August is the make-or-break month for a watered down public option health plan. There's a lot of bad news out there, blatant incitement to riot unpunished, deals with drug companies, insurance companies already declaring victory, and slanted polls.
OTOH, there are glimmers of hope. Kossacks publish diaries about these "green shoots". Many of these diaries leave out two very important words. Thank you. Sometimes, it's diaries written by the people doing the work who "forget" or are too modest to ask people to thank them. Some of these diaries are written by kossacks who appreciate the work of others.
Modesty sucks, absent-mindedness is a luxury we can't afford now, and any third-party diarists (that's us!) should know better.
Mike Stark wrote a diary about the work he was doing with a video camera on The Hill for our friends at FDL. the funny thing was, neither in his diary, nor in his tip jar, did he mention that FDL lost a significant source of funding recently. More importantly, Mike didn't include a link to a site where those of us who are so inclined, could help make up for this deficit. (Am I being too subtle? We need to keep Mike and his camcorder working!!! Click the damn link!)
In regards to my last point, I look at slinkerwink's diaries as a model. Slinkerwink's typical diary always includes contact information, but she doesn't usually include links to campaign contributions. I can understand why, slink's diaries usually speak about groups of congress-critters. But, there's always Act Blue. When our friends do something we like, a call or emailed "thank you" can never hurt. But more importantly, we have seen how $$$ can buy nominal small "d" democrats like Max Baucus and Bill Nelson. Actual cash money is "a generous warrant of heartfelt feeling" and as such, are appreciated by our elected representatives. (Yes, I support public financing of political campaigns, but I'd rather have a pretend public health option today. Tomorrow, we may have a real public option. Public financing of national political campaigns? That will come on the plains of Heaven...)
But back to my main point, when you (yes, you!) write a diary about actual good news brought to us by an elected official, take five minutes, post a link to where people can e-mail a short, "thank you". Don't forget to put a link to https://secure.actblue.com/ [Congress-critter's Act Blue link] Congress-critters that get cash from Act Blue know it's from, well, us. If they're not on Act Blue, start them registered, if yours is the only $5.00 that they get, they may actually consider doing something that encourages us to contribute again. What do you want for $5.00? {Morally required notice: NO REPUBLICANS. Even if a Rethug is willing to anger their "base" by doing what is morraly right, we don't pay for the rope they'll use to hang us. Blue Dogs? It's your judgment call. Are they redeemable, or should we put them to sleep? Can a better candidate win a primary? The general? Can an equally conservative "democrat" win the primary? If you're destined to live in a blue dog district, it should at least be known that blue dogs have no job security.}
So, when you publish a diary about the work you do, if you're a Mike Stark, ask us for money. If you think the work done by someone else is worth a diary, take the time to let us know how we can say "thank you" and when appropriate, include a link to help them keep fighting the good fight. It's a long road to October, and we need to keep our front-line fighters morale up.