A friend of mine is a long time Democrat and neighborhood activist in Harlem and has been in the news a bit as a very progressive voice for the people of Harlem.

He feels that Rangel is out of touch with the district and is under serving Central Harlem's needs (where the bulk of his votes in his huge victories come from, but not the majority of his donations).

Rangel has the Harlem Democratic Party locked down...so this guy couldn't primary him even if he wanted, so he is seriously thinking about running as an Independent.

Rangel normally wins with over 90% of the vote.

I know the rule about this website electing democrats...but the machine is locking out a Democrat.

Any tips for this David vs. Goliath fight? I have done policy analysis and some positioning stuf for Edwards when he was in the race so I am not useless...but I wanted to ask you for your advice and thoughts...

While I am delighted for Daniel Burd...why on earth was he the first person to come up with this?

To DailyKos readers the problems of plastic pollution are not new - it sits in landfills for millenia. Floats in the ocean and animals eat it or get caught in it and drown.

The slurry of chemicals from degrading plastic hurts human health, animal health, and soil and ocean health.

Well Daniel was sick and tired of it and came up with a solution for his science fair project.

Take a look...

The Fox knocks on the Farmers door and offers him a bribe if he will give the Fox access to his Chickens.

The Farmer takes the money and gives the keys to the Hen House to the Fox, who then systematically, over time, gorges himself on the Chickens.

Then one morning the Farmer goes out to the Hen House and "discovers" that all his chickens are gone.

He then calls up his insurance company and in a panic says "Oh my God! Somehow, the Fox must have got into my Hen House and devoured all my Chickens!"

The Insurance Company makes the Farmer whole and makes recommendations on how he should build a more secure Hen House.

The new Hen House is constructed and the game begins anew.

see who the players are...

WHAT?

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring

   
By DANNY HAKIM
Published: March 10, 2008

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.

Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He is set to make an announcement about 2:15 this afternoon at his Manhattan office.

http://www.nytimes.com/...

I have been around dailykos since its Movable Type days. I have gained immeasurably by the writings and efforts by the front pagers and the community as a whole and the places they have directed my attention over the years. They have inspired me to work to make a better and more just world.

I first was spurred to work for that world by reading Progress and Poverty at age 16 at the suggestion of my father. It made a huge impact on my life.

That ember for social and economic justice for everyone smoldered until about 20 months ago...

I think we sort of react instinctively when we hear that an animal or plant goes on the endangered species list. Even though different species or plant and animal have come and gone over the billions of years of life on earth there is something beautiful and magisterial about the diversity. Somehow we know that it is bad to lose these beings...especially due to our selfish stupidity. Polar Bear? Tiger? Sea Turtle?

For the eco-savvy amongst us monocropping is another dreadful incarnation that thins the diversity of the natural world. We poison the earth so that nothing except crop X will grow in location Y with fertilizer Z. In so doing we weaken soil and the interconnected life that relies upon it.

So this is all bad of course...but reading over the weekend I learned why these could be worse than I had already thought. Join me on the other side, wont you?

Here is where I am...I was a serious Edwards guy.

I was excited by not only his positions but his potential to empower the party and move Democrats forward into a new style of governance.

I have now migrated to Obama. I am not crazy about him but not turned off at all. He also has that capacity to move the party and the country in a new direction as well.

One of the problems, as I see it, with Hillary Clinton is that in her tepid election strategy (if she got the nomination) is that she would be very likely to choose a mushy not standing for much Democrat like Evan Bayh, Tom Vilsack or Ted Strickland - all fine enough in their places. But if for some reason HRC won the election and had two terms the mantle of the party would be passed to politicians who live for incremental, bi-partisan, change in a time where big change is needed.

So that is why I was surprised when I was chatting with a friend who is a member of the DNC...

We all know liberals are funnier than well...anyone. But while we love our Stewarts and Colberts and Bill in Portland Maines- they get time to prepare their eviscerations of political foolishness, arrogance and stupidity (domestic and otherwise). There is much to skewer from the regular Washington ins and outs and of course the traditional media deserves some slapping around as well.

But trained and political savvy improvisers of the Upright Citizens Brigade (the premiere long form improvisational theater in New York)have no such luxuries as time to develop our satire...no, like our political leaders we make it up as we go along.

details on how to experience the joy of improvised political satire in New York live and in person for only five bucks on the flip

According to this article Laura Bush is really interested in Burma/Myanmar.

Who knew?

She has been a consistent critic of the military junta and a supporter of jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In May, she worked with 16 women senators to draft and sign a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, calling for the UN to pressure the Burmese regime to release Suu Kyi. The following month, Mrs. Bush wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, lamenting the fact that Suu Kyi's was spending her 62nd birthday while under house arrest. She called Ban again last week, to voice her concern over the Burmese military's latest crackdown on protests against price hikes.

amazing. Aung San Suu Kyi is largely pretty amazing I think. In as much as  a First Lady can do something in the political sphere...this is pretty good. But catch what else Laura has to say...

Julia Fox that is...

Julia R. Fox is an assistant professor of telecommunications at University of Indiana who has done a great service with two grad students by spending valuable time watching the bradcast news and comparing it to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She and her team have produced a study called

"No Joke: A Comparison of Substance in The Daily Show  with Jon Stewart and Broadcast Network Television Coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign"

read all about it and its delightful findings below to finally justify why you watch TDS.

Jerome A Paris has great diary currently found on the rec list pointing out how much oil companies are struggling still with the damage done to infrastructure by Katrina.

I understand the struggle but it is not like this sort of problem hasn't happened before and been surmounted.

San Francisco was leveled in the great earthquake of 1906 and came back in a most remarkable way. Lets take a look at a way to help the citizens of New Orleans while at the same time help the energy infrastructure for the country and point the way towards progressive taxation with the help of this nifty little article  from a website calle Economicprinciples.com that looks at Mason Gaffney and his recounting of how San Fran came all the way back from destruction and how that can be applied to best rebuild New Orleans.

All this talk about better and more progressive taxation in diaries as of late makes me want to bring up a not often talked about mode of taxation. But the Land Value Tax - a very practical and progressive and efficient and effective mode of taxation thought up by the guy who invented the term "progressive"... Henry George.  Not many people want to implement it 100% the way he thought about it, but it is a great foundation to get to the sort of tax code we all would want. Follow me for more info...

Has any one here seen the newish documentary called "The End of Suburbia"?

The website is http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

With all the excitemnt, and rightfully so, about the Wal Mart documentary I hadn't heard a peep about this stunner.

I just saw it over the weekend and it is very timely and speaks some pretty brutal truths to power. It is about peak oil and how cheap and abundant petroleum has fueled the growth of "The American Way of Life" - everything from urban planning, our consumption habits, how and what we eat and how we vote. The film interviews numerous former energy execs but they lean heavily on the acerbic James Kunstler...more

While I am from New York City and live there I have a special place for Philadelphia and I keep up to date with its politics and the goings-on in related fields.

Philadelphia is (and has been) very close to employing some of the smartest and most progressive taxation and property tax reform in the nation that when implemented and successful will point towards a different direction for taxation in the country.

There have been a number of studies ordered by the Comptrollers Office and the City Council as well as a long standing research commitee that has run the numbers again and again and keep on making reccomendations to implement this plan. More in the extended section...

From US News and World Report

When John G. Roberts is approved as chief justice of the United States, as expected, he can thank President Bush 's "Friends & Allies" program, which went to work on him immediately after he was nominated. The project, started by the Republican National Committee in the 2004 re-election campaign, is simple and effective: Give opinion makers, media friends, and even cocktail party hosts insider info on the topic of the day. How? Through E-mailed talking points, called D.C. Talkers, and conference calls. For Roberts, it worked this way: A daily conference call to about 80 pundits, GOP-leaning radio and TV hosts, and newsmakers was made around 9 a.m. On the other end were the main Roberts gunslingers like Steve Schmidt at the White House and Ken Mehlman and Brian Jones at the RNC. D.C. Talkers would then be distributed to an even larger list filled with positive info about Roberts and lines of attack on his critics. "The idea," said one of those involved, "is to feed them information and have them invested in us." It has even created addicts, he added. "Now they come to us before going on TV."

Peak oil and energy issues have been discussed very impressively on this site - Devilstower and Jerome come immediately to mind as leaders in this subject. I have learned a lot from various posters in the diaries on the subject and Peak Oil has become an increasingly fast growing issue for me.

But besides being attentive about my own consumption and showing the documentary "The End of Suburbia" to any one who will watch it with me I wasn't sure what else I might do to understand the details better and know how to perhaps impact the situation somehow.

So I was delighted to get in my inbox this morning an invitation which I extend to you in the extended text

Looks like we have another long shot dark horse for the Democratic nomination in 2008. a one Lindy Davies, Director of The Henry George School in Chicago. He proposes his candidacy and platform here.

Yes his chances are long but he has some pretty compelling ideas. Details from his proposal in the extended text.

Besides we like underdogs, discussing big ideas and theoreticals...and I like to share

Kansas is freaking a lot of us out lately.

Evolution.

Trying to redefine science.

There is even the great book wondering out loud "What's The Matter With Kansas?"

Kansas produces uninformed wingnuts at a prodigous rate.

But ultimately Kansana are our American brothers and sisiters and we should strive to help them.

Find out a possible method to help in the extended entry box...