We’ve been talking a lot lately about a Senate primary race going on in Connecticut. It is one of those moments where a single race has pulled together all sorts of elements that interest a whole lot of us: a veteran Senator who lost touch with his constituents a long time ago, with a penchent for wagging his finger at anyone who dares to call his attention to that fact; an engaging challenger who seems to wear his heart on his sleeve while listening to your issues and then trying to come up with solutions; a press that can’t make up its mind which narrative they want to play up in the swirling currents of the local political scene; and an electorate that is actually energized — something we see far too seldom, unfortunately.
The combination of all these factors is an intriguing mix and it is tough not to pay attention as the clock ticks down to the final moments of this Democratic primary.
But it occurs to me that this sort of energy is something that could be replicated around the country — and ought to be – in communities large and small, in statewide races and local town council run-offs, what-have-you. But to get there, we need to start talking about what it is we want — and thinking about how it is we want to get there.
So, this morning, I thought we’d start with a basic concept that I like to call the "community potluck." This is a useful tool for discussing politics and issues dear to your heart — and also for finding like-minded individuals who are also eager to DO something about the state of their community, their nation, their world…if only they knew what and how to do it.
A lot of the folks who read at FDL have been involved in a whole lot of community projects, revitalization efforts, campaigning as volunteers and even as candidates once upon a time. You’ve attended PTA meetings, local political groups, lectures, retreats, school board arguments, city council blab-a-thons, and on and on.
Every one of you is a political junkie for a reason. And this morning, I’d like to talk about some of the whys of that. What got you involved in politics? What have you done to make your community a better place? What has been an effective means of organizing — friends, family, others in your area — to get something done? And once you get that momentum going, how have you kept it going? Or not? What problems are you trying to solve in your neighborhood or town or state, even? Anyone figured that one out yet? If so, feel free to chime in whith some ideas and what has worked for you.
There is a wealth of wisdom and experience among our readers, and today I’d like to tap into it a bit. Because somewhere out there is a person thinking, "I’d make a better candidate than that bozo. If I only knew how…" And someone else is thinking "Lord, please send me a better candidate next year than this bozo I’m working with right now." And maybe, just maybe, we’ll find some kismet. But whether we do or not today, maybe we can all learn a little bit from each other on how to make our corner of the world a little better.
And imagine if we all started working on our corners, how that sort of energy could spread, and how much we could all get done in the process.
Since no community potluck is worth having without some favorite "bring a dish along" recipes, I thought we could share a few of those as well. After all, football season is fast approaching, and I could use some new tailgating chow recipes. So, pull up a chair…
PS — Sharkbabe reminded me in the comments: we learn from each others’ experience, and there are a whole lot of you out there who are reading but not commenting. I, for one, would love to hear from some of the readers in the audience as well. What’s going on in your community? How have you worked to fix it — or just tweak it a little? What’s been on your mind about politics — and who’s got an idea on that one? Consider this an engraved invitation to save your country…
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NED!
IDEAZ!
FOODZ FOR THOUGHT!
CHRISTY!
atou, you boogah.
I like pancakes.
Delurk!
Yes, it ought to be a template for all the rest of the races. Ned got where he is simply by meeting people across the State and listening to them. Tom Swan will be the liberal Karl Rove.
(I just love the way all comment threads start. It really is terribly silly.)
To try to answer the question, why did I get involved in politics: I found myself on the receiving end of powerful people who plundered my enterprise and sailed off like pirates. I saw the same disdain for working people in BushCo, and decided that these destructive people had to be stopped, and the citizenry had to make that happen.
Every door I’ve knocked on in GOTV efforts gives me this sense of pride and accomplishment that I am working to protect my community from pirates.
Sharkie, dang you — I been worrying about you all week! WHERE YOU BEEN?!
hi, pups. I have a 12 hr. seminar today so I won’t be able to follow you.
Have fun. Love
Adrian, do you like to make pancakes or go out for ‘em? You want my mama’s recipe?
lotus – super-depressed & isolating – somewhat better now – thanks
before 1970 I was an amiable non-activist liberal but the new gay movement got me involved thoroughly. I marched in the first Gay Pride Parade ever in Chicago. From there I broadened out and have stayed involved, mainly working with progressive Black women. They’re “3-fers” having to deal with classism, racism and sexism simultaneously. I just sent thru ActBlue $20 to Cynthia McKinney — her election is also this coming Tuesday.
Well, seeing as it’s pull-up-a-chair, and I don’t have any of my promised recipes, I’ll post the fab Wallace Stevens Connecticut and Poodles thing I left for Nightroots back in EPU-land…
==================================
…One of the most beautiful poems of the 20th century. Period.
For TRex and Kobe!
(Best read outloud when you are alone…)
————————————
Of Hartford in a Purple Light
A long time you have been making the trip
From Havre to Hartford, Master Soleil,
Bringing the lights of Norway and all that.
A long time the ocean has come with you,
Shaking the water off, like a poodle,
That splatters incessant thousands of drops,
Each drop a petty tricolor. For this,
The aunts in Pasadena, remembering,
Abhor the plaster of the western horses,
Souvenirs of museums. But, Master, there are
Lights masculine and lights feminine.
What is this purple, this parasol,
This stage-light of the Opera?
It is like a region full of intonings.
It is Hartford seen in a purple light.
A moment ago, light masculine,
Working, with big hands, on the town,
Arranged its heroic attitudes.
But now as an amour of women
Purple sets purple round. Look, Master,
See the river, the railroad, the cathedral …
When male light fell on the naked back
Of the town, the river, the railroad were clear.
Now, every muscle slops away.
Hi! Whisk it, poodle, flick the spray
Of the ocean, ever-freshening,
On the irised hunks, the stone bouquet.
– Wallace Stevens
Sharkbabe at 11 — hugs. Sorry you’ve hit a rough patch. But it’s awfully good to see you.
This from Rayne last night – said she’s gonna spam it all weekend, but I thought I’d do it too
And *ilson, not only through all that but through all your ongoing knocking-down and dragging-out of trolls, you remain amiable. Youz our wonder!
A little potluck humor (from the church we went to when I was a kid, and they still have potluck suppers):
Thanks to Bob Berger for the following (updated June 12, 2005):
Show-and-Tell
A kindergarten teacher gave her class a “show and tell” assignment. Each student was instructed to bring in an object to share with the class that represented their religion.
The first student got up in front of the class and said, “My name is Benjamin and I am Jewish and this is a Star of David.”
The second student got up in front of the class and said, “My name is Mary. I’m a Catholic and this is the Crucifix.”
The third student got in up front of the class and said, ” My name is Tommy and I am Methodist and this is a casserole.”
Thanks Redd – I wondered when I’d jump back in – not surprised it’d be on a Saturday morning :)
Now Sharkie, you just come sit by me. We’ll ooh and ahh and cuss and get you right back to your own self this morning!
19th!!!
Hi, medaka over yonder. That poem! I’m pretty sure I haven’t see it before, but you’re right — it makes the hair on my arms stand up, it’s so fine.
One of the little sidetracks from the Connecticut effort might be the ability to make DC lobbyists more attentive to the general world. I can’t help but think that Goodstein had NO CLUE how bad he was going to come off, that video and bloggers would quickly identify him as a lobbyist, and that this experience is now out there for his CLIENTS to see. I really can’t see how this is going to be seen as a good thing for him professionally. Not that I’m particularly concerned about that – but there are thousands of lobbying Goodsteins around the nation, doing things the public won’t like in the light of day without blogger attention, in state capitols and DC, and a citizens campaign to clean up the activities of the lobbying industry may be incredibly beneficial to democracy.
PJ Evans at 17 — Oh, man! That is so hilarious…and so true. (Being a Methodist and having grown up with a grandpa who is a minister, I know about 8000 variations of casserole at this point. LOL)
And, because it’s Saturday and not hot outside, a receipt for the chocoholics (it’s somewhere between a brownie and a chocolate cracker):
Chocolate Crispies
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sifted flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Melt the chocolate and butter ia a saucepan over low heat. Add the sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla, flour, and nuts. Beat well.
Spread in a greased 13×9-inch baking pan. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes. Mark in squares while warm; break apart when cool.
Long time reader, first post. Christy, your post bulls-eyed my thoughts. I’m very much an introvert, but I am motivated and have become a political junkie largely because of the dissolution of my country by these un-Americans in power currently. It simultaneously angers and saddens me that one in two persons that I see (well, at least off-campus—I am a ‘liberal’ college professor) supports this thieving Administration.
I am also simultaneously heartened and saddened when I see people, real Patriots (an unfortunately abused but proud term) like Feingold; heartened because I am not ready to give up hope when I see those to whom we trust power stand for what America should be, saddened because such persons are so few. Outlets of ’sanity’ like FDL and other progressive blogs give hope.
I am motivated to wrest America back from the clutches of this Administration, and I perceive, as you do, a sea-change back toward true liberty, which history will judge began with the a Lamont victory in the Connecticut Senate race. I also live in a state that is purplish now, rising from red, and I am looking forward to supporting the Feingolds of the country. No more introverted shell for me—I want my country back.
You betcha, terraformer, and WELCOME to the conversation!
PJ Evans, you could also add in “I’m a Unitarian and this is our Coffee Urn” (yup, Unitarian over here)
most lobbyists involved in campaigns usually arent recognized as such by the general public or the media — I’ve been around long enough to not be surprised to see bigtime downtown lawyers driving candidates around on election day or running food and supplies out to precinct workers. Campaigns appreciate the cash and the crucial reliable volunteer work.
Good morning Ice weasel – and being 19th is great, don’t you think? Its a special number. Actually your 20th, but you can pretend your 19, O.K.?
Good morning Sharkbabe – know the feeling. I have battled depression all my life and it comes and goes like fog. I usually bury myself in my quilting – cutting little pieces of fabric to make wonderful patterns usually keeps my mind too busy to think really bad thoughts.
I am trying to keep busy and tamper down my excitement for Wednesday morning (or Tuesday night if things are clear then) because I can still remember the day after Iowa and the Nov. day in 2004 when Kerry conceded. Oh, don’t want to go there again.
Despite the diet, I will go to the store to buy the yellow cake mix and peaches – must make peach cobbler for Tuesday. Heck with the diet.
Sending Sharkbabe hugs and flowers.
terraformer at 25 — welcome! Great thoughts, but still lotsa work to do. Glad to have you on board!
lotus, I’ve pretty much been following all of y’all’s shenanigans, however…
[Randi Rhodes cork-popping sound]
Very eloquently put, terraformer.
Tailgating Corn Bread
1c. yellow corn meal
1 c. flour
1/4 c sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 c. milk
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 egg
Combine dry ingredients in bowl. Mix liquid ingredients in separate bowl, then add to dry ingredients. Stir until just blended.
Pour into greased pan OR a cast iron corn bread pan that makes corncob shaped pieces. Very handy for tailgating. They’re more like finger food that way, and easily dipped in a bowl of chili. 8)
If using large pan, bake for 20-25 min @ 400 F. For corncob version, bake 10-12 min.
The sugar is important. Too little (or none) can make bitter cornbread. Too much and it’s a dessert.
i just have a moment, but, i think any candidate has to:
unload funky stocks from his or her portfolios asap. better yet, i hope he or she would choose only pc (not quite the term i’m searching for) companies to invest in.
i think people today turn a blind eye to many things in their life.
*they eat meat and know full well that factory farming is an abomination.
*they have people tend their lawn who use gasoline powered equipment knowing that is really bad for the ozone.
*they buy products made by children in horrible conditions.
*they drop inconvenient pets off at the pound knowing the pet will die a rotten death most likely.
*they don’t even recycle.
*they chop down trees or shop at a mall that was clear cut for little reason.
*they reproduce too much in an overpopulated world.
ok, beat me up. i just think we have to make responsible choices when possible.
Hi & thanks GrandmaJ – sometimes when I’m in a crash I go to Wikipedia and search “famous depressives” – we certainly are in good company!
Had two peaches for breakfast.
I’m a blogger in Washington State and I’ve just been thinking the same thing. It’s time to gear up here in the same way that folks have geared up in Connecticut.
We are focusing on keeping one Senate seat (Maria Cantwell) and working to flip up to three Congressional seats – Darcy Burner in the 8th, Peter Goldmark in the 5th and Richard Wright in the 4th. Both Darcy and Peter have the same kind of star power that Ned does and the same kind of independent, progressive, know your district smarts.
I’m starting to talk about “transformational” candidates – those folks, like Ned, who will move on the right issues, not get caught up in the corporate back-scratching, and can work collaboratively and take leadership. With the range of difficult issues that our country is facing now, due to the dreadful governing of the last five years, we need people we can trust to move quickly and correctly.
One project I would love to see us to take on, after Lieberman defeat, is DLC. DLC’s web page asks for new members to join, contribute, etc.
Let us call/write and ask them, if we join whether we will get voting privileges, get elected to the board, open up all financial records, send us bye-laws, etc. We make enough noise, get into echo chamber with out liberal blogs, contact press and see if we can break up their lock on our senators/congressmen.
The president of DLC is a life-time appt.
Is this tolerable?
This will do enormous good. We will catch lot of fish in this effort – corporate cronies, lobbyiests, Dem consultants. Let us clean up the cess pool.
It is a 5013c org. All their records should be public.
Big weekend here in CT. My long-suffering wife has graciously sacrificed a beautiful weekend on the boat and given me full roaming privilages (in the “geographical” sense, that is!) for the next two days, so I’m gonna be on the campaign trail.
…and I’m gonna be paying this one off for a LONG time!
Today there are some wonderful Ned-vents happening. I’m hoping to tape an endorsement by a famous Hollywood actor who’s spoken elequently on the subject of racism, and then there’s going to be a visit to the Litchfield Jazz Festival.
I’m also gonna be keeping a video eye on those raucous Lieberman-paid mercenaries should they try to engage in hooliganism. We’ll be there to protect Ned and keep the Lieber-brats in line.
I never thought being involved in politics would feel so much like going into battle. It’s been an enlightening experience.
terraformer @ 25 : WELCOME
I am the lazy light-night/early-morning poster in japan, and thus the least-informed, so I seriously welcome your de-lurking … please post often and at length and become a regular …the conversation is at least as important as the info bandied about … imho!
Oh boy! Teacher wants an essay! Here goes nothing:
Well, I started paying attention to politics with the 2000 race. I knew a number of people that were big into Gore, and they encouraged me to just find out more about him and the whole scene. So, I did. Once Gore lost, I didn’t go a whole lot further. Then, my 30th birthday…known to the general populace as 9/11.
That was the event that made me really wake up and take a look around. I knew I didn’t like Bush from the 2000 election, and I actually had expected something bad to happen while he was in office, but this blew my mind. My immediate take was negligence. Possibly intentional. I had read the PNAC manifesto and remembered it clearly. When 9/11 happened, I remarked, “there’s the new Pearl Harbor they were wanting.” From that point forward I couldn’t get enough information and became a hard core news addict. Though blogging was still alien.
When 04 came around I was ready to get involved. My first loyalty was to Bob Kerrey, but that soon wained. I didn’t care for Dean at all. He just seemed “off” to me. (Frankly I thought he was too much like Sheen’s character in the Dead Zone.) When John Kerry started taking command, I hopped on the band wagon and started getting more involved.
The first step was leaping head first into the Kerry boards. I was simply blown away at the number of opinions out there that were similar to mine. Being in Texas most of my life, I felt like a freak standing on an island in an ocean of conservatism. It was great to see others who saw things as I did.
My time spent on Kerry’s board lead me to the blogsphere. TPM, DemocraticUnderground, Kos…all were overwhelming. Once Kerry lost in 04 and I got finished moping about, I decided to get to it. After quite a bit of time, I started a few diaries over at Kos and essentially started to try and find my voice. I was confrontational, irrational and blatantly naive, but I managed to get through with help from the commentators. Still though, it was too much for me to handle.
Though diverse, the opinions tended to be a bit little too radical for my tastes. Lots of conspiracy theories, far left diatribes, and wild assumptions. Over time though I learned how to filter things out and find some more reliable diarists to monitor.
Eventually I expanded and became a regular follower of AmericaBlog, Eschaton, Digby, and finally, what I now consider my blog home…FDL.
It was a post I read of Jane’s on Huff’s site that just sucked me in. I couldn’t even tell you now what it was about, but it hooked me. Here was someone that had the same confrontational thoughts as I did, but was able to relay it intelligently and snarkily in a way that just made me light up. Ever since, I still follow all the same blogs (with an addition of Glenn’s), but I reserve my communications to a comment here and there on Kos and some random commentary here at FDL.
As far as what I’ve done to change my part of the world, I’d have to say truth propagation has been my focus. I stay informed and learn as much as I can from all of the current events and talk to as many people as I can. I’ve become a relied upon news source at my office, and I’ve converted a few Bushistas as well as just forced a few people to simply open their eyes. At this point when a big story comes out, I frequently end up being the center of discussion for people who want to get the whole story on things.
I don’t know if I’m making that big of a difference, but it feels that way. I’m frequently told that I should be on the radio because of my deep voice, and heartfelt rants. But more importantly, it’s the fact that I always try to listen to both sides of a story and provide “dumbed down” explanations where needed to help people understand why they should care as I do. I behave as I feel our politicians used to. I listen with an open mind and I treat differing opinions with respect. Even deep conservatives who completely disagree with me will listen and talk to me about things because I don’t treat them like morons or spew hate at them as many others do. I’ve even had conservatives defend me when one of their more hateful counterparts attempts to attack me. It’s a unique feeling and I think it does change the world around me, if even a little bit.
OK…now that I’ve thoroughly clogged the comments, I’ll shut the hell up. Sometimes, I just get in a ramblin’ mood ya know?
Hey, the Shakers lived in Connecticut back in the day, didn’t they?
Anyhow, that’s my hook to this-here Apotheosis of Lemon Pastries. The key to success with it isn’t an ingredient but a utensil: a razor-sharp, stable-bladed paring knife. Without one, best not attempt this recipe: you’ll end up mashing the lemons and losing too much juice (theirs and yours).
Shaker Lemon Pie
Filling:
4 very ripe lemons, ends removed
2 eggs, beaten
2 C sugar
2 T butter, melted
pinch salt
Pastry:
2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C Crisco or lard, chilled
pinch salt
4-5 T ice water (max)
flour for dusting work-surface
shortening for greasing pieplate
1. Early in the day, use your sharpest paring or other small knife to shave the lemons into the thinnest possible cross-sections, preserving as much juice as you can to add to filling later. Ruthlessly oust every last seed. Put the lemon slices in a bowl, cover them with boiling water and the bowl with cling wrap, then set it aside for 4 to 8 hours. (Go GOTV or get in Goodstein’s face with a cam or something.)
2. Drain and place the lemon slices in a saucepan and cover them with cold water. Bring this to a simmer and cook gently until the rinds soften, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.
3. In a bowl, beat the eggs then add remaining filling ingredients, including any reserved lemon juice. When the lemon slices are cool, drain them well and stir them gently into the mixture.
4. Preheat oven to 425 and prepare pie crust: unless you’re using store-bought pastry (which is fine), mix the flour and salt in a deep bowl, then add the cold shortening in coin-sized pieces. With a pastry-blender or fork (or a food processor), work (or pulse) the shortening into the flour until pieces are no larger than peas. Add ice water sparingly, beginning with 2-3 T, and stir or pulse until dough just pulls away from sides of bowl. Shape about 3/8 of the dough into a disc about 1 inch thick and wrap it in plastic; repeat with remaining dough and refrigerate the two discs for at least 30 minutes.
5. Grease a pieplate lightly. Generously sift flour onto both work-surface and rolling pin. Remove the larger disc of dough from fridge, flatten it some with the rolling pin, and roll it out to a circle large enough to cover the pieplate completely, with about a 1-inch overhang.
6. Stir and scrape filling into pieshell. Roll out top crust, drape it over the filling, and seal top and bottom crusts with fingertips (for a scalloped look, press your index finger down on the rim obliquely as you rotate the pieplate with your other hand; for a crooked rim, pinch the dough between your index finger of one hand and the thumb and index finger of the other). Cut some slits or other small design in top crust.
7. Start the pie on middle rack of oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then at 350 or 375 until the crust is richly browned and the filling bubbly (30-45 minutes); if the edge gets too dark before the middle browns, tent it with foil. Cool pie on wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature.
Hiya,
Did you see John Fund (what an appropriate name for a Wall Street Journal capitalist) and
Markos on Hardball? You can tell that Fund
was annoyed and combative… they are jealous
of the bloggers and Markos was so cool…
I like Mike Barnicle… a fresher from Tweety…
Is Fitz on vacation?
Bay State Librul
just listened/saw this from Young Turks – hilarious. Hope the link works; if not, slip over to HuffPo for just a sec and link for yourself. Here goes:
Beat them with a Stick – They will Do
(If this works, I’ll be amazed – but it’s funny as heck.)
Small business has kept me hopping for years, but after 2004 I decided I had to do something. And the pic Christy chose is spot on to what I’m trying to do — bring our neighborhood association together as often as possible for potluck suppers and get-togethers. I live in a pretty red state, and a pretty upscale/retired military area, so the folks who share my opinions are few and far between. But I’m convinced that I can share my deeply held beliefs with these well-meaning people if we’re all good neighbors and good friends.
Of course I read the blogs, answer emails, work in phone banks, sign petitions and send money to candidates.
But thinking locally seems key to me — and especially trying to reach out to people with respect who don’t share my opinions.
This morning I read an article by a distinguished Israeli commentator bemoaning how much damage the NeoCons have done to both American and Isreali interests. My hope is that the defeat of Lieberman will send a message to the Democratic Party regarding our misguided Middle East policy.
neocons to the hague.
Sharkbabe @ 18
Sharkbabe, I’m your long-time secret boy-admirerer (er, secret-boy admirerer? well, I DO admire boys, but: damn hyphenating!) here in steamy japan … glad you’re back, girl!
When is your band coming to Osaka?
Christy, we had potlucks and ice cream socials to fund the beginning of the new building. Funny thing: the ice cream socials usually turned out to be cool-weather days, even in summer. Home-made peach ice cream, yum! (As we made it, it was vanilla with chopped peaches churned in.)
A lot of stuff was saved from the old building, though: my father got the folding doors and eventually put them on the shelves in the garages, after he retired (pine frames, still fragrant decades after being built, with redwood panels, and about a quarter inch of paint because the church got them used from a school building).
Continuity is keeping some of the old stuff, not because you have to keep it (it may be easy to replace), but because you want to keep it.
I spend too much time on the computer and not nearly enough FTF with other progressives. I’m sick and tired of writing to/being pissed at my rep Steny Lieberman Hoyer – this entire Ned people-power saga has really inspired me to take it up a notch. This entrenched political class has got to GO!
ecoast @ 6:45 am – “It is a 5013c org. All their records should be public.”
The DLC’s records should be public. It is exempt from taxation under Section 501(c)(4) rather than 501(c)(3).
Here’s one of the links to the DLC: http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm…..tentid=893
Sharky’s back – yay! Listening to some Suzy Bogguss in your honor, my dear.
Oh yeah: talked to my most-senior-aunt in Houston last night (her birthday). She’s looking forward to VA getting DeLay. He hasn’t been as popular in Texas as he thinks, if the locals want him out.
Medaka, 13: Thanks for the Stevens poem. I first encountered Steven’s poetry in college (Harmonium) and it was a revelation. No idea English could be spoken or heard that way. Visually his poems are full of light and color. Compared to your more down-to-earth American poets like Frost and Carlos Williams, Stevens may come across as somewhat effete, but effete in the nicest possible way. (TS Eliot was effete too.)
I do not know whether your choice of Stevens was intentional being that he was from Hartford Connecticut. At this time when we are carrying on a battle against Liberman, who is supported by corporate interests in CT (the insurance industry), I recall with irony that Stevens was vice president of a big insurance firm in CT, I believe the Hartford Insurance Co. However, I choose to believe the Stevens would be very much against the war in Iraq, and would support Ned were he alive today.
As far as recipes, I just happen to have on the stove a kabocha pumpkin, which I am steaming (in cut up pieces). From there I will puree it and dilute it with milk or half-and-half to make a delicious cold pumpkin soup (season with a little salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon, honey). Serve with a dollop of jam or preserves in the middle of the bowl. We are having it with fresh challah bread made by an orthodox Jewish bakery in Queens. Maybe we will have cream cheese or pepper jack with the bread, iced coffee to wash it down.
I lost my last regular job in 2002 in a wave of downsizing; it freed me to spend time reading about people, places, ideas, and I took full advantage of it. In late 2002 and early 2003, I read increasing chatter about a remarkable person who was a real straightshooter, the antithesis of George Bush and to some extent, somewhat antithetical to DLC-type politics. This person had experience balancing a budget year after year, found a way to provide healthcare to all children and seniors in state, was against the war because we did not have good intelligence, appeared to walk the walk personally and professionally.
I learned all I could about this person and then I took an enormous leap of faith: I joined a Meetup to meet other people who had also taken a shine to this person.
For the first time in my life I became a grassroots political activist. I became a Deaniac to support Howard Dean.
With the help of a seasoned organizer within our ranks, our Meetup organized, wrote letters, attended rallies, worked phonebanks and door-to-door on GOTV for the primary and the election. There was so very much to learn – and we learned it the hard way. I even gave a ride to an elderly priest who’d asked our group for a lift to the polls, only to find out he voted in the primary for Kerry. Gah. But what are you going to do, deny the man a ride? I worked on him the entire car ride, trying to persuade him to rethink his vote; heck, he was a captive audience!
After the primary we slowly regrouped into DFA, although we didn’t really get going until after local activists met with Howard Dean to discuss whether he should start a 3rd party, run again, or work on building the Democratic Party. He’s doing exactly what so many of us asked of him, and we’re doing what he asked of so many of us. I and my DFA peeps joined the local Democratic Party, gained some chops working with them, got into our first internal power struggles, broke out into a new Democratic club, are using everything we’ve learned so far to execute on our mission to get progressives elected to all levels of political office and support progressive incumbents.
As I said in one of the last two threads, I’ve learned that politics is a contact sport. Extreme, at that; there are times when you feel bruised and battered emotionally, as if you’d truly run a marathon over mountainous terrain. But the stakes are so damned high, I can’t see myself doing anything else. And the rewards are enormous, even out of the gate.
Did you notice this comment started as “I” and became “We”? Yeah. That’s the biggie, the bonus I never expected. I’m not “bowling alone” anymore; I’ve got a posse and they’ve got me, and we keep each other sane in a time when it’s too damned easy to go stark freaking mad. The other unanticipated enormous bonuses have been that my kids see that politics is not something out of the ordinary, but something that’s a part of their everyday lives. And my son has actually said, “Mom, I want to be president; I know I can do better than George Bush. Heck, yeah.”
You bet, I told him, I’ll hock the farm to help you, too. It’d be my pleasure to help this new progressive become a leader.
Tim Rutten lets Vodka Gibson have it with both barrels
P J Evans @ 51
Tell your Aunt some guy on FDL said howdy neighbor!
No, Delay is not well liked. Though the local version of Rush, Chris Baker, still talks about how great he was, most people are sick of the association. The nice thing is that almost every day you see a sticker or two with this slogan:
“Clean up Texas without Delay.”
medaka 46 – blush, domo arigato & back at ya…
The band finally busted up last month (after 6 yrs), maybe part of why I’ve felt a little lost, however I’ve decided it’s just part of my journey on to greater musical things…
My interest in politics comes from my parents. They read the local paper and watched the nightly news and talked about events during dinner, along with everything else going on in the house. They always voted, and made doing their civic duty a normal part of life, like being a good neighbor and going to work everyday and paying the bills on time.
It wasn’t until I was older that I realized many families didn’t make civic duty a priority. When I turned 18 and excitedly registered to vote, my friends thought I was being a complete dork. Not that I cared. *g* So I made sure to drop bits and pieces of info into conversations, and when they were curious about what was going on in the world, they’d ask me.
So on the very local level, I guess I’ve been into politics most of my life. However, making contributions and doing anything for a particular candidate is new. 2004 was the first time I pried open my wallet, because so much was at stake. It’s hard to believe the stakes are even higher now, but they are.
Good Morning Firechefs !
limited time with y’all this morning – quick random ramblings -
gooper (the few, the arrogant, the scared) asked my boss to change channel to Faux last night, the reply – “I don’t think so!”)
((((GrandmaJ and Sharkbabe))))
check out The Noonday Demon , can’t even think of the author’s name right now – but it is a beautiful compendium on Depression, including the author’s impressions of his own struggles – somehow the Fates placed me in the lives of 4 very close to me who deal with this – started the book thinking it would only make me feel less hopeful, but found it incredibly enriching by the end of the first read – I heartily recommend it
In my perfect world, the culture comes out of the Victorian era and treats Mental Health as just that, a health issue . . .
Here in Minnesota we have some great candidates. Our biggest local goal is to elect Patty Wetterling to the House, dump Kennedy who is now running for the Senate but Amy Klobochar is beating him handily – so far. Am positive Bush will come into town and with our republican gov stump for Kennedy. Not sure it will work this time, but we have a VERY conservative church base once out of the city, and they will be out in force to help him too, so we need to stay focused. And NO ONE is more focused on it than Amy. She is a hard fighting prosecutor turned politician-type (Christy – you know the type :)
AND we have Coleen Rawley. The retired FBI laby who wanted info on Moussoui (SP?) the ‘terrorist’ caught right here on my back door – actually caught 5 miles from my daughter’s house no less. She is running for the house and our biggest hope is to send Patty and Coleen together to D.C.
Oh boy – Amy, Coleen and Patti can help take back Minnesota and America.
Rayne
Given what we know about the way you’re raising those young’uns, it won’t surprise me one bit to be able to boast one day, “Shoot yeah, the Prez’s mom and I go way back!”
(And then do it again when I’ve lived to see Fiona Smith hit 35!)
Thanks for the song title, squirrel!
Hi Christy and everyone,
Thanks for inviting all of us long-time lurkers to say hi.
Here in in the San Joaquin Valley, we are just getting started on our epic fight to unseat Richard Pombo. It will be my first time to volunteer for a candidate (other than sending a check) since my college days in . . well, a long time ago.
I really want to thank you and Jane and Howie. I am excited and hopeful for the first time in oh, six years. I really feel that we all can make a difference and start taking back the country. I am going to work as hard as I can and do whatever the McNerney campaign wants me to do. I feel energized and hopeful again.
Thanks all you firedogs!
Lets get busy. I know I will be very busy in the next 3 months.
BTW: Shout-out to Sharkbabe!! Great to see you this morning! And thanks for “spamming” for me, I’ll hold off to post that again until later today.
My bit for the potluck; I’ve brought it to a few of the fundraisers and open houses my group has held. Easy and quick to make, no cooking, versatile.
Rayne’s Hummus
1 – 15oz can Great Northern white beans, drained and rinsed
1 – 15oz can Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Juice of one lemon (or 3-4 TBSP lemon juice)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
dash cayenne pepper
salt to tast
In food processor, put garlic, olive oil and lemon juice; process until garlic is minced finely. Add chickpeas and process until partially pureed; add white beans and process until entire mixture is smooth, using spatula to scrape down sides of bowl from time to time. Adjust to taste with more lemon juice or olive oil until desired texture and flavor achieved.
I serve with fresh chunks of foccacia; can be use as a veggie dip, vegan sandwich spread.
Now I really have to get my buns in gear, have GOTV door-to-door to do today. Catch you folks this afternoon/evening!
I am working with a Republican candidate – happens to be my former law school roommate – who is seaking to unseat a long-time, early Reagan-era tired and sloppy “Democratic” State’s Attorney in Anne Arundel County, whose office of 50 prosecutors has ZERO African-American prosecutors in a state that is 1/3 black and with local law schools that are about 1/4 African-American in enrollment and graduation.
I do not work with Republicans often but the Republican – a very experience, high-profile defense attorney – is running, in a certain peculiar sense, to the left of the Democrat and will make an excellent State’s Attorney.
Have also been active with a local sexual assault crisis and resource center but a lot less so since having one and then two in diapers.
Oh yeah. I also spout off here.
terraformer at 6:32
Welcome! You’ll find you have LOTS of company in this community. ;->
Heh. lotus, would be nice to think of us all as “the President’s earliest advisors”, yes?
as a very young kid i was profoundly affected by the story of Mahatma Ghandi which fomented my interest in politics.
below are the SEVEN SINS according to Ghandi:
1) wealth without work.
2) pleasure without concience.
3) knowledge without character.
4) commerce without morality.
5) science without humanity.
6) worship without sacrifice.
7) politics without principal.
do I have to eat the three bean salad?
Heh. lotus, would be nice to think of us all as “the President’s earliest advisors”, yes?
I sho’ look forward to sleeping better at night when that’s true, Rayne! We already run rings around the blockheads currently doing it.
bob h @ 6
One thing this campaign shows me is that our money and time go a lot farther in smaller states. Same thing with Howie’s Blue America candidates.
What Ned has done is much more doable in a state as geographically small as CT, and I wonder if it wouldn’t be smart to look hard at recruiting top-notch Senate candidates in other small states.
The other thing that jumps out at me every time I hear Ned speak is that he knows exactly what he thinks and he tells you what it is without qualification.
When you compare that with Joe’s “Yes, yes . . . no, no . . . yes” answer about Rumsfeld’s job when on Ed Schultz’s show the constrast is stark.
Hearing a candidate who doesn’t shuffle and equivocate on every issue is not just refreshing, it just makes me say “Yes!” every time he speaks.
Being able to self-finance was necessary, but alone that doesn’t come close to enough.
Ned is an exceptional candidate and his being in a smallish state and having a smart, smart staff have combined to make for what looks more and more like a winning formula.
Money, geography and staff are each important, but they are leaky pontoons without an exceptional candidate.
Lurkers unite! The time to de-lurk is now. I am a lurker by trade but I hope to be able to get out for Ned and join the other FDLers this weekend. I have some family obligations but if I can clear the table I’m there.
My time will be limited and my skills have diminished, but anything I can do might take a load of someone else, who is more talented and can focus on a more important job.
*ilson, I was a liberal in 46401 involved in state local politics as a child but had to get out. Still travel to the flat lands upon occasion incognito and many times incommunicado. Many old friends now have moved to 46260 and the darkside as well. Keep fighting the good fight against the trolligans.
Ct Bob what time will Ned be in Goshen I live in the CT alps. I’d like to introduce myself to a bratty kid. Gotta get to work, if I’m going to make it to Ned’s.
Hey y’all, what’s the latest on Juan Carlos and whether TRex is on the wing yet?
conyers “constitution in crisis”
http://www.house.gov/judiciary…..rept2.html
would love to see a break down on the more aggregous instances documented
jayt 50 my dear – I lurve Suzy B – esp. what she did with “Outbound Plane”
Bringing up something EPU’d on previous thread.
Treated it lightly, but really am seriously curious & seeking comment:
…………….
Speaking of new-style political warfare, has anyone mentioned David Brooks’ latest WEIRD op-ed? Is THAT what he’s up to now?
E.g., He trumpets at length about how the uber rich EARNED their perks ‘n baubles w/ good old fashioned HARD WORK! -harumph- Here-Here! HUZZAH!
He goes on to describe, at arm’s length, this really icky new class of whiners & lazy-good-for-nothings growing like mold out there – disgusting subhumans who shun “real” jobs, instead choosing to slop around in their jammies & get rich playing wit da toobes instead of doing solid, honest work, & otherwise [keeping to their proper place in society]. Oh the HORROR!
I paraphrase him wildly & badly but …
Is he upset because his dream of harnessing the toobes is going badly (I hope, I hope)? &/or is he cranky over the bundled estate tax/mini wage mess being stalled by idiot rampaging Dems led astray by bloggers? &/or???
Talk about slamming!?! My Goodness Gracious what a whiner! He’s sounding more & more like a bizarre copy of Andy Rooney. At least Andy EARNED his reputation for -erm, well… [always did marvel at Andy’s “tenure” protection]. But Dave, lad! We hardly knew ye!?!
Should some slovenly, yet kind-hearted wizard call David Brooks before he has a coronary, or gives me one, and tell him how to find the “ON” switch, so he can play too?
What turned me into a political junkie were daily discussions with an old man with a pot belly sitting in an outdoor chair. He told me about this little known Senator from Mass. and his vision for a modern America. How We could rise above the Cold War and become the Great country as envisioned by our founding fathers.. I was all pumped about the possibility of a JFK Presidency.
His dream has yet to be achieved, thanks to the pure evil that is the right-wing, neoconservative Hitler movement that has gripped our homeland.
Another song title!
TRex is en flight right now. I spoke to him when he was on his way to the airport. He’s very excited.
More thoughts on what has made Ned’s campaign work:
I hope every campaign school – - Wellstone, DFA, Sirota’s efforts – - will make a thorough case study of Ned’s campaign.
I imagine Republican’s will try to replicate it, too, but they won’t succeed, because not only do they have no one out there (that I’ve seen) who has nothing to hide or equivocate about, if they did have a candidate who had Ned’s combination of intelligence, honesty and good issues, he wouldn’t be a Republican!
They have to lie and equivocate because if people saw what they are really after, nobody would buy what they’re selling.
In order to have a candidate who is right on the issues, says what he means and doesn’t lie, you’ve got to find one who is for the Common Good.
Republicans aren’t.
This is a winning formula for progressives and won’t work for Republicans.
Ned Lamont: Karl Rove’s worst nightmare?
HOT DAWGIES, Jane — that is welcome news indeed! And prolly even more so on your end, eh? Has the front made it through and given y’all some decent heat-relief by now?
JANE!
TRex!
Thanks for checking in. We’re all thinking of you guys. Be careful out there. ;->
Am I blind? Where is my comment about all the great Minnesota candidates we have going.
Amy Klobachar, running for Senate against icky Mark Kennedy (Bush & Rove’s favorite guy, along with Pawlenty and Coleman) is leading by a bunch. An ex prosecutor turned politician – a no nonsence gal who is taking the fight to opposition. Christy – you should get to know her a bit. You two would hit it off I think. I worked with her a bit a long time ago and she suffers no fools around her.
Colleen Rawley and Patti Wetterling are both running for republican-held house seats. We have a chance I think, Colleen better than Patti. Patti is running in my own very reddish district.
Adie 75 – I can’t begin to fathom Brooks. His latest sounds like a job for driftglass, whose Brooks smackdownage is generally the finest in the land.
I’m still working on the getting involved politics thing. In some ways, I am shy, so phone banking or canvassing are kind of terror-inducing. But here’s my story.
I grew up in the Detroit area, in a blue-collar suburb. Everyone I knew was of the Reagan Democrat persuasion: union, somewhat socially conservative, racist though they don’t think they are, but generally moderate. I was the weird one. Reagan creeped me out (he was first elected when I was in high school). I knew I was way more of a “hippie” than everyone else, even though it was 1980. At college (Beloit College, Wisconsin) I wasn’t very political, though I always voted and stayed informed. I was impressed by WI’s progressive history, and still wonder/marvel at the Upper Midwest’s blue to purple tendencies, given the rural nature of life there.
Anyway, then I moved away, had kids, went to grad school, and didn’t get involved beyond voting. I landed in Oxford, Ohio, which is in the SW part of the state. Since it’s a college town, it’s a hair more liberal than the rest of the area, which as you all know is solidly, creepily Republican. When I first moved here and subscribed to the Cincinnati Enquirer, I couldn’t believe how knee-jerk conservative the editorial pages were. This was in 1988, before the wave of rightwing fundie insanity swept the nation. My ex got involved in city politics, which was the first time I saw politics up close, small town though they were/are.
In 1999, now a single mom, I joined the local Unitarian Universalists at a time when they were trying to buy a building to worship in; the early services I went to were in a school gym. It took a massive campaign of support and fundraising to get enough money together to buy that place, and I volunteered right off. I was in a low place, coming off a bad marriage, in a career funk, trying to raise kids, and feeling really bad about myself. Those UUs needed every one who could to pitch in, though, so I did. I got involved with the building fund. One day we had a meeting with a fundraising consultant who was also a UU, and we were talking about portions of the campaign. She started talking about the need to write a….damn, can’t remember what she called it. But in essence it was a rationale for why we needed a building. My eyes lit up and she said, “That speaks to you.” I said it did and she said I should be the one to write it. So next thing I knew I was more or less in charge of developing the “sales pitch” to the congregation in order to get folks to contribute to the building fund. From there I worked on developing a slogan and the visuals of the campaign; someone who is a talented artist and I worked to come up with a “feel” for the whole thing. We were successful! We raised enough money to buy a former veterinary clinic and 10 acres, and get it remodeled.
What does that have to do with politics? Well, it showed me up close what a community is and how one person’s talents, combined with other people’s, are essential. I was always disconnected from that idea before–politics seemed distant and out of my control. Still does, these days. I think being part of a tight-knit group (the congregation is about 75-80 people) that’s part of a small, fairly close-knit town, especially after growing up in a large metro area, made me see that there is such a thing as grassroots change and individuals and small groups do matter. It doesn’t always feel like it. But the church community I belong to needs the talents and energies of the people who come to the services. Our activities, from worship to community outreach to activism, are driven by the people who are members.
That, and the discussions we have at church about “liberal religious values,” have made me more willing to act on my principles instead of just, you know, having them and yet not doing a whole lot about them.
Okay, that’s more than enough, but Christy asked for it…
Can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying this image I just flashed on: the ground shakes and Goodstein cowers as a certain 65-M-Y-O saurian of our acquaintance lurches nearer, thrashing his mighty tail . . .
Look out!
While chatting with someone on Eric Massa’s campaign staff at Drinking Liberally, I mentioned that I “hang out” at FDL. He laughed at “hang out”, he said “that sounds like it’s an actual place.” What makes FDL such a special place is the way it inspires us to action. BFDL (Before FDL), I was a political info junkie, a go-to information resource for my immediate circle, and a voter. AFDL (After FDL), I have:
* connected with other progressives virtually in comments
* connected with other progressives and politically active Democrats in the flesh at Drinking Liberally (thanks Pach) and at Yearly Kos (thanks Jane).
* volunteered to work on a political campaign
* resolved to volunteer as an election monitor (thanks looseheadprop)
The inspiration and example of the FDL community – our hostesses and my fellow commenters – have graduated me from passive news reception to political activism. The downward trajectory our country has been on for my adult life has weighed heavily on my soul; rolling up my sleeves and trying to DO something about it is a very effective therapy.
GrandmaJ at 82 — your comment is there — refresh your whole screen. Just hitting the refresh comments button may not pull it up if it had to be freed up from the spam filter for some reason. Just FYI.
Sharkbabe
Glad you’re back! We missed you.
Thanks for comment. Now I’m as lost as ole Dave. What’s “driftglass”, a blogger?, a blog? How can I tap in & read some a that?
Brooks drives me crazy. I can’t figure out why he seems to be respected so, and considered rather moderate(?!) by so many. !NOT!
Ah yes, Suzy Bogguss. I have wonderful memories of when I first heard her sing. Well, it is “Pull up a chair.” morning.
My mother lived with me after my father died of Alzheimers. And it soon became clear that she was having some of the same problems. Very confused most of the time, and I spent much of time keeping her busy because that is when she was happiest.
So one day we went to the Minnesota State Fair. Now imagine this – I am handicapped and at the time I was in a wheelchair. Well, my Mom who was confused, was strong as could be and she, YES SHE, pushed my wheelchair. Together with my brain and her legs, we made a team.
So to the fair we went. And we sat down at the bandshell where they had music acts. Not the full concert bandstand where you had to pay — NOOOO, the free bandshell. And on came Suzy back when she was just starting out.
And my Mom and I had the best time listening to her. She was absolutely fantastic. Bought one of her first CDs right there and then. After one set, we would get a bite to eat and then come back for another set. And on and on — and after awhile, Suzy noticed us returning and she stopped and spoke to us — my Mother never looked or felt better. Music soothed her mind like nothing else.
And from then on, I could play Suzy’s CD and Mom would feel much better and much more aware. Thanks Suzy, and Sharkbabe for the memories.
Thanks Christy. I didn’t swear or nuthin, honest. Well, you get to read about Minnesota candidates twice. :)
lotus, you rascal. poor alberto’s desperately flipping thru his codebook, trying to decipher, “thrashing tail”.
couldn’t do without u gurl.
My community is very small. 4 hours drive to the Big City. People here don’t have tv’s. Few are online. Distances between houses is about half a mile, so doorbelling is beyond my physical limits. What to do? Fortunately, I got an email from KickTheOilHabit with lots of great ideas and I began thinking about taking a page out of Gore’s playbook.
So this week I called the local electric co-op as well as the mayor’s office and the local nature conservancy. Asked them if they’d heard of an Inconvenient Truth … nada. Ok, have you heard of Global Warming …kinda.
During a summer where it’s so hot everyone is suffering, I have a chance at getting their ears and minds to listen.
So, I’m working on a “Challenge” wherein we engage neighbors to incorporate energy wisdom into their daily lives, we’ll start gently with energy efficient light bulbs on sale at Ace (see retailers can make money!); then we’ll move to BioDiesel available in local tanks (I have petitions at gas stations to create interest); on to skylights and fans in houses, solar panels (supplied by elect. co-op)
We’ll advertise the town to tourists as a GO TO kinda place that is offering a You Can Do It Too Energy Conservation Lifestyle
My bottom line is that I’m hoping this will touch individual lives, create community and, like Gore, I hope will bring an awareness that then translates into a larger action, perhaps where people view their candidates through the lense of a gloabal warming eye.
I became politically active at the tender age of 14. I fought for Francophone rights in Ontario. We finally got our own, OK, one floor of an English high-school. I became a high-scool Prez and met my cross-Province colleagues at an off-site weekend. I met so many ‘kids’ more involved than me and it changed my life. (I also met my first infatuation/love that weekend. She had the most beautiful name I’d ever heard). So nom, ‘Amicale’.
The PQ sparatiste movement in Qubec was getting stronger and as an out-of-Province Canadien-Francais (country first, language second), I felt it my duty to educate myself and my friends, family and even foes about this movement and it’s objectives. I’ve been fighting them on/off for nearly three decades.
My political idol was/still is Pierre Elliot Trudeau. He spoke of the true unity of cultures. This was Canada. The PQ wanted to destroy this. I became a Liberal. Most of my relatives in Qubec were pro-sovereignty. We had many interesting dinner discussions.
I met Mr. Trudeau a couple of times when I moved to Ottawa for university. I joined the Liberal Party and have been a working member through thick and now thin times.
Locally the Lib rep is rather weak and was ousted in the last Federal election. (Sadly the PQ has the local seat). I have and will continue to work for surrounding area Liberal candidates. Our national party is scheduled to elect a new (post scandal) leader later this year. The top 2-3 candidates are quite good. I’m leaning towards Michael Ignatieff, a Trudeauesque man for the new millenium. The fly in his ointment was his pro-USA Iraq war stand. I also like Bob Rae, ex-NDP (far-left) Premiere of Ontario. Like Trudeau, Mr. Rae is an intelligent and internationally respected leader. (I still have my fingers crossed that Frank McKenna, another ex-Premiere and US Ambassador will jump in and direct the rudderless Liberal ship and CONfront stephen harper). The Party needs a strong-willed individual that won’t bootlick to bushian ideology.
The days remain dark for the national Libs but with continued warmongering and inanity at the Con minority gov’t, I hope a majority of morally clear Canadians will see through the nutjobs and bring back some of what Canada is world reknowned for, politeness, Peace and yes, pucks.
Adie @ 75
Adie: Somebody must have sent around a memo.
A couple of hosts on AAR yesterday played a clip of Neil Boortz braying about what an incompetent, lazy, stupid boob you’d have to be not to be able to earn more than minimum wage.
What a Load o’ Crap.
I’m not usually one to wish ill on another, but that makes me wish an ass who could say that would suffer some common disability which would – - at least temporarily – - cause him to understand that not everything is made fixable by pulling up one’s own bootstraps.
I became a political junkie in two steps.
1) I thought the Vietnam war was an abomination. I returned my student deferment and applied for conscientious objector status–not knowing my local board had never granted one. It was a struggle but I got it, and I really did my two years alternative service.
2) I lost a start-up business to the recession of 1981. I had no idea that you could work 20 hour days and still wind up broke. I wanted to know why and spent thousands of hours learning the kinds of political economics never taught in our schools.
jayt @ 42: That Young Turks clip has had me chuckling all day. “They will do”! That is the most awesome line.
My mother was an immigrant cigar maker who became an FDR Democrat during the depression. Her interest in politics was in her bones. Needless to say my two sisters and I all majored in political science and deeply believed in American Democracy.
I stayed strong even through the Reagan years and the Clinton witchhunt, but I started to doubt after the 2000 election when I confronted the reality that my vote literally was not being counted and maybe hasn’t been for “long time”. Then after 911 I realized the media was lying, lazy, bought and stolen. And from there I went on to suspect my country was too.
I turned to the Internet to educate myself about the middle east and fell into blog world along the way. It’s been wonderful. It has given me hope. I think our system is so broken that we really need a revolution. I mean I think we need to move the departments of government out into the country. Like Defense to Denver, Commerce to Atlanta, Health to Minneapolis, etc. We have to break up the lobbyists and the media concentration in the DC-NYC corridor. We need to tackle the big problems like energy, global warming, health care, wealth at the top, etc and we will never be able to do it with the concentration of power we now have.
For now I have joined local groups and am trying to help with small projects. And I am not allowing my students to continue to live in denial. No small feat because I work with grad students and they are cynical and turned off. I have always been in favor of a national service and now more than ever. Without a draft the youth of our nation just do not pay attention to what is happening.
Grandma J
Hope you can return MN. I was still there when the wrassler eked in but Pawlenty and Coleman? I cried. You can take the girl outta Minnesota … But here I am in the reddest of America (ID) so can things be worse? You betcha ;).
orangejumpsuit @ 52
Oh Orange! I have, lurking, loved your moniker since I first read it. I absolutely chose that poem for Hartford and for the POODLES, and for the fact that Lieberman is an insurance shill-bot-wad. I love the overlapping ironies, and can’t help thinking that Wally himself would have certainly endorsed the visionary Ned, not the lapdog Joe….
Thanks for noticing. Art and politics sometimes overlap in ways that can wake us up …
Adie –
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/
he’s a blogger in Chicago, and a veritable Picasso of prose. Doesn’t post a lot like most of the political blogs, but what he does is cherce.
GrandmaJ, what a totally cool story.
I love everybody’s personal-political-journey stories!
Just had an “aha!” moment while trying to clean up and get ready to GOTV…
Many of us, including lurkers now emerging, are either available to help or have ideas that others find helpful. We should be talking more amongst each other; believe me, it’s great, had a blast chatting with Shez this week.
I encourage you to do one or both of the following:
– set up a Blogger or other blog account and link it to your signature here;
– provide an email addy linked to your signature.
You have complete control over who reaches you; don’t be afraid if you’re not a techie or sensitive about privacy. A Blogger site, for example, can be set for comments on approval by registered users only; you can also set up a free email addy for use only for this purpose, too. You can always use Delete on anything and everything, the ultimate control.
But I see situations like mainsailset 7:51 with whom I’d like to follow or share info (pertinent to some economic development stuff I’d like to launch here), and there’s no URL or email to reach them.
Open up, reach out – this is how we build the infrastructure that’s been missing to promote progressive values. Heck, outreach and reaching out across community is a fundamental progressive value in action. Live it.
Wellstone said best: Never separate the life you live from the words you speak.
Yeah, that.
ayld,t at 7:54
Thanks. That’s kinda what my feeble brain was coming around to. But it’s just such a disgusting, arrogant viewpoint they spout…
I’m stunned that it’s tolerated in public discourse, much less accepted from a major columnist in a high-brow newspaper.
They’re just one babystep away from agreeing with Falwell-types who think Katrina victims brought all their miseries on themselves.
How DARE they?! Utterly shameless and wilfully blind to boot, I guess. Wow.
It’s folks like nobler-than-thou David I think of when a huge city is brought to a screeching halt by something like a garbage strike.
I can just hear them, “Don’t we have people who do that sort of thing?”
The British series, “Upstairs, Downstairs” is still relevant, only there’s no excuse today. They DO know better, and they should be terribly ashamed.
My preference is to lurk, or phone, but Christy sent out that nice invite, so… I just want to say FDL and the state roots project are- (special word for unexpectedly beautiful and effective).
For example, in the NY early googlegroup Joanne sent out a note about a forum at some community college lost in the Catskills, media reform or something. When I drove up it was like the final scene of “Field of Dreams”, cars all turning in, six hundred people. The website of the sponsoring organization is http://www.re-media.org/
So a national (world-wide, in fact) blog went local and helped me find people in my community who are very active, and if you keep an eye on the re-media FCC public testimony project, you might replicate it in other states, so the action focus zooms out again.
On Wednesday I did some phone calling at the Bridgeport CT office. It occurred to me that maybe people could do calls from out of state, but apparently the Lamont campaign didn’t have that set up, so I forgot about it. Somebody else had a better approach- to just ask on FDL about out-of-state phoning, and in maybe five minutes a reply came in about Moveon’s phone set-up moveon.org/phone/volunteer.
It was seeing the video blogs on FDL that got me over to CT to meet the makers, like Bob (comment #37), and Spazeboy, and get ideas for doing that sort of news back in NY.
So, thanks, great party!
Medaka: Gorgeous, gorgeous Stevens poem, and one that’s new to me. Thanks for posting it!
Sharkbabe @ 56
Girl, I would be QUEEN
and your would be KING!
It’s a really good one, an early one, 1977…
Sharkbabe
I found it. Much thanks!
I’ve got acquaintances & some extended family who believe that sorta Brooks-ian junk, & are almost totally insulated from the grim reality less fortunate folks face these days.
This will help me “translate” for them. I can’t give up, & still live with myself.
(((peace)))
I might add to newcomers that medaka isn’t the only Wallace Stevens fan living in Japan and occasionally contributing late at night. And my partner, too, is Japanese (although my relationship is more traditional–married 34 years/two children). I’d weigh in with a quote or two, but my anthologies are all at school.
It’s frustrating for us who live overseas not to be able to take an active part in American politics. Sites such as FDL at least give us a chance to participate vicariously.
I do make a pretty good lasagna and truly excellent guacamole, but I imagine there are more than enough good recipes available for both.
Dale in Alabama @ 104
Hi Dale, so glad you gr00ved on that one — it’s a serious favorite for me. There are bunches more like that from Wally. He was a prolific bastard, pushing his pen quietly and relentlessly at the insurance company. Kind of like blogging at work, yes? LOL!
Freakdaddy
We’re phonebanking for Ned at the Watertown office, which is where I plan to go after work.
Good morning! I’m a lurker; I enjoy reading here. Regular commenter at Eschaton, but sometimes the troll noise over there gets on my nerves, as well as one or two of the troll feeders.
Carry on. :)
Morning, everyone – and a warm welcome to all of you commenting for the first time!
I grew up in a very vocal household. We spent dinnertimes yakking about politics and world events and local stuff. My Dad was very much a Republican, and I had other ideas, so it was often very loud!
I developed a tendency to write letters to the editor on mostly local things. I remembeer writing one in response to an article about a three year-old who had been shot and killed while outside playing at 2 a.m. Strikingly absent from the article was any discussion about what on earth a 3 yr old was doing out at that hour, and that had she been tucked into bed, she might still be alive. The letter was about the choices we make and the consequences that ensue.
Public activism came a number of years ago, after my kids’ elementary school burned down. It was a beautiful, old stone building that had nurtured several generations of residents, and it was heartbreaking to see it go up in flames. The county resisted re-building it. they wanted a big, modern, warehouse for more children, which would tie in perfectly with the developers’ desire to start plunking more and more homes on what used to be farmland.
The location the county chose, initially, was on land donated by a company, on land next to a former Bausch and Lomb facility that was designated a SuperFund site.
The county was required to hold open meetings on this issue, and I – along with many other parents who had kids at the school – got active. We wrote letters, we spoke at the public meetings, etc. I am sad to say that we never got the county to build on the site of the burned-down school, but we were able to torpedo the next-to-the-Superfund site, and we got them to agree to build a slightly smaller school. Unfortunately, by the time a school was built, both my girls were on to middle school…
I still write letters, and I still run my mouth to anyone who will listen. I make phone calls and do the things I can that fit into the rest of an increasingly busier life (thought things might slow down as my girls grew up, but now I am dealing with the older generation’s issues – yep, I am the sandwich generation).
If I didn’t have this dang full-time job, I could do so much more, but with my husband out of work for almost 2 years, I’m the reason we still eat and have a house to live in, so that’s not an option.
I look for things I can do that fit the time I have, and make every effort to do something as often as I can.
Sharkbabe – did you like the one about the MN candidates or the one where a confused Mom pushes her daughter in the wheelchair.
We stopped many a pedestrian I can tell you. It was obvious to all what a cruel daughter I was making her push me. She weighed a frail 105 lbs my mother did. she had some osteo in her back and was a bit stooped but strong… oh my yes. Those early farm years in Iowa kept her strong throughout her life.
But it was either stay home or use this ‘combining forces’ method. And she loved feeling strong and helpful. It actually helped both of us more than I can say. Brought us closer than we ever were and in those years we came to know each other as people not as parent/child or as combatants (which we were in my teenage years). Sorry, enough about me – back to the candidates.
Hiya notjonathan!
Haven’t seen you here for a while, mister. What’s your prefecture?
Have any good bitter melon recipes to trade?
Know any inaka folks who would be interested in some 蔵出し ??
Getting late here — need to rev up the new aircon for some comfortable ZZZs ….
Great thread. Here is this (mostly) lurker’s brief story – Always interested in politics since high school. My family grew up talking about politics and just never understood why my friends were uninterested. Went to Montreal for college (McGill University) because I wanted to broaden my horizons – to this day my dad does not understand how I could turn down University of Virginia just because I wanted to go out of state, but I digress…
Ended up majoring in Political Science (with Middle East concentration), but was terrible at trying to learn Arabic. I ended up chickening out of applying for grad school and came back home and worked as a paralegal for law firm while I decided if I wanted to go to law school. I decided after viewing the inside of a private practice law firm that it was not the life for me. By this point I had met my husband and we were finally getting ready to get married. I am white, he is black and it took him awhile to get over the interracial aspect of our relationship.
Here is where the story takes a turn. When we met he was a solid, if not very active Democrat. After the Lewinsky mess he started veering farther and farther to the right. He could not vote for Gore and I couldn’t believe he was going to vote for Bush, so he compromised and wrote in McCain just to keep the peace. After 911, he supported invading Iraq even though I gave him the background on Iraq and how easily the situation could sour. But it was to no avail and and now we can barely discuss politics without arguing – which is where this website comes in. I only work part time now, and am home most of the time with our two young kids and FDL allows me to at least hear and comunicate with others who feel this country is spinning out of control. I am introverted by nature, like many lurkers, and politically not as far left as many FDLers, but just having someplace to have a reality check has saved my sanity and probably my marriage (my husband believe it or not is a real sweety, politics aside). So there you have my story. I have participated in some of the recent projects like the Crashing the Gates book drive, etc. but I am not in the position to do alot of door-to-door type of action, but I am trying to contact my representatives more and air my feelings. So some the ideas offered today are helpful.
I have an Idea that I think would be very powerful. Does establishing a Netroots take action Website. Where we could all be given marching orders in a concerted campaign to accomplish a political goal or goals. A place where we would register and check in or be notified by email.
For example members in a specific state my be asked to contact certain local media figures about various issues etc. What does everyone think?
I got interested in politics after the 2000 elections. I knew we were shafted in the election, but tried to move on. Then 9/11 happened, Bush was crowned King of the Free World and suddenly dissent was considered downright unpatriotic and supportive of the terrorists. Something just didn’t seem right. That’s when I found blogs. My first blog was Eric Alderman’s Altercation. I remember wondering, “What’s a blog?” I soon got addicted to his blog, and had to have more. Before long, I turned off TV news for good.
However, I saw the real world and I saw what Bush was doing to this country. I’d have fits trying to convince my better half that something was very, very wrong. He did not buy what I was telling him and claimed I was just still mad that Gore had lost. He finally told me, that, if I was so convinced that things were as bad as they were, I’d better hit the streets and campaign for Kerry. So, I did.
Not only did I campaign for Kerry, I joined the local Democratic committee and sent links of the stories I read on Eshchaton, Washington Monthly (Calpundit), DailyKos,RawStory, and others to many of my friends (both Democrats and Republicans. I made some of my Republican friends real unhappy, and became estranged from my pastor, who had been a Democrat until W Bush convinced him he was a moral, Christian man. I even got an e-mail from someone to whom my weblinks were being sent secondhad, asking me if I was ready for the Rapture. I told that person, “Yes. Bring it on!” One of my finer moments.
Currently, I send my findings on Firedoglake and other blogs to Andrew Hurst, who’s running for Congress against Tom Davis (CD-11, VA) and I’m compiling a cookbook of the recipes of prominent Democrats across the country to be used as a fundraiser for the committee (I now have over 100 responders, from Howard Dean and Russ Feingold, to Christy Hardin Smith to Mike Farrell of MASH.
After I send the cookbook to the printer, I’m going to hit the street for Andy. He’s a great guy and he will make a fantastic Congressman.
orangejumpsuit: The cold kabocha soup sounds delightful. I’ve discovered a great pumpkin soup recipe with an unusual ingredient…smooth peanut butter. Vary the amount according to taste. Plus, it’s converted a lot of folks who wouldn’t ordinarily be pumpkin-eaters.
Vicki, Who ♥ Al Gore…follow my name-link and you will see you have company. :-)
medaka – lol
what a great thread
Vicki, who!
well, I let the house go to hell this week, so I’ve some chores to do – see y’all lata
oh, and – Jane! FDL! Ned! CT Nedhedds! Tuesday!
Zergle,
Cool! Yay!
And Sharkbabe! Pop in at Atrios’ sometime!
OK, since you asked:
I’m a conservative Dem. I’m moderately displeased with Lieberman. Disagree with him on the war but think he’s basically a good man. Hadn’t decided who to vote for. Hadn’t heard of Firedoglake.
Then read the news about Jane’s blackface image. I’m white, my wife is black.
Now I’ve not only decided who to vote for; I’ve volunteered for Lieberman and have a list of 40 names I’ll be telephoning this afternoon.
I realize I’ll probably be censored and/or dismissed as a troll, but on the offchance you’re interested in hearing from a rational person who disagrees with you, I decided to respond and let you know how hurtful that image was to me, my wife, and our family.
Anne @ 111
Anne: I wrote LTE’s back in my hometown when I was in high school.
Christy: Would that be a fun topic sometime? What was your first LTE about?
I am relishing all these stories about our individual rootz. What a treat to get to know you all better.
EddieB #115
I get that from moveon.org. Seems everyday or two there is an email suggestion of who to contact . You might try signing up with them.
Rayne – if you are here, or catch this thread later – just wanted to say thanks for your kind and supportive comments last night. It’s clear you know exactly how I am feeling right now…next tidal wave dream I have, I’m gettin’ on a surfboard, and gettin’ that sucker under control!! And practicing one-day-at-a-time (my worst habit is looking too far ahead and letting all that I have to do just run away with me) – if it can keep others sober, it can keep me sane!
Gotta run, friends – hope to check back in later.
mamis…thanks for being polite. Though I would be curious to know wether or not you know why that image was used? Were you aware of the race baiting flyer that Joe used in CT that started the whole thing? And please help us understand…did you actually decide your vote, for a US Senator, based on what one blogger did with a picture?
Just the idea that race came into the picture between a couple of rich white guys at all bothered me. I was quite ashamed of Joe when I saw that flier being put on cars in primarily African-American churches.
Also, Jane simply posted the image, darkblack was the actual artist.
I guess I haven’t made the connection between being addicted to FireDogLake and other lefty blogs makes one a political junkie. I suppose… Maybe I’m just pissed off about how the country is going and the willing stupidity/blindness that is affected a large percentage of the population.
I never was really into the whole politics scene before. I have always been too much of a cynic, I suppose, to really believe that anything I could do (besides vote) would actually accomplish anything. I had heard that joining a political campaign either met going up and asking people to put up signs in their yards or working the phones, cold calling people you don’t know to convince them of a message that they may not be terribly receptive to. I don’t know… I knew it was very important, but I guess I didn’t believe that anyone could actually affect the system. If it wasn’t all fixed, then it was pre-ordained.
I remember watching the Carter/Ford debate and coming away really upset, because NEITHER of them answered a single question that was asked of them. They just said whatever they wanted to say, regardless of what the question was. I haven’t watched a single debate since then.
Like most, however, the election of 2000 was a milestone. I really understood how much the system could be played and manipulated, and how to some people out there, democracy is just a word, not a creed. They would do anything to win. That was the only thing that mattered to them, winning. The methods were not important.
That pissed me off. I started paying attention to how things were progressing, and how the press was not reporting the important stuff. I was truly depressed, and then I found the blogs about 8 months ago. I didn’t really know what they were about until I really started looking into them. It certainly helped when I found so many like minded people, and people who were really wanted to act on their believes.
I have gone so far to find the meeting times and locations of a Drinking Liberally group around here. I haven’t gone yet, for several reasons. But I am encouraged to see the dedicated and perserverence by some people here, Jane, Christy, and a whole lot of the posters.
I’m still not too terribly positive about the direction that this country is going, but it is nice to know that people are out there working on it, and that things can actually happen because of that activity.
My parents met in 1948 on the Wallace presidential campaign. He had been Roosevelt’s Vice President and was running on the Progressive Party ticket, which was supported by the left wingers and communists.
I was raised in New York City being brought to ban-the-bomb demonstrations. My parents stopped being activists when Khrushchev denounced Stalin and revealed his crimes. My father was active in his union (District 65) and took me to rallies, in one of which I heard Martin Luther King speak.
As a young teenager in the Catskills, my parents came with me to demonstrate against Curtis LeMay who was running for VP with the other Wallace presidential candidate.
Older teenager, very active in anti-war movement. Worked a summer in SANE (US Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, NY Office) which was a kind of anti-war clearing house for the massive demonstrations. I went to the Pentagon march 1967 and numerous Washington marches. Joined SDS and US Committee to Aid the National Liberation Front. Organized student strikes in my high school and first year of college. Hung out with anarchists, Yippies and even Mark Rudd during the Columbia takeover in ‘68. Supported Dick Gregory in the ‘68 presidential election.
Then I became a hippie and dropped out. Lived in some intentional communities in the Northwest. I believed that politics and activism was lower order thinking, not worthy of my new life in pursuit of divine ecstasy.
Then I became a fundamentalist Christian (Assemblies of God). But I never lost my left-wing leanings. I remember being the only one in my church to vote for the Equal Rights Ammendment and to support McGovern. I warned my college friends (Intervarsity Christian Fellowship) that this Watergate break in would involve the president. I became aware of a stream of Christian black activism that raised my consciousness. (People like James Cone, books like Your God is Too White.)
Then I became a Catholic after the birth of my son (1985) although that was a long time coming. Now I teach theology in a Roman Catholic University.
What do I do now politically. I work especially in my classes and in my writing, not to advance a particular cause, but to open their minds to compassion and responsibility for other humans. I teach them that they must spend themselves in something that is greater than they are. And I maintain class bulletin boards online in which I do try and advance my position in political discussions. We’ve spoken a lot about the war in Iraq, for instance.
Most of my political energy now is spent in:
a) reading the blogs and keeping informed
b) supporting my wife in her efforts to organize Arabs and Muslims in our community, and I support her art which is very political. (You can view her art at hend_al_mansour.org
c) I engage in an extensive email conversation with a single individual about the Iraq war, an person who believes that we have a responsibility to stay in Iraq and bring them democracy. Yes, he’s a wingnut, but salvagable, I think. I have often thought of posting a few of my letters, but they never seem on topic.
The Talmud teaches that if you save a single human life, it is as if you had saved the entire human race. I like the idea that I am putting all this energy into one person. I think I am doing good work here.
d) I make every call that Christy or Jane asks us to. And I send money to places they ask.
e) and I’m learning Arabic (the most difficult thing I’ve ever done) and I know that will somehow be useful, but I’m not sure how.
Thank you for asking.
Lynn @ 35 would modestly let us think she’s just “a blogger in Washington State”.
If you like reading thoughts like this…
…check out her work at Evergreen Politics.
mamis,
I’m not going to say you’re wrong to react the way you did to the artwork – everyone reacts to things in their own way. I do wonder, though, what you think about Joe’s record on race issues – since 1964, that is. How hurtful was it to have Joe diss affirmative action? How hurtful was it to have Joe diss Al Sharpton and Maxine Waters? How hurtful was Joe’s misleading use of race in a campaign flyer about Ned?
Respectful discourse is what this place is about, not censoring those with whom someone might disagree. So jump in with you comments, ask your questions, and hang around for a bit.
I grew up in a solidly Republican family. Dad was proud of the fact that only once had he not voted for the Republican candidate for whatever office was in play. That was when, at age 21, he voted for Teddy Roosevelt on the Bull Moose ticket. Dad was viscerally anti-union. In his first job out of college (U of MN Forestry) he was a first level supervisor in a northern Minnesota logging camp that the IWW was trying to organize, and was physically attacked during one of the more testy confrontations.
Mom was the intellectual of the two (she was also a U of MN graduate and, like me, a lifelong reader of history and biography) and I suspect she may have voted for a Dem or two along the way but would never have said so.
One of my strongest political memories was in 1963. I was two and a half years out of college, with no discernable direction in life at the time, and had arrived at my parents home on Nov. 22 to stow my stuff and get my affairs in order prior to reporting for the draft on the 29th. By this time my own political views had moved to slightly the left of center (where they have more or less remained ever since), and thus we didn’t talk politics much. The next day the WCCO noon time news (a rural/small town MN tradition at the time) was interrupted with the news of the attack on President Kennedy’s motorcade. We turned on the TV to follow events and when the confirmation of JFK’s death came through about half an hour later, Dad immediate got the flag out of the closet and hung it up outside at half mast. I’ll never forget his words after he came back inside: “I may be a Republican but I’m an American first!”
Another strong memory is the 1968 presidential election, when we were living in suburban Philadelphia. I had decided to vote for Nixon because I felt that it was imperative that the USA make a clean break with the Johnson policies in Vietnam, and in my assessment at the time it seemed that Humphrey (Dad went red in the face at the mere mention of the man’s name) was just too closely associated with those policies and the people who had helped implement them to be the one to do it. But when I got in the voting booth I physically could not bring myself to pull the Nixon lever! I kept replaying in my mind the scene of watching on TV his whiney-bastard performance at the concession press conference when he lost the 1962 California governor’s race. The time he told the members of the press that “they wouldn’t have Nixon to kick around any more. My wife has needled me ever since about how sheepish I looked when we left the polling place and I told her what happened. Time proved my gut instincts right.
Anyway, that’s a view into my political past. I’m somewhat out of place here with only one foot in the progressive camp (my left, no doubt), but if this country ever recovers from the damage being done by the Subversive Right that is now in power, it will be the progressives, the centrists, the handful of responsible people remaining on the right, and those who’ve had a life experience that jerked them into paying attention that will do the trick. I’ve been paying attention since since AA Flight 11 flew into my daughter’s place of work, and the closer I look, the more appalling it is.
Check out my new blog:
http://www.stridentcentrist.com
“What have [I] done to make [my] community a better place?” Not much, I’m ashamed to say. I volunteer to cook and wait tables at the senior center and fix problems oldsters have with their computers. And drive the church bus or van. Though I don’t go to church. But it’s not demanding at all, ’cause our town has only a population of just over 700. But I do these things as much for myself as for the ones I try to lend a hand to. The pay-off is big. It just makes me feel good and needed. And every once in a while someone bakes me a pecan or apple pie or a cobbler. Or lays some fresh stuff out of their garden on me. Thinking about running for mayor. It doesn’t pay anything, but that doesn’t matter. Oh, and I teach at the local public school. But of course that doesn’t count because I get paid for that.
And “what got [me] into politics?” My grandmother did. God rest her sweet soul.
sharkbabe: To cbl’s fine reco of Noonday Demon, I would add a wonderful short book by William Styron, Darkness Visible, an account of his own battle with clinical depression. Both books have meant a lot to me over the years as Prozac, myself, and my loved ones struggle communally with the ups and downs of this disorder.
Speaking of high-profile fellow sufferers, check out the book Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, by psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison. A real eye-opener, and inspirational too.
I was immersed in politics from the time I was 8 when my dad started working for Pat Brown, the late, great CA gov. JFK-worship was encouraged and my mom bought me a Jackie Kennedy Madame Alexander doll (with inaugural outfits = white satin ball gown, yellow Chanel suit complete with pillbox hat). I remember a comedy album by Vaughn Meader about the Kennedys.
My parents were adamant about liberal values and it’s so ingrained I often forget that not everyone thinks like I do. They also were adamant that Rethugs were selfish and had no interest/chops in governing, only in making money. How prescient they were! I’ve never knowlingly dated a republican.
I was in fact incredulous when Reagan was elected Pres. I already knew he was an sunny idiot, how come the rest of country didn’t?
I voted for John Anderson, the independent pres. candidate, once; other than that, straight Dem ticket every time.
The town I live in is noted for its citizen activity. I won’t say activism, that’s a little strong. But we volunteer in droves, for every conceivable thing:
- Monrovia Helps – a couple of days a year when we get together and paint an elderly couple’s house fence, clean the yard, haul trash etc.
- parades – there are often more people in the parade than there are watching. We love a parade! And lots more.
More serious stuff, too. A few years ago three individuals (including a local pol) started making noises about developing their hillside acreage. The city was reluctant – they would have had to build a new fire station. A few people got together and within months a movement was born. We started having meetings to strategerize and took our plans to the city council meetings. They liked it.
Soon, the city council meetings were so large they had to be moved to the the middle school auditorium. The city advertised meetings in the utility bills. Hundreds of people testified and the meetings went until 1-2 am. We got a measure on the ballot to drastically limit hillside development and tax ourselves to raise the money, with matching state funds, to buy the property for the city and turn it into a recreational area.
They worked their butts off getting signs out, walking the neighborhoods, tabling at the street fair and it worked like a charm. The turnout was high for an off-year city-only election – more than 30% – and the measure passed by 75%. As an added bonus, the city turned their eyes to infill and we have three large retail/residential projects going up at the end of downtown instead of up in the hills. The city began courting corporations and we now boast Trader Joe’s HQ, a Sun Microsystems office and two Tzu Chi (buddhist compassionate relief) organizations in our town of 35,000.
Our Dem club is working for our candidates (our membership includes four candidates, one for Dreier’s seat) and the GOTV effort is big. Our town is perched right on the middle of the red/blue fence. We aim to push it blue come November. Kerry was the first time we went blue in a pres election, so I have high hopes they’ve all HAD ENOUGH.
My dream is to create an ROP program for the high school that starts an organic food co-op.
I must say, this is one of the best threads I’ve seen on FDL in quite some time. Great background stories! Great for a Saturday morning read as I find more and more excuses to avoid the sweltering heat that yard work will expose me to.
What got me into politics?
Seeing my hometown – a college town – appear as the lead story on the CBS evening news the day after Kent State. Armored personnel carriers in the streets, patrolling in front of my favorite ice cream shop, plus a dawn to dusk curfew.
The late Senator Paul Simon – he was a family friend, and one of his campaigns for the House was my first. Classy guy all around, and proof that politics does not have to be left to the thugs.
A couple of great English teachers – they saw that I have talent with writing and speaking, and nurtured it along.
Lots more, but those are the big three reasons I’m hanging out at a place like this.
Ned Lamont has a volunteer check in web page –
http://nedlamont.com/page/s/finalpushct
mamis at 121 — appreciate you sharing on that, and even though you are volunteering for Joe Lieberman, who I don’t support personally, I’m glad you’ve gotten politically involved somehow. Hope you are volunteering because you believe in Lieberman’s positions, though, and not just because you got peeved at a blogger — because, ultimately, the political process depends on all of us being better informed. That some of us make a mistake or two along the way (Jane apologized for using the image and for offending people, did you know that as well?) is really a given — we are all human after all — but ultimately it’s energizing people to DO something to make their country a better place. And we do that one issue, one candidate, one step at a time.
But truly, thanks for speaking up. That took some guts, and I respect that a lot.
marnis at 121 – thanks you for your rational comment.
I am wondering though, if you happened to read the essay Jane wrote that accompanied that picture. I think, if you had, you would realize that portraying Joe Lieberman in blackface was a commentary on the superficiality of his support for the black community, and believing that having Bill Clinton in to campaign for him would give Lieberman credibility by extension.
We certainly respect whatever decision you make about your vote, but it would be a shame to cast that vote on the basis of a graphic, and not on the records and character of the candidates themselves.
…and off to a new thread we go!
Oh, and I’ve put a new thread, gang — but feel free to hang out here as well. :)
Thanks, Christy, for your repeated attempts to broaden the “web of inclusion” in the FDL community dialogue.
Personally, I’ve been political my entire life because, as y’all know, people of color in America have no choice in the matter. I was born in Buffalo, NY, and attended an elementary school where I was the ONLY Chinese kid in a student body of 800. I learned to fight young and took up the study of the martial arts in order to negotiate daily life.
I never believed in the myth of “America” as most white liberals understand it; the myth about “We the People” and “Liberty and justice for all” and all that baloney. My experience told me that all that stuff was a fraud that constricted thought and served the powers that be. I remember, at age 10 or so, having my schoolteacher show our class a painting in a museum during a school field trip; it was a painting of a white man “discovering” America, and the best part is that the painting portrayed him being led by a native guide (who apparently had not yet made that “discovery”). I remember learning about the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Japanese internment, and the civil rights struggle. I remember watching white folks laugh at racist portrayals of Asians on TV. These kinds of things really got me thinking.
At age 13 I moved to Los Angeles where I attended a school where half the student body was from the inner city. That was my awakening to America’s great diversity, and I found common cause with all manner of minorities. After college, I spent a few years traveling through Third World villages and slums in Asia, and I continued to develop an understanding that the world is a harsh host and life isn’t fair, period.
So politics, for me, has always been about self-defense. It’s about taking steps to minimize or at least constrain the wrongs that are foisted upon us by those in power.
Yeah…what she said. :-)
and my mom bought me a Jackie Kennedy Madame Alexander doll (with inaugural outfits = white satin ball gown, yellow Chanel suit complete with pillbox hat).
Oh, Mommybrain! I so want that so bad! Do you at least have pictures??
California Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown. Good man, good governor. My Folks voted for him ever time. Wish he were still around. From Pat Brown, to Reagan, to Arnold. All I can do is shake my head.
1. in my judgment, “Mamis” is a classic concern troll.
2. The LieberVolk were racially tone-deaf about who they let on the stage to stand behind Clinton for the cameras. For a Democratic crowd it was amazingly white. Indiana’s got the same percentage of Blacks as CT (10%) but we never would have such a lily-white “backdrop” for a political speech. Inclusiveness is not a natural instinct for the LieberSchemers…
mamis —
Thank you for your comments. Please be aware that FDL is completely independent of Ned Lamont — we have endorsed Ned Lamont, but Ned Lamont has not endorsed us. In fact, the Lamont campaign asked Jane to remove the graphic in question, which she did.
Joe Lieberman is a decent man, but he has lost touch with his constituency, and refused to endorse the winner of the Democratic Primary. Ned Lamont (and most of us) have pledged to support the winner of the primary. Joe Lieberman seems to think he is more important than the Democratic party, and more important than the voters or Connecticut.
I grew up in a political household, on a farm, near a very small town (pop 200) in western South Dakota. My father was Democratic chair, almost by default as there were so few Democrats in the county. We were/are extremely proud of George McGovern.
I became more even active in politics as a welfare mom in college. After graduating from college, I was hired by the state as a social worker on one of the Reservations. I complained to people on up food chain in the state offices regarding the fact that I was not allowed to provide services to the kids I was working with. I was fired the next day.
I was hired in the next two job because I was fired from that state job. The woman, an Indian woman, doing the hiring explained that she had heard of me being fired and the reasons. She explained that a number of people of that Tribal community were able to challenge the state on their practices after I was fired. Because of that, she wanted to hire me.
It was a little weird because I was embarrassed about having been fired after only six months as a social worker for the state. I was unaware of the fallout after I left. My reason for complaining about service delivery was a community issue. It gave the community a framework to challenge practices. Kids were not getting services because the state was holding off providing services, waiting for Tribal or BIA programs to provide services first. The state was getting money in the state block grants but not providing services to Indian children on the Reservation.
Now, 25 years later, I am again working on the same problem regarding funding issues on the Reservation. I am frustrated and need help.
We are working with a Tribal clinic and need to have health care providers work with us so we can set up a pilot project. This pilot project would take advantage of changes to federal rules (signed by Clinton) allowing Tribal health programs to bill state Medicaid programs. It has taken this long for the federal agencies to accommodate those federal rule changes.
I am excited because we finally have answers to problems but we lack resources to put this model in place.
This is political too. It deals with Tribal sovereignty issues and racial bias by too many state employees. This deals with a number of legal issues too. Some days I feel very tired.
I come to the FDL community because here, I am reminded why, of the bigger picture, that the few of us here are not struggling alone.
So thank you FDL members for giving me hope.
….and if anyone knows any health care providers interested in working with us on the Reservation for a few weeks/months …. well, I will be lurking around here :)
I am an early-adopter blog reader and occasional poster who gave up on the MSM news (even that sell-out NPR) in the post-9/11 ramp-up to the Iraq debacle. I have been involved in politics and marching for civil rights and against the love affair the US has with war and weapons since I was a teenager—a long, long time ago now. I have always been an independent but did register Democrat long enough to vote and work for Dennis Kucinich in the primaries in 2004. I have been following the CT senate race with much interest because, like many other posters and readers of FDL, I think it is a litmus test for wresting power back from the corrupt and out-of-touch Beltway Democratic machine.
At present, I live on thirteen acres in the Coast Range of western Oregon, not far from Jane. We reclaimed some of the land here from the out-of-control blackberries for a “victory garden” back in 2002 when the thugs masquerading as leaders were saber rattling about the axis of evil, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Kim Jong Il’s weapons can (allegedly) reach Portland, Oregon! While everyone else was buying duct tape and putting plastic over their windows, I stocked up with a can of Folgers (gotta have my caffeine) and iodine pills to purify the water in the stream at our house; my husband’s priorities were Jack Daniels and Lucky Strikes! Three years later, the liquor and cigarettes are gone but we are still growing vegetables.
This year, we have a bumper crop of swiss chard (it grows almost year-round) and here’s a great recipe from a local organic farm very much involved with community sustainable agriculture:
Catalan Style Swiss Chard
1/2 cup golden raisins (brown OK too)
2 bunches chard (1.5 lbs or so)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
salt and pepper
Cover the raisins with warm water and set aside.
Wash the chard, separate stalks from leaf and chop into 2-inch sections.
Heat olive oil over medium heat in your largest fry pan or wok.
Add pine nuts and saute for 1 minute.
Drain raisins, reserving liquid. Add raisins and stems to wok. Cover and saute 3 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add chard leaves and liquid from raisins. Cover and turn heat to high.
Steam until leaves are wilted, stirring occasionally.
Medaka, thanks so much for the Wallace Stevens. (((h)))
Koheleth: What a fascinating spiritual road you’ve been down, including Assemblies of God. I have a special interest in Pentecostalism, and am working on a newspaper series (and eventually, book) about spiritual searches. Would you be willing to correspond briefly and occasionally by e-mail about your experiences? Do you have a blog?
If you’re amenable, please drop me a note at dale dot short at gmail dot com. Thanks!
mamis @ 121
I’m curious to know if you read the countless comments here that day who took issue with that image?
I read more rational and informed dissent here about that image than I saw anywhere else.
Since it was very clear that Ned had absolutely nothing to do with creating, using or condoning the image, I can’t imagine why it’s appearance would influence who you would vote or work for.
That just doesn’t make any sense to me.
As far as Jane’s being close to Ned’s campaign and what that might imply, only an authoritarian personality would seek to control every person who comes within his sphere, and Ned doesn’t qualify for that.
One thing I know for sure about the echo chamber: If it had suited their purposes, they wouldn’t have hesitated to call Jane a campaign “hanger-on”. Or Maura or CT Keith or anybody else near Ned’s campaign.
But it suited their purposes to paint Jane as close to Ned as they could, and because that spoke to you louder than Ned’s positions or Joe’s support of this war, well . . . that’s what the pols want.
They want us all to just react to the perceptions they create, and not to evaluate reality.
And before anybody jumps me for assuming that anybody who supports Lieberman is just wrong, I call your attention to the fact that you, yourself, said that the reason you are going to vote and work for Lieberman is because you were offended what one of Lamont’s supporters published.
By that standard, you must endorse what Hannity, Tom Delay, Ann Coulter and all the rest of the far right wing spokespeople say about this race, no?
Seems like faulty thinking to me.
Medaka, pictures exist only in my memory.We moved a lot and mom kept recycling stuff. Last time I saw Madame Jackie my sister had cut off all her hair. :(
GrandmaJ:
Yes. dump Kennedy! Seeing his ad, he has the weirdest eyes..that expression in his eyes..he doesn’t look he is quite right upstairs.
Dump Bachmann
Dump Kiffmeyer
Dump Pawlenty. Did you read what he said in a recent speech? He said if he is reelected, he would work to stop rising college tuition fees. I notice he didn’t say a thing about rolling back the hikes in tuition since he has been gov, let alone lowering them further to make college an option for more people.
I wish Star Trib would dump Katherine Kersten. That paper has enough loony wingnut columnists already.
It’s a real mystery to me how Minnesotan office holders (& voters) who have benefited from living, working & raising their families in a state that has been built on progessive policies think turning MN into a state with lousy education & quality of life is a great idea.
“EddieB #115
I get that from moveon.org. Seems everyday or two there is an email suggestion of who to contact . You might try signing up with them.”
Eddie, you can also sign up at the new Roots Project site that was co-founded right here at FDL which does everything you are looking for. Go to:
http://www.staterootsproject.org
There are many calls to action and email notifications, and general blog entries. You may also look to see if a group has been started for your state yet, (if not start one!) and join any other extra groups that are in your areas of interest, most are included in the options when you sign up, or you can always add them to your preferences later in your account profile.
Anne @ 138
I’m wondering how voting for Joe Lieberman because you’re pissed off at Jane is rational.
Hope I’m not getting in on this thread too late, it’s still early out here (for me on a Saturday). At the link below there is a very fine portion of a speech by Bill Clinton that he gave in Seattle Monday night at a benefit for Congressman Jim McDermott. He goes right to the heart of the issue Christy is talking about here, what can we share with our neighbors, what can we do to get them to *think* instead of just react?
Clinton speech (mp3)
EddieB at 115
We sign up at multiple sources for e-mail alerts, guided by issues we care about. We do not feel spammed as a result, but we do feel we are better informed than we might have been otherwise, about upcoming hot-button issues coming up for votes in Congress.
Then, we can do further research if we feel it necessary, sign petitions and write our congressfolk to express our views. We also write more than a few letters to the editor.
Ideas:
aclu.org
lcv.org (League of Conservation Voters)
Sierra Club
Wilderness Society
various arts & education organizations
etc.
I’m also a regular reader and this is my first post. First, thank you to all who live in Connecticut who will vote for Ned Lamont and thank you to everyone who has contributed to his campaign. And thanks to all of the posts, I enjoyed reading them. Virginia is a red state and I happen to live in a red portion, southern Northern Kentucky. However, we just got a democratic governer and I’m supporting Jim Webb against George Allen. I support him because he is anti-war but I would support anyone against George Allen. In 2004 I supported Howard Dean because I liked his honesty. I switched to Kerry when he won the primary and I gave money to all and to the democratic party. I’ve given money to candidates in elections outside Virginia and continue to do so. Its gotten hard to be a democrat when I don’t feel they support my views and Joe Lieberman has to be the poster child for everything that dissapoints me about the Democratic party. I now don’t give any money to the democratic party but only to individual candidates. Candidates have to represent the people and I this is the message that the Connecticut voters have an opportunity to send. It’s a wake-up call for Democrats and Republicans alike and I hope they send it. I know I need to do more and I appreciate all of the good ideas.
BlueUU — just wanted to let you know that your story gave me goosebumps. Really!
Pat in Virginia — hi from the opposite corner of the state!
I give money to candidates, but I also give money to the DNC, because (under Howard, at least) its purpose is party-building. I stopped giving to the DSCC and DCCC, because their only purpose is to elect candidates, and like you, I’d rather not trust their judgment of who is worthy of support. But I also know from experience that individual campaigns do nothing to keep the local or state party going (you’re lucky if they even manage to turn over all the voter information they’ve gathered when the campaign is over, instead of closing up shop and throwing it away.)
So I think the DNC and/or state and local parties are also worthy of donations, if you can manage it. Plus I’m always tickled when the reports come out about the DNC raising record amounts, proving that those bozos who said that Howard would fail because the only way is to whore out to big-money corporate donors were wrong!
Redshift @
159
Thanks, Redshift!
so Joe has lobbyists going around asking white folk if they are Clinton Democrats or Sharpton Democrats. You know what code that question is hiding — so you going with the white candidate like Joe or the Sharpton-friendly Lamont?
You know little if anything about Jane …
I still think you are a LieberTroll working at $60/day ($80/day if you are from NJ)
You are all so inspiring!!! I just love this thread.
I was born into a family of political junkies. My grandfather was a politician most of his adult life, incredibly caring, generous, smart and with an amazing sense of humor. My grandmother was the ideal politician’s wife, tirelessly tending to the community’s needs. My parents were also very active, especially in local politics, and they included and inspired me.
I had barely entered puberty when Watergate broke and I loved discussing it and other hot issues of the day with my father and his friends; they always respected this little girl’s contributions to the conversation.
I remember when I had finally reached voting age — I wrote to all the candidates for literature, drew up a chart of all the big issues of the day and filled in the candidates’ positions. I guess I was a bit overeager, but I was so excited and determined to make an informed decision.
I live overseas (Germany) and as notjonathan said above, it is so frustrating having to be an observer, but I live vicariously through you!
I know this is long, but if I may just add a recipe if anyone is planning an election day party, for “Knaeckebrot”, which is like Scandinavian flatbread or crackers. They can be made days in advance. It makes 2 or 3 baking sheets worth of crackers.
125 grams (4.4 oz) whole wheat flour
125 grams oats (ground up a bit if large)
60 grams (6 Tb) sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
3 Tb. flax seeds
1/2 tsp salt
300 ml (10 oz) water
1 Tb sunflower oil (or whatever’s on hand)
Mix this all up with a fork and let stand for about 15 mins. Spread out on a baking sheet (I use a silicone mat to prevent sticking). Dip your fingers constantly in water to help spread out the batter as thinly as possible. Bake in a 350 degree oven for approx 45 mins, but watch closely.
I made this up with things that I had on hand, but it’s a very forgiving recipe and substitutes can easily be made.
I think Rayne’s hummus recipe above would be great with these!
Dale in Alabama, if you’re still hanging out here, thank you for the warm welcome the other day!
Mighty late to the party.
Will flesh this out later, but for now want to encourage people to think about running for local office. It’s ridiculously easy and who knows? You might win. If you don’t win this time, you could gain enough experience and supporters to win next time.
I signed up at the last minute as a write-in candidate and won with two-thirds of the vote. I am so shy I can hardly talk to people. If shy egregious can run for office, YOU can run for office.
My new weekly love is Pull Up a Chair with Christy’s warmth and wisdom and firepups -some regular favorites – Lotus, Sharkbabe, Rayne . . .
Today Rayne wins with #53 her wonderful background story, kids as prez parenting and #101 tremendous idea – blogs for us lurker, commenter types who need to take the next step . . .
My first conscious political act was mailing $1 to Jack Paar for “Tractors for Cuba” . . . This is from an innocent Iowa jr. high kid. My racist, republican daddy and loving though puppet mommy were overheard laughing at cocktails saying they’d raised us to look out for the underdog – but they hadn’t expected us to really do this.
In the 60’s my first love in Iowa was black (problematic), in the 70’s I voted for McGovern and started the first consciousness raising group in my Iowa town, in the 80’s I went back to college, got a divorce, had a nervous-breakdown and started over in NYC. The 90’s are a blur as I was grieving the suicide of my daughter.
The 2000 election and this administration caused me great rage and mobilized me.
The last 4 years I have been taking baby steps towards becoming a complete person. (You know . . . Why am I alive?) For me, a critical part of that is climbing out of myself to keep some balance. I had to arbitrarily say to myself I needed to spend 2 hours a month for others, for the community and for volunteering.
Found buzzflash during the 2004 election, went to Meet-ups, followed Move-On, became chair of Women’s issues in Kerry campaign (before DLC and his campaign pushed our local group to the side), signed petitions, and became president of my Phoenix neighborhood association.
I now live in California (North Coast of San Diego) and read blogs for hours and hours a day, worked on Busby campaign, volunteered for Straw Bale build at fair (alternatives), will be virtual calling for Lamont through Move-On this weekend. I still have to make myself participate in the community. Does it get easier? It reminds me of exercises – just do it and you will be glad you did.
Seems it is not my nature, just the terrible times. Big fear is that I am simply becoming addicted – indignation addiction.
My comment failed to mention how wonderful all the new voices were. This is endlessly fascinating, hence my interest in Rayne #101 idea . . .
I love these voices.
this party must pretty well be over but what the heck…..
my first vote was for adlai stevenson, then of course kennedy, and johnson.
in ‘68 i was teaching at a college in north louisiana and hubert humphrey came to speak. if you remember, george wallace carried louisiana that year, so you can imagine the mood of the crowd when humphrey came on the stage. i thought he would be eaten alive. twenty minutes later he had completely astonished me. the crowd was mesmerized.
humphrey did not come off well on television. his voice was too high pitched and he was an old fashioned orator but he knew how to deal with people face to face. unfortunately for him, he was LBJ’s lapdog and viet nam hung like a mill stone around his neck. my students were mostly for nixon though, and they derided me for supporting humphrey. later they saw what a venal person nixon was and were chagrined.
i worked for jessie jackson to get support in the iowa caucus in ‘88, and supported clinton both times and al gore in ‘00. i supported howard dean and then voted for kerry (absentee, from sudan) in ‘04.
a little grateful dead would be appropriate right here, you know the one.
FDL has given me hope and i’m cheering you on from over here in dresden. GO NED!
Am so glad to read posts from folk who remember some of the old campaigns — Henry Wallace, Stevenson, and all. I actually marked a ballot for FDR in 1944 — it was my Mother’s ballot, and she showed me where to put “our” X. (Paper Ballots no less). In that wartime period, my mom did Precinct duty, and we piled all the CIO and the Roosevelt lit in my little red wagon, and hauled it around to our block leaders, who in turn distributed it in Goodyear Heights, Akron Ohio. And yes, I remember listening to FDR’s funeral and all on the living room consul radio.
In 1948 my Dad taught me how to “keep score” for both Baseball (The Indians won the Penant that year) and for Political Conventions. As a result we were listening (still no TV) to the Dem Convention from Philadelphia when Hubert Humphrey delivered what has since become known as the “Sunshine Speech” — which was followed by the roll call of the states on the strong Civil Rights plank — and then Strom Thurmond leading the Dixiecrats out of the hall. I’ve always thought that was the critical point in my political education. I had many to explain what it was all about among my family and friends — but hearing the words and the passion about “States Rights” (Racism) just set my course. Yep, I passed out Stevenson lit in 1956, and worked on state and local races before I could vote — but beginning in 1957 I got much involved with King’s organization (Coretta was from my College), and after graduating, I spent ten years administering a Religious Civil Rights Organization. Yes, I voted for Kennedy, but I also picketed his campaign, demanding that he speak out on Civil Rights and the Sit In Movement. (As of mid October, he hadn’t said much).
In the 1970’s — all the time teaching — I became involved with Minnesota’s DFL Party, and have served 10 years on State Central, Chaired party and convention committees, and I’ve managed about 20 state and local campaigns. I was in on that famous bonfire at the campground outside Rochester Minn in June, 1988 when the Progressives and the Jackson delegates decided to run Paul Wellstone for the Senate in 1990, spent two years at it, and you know — we won. It was the most “out of the box” but most rewarding political thing I ever did — and I am still not over how it all ended in 2002. These days I am pretty much homebound with arthritis, and have to do my politics on the “tubes” — but I sense we are coming into a good season if we keep working on it smartly.
Upthread, someone said not to forget the local and state races — double that. The folk you elect to the State Legislature now and in 2008 will be the masters of re-apportionment. You want a better congress? You get it by running quality people for the legislature now and in 08, and thus have control of that process. I know he is taking lots of flack from Schumer and Emanual who have their agendas, but Howard Dean has the right idea, and his 50 State project is in need of strong support.
Late as is my habit of late. Started early painting the wooden playhouse/swingset for my grandson along with my son, daugher-in-law and her parents visiting from Brazil. I hate to miss Pull Up a Chair, but we must take advantage of the cooler mornings for our outdoor projects.
I missed hearing from looseheadprop this week. She told us of some troubles last week, and I hope all is well.
I am politically-minded but not all that active yet. But my daughter and I did take a page from the FDL book and organized and email campaign to our state legislature to defeat a bill that targeted gay clubs in high school. It was a very interesting experience. The bill was eventually defeated and I don’t know how much influence our small group had (I don’t even know how many people ultimately sent the emails — we provided the mailing list and some talking points, and they were on their own after that). But it was a small success.
I also have my personal blog which leans to the political side with a little life mixed in. Friends and family read my blog, and I hope I can influence some of the many conservatives in my otherwise great family.
Pancakes! mmmmm! Make them from scratch–they’re simple. Better yet, turn them into waffles. Life is short, why have a plain flat pancake when you can have an “embossed” one!
The first Presidential election I remember is 1960. I also remember some of the rumors that were going around (spread, I’m now convinced, by the GOP).
One of my uncles-by-marriage is a political scientist and author. You’d recognize the name; he’s written at lest one book on CA politics, as well as books on morality and other social things. I don’t agree with his views, but he’s a good person.
My brother got his draft status changed to CO in 1970 – for a while he was communicating with his draft board ‘registered, return receipt requested’.
In 1972 I saw Pete McCloskey in person – twice! The first time was when he was doing walking tours of the areas that were new to his district (lovely gerrymander: conservative GOP and liberal Dem, wealthy hillsides and poor flats).
I remember watching the Watergate hearings (never did buy the ‘just a burglary’ line, and my parents didn’t trust Dicky on anything, especially after 1962).
Since then it’s been mostly watching politics becoming increasingly lobby-driven and less responsive to the majority of people in this country. I feel like it’s 1968 again, and what we’re doing is important.
And, if you need to feed a crowd, try this cookbook: Lloie’s Kitchen, from Schoolhouse Press in WI (plug: small business, woman-owned).
My M.O. for the past 18 years is dualism and schizophrenia …
1. THE NICE-NICE JANUS FACE for public interactions, like Letters to Editor (supporting the Objects of their Destruction, like Cynthia McKinney as noted by ilson45201, below; and amusing, joke-filled stabs to the chest of right-wing-nut media mouthpieces)
2. WHILE GIVING NO QUARTER TO PEOPLE WHO ALREADY KNOW ME (so when they think of me as their “token” flaming liberal or they mouth the rantings of their backward, knuckle-dragging work associates or relatives just to get my rage and talking points) they are never disappointed. They know they will get the argument of their lives. No squishy lib, I.
Apropos the Letter to Editor Nice-Nice face …
*ilson46201 said:
>>… mainly working with progressive Black women. They’re “3-fers” having to deal with classism, racism and sexism simultaneously. I just sent thru ActBlue $20 to Cynthia McKinney — her election is also this coming Tuesday.
My only edit to above comment 174 is that it got cut in half.
Oh well …
I have other things to do besides read blogs, but my country is in grave danger, so if reading this blog, and giving it what money I can and going up to Minnesota to help out Rowley is what has to be done, then, by God, I’ll do it.
You can always tell when the other side is afraid of you. The MSM has started calling us “the left wing Internet bloggers.” Sort of has a ring to it.
’scuse me, not my country, but our country!
Hey there,
My political conscience woke up under Al D’Amato and how we really needed to dump him (US NY). Then, I got my toes wet by making money contributions, and under this administration, I started going to the local Democrat committee meetings and then went dialing-for-democrats in the local elections, and this year I’ve completely dunked my head under water by carrying petitions – AND, I’m running for our Town Council.
Calling all Progressives: My name is Pat Babb, and I live in Chester, NY, which is in Orange County, NY, which actually part of NY and within commuting distance of NYC. We’re on the west side of the Hudson, above Rockland County and below Sullivan County. We have 2 Democrats on the Town Council, and one was elected to the County Legislature, and there is one year remaining on his term. At the time we were collecting petitions in June and July, I did not knowthere was no Democrat running to retain that seat: currently there is a Republican running unopposed. I think Democrats should not concede the seat for want of a candidate, so I am running. I have to run as an independent, the Chester 1st Party, but I am a Democrat through and through. Our local committee members are working with me.
I need 200 signatures by August 22nd from Chester — I’m targeting Democrats. If there are progressives in my neighborhood who are inclined, please come to Chester and help me gather signatures. Rational, reasonable progressives need to be elected at every level of government.
All friendly campaign advice is welcomed: I’m learning as I go. We progressives cannot concede a single seat anywhere without a contest.