It's not time to panic

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday September 10, 2008 · 11:54 AM PDT

2008/09/10 · 11:54

Barack Obama has brought many new people into the political process, and he has reinvigorated the progressive souls of many who stopped participating. For a long-time pol like myself, it is easier to see the shifts and changes that Obama is exhibiting as normal progressions in a campaign. For the groups of people I mentioned at the start, changes in public financing or FISA feel like a betrayal, and it has shaken their faith. I am here to tell you not to jump ship or even put on your life vests. It is going to be alright.

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday September 05, 2008 · 4:22 AM PDT

2008/09/05 · 04:22

Republicans only seem to like the media when it is eating out of their hands. Any outlet that dares to, say, actually do its job faces the wrath of the faithful.

And by wrath, I mean this measured, balanced, and useful approach:

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday September 02, 2008 · 5:29 AM PDT

2008/09/02 · 05:29

There is a lot going on that involves Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Her public, and more complete, vetting continues in the media and in bloggers' basements across the country. Now that the holiday weekend has passed, here is a round-up of the information you need to investigate and discuss Palin this week.

Part 1:

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 16, 2008 · 6:16 AM PDT

2008/07/16 · 06:16

Have you ever played the license plate game on long road trips? That is the game where passengers try to spot license plates from as many states as possible. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, several friends of mine from across the country are joining me in a virtual version of this game. But the catch is this - you have to find the plates in alphabetical order. (If you can ever get past Alaska...)

Watching thousands of cars pass me this year has revealed a few things about human nature, the economy, and the state of the election.

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday June 27, 2008 · 7:04 AM PDT

2008/06/27 · 07:04

What happens when a growing new industry threatens the power and the profits of Big Oil? Why, environmentalists win, of course! Doing a double-take? You are not the only one.

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 26, 2008 · 6:00 PM PDT

2008/06/26 · 18:00

It is true that the Democrats have a "Lieberman problem". But in addition to getting some facts wrong, Sunday's TIME Magazine article from Jay Newton-Small does not really measure the magnitude or breadth of the problem. So I have.

Poll

81 votes Show Results

Will (not should) Joe Lieberman lose his seniority and chairmanship in 2009?

81 votes Vote Now!

Will (not should) Joe Lieberman lose his seniority and chairmanship in 2009?

Yes

61 votes

11 votes

Not sure

9 votes

FISA: The meaning of "majority" [updated]

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday June 20, 2008 · 10:58 AM PDT

2008/06/20 · 10:58

The House of Representatives passed HR6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, on June 20 by a vote of 293-129. (The roll call is here, and Democrats who supported the bill are listed below.) Democrats, the majority party, opposed this bill 105-128. Republicans voted 188-1 for the bill. [Tim Johnson, R-IL, was the exception.] It is time to explain to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer the meaning of the word majority.

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday February 10, 2008 · 9:33 AM PST

2008/02/10 · 09:33

On Super Tuesday, I volunteered as a poll observer at University Place School in Huntsville, Alabama. The polling location was in a hexagonal, cinder block gymnasium on an unusually warm and humid winter day. During my fourteen-hour day in that gym, I spied the signs of children all around me - four-square lines on the floor; chairs too short for me to sit in; rows of aligned dots painted on the floor for assigned seating; and elementary art on the walls encouraging students to stay active and eat healthy.

Sometime during my interminable day, I discovered this poster entitled "Rules for Fighting Fair":

and I was reminded that we adults seldom remember or exemplify the lessons we are trying to instill in our children. I think it is a worthy desire to want to live in a civil society. I believe the values of tolerance and freedom can exist together and complement one another. And I feel that as our road seems to inexorably lead to another argumentative presidential election, we should go back to what we learned in school about how to fight fair.

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday January 31, 2008 · 5:16 PM PST

2008/01/31 · 17:16

I was sitting in my room and the news came on tv;
A lot of people out there hurtin', and it really scares me.

Love and mercy, that's what you need tonight;
So love and mercy to you and your friends tonight.

~~ Brian Wilson, "Love and Mercy"

It was about eight in the morning yesterday when my friend Ed sent me a text from Buffalo and said, "Turn on CNN." My first thought was that Buffalo was on the news - he had been telling me about the severe winds, about how school had been canceled, and about how, dammit, he still had to work that day. In the few seconds more before the channel appeared, I wondered a few more things that might prompt Ed to direct me to the news today, but the news I saw was the last thing I was expecting. John Edwards was ending his campaign for president.

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday January 21, 2008 · 8:03 AM PST

2008/01/21 · 08:03

[My apologies for the delay since my last diary. I am one of those invisible Americans who was recently laid off.]

Late in a story about how 67-year-old action star Chuck Norris thinks that John McCain is too old to be president, I came across this nugget:

Huckabee also blamed late snowfall in parts of upstate South Carolina.

"The snow not only froze the streets of the Greenville-Spartanburg area, the votes kinda stopped once it started snowing," he said. "That was an area we were looking forward to having a significant vote margin."

Should Mother Nature choose the president?

Poll

16 votes Show Results

What is your most preferred method of voting?

16 votes Vote Now!

What is your most preferred method of voting?

Australian ballot / paper ballot

4 votes

Mechanical lever machine

2 votes

Punch card

2 votes

Optical scan

5 votes

Touch screen / DRE (direct recording electronic)

1 vote

Vote by mail

2 votes

Vote by internet

0 votes

Filing for Divorce after 21 Years

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 19, 2007 · 5:30 AM PST

2007/11/19 · 05:30

After awhile, you get accustomed to his face, his body, his mind. And when you see him day after day, it is not easy to realize how he has been slowly, marginally, effortlessly creeping away from you. Sure, people on the outside can see the changes. Yet you are unwilling or unable to recognize that something has gone wrong. I have always called it relationship inertia - it takes more effort to stop the trip you are on that it does to just ride it out. And then you look into his eyes one morning, and you do not recognize the man you see. You cannot even recognize your own reflection in his eyes. You were betrayed and swindled. Now, after all this time, after all your faith has been squandered, you wonder if you can ever trust again. You wonder who you can believe anymore. Most of all, you wonder where you go from here.

TexasAMC

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday October 25, 2007 · 1:46 PM PDT

2007/10/25 · 13:46

In searching for a frequently updated source of information on the ever-changing primary calendar for 2008, I stumbled across the website for the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS). As with a handful of other organizations (ably covered here by Subversive), the NASS has a panacea for the calendar mess - a rotating regional primary/caucus calendar.

While one could reasonably assumes that an organization of secretaries of state could come up with a tenable plan for an election calendar, this idea fails on at least three fronts.

Poll

38 votes Show Results

How do you feel about the idea of a national primary for parties in March, no party conventions in the summer, and the presidential election in November?

38 votes Vote Now!

How do you feel about the idea of a national primary for parties in March, no party conventions in the summer, and the presidential election in November?

I support the idea.

9 votes

I support a national primary, but I still want party conventions.

6 votes

I am not sure if it is a good idea or not.

4 votes

I oppose the idea and prefer the current primary system.

6 votes

I oppose the idea and prefer an alternate idea. (Let's hear about it in the comments.)

13 votes

Newer
Older

RSS

It's not time to panic

RedState's mature approach to politics

VIDEO: A Palin Primer - Ten Topics for the Week

Bumper Sticker Politics

The Sins of the Fathers are the Sins of the Sons

The Joe Lieberman Problem: A Vote Analysis

FISA: The meaning of "majority" [updated]

Rules for Fighting Fair

Edwards for President; or, How To Choose a Candidate in Seven Days

MLK Day: Should Mother Nature choose the president?

Filing for Divorce after 21 Years

The Perils of a Rotating Primary System