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Quark
One more thing I remembered about Franken's situation is that I heard that "the right" really hates him. I heard that's a big part of why the legal battle to seat him was dragged out. That being the case, we can expect that whoever they put up to challenge him is going to be very well funded.
Unfortunately, a major mission of U.S. military bases abroad is to make the world safe for corporations.
At first you moved to the top of my favorite radio show list because you always present both sides of the debate. I was getting really sick of switching back and forth between your show and Rush’s ……(tilts head slightly and thinks how much I dislike his argumentative, belligerent tone) ….in order to stay dually informed. If that wasn't enough to make you the top radio show, NOW all those wasted hours surfing the web for Halloween costume ideas are over. I need only to tune into your radio show, click into your website, and view Jacob's borage of outfit ideas and my day is complete. Stay at home mom's around the world salute you. (My son is eating the cats tail, must go!!)
Just got this from Nancy Sknner... for anyone interested
So the gang at www.nancyskinnerlive.com has created a new site, www.BlueDogHunt.com,which is helping Blue Dogs to "Go Public"! We are identifying Senators who are "on the fence" and sending them a message with our pocketbooks.
Goodness me Jacob - do people actually work with you on the show? !
Dennis Kuccinich was working on a "Department of Peace". We need to develop our own department of peace that is run by activists instead of religious organizations where activists are rigorously trained to work in dangerous areas while helping to build schools, hospitals, and sustainable businesses.
joe lieberman and john hagee , lieberman gave a speech talking about how great john hagee is. maybe joe thinks the world is going to end soon. so no reason to work on healthcare.
If it is true that we are fighting in Afghanistan in order to build the natural gas pipeline, please take a look at Bark's website. They have put together a tremendous amount of material for those fighting LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) here in Oregon and Washington. Bark's efforts are focused on the West Coast, but you may find information helpful for the fight you may need to have in your own state, too.
LNG is a scary, worldwide operation that puts ports in danger from terrorists and continues our addiction to fossil fuels. They use eminent domain to steal land owned by local farmers and eat away at hard-won environmental laws.
We need to fight LNG on the home front, and, if it is true that we will fight in Afghanistan partly for a Natural Gas pipeline, we need to tie our fight against LNG to our fight against the war.
Perhaps our local organizations need to raise money to send an "army" of activists to Afghanistan to help build schools and infrastructure as a way to fight LNG.
http://www.bark-out.org/topic.php?id=pipeline
mstaggerlee,
Could you tell us what state you're in? (Just wondering how far a reach the fundraising thing has.)
@mstaggerlee & B Roll & Quark,
I received a solicitation this week from Al on the behalf of Byron Dorgan. I'm glad it wasn't for Kent Conrad. Byron is a good guy.
B Roll,
You are the keeper of the flame. Unfortunately, I was thinking that it's a crime that Franken has to start fundraising so soon instead of thinking solely about ideas and future legislation. I just thought it was ironic that Amy apparently doesn't feel as pressured (although maybe she does, but is approaching it a different way.)
My comment was intended as a criticism on the condition of our democracy. 'Sorry it didn't come across that way.
Photo on the left:
A political coalition can be sewn together from disparate parts, but you should never get the brains from a jar labelled "Abbie Normal"
@Quark & B Roll -
I have also received solicitations from Al Franken's people on behalf of other Progressive candidates, e. g., Russ Feingold.
Quark
Don't sweat the small stuff. I'm not Al Franken's biggest fan and I'm not his biggest critic. Franken and Klobuchar are in very different positions. Kblobuchar has a political career going back to the last century (OK, just barely and it wasn't all that long ago). She not only has a long established well organized fundraising apparatus, but she's been able to do fundraising since the election.
Franken, by comparison, doesn't have a decade of elected office (and fund raising) behind him, and since the election, last November, had to devote his fundraising efforts towards legal fees so he could get into the office he won in November. So he's lost many months of fundraising.
Although his next election is several years away, senatorial elections are very expensive and we know that they have to raise thousands and thousands of dollars a day. Franken is close to a year behind in his fundraising. I'm sure you don't doubt that Amy Klobuchar is doing fundraising.
Your choice of the words "openly fundraising" indicates a bit of pique with Franken, and you have expressed that before. But remember, you promised DDay that you'd try to take the "glass is half full" point of view about Franken.
From what I've heard about Franken, he's very smart and very dedicated to being informed about the issues and doing a good job. I can see having policy differences with him and personality differences with him, but being upset because you found out that he's doing what we know every elected official has to do doesn't make sense.
Get the money out of politics. (Hey I can shout mundane platitudinous slogans too.)
RADICAL RIGHT -- EBAY INTERVENES TO PREVENT BENEFIT AUCTION FOR THE ACCUSED MURDERER OF DR. GEORGE TILLER:
Yesterday, the Kansas City Star reported that the online auction site eBay intervened to prevent a planned auction to support the defense fund of Scott Roeder, the alleged murderer of Dr. George Tiller. EBay said that the auction violated its policy against "offensive material" and would "not permit the items in question to be posted to the eBay site," adding that they would be "removed if they are posted." The decision followed a week of increasing national criticism of the planned auction and occurred on the same day that Tiller's family issued a personal appeal for the company to prevent the auction of materials the family felt contained "hate messages, glorify violence against abortion doctors who provide constitutionally protected medical services, and instruction on means of violence, including bombing, of abortion clinics." Dave Leach, one of the anti-choice extremists who organized the auction, defended the items, arguing that they "have historical value in the history of freedom of speech in the pro-life movement." The items included "an Army of God Manual" which contained "detailed instructions for attacking abortion clinics, manufacturing bombs and cutting off the hands of abortion doctors," as well as "a prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons, and several autographed drawings submitted by Roeder."
-The Progress Report
US drone strikes may break international law: UN
US drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions, the UN's top investigator of such crimes said.
"The problem with the United States is that it is making an increased use of drones/Predators (which are) particularly prominently used now in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan," UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston told a press conference. "My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law," he said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iUaMrNjdCeSmf_4__CYrS...
China to launch case against Big Three automakers
China has told the United States it is launching a trade investigation that could lead to new import duties on autos and sports utility vehicles made by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.
The action comes as U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are in China for high-level talks aimed at resolving trade irritants between the two countries. President Barack Obama, who will visit China in mid-November, angered Beijing last month by slapping a 35-percent duty on imports of Chinese-made tires which totaled about $1.8 billion last year.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59R4HS20091028
Re: Low-Information Voters
"Ignorance is not a simple lack of knowledge but an aversion to knowledge, the refusal to know, issuing from cowardice, pride or laziness of mind."
Karl Popper (1902-1994)
Austrian-born British philosopher
Time for a handout?
The unspoken point in my last post (the grip of the corporations on this country and the need for campaign finance reform) goes to my next comment.
I got my first call from an "independent fund raiser" soliciting donations to Al Franken's political pac, Midwestpac. Al is barely in office and he's openly fundraising already (whereas I haven't heard much at all from Sen. Amy Klobuchar.)
@B Roll -
That's kinda what I thought, I guess. Couldn't find their date of origin (didn't put a whole lot of effort into it - I'm actually trying to work,here!). Thanx for verifying my suspicions.
I love the gangster outfit because it makes me think of the Godfather which reminds me that Joe Lieberman's wife wakes up every morning with a horse's ass in her bed.
Dylan Ratigan, on MSNBC's Morning Meeting today even sounded resigned to this weak legislation on healthcare reform, saying that when things continue to get bad enough, voters and legislators will realize that politically easy fixes aren't good enough and REAL reform must occur for anything to change.
I wonder...
mstaggerlee
Consider this about the Oath Keepers. With all the things the Bush Administration did during its eight yearsto facilitate the creation of a police state in this country, the Oath Keepers didn't form until March of 2009, a few months after the swearing in of Barack Obama.
Quark
I didn't see your second post. I think you'll find it informative. But your first reply encouraged me to give more information, so... it's all good. :)
Just took a look at the Oath Keepers home page. While I actually agree with everything they say they say in their list of "Orders We Will NOT OBEY", something about them still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I get the feeling that they beleive, for instance, that the Obama Administration actually has plans in place to "blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps", or "use ... foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control." "
Again, there's nothing specific on the page indficating that this is what they believe, but where were these guys during the Bush admninistration? When were they founded, and why do they feel that they may, at some point, be getting orders that they'll have to refuse?