Home » The Watercooler for 08/27/08 5:00 PM
The Watercooler for 08/27/08 5:00 PM
DFA's home for a free form, open-ended discussion of what matters most to committed progressive activists.
Watercooler resets everyday at 1am, 9am and 5pm. Past threads can be found in the Watercooler Archive
I said I would as soon as they fixed the blog and asked with a bat.
I give the easy way-monthly on my credit card. I increase the amount every year.
I said pretty much the same thing except not so politely. In the last week I've had 2 emails, 1 snail mail, and this phone call soliciting for DFA - all have been told not till they fix our blog.
about how Howard Dean was not raising enough money. How do they get away with it?
I was right. Dean did outraise McAuliffe.
And he did it by a comfortable margin. Yes, I posted this before, and I probably will again. How DO they get away with the spin? Those DC insider consultants.
Best wishes to all of those in the path - including the new editor of the LSU paper. Congrats, Phil!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/27/171739/458/955/576711
I've been waiting for this to be turned around. My goodness - all the chit-chat about the *unknown* Obama and why hasn't he closed the deal. It's McCain who hasn't closed the deal.
the party is united
Gee - I was hoping they'd get to Virginia so I could see Linda b all jazzed!!!
A bit of theatre but it's done!!! ;-)
- Obama will join Biden on stage and the place will go nuts.
By Phil Specht on Aug 27, 2008 6:56 PM EDT
In our time, we have nominated at biracial man with vision, experience, integrity, and dedication. I am so grateful, so overwhelmed. Barack, which means blessed, we are all blessed.
And how wonderful that Hillary had the vision to participate by nominating Barack by acclamation. Her finest hour! Our finest hour as a people. Now lets elect him, support him, and participate as never before in our history. A new age?! YES, WE CAN !
Do any of you know what time Barack is due to speak tomorrow evening? I need to take my son to register for school. thanks.
Hillary looked happy too. She looked genuinely thrilled to be there.
that I sobbed - I was tollay taken by surprise at how little faith I had in she and Bill to really promote unity. and once that passed I realizd that this convention is soooo exciting compared to 2004. not just the defeat of Howard, but the totally uninspiring candidate that JK was took all of the excitement right out of it for me.
yearrrgghhh!
thank you Hillary - and I hope they're right about the thrust of Bill's 10 minutes tomight....... it must be so - the mantle must be passed cleanly.
thank you all for being here!
Prolly shouldn't say "Bill" and "thrust" in the same sentence. ;-)
I'm getting the wim-wams here. The nomination was complete an hour ago and yet on News Hour with Jim Lehrer, it seems to be happening live right this minute. So apparently we get News Hour on a tape delay. I never knew.
I think it's good they did it this way... Hillary's votes weren't holding out for her -- just look at Florida for example, which voted something like 150 for Obama and 50 for Hillary, even though she "won" the state.
It's time to get on with it.
I hope the entire convention soundtrack continues to be Motown. Best. Music. Ever.
-- volney
watching cspan on the boob-tube now
I gathered from reading the Boston Globe today that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick gave an Excellent speech to the DNConvention last night, but the networks didn't show it! They were too busy talkin' 'bout the Hillary factor.
And, did you catch Joe Scarbobough in the AM yesterday?
Talked to a young officer in the USArmy on leave this evening
...I had 'im as a captive audience for a bit
-asked him how he felt about Barack > he likes, but there are a lot of southern conservatives in the Army. I told him WE should have executed every last one of the southern teasonists when the moment was ripe at the end of OUR Civil War.
Actually it was the Northern Feds who grew weary of the task and left the Freedmen to the South's own devices at the end of Reconstruction.
The big bucks were to be made in the great push westward.
It's the 21st we have to work on now.
If the Southern Treasonists had been dealt with in the manner you suggest, it really would not be a good model for the fueding Iraqis to emulate.
Now, Georgia ought to withdraw the statue of Alexander Stephens that resides in The US Capitol's Statutory Hall. One of MLK Jr. would be a good replacement.
The lovely lady called me yesterday Phil. I told her when she asked for $100., that I would be glad to send it today if they changed the name of the Water Cooler to The Great American Conversation. She took the message to a supervisor. But, I guess I see today that wasn't enough.
- I don't have a spare $100 lying around any where, and if I did, I'd get propane, lol!
By puddle on Aug 27, 2008 8:18 PM EDTBut if *they* did, I'd become a monthly donor. I think I'm safe, though. . . .
After i received
a message from DFA
that I was persona non grata for my comments (someone took offense with my point of view)
AND I WAS *^THIS^* close to being eliminated
well...
I called DFA and asked w/not I was a regular contributor.
I can tell you all here and now that I AM NOT.
Deval Patrick
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 07:35 PM
Our
youngest daughter, Katherine, graduated from high school a year ago.
Sitting at her graduation, I couldn’t help but reflect on the
difference between her journey to that milestone, and my own. I grew up
in poverty on the South Side of Chicago. I went to overcrowded,
sometimes violent public schools. I shared a room and a set of bunk
beds with my mother and sister, so we would rotate from the top bunk to
the bottom bunk to the floor, every third night on the floor.
I can’t think of a time when I didn’t enjoy reading, but I don’t remember actually ever owning a book as a child. I got my break in 1970 when I came to Massachusetts on a scholarship to boarding school. For me, that was like landing on a different planet. Our daughter Katherine, by contrast, has always had her own room. By the time she got to high school, she had already traveled on four continents, and had shaken hands in the White House with the President of the United States.
One generation and the circumstances of my life and family were profoundly transformed. And though that story is still not told as often as we’d like, it’s told more often in this country than any other place on earth. That is the American story. It is who we are. It is also what we stand for as Democrats: the simple notion that through hard work, tenacity, preparation and faith each of us has a chance at the American story. That American story is at risk today. More and more families are working harder but losing ground. The poor are in terrible shape. And the middle class are one paycheck away, one serious illness away, from being poor and deeply anxious about it. Together, we can change that. We’ve done it before.
In an earlier generation, as we faced dangers abroad and widespread
suffering at home, our leaders responded with more than new policies.
They summoned American aspirations and called on a generation to serve
and to sacrifice. And that generation, the so-called “Greatest
Generation,” fought and won the war; built the federal highway system
and great public universities and other institutions; expanded the
middle class; and ignited the civil rights revolution. That
generation—through their service and their sacrifice—made it possible
for many of us to live the American story.
Barack Obama understands that we must renew our commitment to the American story today.
And the gateway is through a first-rate education. That’s why Barack
Obama wants to help our kids be ready to learn when they get to
kindergarten, by investing in early education. That’s why he wants to
fix and fund No Child Left Behind. That’s why he wants to better train
and better reward high-performing teachers, why he wants to emphasize
more math and science preparation, and why he wants to support the
college ambitions of young people by helping them pay for it.
Barack
Obama understands, like you do, that a well-educated America will make
things again because we’ll be ready for emerging industries like clean
energy, life sciences and high tech, which produce good jobs as well as
a cleaner environment. And in that new economy, working people will
again be able to see a path into the middle class and a secure future.
Now, John McCain says he believes in education, too. But he is against
fully funding No Child Left Behind, against fully funding Head Start,
against hiring more teachers and wants to abolish the Department of
Education. This should come as no surprise. John McCain is just more of
the same say-one-thing-do-another crowd in the White House today.
The
same folks who say they believe in small government and fiscal
restraint are responsible for the biggest expansion in the size of
government and the size of the federal deficit in American history. The
same folks, with John McCain leading the charge, who say they support
seniors, want to privatize Social Security and put corporate pension
funds up for grabs. The same folks who call themselves “compassionate
conservatives” are the folks who abandoned all those people not only
after Katrina, but before that storm. The American people have had
enough.
But Democrats don’t deserve to win just because Republicans deserve to
lose. If the American story is to have a chance, we need more than
better programs and policies. We need better vision.
When I was
growing up on the South Side of Chicago in the ‘50s and ‘60s,
everything was broken. Playgrounds, schools, families and lives—all
broken. But we had a community. Those were days when every child was
under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block. So if you
messed up in front of Ms. Jones’ stoop, she would straighten you out as
if you were hers and then call home, so you would get it twice. What
those adults were trying to get across to us was that they had a stake
in us. They wanted us to understand that membership in a community is
seeing the stake that each of us has in our neighbor’s dreams and
struggles, as well as our own.
Barack Obama has challenged us to rebuild our national community. To focus not on the things that tear us apart, but on those that bring us together; not on the right or the left, but right and wrong; not on yesterday, but tomorrow. These are the possibilities Barack Obama asks us to reach for. This is the kind of leadership he offers to bring to the presidency—not because government can solve every problem in everybody’s life; but because “government,” as Barney Frank likes to say, is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together.
This will not be easy. The status quo is a powerful force. A lot of people, including some in our own party, would rather not have anybody rock the boat. If we want the leadership our times demand, we are going to have to work for it. We are going to have to ask Republicans, Independents and Democrats alike to take a chance on their own aspirations for a renewed American story. We are going to have to put our cynicism down and learn to say again, like that Greatest Generation, “Yes, we can.”
If you want the change our country yearns for, if you want leadership
that inspires us to bring the best that we have and the best that we
are to a renewed American cause, if you want more than a campaign for
president, but a cause to renew the American dream, then let’s join
hands and go to work to elect Barack Obama the next President of the
United States.
Thank you.
Deval Patrick
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
unadulterated (in so much as the coverage of the DNCONVENTION is unadulterated).
Reid (SEN RI) just said, "our troops know a leader - Barack Obama - when they see one."
The only thing that is real is the being in you that is going to die. To arrive at that being is the <cite>not-doing</cite> of the self.
When every one of us is born we bring with us a little ring of power. That little ring is almost immediately put to use. So every one of us is already hooked from birth and our rings of power are joined to everyone else's. In other words, our rings of power are hooked to the <cite>doing</cite> of the world in order to make the world.
For instance, our rings of power, yours and mine, are hooked right now to the <cite>doing</cite> in this room. We are making this room. Our rings of power are spinning this room into being at this very moment.
http://www.prismagems.com/castaneda/donjuan3.html
A man of knowledge develops another ring of power. I would call it
the ring of <cite>not-doing</cite> , because it is hooked to
<cite>not-doing</cite> . With that ring, therefore, he can spin
another world.
Your difficulty is that you haven't yet developed your extra ring of
power and your body doesn't know <cite>not-doing</cite> . We all have
been taught to agree about <cite>doing</cite> . You don't have any
idea of the power that that agreement brings with it. But,
fortunately, <cite>not-doing</cite> is equally miraculous, and
powerful.
There is no way to escape the <cite>doing</cite> of our world, so
what a warrior does is to turn his world into his hunting ground. As
a hunter, a warrior knows that the world is made to be used. So he
uses every bit of it. A warrior is like a pirate that has no qualms
in taking and using anything he wants, except that the warrior
doesn't mind or he doesn't feel insulted when he is used and taken
himself.
The instant one begins to live like a warrior, one is no longer
ordinary. It is meaningless to complain. What's important from this
point on is the strategy of your life.
You may go any place you wish, but if you do, you must assume the
full responsibility for that act. A warrior lives his life
strategically. When he has to act with his fellow men, a warrior
follows the <cite>doing</cite> of strategy, and in that
<cite>doing</cite> there are no victories or defeats. In that
<cite>doing</cite> there are only actions. The <cite>doing</cite> of
strategy entails that one is not at the mercy of people.
There is something you ought to be aware of by now. I call it the
cubic centimeter of chance. All of us, whether or not we are
warriors, have a cubic centimeter of chance that pops out in front of
our eyes from time to time. The difference between an average man and
a warrior is that the warrior is aware of this, and one of his tasks
is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic
centimeter pops out he has the necessary speed, the prowess to pick
it up.
Chance, good luck, personal power, or whatever you may call it, is a
peculiar state of affairs. It is like a very small stick that comes
out in front of us and invites us to pluck it. Usually we are too
busy, or too preoccupied, or just too stupid and lazy to realize that
that is our cubic centimeter of luck. A warrior, on the other hand,
is always alert and tight and has the spring, the gumption necessary
to grab it.
You maintain that your insistence on finding explanations for
everything is something so deeply ingrained in you that it overrules
every other consideration, that it's like a disease. There are no
diseases, there is only indulging. And you indulge yourself in trying
to explain everything.
We both are beings who are going to die. There is no more time for
what we used to do. Now you must employ all the
<cite>not-doing</cite> I have taught you and <cite>stop the
world.</cite>
* * *
http://www.prismagems.com/castaneda/donjuan3.html
I really hope that Bill Clinton is mature enough to really throw his heart and soul into his speech tonight and fully endorse Obama-Biden. I believe that Hillary has acted in good faith and I am waiting to see if Bill will do the same.
Ya see, the thing is, I don't trust him. Did you notice last night that at the exact time that the camera pointed at him while Hillary spoke, he mouthed the words, "I love you. I'll love you forever."
I assume he was aiming his mime at Hillary.
Sorry to be such a stinker, but Bill has become...predictable. He will say the right words tonight, I'm sure. And just because I am such a cynic, I optimistically hope that he will prove me wrong about his sincerity.
And if he can't convince me, I'm just fine with his convincing everybody else.
He looks good. The crowd roars.
He's almost got me believing! He even offered that Hillary's "eighteen million" would work to elect Barack too.
Lot's of standing o's.
That was incredible!!!! Now I'm totally fired up and ready to go...
Can't wait to watch Biden.
I was on pins and needles. Bill gave a very very good speech.
Even John Kerry is on fire. Yes! John Kerry! He made a slight gaffe saying Bush insgtead of McCain. And he laughed! John Kerry laughed And he just laughed again!
Where was this guy four years ago? Oh well. He has become a great surrogate and we need good surrogates for the Sunday teevee shows.
Kerry is a patriot
beleive, sister.
You can see it.
Understand that the distortion of swiftboating, and the merchants of fear do not hold your flag.
Your flag is
holding truth to power.
Kerry's cause is clear and just:
Obama/Biden'08
...go out and do it!
The third* worst moment of the 2004 election cycle was listening to John Kerry addressing (via closed ciruit TV) our Maine State Convention. He's giving a great speech tonight.
Robin from Maine
*first worst: the election results themselves
*second worst: Dean suspending his campaign
What a great moment! Barack's great uncle who is a WWII vet is there. Kerry made it very clear that Barack's patriotism would NOT be challenged by Swift Boaters.
Never thought I'd say this even once much less even twice, but KERRY WAS ON FIRE!!!
Bill Endorsed Obama!
By donna in evanston on Aug 27, 2008 9:10 PM EDT
-----------------
Nope, that's we, The People "endorsed" him, Bill only followed.
However, yes, Bill is a good speaker...lol, a good chatterer.
Will Obama be very "grateful" to him for very many things he initiated while President, including Kosovo and everything what has already happened and might happen thereafter? We'll see.
But for now....his speech is a great one , the "professional" one...lol.
needing to win, nor being able to win: it allows you the power to be yourself. . . . (who is the dude who might have won. . . . ) You see it in Gore, too. . . .
- Howard Dean is first
By Phil Specht on Aug 27, 2008 5:00 PM EDT.