This just in: My friend Lori called and said she had tried to get tickets for a so-called Town Hall event in New York City tonight. Apparently, originally, Mayor Bloomberg had invited Barack Obama and John McCain together to do a broadcast event via ABC, but since the opportunity was not there for other media to broadcast it, both campaigns declined.
Enter Fox. Tonight, Fox will be broadcasting a 90-minute Town Hall event exclusively, with John McCain.
Last Saturday, as I was fielding comments on Daily Kos about the piece Why We're Leaving, prospective buyers were traipsing through the house, opening the doors of newly-cleaned out closets, perusing the half-empty book shelves, and asking the occasional question about the plumbing. The traipsing continued through Sunday, even though we did not even have a For Sale sign in the front yard yet.
On Monday, we had four offers to buy. We accepted the one from the nice young couple who will have a baby in three months. They seemed to be the hopeful choice: they had saved their money for ten years, had lost out on another house they had loved, and were so so positive about our house. They bid high. They won.
Certainly the first indication was right before the 2004 election, after a year-plus of working hard, 24X7, to elect a smart, good, thoughtful, honest man to the White House. Richard (Blogmaster for johnkerry.com, initiator of the first national party website and first online political community sponsored by a political party) and I were sitting in the car on the Sunday prior to election day. He hesitated before turning on the car. "I have a bad feeling," he said. "I have a sense that in churches all over America, people are being told to vote for Bush."
There are voices, crying, begging, screaming: Iraqis, Pakistani lawyers, Burmese monks, Kenyans, Katrina victims, sick children without insurance, mothers of soldiers, steelworkers, immigrants, polar bears even. The noise is deafening if you listen, but listen, we must.
The story I am about to tell has been only ONE of a series of stories we hear about in passing; stories about the bullying and McCarthyism that characterizes the Bush Administration. This particular story came to us through several pathways, the first one being my friend Bev.
Bev came to DC while my husband and I were working on the Kerry campaign and she introduced me to her good friend, Carolyn, who was married to a Judge Advocate General. We had a lively conversation about John Kerry's campaign and thoroughly enjoyed the "girl-time" we had. Four years later, Bev emailed me.
Do you remember my friend Carolyn, she asked? I did, vaguely. Bev told me Carolyn's husband was having a good deal of trouble and perhaps we could suggest help. I sent her to Jesselyn Radack's site and Daily Kos because I knew that a number of Bush whistleblowers were getting together for support and action.
Yesterday, I spent another precious-few hours of my life inside the Halls of Congress, which allowed me yet another in a series of anthropological investigations into the power structures and decision-making styles of Our Leaders.
Unfortunately, the person I observed most closely was Mr. Dana Rohrabacher (CA) and, instructive as it was, I was reminded of my anthropologist-friend who cautioned her students to make sure that when they chose a culture to study, that they genuinely liked the food, because they would be eating a lot of it.
The background first:
Many of you here have heard me say this, or write it, but it bears reiterating:
In the Fellini-esque movie that runs daily in the Halls of Congress, I am sitting in a hearing room in the Rayburn H.O.B., listening to Dana Rohrbacher compare the rendition program with medical errors that happen "all the time".
And YES! He just went to the chestnut d'annee: "There has not been an attack against the US since 9-11".
Script updates will commence as we go along.
John Conyers now up. He shares his respect for all, including Rohrbacher and Jeff Flake.
Amnesty Intl. statement is entered into the record. I don't have the statement but here is a transcript from their site.
And now we move to the Ottawa panel, including Mr. Arar.
As I was sitting in the Dirksen Hearing Room a few weeks ago, listening to the testimony of the folks from the GAO, I had one of those moments: you know...when you feel your head explode, or search for a nearby wall upon which to bang it??
Michelle Richardson, Legislative Consultant for the ACLU in Washington, D.C., said that legislation left many issues unresolved and open to interpretation by the Bush administration. "The FISA bill is an absolute embarrassment. The idea that Congress would pass legislation, in this day and age, that would allow the government to spy on Americans with out any independent review from the courts or Congress is unbelievable."
In an effort to encourage Congress to reconsider any embarrassing support for the continuation of this tragic piece of legislation, the Backbone Campaign will be delivering spineless citations to the 31 "Blue Dog Dems" on Wednesday afternoon.
It's the dog days of August and everyone, except the troops, of course, is lying back and sipping the 2007 recess refreshers. Here is our own version of 2007's summer drink recipes:
ImPEACHment Fizz: Our friend Diane from the Backbone Campaign handed out peaches at a progressive fundraiser the other night, inspiring this suggested combo:
The first piece of paper that grabs my attention is a booklet of case studies: Lynnette Swartz, whose husband Rob died from lung cancer, a period during which they lost their home and their savings. Bettye and Leon Pulley both have type 2 diabetes, as does their daughter. Due to medical costs, they have a bad credit rating and now, they need a new roof. Christine Masson was in a car accident and now her debt is over the top and she cannot afford a necessary operation--nor the time off work.
And so on. Pages after pages of stories of folks who are employed, working hard, insured, and in debt so deep they are facing bankruptcy.
Tim Carpenter of PDA cares about this issue. Do you know how hard he works on progressive issues?
Mobile is a sultry place, friendly but languid spot along the Gulf, with antebellum houses and great shrimp. I'm here for a dance conference, but President Bush is stopping off here today, and so we just had to come on down to share some feelings with him. Bush is here for a fundraiser for Jeff Sessions. It's $1000 a plate. So the local guys have a message to kick things off:
On the way over to the Hart Building we ran into Medea Benjamin, who informed us that Senator Lieberman's office had cancelled the meeting. After much negotitation, wherein it was determined that the Senator's office was making a decision based on a Code Pink blog entry from three days ago, another request for a meeting was generated.
I was nominated for an award named after Maria Leavey this year. I didn’t win, but that’s OK, because in reading about Maria, I recognized aspects of so many of the women (and some men) who work day after day to make a difference, including the lack of resources and reduced circumstances under which they toil.
So I made a video. It's called "What Would Maria Do?" I made it because I want you to know about the women who create, write, speak, march, and who make a difference, no matter how small, and who inspire me to keep on keeping on.
First of all, watching this video will upset you. You have to log in and state that you are over 18 to see it, but even then, be prepared for some strong reactions:
Then read the comments posted below the video on the YouTube site, because the comments and the contents of that video pretty much define the range of what we, as responsible citizens, have to understand and reconcile.
David Swanson is introducing John Nichols, who will host this brief event. Cong. Kucinich is on his way, and we are hoping for a photo op of The good Rep. standing next to Dana Milbank (WaPo snark, who mentions DK's height every chance he gets, altho' DK may tower over Milbank).
Cindy Sheehan, Bob Fertik, Tina Richards, Gael Murphy, Medea Benjamin and many others are here.
In fact this gathering is a reunion for the HipHop tour; we have Vets for Peace as well.
Courage, patriots, the Republic is in danger," John Nichols opens...
(Some of you know I generally blog at what Michelle Malkin has described as the "far-left" Democracy Cell Project. The DCP is a small community of grownups--thoughtful researchers and writers who inform each other. Today's thread header, by DCP blog editor Rick Albertson, touched me so deeply I told him I would repost it here, for all to see. Thank you Rick, and thank you, Congressman John Lewis).
What is "The Beloved Community" and why should we care? John Lewis wants you to know the answer.
Synopsis of the bill: Supplemental includes some language that would require the President to provide appropriate support for troops.
The Blue Dogs insisted President should be able to waive the Murtha provisions (adequate supplies and leave time between deployments and adequate training).
Kwamme Anderson, Maxine Waters LA, and Mike Hersh, with flowers for Maxine
