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Send Elliot Anderson to Netroots Nation!
Linked to groups: Las Vegas Democracy For America, Henderson NV Democracy For America, Training Academy Alumni, Class of 2007
Our own DFA member and hard-working veteran's activist, Elliot Anderson, applied for a DFA scholarship to Netroots Nation. The third annual convention for the vibrant Daily Kos community takes place late July in Austin. I voted for Elliot because I know he will derive maximum benefit from the networking and exchange of ideas that happens when progressive thinkers and writers from around the nation gather.
Please log on and vote for Elliot, too. It takes a quick minute. I could tell you all he's done in the two years I've known him, but check out his resume for yourself. Here's a link to his application page:
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/netroots_nation_scholarships/117-elliot-anderson
And here is his Daily Kos diary on his bid for the scholarship.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/12/171718/587/53/534891
Thank you!
Teresa Crawford
Do you know how hard it is to blow the shofar? (Not one joke, people. Not one.) Anyway, it is not like a kazoo, that ram's horn.
Howard can do anything!
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/28875/
We got hit with 4 inches of rain last night. Ludington which is on Lake Michigan north of Holland got nearly 6 inches. My old house on the lake north of Petovsky got nearly 9 inches of rain...overnight.
A tornado came thru and knocked trees down a mile away from us. No damage. As usual, the alarm woke us up in time to head for the basement.
I noticed earlier comments about rural areas helping each other. There is no one else so the sense of community is stronger. We ban together to help folks who are laid up with serious medical issues. There is always someone dropping of cassaroles or pies to someone nearby.
If Obama can crack thru abortion and gay issues, he wins in a cakewalk.
On Monday, June 16 and Tuesday, June 17, Senator Barack Obama will continue his “Change that Works for You” tour with events in Michigan.
Obama will host an event in Flint and a rally in Detroit, as well as an event in Wayne County on Tuesday.
On Monday night, Obama will host a high-dollar fundraiser in Detroit.
The Obama campaign announced on Monday, June 9th the “Change that Works for You” tour - a two-week economic swing across the country. During this time, Senator Obama will travel across the country, talking to Americans about how the economy affects their everyday lives. He’ll hold events with voters where they work and where they live, discussing the challenges we face and his plans to turn the economy around.
“The middle class has always been the engine of prosperity in this country—but for nearly eight years we’ve had an administration that tells working people ‘you’re on your own,’” Senator Obama said. “Not when I’m President. I’ll reform our tax code to benefit the middle class instead of the big corporations. I’ll make sure that quality health care is affordable and accessible for every American. And I’ll provide real relief from the housing crisis by creating a foreclosure prevention fund, providing a tax break for homeowners, and cracking down on fraudulent lenders. Those are the kind of solutions that will make a difference for working Americans—and that’s the kind of change we’ll be discussing on this tour.”
Quick hello, then work to do.
Glad that Emily's List has weighed in on support for Barack Obama. If we have any chance at all, we have to elect him President. My personal assessment, worth nothing at all since I'm not a physician, is that John McCain is either senile or verging on it. The blankness on his face; his eyes like a deer in headlights; the empty smile; and his confusion tell me that all is not well with McCain. I think he will increasingly show his incompetence. Just a speculation.
Dog Soldier, I'm sorry to hear of the storms. I wonder if the UP is experiencing the same kind of weather. By the way, my husband and I met on Mackinac Island when we were in college, worked for the Grand Hotel, the Chippewa, and the Murray. Many long walks on the beach, and in the older days you could build a fire. We'd watch the lights on the bridge go out.
Last night we watched a documentary Dalai Lama Renaissance, a preview which will eventually be disributed world wide. Forty experts mainly from the US and West were invited to Dharamsala, India to visit and engage in a dialogue and workshops with the Dalai Lama to try to find answers for world problems. Thom Hartmann was there, also Jean Houston, and quantum physicists, and spiritual leaders. The Loveland Realto Theatre showed the preview. It is very worthwhile. I don't want to give anything away, so just want to recommend it as an experience that can change consciousness (I think of Audrey's great story of her dandelion and her award winning painting). We must change our consciousness if we are to cope with the consequences of over industrialization and consumerism that has threatened the planet.
The Dalai Lama talked about two kinds of spirituality: a religious spirituality and one that didn't involve religion, which made what occurred accessible globally. The documentary is an example for me of the total being much more than the sum of its parts, the cosmic humor of Buddhism, and the insight that comes from paradox.
Heard on the increasing dangers and displacement of people in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I believe NPR reported that 8 of the 9 rivers in Iowa are at flood level. Thoughts and prayers to Phil and people in Iowa.
Pat I think McCain is basically old. At 65 and working w/ 'youngins' as I'm privileged to do, I'm acutely aware of how long it takes to remember names and the like. And not a response to your post at all, but on the subject of McCain I'm bothered at some of the netroots (ie KOS) attacks on him. The computer illiteracy meme is beyond silly. I'm fine with my computer but my cellphone is a mystery and I don't think of myself as technologically challenged. Picking on his yellow teeth was also just catty. The man endured years of torture for the US of A - why can't we stick to the very obvious issues - the Supreme Court choices, that he's a war hawk, that he won't change tax policy -- there are numerous REAL things we can go after rather than the silly stuff.
...loved your story about Macinac Island -- I've always wanted to go there - what a romantic beginning.
Lance Waldorf totes a child in Afghanistan in 2004. He was proud of his work in the country. Waldorf, 41, a major with the U.S. Army Reserves, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Monday at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly Township.
Waldorf family photo via Associated Press
Des Moines – Chairman Scott Brennan announced today that the Iowa Democratic Party has postponed its State Convention due to the massive flooding and severe weather across Iowa.
“In the interest of public safety and out of concern for Iowans impacted by the flooding and severe weather, we have decided to postpone the Iowa Democratic Party State Convention,” said Brennan. “As Iowans, we encourage everyone to work hand in hand with their neighbors on flood relief efforts across our state.”
Just wanted to send my warmest wishes to all of you in the flooded areas. Best of luck to dog, Karen and Phil and anyone else I missed. Continued good wishes to Denise's mom in Chicago.
Good day to all. We'll see some sunshine this wknd. Haven't had much this Spring - so it's certainly welcome here.
Bye.
DNC. Nothing has changed, don't believe what you hear in the media. No decision about Howard staying at DNC, next term would be determined by election,if he does. DNC will help to elect new candidates as always. Money collected by DNC will be spent at Howard's direction.
So, it will all unfold eventually.
I don't think he wants to stay past 2009 when his term ends. I certainly wouldn't want to either. What a thankless job, especially the way he does it and working with grassroots and not the big donors like McAwful did. Howard works very hard. McAwful just sucked up to the corrupt moneybags.
- agent orange ? no agent all colors of the rainbow -- phosphorous in Fallujah
By * rdorgan on Jun 13, 2008 11:02 AM EDThttp://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/061308Floyd.shtml
CONTINUING ILLNESS, BIRTH DEFECTS & DEATH BEING CAUSED BY U.S. CHEMICAL WEAPONS AND DEPLETED URANIUM:
Written on the Body: The Reality of War
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(article continued)
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One of the first moves in this magnificent feat of arms was the destruction and capture of medical centers. Twenty doctors – and their patients, including women and children – were killed in an airstrike on one major clinic, the UN Information Service reports, while the city's main hospital was seized in the early hours of the ground assault. Why? Because these places of healing could be used as "propaganda centers," the Pentagon's "information warfare" specialists told the NY Times. Unlike the first attack on Fallujah last spring, there was to be no unseemly footage of gutted children bleeding to death on hospital beds. This time – except for NBC's brief, heavily-edited, quickly-buried clip of the usual lone "bad apple" shooting a wounded Iraqi prisoner – the visuals were rigorously scrubbed.
So while Americans saw stories of rugged "Marlboro Men" winning the day against Satan, they were spared shots of engineers cutting off water and electricity to the city – a flagrant war crime under the Geneva Conventions, as CounterPunch notes, but standard practice throughout the occupation. Nor did pictures of attack helicopters gunning down civilians trying to escape across the Euphrates River – including a family of five – make the TV news, despite the eyewitness account of an AP journalist. Nor were tender American sensibilities subjected to the sight of phosphorous shells bathing enemy fighters – and nearby civilians – with unquenchable chemical fire, literally melting their skin, as the Washington Post reports. Nor did they see the fetus being blown out of the body of Artica Salim when her home was bombed during the "softening-up attacks" that raged relentlessly – and unnoticed – in the closing days of George W. Bush's presidential campaign, the Scotland Sunday Herald reports.
I began that 2004 piece with a quote from Italo Calvino, which to me is one of the very best encapsulations of the horror, and hope, of our human condition:
"The inferno...is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindcaster-ezzolicious/61043635/
See all the "The truth of Falujah" media
from rai uno 24 news channel, a broadcast on the US military onslaught of Fallujah, using white phosphorous as a chemical weapon and shooting anything that moves, including women and children.
Lots going on in our home.
I did want to comment on a part of Phil's previous blog several threads ago which I just read. It is a good post, but I take exception to this:
But a special group risk their lives.Some like in our armed forces, sent by a Democratic Congress and a Republican President into war at way too high a rate. Others firemen into a raging river to pull out a victim. to you a salute.
Although many Democrats in Congress were complicite in voting for the resolution, we did not have a Democratic Congress in 2003. I think if we had one, Iraq may never have happened.
my point about the Supreme Court decision was that, in addition to ruling that individual rights are enjoyed by people who come within the jurisdiction of the agents of government, regardless of their nationality or citizenship status, the Court now found that the agents of the United States government are bound by U.S. laws, regardless of where they are active. So, for example, if the military has to pay civilian employes in the U.S. a minimum wage plus benefits, they're going to have to do the same on bases overseas. Or, if the Air Force is precluded from just dumping waste oil on the ground on U.S. bases, they'll now be precluded from doing that on Balad Air Base or Bagram, as well.
A conservative commentator on the News Hour made these points in the context of what a horrible decision this was and compared it to the Dredd Scott decision or Plessy v. Ferguson. I don't know how this comparison fits into the conservative ideology, but then I don't understand the one man one vote argument as it's supposed to apply to the Florida Democratic primary either.
You'd think that the "limited government" people would be in accord, but what they really mean is that government responsibilities should be limited to punishment and reward of that portion of the citizenry that's not voluntarily subservient to the dictates of state and church.
I think that when Scalia refers to "original intent" he does so in the context of original sin and considers the purpose of the state (the origin) to deal with "all men who are created evil." The secular state, you see, is an alternative to religious establishment and, if the latter are successful, then the state can be shrunk to the point where Norquist can drown it.
There's some sort of logical disconnect, it seems to me, in assuming that the individual is antagonistic to the state but that this antagonism can be overcome by the use of force and the force will make the individual pacific so the state can fade away. Nevertheless that seems to be the operating assumption in Iraq--that we will pound the Iraqis into submission and then, when they're pacific, we can send the troops home. Seems like there's a misreading of human nature somewhere in there.
Why can't they just assume that most people are peaceful and inoffensive to begin with? Because then they'd have no reason to pound them, would they?
Thanks Monica -- I understand now about the change in how we look at remote locations.
You'd think that the "limited government" people would be in accord, but what they really mean is that government responsibilities should be limited to punishment and reward of that portion of the citizenry that's not voluntarily subservient to the dictates of state and church.
I am a real limited government person and the difference between me and the pretend ones that call themselves Libertarians and Republicans is just what you said. They are happy to give more corporate welfare out of our taxdollars, happy to let companies pollute the environment which infringes upon our freedoms. What they really want is not less government (Republicans tend to bloat the government and waste tax dollars more than Democrats), but a corporate-controlled world where the most ruthless exploit the masses.
I don't think he wants to stay past 2009 when his term ends. I certainly wouldn't want to either. What a thankless job, especially the way he does it and working with grassroots and not the big donors like McAwful did. Howard works very hard. McAwful just sucked up to the corrupt moneybags.
I thought things might be different for this election since everyone and every corporation, every political party, every ideology, should realize it's so important for this country to get back on track. The right wing push for Hillary Clinton's nomination should have been a clue of things to happen for the Obama camp I guess.
McSame's numerous gaffs, the lobbyists in his campaign staff, many of them still acvtive lobbyists, his choice of pastors he asked to endorse him, and, last but far from least, his outrageous statements and misstatements -- all are given coverage by most media with only a whisk and a whack or a helpful "he meant to say this" brushoff.
For Obama, his pastor (and even the guest pastor he didn't know) of his church have evoked eternal coverage, and the everlasting coverage of his truthful and honest "bitter" statement will forever be referred to as something other than what it was.
Keith O. mentioned the double standard last night. At least it has been initially spoken.
The liberal Internet needs to help to stamp out the DS by calling as much attention to it as they can rather than ignoring it.
If our troops in Iraq were under orders to behave as they are expected to behave here at home, it's my bet that fewer of them would find it necessary to kill themselves (18 a day) because they can't live with what they have done and become.
But then, you'll recall that the Africans jumping overboard to drown themselves rather than enduring the trip into involuntary servitude were not infrequently presented as exemplary and freedom-loving people, while the people who captured, shackled and transported them to our shores were mostly overlooked. What was the point of honoring people who'd rather be dead than enslaved? Was it a subtle suggestion that those who survived and bred were somehow less? Why do Americans pay so much honor to dead people?
Not sure this diary is front-page worthy given over 110 applicants and many great ones not even breaking 10 votes. The author doesn't really sell her candidates achievements or how he will use the training in his community. I did o over to his Kos page which was much better in terms of what he has done.
It is nice DFA is promoting candidates way behind, but a last-minute applicant without much written on the application? Not sure I agree with that. I still think Diania in Idaho (who also applied late but wrote a lot on her app.) and some other applicants put more work into the process and are more involved in their communities, so maybe highlight some of those folks too? Like everyone under 10 votes? Of course he did get OPOL to vote for him and I love OPOL though that photo looks nothing like the OPOL I met, lol. No, I wasn't drunk. ;)
There is only one applicant that I think is a troll one based on what they wrote, and they have zero votes for a reason. Not sure why they are still up because when you read it, it sounds like a troll post but maybe DFA is giving them the benefit of the doubt. I was looking last night for anyone who didn't have at least one vote to vote for them and saw that one, but after reading it...no way.
Are there no DFA groups in those states? No outreach? I found that odd that so many didn't have even one applicant. Even odder is the folks who have DFA accounts but didn't vote in their states for their folks. Are people disengaging? Are software issues/complexity the issue? Curious.
I guess there is a new thread
I scanned quickly the dialogue on this thread. So many thoughtful posts, some too sad for words. I read a long time ago that the grievous psychic wounds that soldiers experience are not for the harm they have endured, but the harm they have caused. Any society that causes such grief, such waste, such loss of human beings will bear the consequences I'm convinced. I'm so sorry to hear of Lance Waldorf's suicide, but it's important to hear of it.
Annilow, you are right about the trivial attacks on John McCain. I appreciate the cautionary note. I'm 65, and sometimes it takes me a week to remember something. I've discovered that I have a phonetic memory: it starts with a sound that I'll play over in my mind, and voila, eventually the name or place or title of something comes up.
I do think though, that John McCain is confused. I listened to John Kerry on Keith Olbermann talk of McCain's mistakes about the war in Iraq, and he called him confused. Maybe he was never very smart in the first place, but I don't feel that he's cooking on all burners. Old is okay, but I think we need the best character and the best intelligence we can get.
Appreciate your analysis of DNA promoting candidates Cheryl. Rdorgan, overwhelming cruelty. What have we become?
Monica, will reread your posts, always thoughtful and insightful.
Scanners that see through clothing installed in US airports
NEW YORK (AFP) - Security scanners which can see through passengers’ clothing and reveal details of their body underneath are being installed in 10 US airports, the US Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.
A random selection of travellers getting ready to board airplanes in Washington, New York’s Kennedy, Los Angeles and other key hubs will be shut in the glass booths while a three-dimensional image is made of their body beneath their clothes.
STUNNING TO CONSIDER THAT THE TOTAL WHOLE OF IT WOULD BE CONDEMNED TO DANNY'S "WATER COOLER" AS BEING "OFF TOPIC" ~~
Very powerful stuff peeps. Keep it up!
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By * rdorgan on Jun 13, 2008 9:11 AM EDThttp://www.shmoozenet.com/yudel/mtarchives/Howard%20Dean%202.11.05.jpg