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Organizing
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Saturday I went to the monthly Democratic meeting, it was good! The question and answer segment that Gene has institued is great. It opens up conversation between everyone.
Monday I went to the Democratic Women meeting. Also very informative. I know I'm not a woman but what the heck. I'm at ease with my feminine side.
Tuesday night I sat in on the Executive Committee meeting. That's where I walked away with a ton of names and maps and e-mails and phone #'s and a sense of fired up enthusiasm. I also learned we have a lot of work to do, to get this thing organized here in our neck of the woods. Gene and Lisbeth and Judy Teller have supplied me with a ton of information and events that will enable the Fannin County Democrats to make huge strides this election. But everyone has to pitch in a little bit for this to work. All the precinct chairs are working on "Precinct Teams" to get this work done. Gene has suggested that each precinct needs as many members on their team as they had delegates at the County Convention. I then realized that my precicnt, #18, is the largest in the county, we had 22 delegates at the County Convention. I told Doris, my precinct chair, not to worry I'd handle it. SO HERE WE GO! If everybody that reads this contacts their precinct chair and volunteers to be on that team that would save them a lot of headache.
My thinking is that Obama is going to win this hands down, minus any last minute screwups. If screwups arrise it'll be a fight to the end. I want us, Fannin County DFA, to really concentrate on hyping up Rick Noriega and Glenn Melancon. These two races are doable, very doable. But it's going to take lots of talking and doorknocking. I've come to the conclusion that very few people actually like Ralph Hall; but everybody's use to him. Kind of like that old T-shirt EVERYBODY has, that has holes in it and is as thin as a Kleenex. It's not at all presentable in public, but it's been around so long and is so old you've just grown acustom to its shortcomings. As my wife tells me, "IT'S TIME TO TRASH THAT OLD PIECE OF CRAP AND GET A NEW ONE". She actually sets fire to them, but I don't think we need to go that far in this circumstance. Can we really achieve all this?
YES WE CAN!!
Obama got the FISA Bill pulled I see, are we going to get weeks of teeth nashing now that it didn't go to a vote
Now we really have something to look forward to.
Do you have a link to Obama's role in blocking FISA? All I see is Feingold and Dodd.
I guarantee the progressive blogosphere will not like the next turn if he loses. (if they are relevant for anything). This is our one best shot at turning the country around.
I think FISA is the only issue the Left has called him on, and frankly he deserves the heat. No one is taking away any of his votes. It sends the wrong signal and sets an alarming precedent to immunize corporations. Just look at KBR in Iraq.
This fight had to happen sometime within the Democratic Party. I'm not afraid of it, and it will have a great effect on down ticket races that will likely retire several blue dogs. .This should be a warning more to Reid and Pelosi and Hoyer et al
Win/Win
- The Second Amendment has always been plain English to me.
By Phil Specht on Jun 27, 2008 5:47 AM EDTThe Fourth is pretty staight forward as well.
I always get a kick out of the NRA types that think the Bill Of Rights has only one clause.
the amazing Court discussion was "conservatives" railing against the Habeus decision desparaging the 5-4 margin totally forgetting "the selection" was also 5-4.
slam dunk 9-0 causes never get to the Court
but keep running down Obama and if we get McCain we may get to a lock step Court yet
and the rebellion on the left that threatened to derail Obama certainly got the attention of Party leaders, but we need to use such power carefully now that we are in charge, or we will win the battle and lose the war
... from Politico this morning...
quote:
Barack Obama has crafted an image as an unconventional candidate, a change agent and a post-partisan politician who represents a dramatic break from the status quo. But since securing the Democratic presidential nomination, when confronted with a series of thorny issues the Illinois senator has pursued a conspicuously conventional path, one that falls far short of his soaring rhetoric.
unquote
link:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11384.html
credit:
Obama: Change agent goes conventional
By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 6/26/08 8:06 PM EST
See, that's evidence of the author's prejudice--that politicians are responsible for how people see them--right there. Now, there are some people who's visage has been "crafted" to represent a person that's different from reality (young woman v. old wrinkled hag), but there's no evidence that Obama has done any such thing. Also overlooked here is the difference between a legislator as a member of a large group and an implementer of policy directives. Not to mention that it's never possible to match action and verbiage, soaring or not. I'm thinking I won't waste precious minutes on Mr. Vogel. It's bad enough that I'm still slogging through the "Millenium" book. About the only thing I agree with is that younger people are more into sharing than personal acquisition. What I can't get my mind around is how they can argue that the fixation on other people's personal behaviors is supposed to be "idealistic" as opposed to being inclined towards "civic" attitudes. I think the authors are trying really hard to avoid the term "selfish"--the supposed motivator for communal interference in personal behaviors. "I get to tell you what to do because you're not aiming to do what I want." How to characterize that pattern? It's not transference.
- I need to do two days work today if I want to make it to the State Convention Sat.
By Phil Specht on Jun 27, 2008 6:18 AM EDTbut I think Obama has his "turns" right and to make sure the Clinton team joins him instead of continuing to undermine him this week before going back to his main agenda
the Obama team haven't made many mistakes yet and this isn't one either if we on the left keep our eyes on the prize
Obama never has been a part of the left wing of the Party or a progressive like Feingold; rather pretty much in the center of the Democratic spectrum.
what he is is a leader who will bring us along, and if we don't want to be a part of this first offer by a nominee, it will be to our long regret for decades to come
bbl
the reaction from the some of us on the left shows how we could lose this cycle - and why good dem candidates, even great dem candidates often do lose. 'my way or the highway' isn't the way to bring change to this country.
good luck with the chores - and I hope you have a great weekend at the convention!
I've been following Monica's musings on her trip - as always, it's interesting and enlightening...
My own view is that Obama is a progressive from the Democratic Wing of the party. To be sure not like Feingold, who is one of the last of the firebrands in Congress, but like Sanders or Kennedy or Boxer or Durbin or Harkin, for example. I'm sure that as a former community organizer, Obama's political sensibilities are far to the left of the population mean.
But I don't feel he is a doctrinaire liberal or even a hidebound liberal. He is a consummate politician and, as such, recognizes the strategies necessary to effective governance and law making in a representative democracy. It's like sausage making: critics on the left don't like watching it.
If he wasn't, I don't really think he would have been successful as a community activist, because negotiation and compromise are just as essential in that arena to achieving results. I am intrigued by the whole question of how Obama is perceived, as opposed to what he is, as Monica alluded to. I actually believe he is a progressive champion with very shrewd political instincts, and I'm anxious to see what he might be able to accomplish as president.
See, I am doing better, sleeping until six am. Of course, it's only four here. LOL
Daughter had a letter in the local paper yesterday. It was in response to a fellow whose nose is out of joint because he's not going to be allowed to take his chainsaw and motorcycle into the national forests and make trails.
I'll see if they're online.
I've been reading of your travels - thank you for your posts! may your dining experiences improve as your trip progresses!!
I'm not too particular, as long as someone else is doing the cooking. Son-in-law grilled steaks last night and all I had to do was take the corn out of the microwave. I only focused on the Amtrak meals as an example of different service levels, depending on management. On the Southwest chief, for another example, we never saw the steward in charge of our car and it was some time before we realized that a peculiar bell we heard from time to time was someone else summoning him. This turned out to be significant when we were about to disembark in Lamy, a stop one short of our ticket to Albuquerque. Because there was no sign that anyone was going to open the door to our car, I had to go in search of the steward. We had already decided that getting off would be an emergency and we would ignore the signs. LOL
Trail maintenance benefits all
Dear Editor,
I read Mr. Cortesy’s June 18 piece, “Bikers beneficial to forests” with interest. I, too, have rarely seen anyone else doing trail work, but I know plenty of it gets done nonetheless, because without it trails would not be built nor remain usable for long.
I have walked ancient trails on three continents, all in good repair. The recorded history of New World trails is comparatively brief in contrast to some European trails. The value of the work invested in those trails over 2,000-plus years is staggering. I invite everyone who reads this to add just one drop to the bucket: Contribute in some way to maintaining any trail you use.
Readers of Mr. Cortesy’s piece may be interested to know that in 2007 alone, Back Country Horsemen of New Mexico logged 3,301 hours of trail building and maintenance work, plus other donations, for a total monetary value of $229,200.
Una Smith
Los Alamos
without at tool bar by putting the url inside the angle brackets and bolding the title with same. If you want to see what a coded comment looks like, you can check out anything you've pasted in with the html on the tool bar. You can also edit directly on the page that comes up to get rid of lettuce.
New Mexico’s senior senator criticized passage on Wednesday of a House spending bill, and the state’s only representative on the House appropriations committee was also the only member of the committee to vote against the proposed bill.
Speaking of a provision to terminate pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the energy and water appropriation proposal, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said the measure would leave the nation without capacity to respond to evolving security and technical challenges.
“This bill is worse than the status quo,” he said. “Pit production is necessary and I do not know of a single acceptable argument for the United States abandoning its production capacity.”
The proposal passed by voice vote with Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M. the only opposing voice.
In a statement afterward, Udall said he would work for changes in the final budget.
“(A)lthough this legislation contains many good provisions, it does not provide a path to the future for our national laboratories, and I could not support it,” he said.
Udall is running against Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M. for Domenici’s Senate seat in the November election.
*****************************
The issue here is plutonium pits or cores for nuclear weapons. Although money was not appropriated for them last year, there was a follow-up request this year. Note how this item is stuck into the energy and water appropriation. The matter is effectively disguised. Now, the reason Udall is voting (by voice--i.e. not recorded) against this proposal isn't because he's in favor of the pit production, but because he objects to alternative energy research programs having been stripped out of LANL's mission, leaving only the nuclear stuff behind. (There are still some programs like the HIV DNA sequencing that we're interested in, but that's dependent on outside grants).
Obama/Clinton Unity at 1 PM LIVE on CSPAN and CSPAN radio (that'd be EDT).
Our dinner companion on the Southwest chief, just before the lights went out and the kitchen shut down, was, he told us, the artistic director for the local TV station in Albuquerque. Among other things he said they are concerned about some water being diverted to their drinking water supply from streams that carry contaminants from the various nuclear and chemical test sites in the state (whose level of "protection" and remediation consists, for the most part of chain link fences and warning signs). He also alluded to nuclear wastes having been shipped to some caverns in error. (we were on my favorite topic of pentagon reliance on things nuclear to keep the U.S. super power status). He wasn't aware of the funding failure.
I don't think the kids have cable. In fact, daughter mentioned that they have an analog converter and are pulling some digital broadcast from the air. Also, the county is considering taking the cable franchise back from Comcast because of the poor service and popular dissatisfaction. This is going to be another reverse-privatization we are going to be seeing in the next decade as the profit margins shrink. At some point we're going to have to make an association between profit and quality in our economic analysis. Maybe profit that's associated with poor service will have to be dicounted in the valuation of stock.
http://www.236.com/news/2008/06/25/i_want_to_be_number_two_carly_7363.php
Age: 53
Astrological sign: Virgo
Quick bio:
- 1999: Becomes CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
- 1999: Hewlett-Packard doing well.
- 2002: Decides to merge Hewlett-Packard with Compaq.
- 2002-2005: Hewlett-Packard does not do well.
- 2005: Gets fired, receives $21 million in severance.
- 2005-present: Hewlett Packard does well.
A-hole factor (1-10): 7
Vibe: Woman
RGI (Regular Guyness Index): -6
- Father, professor: -3
- Mother, artist: -2
- Educated at Stanford: -3
- Terrible at business: +3
- Vagina owner: -2
- Silly name: +1
Pro: At 53, young enough to be McCain's daughter.
Con: Reminds you that McCain is old enough to have a 53-year-old daughter.
Pro: Can bring in the failed, overcompensated CEO vote.
Con: They're all Republicans already.
Pro: Unlike McCain, knows how to run a computer.
Con: Ran a computer company into the ground.
Pro: Seen as a successful woman.
Con: Would thus be despised by Maureen Dowd.
Pro: Memorable name.
Con: Likelihood of American's wanting a president named "Carly," very low.
Most likely scandal:
Long sessions in Oval Office lead to speculation; White House claims Vice President Fiorina is only teaching McCain how to use a mouse. Cindy has lawyers tighten pre-nup.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/26/222646/124/440/542648
It's not a good title, but it's a good read on why not to be too exercised about FISA. There have actually been several hints that criminal prosecution is a better way to go than civil litigation which results in monetary penalties or removal from office.
The bushies are not going to be keen on criminal prosecutions (even if it's not them on the hot seat) because the criminal law requires meticulous preparation of fact and bushies are averse to facts, to begin with.
I really haven't been following the controversy over Obama's stand on FISA very closely. What I am struck by is how quickly people who were all in favor of "taking their country back" are looking for a guy on a white horse to do it for them. If you're not going to have a dictatorship by one or a few, then everyone has to participate in the affairs of the community. Participatory democracy doesn't mean a full-time commitment; it does mean some contribution (share) on a regular, if random, basis.
Regular and random may seem to be mutually exclusive. They're not. One applies to the occurance of an event; the other to the timing.
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