Ecstasy by Maxfield Parrish, 1929

Welcome to the 71st day of this Leap Year, now take the Leap:

Welcome to the Saturday Night Fever Edition of the Edwards Evening News Roundup.
So, Boogie Down and get in touch with your 1970’s Inner Child and tell us about your Experiences in the 1970’s, a fantastic Decade of Change, Upheaval and eventually Progress. Politics, Music, Historic or Personal Events are all open for discussion. Share your 70’s experiences and reflect on how they created the person blogging here today or how they otherwise shaped the course of History.

More below the Fold:

From the Great Blue State of California and Absolutely Fabulous Blue Blue City of San Francisco!!

Hilltop by Maxfield Parrish - 1926

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!]  RIGHTNOW!  [Gong!!]

Our very recent vacation to Maine included Two New England Kossack Meet-Ups organized by Common Sense Mainer (Michael) and Bill in Portland Maine.  Kossacks from Connecticut, Massachusettes and New Hampshire and Maine showed up for some fun socializing and heady Political Discussions, Ok, we ate great Seafood and some of us had a few drinks..LOL.

Kudos to Michael & Bill for their Planning and Organizing and, Kudos to the Attendees for traveling to Portland and Old Orchard Beach. What a Fine & Sweet Group of Kossacks, We couldn’t have hoped for a nicer time on Di Millo’s Floating Restaurant and Brunswick Oceanside Restaurant in Old Orchard Beach (OOB).

The Di Millo’s Meet-up pics appear First here, the OOB Pics subsequent.
HairyTrueMan & Family were unable to attend the July 7th Meet-up, hence the July 5th Meet-up in  Old Orchard Beach, where we got to finish our evening there with Fireworks on the Beach. What a Hoot!!
Merci Beaucoup & Cheers to Christian for all the Pics (except the one of him) and the Film!
Enjoy our Cheers & Jeers style Comraderie below da Fold:

I am a Member of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)
I had no illusions about winning a spot as CDP Assembly Delegate in AD-12. I was not on one of the two major slates: Progressive Slate endorsed by State Senator Leland Yee-D SS-08 and Burton Machine acolyte Assemblyperson Fiona Ma-D AD-12, each running 6 Female & 6 Male Candidates.There were 9 Female candidates and 14 Male candidates running unaligned, not on slates. In the contest for the E-Board position, there was 1 Ma Slate and 1 Yee Slate candidate.
There were 484 voters present in our heavily Democratic district.

AD-12 Meeting Info Details:
Date: Sunday, January 14, 2007
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Westlake Community Center Complex
Pacelli Event Center Building, Merced Room
145 Lake Merced Blvd, Daly City

More (including final results) after the fold

My my, a 31 seat pick-up for the Democratic Party (incl. VT). Unfortunately we missed picking up seats in some very close contests, 19 of which were missed by less than 10,000 votes in each District; in total:missed by  88,577 votes or an average of 4,662 per District. By contrast our candidates won 16 seats by less than 10,000 votes;: in total: captured by 82,480 votes or an average of 5,155 votes per District.
Some have asserted that if the DCCC had reacted to these races and provided necessary funding, we could have picked up more seats.

I’ll let ya’ll come to your own conclusions about that, because the purpose of this Diary is more from a Statistical/Tactical Perspective for 2008. Caveat: Races won by over 10,000 votes are not included in the Parameters of this Study, though any number of those could be in play in ’08, plus many other seats may be on the horizon.
On the same note, many of these races shown below may not be close for us in ’08, but are sure to get some attention. Caveat: FL-13 is still in play and subject to change.
More below the fold, Enjoy!

VA-02 was a target seat this year for a Democratic Party takeover of the House. Freshman Thelma Drake (R-Norfolk) seemed ripe to topple. After Iraq War Veteran David Ashe (D), who lost to Drake in '04 by 55.08% to 44.82 %, dropped out of the race to pave the way for Virginia Beach Commissioner of Revenue Phil Kellam (D), things were looking pretty good. Kellam, member of a well known Virginia Beach Democratic political family, was the only Citywide elected Democratic Official, this city accounts for approximately 68% of the District's population. Drake hails from the smaller though Democratic leaning Norfolk. Virginia Beach is historically Republican at both the National & Local level, though Gov. Tim Kaine (D) narrowly carried the city in 2005 and carried the district by 3.02%, former Gov. Mark Warner came within 0.15% of carrying the District in 2001. Besides the City of Viginia Beach, the District includes 23 + 2 (AT/CV) Precincts in the City of Norfolk, 12(+2 A/T) precincts in the City of Hampton and the Eastern Shore Counties of Accomack & Northampton. More below the fold..

Greetings fellow happy campers! Every year I mull over election results from wide & far and near too. I look for anomalies and just plain interesting things that hit me.
Here is what I've dug up so far below the fold:

I have seen a lot of discussion comparing  this mid-term election to the 1994 mid-term election, however I feel there is a more applicable point of comparison from the past, the 1966 mid-term election.Let me open this by giving some background. In 1966 I was a Republican, I didn't switch to the Democratic Party until 1973. Caveat: I was a Republican but I was of the Clifford Case/Jacob Javits variety.

 The 1966 Republican Midterm rout saw the Gop pick up  a net gain of 47 House seats, 3 Senate seats, 8 Gubenatorial Seats, 156 State Senate seats and 401 Lower Chamber legislative seats. This was a memorable experience in my capacity as Treasurer of both my Township and County Teenage Republicans.
The Vietnam War had escalated into a complete mess and the Civil Rights movement had scored major success, this was a period of serious social upheaval. As a pack-rat over the last 4 decades I managed to accumulate and save alot of books and publications. (Now... more below the fold: