Last night I attended the annual dinner of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, a local club where my wife is a club officer. I want to share with you a highlight of that evening. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer spoke to us and his speech was excellent and covered several points that we all should pay attention to. Those points are: Democrats remain stymied by Republican thug tactics; Democrats should not fear John McCain and the Republicans because they are going down this year big time; the reason why the Republicans are collapsing is that we are witnessing a "tectonic shift" in American politics; Democrats had better follow through after November, fulfilling the expectations of that tectonic shift or we will lose again in future years. Details below.

Here's a national AP story out this morning on the Oregon Senate race:

As head of the deep-pocketed Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, New York Sen. Charles Schumer hand-picked his party's nominee to take on Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, the last Republican standing on the West Coast.

But voters may have another idea.

Days before votes are counted in the Oregon primary, Schumer's choice — Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley — is in a tight battle with Portland lawyer and activist Steve Novick. Polls show the race is too close to call.

{more}

Jim Neal is the progressive candidate in North Carolina's Primary this Tuesday May 6.  He is up against Kay Hagan, a conservative Dem who was apparently nudged by the DSCC to run soon after Jim affirmed in a press interview that he was openly gay.  I first learned about Neal through the netroots and through an article on 365gay.com about his candidacy his candidacy.  After hearing about the campaign, I decided to take a look at the candidates' sites themselves.  Even a quick glance reveals tremendous differences.  Jim is a true progressive on everything from healthcare to gay rights to the Iraq War.  He is also taking a great step forward for all gay Americans by having the courage to be himself and run for office.  We must band together and do what we can to get Jim elected!  Please visit his site, donate, spread the word, and read below the fold for more.

With the Obama Veepstakes poll now concluded and Gov. Bill Richardson as your chosen running mate (which was covered by the Santa Fe Reporter) it's time to take this a step further:

Who would you like to see in an Obama cabinet?

Yesterday, Joe Biden won the Sec. of State poll (results below the fold). Today you can vote on the next Secretary of the Treasury:

It appears that over the weekend, on Wolf Blitzer's show Chuckie said that Hillary will win Puerto Rico, and the 63 delegates will be all hers.

"Winner take all", Chuck says.

It's been debunked extensively, but Wolf, [or Vulf the former U-Boat commander that he is, if you listen to Mike Malloy's radio show ;p], seems to not quite be able to distinguish reality from fantasy.

Wolfie lets Chuckie's little twist and shout go unchallenged.

[And so, what else is nu?]

Here's the debunk

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/...

Join the book club for David Sirota's upcoming book, The Uprising, due out on 5/27.

In a stunning - if predictable - story, the Hill Newspaper reports that congressional Democrats are now saying that they will effectively thwart any effort to create a national health care program. Here is the key excerpt:

"Congressional Democrats are backing away from healthcare reform promises made by their two presidential candidates, saying that even if their party controls the White House and Congress, sweeping change will be difficult...Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), a member of Senate Democratic leadership and a key Hillary Clinton ally who also sits on the Finance Committee, said he is 'not sure we have the big plan on healthcare.'...'Healthcare I feel strongly about, but I am not sure that we're ready for a major national healthcare plan,' Schumer said...Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), a Clinton supporter who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, said "the money is not necessarily there right now" to enact the plans."

There's a lot to unpack here.

Greg Fischer is the real deal.

As the only progressive candidate in Kentucky's Democratic Senate primary, Greg Fischer has demonstrated time and again why he is the real Democrat who can take the fight to Mitch McConnell this November.

(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)
I've traveled all over Kentucky, on my own dime, doing my best to shoot video of all the Democratic candidates so folks here in Kentucky can view the candidates on Youtube and get a feel for who best represents them. All of the candidates have been very cooperative and respectful of what I am trying to do. They seem to understand the importance of attending events and trust me to shoot video of them so folks here in Kentucky can make up their own minds.
Further more I have, on my own dime, videotaped numerous protest against Senator Mitch McConnell and these protest and the videos of these protest have made Senator Mitch McConnell vulnerable.

As posted at DownWithTyranny:

Little more than a week after showing himself the most scurrilous, divisive prick in the Institutional Democratic Party, James Carville just sent me a letter asking for money. He wants my increasingly meager discretionary income on behalf of at least one of the party's runners-up on the scurrilous prick scale, Chuck Schumer.

Apparently blind to the welter of Democrats and even independents who consider Carville a raving crazy-uncle-ish fossil and tiresome vestige of a misguided experiment in party corporatization, Schumer's Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has trotted out the Clinton strategist in a mailer that has him het up on gittin us galvanized. Funny thing, I agree with almost every one of the party rallying points Carville, or Schumer's people with Carville's imprimatur, makes in the letter. And yet I find myself reading it with nose wrinkled, more eager to throw it in the shitter than actually appraise it, eager to symbolically, or in my mind, kick Carville square in the nuts as I do. I'm not sure this qualifies as effective marketing communications.

James Carville is the reptilian Democratic political consultant who oversaw Bill Clinton's victory in the 1992 presidential election.  Since then, he and his partner Paul Begala have been hanging around the Democratic Party like a bad smell.  In 2000, he and Begala penned a noteworthy piece in the Washington Monthly in which they urged Vice President Al Gore to choose Zell Miller as his running mate.  Gore didn't choose Miller, but he must have been paying attention to Carville and Begala, because his actual choice, Joe Lieberman, proved to be the next best thing, following in Miller's footsteps by giving a great big Democrat-bashing speech at the Republican National Convention.

(more below)

(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)
Chuck Schumer says no Democrat in Kentucky is going to raise much money. Well Chuck how much money do you need to start impeachment hearings? Let us know, here in Kentucky, and we’ll send you the check.
I don’t have 3 paragraphs here, but the video I put together is after the jump.

The WAPO blog has a video of Senator Schumer making a noteworthy plug to donors to the DSCC.

You see, for once a Dem Senator for once did not shy away from raising expectations for the nationwide races.  In fact, he admitted that we really do have "a once in a generation opportunity" to increase our Senate seats.  

We not only can do it his way, we can make it a progressive majority...

Bob Casey's Obama endorsement says a lot about the future of the Democratic party and what progressives need to be doing.

crossposted from www.opednews.com

The Fox knows many things. Admin knows jack shit.

reprinted from WOID: a journal of visual language

Sometimes you want to cry just to keep yourself from laughing. The librarian was explaining why I couldn’t have access to the medieval manuscripts: "You see, these books are made of vellum and they’ve been put on display recently, so the vellum needs to rest." Really? I wrote the goddamn book on medieval vellum, and I was going to ask the librarian if she gave the vellum a little pillow and tucked it in at night and then I thought, better not. Just cry.

Kossacks, we here in North Carolina need your help.  You see, we are trying to unseat Elizabeth Dole in the coming elections and we have a terrific progressive candidate who we believe can do that but guess what?  Good old Chuck Schumer stuck himself and the DSCC smack in the middle of things and convinced a centrist, corporatist state Senator, Kay Hagan, D-Guilford, to run even though she didn't want to!  Apparently our progressive candidate Jim Neal who stepped up and announced his candidacy, something Hagan wasn't willing to do, isn't who Chuck "Mukasey is OK" Schumer and the rest of the old guard think should face Dole in November so they "enlisted" Kay, an establishment Dem.  

Apparently, the DSCC chairmanship was considered a lousy and thankless job when Chuck Schumer took over in 2005.

But after a highly successful election cycle in 2006 and a generally outstanding recruiting job this year, the future is looking so bright for Senate Democrats that Schumer is considering staying for a third cycle as DSCC chair:

In a wide-ranging interview with The Hill, the New York senator, DSCC chairman and Democratic Conference vice chairman tamped down talk about a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority, suggested he might stay at the DSCC through 2010 and said he didn’t regret supporting the nomination of Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

While his GOP counterparts face a severe dearth of challengers, Schumer has filled more than half his 23 targets with well-known Democrats who could plausibly ride a wave to something previously thought unattainable this year — 60 seats.

Schumer has become one of the highest-ranking Democrats in the Senate, and received considerable praise for his stewardship of the DSCC in 2006. He's no longer doing this job to raise his already-high profile. He's considering sticking around because he apparently feels he can continue to build on the success he had in 2006 and expects this year.

Hell, with 19 Republicans up in 2010 against 15 Democrats, a 60-seat majority in 2011 does seem plausible.

While Republicans are retiring left and right, Schumer-who nearly retired himself after 2004 in order to run for Governor-has big dreams for the next cycle. He's having so much fun, it seems, that he is considering another cycle in a job he didn't especially want three years ago.

That kind of excitement and enthusiasm is nice to see.

Barring a terrorist attack, the economy is going to be the number one issue for most voters come this November.  So I started thinking about which elected official could BEST help Barack seize this issue as his own.

(cross posted at Hillbilly Report)
This is a spoof, so don't get too excited.