Thanks for the feedback. It is SO nice to know we are having a tangible impact.

Go rabid lambs! BLOG POWER!!

Why Mexico’s electoral system is stronger than ours.

Way OT.or maybe not…in the ratcheting up of the FEAR…

Do you all experience endless extreme weather warnings by homeland security via the national weather service? Here in Maine, which has a statewide National Public Radio service, we hear about every suspect thunderstorm with the possibility of strong winds and penny sized hail. The storm is tracked every few miles for near continual interruptions of whatever is on either our NPR station or our community radio station. There are near daily TESTS of this service in addition to the indepth storm warnings. At my bank branch in eastern Maine, for pity’s sake, a clear channel station plays in the background, and they actually turn up the storm warnings to listen to them even though the storms are in the extreme west of the state.

The advice given to us by Homeland Security is to seek cover immediately, preferably in a strong building and to stay away from the windows. Further instructions are to phone the weather service with reports of strong winds and rain. I have not ever gotten through on their toll free number to report strong winds (of fear-mongering). I am “told” by the phone service that the number given is not in service.

Are we crying wolf? Will anyone pay any attention should a real (independent or contrived) emergency occur?

As to the Middle East. When I have my compassion monitor turned way low, I think it’s got to play itself out and with the cozy relationship of Israel and the US that won’t happen in a hurry.

What were they thinking planting a Jewish European “country” in the middle of an already settled country? Oh wait, I get it. O*I*L in the hood. What is happening now is the natural outgrowth. It is none-the-less terrifying. I’d say it’s amazing it’s been so “quiet” so far, but I know the role of the arms trade and cut-throat mentality of the Israelies has held the Palestinians down. I think those times are nearly over, and I do not want to go there in my mind.

I was in Israel during the last century and I thought the stress level was way too much to bear. My father, an eminent aeronautical engineer, was working with the folks at the University at Haifa and we hobnobbed with people in the intelligence community, sabras, educators etc etc. Of course everyone there was in the military and no one with an empty seat in their car would bypass a soldier in uniform and armed, for it truly was a people’s army and hitch-hiking was how the army got around. I thought life with its stresses was awful for the Israelis. This was the late 70’s, and little did I know then about the of history the Palestinian Occupation. HUGE sigh.

Now on to the new thread……..

i cannot remember the last time our neighborhood had one of these rallies….not even for the local candidates….politics seems so distant now….it all takes place on TV and its so easy to simply change the channel, tune it all out and ignore whats taking place…soundbites have replaced real campaigning…and our democracy suffers greatly because of this.

I financially support Howard Deans 50 state strategy because I hope it will revive REAL local politics and someday, in my metropolitian ’small town” neighborhood I will once again hear the sound of a BullHorn announcing that such and such candidate will be appearing on so and so street to meet and greet the local voters and take questions…

Another thing that has given me a big boost is that overthe last 3 days, Ihave had a big dose of the Roots Project in action via conference call and email, not just the ma group, but contact with others as well. I have been supportive, but have had a tough time feeling involved because of my stupid health, so couldn’t get to meetings or group events. I’m finally finding ways I can really offer help and it feels absolutely great to see such positive effort and mutually supported energy.

your pest control, aluminum siding, real estate business private security firm had been advised you needed x amount of targets to qualify for Bushworld welfare DHS Contract. so you took an enterprising look around, listed every publicly attended site/event and Prest-O Change-O, you too can protect the Homeland. Made equally delicious by the fact your buttcrack cousin/brother-in-law got paid for database consultation

(pls jeebus, let the strikethroughs appear when I hit ’submit’)

Yes it did knock the stuffing out of some of us. I really felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach. I needed Pach’s post myself, it was a good curative.

But my other thought is this: Lieberman has never before feared losing a significant segment of Democratic support, and so could credibly claim that that support affirmed his own identification as a Democrat.

What he doesn’t seem to be able to process is that those who register as Democrats do so because that is the party they feel best represents their views and philosophy. If those staunch Democrats do not support him in sufficient numbers for Joe to win the primary, that is as true a rejection on a party line basis as yu can get. Democrats rejecting a Democrat means that (1) those voters, having rejected you once, are not going to do a 180 and vote for you in the general, (2) those who do vote for you do not consider themselves to be so aligned with Democratic values to cause them to actually register as Democrats so, winning in this way will take the support of voters who do not see you as a Democrat.

Joe is no longer a Connecticut Democrat; he’s just another politician who has allowed power to convince himself that what he wants is what the voters should want, and not the other way around.