April 9 should be a national holiday

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Saturday April 09, 2016 · 8:44 AM PDT

2016/04/09 · 08:44

Celebrate #ConfederateSurrenderDay with a Sherman: Set a shot of Southern Comfort afire, walk away. Today marks the day that the traitor Robert E. Lee surrendered to the United States of America.

Our country is still working on Reconstruction. This holiday would help us mark our progress and remember that we are not finished.

Her turn, when is it our turn?

furiouschads

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Tuesday February 23, 2016 · 6:21 AM PST

2016/02/23 · 06:21

Robert F. Kennedy — Humphrey, not RFK, not Gene, on and on

Hillary is another in the long line of candidates I’m being asked to settle for. I don’t want to settle again this year.

As a kid I wasn’t excited about Humphrey. I was a Mo Udall delegate in the Texas caucuses in 1976. I worked for Gary Hart in ‘84. I was for Dukakis in ‘88. Frankly, I can’t remember who I was for in ‘92. It wasn’t Bill. I was all in for Dean in 2004. Obama in 2008.

I’m from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. I want my candidate to represent me. Bernie is that candidate. Unlike my candidates of the past, Bernie has real blue collar appeal as well as wine track cachet. I want him running and winning in November, not just in the primaries. He can beat the horrible people coming out of the GOP primary. Bernie can excite us and push our congressional reps to stand up on their hind legs again.

The Democrats now in the House and Senate are much more receptive to Bernie’s message than would have been the Democrats of 1993 and 1994, back in Bill and Hill’s first term. We can make real progress if we have a strong voice speaking truth to the nation. The time for incrementalism and triangulation is over. Call your mother! Call your grandmother! #FeeltheBern

Celebrate Confederate Surrender Day April 9

furiouschads

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Sunday April 05, 2015 · 9:59 PM PDT

2015/04/05 · 21:59

April 9 is the 150th anniversary. Let's make it a new holiday: "Birth of New Freedom Day". This is a great idea from Brian Beutler. My family was on the wrong side of the war.

Best drink for this holiday--the General Sherman: Southern Comfort, set afire. HT to @MC_Hesher

Cheese, Coal, and the ACA

furiouschads

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Friday November 22, 2013 · 4:28 AM PST

2013/11/22 · 04:28

Coming soon to select stockings in DC

Wesmorgan1 had a fun talking point idea--compare employment in iconic industries with state-by-state ACA application counts. Even in Rollout Week 6, some of the comparisons are already startling.

He started with coal mining, a big industry in McConnell's and Rand's Kentucky.
KY Coal: 11,392, KY ACA: 47,966

I'm following his lead and adding more fun states. Feel free to use my sources and join in below.

furiouschads

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Sunday November 11, 2012 · 10:37 PM PST

2012/11/11 · 22:37

“Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Ulysses, by Tennyson

That which we are, we are. We may be regaining that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven. (H/T to Judi Dench and Skyfall)

We won. We won marriage equality in Maryland and elsewhere. We won Senate seats we should not have won. We worked and organized and returned a black man to the presidency in the middle of a terrible recession.

We should remember and restore our old strength. Union power to establish fair wages. Political power in a president who said "They are unanimous in their hate for me--and I welcome their hatred." Righteous power in a flawed president and son of the South who meant it when he said "We shall overcome."

We have been blocked and slowed down before. After WWII union power and liberalism were hamstrung by the McCarthy Era. Vietnam bogged down the push for civil rights. And we lost John, Martin, and Bobby. Bill Clinton created his own speed bump and set the table for the Bush/Cheney wars. Gore won but lost. Nothing similar has happened to the American right. Much abides. We refused to yield.

Now the tide may be moving with us. The challenge of our time is to keep the tide moving towards justice, science, and rational economic management. Our battleground is state governments and the House, starting now. We need to give our President a House majority in 2014 to help our country recover and to set the table for 2016.

There is a difference: MD & VA

furiouschads

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Saturday October 27, 2012 · 8:05 PM PDT

2012/10/27 · 20:05

I live in Maryland, my daughter lives in Virgina. She is a first time voter and I wanted to help her find an early voting place. You know, Hurrricane Sandy and all. I was shocked by what I found. The Virgina web site makes it very hard to find out about early voting. It is hard to find out because you can't vote early in Virginia. All they have is absentee voting, and you have to have a good reason, too!

Maryland allows early voting until November 1, including on Sundays. it was easy to find out where to vote early. And absentee voting requires no excuse. One state makes voting easy, the other places obstacles in our way.

I work in downtown Washington DC, with office mates who live in MD, in DC, in VA, and some who come in from by-God West Virginia! They came to DC from all over the county and had to pick some place to live when they got here.

The "smart" ones in my office mostly live in Virgina, having picked it for lower taxes. I know I have better roads and better services, but I often wonder if I made the wrong choice when I chose MD. But tonight, I am proud to be a citizen of the Free State.

furiouschads

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Thursday December 30, 2010 · 12:41 PM PST

2010/12/30 · 12:41

Why should we perpetuate job-tied retirement benefits? They have some of the same problems as job-tied health care. We need a new version of Social Security that is expanded to include current job-tied benefits.

The smaller the group of employees the higher the risk of a employee incurring unplanned costs--long-term coma in health care, living until 100 in pension. The bigger the group, the easier the cost and risk modeling becomes.

The long term trend has been to replace pensions with the 401k, putting the unplanned retirement risk into the smallest group possible--one employee. This makes for a good current quarterly expense report and for a future disaster.

Employers and employees haven't built up adequate 401k balances. One rule of thumb is that the 401k balance at retirement should equal 8 years of salary. Are you on track? That cushion of real estate profit we anticipated to help us in retirement is either shrunken or gone.

furiouschads

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Tuesday August 25, 2009 · 5:23 AM PDT

2009/08/25 · 05:23

"Read the bill!" they scream. (They didn't read the bill, either.)

The ability to read for meaning is dwindling. We still don't get it. We still think that Factcheck.org will set those angry citizens straight. George Lakoff tells us that our fights are won and lost at the gut level, not the brain level. Obama won not because of his policy positions but because he resonated with America at the core. We have to fight at the gut level.

Illiteracy is growing. How do we learn how to use a router? Read the manual or watch a video? Take a shop class? How do we learn about computers? Read a manual or use the Google tubes?

furiouschads

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Wednesday March 12, 2008 · 5:20 AM PDT

2008/03/12 · 05:20

Time to end this. Ask your superdelegates to switch to Obama now. The Ferraro gambit needs to be answered, not with anger, but with cold, purposeful, action. And with a donation to Obama of 20.08.

Congressional contacts Gubernatorial contacts DNC Contacts

inspired byfiredoglake action and bailey

furiouschads

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Tuesday February 05, 2008 · 6:50 PM PST

2008/02/05 · 18:50

If this election is about the future, then Obama is a better matchup against John McCain. Beating the Republicans is the most important thing. I had thought that Hillary would do it better. After Edwards dropped out I reconsidered.

If America is tired of the same-old and is ready for a restart, then Obama is the right candidate. If it is about experience, then McCain beats both Hillary and Obama.

I thought Edwards had the best case in November, without Clinton baggage, without the racial drag, and great policies to boot. Not happening.

furiouschads

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Monday November 13, 2006 · 7:26 AM PST

2006/11/13 · 07:26

State parties can help grow the base over the next two years by pushing the Local Voting Rights Act. The Local Voting Rights Act allows municipalities to let non-residents vote for municipal elections. People who aren't yet citizens will remember who helped them. Their already-voting friends and family will remember too.

Non-citizen residents get to vote in Home Owner Associations (HOA)s to select their garbage companies and decide how much to spend on snow plowing. Why shouldn't non-citizens have the same voice in municipal elections as they already have in HOA elections? If you pay taxes locally you get to vote locally. Even renters pay local taxes as part of their rent bill.

Something for the DNC to think about pushing to all the State parties. Good framing.

Service Guarantee: Vote in 30 Minutes or....

furiouschads

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Saturday November 11, 2006 · 7:16 PM PST

2006/11/11 · 19:16

Service targets should be part of the next voter bill of rights. What if the wait is more than 30 minutes? Put Plan B into action.

My polling station in Prince George's County, MD had an hour-long-wait, which I have never seen in 16 years of voting in this precinct. Despite (?) the wait, turnout was 43%, lower than it was at the last midterm.

The election staffing model is broken. We need to think about using other source of on-demand trained gov't workers. Like the National Guard? How about firemen and paramedics? The Marines always have a lot of soldiers running the Marine Corps Marathon. Read More

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April 9 should be a national holiday

Her turn, when is it our turn?

Celebrate Confederate Surrender Day April 9

Cheese, Coal, and the ACA

We are not now that strength

There is a difference: MD & VA

Social Security Plus, a replacement for the 401k

Functional Illiteracy and Our Framing Incompetence

ACTION: Write your superdelegates now!

Don't Stop Thinking About the Future

Growing the Base--Local Voting Rights Act

Service Guarantee: Vote in 30 Minutes or....