.
If only Lamont had won in 2006. With more national Dem support, he probably would have. But we'll never know for sure.
It is with great regret that I observe Mitt Romney, whom I referred to affectionately as Shit Romney, drop out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Of the remaining three candidates, I thought he was, by far, the least able opponent and easiest for Democrats to defeat in November.
I also think he would have won the nomination as the greatest pretend conservative in the current group if that bozo, Mike Huckabee, hadn't lunched everything up in Iowa and the southern states with the Christian evangelical vote. Romney was a Mormon and a flip flopper of such ability that it would make you wretch from motion sickness watching him, but he otherwise had all the bland, corporate, establishment bona fides and phony, family values qualities necessary to become the perfect Republican candidate. Oh well.
No Republican can beat any Democrat this year, but McCain has the best shot of any, because independents and moderate Democrats with blunted critical faculties do not recognize him as the bedrock conservative he is, thanks to the fraudulent depiction of his ersatz maverick image promoted by the lazy, main stream media, in concert with dumber than dogfood conservatives. The only real advantage for Democrats of a McCain nomination is that record numbers of Republicans won't even waste gas and drive their cars to the polls to vote for him because they are so unenthusiastic about his candidacy. Hopefully, Democrats won't nominate Clinton and give these otherwise uninspired Republican conservatives a reason to even vote.
Sitka ... you may be reading selectively and I do know from personal experience that some have been dissed here merely for having tried to be fair to Hillary.
Even Fred's post above was dismissive about Hill. We do not KNOW that she is only where she is because of Bill. In fact, I remember reading in 1992 that SHE was the one that liberals were trying to encourage to run rather than Bubba, largely because of her work in AR.
I do know this. Whatever we may think about the Clintons, BOTH have trememndous respect and admiration abroad. You cannot imagine the real affection and enthusiasm that people have for them. Rightly or wrongly.
And I was not just speaking for myself or what is happening on this blog, which is not ... although we love it ... the world. Check the voting demographics. I was giving a take that is a correct one as several have also expressed, almost word for word, what I have.
I've seen nor heard no one attack Hillary because of her gender
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
in our party maybe, but the Republican talk hate machine cranks it out all the time
and every woman passed over for a promotion can relate
what I wonder is whether she was on the board at WalMart when they lost that discimination suit brought by those mid level managers
It's about time. Are you paying attention, Nancy & Harry?
=============
US censured for waterboarding
Martin Hodgson and agencies
Thursday February 7, 2008
Guardian
The UN's chief torture investigator criticised the US government yesterday for defending the use of "waterboarding", an interrogation method often described as a form of torture.
Manfred Nowak, the special rapporteur on torture, said: "This is absolutely unacceptable under international human rights law. [The] time has come that the government will actually acknowledge that they did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable."
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33240...
Mike
the Howardly goes to people that stand up and do something to make a difference
it was designed by Demetrius (if you ever go back in the archives and see that name, connect him with the Howardly seen at hannah)
I so glad Nancy Skinner won. She is the only final candidate who did not allude to religion in her resume. Nice going Nancy and good luck.
One step forward and two steps back ...
================
Serbia plunged back into crisis as PM rejects EU deal
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Olli Rehn, the Enlargement commissioner, said yesterday: "I very much regret we have to postpone [today's] signing of the political agreement." He said he regretted "the obstruction by certain politicians in Belgrade in blocking the signature". He added: "They have really failed to hear the choice of the Serbian people," a reference to Mr Kostunica.
It took just days after the re-election of the pro-European President, Boris Tadic, for Serbia to plunge into a deep crisis over the signing of the co-operation deal with the EU, viewed by nationalists as a "trick" to persuade the nation to recognise the independence of Kosovo.
Mr Kostunica repeated his rejection of the deal on Tuesday, calling it a "deception". He bluntly linked it to Monday's EU decision to approve a police and justice mission for Kosovo.
Mr Kostunica said in a statement: "The political agreement that the EU has proposed while it deploys a mission to dismember our country is a deception... By signing, Serbia would indirectly recognise the independence of Kosovo."
[...]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe...
time has come that the government will actually acknowledge that they did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable."
~~~~~~~~~~~
tell it to a Judge at the Hague
JudyforDean
Thu, 02/07/08
Even Fred's post above was dismissive about Hill. We do not KNOW that she is only where she is because of Bill. In fact, I remember reading in 1992 that SHE was the one that liberals were trying to encourage to run rather than Bubba, largely because of her work in AR.
I do know this. Whatever we may think about the Clintons, BOTH have trememndous respect and admiration abroad....
=====================
Hillary is a great woman who has done wonderful accomplishment, but she is a beneficiary of Bill's Presidency. Maybe she could have been President without Bill, but that's a philosophical question - she chose to support her man to do it.
On the other hand Obama is clearly self-made, from the bottom up, as was Bill, and other woman in politics too.
I like the Clintons, as people, especially Bill, but I would argue that Jimmy Carter is loved more than Hillary and Bill (overseas), who I hear have had philosophical conflicts with Carter. Bill Clinton is a paradox. Half a loaf was better than none with Clinton, but his success was more a factor of the Republican weakness. Had we the first election with less than 50% of the vote. Remember Ross Perot got 8%. In the second term, Republicans did not have anybody. Bob Dole was a terrible campaigner.
Bill was a good person caught up in the Faustian bargain of what he perceived as a country moving to the conservative right. It is hard to judge someone having not walk in their shoes. For instance, one could argue he salvaged more from welfare reform than the Bush administration would have done with a Republican Congress.
1:49 et
Off to see about hanging the drapes that we purchased yesterday.
bbl
38.
I just learned that Liberman has lost his dem superdelegate status!
Jo, thanks for that good news!
Joementum is not a Democrat anyway, and as an Independent supporting McCain, you are right, he should be shooed out of the committees. I believe Reid only keeps him there so he doesn't jump his caucusing ship.
JudyforDean
Thu, 02/07/08
Was that the 15 years at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas? Tyson Chicken? Walmart Board? Arkansas based Private Equity?
She has had a great career and done a lot of good for humanity....but she went for the money and power first and not full time community work like Obama.
I don't know how anyone has the audacity to comment repeatedly in so many ways about BFA commenters being anti-woman. Probably more than half here are women!
More than that, we are all Dean people. Dean was always about women's rights and hiring them in his governor's offce. And we are about Dean.
So I just wish these constant empty complaints would stop. They have no place in a Dean-made blog world. They also appear to be driven more by politics than perceived sexism.
lindab - soooo excited for you - CONGRATULATIONS, Grassroots Girl! halllooooo, dnc and dfa - see what she has accomplished? how about a little help for her down there, huh?! 50 states and all that........
Muhammed Ali is one of the all time most loved Americans in the world as a point of reference.
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/ideasv91/early.pdf
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http://www.neco.org/awards/recipients/muhammadali.html
Soon after his victory over Liston, Clay announced that he was joining the Nation of Islam, and was changing his name to Muhammad Ali. Ali's bad publicity escalated when, in 1967, he refused to be drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War. This decision led to Ali being stripped of his heavyweight title, as well as being found guilty in a federal court of violating the Selective Service Act.
Ali made a living during that time by lecturing on college campuses and at peace rallies. He also starred briefly in a Broadway musical, "Buck White." Although barred from the sport he loved so dearly, Ali remained highly respected throughout the world. Seen as a hero who battled injustice, Ali's popularity did not seem to suffer during a time which could have proven detrimental to his career
~~~~~~~~~~
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0201/12/cst.03.html
CALLAWAY: Now, we know that the younger generation is getting a chance to see Muhammad Ali, see a bit of his life with a new movie that's out now, "Ali" with Will Smith. Not really going to be able to capture the world popularity that Muhammad Ali has, will it?
KAPLAN: Can you repeat that question, Cathy?
CALLAWAY: Do you think that the younger generation will ever be able to understand just how popular Muhammad Ali was around the world?
KAPLAN: No, I don't see how it's possible to be able to really appreciate what Ali meant to the -- to the -- to the sport and to the rest of the world, socially and politically, and every other which way.
What is He thinking?
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By * rdorgan on Feb 7, 2008 12:05 PM ESTHoward and his 50-state strategy are first.