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According to the NYT, things appear pretty good for the Dems:
Voter intensity is a critical element in politics, especially in midterm elections, when Americans’ interest and turnout are typically much lower than in a presidential election year. Pollsters say enthusiasm among Democrats is particularly high this year — significantly higher, by several important measures, than the intensity of Republicans.
Republican strategists counter that they can compensate for any gap in enthusiasm with their legendary get-out-the-vote operation. The party has built its electoral success in the last two elections on identifying and producing nearly every obtainable Republican vote at the polls; this time may be more challenging, they say, but no different.
“I do think our base is coming together and will be coming together later, but four weeks is an eternity in this business,” said Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican and longtime party strategist.
Looks like this year God is speaking to the fundies through Mark Foley. He's saying "do not defile thyself in the voting booths of Mammon. Stay home, order thyself a pizza."
But before anyone starts counting chickens, you might want to think about this and consider volunteering for local GOTV efforts.
Is it time to bomb Iran yet?
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Ned!
fitz
Hi Jane! Tazered any TRexes today?
Waiting for Iran. Samuel Becket, where are you when we need you?
I don’t see how bombing Iran would help them win in November, at this point.
For the Outside Threat play to work, you’ve got to have either a credible threat or one that you can dress up in a convincing costume. We’ve been hearing about Iran for far too long, the costume is pure amateur hour, and it seems like the reaction to bombing it would be a big collective groan all over America, except maybe the reddest parts of the Heartland and the Mountain West.
Now Pakistan…a coup d’etat which throws Musharraf out of power and puts nuclear missiles into the hands of the islamo-fascists. That’s credible.
Stay home, order thyself a pizza
ROFL I hope so.
Gotta go out, gang, and search for the heart of Saturday night. Thanks Jane, and everyone here, for all you do.
Wow, scary numbers from the AFL-CIO on the Gingrich Revolution.
52,000 votes in the right districts could have stopped this 12 years of madness on Capitol Hill before it started! (at Jane’s think about this link).
========
Had Enough?
========
Somebody needs to remind somebody in the Bush regime that Iran is no Iraq. Oh Georgie; that’s I-R-A-Q. Not Grenada and you’re not Ronald Reagan. But who fears not the despot to tell him so?
http://nedlamont.com/blog/1796…..the-debate
Ned debate on Monday!
aaaand speaking of defeating real thugs, here’s Nate’s EPU’d response to winning the Had Enough video ad contest–$5,000 for Charlie Brown!!
Nate @ 26
I really, really liked Charlie Brown’s voice at the end of his ad. Makes me want to trust him sight unseen. We’ve gotta get this guy in and replace the Mariannas forced abortion thug he opposes. Ditto to elect Diane Benson to defeat Young–committee chairman in charge of the Mariannas–in Alaska.
Pro-choice or pro-life, and I’m one of those oddballs who supports BOTH, we can ALL agree that forced abortions are evil. The Bible doesn’t speak of evil as a theoretical. It is out there. We must fight against it.
Driftglass has some mighty powerful words to say to those who may still be feeling a little glum.
i hope the fundies stay on their couches for the rest of the millenium’s elections…..
if they’d spend some time on therapists’ couches, the fundies wouldn’t have nearly as many sex scandals…..
unless – as seems likely – “insight-oriented fundamentalism” as an oxymoron……
“Republican strategists counter that they can compensate for any gap in enthusiasm with their legendary get-out-the-vote operation.”
the legend equates to enthusiasm…
their get out the vote has always been irrational emotional drum beatings…
it’s not gonna happen this time… but there will be a residual (they’re following habit types) who will vote republican because they’ve been republicans for years…
denial dies gradually… Bush support is not quite dead yet.
But the numbers of fundie voters who show up will not be like the recent numbers.
Mammon and Caesar should be pounded incessantly… they’ll get the message eventually
Oh wow! I just discovered that Howie had a post up earlier with a new version of the images for “Had Enough”- Porter vs. English. The new version of “Had Enough” is great! Watch on YouTube.
Howie’s post:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspo…..table.html
Direct link to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..#038;eurl=
Previous Howie post on English, a truly disgusting man:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspo…..-wing.html
I don’t know who put this YouTube together from the Brown/Doolittle debate, but it is hilarious.
This is the quintessential fundie fountain of spew. It distills the wingnut talking points. And the background music gives it the perfect feeling of bemused detachment — which after all might be the only sane way to deal with these guys.
Valley Girl — those Porter Had Enough bits are great!!
All this business surrounding Republican Rep. Curt Weldon being investigated by the FBI in connection with possible dirty financial dealings between Weldon and his daughter is not at all surprising. The Bush Administration has long prided themselves as being a ‘top down’ bunch. Monkey see; monkey do. I mean what’s the real difference between Weldon and his daughter’s corruption activities and the President’s brother making huge piles of dirty-money off the ‘no child left behind’ tests? It all stinks and is most likely illegal.
TeddySanFran @
3
Holy shit. She tasered him? Why can’t I be so lucky?
LindaR @ 16
Our own beloved:
Nate!!!
egregious @ 20
Oooh I knew I liked that guy! I still haven’t met Nate, weah.
LindaR @ 16
I’m not sure I agree that it’s hilarious (scary)… but it is absolutely brilliant. I hope TRex sees this- it would make for a great late nite. It gives an absolutely telling view of the right wing extremist take on politics and the world. And, *ilson would love the first part about the ACLU- I hope *ilson sees this too.
Great find, LindaR!!!!!!!!
Time to bomb Iran/new “terror attack”/N. Korea not ready for prime time nuke tests/other phony October non-surprises: [and don’t forget to blame Clinton!]
If they try any of this crap we have put them on notice that we know these are lies. And just TRY to cancel the elections, for any reason, any reason whatsoever. You will witness WE THE PEOPLE.
And folks, time to enlist to watch the vote count. Call TODAY [ok…it’s a little late here in the east…tomorrow] to volunteer for being a poll judge or poll watcher or volunteer with a video cam recording anything hinky on election day. Important…cover the infrared ports on the voting machines so they can’t be remotely changed. Monitor all machines that are broken, and every person who comes to “fix” the “glitch.”
They will try anything and everything to stay in power. Don’t let them steal the vote again!
FIGHT BACK!
Via Aravosis, Reynolds’ GOP stalwart voters are melting:
http://www.newsday.com/news/na…..-headlines
We need this “if he was aware and did nothing” worry to bleed into IL-14, now.
I’m not sure that Nate did that- tho he linked it. Nate did a commercial, tho- http://getintheirface.blogspot…..orced.html
He says it was his first video effort. So, the ID of the montage producer is still ????
Groovy!! Looks like the AFL-CIO is citing chapter and verse of the DNC’s 50-State Strategy when they start talking about the numbers.
If you’re not familiar with the 50-State Strategy, check out the presentation from the kick-off 15-NOV last year. The numbers are a kick in the ass, absolutely compelling.
Once you read the numbers you realize we could have won all along, but for having a few more people active in the grassroots, a few more people aware they were absolutely essential, a few more people showing up at the polls. Mere handfuls of people, but it starts with us.
As AFL-CIO’s Podhorzer says at that link, It’s up to us. If we want this badly enough, we can make the small sacrifices necessary to win. It’s not as if the rewards aren’t going to be immense; cripes, the lives of family members count on some of us, either as troops serving in Iraq or elderly navigating the Medicare-D doughnut hole. Our democracy depends on getting just a few more people out to vote.
It’s so much easier than you think, if you haven’t done this kind of grassroots work. Start by showing up. Then ask what you may think are stupid questions — they are not. (Stupid questions saved the Democratic Party in my county, truth be told; it would be dead if somebody didn’t show up and then ask stupid questions.) And then go with the flow, with the exception of taking no for an answer.
If somebody in your local party can’t find something for you to do, you go right ahead and empower yourself to do something. There’s plenty to choose from.
Don’t worry, I’m doing it, too. I’ve learned all of this in the course of 3 years, from my first Meetup for Dean in August of 2003. Where we floundered at first, we are now a new machine. Maybe not well-oiled, but we get it done.
Today was an absolutely spectacular day, fortunately not sleeting and snowing as it was earlier in the week. It made the 3 hours spent doing literature drops to absentee voters speed by; four of us covered two precincts, about 1/20th of a city. Tomorrow we’ll have four teams of two each, and we’ll cover about 1/5th of a neighboring township with literature drops. Not up to running to the door? help organize the literature and “walking maps”. Or offer to be a driver; it works great to have someone drive from block to block and keep everybody organized, while 1 or more people jump out, drop the literature, and then ride to the next neighborhood.
One more suggestion: this week, give special emphasis to those folks who may be eligible for absentee voting. Some folks may be able to vote right now — and then they can ignore all the campaign hoopla for the next month. Be sure to help them with a voters’ guide, maybe even help prepare one if nobody has done so in your precinct/county for Dem candidates. Don’t forget the non-partisan seats down ballot, like judgeships!!
Check your schedule, check your weather, and then plan to get out there. I’m going to be out there with you, too.
Rayne- I’m in a peculiar situation- D congressman who has never had a challenger of either party ever since when, but in a hopelessly red state- any experience, you or anyone with moveon.org phone banking?
Rayne -26
Sheer inspiration!
Rayne, you are an inspiration! Thanks for your detailed and delightful call to action.
OK,
It is getting dark and cold in Alaska. Ms ET and I pulled our carrots and beets and covered the garlic I planted yesterday with the carrot and beet tops. I took a picture of my dog Strider laying by a fire near the lake staring at my
lablaptop and I think I’m gonna send it to Redd.Sometimes we’re really dense up here in Alaska. We want to know how to get a “Had Enough?” video template for Diane Benson’s campaign. I don’t know and nobody else with the campaign does, but Kris, the CM loves it.
ET – drop Howie an email or drop me one and I’ll put you in touch with Howie on that.
VG — who’s running in state and local seats? Do whatever you can to help them, even if you think they don’t have a chance. This is a perfect storm, a lot of old school Goldwater-type Repugs pissed off at their own party; they may either swing-vote or stay home, in which case every single local Dem can make a difference by not conceding and getting to the polls. I would seriously work with the local party, get a list of all the strong Dems/lean Dems/independents in your precinct, and then phonebank them. There are a lot of guides at the DNC website in the way of scripts and printable material to help you.
Think also, about the fact that putting any pressure on Repugs makes them spend money. Maybe Dems won’t win in your neck of the woods, but it’s absolutely essential that you give the next race a better chance by forcing the Repugs to pull money out of the bank for 2008 and spend it now. You may think you aren’t making a difference, but you certainly are; I was SHOCKED to learn that a candidate we’ve been backing and who’s grossly underfunded compared to his Repug opponent is AHEAD. SOLIDLY.
Yeah, baby.
I’ve done phonebanking for MoveOn-DFA’s joint effort in 2004; a lot of what we did should have been done by the Democratic Party. If you phonebank for MoveOn and you find that Dems tell you they’ve been contacted or have gotten a lot of calls, don’t be put off. Heck, be PROUD — it means the 50-State Strategy is working. Go for it, if you’d rather try this tack.
I personally find that folks respond better if you can honestly say, “Hi! I’m one of your neighbors here in [city/town]! Can we talk?” and then go into the script.
Do what works for you, though. Go for it!
http://blogs.courant.com/colin…..ed_th.html
Haven’t been checking out To Wit in a while, but just saw that he gives nice props to CTBob…
~~~Video Killed the Poltical Star
If you want to see how potent a weapon the blogger-video can be against a candidate, check out Ct Bob catching Joe Lieberman in a lie. This is a worse-than-usual problem because Lieberman’s campaign has been complaining, in mass emailings, thusly:
What did Negative Ned do?
* Criticize Joe for saying things he never said
Oh, but the video reveals Joe to be a person who says Ned says Joe said things Joe didn’t say when in fact Joe did say them. Thank heavens for little bloggers now that we MSM types don’t have time or staff to do fact-checking. ~~~
I found this paragraph at Down With Tyranny today.
Fordham and ex-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl– another gay man– will testify that they told Palmer what’s up and Palmer may be willing to take the bullet for his… roomie. But no one would believe him. “‘It would be very hard to believe if Palmer knew that kind of detail, he wouldn’t have acted upon it, and it’s hard to imagine Scott Palmer would have spared the speaker that knowledge,’ said one former Republican leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing his lobbying contacts.” More likely they’ll make Van Der Meid the scapegoat, a real kapo type and former DeLay ass-kisser.
So I did a little Googling on Mr. Van Der Meid and discovered this site that lets you figure out which Congressional staffers were attending any given lobbist-funded event (from January 2000 through December 2005).
ET -
Would love to see the photo of Strider staring at your laptop – winsome screen saver if ever there were one – ;~)
Siun @
31
e-mailed Howie right now. Your e-mail address is on my old laptop which is being used elsewhere. I’m at niklake at mtaonline dot net.
So Siun, which crook are you going to vote for in the Illinois governor’s race? And do you think Blagojevich can make it through another term without being indicted by our very own “Fitz” Fitzgerald? I was tempted to look at the Green candidate Rich Whitney but I’m not used to casting protest ballots so I’ll probably pass on the governor’s race all together.
Could someone do me a favor and tell me if this link
http://www.box.net/public/qglsccax4u
works for you? It should bring up a pdf file with John Doolittle’s deferment record.
LindaR–
Who knew all you had to do to make Repubes wet their pants was to repeat ACLU, Clinton, 9/11, and Nancy Pelosi about 95 times?
I used to know some thoughtful GOPs. While I disagreed with them on almost every issue, there were a few bedrock things we had in common.
Now, they’re very squishy on things like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. What the hell happened?? These people all got propagandized, right under our noses, with us yelling about the danger the whole time?
Rayne- thanks for the detailed response. Good advice- but it will have to wait for next time around, just because my resources are limited. What I said might make more sense if I have mentioned that John Lewis is my Rep. A very Dem disctrict in a very red state. So, at this point, I want to spend my energies on elections outside the state. I can’t travel to CT this time, but I hope to be phone-banking for Lamont. The phone banking issue is complicated there, for out-of-staters, for reasons that were explained well to me by their local person. “Trusted volunteers” is the short form. However, if any FDLers want to do same, mention it to me, and I will see what I can do.
Rayne, you are treasure and an inspiration!!!
LindaR @ 38
No – it didn’t work for me. I go to a splash page but nothing is there except a pdf icon
LindaR @ 38
Works for me, LindaR.
Oh, Margot, I know what you mean.
Hugh @ 37
That worked for me – just sent in my absentee ballot without voting for governor – in protest of both Arnold & Phil since I cannot bear either
LindaR that link worked for me,
but wordpress ate my response to you.Thanks LindyH. I just tried that hosting site, and the first link I used didn’t work blah blah blah — anyway, thanks.
Brownandserve — WOW. The info at that that link you provided is awesome. Jeepers.
I can do a LOT of opposition work with this material.
And I note that what looks like the two most expensive Dem offices in terms of trips are Evan Bayh and – wait for it -
Joe Leiberman.
Not too good for Bayh; he’s going to have a tough time with that.
But Lieberman? Cripes, the man did all that traveling and didn’t visit CT during his last 6 years in office?
Phew.
Rayne:
Speaking of which, Carol Lin on CNN just said that Frist has asked his supporters to send money to Hastert’s campaign. Heh.
Drain the swamp ; )
Rayne, you ROCK!
LindaR @ 38
It works for me- page came up and then I downloaded the .pdf. “Failure to report”… haha.
Hugh – I didn’t realize you were a neighbor!
I’m stymied by the local races – wish I lived out in IL14 so I could vote for Laesch. I’m still new to IL and so view the local contests as a “low information” voter and I must say after the bombardment of negatives for both candidates for gov, I’m less than excited about voting for either. So … guess I’m leaning Green as well. Of course, since my congressional candidate is Bobbie WhoNeedsNetNeutrality Rush – I’m wondering if I should vote at all!
(I know, I know … and I will actually go vote but I’d sure like at least one good candidate!)
Yeah — failure to report, but then he did get a deferment after that, so I don’t know what it’s about.
And GE just luvs Joe.
VG — ah, now your first comment makes more sense.
In regards to vetting folks (whether they make calls or offer to do other work): I look for signs they walk the walk. Are they Dems in good standing with the party (have a party ID card)? Are they a party official? Do they blog and if so, does their writing track record match their stated intentions? Do they belong to other progressive organizations like DFA, MoveOn, PDA, etc.? There are also other issues that concern us, like fit for the role; we have a volunteer who has a cognitive disorder that makes phonebanking difficult, for example. But they are GREAT with other tasks like literature drops.
So…VG, I think there are ways for the CT folks to work in out-of-state callers, but it does require some legwork on the vetting. Perhaps the CT bloggers who frequent FDL can help with this process. I think tightly scripted calling also makes a difference; too much room in a script can get into areas out-of-state folks really can’t answer (questions about down-ticket seats is a common challenge).
As for technical matters: Skype offers calling from any computer to any regular phone number FREE through the end of the year. There are some minimum requirements on equipment, and broadband is a must, but anybody can call anybody inside the US for FREE if they use the free Skype software on their computer. (Also need a headset – run about $16 to $42 at Staples depending on model). We are using this for phonebanking, allows us to scale up quickly.
Matt Stoller on MyDD has info on $$4Joe…
http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/10/14/201842/05
It gets worser…
——–
On a lighter note, the Aspen CO Sherriff’s race hasn’t been the same since the Hunter Thompson ‘Freak Power’ campaign back in the day.
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/016046.html
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” (or DO they?…)
——–
…and odious Talent has nerve attending Buck O’Neil’s funeral service. The only sour note I found in this touching tribute:
Lou
“Buck’s illustrious season of life has now come to an end,” he said. “We were honored and give God’s glory for sending Buck O’Neil to lead us. We will miss him. We’ll miss his laugh, his advice, his joy for life.
“Rest in peace, Buck, my father figure, friend, motivator and mentor.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/…..BHeadlines
anjinsan @
19
All you need to do is develop an online shopping habit and we’re good to go,anjinsan.
RE: Iran
My congressman Pete DeFazio is introducing a bill to remind Mr. Bush that he needs Congressional approval before he attacks Iran.
Here’s a link to two letters sent to Bush.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0417.html
Might want to contact your congresscritters and ask them to sponsor it.
(sorry about the long link, I don’t know how to do that tinyurl thing.)
Cozumel @
48
Coz- I found that yesterday online- here’s the link to the whole letter- http://hotlineblog.nationaljou…..nds_h.html
~~~Sen. Maj. Leader Bill Frist sent the following message to his VolPAC e-mail list. It combines a stout defense of Speaker Dennis Hastert, with an appeal to raise money for Hastert’s re-election campaign.
For many years now in Washington, there has been a strong, conservative quietly shepherding through the Congress President Bush’s policies. That conservative never seeks the limelight and always puts his country first. His name is Dennis Hastert.
From the beginning, Speaker Hastert has championed President Bush’s policies to fight and win the war on terror, keep taxes low and put commonsense health, energy, and education policies in place. He is also a man of strong faith.~~~
Cozumel — really??? Frist said that, send money to Hastert?
Heh-heh. I can’t imagine any constituent being happy enough with a guy flirting with indictment asking the same constituent to send money to a guy that hid sexual predation in Congress.
That’s really rich.
Drain that swamp, baby!!
I was looking through some sites. Among political parties recognized in Illinois, there is the US Marijuana Party of Illinois. I don’t know if they’re running a candidate for governor or not. I haven’t seen anything. Maybe they forgot or lost track of the time or used their paper forms for other purposes. You never can tell.
Here’s the FREE download link….
http://www.skype.com/helloagain.html
Nothing fancy here. Just regular desktop PC speakers that I already had and a $10 “stick mic” from Radio Shack. I’ve been using Skype for about 6 months now. no problems
Oh nuts, is it that late? I better hit the hay. I’ve got another 2 or 3 hours of literature dropping tomorrow, and then a 1-2 hour progress meeting with the rest of the peeps to check polling, get the download from state level, and layout strategy for next week.
I want it bad, gang, want to win and kick neo-cons out. Bad enough to give up Late Night, sorry to say. Catch you in the morning!!
Rayne- re: the Lamont phone banking- I’ll see how it goes for me- but in the meantime, I’ve been compiling a list of “trusted FDLers” who I would endorse, if they were interested- sent the idea along to the Lamont campaign, but I haven’t heard back.
And yeah, I forgot to link in that last comment to the Late Night FDL fresh thread.
Worst. Date. Ever.
Poor Pach.
Rayne @ 60
Sleep well great spirit!
VG — can CT Bob, dab from CT or one of the other bloggers help run interference on the matter of phonebanking for you? I’d give it a shot.
Hugh … I didn’t realize we had a ganja party! damn! wonder where they stand on net neutrality!
Valley Girl @
49
The link took me to a page containing a second link to classificaton.pdf. If you want, you can use http://tinyurl.com/yjrour as a direct link.
Ed*ard Teller @ 30
Watch out where the huskies go.
Ed*ard Teller @
30
Hey ET, I remember Howie telling you on the Blue America thread to have Kris email him at his DWT/AOL account, which can be accessed directly from his blog.
Do we know for sure that Bush even cares about the November elections? I’m guessing Bush’s confidence comes from the knowledge that he has a Winning Plan So Good That Nothing Else Matters. In other words, he’ll hit Iran and it will magically solve all the problems in the Middle East and he will be a hero. Or so he thinks.
Be very afraid: With the likelihood of nuclear complications arising out of an attack against Iran hanging over the future like a bad nightmare, more and more idiots seem to think nuclear war is survivable with just a little grit and determination — it’s just another kind of war, and we can cope with that, right? Actually, no.
The dude in the picture kind of looks like Bill Richardson.
What is there for Republicans to vote for? This 4th Reich is well underway. Already the gestapo detains demonstrators, bans books like “America Deceived” from Amazon, conducts warrant-less wiretaps, uses false-flag operations (9/11) and starts illegal wars based on lies. We are the new Hitler. Much of Germany did not know what was going on until it was too late. We can probably agree that the WWII German populace was far more intelligent that today’s average American. How long until they realize? We’ll find out in November.
Final link (before Google Books caves to pressure and drops the title):
America Deceived (book)
I’m a precinct captain in Clif Kelley’s precinct (Ward 21, North Columbus.) The rally is something we’ve put on once a year for the last few years, since we founded from the remains of a local Kerry group. If you get your ward organized, bigtime politicians *will* come and speak.
Paul Hackett (he’s a rockstar, he’ll be running for office again) came last year, Strickland and Mary Joe Kilroy (running against Deb. Price) came this year, and a whole pack of local legislative & judicial candidates.
We’re nothing special, we just walk our precincts a lot. Talk to your neighbors. Do it today!