Strange Parallels

fubar

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Friday November 21, 2008 · 10:17 AM PST

2008/11/21 · 10:17

Kos put up the touching story of Ellen, one of the women from whom he bought his house.

My own housing story has strange parallels.

fubar

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Tuesday February 08, 2005 · 9:24 AM PST

2005/02/08 · 09:24

With Roemer the last candidate to drop out of the DNC race:

Sorry to jump the gun, but I've been waiting for this since the Val Air ballroom in Des Moines. On Saturday when he's officially selected, I plan to donate to the DNC. I hope everyone here does too.

Darn tootin' I'm a Reform Democrat.

SF Chronicle examines Bush & Kerry record

fubar

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Wednesday September 29, 2004 · 10:30 AM PDT

2004/09/29 · 10:30

A week ago, San Francisco Chronicle Washington Bureau Chief Marc Sandalow took the unusual step (for a mainstream journalist) of actually sitting down and going over John Kerry's record on Iraq. What he found was surprising even to those who are firmly in the ABB camp. The opening section of his article, titled Flip-flopping charge unsupported by facts lays out the case:

No argument is more central to the Republican attack on Sen. John Kerry than the assertion that the Democrat has flip-flopped on Iraq.

President Bush, seated beside Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, said Tuesday: "My opponent has taken so many different positions on Iraq that his statements are hardly credible at all.''

The allegation is the basis of a new Bush campaign TV ad that shows the Democratic senator from Massachusetts windsurfing to the strains of a Strauss waltz as a narrator intones: "Kerry voted for the Iraq war, opposed it, supported it and now opposes it again.''

Yet an examination of Kerry's words in more than 200 speeches and statements, comments during candidate forums and answers to reporters' questions does not support the accusation.

This morning, Sandalow returns to the record by examining Bush's positions on the war on Iraq, in an article titled Record shows Bush shifting on Iraq war:

President Bush portrays his position on Iraq as steady and unwavering as he represents Sen. John Kerry's stance as ambiguous and vacillating.

"Mixed signals are the wrong signals,'' Bush said last week during a campaign stop in Bangor, Maine. "I will continue to lead with clarity, and when I say something, I'll mean what I say.''

Yet, heading into the first presidential debate Thursday, which will focus on foreign affairs, there is much in the public record to suggest that Bush's words on Iraq have evolved -- or, in the parlance his campaign often uses to describe Kerry, flip-flopped.

An examination of more than 150 of Bush's speeches, radio addresses and responses to reporters' questions reveal a steady progression of language, mostly to reflect changing circumstances such as the failure to discover weapons of mass destruction, the lack of ties between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network and the growing violence of Iraqi insurgents.
...
Whether such shifts constitute a reasonable evolution of language to reflect the progression of war, or an about-face to justify unmet expectations, is a subjective judgment tinged by partisan prejudice.

Yet a close look at the record makes it difficult to support Bush campaign chairman Ken Mehlman's description of the upcoming debate as a "square-off between resolve and optimism versus vacillation and defeatism."

The pair of articles may not change too many partisan minds (or contain much new information if you have been a regular ProgBlog reader). But they are solid works of journalism in looking beyond the hype and spin and actually looking at the records of the two men running for President.

Highly recommended reading. When you're done, feel free to send an encouraging note to the Editors at letters@sfchronicle.com or some nice feedback to Sandalow himself.

GOTV via SMS?

fubar

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Sunday September 26, 2004 · 1:40 PM PDT

2004/09/26 · 13:40

Is anyone in the Kerry, Dem, or local campaigns doing any Get Out the Vote via SMS paging? A lot of people have SMS-enabled phones and most of the younger folks don't even have landlines, so this would be a good way to reach them on election day.

There have been embryonic efforts like MobileVoter out there, but they seem to be stalled in very early stages. There's a John Kerry Wireless Community channel on UPOC but I can't tell if it even works. There's no mention of wireless or SMS on the Kerry web site (and yes, I do know Dean was doing some of this, but it sort of fizzled out).

A quick n' dirty technical solution (database, web-page, SMS broadcaster) could be whipped up in a short period of time by a few technically savvy people -- with a little funding from the party or the Kerry campaign. The idea would be to have people give their email address and/or phone number or to send a text message to well-known phone number to automatically get signed up. A week before election-day, they would get a short message reminding them that the election is coming up. One day before, another one so they can think about making time for it. And a couple of messages on election day (say, one in the morning, and one in mid-afternoon for people coming off work). If you want to get fancy about it, you can ask for their home address and send them the address of their nearest polling location and personalized reminders on local races and candidates.

I imagine the transmission and marketing costs would have to be borne by the party, a 527, or individual campaigns, but it would be a heck of a lot cheaper than direct mailers or TV ad buys -- and potentially reach a lot more people.

If you think this is a worthwhile idea, pass the word along so it can reach he right people to get it going. I'm willing to do some leg and tech work and on finding out what's needed to get this up and running. Drop me a note at fubar AT needlenose.com or post your thoughts here. If somebody's already doing this and I've missed it, then GREAT! Please post a link to it.

Let's get going. Time's a running out.

Stamping out Bush

fubar

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday September 01, 2004 · 12:55 PM PDT

2004/09/01 · 12:55

Apparently, you can now create your own perfectly legal USPS-sanctioned postage stamps personalized with the picture of your choice. The company says it will have to approve each image for appropriateness before processing the order. We'll see if they'll accept mine:

If so, I should have a sheet of 20 coming my way pretty soon. They might come handy mailing postcards to voters in the swing states ;-)

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Strange Parallels

Dean *is* the DNC Chair

SF Chronicle examines Bush & Kerry record

GOTV via SMS?

Stamping out Bush

Dean is the DNC Chair