A highly interested observer of NC and national politics, I've been posting on DailyKos since before the 2002 elections. That makes me pretty much an old timer, I think. Father, husband, lawyer, Edwards supporter.
Every year this happens. Every year they come for me. Every year I manage to weasel my way out of it.
But not this year.
This year, they got me. I am being detained for my "past activities." In a manner completely contrary to the Constitution, I am being locked up until I can prove myself worthy of release.
Another example of the Bush Justice department gone awry?
Judicial activism at its worst?
Nope. Just a chance for you to help cure Muscular Dystrophy. I'm in the MDA Lockup in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I need your help to get out.
Ron Paul's insurgent campaign never went anywhere, but he generated an enormous amount of enthusiasm among some fairly creative people. And while he was nuttier than an Almond Joy, I think he might have hit on something with this supporter-made ad, and Obama might consider encouraging this to go viral. In light of the Britney/Paris ad, maybe we need to compare McCain to another famous blonde:
No diary here. Just recommend it if you agree that the Democratic Party does not need to nominate as Vice President a Republican, anti-environmental, pro-agribusiness, shill of the Bush Administration to whom your neighbor most probably owes his recent case of jalapeno-induced salmonella.
NO.
A THOUSAND TIMES NO.
If he picks her, the convention should vote her down.
On Saturday, one candidate got what every candidate in America has been seeking in this election year. Kind words and visible support from the latest Nobel Peace Prize Winner - former Vice President Al Gore.
"Hampton Dellinger would make a great Lieutenant Governor." - Al Gore, 2/12/08
Six years ago, stumbling around in the wasteland that was post-9/11 politics, I, a former contributor to Buzzflash, a frequent letter to the editor writer, and a former pseudonymous contributor to Salon.com's late lamented comment threads stumbled upon a little-known website called Dailykos.com.
From that day I embarked on a journey - carried by a surge of belief in a candidate that I had not felt before - but hope I can feel again. And I want to write about that journey, and what the edwards bloggers have accomplished - join me below the fold, won't you?
Today, Clinton teared up when asked how she could handle the constant campaigning, and how she got her hair done in the morning. Nothing wrong with that, I guess. All the candidates are ridiculously exhausted, (this really is a stupid way to pick a President), and heaven knows I tear up when I hear my little girl say "Daddy." Nothing wrong with a little emotion.
Hillary was asked about Obama's rejoinder that there's something vaguely un-American about dismissing hopes as false, and that it doesn't jibe with the careers of figures like like John F. Kennedy and King.
"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act," Clinton said. "It took a president to get it done."
Any minute now, I am expecting this to be announced as the new Hillary Clinton campaign theme song (see below the fold):
Mickey Kaus has been posting in barely-contained orgasmic glee [ed note: if it's orgasmic, it can;t be contained can it? me - depends on if you're Sting] over the latest tripe spread by the National Enquirer.
To Kaus, it's true, because the National Enquirer says it. No word on whether he thinks Elvis and JFK are actually at Area 51.
Here's the thing, Mick. I don't like you. I think your act is tired. I dont care how often National [notso]Public Radio goes to you to cover "what the bloggers are saying."
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from DrFrankLives. We may all disagree with each other from time to time, but all of us here at DailyKos share a common goal of making next year more Thanksgiving-worthy than this.
The good Lord has blessed us with an unbelievable bounty here in North Carolina. And as angry as we may get at ourselves and our fellow man for wasting that bounty, we should never forget just how blessed we are.
One of things we are blessed with is YouTube, which reminds us how blessed we WERE to have WKRP in Cincinnati. To remind you of that blessing, I post below the GREATEST HOLIDAY EPISODE IN TV HISTORY.
Sometimes, reading to your children can be more educational for you than it is for them. In fact, I'd venture to say that's almost always the case. My son and I just finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl's classic and ridiculously sadistic take on the rottenness of 20th Century childrearing and entertainment.
My kid loved it. Nothing better than a nasty greedy kid getting sucked up a big pipe, unless it's a nasty whiny little brat getting thrown down a garbage chute by Oompa-Loopas.
Now we've moved on to the sequel - Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - which is an enormously subversive, almost trippy take on just about everything else Dahl hated about the 20th Century.
His take on the American President may sound quite familiar. It's as if he's in the Oval Office today, and he even calls Dick Cheney a fat old lady!
Hillary Clinton approaches the podium at Troutman Sanders Public Affairs office in DC, and addresses the assortment of gray and blue suits in attendance:
"I'd like to welcome all the rural Americans here today who were able to travel and plunk down money to lunch with me here in this tony DC law office. I hope that both of you will keep your damn muddy boots off the furniture."
I am asked why I support Edwards and not Clinton or Obama.
The first answer is I am loyal, and I know when I have made the right decision the first time. I came to the conclusion in 2002 that he was the right man for the job. I still believe so, and I am hopeful, indeed ecstatic, over the possibility that he can sweep to office on a wave of Democratic enthusiasm and outrage and finally, at long last, begin to enact the kind of fundamental reforms this country desperately needs.
Health Care, labor, foreign policy, the environment, the role of the Corporation in society. These are all things John Edwards will fight to change with progressive values. Moreover, he owes nothing -- nothing -- to the forces that will fight against those changes.
But the reasoning goes deeper than that. Some of it isn't even reasoning. Some of it is gut. Follow me on my journey below the fold.
The John Edwards campaign announced tonight that John will join striking UAW workers in Buffalo tomorrow. He will join the members of U.A.W. Local 774 in their picket of GM's Powertrain plant.
UPDATED - Another video of the other Johnny.
Workers are being asked to pay for bad products with their pensions and their healthcare. Nothing crystallizes the need for John Edwards's universal health care plan more than this strike.
When is GM going to wake up and begin to push for UHC?
Today John Edwards appeared on Ed Schultz and did exactly what you have been asking him to do. His statement was clear and unequivocal. This is a rough transcript, but it's pretty close.
Ed: What are 22 Senators doing voting for this resolution against MoveOn.org, John? Is there a vacuum in leadership among democrats in Washington?
Edwards: "What a colossal waste of time. I mean really. we have a war in Iraq going on and that' what the Senate wastes its time on? What a waste of time."
I wondered what it would take to enrage me enough to get back to blogging. For almost six months, I've sat on the political sidelines. Working hard at work, paying attention to my neglected family, and generally keeping my head down. Something finally has pissed me off enough to get back at it.
I'm sure you'll be surprised to read that it was something the Bush Administration did.
Below the fold, read why General Petraeus, September 11, and the third anniversary of my Grandfather's death combined to send me over the edge when a rightwinger questioned my patriotism because of my politics.
I'm sick of it. And I'm finally mad enough to get back into the game.
