Howard Dean is First here,

But we need the other Al to take the lead in the Oval Office.

100-foot deep Andes lake disappears

Undated photo shows a lake in the Chilean Andes as it was before May.

Photo taken in May shows water has drained from the lake.

Time for a COOL change

Gore

2008 

I'm saying Dean is first.

This stinks.  linda b is parking all her TBA reports at the end of the old thread.

Here is one, I will go back and get the rest.

linda b
Thu, 06/21/07
2:03 pm

Reply to this

I got to the Hillary speech about 15 minutes early. My friends had saved seats in the first row.

The area in front of the stage was blocked off and secret service was all ove the place.

She was booed by Code Pink who made complete asses of themselves. Even at Nancy Pelosi's speech, when she talked about Iraq and Darfur , which was a hot topic, there they were, in front of the audience, wanting the media attention. They lost me.

I didn't think Hillary's speech was well thought out. She was on appeasment central (gee who would have thunk it).

The only "media" I saw there was John KIng from CNN. But I was so busy I may have just not seen them.

I thought the best speeches I heard were from John Edwards, who was very direct and specific. The best received were Barack Obama and Howard Dean.

The best workshops were the Katrina one and the executuve branch one with joe wilson and john podesta.

This was great, here is the video from Jason Alexander. who spoke on "Who took America?"

Funny but serious too.

Enjoy.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3316129511262190332&hl=en

The TBA speeches can be seen at www.ourfuture.org.

I also stayed for the Politico news conference with the Greenberg polling group.

Obama was first and Edwards was second.

Only 40% of the attendees voted for this straw poll.

That nannying look

AMERICA is not ready to elect as president a short, divorced Jewish billionaire. That is what Michael Bloomberg keeps telling reporters. But he does not believe it. New York's mayor has spent most of the year criss-crossing the country talking about gun control, immigration, health care and climate change—all national issues. On June 19th he announced that he was quitting the Republican Party to become an independent. The last time he switched party, from Democrat to Republican, it was to run for mayor. This time, it can only be because he has his eyes on the White House. He denies it, with a wink: on June 20th he said he would run if everyone else in the world were dead.

Third-party bids always fail, goes the conventional wisdom. But Mr Bloomberg must be taken seriously. First, he is so rich—Forbes puts his net worth at over $5 billion—that he can outspend both major parties without holding one fundraiser. Second, he is a pragmatic centrist—pro-choice, pro-gay, anti-deficit—at a time when Americans are sick of ideologues and party hacks.

His strategy, according to copious leaks, will be to wait until the Republican and Democratic nominees are known, which could be as early as next February. If the nominees are divisive enough to leave a gap in the centre, which seems quite likely, he will then plunge into the race. “Unity08”, a movement in search of a non-partisan candidate, would love to back him.

Mr Bloomberg's track record is impressive. He earned a fortune by founding a firm, Bloomberg LP, which provides financial data to banks via terminals he modestly called “Bloombergs”. He spent $115m getting elected as mayor of New York twice, and has done a pretty good job. Unemployment has plunged, crime is down 27%, tourism is thriving and the city's deficit has turned to glorious surplus. He has banned smoking nearly everywhere and trans-fats in restaurants. He has called for a 30% cut in greenhouse gases by 2030, a congestion fee for driving into Manhattan and cash transfers to ease poverty.

His detractors argue that it was his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, who turned the city around, and that Mr Bloomberg has merely kept up the good work more nannyishly. Since Mr Giuliani is the front-runner for the Republican nomination, albeit a faltering one, this detail matters. Mr Bloomberg's boosters note that he has managed to run things well without infuriating half the city, as his caustic predecessor did. His detractors retort that it is easier to keep New York's main interest groups placid if, like Mr Bloomberg, you make huge donations to nearly all of them out of your own pocket.

Could he win? Larry Sabato, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, does not rule it out. “Eventually America is going to have an independent president,” he says. “It's just a question of when.” Ross Perot, a Texan billionaire who made an independent run in 1992, reached nearly 40% in the opinion polls before people suspected he was nuts, observes Charlie Cook, a political analyst. Mr Bloomberg is obviously sane and competent, though no rousing speaker. In a three-way race against flawed opponents, he could win.

At the very least, he would affect the outcome. But no one knows how. Would he attract moderate Democrats who cannot abide Hillary Clinton? Or country-club Republicans tired of religiosity and incompetence? The candidate who lost the fewest supporters to Mr Bloomberg would probably win.

Mr Bloomberg's aides insist, however, that he does not want to run as a spoiler. Either he will run to win, or he will serve out his time as mayor (he must stand down in 2009) and then spend his silver years giving away his gold. In the meantime, presidential speculation ensures that no one sees him as a lame duck in New York.

floridagal .
Thu, 06/21/07
12:50 pm

Reply to this

Did Dean speak at the TBA conference?   I have seen videos of most everyone else.  I went to the TBA site and no mention of his event.

___________________

Yes Howard was the very last speaker at the TBA conf. and he was a hit.

As we waited for him to be introduced I stood up from my seat in the front row. I looked between the speakers and there was Howard talking to someone. He looked around at me and I waved. He gave me a big Howard smile and said 'Hello". When he came to the podium, he was met with a 5 minute standing ovation.

As every one sat down I yelled "we love you Howard". Over half the audience piped in the same.

Howards message was about morality. That no matter what you are "republican or democrats". Morals should be the same.

I will put the video up when it is posted.

When Sheri gets back I will get with her and put up a post of two on the TBA conference.

I propose right now that we all make a pledge to be there together next year.

We can sit together and work the table. We can even run a workshop with DFA if possible.

That would be amazing.

So let's all make a  pledge to go.

How do the Democratic candidates do using Rich's criteria, specifically, 1) issues, 2) trust, 3)history, 4) situation  and 5) magic?

Fair question.

I can only answer for me, that none of the current candidates do very well on my personal scoresheet.  A few comments...

I really like John Edwards on issues.  He sold me on issues with his talk at DFest, particualrly talking about providing free (for 10 hours a week of work) college tuition and books for anyone who gets into college, public funding and universal health care.  Where Edwards has big problems with me is trust.  I just get the feeling he's picking most of his positions to get the nomination, and would back off if selected/elected.

Hillary Clinton doesn't work for me at all. She's a card carrying member of the corporate wing and sponsored a bill to outlaw flag burning, which for a 1st Amendment near-absolutist like me is a killer.  Then there's her trying to have it both ways on Iraq.  I'm willing to forgive a lot that happened between 2001-2004, but unlike most others, I think she still believes in the war in Iraq and would keep us there, no matter what she says today.

Obama is magic on the stump, but look at his votes in Congress and you see a conventional member of the corporate wing.  There's a little tinge of artiface there too.  He plays Gen X but is really a baby boomer (albeit the tail end) and I don't appreciate his badmouthing the boomer generation.  He's trying to hard to overcome being the first "serious" African American candidate (I don't think JJ would like that description...he won primaries) by being painfully conventional.

Richardson has the resume and this is the right time to have someone who's not learning on the job, but he and I disagree on too many issues for me to give him early support.

Dennis Kucinich, although I respect his positions on issues, has shown he can't summon the magic.

I like Mike Gravel, but he's dead wrong on taxes.  A national sales tax is regressive, painfully so.  We need to fix the tax code, but not on the backs of the middle and working classes.

I have opinions on the other candidates too, but why would you care :-)?

When this process started, I was hoping either Gary Hart and/or Russ Feingold would get in. 

Hart has spent the time since his last campaign getting a Doctorate from Oxford and writing some of the most insiteful books and articles on America's role in the world and the government's role in America, as well as serving on the commission that warned us about terrorism before 9/11.  Hart would have changed the subject of debate in this country, win or lose, had he run.

Russ Feingold is known to most here.  Campaign finance reformer, against the Iraq war from the beginning, Feingold has an ability to communicate that crosses party lines.  He is missed.   Russ, there's still time to get in.

Can we get some updates from HQ that don't include a request for money?  Please!  We are more than a checkbook.

At the TBA conference, on Monday nite they held a talk with "populists" Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown.

I think the moment that really disgusted me was when he said he was sorry that he voted with the rethugs to stop habeau corpus.

I looked at him and said, "you did what". and now you say you are sorry?" My jaw dropped.

Here you have a democratic then house member, now a senator that voted to do away with habeus corpus. There you have it folks . They are all wusses.

Made me want to cry. No, made me want to slap him upside of the head.

Let me see, we have another rich, white male trying to get face time on tv.

bloomberg

huckabee,

gilmore

trump

never stops.

rich^kolker
Thu, 06/21/07
2:19 pm
__________________________________________________________________________

Pretty fair post Rich..............I concur on most.  Just out of curiosity, your thoughts on the Republican side..........most sound pretty dangerous to me.

ON no. 12, that senator was sherrod brown.

Just say "no" rich.  LOL

I agree with you on the candidates.  Clinton and Obama often sound like they have the same speech-writers.  They're not outright deceptive like Dubya, but the verbiage is often empty. 

(I had a typo - Fall '04, in the previous thread, s/b - Fall '03; so here's the corrected posted comment)

46.

Tom -

Thanks for your comments.

I give you credit for trying to stay engaged here.

I wasn't for anyone in particular, after Howard Dean announced in mid-Mar 04 that he was no longer running for president, and reluctantly backed my senator Kerry for prez (I still remember going over the border into NH to a Dean rally in Peterborough in early Jan 04 and while getting out of my car, saw a young woman driver, with a Kerry for Prez bumper sticker on her car, purposefully backing into the spot against the building so IMO no one would see her sticker), I thought I would never feel compelled the same way to back a candidate in the future like I did for Howard.

Well, when Barack Obama announced in Jan this year, I was already watching him and was waiting to see if Al Gore would announce.

I decided not to wait anymore then and decided to get into campaigning for Barack from the get go (essentially when Hillary announced she was running a week later), especially when I felt that I had discovered Howard not until the Fall of 03 and had felt a bit of guilt since then that if maybe I had heard of him before and had gotten involved with his campaign before the Fall 03, that my little bit might have contributed in a small way to his winning Iowa, winning New Hampshire.

Oh well, enough of history and of my story.

Rich’s summaries would make a good cheat sheet on an exam. Do you weight any of the factors more than others?

The Republicans,

You realize my not agreeing with them is not a big shock to anyone here.  How they appeal to me on the five criteria is less important than how they appeal to GOP voters in those areas.  So, very quickly.

McCain - I worked for McCain in New Hampshire and South Carolina in 2000, based on his positions on campaign finance reform and the general tone of his primary campaign.  Look at his 2000 web site through the wayback machine and you'll see prequels of "Take our country back."  That being said, he's a different guy this time around.  He decided he'd rather be President  than right, and started sucking up to all the groups he dissed in 2000.  Unfortunately for him, all that did was piss off his centrist and independent supporters, without building trust among the GOP right.  He wouldn't be a bad President (other than on Iraq, vastly superior to any other Republican), but he's dead meat.

Guiliani - If he gets the nomination it will be on "electability" (sound familiar).  I can see GOPers saying "I'll hold my nose while I vote for that pro-choice, anti-gun, New Yorker."  He's strong on the situation and history for those who are scared of terrorists, and that's still a lot of people.

Romney - If he gets it, it'll show the GOP is willing to ignore anything.  If I'm running against him, I just run his campaign commercials from the Mass Governor's race!  Flip flop indeed!  But, the right is looking for someone who doesn't scare them, and for some reason he's not as cary as Rudy or McCain.

Thompson (Fred) - I remember Democrats in 2004 saying they wished President Bartlet would run. Fred was only a DA, but suffers from the same potential problem, he's not his character (and he won't have Dick Wolf writing his campaign speeches).  Right now, he's "other" on the GOP side for everyone who's looking for an "other."  Once he gets out on the campaign trail, he'll probably lose some of the glow.  Still, he's a formidable presence, and his political history, going back to Watergate, is a definite plus.

Huckabee - Is apparently a nice guy, but as a reality based voter, I have problems with someone who has problems with science.  Still, if the social conservatives congeal around him, and the fiscal and terror voters split, he could do better than expected.

The wildcard on the GOP side is Newt, but Thompson may have taken his slot.

Hagel, if he runs, will run as an Indy. 

"Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?":

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070621/ap_on_el_pr/on_the2008_trail_45

Obama campaign picks donors for dinner

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - They are not wealthy. Their home states are politically symbolic. Their occupations or their circumstances suggest salt of the earth.

Four contributors to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, chosen from among thousands of donors, will sit down for dinner with the Illinois senator next month at a Washington D.C., restaurant.

The two men and two women were announced as winners of a small donor solicitation campaign that was as much about raising money as it was about building a vast network of supporters from across the country who supplied biographical data and gave reasons for their support.

There's Michael Griffith, a miner from Nevada; Margaret Thomas-Jordan, a Louisiana mother of two whose husband is serving a 15-month tour in Iraq; Haile Rivera, a community activist and mentor from the Bronx in New York; and Jennifer Lasko, a Florida firefighter and paramedic who was a registered Republican until 2000.

Obama aides won't say how much money the solicitation raised and would only say that "thousands" responded to it. The campaign will pay the transportation and dinner costs for the four supporters.

The selection was not a drawing or a lottery, which could have created problems with some states' gaming laws. Instead, the campaign culled through the entries looking for diverse backgrounds and personal stories. Finalist were interviewed over the weekend and winners were notified on Sunday.

"The goal was to pull together a group of people who might otherwise not sit down and have dinner together," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Lasko, an Army officer until shortly before the first Persian Gulf War, said she has opposed the war in Iraq from the start.

"He has the best chance of overcoming the negativity of the political atmosphere in our country right now," she said of Obama.

...

Yesterday at the TBA conference Howard made note on moral issues being important.

Then he made note of this, that had just come across the wires.

You know I am going to have to take blood pressure medicine.

How much more can we take from this inept govenment?

Oh yes , where is Osama??????????/

I'm surprised that no one has picked up on this here, but it appears that one missing American soldier has a wife who has been targeted by DHS for deportation because she is undocumented.

Imagine, your husband has probably made the highest sacrifice for the nation, and you are about to get the boot.

Incredible. Just Incredible.

update: If this has been diaried before, I'll delete. I'm going to be unavailable for about an hour .. so don't yell at me if I don't respond right away, OK?

.. I'm back and see it's been on the boards three times previously but did not get much visibility

Let me see.

President with lowest approval ratings.

VP who says that his office is not part of the leg. branch.

Congress that is blowing in the wind.

More soldiers dying every day.

Smoke screens from the media.

Coup.

You skipped Brownback, Hunter and Paul.

Tom,

Everyone weighs the factors as an individual, and perhaps even slides the scale around for different people.  We're talking about humans here, not machines.

For example, the War (gee, at one time in my life that was Vietnam) may be a single issue binary solution for some people, abortion may be for someone else.  I tend to be pretty absolutist on my interpretation of free speech, but since until this administration nobody was really against it, it hasn't come up in many elections (but it's part of my problem with Hillary). 

The nattering nabobs seem to think that trust gets more weight from most voters.  They may be right.

I think most voters are willing to accept changes in a candidate over time unless it seems just too slick.  That's why Romney's support surprises me. 

I skipped a bunch of the Democrats too!

I'll mention Ron Paul, because he's a Texan, and was around when I lived down there. Ron Paul is a Libertarian.  So are some Republicans, but the easiest way to understand Ron Paul is that he IS a Libertarian (Big L).  He says what he believes, and they come from a consistant point of view.  I like the Libertarian view on some things, not on others.  Most voters are the same way, so he's not going anywhere, but I have a lot of respect for him.

Rich wrote "I skipped a bunch of the Democrats too!"

Oh yeah, Dodd and Biden. So did I. I guess everyone does.

linda b,

You will forever be a celebrity around here now and wearing it well!!!!!!!!! Can't thank you enough for being there with such enthusiasm.

It means so much getting a firsthand account from one of us who was there. There were some replays on CNN, MS and C-Span of some speeches like Hillary's, Obama's and Pelosi's but I didn't see Howard's anywhere. (I wonder why!) So of course looking forward to seeing it online whenever you have the link.

There have been some Dem leaders in Florida meeting with reps from Bill Nelson's office about his last vote FOR funding the war. Their purpose is to change this the next time the supplemental bill comes up in the Senate. Nelson himself is to meet with them so perhaps that means he is open to voting NAY next time.

I hope these kind of pressure meetings are taking place with all the senators who voted for the funding, including Republicans.

Howdy all :-)

23. So true, Rich. There's no one issue that a candidate with whom I agree will win my vote, but there are some that strong disagreement with will lose my vote. Also agree w/ you on accepting change in a candidate's positions, so long as it's not changing in the wind.

Great reporting linda b! Can't make any promises, but I really hope to be there w/ you next year.

♥'s to all

will try to pop back in before going to dinner w/ Donna

Kindness is free!

Here is Howard's speech yesterday.

When he looks to his right and smiles that was ME saying "we love you Howard".

Enjoy.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5067489537174054416

That site with Howard's speech also has the other speeches.

And Joan, I just was there and it was fantastic. Hope to see you there next year.

linda,

So, tell us about the free Guiness :). 

Rich, this is funny, cause we got lost going to the hotel on Sunday.

When we did get there, thanks to the bellman (Muhammed) who talked to us for 12 minutes on the phone trying to get us to the hotel.

We had dinner on the veranda and wayne got two free guinesses in the hotel package. Too bad I don't like beer but it was a perfect ending to a frustrating ride to dc.

Sounds like someone is talking to a birdie.

At the gala dinner they gave the paul wellstone award to the Progressive Bloggers.

A woman who blogs as Digby from California accepted the award. Quite a good speaker and very smart.

I think you should listen to her acceptance speech,

It is telling and it shows the importance of what we are doing here talking to each other.

I admire you all for this.

Watch it.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/06/19/ladies-and-gentlemen-digby/

I also met the group of bloggers who blog at Fire Dog Lake. the ones who covered the Libby trial in real time. Smart and amazing . They were taken by surprise when I stood up and acknowledged them.

This is the future folks.

linda b, thank you again.  Great videos and of course, Howard was GREAT!

...oh and you DO have a strong pair of lungs.  :)

bbl 

Just to repeat. The DFA table was a hit. Truly.

Everytime I was there people were asking questions about DFA.

So Jim and Sheri, you did good.

You have the power and you went for it.

Jim was great on the blogging panel. While some of the MYDD bloggers went on and on, Jim was short and to the point. He talked about how the individual vote was important.

They introduced him as James Dean. Wasn't he an actor of something.

Jim if you are lurking, got some good feedback. And you are a true gentleman and quite funny. Who would have thought?

And Sheri, well Sheri has so much class. She is a worker. Love ya Sheri.

Would love to have you all down here for a JJ dinner and maybe some training?

Think about it.

Peace to all.

Your TBA adventure sounds very glamorous, linda. You got to hobnob with the political elite.

This was written in Aug of 06.  Call me suspicious, but I really don't want a lliberputz clone and AIPAC supporter as prez.  Is AIPAC making a move here?

***************************** 

 It's telling for instance that Michael Bloomberg endorsed Lieberman.  If you gave Michael Dukakis $4 billion, a massive ego, and made him Jewish, you'd have Michael Bloomberg.  Bloomberg is a technocratic Democrat with strong streak of AIPAC in him, so it's not surprising he endorsed Joe.  Now, I have a bit of a personal gripe here.  I absolutely HATE Bloomberg Democrats.  They are immoral, somewhat racist, and live in a bubble where a corrupt AIPAC lobby that sacrifices Israel to the far right in the name of making middle aged billionaires feel good about themselves is the definition of virtue.  They are the ultimate example of elitist liberal, only liberalism to them has nothing to do with social justice and means not having to pay for their daughter to fly to Europe to have an abortion.  They bulldoze neighborhoods in New York City but don't consider the neighborhoods really a part of the city since they aren't in Manhattan.  They think artists are adorable, and then evict them to erect another Starbucks in a luxury condominium building.  These are bad people, and I don't care how many colleges name buildings after them.  

The Bloomberg endorsement is a good sign that these people are very unhappy with the Lieberman loss.  The $1.3 million Lieberman took in over the final two weeks came from a few sets of donor communities, and one of them was the Bloomberg Democrats.  Now, AIPAC doesn't lose.  It just doesn't.  Except that here, it did.  Now the loss was quiet, and Lamont is pro-Israel, so the policy implications aren't clear.  But make no mistake, AIPAC's champion got completely spanked.  That's a big deal, and we'll see how big a deal as the Bolton nomination heats up.  We're in a weird place with AIPAC, since it's impossible to oppose Bush's foreign policy without coming into contact with the corrupt Israel lobby and a thicket of accusations.  That's a new and puzzling space for many of us on the left, especially since I grew up imbibing the 'Israel is always good' mantra in Hebrew school. (update: Sure enough, the Republican Jewish Coalition weighs in with the 'don't be a traitor to your religion line')

http://mydd.com/story/2006/8/9/183331/9471 

linda b great play by play reporting!!  Thank you for all you do.

What's with having to be tall to be elected?  Good grief.

*************************

About intake of water.  It makes a huge difference.  When I don't drink 6 litres a day, my knees hurt, etc.  I can't believe how water removes my aches and pains and gives me energy! 

**************************

Nader running again.  OMG, are we screwed if Gore doesn't enter.  I want to wake up from this nightmare since 2000.

bbl  

One thing and then I am off of the blog til tomorrow.

One thing that was said again and again.

You don't like what your local radio has on like all right wing all the time , call them on it.

you don't like what your senator does, call him on it.

Do it.

Later all.

new thread

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/21266...

seashell
Thu, 06/21/07
4:36 pm

I little bit of hatred there is see. 

I dislike simplistic lefties (and righties) who blame everything in the world on a small group.  After 2,000 years some things do not change.    Maybe you should hang out with David Duke, your writing is  a mirror of his.