Democratic congressional candidate Colleen Callahan is having a fish fry this Friday, July 25th in Kickapoo, IL (just northwest of Peoria). It's the same day that President Bush will be visiting Peoria, IL to campaign for Aaron "Give Taiwan Some Nukes" Schock.
The big difference - Bush and Schock's event at a local Angus cattle farmis being held in the middle of a work day - around 1:30 pm or so I hear. And it costs $500 a ticket, and $5,000 to have your photo taken with W. Whereas Callahan's fish fry is 4-8 pm and only $15 bucks, if anything. Details below the fold.
It doesn't seem to have hit too many radars yet, but I really think the race in Illinois Congressional District 18 is gonna be tight! This is a district that has been Republican held since the 1940s, as I diaried the other day, going back as far as I could research without taking too much time out of my workday. Since 1949 at least.
Jane Harman in CA-36 and her SecureUS PAC is hosting a fundraiser for several "moderate-style Democrats who have an interest in national security issues." I have to give the hat tip to a local blogger on this one, Peoria Pundit broke this story to me.
Though click hereif you want it from the horse's mouth, and that would be PolitickerCA.
So we've all been complaining for months that the press is giving John McCain pass after pass after pass in the news. He says stupid, inane things and no one catches them or cares to talk about them (save the "100 years in Iraq" nugget of gold he gave us all). We (Kossacks and netizens, etc) all watch him closely, listen to what he actually says - and bellow from our supposedly lonely mountaintop that McSame "is a dipshit" - "is senile" - "is flip flopping like a live salmon in a dry boat" ad nauseum.
But something I have been noticing lately, in the news outlets I do pay attention to - and Fox Spews is not one of them - that Obama has been getting all the air time. By a wide margin, everything Obama does and says is covered, and McSame's name is mentioned, but footage of him is not aired, pictured of him are not featured.
I have diaried this before, but am doing it again, because I have personally met with Colleen Callahan, and having had such a great meeting with her, one on one - am now a committed vote and volunteer. So here's my little plug for her candidacy.
She is running for the seat that has been held by Ray LaHood for 7 terms, and prior to him, Robert "Bob" Michel from 1957 till 1995 (that's a lot of terms), whose predecessor was Harold Velde from 1949-1957, and Wikipedia says that before him it was Edward Jenison, another Republican, but the dates don't seem to gel. So IL-18 has been held by a Republican since 1949 at the very least, and if we count since 1947 - that's 61 years. Too long, my friends.
I recently emailed the link to Jerome a Paris' diary about the financial market problems we're experiencing to a handful of friends, including two Republican friends. I probably shouldn't have, but my subject line was "I was right," as I've been asking them to explain to me how money can breed more money without some sort of basic tangible asset underlying it all. None of them ever bothered to respond to my original request, and only replied once I'd sent them a challenge, to their free market primacy, as it were.
So below I post first the reply I received from one of those republicans (who actually works in theatre, this always mystifies me). Then my reply, which I think is damn thoughtful. Hope you enjoy.
You have to read my last diary first to understand this diary. I sent out the Obama viral email to a lot of folks. I got that reply from a friend - directing me to the Chicago Trib's op-ed on Obama, a glowing one IMHO.
So she replied back again. And I wrote yet another long reply myself. I think it's a pretty good analysis of being a left winger, but willing to work the system in the way Obama espouses. Enjoy the read again.
I sent out the Obama viral email this morning, created here by Travis Sparks et al. A great piece of work, and I really did send it to just about everyone in my address book. To which, I got a reply from a friend who serves on the local ACLU board with me. A fellow devoted liberal Dem. She pointed me to an op-ed from today's Chicago Tribune. (Today is also my bro's birthday - happy happy. Albert Einstein too!) Anyway, I've posted below her email reply, and then my pretty long winded reply to her. I edited it a few times, honestly, to take out some of the vitriol and disrespect that I spewed in the heat of the moment, thank goodness. As that would have been exactly what I accuse Hillary of. Reading the op-ed, and then writing my letter made me really think about why I support Obama, and thusly, I have tripled in my adoration and support for OHB. Enjoy!
Colleen Callahan, a well known agriculture reporter in Central Illinois, announced yesterday her intentions to run for US House of Representatives in Illinois' 18th District. It's a funky district, jerrymandered, of course, like all districts in Illinois - though this was done to help Republicans and it's worked for a long damn time. The seat has been held by a Republican for 60-some years now, the most recent 22 of those by "Uncle Ray" LaHood - one of the best at bringing home Federal bacon. His predecessor and mentor, Bob Michel, held the seat from 1956 until 1995, 39 freakin' years! That I can tell, it's never been held by a woman. But given Bill Foster's pick up of Denny Hastert's long time Republican district this past Saturday - I'd say Colleen (pronouced Co-lean, co with a long o) has a damn good chance!
Holy Smokes! Give it up for the Democrats and their volunteers in South Dakota. It doesn't get much better than this. In tiny Woonsocket, the Democratic candidate died two months ago, and by 100 to 64, they voted her into office anyway rather than elect a Republican.
I was really stunned reading an article about the indictment of Rod Blagojevich's advisor, Tony Rezko (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0610120107oct12,1,610461.story?ctrack=1&cset
=true). How could he possibly think what he was doing - blatantly asking companies for kickbacks if he put people favorable to their needs onto state appointed boards and commissions - was legal? Or morally acceptable? Or did he just not care?
I have to preface this by saying I have only lived in Illinois for a bit less than two years, so aside from what I learned in history class years ago - I'm a total newbie to Chicago politics. So if this is par for the course, then just bear with me.
The other point I'd like to visit is how crass and simplistic Rezko's corruption seems in a world, however unfortunately, led by Karl Rove, who seems just that much more intelligent to me today.
I was most heartened to see this article in the Chicago Tribune today.http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
So much of what Dems and we Kossacks rail against is produced by Right Wing, Religious Conservative, Republicans - or folks who make themselves up to be that way (I'm thinking specifically of Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin due to recent posts here at DK, but there are plenty of others y'all know).
Anyway, I read so many posts by Kossacks who are rather more moderate Democrats. And you have to wonder how far a jump it is from what they believe to what a moderate Republican believes sometimes. This article might capture it well, for today anyway.
I just got this via one of the many, many email alerts I receive. Joe Lieberman's office gave this CT National Guardsman a hard time, when this soldier contacted them, about the sub-standard weapons his battallion was issued. He got great responses from all his other representatives, but rhetoric from Joe.
The links work and everything. I got a coupld of PDF files of the pages, which I am not attaching here. I'll let the article speak for itself, so read below.
So apparently Joe will send you off to war, but won't help you when you get there.
Just discovered Mark Warner's Map Challenge (http://www.forwardtogetherpac.com/mapchangers), via Ava Lowery's Peace Takes Courage website (http://www.peacetakescourage.com/page-home.htm), thanks to Buzzflash's Wings of Justice Award (http://www.wingsofjustice.com/06/06/woj06026.html)this week.
So there's a whole bunch of linky goodness for you to peruse.
Per a recent debate with some local friends via email, about how people are acting out against the atrocities currently happening in America, I say Get Off Your Ass - even if not literally. So many Americans, and I'm including me, are nestled in our comfort zones. We rail online, or just sit by and watch the news (or not) - but never actually do something. We don't often if ever talk about this with people around us, just other blogospherians.
Well, I'm doing something and it's working.
Wowsers again! My little diary was built to get others to rewrite Thomas Paine's Common Sense with me - in an effort to recreate the phenomenon that it was in 1776 (don't quote me on the year, though - you know what I mean). I was inspired by a History Channel show on The Battle of New York. There are many parallels between Common Sense's arguments and those we are all making against W. Who knows if the effort will lead to the same end, but I thought it would be at least fun to try.
Here's today's entry, for my fellow writers. I have yet to start on my version of my section. I'm hoping this weekend will afford a few hours, although since my son's three year birthday party is Sunday, there is a lot of cleaning on the agenda, too.
Also, petitioning for the IL Green Party (to get them on the ballot this fall) as possible.
But I am dying to get at it, so likely, I'll resist scrubbing the shower and get to it. Or stay up late.
If you want to rewrite Thomas Paine's Common Sense - you've come to the right/write place (ha!). Read the entries below for more info.
We are small, but getting started. There are three of us Kossacks now attempting to rewrite Thomas Paine's founding call to action, Common Sense. Scary, but not surprising, there are many points made by Mr. Paine that don't need to be changed. Their King's name was George. He disregarded the will of the people. He thought he knew better than everyone.
But like so many of us here, we resemble Thomas Paine. A hardworking individual (printer), just an average guy. He was sick and tired of George's tyranny and he wrote his pamphlet, which caught on like wild fire! It was debated in taverns and meeting halls throughout the nascent country we all know and love (despite the gutting of all we hold dear by our current administration).
Will you produce 26 pages a la Thomas Paine? Will you write a one pager for our sound-byte loving, ADD riddled, short attention span, information at high speed culture? Will you Here's a link to the actual text for your reference: simply forward this call to John Murtha or Jon Tester? Are YOU up for this challenge Markos? I believe you are. Post your submissions in your diary - title it Common Sense 2006 by (insert whatever name here). Thomas Paine was a printer/publisher and he got "Common Sense" out there all by himself. It caught on like wildfire! So get your "Common Sense 2006" out there. Run off a couple hundred at Kinko's and start distributing them. Blog it. Email it to everyone in your address book. Markos, you already have a publisher - get it to them. Send it to your local, state and US reps. Just Do It (tm)! The winner will be the one that indeed gets around your state/our country.
Please see my diary from 6/19/06 for the original call to write. Briefly, though, we are rewriting Thomas Paine's original "Common Sense" to fit our current governmental disaster. You can post writing here. I will create a daily diary entry, and you can submit pieces as a reply/comment.
I'm going to compile everything into a Word doc and post it here once a week or so.
Here's our link to the original Common Sense. http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/
There are three of us working on this now.
Post submissions here.
