We all remember Joe's scolding to Democrats who dare dissent with his BFF Dubya:

It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years and that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril.

After yesterday, he might say something more like this:

It's time for Democrats who distrust the voters to acknowledge that they will be the ultimate judges of our performance for ever and that in matters of public policy we undermine election credibility at our own peril.

Or, he could just take his ball and go home.  But that lesson had better be learned by the party, because there's no going back to the bad old days.

Just heard it on the Malloy show.

http://www.courant.com/...

I can't believe it.  After all the polls and all of the discontent, I didn't believe that a man representing the people could actually win an election.

And tomorrow the work begins anew.  However, this win will re-energize the mobilized and inspire those not yet mobilized.

The challenge to Joe Lieberman by Ned Lamont is all over the news, mostly because Lieberman's campaign has driven itself into a ditch and allowed this David to have a real chance against the Goliath that a three-term incumbent would normally be.  (I like Ned a lot, but let's face it; without Joe's implosion, this campaign would never have gained traction.)

However, another challenger (Jonathan Tasini) to an unapologetic supporter of the Iraq occupation and recent right-wing panderer (Hillary Clinton) isn't getting nearly the attention that Ned is.  Tasini's Iraq stance is what everyone says Lamont's is: get our troops out.  Why isn't everyone up in arms about his campaign?

There's been a lot of talk on the left lately about the machinations of Joe Lieberman in his primary campaign against Ned Lamont.  As a three-term incumbent, Joe has a lot of favors to call in -- and he seems to be calling in all of them.  The one thing that cannot be tolerated, though, is interference from the DSCC and its chair, Chuck Schumer, in the selection process of the Democratic candidate by the Democratic voters in a primary.

I sent the following out to several newspapers in NY, NJ and CT, and encourage you to also voice your objections to Democratic kingmakers taking the right to choose a representative away from Democratic voters.

My letter to local papers. Please write yours!

A few months ago, the public learned that anyone's cell phone records were available for purchase from a number of resellers. People were outraged, and the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill (409-0) to ban such transactions, and a second bill was due for debate. The public thought this gross intrusion into our privacy was being addressed.

That bill, however, has disappeared, and now we learn why. Hundreds of law enforcement organizations, from federal down to local levels, have been purchasing such phone records instead of obtaining warrants required by law.

So now you know: not only is the NSA spying on Americans without obtaining warrants, but the FBI and local police departments are doing the exact same thing. And they're shelling out big taxpayer dollars to private companies in order to do it.

I was stunned today when I read this post on TalkingPointsMemo.  A few things clicked into place, already well summarized by this story from Georgia10.  I put it together in a letter, which I submitted to several papers through the Democratic Party's Letters tool.

I haven't seen 'An Inconvenient Truth' yet.  I haven't seen it listed as coming to my local theater (in Middletown, NY).  So, I decided to check the film's web site to find the closest theater where it's playing.  I Googled the title and was referred to 'http://www.climatecrisis.net/....  Clicking on the link gives me the message:

(title)403 Forbidden
(body)Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.

Apache/1.3.33 Server at www.climatecrisis.net Port 888

Checking the cached copy of the page shows me the page's content.

If anyone reading this has the ability to contact the site's owners/admins, please pass along the message.

(A group with which I am involved is participating in this event.  I should have posted it earlier.)

Antiwar and anti-Bush activists from throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley and beyond are awakening a bit early Saturday morning (May 27) to take part in a march and rally outside West Point as President George W. Bush delivers the
commencement address to the military academy¹s graduation class.

The event begins with a gathering at 8 a.m. at Veterans Park in Highland Falls, where a march will start at 8:30 a.m. to the academy¹s Thayer Gate.  The march will  then return to the park for a 10 a.m. rally.

About 40  peace, justice, labor, and political organizations have endorsed the regional rally. Individuals should bring their own signs if they wish on topics of their choosing < from peace and justice to Bush¹s reactionary agenda, union rights and so on.

WRWD-FM, 107.3 in the Hudson Valley in New York, is currently hosting a poll on its web site asking "With recent comments made by the Dixie Chicks, do you still want to hear them on the radio?"  Currently, No is winning at 62.95%

If you'd like to put a progressive voice in the ear of a large suburban audience, please visit http://www.wrwdfm.com/... and get the Chicks back on the air!

I've been trying to get Advokit working on a spare PC of mine for the last week or so, and am getting increasingly frustrated.  I've pored over documentation and forum postings about Ubuntu Linux, apache2, PHP5, and mysql, which describes the setup I'm trying to use.  This morning, after reading the headlines on various blogs (RSS is like crack to me) and some diaries on Daily Kos, it occurred to me that I may be looking in the wrong place for Advokit assistance.

Tomorrow, local Democratic groups are participating in a canvass to reach out to their communities and spread the Democratic message, carrying Chairman Dean's 50-state strategy to its next logical step.  But I won't be a part of it, and neither will my local Democratic club or committee.

Saw today's diary on $100 rebate checks for ANWR, and it pissed me off to no end.  The Republicans are shelling out cash again to buy off the stupid contingent of the electorate, while picking their pockets at the same time.

I encourage all of you to let your local media know that you're not falling for this sucker move.  My letter below:

Military recruiters calling high school students at home is nothing new.  My mother-in-law was famous in the family for telling recruiters "you can't have him" when they called in the late '80s looking for my wife's brother.  With an unpopular war dragging on in Iraq, it's not surprising to think that recruiters are having a tough job convincing high school students to join the military.  However, they have an ally of which you may not be aware: your local public schools.

My local paper, the Times-Herald Record, is asking for reader input on the new offensive in Iraq.  They are hosting three polls and a blog.

If you have something to say, it would be a good place to say it and reach someone not necessarily in the choir that is Daily Kos.  Just please keep it obscenity-free, and you're likely to be more effective.  (I had originally also said "polite", but I'm not sure that's required any longer.)

We've all read the various accounts of what allegedly happened, and heard what the wounds Mr. Whittington suffered are alleged to be.  While I haven't gone TOO crazy with these articles, I was letting the info percolate in my head and I came to this ( to my thinking ) plausible scenario.

Well, the WaPo is still at it.  On their blog page, they're sticking to their guns and insisting that Casino Jack told his victims to send money to Democrats as well as Republicans.

In a way, I'm glad.  Refusing to acknowledge the truth cannot be acceptable to everyone there, and someone's gonna crack eventually.  Also, I'm taking it as another example of Gandhi's observation that "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" that has been posted often of late.  They're not ignoring, and they're certainly not laughing anymore.

Take a few minutes and drop a line to blogs@washingtonpost.com.  My note follows: use as much or as little as you like.

My local rag, the Times Herald-Record, recently published an editorial stating that Samuel Alito should be confirmed to the Supreme Court.  Besides using the inane phrase "elections have consequences", it downplays the favoritism that Alito shows for the executive branch and flat-out says that he views the three branches of government as being equal.  I give you my response below:

The MSGOP talking-points-spewing yesterday was particularly sickening.  I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it, since I already had nothing but contempt for them, but thought that something should be said to let them know that real people don't buy this crap.  So, the following note went out:

Chris Matthews' comments last night on Hardball were disgraceful.  It is fascinating that the architect of the worst terror attacks in United States history is alive, free, and largely ignored by a President and Congress run by the Republican Party, and Matthews (along with fellow shills Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson) turns this abject failure into an attack on the party whose voice in Washington has been systematically eliminated.

I didn't realize that prostitution was legal in Secaucus.  Pravda would be proud.