Okay, I admit that I usually groan and roll my eyes when I see a diarist proclaim to know what Obama's Next Big Speech should be. I mean, I'm certain that Obama and his team have a pretty good idea about how they should campaign and when and where it's appropriate and neccessary to speak out about something.

That said, would Daily Kos be the thriving, buzzing community that it is, without its bevy of backseat drivers and Monday quarterbacks? Therefore, swallowing my own elitist attitude towards those who think they know more than the  candidate about what he or she should do, I throw this, my own two-cents version of "What Obama Should Do Now" into the abyss. Intrigued? Read on.

I just recently found DailyKos due to getting so frustrated with the corporate media that I googled "liberal blog" and DailyKos was the first return.  I now spend a few hours a day on this site, far more then I do on all other web sites combined.  My question is where else do you go to get news/opinion online?  

Hillary Clinton has said for a very long time, she is tested, she is vetted and she is ready from day one to lead this country as our President.  Is this really the case?

C'mon, I'm sure we've all thought of at least one:

New Rule:  Politicians cannot support any torture -- oops, I mean "aggressive interrogation" -- methods unless they've first tried it themselves.  [Let's see a Republican talk about Jack Bauer after someone else has gone medieval on their ass].

Submit yours!  More after the jump...

On this day with so mucch interesting new, I want to make two suggestions for Dailykos, which would make the site easier for me to use, and maybe others too.

First, how about a glossary of terms. I read this site everyday and I do not know all of the terminology that is used, or where it came from. I can only guess what the meaning is. I suppose there are others like me that want to feel included and we found "our place" but it makes me feel a little like an outsider when I don't understand the jargon. So if we could have a glossary of terms with a definition and explanation that would be cool. For example I couldn't tell you exactly what the following mean, and this is just off the top of my head, "freeper" or "freep this poll"; "Friedman Unit", "wingnut" (ok I know what that means but where did it come from?) and the nicknames of some of the wingnuts.

See what I mean? The glossary could be like an Oxford Dictionary to show how new words came about and it might help get the words out in the mainstream. I would love to hear someone ask  Thomas Friedman "how many Friedman units will it be till your next wingnuttery piece is published?"

Do I sound like an idiot or what? See I don't know how to use these words.

Jump:

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Continuing my list of unconventional suggestions to Congress  ... last time we finished the first big category: "What can the House of Representatives do, all by itself, even if legislation is blocked or stymied?"

After all, with this President in power, Democratic majorities may be stymied by utterly obstinate veto obstruction until January 2009.  Hence my emphasis on things that may be accomplished by Congress, no matter what Bush does or how much the opposing troglodytes yell and screech.   Just the re-establishment of an independent scientific advisory apparatus for Congress would knock them for a loop.  And the president would be powerless to stop it.

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Now let’s move on to Part Two, which deals with actual legislation that might pass.

Of course, "might pass" is kind of hopeful.  But let’s start with items that might seem so "obvious" to the American people that the trogs might have trouble standing in the way.  Or, better yet, agenda items so reasonable that they start to split the Rovean alliance, drawing the better (Barry Goldwater style) conservatives closer to the middle and leaving the mad-right isolated.

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Continuing my list of unconventional suggestions to Congress  ... let’s finish the first big category:

What can the House of Representatives do, all by itself, even if legislation is blocked or stymied?

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Reactions have been generally positive, so let's continue to ponder a short list of unconventional suggestions that I'd like to see the new Congress accomplish, as we begin the long, slow process of reclaiming AMerica and Western Civilization...

...not just for one side of some dismal "left right plitical axis" but for the sake of the Great Experiment itself.   A society of open accountability, negotiation and pragmatic progress.

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These suggestions can be fould in one place at  http://www.davidbrin.com/...

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So far, we have been dealing with a general category : What can the House of Representatives do, all by itself, even if legislation is blocked or stymied?

I don't know if this is the best place to put this, but I wanted to see what other people thought.  I have one minor problem with the recommendation system as it is.  While I have great respect for the non-front page writers who consistently grace the rec list with their presence as well as great writing ability, let's face it: there is a tendency to knee-jerk recommend someone with name recognition.  On the next version of DKos, it would be nice to have right below the current rec list 2-3 diaries that receive the most recommendations but also have not made the recommendations list more than 2-3 times.  This would ensure that as the DKos community grows and great writers emerge to name recognition status, future great writers would also be given their chance to compete with those who have already made a name for themselves.

Just a thought :)

Has anyone seriously thought of compiling a well indexed, high quality book of the collected Kossack quotations?

I'd buy a book like that in a minute. I'd even pay $29.99 for a book like that... well...ummm maybe not that much...but $25.99 would do the trick.

I sent the following suggestion to Wikipedia, but I thought some Kossacks might like to mull over this idea.  Whaddaya think?

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I realize this might open a can of worms...

I need help people.  I need a vacation.  When I say 'I', I mean my family has to come along too (they insist on it really).  Our great plan was to leave for 6 months to Europe at the end of August.  Well, one of our clients just dumped a huge job on us, so we're stuck here at least until the end of the year.  

We need a vacation.  After all the work we've done last year and the work we'll be doing this year, we need to make it count.  Here's where you come in...we don't know where to go.  We do know that it must be someplace tropical.  We've been to Jamaica, so we don't necessarily want to go back. Though we did have fun

That's me and Mr. Fab before we spawned...we were so skinny...sigh

Daily Kos is getting lots of attention these days, and rightly so. I don't have to tell the people reading this how this site works, but I am here to issue a challenge.

I like the "random page" button in the dKosopedia. It gave me an idea.

I've been noticing that diaries seem to be scrolling away faster and faster, yet, there are real gems among these "lesser" diarists' output. And once a diary scrolls away, it is unlikely that anyone will ever read it again.

Two ways to solve this problem are: have a "random diary" button, or have a "recycled diary" section on the front page that randomly selects diaries and brings them back.

Hi, my name is Yil and I'm lazy.

I started being lazy years ago and thought it was something I could control.  I didn't think it would impact my life or those around me, but it has.  You see, I'm guilty of not voting very often.  If it wasn't a Presidential election or a close Governor/Senate race I didn't seem to turn out and thus I must take some responsibility for the mess we're in.

Thinking about ways to motivate myself I hit upon an idea for this site that might get my ass into the voting booth more often.  A "Go Local" button!

Amid the masses of on air puppets moving their mouths to the tune of Republican talking points, there is one crusader of reality out there in the MSM (if only one) who does not appear to have a Karl Rove's arm crammed fully up his ass and into his cranium. That being the maestro of truth himself - Keith Olbermann. And might he be a fellow Kossack, perusing the pages of our illuminating discourse? Well, he certainly is a beacon in the "reality based community." More than the recent converts of Lou Dobbs and Jack Cafferty (who both must be commended on their finally just standing the hell up for America), it was Keith Olbermann who almost single handedly pointed out such things as the 2004 election irregularities, the tie between terror alerts and political opportunity, and the fact that the US did not attack bin Laden because, as George Tenent put it we would have "wiped out half the royal family in the UAE"

Oh - hail to thee - Olbermann, purveyor of truth and defender of America over party! So with that, I ask my fellow Kossaks, what ideas do you have for Kieth Olbermann?

  Who would you like to see deliver it?? I personally would like to see it be a rebuttal of the last 25 years of conservative ideas that have brought us to the point we are at now.

  I would either like to see someone who the right wing media hasn't really villified deliver it. Specifically Jay Rockefeller. Or, someone they have mischaracterized but whom the public in general has not really had the time to actually listen to, like Howard Dean.

 

 Hi, I am writing an article for my school paper titled "Ten common Miscomceptions about the war in Iraq."
     The problem is that there is so much misinformation to choose from.
     Please leave a comment about what YOU think what misinformation needs correction the most. Your imput is appreatiated!