Howard is first in the hearts of his countrymen and women!

Dean is first!  Pure and simple.

And in answer to the question above - Because he can!  Its one of the great things about this country.

And unlike many others seeking the highest office in the land he is not beholden to any special interests.  He is more sincere and honest than any of the remaining candidates, other than possible Mike Gravel.  And as far as results that matter, he outshines the lot of them.

He's says because the Democratic Party has failed to live up to it own platform. I agree with him. And hopefully he'll keep Obama or Clinton from moving to the right after securing the nomination.

The growing reform movement within the Democratic Party, as exemplified by DFA, was begun by Nader from without the party. If he had been a party loyalist like Kucinich who said his piece in the primaries and then shut up, he wouldn't have accomplished so much to help the cause of reform.

I can't spweak for others, but I feel I owe Nader a debt of gratitude not just for opening my eyes to the corporate degeneracy of the DLC Party, but for building the foundation for the 2004 platform of Howard Dean and DFA.

And since I  live in AZ which will probably be a shoe-in for McCain., I may well vote for Nader if he's on my ballot. And I will be happy to have Nader and as many other choices as possible on my ballot.

"The cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy."

Has anybody else's format changed or is it just my computer that's going crazy? 

Wel, the sequencing is still off.

11:49 AM EST

Thanks Denise, Tom and s m for doing the Civil Defense patrol.

We can hope this thread stays within the Conduct Code so no one has to reproduce it.

Apropos of the thread topic, and Sitka's very cogent comment:

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/link.php?id=53443

By his choices in advisers to help shape his policies, he has given every indication that while his presidency might represent a better management and presentation of the current system, it will in no way overturn or seriously challenge it on any essential point. He will keep doing what Bush has been doing only more competently, less radically, with a greater care for the long-term viability of the power structure.
 

11:52am

someone fill me ine.

I liked edwards and got slammed on this blog. now he is gone and I have gone for obama.

It was real hard but  I did.

Now we get slammed for that.

What do you guys want? I will support any dem that gets the nomination, will you.

We are down to two choices and one voted for the war authorization which is reason enough not to doubt your choice linda b.

By his choices in advisers to help shape his policies, he has given every indication that while his presidency might represent a better management and presentation of the current system, it will in no way overturn or seriously challenge it on any essential point. He will keep doing what Bush has been doing only more competently, less radically, with a greater care for the long-term viability of the power structure.

I don't agree with that. But I'll still be glad to have as many choices as possible on my ballot. And Nader will probably take votes from the Green candidate (McKinney?) rather than the Democrat.

Democrats should do themselves a favor and not waste time, resources, and goodwill on him.

I liked edwards and got slammed on this blog.

I never saw anyone slam you -- except in response to being slammed by you.

Edwards just got "slammed" with his own record. 

I will support any dem that gets the nomination, will you.

I never toe the party line. If Democrats want my vote, they must be the best option on my ballot. 

Looks like I'm gonna run with it. Could use some help here...

Posted at Firedoglake:

OT

I personally think it would be a great idear if folks in the Progressive community started getting behind an effort to help make Howard Dean Barak Obama’s running mate. Dean was endorsed by Al Gore and Jimmy Carter in 2004 and was a cornerstone of the Democratic Congressional victories in 2006.

For many months, I was under the impression that both Obama and Clinton would be hard pressed to pick Wes Clark for his military and foreign policy credentials. However, after seeing the margins of victory Obama has been getting in the primaries, and the weakness of John McCain as a candidate, it seems he’ll have the opportunity to look further afield for a Vice Presidential contender. Dean, as running mate would take his 50 State Strategy and his “$100 Revoluion” to the next level, thus solidifying any Congressional gains in this election cycle.

Progressives have a good amount of time before the convention to move this forward. Most of us here understand what America could be if Howard Dean were in the White House for as many as 16 years. If Obama could consider Republicans in his Administration, he should consider having Dean at his back.

Think about it. Please.

Obama/Dean 08
“Change the Paradigm”

re: ...And unlike many others seeking the highest office in the land he is not beholden to any special interests.  He is more sincere and honest than any of the remaining candidates,

Ralph justified the republicans who donated to his campaign in order to dillute the vote for Kerry in 2004 - isn't that a 'special interest'? 

Ralph claimed that there was no difference betewen the Republican party and the Democratic party - does this sound honest and sincere?  that there is NO difference between them?  Ralph said he would have voted for Bush over Kerry in 2004 - because it would bring about 'change' in the country - tough love, so to speak.  well it certainly did change the country.

Kunstler on what the next president faces

http://www.kunstler.com/

Whoever wakes up as the next president on November 5 will have to preside over the comprehensive reorganization of American life. The big question is whether he can persuade the public to let go of its sunk costs, and all the sheer stuff that represents, and move ahead in a unified way that doesn't end up tearing the nation apart. The danger is that the public will want to mount a kind of last stand effort to defend a way of life that has no future under any circumstances, and they will ask the president to lead that last stand

To avoid that deadly outcome, the new president will have to be equipped with a realistic vision of what this society can actually do to survive the discontinuities that circumstances present. This will require him to confront the prevailing delusion that the US can become "energy independent" in the sense that we can run WalMart on something other than oil from foreign lands. The new president would have to carefully restate American expectations and goals -- for instance, not to keep all the cars running at all costs, but to get us living in places where driving is not mandatory. I'm concerned that the American people will hate the new president if he tells them the truth: that an old way of life is over and a new one has to begin now. We're about to find out how much "change" the public can really stand.

12:05pm

rd,

Thanks for posting the parameters of voting on the previous thread.

I was thinking last night there are never any recipes, songs, poems posted here anymore.  Have they been outlawed or just frowned upon?  I miss them.

We are down to two choices and one voted for the war authorization.....

And the 2001 bankruptcy bill (which she now says she hoped wouldn't pass), and NCLB (which she now says doesn't work).

And there's also that DLC thing.....

Hi Subway! I agree with you about Dean (Dean is first!!!) as a running mate with Obama. Another thought is an Obama/Clinton ticket...

 BTW: Did everyone see we bombed Somalia today trying to hit "terroists."

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/03/wsomalia203.xml

 Peace. Dogma

Good Morning,

Ah, sun today, I can breathe again, could anything be more wonderful than to be alive, the first requirement, I'd say for everything else.

Just finished reading two editorials on the  Huffington Post.  I think the real test for supporting a candidate is to read a negative opinion from someone you liked and respected.  Joe Wilson of the Plame Affair has an editorial entitled "Obama's Hollow Judgment and Empty Rhetoric"  I'll post a paragraph, but what I've noticed is his word choice  and reasoning.  

For instance, he says that Obama gave one speech in 2002 in the most liberal district in Illinois (he said Obama's speech couldn't have been otherwise because ot the liberal district) and Obama wasn't privy to the information and reports that the Congress was.  

He thens reiterates that Obama was a minor local official in 2002/3 and suggests had he had the responsitlity of being in Congress he might well have voted as Clinton did for the Iraq War.

He states that he, Joesept Wilson, profoundly resents Obama's distortion of Geroge Bush's folly into Clinton's responsiblity.

Well, you get the idea.  It's important to look at word choice and how something is stated to understand what the writer's intentions and biases are.  There is that old saying that we always say more about ourselves in how we say things than about the subject we are supposedly talking about.

 Here's the paragraph:

There is no credible reason to conclude that Obama would have acted any differently in voting for the authorization had he been in the Senate at that time. Indeed, he has said as much. The supposed intuitive judgment he exercised in his 2002 speech was nothing more than the pander of a local election campaign, just as his current assertions of superior judgment and scurrilous attacks on Hillary Clinton are a pander to those who now retroactively think the war was a mistake without bothering to acknowledge Senator Clinton's actual position at the time and instead fantasizing that she was nothing but a Bush clone. Obama willfully encourages and plays off this falsehood.

PHIL........

Phil, if you have a minute, would you please comment on 55 from the previous thread. Thanks, it's important to me and determines whether I'm going to give a hoot about this election, or like Michael, take a vacation.

sorry for all the typos.  My fingers are just plain careless.

10.

Huron John
Mon, 03/03/08


...By his choices in advisers to help shape his policies, he has given every indication that while his presidency might represent a better management and presentation of the current system, it will in no way overturn or seriously challenge it on any essential point.
He will keep doing what Bush has been doing only more competently, less radically, with a greater care for the long-term viability of the power structure...
-----------------

That sounds quite likely, imo.
However “a better management and presentation of the current system� may require some reforms, precisely to ensure a “presentation of the current system� WITHOUT “seriously challenge it on any essential point�.

Those required reforms in turn may cause “something else� or “nobody knows what exactly�..., lol.
In other words “current system� usually disintegrates not due to subjective leader’s actions but due to objective ripen socio-economical conditions.

It is very easy to see that those conditions here, in this country are even over-ripened!

Ralph claimed that there was no difference betewen the Republican party and the Democratic party - does this sound honest and sincere?

Have you been keeping track of the Democratic controlled Congress since 2006?

We need to work for reform of our nominating system to include IRV. Louisiana often ends up with two Democrats running against each other in one District and two Republicans in another. They have a run off system. if we were doing that now it would be Clinton against Obama in the General Election. the current system overstates Nader's appeal big time

Here's Barack's closing argument. His two minute add for OH and TX.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsm...

There is no credible reason to conclude that Obama would have acted any differently in voting for the authorization had he been in the Senate at that time.

Really?

s/b ad.

12:20 PM EST

sm -

You're welcome.

As for songs, this one inspired me as to how I think about Barack Obama and his run for Presidency and the movement that Howard Dean has started and Obama is assisting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m9d4IyCmIs

Waiting impatiently now for my GOTV canvass list to arrive...

Another thought is an Obama/Clinton ticket...

Would Obama really want to take on the baggage of a campaign that is falling apart at the seams, as well as a partner who may well subterfuge against him in order to keep her family at the top of the party? 

I was thinking last night there are never any recipes, songs, poems posted here anymore.  Have they been outlawed or just frowned upon?  I miss them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

sm

mprov was kind of at the center of a lot of that and left under circumstances not unlike those going on now against seashell

audrey

it is much like Ed Fallon being backed against Leonard Boswell

the odds might be against us but I like your thinking  ... Obama/Dean  ...of course we should promote the one closest to our politics and the best man for the job 

 BTW: Did everyone see we bombed Somalia today trying to hit "terroists."

Or a wedding party. 

" title="" class="" />

try this

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid353515028/bctid1438426718

I hear Kucinich is in a hard fought battle in Ohio.

Go Dennis.

mary vb

It will be hard for Hillary to top that ad. Very Presidential. Hits the right notes.

PHIL....

So, shouldn't that effort start here? What should we do? A couple of people were talking about it at Kos. Don't you think Obama owes us? Can't we demonstrate some muscle as progressives. He needs us.

12:38 PM EST

the (invasion/civil/occupier/insurgent) war -- in other words, the mess that some authorized to go to war:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080303/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrest_080303170455

23 killed in Iraq bloodshed

by Ammar Karim

28 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) - At least 23 people were killed in bomb attacks and shootings across Iraq as US troops announced the discovery of a mass grave with the bodies of 14 men who had been bound and shot in the head.

The deadliest attacks were in Baghdad, where at least 19 people were killed in two car bombings, while an Iraqi police chief was killed in an ambush in the southern port city of Basra.

Government figures issued on Saturday showed that the total number of Iraqis killed in February was up by 33 percent over the previous month, reversing six months of falling death tolls.

...

Farmer's helper: The flying cockroach

 Researchers in South Texas are beginning to sing the praises of a flying cockroach from Asia that has shown a voracious appetite for pests that plague farmers. They concede, however, that most people would still be revolted at the sight of the helpful predator....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080303/ap_on_re_us/farm_scene_helpful_roaches_6;_ylt=AjZFw4k4bcvA6dxoE.MYfXEE1vAI

================

This may be a boon to organic agriculture, particularly cotton farmers in States like Texas where grower  are mandated by State law to spray for weevil during weevil infestation years.  In such times, organic cotton growers lose their crops because they plow it under to avoid the mandate to spray.

mprov was kind of at the center of a lot of that and left under circumstances not unlike those going on now against seashell

Mprov's trouble seemed to a smouldering feud with Denise from some gathering years ago.

As for seashell, there's nothing "against" her. Just intolerance for attacks from the gutter.

I got kicked back to 29 from 40

If Obama put Hillary on his ticket, he'd better sleep with one eye open and refuse any drinks or snacks she offers. ;-)

-- volney

Three missiles hit Dhoble town early on Monday, reportedly killing four people and wounding 20.

People are fleeing the town, fearing more strikes. Residents say planes could still be seen flying overhead on Monday morning.

Islamist insurgents seized the town last week and reports said a leader, Hassan Turki, had been in the area.

Mr Turki is on the US list of "financers of terrorism".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7274462.stm

How many days until Hillary's campaign is footnote of history? 

12:48 PM EST

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGgCCQ

By Christopher Hass - Mar 3rd, 2008 at 11:47 am ES

...

Right now, volunteers in all four states are working tirelessly to Get Out The Vote for Barack, and you can help.

...

In just over a week, our supporters have made over 1,280,000 phone calls. Our goal now is to reach calls 1,500,000 by tomorrow. With your help, we can do this.

Pick up the phone and make some calls.

Whether make ten calls or a hundred, you'll know that you were a part of an historic moment, when ordinary people of all walks of life came together to do something extraordinary.

This should be 48...

When people call me, I hang up.  If they call me again, you can be sure I won't vote for their candidate.

The exception is when the candidate calls his or herself, but that won't happen in anything greater than a Congressional race (and then only when you knwo the candidates).

12:58 E 

Thanks Sitka for setting Phil straight - he forgot to leave out the part where he called all of us slackers that night when he left. And I had no idea he had been carrying a grudge for years; I rarely spoke with him except here with an occasional "hello."

He seemed infuriated that I made the claim that California was mostly Clinton country. And after our primary, it seems that was indeed the case. I mean, what do I know I only live here :)

Anything else I might post about him would be personal and not for this venue.

If anyone gets HBO you have to catch Bill Maher on repeat this week. He keeps hitting hit out of the park this season, especially his New Rules. LMAO

please recommend

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/24069...

I can't spweak for others, but I feel I owe Nader a debt of gratitude not just for opening my eyes to the corporate degeneracy of the DLC Party, but for building the foundation for the 2004 platform of Howard Dean and DFA.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spweaking for myself, I've known about the DLC since 1992; and Nader had zip to do with my attraction for Howard. And since Nader is almost universally disliked on this blog, I find it odd to credit him with either Dean's "platform" or DFA's. Paul Wellstone, now, I suspect is a quite different matter.

John McCain — Date of Birth: 29 August 1936

Ralph Nader — Date of Birth: 27 February 1934

29.

Phil Specht
Mon, 03/03/08

Reply to this
We can hope this thread stays within the Conduct Code so no one has to reproduce it.

Phil you sound like the Daddy :~)

44.

* rdorgan
Mon, 03/03/08

That is one of my favorite tunes.

PHIL....

So, shouldn't that effort start here? What should we do? A couple of people were talking about it at Kos. Don't you think Obama owes us? Can't we demonstrate some muscle as progressives. He needs us.

k♥ ~~ Just for you:

The small world
coming alive again
bit by bit
glossy mosaic, shining

Tonight both the first
peepers and the first bats
This is spring, reminding
prodding us to notice

"I will support any dem that gets the nomination, will you."

linda b~ NO, absolutely not!!

karen, then to ahead , have another 8 years of facism.

not me.

1:26 PM EST

please recommend

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/24069...

+++

Recommended.

u tube is messes up on this blog again. come on hq.

where does the industrial espionage from the illegal spying go? is there pay for play? who controls the slush fund? rove? will it make it harder to borrow from other countries once it is widely known that we spy on their contract negotiations?

when do they begin the debate on FISA again?

Spweaking for myself, I've known about the DLC since 1992; and Nader had zip to do with my attraction for Howard. And since Nader is almost universally disliked on this blog, I find it odd to credit him with either Dean's "platform" or DFA's. Paul Wellstone, now, I suspect is a quite different matter.

Of course I knew about the DLC before Nader, but I didn't realized it's corrupting influence until Nader and the Greens began denouncing it.  Then the way DCDems rolled over and abandoned Gore, while enacting the worst of Bush's agenda made it clearer. And when Dean picked up Nader's theme in 2004 it all came home.

Thanks Nader. Thanks Dean.Thanks Wellstone. Thanks to all who speak truth and put themselves on