I email this guy a little too often.  He sends out a weekly poll that is often too vague to answer accurately, so I end up emailing him.  This week's poll was similarly simplistic.

Do you support or oppose the president’s new health care proposal?
    YES, I support.
    NO, I do not support.
    Undecided.

So, below is my email to him with respect to health care.

So, as it has already been pointed out, DSCC chair Bob Menendez is quoted in the Washington post as reassuring Wall St donors to ignore any populist rhetoric about regulation-- let alone economic justice.

That wouldn't bother me, but we've been fighting for the soul of this party for my entire adult life.  The corporate crooks, that tried to make the democratic party identical to the blue-blood wing of the republican party, that pushed aside labor in the '90s will not be satisfied until there is nothing but "republican lite" in our party.

Guys like Menendez, who always touts his working-class roots, not only know better but must be reminded that we know they know better.

Thus I emailed him the following letter.  I'm posting it here in case any of you want to follow suit.  he can be reached at: http://menendez.senate.gov/

Every once in a while we need to take a look at the big picture.  We seem to be losing ground on a lot of fronts.  Our party has the majority on both houses, the White House, and it appears that our president will appoint another Supreme Court Justice within the year.  In spite of that, we can't seem to make any forward progress on a lot of issues.  With a re-grouping/re-presentation of president's efforts on health insurance reform about to get it's coming out party, this is a perfect time to re-evaluate our efforts and the achievements made by our party.  I think a quick look at where our efforts are would expose the best path forward for us politically.  The first move that opens up a lot of that path: campaign finance reform, and more reform of lobbying laws.

Here is a little video I worked up.

This is the chance we've been waiting for.  We have Bush pedaling fear in the hopes people panic and make a hasty mistake that he can take advantage of.  We have a presidential candidate that always brings up standing up to Bush's failed policies.  We have the majority in the House and potentially a working majority on this issue in the Senate (OK, that one maybe not).  We have a good bill and a bad bill.  Our choices are clear, our opportunity is here.  This is what we've wanted, outside of our party actually ending the war in Iraq.

So: contact your senators, and Reid, and Obama.  Tell them to oppose the bailout bill the're voting on today, and ask them to support a Senate version of Pete DiFazio's "No Bailouts Plan".

This is a diary begging people to contact their senators and representatives.  We have a great opportunity now.  Regardless of where we stood on the bailout bill based on Paulson's and Bush's wish list, we have a chance to demand from our representatives in Washington: real reform, real solutions, and that "perfect" bill we've been told we can't have.  We don't have to settle for the now failed Bush/Frank/Dodd/Paulson plan.  Let's get a better plan in place so that one isn't the only option on the table anymore.

Unlike a recent diary-- written by a diarist I generally agree with-- I do think you should get your information here at the DailyKos (though, certainly not my diary), and other places: especially about the bailout and wall St problems or the Credit contraction or what ever you want to call it.  Should your info come from the MSM?  No, but Daily KOS, Democracy NOW, and various progressive sites like the Huff Post, TPM, Center for American Progress, all good places.  Also your Senator's and Represenative's web sites.  I'll be visiting those on the other side.

Yeah!  A chance to get the bill right!  Don't be so down, if you were all for the bailout.  It is a chance to get it right, so we all can agree!  Good happy fun time.  Yeah!

I was looking for an excuse to write to my peeps in the DC, when SciVo posted this comment, enlightening me to H Res 1452.  This was diaried here by gsadamb.

Anyway, I think it would be a good thing to let your peeps in the DC know about.  

Is It Ever Too Late to Send a Letter to Congress?  If you say no, then great minds think alike.  Below is a version of letters to my Senators-- Lautenberg and Menendez-- and my Representative Mike Ferguson (R, NJ 7, the R is as much for retiring as it is for republican).  It expresses my attitude about the bail out.  I'm sharing it here hoping to inspire anyone that hasn't yet contacted their peeps in Washington.  Yeah, I said peeps.  That's not how I roll, but I said it anyway.  IF you haven't contacted them, feel free to copy and paste the letter-- making changes as you see fit-- or do what ever you want to communicate with them.  Letters work, but one of my Senators is getting old.  I thought about holding a seance to contact him.  If the email don't work then I'll try John Edward.

Anyway, let's cross the Great Divide (which is what I like to call what everyone else calls the fold, because that in deed is how I roll).

Standing up for human rights at every chance should be an important part of our party and our country's foriegn policy.  Our party cheapened itself and weakened what we stand for back in the ninties when MFN status for China was being debated.  One of the things at stake in this election cycle is a chance to regain moral authority.  Standing up to China and advocating for the people of Tibet is a way to do this.  It is just one of many reasons we as a party need to break from the Clintons, for the good of our party, our country and the world.

Across the great divide below will be a links to news and previous diaries by others, a discussion of past events, a plenty of typos.

I was worried about a turn towards negative ads on the part of the Clinton campaign.  Then I found this new ad of hers on You Tube.  I've not seen it posted here, so I thought I'd share it.  I have to say I like the one-on-one conversation she's having with the viewer.  

While it isn't an ad about her policy objectives, it does deal head on with the idea of negative ads.  I'm glad she's taking the time to, as she used to say, get the conversation started.  It is well over due in my opinion.

Follow me across the great divide from Intro to Body for the vid.

I didn't see any diary about this, but I'd have to believe someone in NJ is as happy about this as I am.

Here is a link to a Yahoo news story about it:

yahoo new story (hopefully!)

I am really overjoyed about this.  The death penalty as an issue has been important in my journey towards populist/radical progressive/green activism.  I think many others have had similar journeys.  That leads to the reason I feel this is worth of a diary entry and not just cause for my own private celebration.

Over at Yahoo I saw an article about Harry Reid going to Bolivia to meet with Evo Morales.  Here is a link to the article:

Yahoo Article on Reid meeting Morales

How much better is that kind of a meeting than with a telecom trade group lobbyist or an arms contracting firm's CEO or a Sheik from Saudi Arabia?

The article below is a little review of the article, and high hopes for what might be some good intentions from our Senators Reid and Salazar.

I've been wanting to post blogs here at Daily Kos for some time.  I blog elsewhere before I set myself up here at KOS, but never really put anything here.

I've gotten more confident in my writting though, and feel I should try to post here in the big leagues too.  If anything I'll get more feedback and have more to think about.  Yeah, that's what I need: more to read and to write.

This diary entry, as they're called here, is probably not the best way to start; but today is when I'm starting so this is what I'm starting with.  This blog may not seem like it was written by a part-time peace activist, green-party supporter, Kucinich supporter, or a any other kind of lefty activist.  I'm OK with that.

I figured I'd blog about the first presidential election I really remember, and the loser of that election Gerald Ford.  After all he did just die, and even though he isn't "one of us", the Republicans really got a lot uglier after him than they ever were before him-- not counting Nixon.

You may have to click on the "There's more" thing below