I wasn’t able to make the trip to Austin this year, after having been an attendee at both the Ykos conferences, for a variety of reasons, primarily financial. I did take full advantage of the Netroots Nation streaming online, however, while working in my studio, and I watched all the major panels I would have attended had I been there. This afternoon I watched the Crashing the Party: Transforming Netroots Activism into Grassroots Action Within State and Local Parties panel with NYBrian, Chris Bowers, Wmtriallawyer, Hekebolos and Delaware Dem. I want you all to be proud of me for not resorting to the use of the latter user’s many nicknames. Take note and be thankful. They all went by their real names at the conference, but I’m too programmed after all these years on Dkos to resort to them (except for Chris and Brian, of course).

See below for how I did it

There are two topics that really hurt this past week here in lovely PA.  Today, front page headlines covered all the state papers with 12 Democratic leaders being charged with a plethora of illegal activities concerning campaign funds, public tax funds and fraud.  

The next topic is near and dear one for my local community.  If you think state and federal politics are bad, have you ever sat in on Borough Council or City Council meetings?  The idiocy is rampant and this situation takes the all time cake for our nationally registered Historic Boro.  

Do you know who is running as a Democrat for State Senate or Assembly in your district?  Do you know what district you're in for local races?  Do you ever bother to research these candidates or give them small donations that can mean a lot more than a donation to Obama?

I really think it's time you did.  If you want to see education matter in your community, you have to care locally.  If you want to see the environment matter in your State, you have to give and care locally.  If you want to see Universal Healthcare in your State, you HAVE to give and volunteer for your local Democrat so they can go to your State Capital and pass a State program.  

Do you really want to see things change more quickly?  You must believe that the Fifty State strategy goes past the Presidential Election and much further down the ticket.

You aren't going to believe this one. I am having a hard time believing it, myself. But when our legislative district Democrats' chair sends out an official email with this information, I have to believe it. Come to our next meeting if you want to really have some fun: Dino Rossi is coming. I need some good suggestions for questions I can ask him.

We all love local politics. Well here in Brooklyn we are fortunate to have a skilled, principled City Councilwoman named Letitia James representing us.

A local blog, The Footprint Gazette has taken a recent speech she gave at a rally against developer Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal, and remixed it into an instant classic. It's well worth the listen.

Keep an eye on Tish, as she is called, she has a great career ahead of her. Audio remix and link after the jump:

First it's as easy as meeting Rebecca herself. Which I did unexpectedly last night. Many of you know/don't that the place-2-B for Obama events (like last night as nominee) are at Everett & Jones B-B-Q at Jack London Square.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/...

Just checking to see if anyone out there is involved in a mayoral campaign. Soul Power is backing a strong Dem for Mayor and told the organizing committee about the supportive and energetic Daily Kos community. Soul Power would like to organize a small working group to talk campaign strategies and brainstorm over your favorite Friday night beverage.

Just checking to see if anyone out there is involved in a mayoral campaign. Soul Power is backing a strong Dem for Mayor and told the organizing committee about the supportive and energetic Daily Kos community. Soul Power would like to organize a small working group to talk campaign strategies and brainstorm over your favorite Friday night beverage.

Read all about it below...

My sister and I don't talk much, really, mainly because we're just about exact opposites. I'm 26, she's almost 40. She's got 5 kids and a farm. I've got an apartment and a cat. She's a registered nurse, turned housewife, I'm a retail minion. But I called her today, and I plan on calling the rest of my West Virginia relatives to see if I can scrape up some support for Obama tomorrow.  

cross-posted from Beyond Chron.

On June 3, San Francisco voters will decide the future of the largest remaining undeveloped acreage remaining in the City. Although its location at the Hunters Point shipyard and alongside Bayview’s low-income minority community has long kept it out of sight and mind, this land is our last opportunity to remake the City’s waterfront a striking community that continues to meet our city’s needs.

Remarkably, almost all the information sent to voters has come from political consultants hired to sell this proposal. It comes in brochures with attractive drawings but very little else, with campaign costs already over $2 million and likely to set an all-time record for a San Francisco ballot measure.

San Francisco, the leader in so many areas, appears to be on the verge of giving birth to yet another first-of-a-kind: the stealth campaign to write public policy out of public view, through a ballot measure exclusively funded by the corporation anxious to seize a billion-dollar prize, and offered in language that wriggles, weasels, and walks away from all the promises it boasts.

I was sitting taking a break from phonebanking for Barack Obama today and had a great conversation with Fred Feller, a recently elected national delegate for Obama from CA-09.

Fred won election to go to Denver here in CA-09 last Sunday at a caucus held at Beebe Memorial Church on Telegraph Avenue about a mile from my house in Oakland.

970 of us showed up to vote in that caucus last Sunday. I was a volunteer working the line...giving out information and making sure things ran smoothly...and so I had the chance to speak with almost every last one of those voters.

Fred won enough votes to be an Obama delegate to Denver. Like the other delegates chosen, he will do Obama proud, and I was really pleased to see him taking his Saturday afternoon to call Pennsylvania with about thirty other volunteers at the campaign offices of Congresswoman Barbara Lee...

As the president of a local Democratic club, I have to stay officially neutral during the primary season. I'm also personally undecided (as I have noted before on DailyKos here and on my own web site here.)

I just returned from my Legislative District convention here in The Ville. It was an interesting experience, and revealed to me why Obama is (a) doing so well, and (b) is going to win the nomination and the election.

Jump the fold and I'll tell you what I saw.

Webster Groves is a suburb just outside of St Louis off Interstate 44. It is generally considered an affluent town with good schools and fairly decent amenities. Property taxes have increased an average of 40% in the past 4 years. On April 8th Webster elected 3 new city council members. The campaign was uneventful with 4 candidates bidding for  the 3 seats; they all looked and sounded about the same. I decided to go to the public forum held a local grade school and listen to the candidates in person. It broke down this way: Ms Hart was the encumbent running for her second term; Ms Salsberg works for St Louis County as a city planner; Ms Tolen was a neighborhood activist working to ensure her neighborhood would not get bulldozed and turned into a big-box plaza; and Mr Brown was a lawyer pledging to cut the property taxes.

My LD is recruiting.  Of course I pondered the idea, but my personal strengths and interests are in national issues

That isn't the only reason I didn't raise my hand.

Fear.Trepidation.Challenge

But mainly

I couldn't answer the question "Why?"

I'll say it again. Pathetic.

The dictionary doesn't do it justice, it defines pathetic as affecting or moving the tender emotions (NO!); causing pity (Now we're talking!)

Pissed-offish? Head in hands make you wanna cry? Nah, I'll just stick with my first choice. Pathetic.

Follow my sorry story below.

So, my husband and I came home last night from taking our two arthritic dogs to the vet and we found a smallish raccoon lying underneath a bench in our backyard. It was not moving and appeared to be dead. We called the city, police and animal control and everyone said that they wouldn’t do anything about it. My neighbor’s son and I went out to put in a garbage bag, when we noticed that it was still breathing.

Ok, so, my first thoughts are: raccoons, rabies, dogs, kids...We forget putting it in a bag...we came back in, called the police, again, called animal control, again, called several wildlife rescue groups, we even called the CDC. Everyone said the same thing "the police are supposed to take care of that".  Except the police. They said "we don’t do that anymore because of budget cuts".  

Now these police have come out to our house on numerous occasions because of our dogs. Complaints about them barking, or fears about them being loose (we have an invisible fence, so people don’t realize that they are really fenced in).  But to not respond to what might actually be a public health emergency??

Cross-posted from Florida Netroots  Note: While the details are specific to Florida, the sentiment applies nationwide.

Whether you’re a libertarian who thinks the Republican party has gone too far in getting invading personal liberties, a progressive you thinks the Democratic party hasn’t done enough on issues of workers rights or social justice, a social conservative who doesn’t think the Republican party has done enough to protect your vision of our country’s moral values, or a Blue Dog Democrat who thinks the party has ventured too far to the left and wants to find some common ground on social and economic issues ... this blog entry is for you.

I'm in need of some advice from my fellow Kossacks. I'm a committee member of a regional Democratic committee and I've uncovered rock-solid evidence of party disloyalty from another committee member. Basically, this committee member, who is also an elected official, was making donations to the campaign another local politician—a very powerful member of the local GOP. And all this happened while the committee was working hard to unseat this GOP politician from office.

I've presented the evidence to the local Democratic Committee, and I'm asking for a vote to remove this committee member. But some members of the committee are trying to stop me, saying that it will hurt the party.

My view is that the damage has done and not by me. Read below for my story, scribble some advice for me if you have it, and vote in my poll.