This past weekend in Washington, DC at the DNC Winter Meeting, I began a discussion that the “beltway insiders” don't like. It’s one of real consequence -- it’s about making it clear that we need immediate withdrawal from the civil war in Iraq.

I wasn’t hesitant to start this discussion and I am not shying away from what I said and will continue to say – Congress must stop funding the war.

It’s not about political calculation on Iraq – it’s about doing the right thing. And that’s cutting funding for President Bush’s war and begin bringing our troops home, now.

Later tonight after the President’s speech I will take a stand on behalf of the overwhelming majority of Americans who disagree with the war escalation on FNC’s Hannity and Colmes at 9PM CST. And I will continue to urge Americans to reject the war escalation now and join me in passing the Vilsack Resolution in their community.

President Bush and his administration have grossly mismanaged the war in Iraq, hollowed out our active duty military, and depleted the resources of the National Guard, -- putting us all at risk.  

We have a patriotic duty to speak out.

Iowans have ensured that the progress we have made together will continue long after my term as governor is up. Confident in the abilities of newly elected leaders, I know our children will have access to ever-improving schools.  And under Governor Culver's administration, Iowa will continue to create good-paying jobs, ensure access to healthcare and maintain our status as a renewable fuels leader.

Nationally, the vote today was a mandate for change in Washington.  It was a call to get our country back on track with common sense ideas and Heartland values.  That mandate of responsibility spreads across our great country.

Yesterday brought great news for Iowa Democrats. The Iowa Poll that came out and has Chet Culver 9 points up, Bruce Braley 21 points up, and in command of the majority of races across the state. But it is too close to call in two statewide offices and a few state legislative races.

We're close to a sweep -- and we can do it.

Last Friday, I joined Ross Miller, one of our candidates for Secretary of State, to deliver our VOTES Declaration to the Secretary of State's office in Carson City, Nevada.

Since May, the communities of  Heartland PAC  and DailyKos have helped support candidates for Secretary of State. We've joined forces to help ensure we elect candidates who believe voting is a right not a privilege.

And we are making an impact. USA Today covered our work on the front page of the paper and our candidates are using the resources we've all provided to wage vigorous campaigns.

But we aren't done.

One of the most vital races for secretary of state  is in Minnesota. The current Secretary of State, Mary Kiffmeyer, is Ken Blackwell and Katherine Harris in the making. She has shown time and time again that she is not interested in making it easier to vote - and not afraid of being partisan, using everything from fliers about terrorists to scare voters to trying to pass a voter ID law.

But we have a great candidate to make sure Kiffmeyer doesn't have a chance to join the ranks of Blackwell and Harris -- Mark Ritchie.

In 2004, we came close to taking control of the Iowa legislature. Now it's time to finish the job and give Chet Culver the Democratic State House and Senate I never had.  That sort of accomplishment won't come from anything other than taking our message to our neighbors -- person to person.

So we need people in every state to take responsibility.

Tomorrow I'm going to three events in Iowa, with three great Democratic state legislative candidates: Becky Schmitz, Merle Johnson, and Rich Olive.  Where will you be?

We can't wait around for Washington to solve these problems. So over at Heartland PAC we've decided to go straight to the election officials in each state, and pressure them to make firm commitments to make our elections work.

We're doing that through the VOTES Declaration, which this community helped make a real success. In my last post I promised to do what I can to keep the drumbeat of pressure growing, and I wanted to share what you what we have done.

Ted Strickland and his campaign have made sure that he has a mountain to climb to win a promotion to Governor.

Jennifer Brunner's campaign is doing better than ever, thanks to your help (we beat our goal by over $4,256 - raising $24,256 for her campaign).

And today Chad McVeigh and other College Democrats in Ohio delivered our VOTES Declaration to Kenneth Blackwell's Secretary of State's office as a challenge to fix this system or get out of the way for people who can.

But I didn't write this post to revisit YearlyKos. This post is about a fundamental issue in our democracy:  Voting is a right, not a privilege.

 From the people I met this past weekend, I am sure we can all agree that it's time to restore fairness and integrity to the electoral process in our country -- and I know many of you are involved in a number of  unique efforts to do just that.

However, there is one way we can all come together and have a lasting impact: Ohio, in 2006.

So when we started to examine the Democratic Party's message I wanted to come back here and challenge this community again. Our message is not going to be developed for us, we have to come together as a community to develop solution that we can all believe in -- and your input and feedback will be a vital part.

We have launched a new website dedicated to having a discussion about the Democratic Party's message:

www.OurTenWords.com

This cannot happen unless we offer solutions to issues people care about. Bold new ideas can make the difference for those who want to ensure Democrats win on Election Day.    

To begin offering solutions both tested and new, we started the first in a series of single topic discussions through our website, offline, and with other communities like Daily Kos.  The first topic was education.

[Update: More Comments Below]

I wanted to thank TeacherKen for his comments early yesterday about education and for all of his insights over the past few weeks. I am also happy to see that all of you here at the Dailykos.com community have joined TeacherKen in discussing education again, as you have done before.

I took time to read the responses and I want to thank those who took the time to respond to TeacherKen and the post I made on the Heartland Pac website. One of the comments that caught my attention was the listing of items by decades that we have expected our schools to teach. That list and the fact that the amount of school schedule has not changed explains a lot to me.