I’m happy to announce that short of finishing some unpacking and little re-arranging, the new and improved Dem Daily Blog is now live. Come on over and check it out!
This blog and all of the archives will remain here online and in a few days the comments will be turned off. Update your bookmarks, and your blogrolls and…
I’m happy to announce that short of finishing some unpacking and little re-arranging, the new and improved Dem Daily Blog is now live. Come on over and check it out!
This blog and all of the archives will remain here online and in a few days the comments will be turned off. Update your bookmarks, and your blogrolls and…
What is most difficult part of organizing the viable Red District Campaign? It is creating seed money funding and the resultant hiring of professional staff. When running against well-funded professionals, the Democratic Candidate needs professionals in his campaign as well. So it boils down to early money. As Emily’s List has said for so long: Early Money Is Like Yeast.
In Red District elections routine measures of campaign viability, the ‘conventional wisdom’, do not apply. So what is the state of routine measurement in Washington, DC? Secondly, how can existing Officeholders and Political Action Committees of all types and for all causes help change the Red District campaign paradigm?
It is ritual in Washington, DC not to pay serious attention to any Congressional candidate, particularly Red Districts, until they hit $100,000 in funds raised. When that threshold has been met, the DCCC and other organizations begin paying attention. Doors begin to open. In Blue Districts, Open Seat Districts and closely contested races this may be a reasonable method of distinguishing between campaign organizations that are viable and those that are not.
Secondly, Washington and the PAC’s have an aversion to participating in a Democratic Primary Election. While understandable in contested Democratic Primaries, most Red District campaigns have only one Democratic Candidate. There is, realistically, no ’stampede’ to compete in the most difficult of races against money and incumbency. Read more…
David Brooks tried to figure out why the Republican Party is in “shambles.” John Cole on Balloon Juice does a much better job explaining their problems:
For starters, people got tired of being associated with these drooling retards. Then, when they realized that these drooling retards had ideological allies running the show in the Bush administration and then began to experience their idiotic policies, they moved from disgusted to outright hostile.
Like me. It had nothing to do with Burke, and everything to do with what the party had become. A bunch of bedwetting, loudmouth, corrupt, hypocritical, and incompetent boobs with a mean streak a mile long and no sense of fair play or proportion.
Seriously- what does the current Republican party stand for? Permanent war, fear, the nanny state, big spending, torture, execution on demand, complete paranoia regarding the media, control over your body, denial of evolution and outright rejection of science, AND ZOMG THEY ARE GONNA MAKE US WEAR BURKHAS, all the while demanding that in order to be a good American I have to spend most of every damned day condemning half my fellow Americans as terrorist appeasers.
And that isn’t even getting into the COMPLETE and TOTAL corruption of our political processes at every level. The shit is really going to hit the fan after we vote these jackasses out of power in 2008.
Go read all of Cole’s brilliant observations! I’ve never voted Republican and probably never will, but it’s heartening to see the truth laid out from a former believer.
Sad but true… Paul Krugman nails the attitude of “today’s leading conservatives” who are “Reagan’s heirs.”
If you’re poor, if you don’t have health insurance, if you’re sick — well, they don’t think it’s a serious issue. In fact, they think it’s funny.
On Wednesday, President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded S-chip, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing health insurance to an estimated 3.8 million children who would otherwise lack coverage.
In anticipation of the veto, William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, had this to say: “First of all, whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children, I tend to think it’s a good idea. I’m happy that the president’s willing to do something bad for the kids.” Heh-heh-heh.
Congressman Tim Ryan, an outspoken opponent of the war and a consistent voice that speaks truth to power, has a fine diary up at DailyKos explaining his endorsement. It explains the process he went through to make this endorsement. It’s revealing of both Ryan and Dodd. Please read the original. Here’s my own reaction to the Ryan endorsement as published in the comment string at DKos.
As a candidate I’ve been impressed with the fire Dodd has shown in the debates, the innovative use of live video ,(thank you, Tim Tagaris), and his specific policy statements.
Look again at Rep. Ryan’s list of Dodd’s accomplishments and you begin to get a better view of this man who has been going about his job quietly for 24 years.
*Dodd authored the Family and Medical Leave Act which allows people to take off work when a family member is sick.
*Chris Dodd was the named by Head Start as their Senator of the DECADE.
*He served 26 years on the Foreign Relations Committee and understands what we need to do to rebuild our standing in the world.
*Chris Dodd, the current chairman of the Senate Banking Committee was one of the authors of the Sarbanes-Oxley act which mandated greater protections for investors after Enron.
*Right now, he is leading the fight in the Senate to protect homeowners from the foreclosure crisis.
As to policy disagreements, if we again get caught up again in single issue politics we defeat our own purposes.
The line was drawn in the sand today… Bush followed through with his threat to veto State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), “in a sharp confrontation with Congress.”
It was only the fourth veto of Bush’s presidency, and one that some Republicans feared could carry steep risks for their party in next year’s elections. The Senate approved the bill with enough votes to override the veto, but the margin in the House fell short of the required number.
Democrats unleashed a stream of harsh rhetoric, as they geared up for a battle to both improve their chances of winning a veto override and score political points against Republicans who oppose the expansion.
Sen. John Kerry issued the following statement today, in the wake of Bush’s veto of the legislation that reauthorizes and extends the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The legislation was passed by both the House and Senate with a broad bi-partisan majority, and John Kerry pushed aggressively for additional SCHIP funds during the Senate Finance Committee’s development of the plan. He was vowed to work hard to overturn the veto:
“Today with a single stroke of his veto pen, President Bush single-handedly jeopardized health care for millions of poor children,” Kerry said. “The President’s twisted rationale that he opposes ‘federalizing’ health care is a hollow excuse for undermining a successful effort to give Governors the control and the tools to deliver health care for kids who desperately need it. President Bush conveniently forgot that he ran for reelection with a promise to give health care to millions more children and now as a lame duck president he is working to take it away. It seems George Bush was for kids’ health care before he was against it. An overwhelming majority in Congress will fight to keep our promises to America’s children, and we will work to override this cynical, callous veto.”
Jennifer Loven of AP News reported, “The White House sought little attention for Bush’s action, with the president casting his veto behind closed doors without any fanfare or news coverage.” The cowardly action of a cold hearted and callous man who cares nothing of the fate of America’s children.
Ted Kennedy had a message today also for “Bush and the Members in Congress who support his veto”: Read more…
Today’s candidates, for the most part we’ll use the Presidential candidates as an example, are aware of the powerful presence of the Blogsphere and, for lack of a better term, The Social Networking Sphere.
Each campaign has hired Online Coordinators, Bloggers and Strategists. We see the candidates themselves make posts from time to time. Their Campaign Bloggers we see in print more often.
The Campaign’s understand that the Campaign Blogger, (CB), isn’t a vehicle for releasing media advisories or news releases. The CB must be far more effective than simply another channel for news releases or event announcements. Most campaigns understand that the primary task of the CB is to create two way communication with the blog reader. This two way communication, far more effectively than in the past, gives the reader a greater sense of involvement in the campaign. It can, and does, become a very emotional attachment to the Candidate.
By and large, they’ve done a fair job of implementing that concept. Fair. Not great Fair.
So if they understand the importance of the Blogsphere and The Social Networking Sphere why aren’t they supporting, in return, the very medium that gives them, essentially, a free unlimited forum?
Well, first the reality of Blog Advertising:Read more…
Courtesy of a Hat Tip from Prezvid here’s a fine video of John Edwards addressing a crowd in Conord, NH that was posted at PrezVid on September 28. As Peter Hauck of PrezVid said in his post:
After Ralph Stanley II and the Bluegrass Brothers finish up “Man of
Constant Sorrrow,” a blue-jeaned John Edwards talks about “economic
fairness” at a town meeting in Conway, NH.
Sound Bite: “We should have a national capital fund
to make money — capital — available to new businesses that will operate
and start in smaller towns and smaller communities. Right now all the
capital stays in big cities. We’ve got to get it out into the rural
areas.”
I believe this is worth watching because it addresses one of the biggest disparities we face today: Rural America and Economic Fairness. It also shows Edwards, in my opinion…having no dog in the fight yet…as a man with a mission. It is the same mission he has talked about for over 4 years: Economic Fairness/The Two America’s. Even if you have a negative opinion of John Edwards, I ask you to watch this video. When he’s addressing a crowd, in an informal situation, I believe him to have a powerful presence.
In just a short couple of weeks, John Kerry and his staff will “bid farewell to Setti Warren, the deputy director of his Massachusetts office.” Warren is headed to Iraq, is “leaving to spend the next year in Iraq as a Navy intelligence officer.”
Peter Gelzinis reports in the Boston Herald and catches perfectly the relationship between Kerry and Warren:
Warren, 37, is just the latest in a long line of Kerry staffers who are presently stationed, or have served, in Iraq. Kerry’s scheduler, Jackie Kohn, is on the front lines for the second time, serving in a combat support hospital unit.
Brady Van Engelen, Kerry’s adviser on veterans affairs, was a platoon leader with the “Tombraiders” of the 1st Armored Division. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart and spent the better part of a year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center coming back from a head wound.
At a time when we tend to reach for the nearest stereotype and hide behind red or blue banners, Setti Warren goes off to war calling his boss, an impassioned critic of the current strategy in Iraq, “a true patriot.” Read more…
Democratic presidential candidates have out raised the Republican candidates yet again, and strategists in both parties contend that the Democrats are “more energized this year as they battle to reclaim the White House after nearly eight years of Republican rule.”
The imbalance is not lost on the candidates themselves. Mr. Giuliani said over the weekend that the ability of Democrats to raise money this year has been “phenomenal.”
All of the campaigns who gave their tallies reported drop-offs in contributions in the third-quarter, which is considered a difficult time to raise money as many well-heeled donors get out of their offices and off the fund-raising circuit to go on vacations and to their summer houses. And the campaigns often have already tapped their donors to the legal limit in contributions. But the Democrats still appeared to weather the summer months better than the Republicans.
One Republican strategist, Scott Reed, noted that, “This just shows the difficult political climate that Republicans are facing.” Reed went on to say, “The bright side is that next spring, the Republicans will have plenty of money to give the candidate who goes up against Hillary Clinton.” Which leads one to wonder, are the Republicans holding back waiting to see who the Democratic nominee will be and will they then unleash a flurry of donations to their own contender.
Possible… but we’ve seen voters become more and more dis-enchanted with the GOP. Which leads me to think that Scott Reed is musing some wishful thinking. Make no mistake, we all know they will go after Hillary with a force, if she becomes the nominee, but we’ve all seen that Hillary seems to be able to hold her own quite well against both the Republicans and the assaults lobbied against her by the other Democratic candidates.
Today, in Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall, Senator John Kerry laid out a plan for a 21st Century economic strategy for America’s middle class in a globalized world. His plan included universal health care, tax reform, green jobs, home ownership, and a renewal of the international labor movement. Note to the ‘08 Democratic candidates for president… Read carefully… This IS what America needs to hear…
Below are John Kerry’s remarks as prepared for delivery:
Thank you for coming. Gathering here is special – Faneuil Hall is more than an historic building. This birthplace of American freedom has also been a keeper of the American conscience. Here, where we assemble today, abolitionists dreamed of and demanded a nation that would live out its founding ideal that all are created equal. From the fight for women’s suffrage to the fight against Fascism, from McCarthyism to civil rights to Vietnam, these walls have rung with words of honor, dissent, courage, and principle.
In the last decades, we’ve worked hard to live up to that heritage even if sometimes we’ve fallen short of it—or of victory. I began my presidential campaign here – and three years ago next month, I ended it here, and yes, the loss still exacts its price.
And I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about all the hard working families whose lives would’ve been better, all the young American soldiers whose lives were and are on the line, and all those—here and across the world—who yearn to see America move in a new direction.
So on that hard November afternoon, I had no doubt of one thing: my resolve, as I said then, “that what we started in this campaign will not end here.” I pledged that, rather than walk away, “in the years ahead” in whatever was ahead for me, I would “fight on for the people and for the principles that I’ve learned and lived with here in Massachusetts.” And that’s exactly what together we are doing. Read more…
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today announced today that she is co-sponsoring the legislation introduced by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) back in March, that prohibits the use of funds for military operations against Iran without explicit Congressional authorization (S. 759). Taylor Marsh scooped the news of Clinton’s move to co-sponsor Webb’s legislation, noting that Cllinton took a lot of “heat” for her vote on the Lieberman-Kyl legislation.
But Clinton understands what happened with the Iraq authorization bill, at the same time she believes Iran’s Revolutionary Guards is a terrorist organization. She obviously also wants to send a message to Bush as well. Joining Webb in co-sponsoring this legislation is critically important and a progressive move.
In a press release sent out to bloggers via Peter Daou, Clinton’s netroots coordinator, Senator Clinton, who has been at the forefront of calling on President Bush to seek authorization from Congress before taking military action against Iran, said:
“In February, I took to the Senate floor to warn that President Bush needs Congressional Authorization before attacking Iran. Given recent reports about Administration military planning toward Iran and to ensure that Congress plays a proper role in the authorization of any potential military force, today I have added myself as a co-sponsor of a bill introduced by Senator Jim Webb which prohibits the use of funds for military action in Iran without authorization by Congress.”
Patrick Healy (photo above), known for his assaults on Democratic politicians, recently wrote a particularly disturbing piece in N.Y. Times about Hillary Clinton’s laugh, which he labels a “cackle.”
Stepping offstage, she took questions from reporters, and found herself being grilled about whether she was moderating her own pro-choice position. And suddenly it happened: Mrs. Clinton let loose a hearty belly laugh that lasted a few seconds. Reporters glanced at one another as if they had missed the joke.
But nothing particularly funny had occurred; it was, instead, a deployment of the Clinton Cackle.
Healy of course doesn’t just stop with the reference to the “Cackle” he attempts to point out the Hillary’s laugh may be a slight of sorts to those asking questions of her. You know a put down. Healy intimates that Clinton’s laugh might even be “Programmed.”
Good gracious, Patrick Healy actually calls himself a journalist? There’s nothing newsworthy about this piece. But then that’s Healy’s style, isn’t it. Writing hit pieces about Democratic politicians and passing them off as news. Media Matters had a piece last year about another hit piece Healy wrote about the Clinton’s. In the Media Matters piece they note: Read more…
The Daily Mail is reporting that a former intelligence officer for Burma’s ruling junta has defected and revealed that “thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle.”
The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: “Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.”
Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand.
Exiles along the Burmese frontier “confirmed that hundreds of monks had simply “disappeared” as 20,000 troops swarmed around Rangoon yesterday to prevent further demonstrations by religious groups and civilians.”
Word reaching dissidents hiding out on the border suggested that as well as executions, some 2,000 monks are being held in the notorious Insein Prison or in university rooms which have been turned into cells.
There were reports that many were savagely beaten at a sports ground on the outskirts of Rangoon, where they were heard crying for help.
Others who had failed to escape disguised as civilians were locked in their bloodstained temples.
Hla Win, said from his border hideout last night, that he “hopes to cross into Thailand and seek asylum at the Norwegian Embassy.”
The 42-year-old chief of military intelligence in Rangoon’s northern region, added: “I decided to desert when I was ordered to raid two monasteries and force several hundred monks onto trucks. Read more…
