[crossposted from the Northwest Progressive Institute]

Well this is a new one.

For all that I am an activist, I make a point not to push my politics in people's faces.  I don't bring up Bush or Obama with random people I meet.  I don't wear one of those "Buck Fush" t-shirts.  But I do have two bumper stickers on my car.  One for Darcy Burner (WA-08), and one for Barack Obama.  They're the only candidates I've encountered in my life who I felt strongly enough about to make that kind of public statement.

So yesterday, somebody put a bumper sticker on my car that read "Democrats are defeatist cowards."

I've been dithering about donating to Obama for a while now.  Because while I really want to support him, at the same time I am self-employed right now and am in the process of trying to start a business.  Right now, I am really feeling the pain of watching my savings account dwindle.  But you got me, RenaRF.  I can hardly believe it, but I just ponied up five hundred bucks to Obama.

Follow the flip to find out why.  And I do hope he spends it well.

(Crossposted from Northwest Progressive Institute)

Dear Mr. Gore:

I scarcely know how to begin this letter. I am so afraid for my country, my world, and my children’s future that I am at a loss to know what to say first. So, I will give in to the compulsion of fear and say first what is foremost in my mind.

I want you as the next leader of the free world. I want you, Sir, as the first leader of the world. Not its first ruler, but its first true leader.

More after the flip...

In perhaps the biggest political news since Governor Jed Bartlett won the Nobel Prize in Economics, today Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The media firestorm around this seminal event was fierce and immediate.  One cannot have been within five feet of a radio, TV, or computer since the prize was announced and yet remain unaware of it.  Uncharacteristically lost amid the flurry of AP Newswire stories and press releases was the Bush Administration's response.

Fellow Kossacks, Democratic congressional candidates need your help in '08.  But you knew that.  Heck, if you were tuned in for the '06 cycle, I'll bet you've already received at least one '08 related campaign solicitation--either in your inbox or in your mailbox.  But they need a lot more help than just money.

I can't help them with everything, but can help by schooling them in the best uses of new media technologies.  And I want to start with Viral Videos.  To do it right, I need to tap the collective Kossack memory bank.  Please join me after the flip.

Ok, not really.  I have enough kids.  And I'm a guy.

But seriously, where do you go after you deliver an opening line like "Traitors do not get to question my patriotism," juxtaposed with a graphic of Bush and Cheney?

Answer, with bonus YouTube goodness, after the flip...

Tuesday there was the first--and almost certainly the only--debate between WA-08 challenger Darcy Burner (Contribute) and incumbent Dave Reichert.  During the debate, Darcy made the bold statment:

"You deliver results or you get fired. If this President and this Congress worked for Microsoft, they would have been fired."

Well, I DO work at Microsoft, so I thought I'd provide a more detailed insight into how the President's performance would be evaluated here.  Find out on the flip...

Not too long ago, Soul posted This Diary about HR 5295, which authorizes school officials to strip-search kids on even vague suspicions that the kids in question might be in posession of drugs, weapons, stolen articles, etc.  That diary, naturally, raised some eyebrows and spent its share of time on the Rec list.

However, the House passed the bill on a voice vote, meaning we can't hold the guilty parties' feet to the fire for their Aye votes.  Thus my comment in which I advocated that we call our Reps to ask.

Flip with me to see what reply I eventually got from WA-08's own Dave Reichert.

Habeas Corpus, both as a legal concept and as a story in the media, needs to be kept alive.  Right now, everyone's talking about it, which is good.  But meaningless trivia about pervy Floridian congressmen, and yet another round of stunning Diebold revelations, and who knows what after that, will bump it right out of the national dialogue if we don't keep the story alive.

The story of how the Republicans killed one of our most fundamental rights for midterm election party politics should keep playing and keep playing and keep playing until we can get this tragedy of a law off the books.

I'm passionate about doing this.  But I can't do it alone.  Please flip with me to learn how you can help.

No, not the Monkees.  The Monkeys:

Awesome YouTube video What We Are (03:53)

All I can say is "Damn, I wish I was responsible for this surprisingly thought-provoking video."  Give it a lookee-lookee.  Spend some time being thoughtful.  Then check yourself for fleas...

Ok, so we're all way way way impressed with Keith Olbermann lately.  And rightly so.  I wish I could beam this guy's commentaries directly into the frontal lobes of every non-comatose American.  Hell, the comatose ones too.  Might wake even them up.  And we've all (you have, right?) send e-mail to viewerservices@msnbc.com, letters@msnbc.com, countdown@msnbc.com, KOlbermann@msnbc.com, and dabrams@msnbc.com to show our support for him.  And we've all heard the calls for Nielsen households to watch Countdown.

But beyond e-mail, there's something the rest of us non-Nielsen schlubs can do that will probably mean more to MSNBC than all of our emails.  Jump with me...

[Cross-posted from Northwest Progressive Institute]

Hurricaine Katrina hit a bit over a year ago, and we're still cleaning up after it.  I thought I would take a few moments to reflect on what Katrina really taught us about ourselves as a nation.

I have seen the future of the press conference, and it is us.

I happened to be logged on to DKos last friday at the time that Peter Goldmark, the Dem candidate for the WA-05 seat, posted a great diary about biodeisel.

What ensued was a great dialogue in the comments with Peter, and an announcement that he would be back on DKos this past tuesday morning.  What happened, after the flip...

Ok, how sick are you of "sign this petition" e-mail showing up in your inbox?  I lose count far too quickly of the number of these things I get from MoveOn, Common Cause, the ACLU, DFA, etc, etc.  And these things are usually written using what I can only call inflammatory rhetoric.  Language with a very "you're either with us, or you're a corrupt moron" subtext.  Not exactly Dale Carnegie writing at its finest, you know?

Sometimes I sign them, but more often I don't bother, because really, what's the point?  Ok, so maybe MoveOn can collect a million leftie signatures on a petition to dump on the doorstep of some bought-and-paid-for congressperson, who we all know could give less than a crap about what we think anyway.  What does it accomplish except to waste a lot of people's time and several dozen reams of printer paper?

Except today, I got a petition e-mail that was so good I had to sign it.  MoveOn et. al. could learn a thing or two about petitions from these guys.  The right way to write a petition, after the flip...

I just learned that there's a Darcy Burner group on Facebook now.  Darcy Burner is our kick-ass candidate for the WA-08 seat currently held by rubber-stamper Dave Reichert.

Much has been written about Darcy here and elsewhere, and I would like to encourage anybody who uses Facebook to join the Darcy Burner group.  Or if you don't use facebook, please register and join Darcy's group!  Let's make sure her group has more folks in it than Reichert's!

That is all.  Nothing after the flip...

Is it just me, or is anyone else smelling a Lieberman party switch in the offing?  Like, in a week or so, we'll wake up to the news that Lieberman will be running with an (R) after his name, thus making official what has been essentially true for years.

I mean, with Rove calling him, the Republicans lacking a strong candidate, etc., this seems like the sort of deal that would appeal to both those guys.

Am I crazy, or does anyone else think this might actually happen?

I started out writing this as a comment on Carnacki's diary, but it got long so I decided to turn it into a standalone diary.  Great diary, Carnacki; thank you.

Like you, becoming a father has made me a much more compassionate individual as well.  To be honest, it wasn't so long ago that I was pretty callous about world events.  If people were dying in other parts of the world, eh, so what?  No real skin off my nose, right?

Compassion, after the flip.

The other day I was struck by how George Washington and George W. share not only a job, but some initials, despite being vastly different presidents.  Then it occurred to me that we often refer to George W as King George because of the similarities in their names and in George W's obvious desire to be king.  Imagine my surprise when I looked up the real King George III and discovered that his middle initial is W also.  So we have three GWs: George Washington, George Walker Bush, and King George William Frederick III.  I dug a little deeper on these guys, and discovered that at nearly any point you care to name, George Washington and George Walker are basically opposite, while George Walker and King George are basically identical.

The degree to which this is true is really a bit mind boggling.  Lest we not be confused in a morass of Georges, I'll call them Washington, Walker, and William respectively.  Monograms aside, the three GWs form quite the interesting study in contrast and comparison.  Washington vs. Walker and Walker vs. William, and funny pictures after the flip...