1100 to 2011

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Saturday October 22, 2011 · 11:44 PM PDT

2011/10/22 · 23:44

Over a dozen years ago, my parents decided I should go to Europe. So they took me. It was nice of them. I'd never been. But I'd studied history in college and was eager to see the castles and cathedrals I'd only read about in books.

By the time we'd hit our third country, I'd noticed something. Many of them had been built--or at least started, as it often took hundreds of years to complete some of the larger or more ornate ones--in 1100 or soon thereafter. So I asked a nice Irishman at Kilkenney Castle in Ireland, whose job it was to answer stupid tourist questions, why that was. His answer might be instructive for us today. One of the larger European crusades had just ended in 1100. Europe was flooded with armed men, experienced in warfare, who now had no way to make a living. The lords and kings needed something to do with them. So they started building to keep them from turning to banditry.

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Do you think Congress is unwise to ignore the needs of returning servicemembers?

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Do you think Congress is unwise to ignore the needs of returning servicemembers?

3 votes

Yes

31 votes

Hell yes!

233 votes

We all STILL live in Richard Pombo's district

cfinnie

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Monday May 31, 2010 · 6:54 PM PDT

2010/05/31 · 18:54

In 2005, Kid Oakland famously wrote that everybody ought to care about the race for Congress in California's CD-11. He argued that then Congressman Richard Pombo's well-known anti-environmental views and plans could damage the whole country.

Pombo lost in 2006. But he's back and running again in another district. And he's raised millions of dollars to support another run.

So once again, everybody needs to care about what's happening in California's CD-19. And you need to do it NOW!

cfinnie

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Sunday June 21, 2009 · 4:56 AM PDT

2009/06/21 · 04:56

To: Assemblymember Sam Blakeslee
Fax: 916-319-2133
Subject: We all live in Sam Blakeslee’s district

Dear Mr. Blakeslee,
In 2006, a young blogger wrote "We all live in Richard Pombo’s district." He went on to explain that, because of his anti-environmental stance, everybody in the nation had an interest in Richard Pombo’s bid for reelection in California’s 11th congressional district. The post was widely reproduced and money poured in from across the country for Mr. Pombo’s opponent, Jerry McNerney. Phonebanks sprang up across California to support Mr. McNerney. People from all over Northern California went to his district to canvass voters. And my friends and I formed the core of his campaign staff.

With no prior political experience, Mr. McNerney defeated Mr. Pombo and serves in Congress today.

Today, we all live in Sam Blakeslee’s district.

cfinnie

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Saturday February 07, 2009 · 6:35 PM PST

2009/02/07 · 18:35

Dear Senator,
Neither you nor I have a Nobel Prize in economics. But Paul Krugman does. And he says you are wrong. Not just wrong, but dangerously wrong about the stimulus.

You may think both Krugman and I are dangerous commie pinkos. But both of us have been right about the economy. You have not.

If you had been right that tax cuts and the free market can cure all ills, we would not be in the situation we’re in right now. You got your chance to prove your ideas. And they failed. We have all paid for their failure.

Now we are poised to pay again for your stubbornness and stupidity.

cfinnie

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Monday July 28, 2008 · 1:55 PM PDT

2008/07/28 · 13:55

I’ve heard it said that, to a carpenter, every problem looks like a nail. To a surgeon, a scalpel. There are probably more examples of this. But the idea is that every person looks for a solution within the realm of our own experience.

This election year, American voters are faced with candidates who look for solutions through very different prisms.

cfinnie

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Saturday May 26, 2007 · 10:18 AM PDT

2007/05/26 · 10:18

Just saw this on a listserv in N. California and thought it deserved to be passed along. I would encourage all of you to repost far and wide and to contact your representatives about it. As I read it, Georgie boy has just appointed himself dictator at will. He must be stopped.

Published as a "Presidential Directive," the National Continuity Policy allows Bush to declare dictatorial powers during a "Catastrophic Emergency" (meaning any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions).

I was a history major in college and have never heard of anything like it in our country--not even in times of war. The fact that he granted himself these powers, and in full stealth mode, makes it even more chilling.

cfinnie

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Thursday March 30, 2006 · 12:47 AM PST

2006/03/30 · 00:47

That's right, on Tuesday, March 21, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the DCCC, won their first election--against another Democrat.

Washington knows best
They brought in the big guns. Hillary Clinton hosted a big-ticket fundraiser in New York. John Kerry sent out emails to raise more money. Barack Obama taped TV spots. By the end of the campaign, the Tammy Duckworth for Congress campaign had sent eleven different pieces of direct mail to voters in the 6th District in Illinois, covered the airwaves with commercials, and had spent close to $1,000,000. Read More

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1100 to 2011

We all STILL live in Richard Pombo's district

We all live in Sam Blakeslee's district

An open letter to Republican Senators

What does the problem look like?

Bush busts Constitution

The DCCC works to defeat a Democrat