It feels real good to think I was part of what happened on election day.

i’ve already said thanks to the firedoglakers in an earlier post a few days ago, expressing my condolences on lamont, but offering my gratitude to everyone here for their hard work in the victories we gained last tuesday.

i’ve been randomly going around to lefty sites in blogtopia (yes! i coined that phrase!) and offering my thanks to everyone for their work.

and if i could, i’d go around to every lefty house in america and thank them for their work, too.

we did it. and we did it because we rolled up our sleeves, knuckled down and used some old fashioned elbow grease to get it done. and that’s how democracy works.

but, as i said on all the other sites, we can’t let up, because democracy is participation sport, and riding on laurels is how the dems got into the sad state of affairs in the last three decades of last century.

good work, everyone!

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But let’s also pat ourselves on the back for refusing to let the Democrats forget the same thing. Don’t worry, the DC consultants are already back advocating that strategy – don’t waste any strength on your base, put all your income into battleground areas, etc.

I really think DC consultants have such a strong motive (self-interest) to go for the “put all your chips on the battleground state, spend it all on big ad buys” strategy to go away any time soon, no matter how often it loses.

The simple fact is that a consultant wants to do things that a consultant can do. And consultants can’t build big ground operations, consultants can’t build real organizations. They can do good, targeted media.

But candidates of any party who mistake the talents borne by consultants as a substitute for boots on the ground – well, let’s say that any grassroots or netroots oriented person would want to defeat that strategy, no matter which side it comes from, as early and often as possible.

There’s another thing on Mr Hall’s resume. During the Orleans peak years, he was politically active. After a show, we spent nearly a half hour discussing how music could power a people movement against nuclear power.

Together with Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt (and i probably forgot others) he formed MUSE, which raised millions for anti-nuke pro-solar actions. Including the famous Madsquareguard concert.
(Now i remember, it was Ty Braswell who took the helm of that, with a producer activist who i’ve unfortunately forgotten.)

I remember taping the live broadcast from Battery Park in ‘79. (I’ll bet I still have those old cassettes somewhere, too.) The only thing I remember from that afternoon by the FM receiver was Graham Nash saying to the crowd “Each one of you, individually, has the power to change the world.”

Boy, was he right.

BTW, a CD of the MSG concerts was released in ‘97:
CD Universe

William (Cold Cash) Jefferson of Louisiana has a runoff election with a Democratic opponent on December 9. Support his opponent!

Dr. Victoria Wulsin (D) of Ohio Dist 1 for the House of Representatives came out on election night 2,323 votes behind Mean Jean Schmidt (R), but several thousand “provisional” ballots, those challenged for some reason by polling officials, have yet to be counted. Also, there are issues of voting malfeasance in Mean Jean’s home Clermont Count and in Warren County. We can’t let Dr. Wulsin be a victim of Rovian dirty-tricks.

Karen, so good to hear. Hugs to you, Dr. Vic and all the folks hanging in. Every last damned vote! And shine a bright light on the voting funny business, too.

My hat is off to you all. Thank you.

Dr. Victoria Wulsin (D) of Ohio Dist 1 for the House of Representatives came out on election night 2,323 votes behind Mean Jean Schmidt (R), but several thousand “provisional” ballots, those challenged for some reason by polling officials, have yet to be counted. Also, there are issues of voting malfeasance in Mean Jean’s home Clermont Count and in Warren County. We can’t let Dr. Wulsin be a victim of Rovian dirty-tricks.