I just stopped by the DNC blog and found this post: "Tune In: Governor Dean on TV"
Governor Dean will be making the rounds early tomorrow morning before heading to The Democratic Reunion. Tune in before heading out:
7:00 AM - ABC Good Morning America Weekend
8:05 AM - CNN Saturday
8:15 AM - MSNBC Live
From Renee: I just got home and saw the messages from Tim (thank you jc for bringing them over from the other blog) as well as people's expression of their desire to help. I don't have any ideas myself, and there's a lot I'm preoccupied with at the moment, but I figured that pulling the comments together into a single post that people could link to might be a good first step. If nothing else, it will allow people to share the news with interested parties more easily.
Natural Disaster
This morning my wife woke at 1:00 am and become concern for our horses. I horses are in a barn about 10 feet above the flood plane. I trudge out in the dark and rain, found a massive flood the likes that had never happen in recorded history for this area. Getting to the barn I found the houses in 6 inches of water, with a foot and half of rushing water right out side the door. The farther down the drive the deeper. My wife and I made hast clear out our garage, and then guided the hourses through 3 feet of water at times to the hide side where our steps are.
Horses will climb steps folks. They are safe but shaken in the uper barn/ Garage. We begin to salvage some hay, and saw dust which would could access through a back way. Then I realized that my truck was parked on the steep bank of our lower driveway. I found it had 6 inches in the cab and the back end almost submerged. It a steep hill. Lucky for me the truck started, and the 4 wheel was already locked in. Our tractor is a complete loss.
Then we realized that our neighbors were down about as low as our barn, so we went up the road to check on them. The fire departant was on sceen already but because their drive crossing the creek no one could get to them. I guided them around the back woods and we brought them to our house safely.
Then I realized that our Office is also down low.. So I drove into work. 15 minute normal drive took 2 hours as I mazed around to try and find a safe route. I found the river rising well behond the 500 year flood mark. We pulled servers and equipment all morning. Mean while you could hear people scramming from the appartmetns across the Grand River. They spent the night with boats and helecopters rescuing people.
I'm tired and in need of sleep, and I have a laul.
You folks can read about it here.
Update
The devestation of my property is imense. My horse Paddock is a debree field. Good news, I put fence post in deep, and most of my fence held. We found the dock that was on our pond in the horse padock. Two steel bridges we used daily to cross the creek are gone, and no where on our property. The list goes on.
I will be resigning my position of campaign manager. I must manage for my family now. Our house is the bright spot. Its still here, but we have no potable water. We spoke with FEMA and EMA from Geauga county and they were out to asses the damage. We are hoping for a low interest loan so we can have excavators come in and shore up our drinking supply, and purge our septic system.
This will be my last blog for awhile. We are safe, and no one died, and for that I'm greatful.
by TeatimeTim*in*NEOhio on Friday, 07/28/06 @ 01:24 PM
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If I haven't sent you a Blogger invite so that you can be a front page contributor, and you would like to be one, you can e-mail me at howardempowered at gmail.com
FYI, I've been playing around with a MySpace page. If you're on MySpace, and feel so inclined, let me know who you are there. I've also set up a couple more Squidoo pages.
Talk amongst yourselves.
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It's too late to sign up as a blogger for this event, but you can still be a sponsor.
I meant to post about this last night but got busy doing something else and ran out of time, but I did want to make sure I did a quick post drawing it to your attention. Basically, various bloggers or teams of bloggers agree to do a post every half hour for 24 hours, and other people sponsor them, and donations go to the charity of the bloggers' choice.
History of the event here.
Frequently asked questions
List of bloggers
List of charities
Different topic, but if you haven't done so already, please check out last night's brainstorming thread.
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It was Kimmy who first told me about Freecycle. If you haven't heard of it before, it's definitely worth checking out.
The Freecycle Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by clicking on the region on the left. You may then go directly to your local group by clicking on "Go To" or you may immediately joining by clicking on "Join." It will generate an automatic e-mail which, when sent, will sign you up for the local group and send you a response with instructions on how it works. Can't find a group near you? You might want to consider starting one (click on "Start a Group" for instructions). Have fun!
The Freecycle Network was started in May 2003 to promote waste reduction in Tucson's downtown and help save desert landscape from being taken over by landfills. The Network provides individuals and non-profits an electronic forum to "recycle" unwanted items. One person's trash can truly be another's treasure!
Update: If you weren't here for the earlier thread, please check out what I said there about the Squidoo page, and let me know if you have any suggestions. (You can also set up a "lens" of your own, if you like.)
I've already posted this in the comments, but I think it deserves front page status. Plus, another Open Thread just seemed desperately lacking in creativity.
I found the following newsy nuggets at Buckeye State Blog:
and...
The Ohio Fraternal Order Of Police endorsed Democrat Ted Strickland for governor today, turning away from a Republican gubernatorial candidate for the first time in more than 10 years.
The organization, which represents 24,000 police officers, had little to say about why it likes Strickland more than Republican Ken Blackwell.
"Blacks against Blackwell" has formed and begun distributing a pejorative flyer that groups Blackwell with President Bush and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.You can donate to Ted Strickland's campaign through our Act Blue page
"Our color -- but not our kind" reads the flyer, complete with photos. "Joined at the hips and lips. The bad bunch. This trio has worked hard to suppress votes, erase civil rights and kill public education. In November, vote Ted Strickland for Governor of Ohio."
Just a few links to share with you this evening...
As I mentioned in the comments, today I got mail from the RNC, telling me how important it is to work to re-elect Deb Pryce, and how those scaaaary libruls (including "extremist organizations such as moveon.org") are fighting against her. In fact, hers is a *nationally targeted seat"*. So won't I pitch in and give some money? After all, there are so many great things to recommend her, like, for example, she is "well-positioned to influence issues of importance to Ohio's burgeoning banking and insurance industries". Oh, right, because those industries are *totally* looking out for average Americans. Cough bankruptcy bill cough.
I don't have time to do a full-fledged post, as I really need to get to bed so I can get up and work in the morning, but I figure it's the least I can do to reward the nice Ohio Republican who sent me this stuff is to do another front-page plug for Mary Jo. Remember, you can donate to her campaign through the Howard-Empowered Act Blue page.
After all, I think Jo Ann Davidson, the "Co-Chairwoman, Republican National Committee" deserves something for troubling me--I mean for her trouble. So let's thank her by donating to Mary Jo Kilroy.
Previous posts
Dean Dozen Mary Jo Kilroy to challenge Deb Pryce (Oct 20, 2005)
It's Kilroy vs Pryce for OH-15 (November 17, 2005)
Mary Jo Kilroy on the Plunderbund Podcast (transcript) (June 8, 2006)
* For a fleeting moment there, I felt tempted to riff off of Pryce's "nationally targeted seat" and say something about "kicking her ass out of Congress. But, like Eliza Doolittle, "I'm a good girl, I am!" So I won't go there...
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The classic political junkie question is, "If you could choose anyone to have a meal with, who would it be and what would you ask?" Well yesterday, I had a chance to do just this with one of my top pick politicians, Senator Dick Durbin.
As many of you know, I was chosen to be a delegate to for the Illinois Women's Institute for Leadership 2006 class. This organization was developed by women leaders of the Illinois Democratic Party, with Loretta Durbin as founder and president. Similar to Howard Dean's plan for the 50-state strategy, the IWIL program recognized the importance of a developing a "farm team" for future politicians. This has given me an opportunity to have some incredible training, to network with leaders in the Democratic Party and to share this experience with other fledgling female politicians. Our group of fourteen women is as diverse as the Democratic Party. Seven of the 14 are from Chicago and seven of us are from "downstate" four are African-American and two are Hispanic. I represent the old-age group. :-)
This weekend we met at DePaul University in Chicago. This makes two weekends in a row for sleeping in a college dorm. Friday evening our group watched "Iron Jawed Angels". Our Friday night video about women's suffrage was a great way to start an inspiring weekend.
The meetings were at the university student center. On Thursday I received and email from our organizer that Sen. Durbin would start the day with a short talk. So as a seasoned Dean fan, I started my planning. When I entered I scoped out the room, four round tables with 6 chairs each and a long table at the end set with a warm breakfast. I figured that a front table could give me a closer view. I noticed that only two other women chose to sit there leaving 2 empty seats.
After we sat down, in entered Sen. and Loretta Durbin. Sharon said, "Look he is wearing a green tie." We noted that it matched Loretta's well fitted, lime green blazer. Jacky stated, "I have noticed a lot more green ties on men lately." As Sen, Durbin was filling up his plate with food, I could tell all the chairs were almost full so I quietly motioned for the Sharon to take off her bag from the chair next to her. Durbin, with a plate load of scrambled eggs asked, "Can I sit here?"
We had about ten minutes to talk before he was to speak. "Thanks for your great work in the senate for getting the stem cell research passed." stated a delegate that joined us. Yes it did force Bush to make his stance by vetoing it. We told him how we appreciated him coming here and how Loretta was insightful for organizing this women's training program. We continued to expressed appreciation of what he was doing in the Senate but I certainly didn't bring up my husband's concern about the Lebanon situation nor my son's anger about the upcoming Senate bill that would stop on-line gambling.
When we finished eating, he stood before the group directly in front of me. Sen. Durban, like someone else we know, is not a tall man. He started by saying he didn't want to take time away from the scheduled speaker but we all heartily expressed approval for him to continue his talk.
You could see his pride as he looked around the room filled with empowered woman (and amazingly, I was one of these women!!). He looked affectionately across the room to his wife of 39 years, and acknowledged her for making this all a happen.
Like all good politicians, he talked to his audience. He opened with encouraging us to run for office. He said if someone encourages you to run for office, consider it closely. 'Don't be discouraged, not everyone wins the first time. I ran four times before I was successful.' He proceeded to describe his failed candidacies. I never think about all that people go through prior to their success.
He talked about some successes this last week with the passage of the Right to Vote Act and the approval of stem cell research, at least in the Senate.
I especially love to hear insider stories. He talked about a recent meeting other Democrats and he had with the (evil!!) Republican message maker, Frank Luntz, Luntz talked with them about messaging and how successful the Republicans have been and what the Democrats need to do. This is amazing, Luntz sees this all as one big game and he is more interested in the ability to control people and how they vote yet he seems to have little alliance to a belief system of his own or a loyality to a particular party. Someone asked Durbin if there was a Democratic plan and he said they would be releasing it in the next month. He went over a few points, which we DNC people know is what Dean has already introduced.
Apologizing for interrupting our sessions, Senator Durbin left us to our instruction by two women from Emily's List organization and message maker, Pete Giangreca from John Edward's campaign. Giangreca had helped to develop the idea of "Two Americas." When asked about blogging he warned us not to blog because what you say there cannot be taken back, too late for me!
***An interesting side note. Saturday evening there was a BBQ with past delegates from the IWIL program and Loretta told Sen. Durbin that he could not attend because there was not enough room for spouses.
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Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop Elect of the Episcopal Church, was on the CBS Evening News earlier this evening.
Ate a smilie-face in the milkweed leaf today!
I actually saw the butterfly lay the egg and brought it in so the mean red bugs couldn't eat it.
Our biologist son recommended wrapping the ends of the milkweed leaves in a wet paper towel.
It works great for keeping the leaves from wilting quickly!
We named the little fellar Truman. ;-)
Truman is three days old now, and for the first day I was really worried because it didn't appear that our caterpillar was eating anything, and caterpillars are supposed to be all about eating!
But as I continued to observe, I noticed on the second day that the little fellar had probably been eating all that time, but such a small layer of the leaf that it didn't show. It wasn't until the second day that Truman began to make a mark across the top of the leaf. Now, as you can see, Truman chomps right through like a champ, and is now big enough that we can make out body stripes! Truman is not only humourous but quite intelligent (especially considering brain size!); I noticed last night that Truman sleeps aligned along the center spine of the leaf, to be camouflaged! Why didn't I think of that?
Is Truman asking about our housecat?
Celebrating CATS, being a CATerpillar?
Or is it a special message for Catreona?
;-)
It took Truman half a day to munch the smilie, most of the evening to laugh, and another couple hours to create the Cat. =^. .^=
Truman the Artist! Imagine what Truman will be able to do as a Butterfly!
;-)
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Testing to see if the YouTube "embed" thing works
Or visit this link. This particular one is from CurrentTV (Al Gore's station). Apparently a lot of the blogs are having a YouTube war. I don't know the particulars, but here's the post from Firedoglake, linking to a song, "Keep your Jesus off my--" (male reproductive organ).
What good stuff have you found on YouTube lately?
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Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We miss the compass points that show us where to go. We lose the nourishment that gives us succor. We miss the quiet that gives us. Poisoned by the hypnotic belief that good things come only through tireless effort, we never truly rest. And for want of rest, our lives are in danger.What do you do to rest, replenish, restore?
For some reason, Haloscan has decided I've been banned by the Webmaster and won't let me comment. Don't forget to see Renee's post below with a new pic of Howard taking the stage at DemocracyFest.
Today was the DNC's Rules & Bylaws Committee (RBC) meeting to add two states to the presidential primary calendar. Nevada will hold a caucus and South Carolina will hold a primary in the pre-window primary period. Iowa will remain the first caucus in the pre-window period and New Hampshire will remain the first primary.
Hotline On Call
The two open windows -- one caucus immediately following Iowa and oneThe battle for the western caucus came down to Arizona and Nevada although RBC member Mame Reiley (you may know her from her work on Mark Warner's Forward Together PAC) opined that had this process begun earlier, Colorado would have been the front runner. (Personally, I don't see it.)
primary after New Hampshire -- drew proposals and submissions from across the country, though by yesterday, only AZ and NV were considered finalists for the caucus slot, and only SC and AL -- finalists, for the primary. (A few other states--like Colorado and Mississippi--were mentioned this morning.)
The battle between Arizona and Nevada seems to center on the contest
between organized labor and Hispanic-American activists. Many supporting Arizona cited Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano during their speeches, while those backing Nevada cited the state's heavy labor population which, coupled with the state's
high Latino population, provides what one committee member characterized as a kind of double whammy.
The new calendar looks like this:
Iowa's caucus will be held on Monday, January 14th, which means Nevada caucuses on 1/19, New Hampshire holds its primary on 1/22 and South Carolina primaries on 1/29. The window for other states to hold their primaries would open 2/5.
Hotline credits two reasons for Nevada's win:
Arizona's position as a late favorite is attributed to Governor Janet Napolitano and the respect she has in the party. Hotline notes that as late as Thursday, Arizona was the odds-on favorite to win, if there hadn't been a swing in Nevada's favor.
Harold Ickes lobbied heavily against South Carolina, claiming a presidential bid by John Edwards would take the state out of play, thereby defeating the purpose of holding its primary early. SC Rep. James Clyburn said that was the "most ludicrous thing I've ever heard in my life." Clyburn said that if Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack were a presidential candidate the DNC wouldn't take Iowa's "first in the nation" caucus away from it.
South Carolina seemed to be a no-brainer to me, especially compared with Alabama but I can't explain why. I won't even try to dissect what Ickes was complaining about...
Howard's official comment:
"From the beginning, I have strongly believed in the importance of broadening participation in the nomination process to better reflect the rich racial, regional, and economic diversity of the Democratic Party and ensure that our Party produces the strongest possible nominee. The Rules and Bylaws Committee has worked hard to achieve that goal while pacing the process more evenly and balancing the need for change with Iowa's and New Hampshire's important, traditional roles. This has been a long, thoughtful and rigorous process. I want to thank the members of the Rules and Bylaws Committee for their hard work. They have conducted this process with the highest integrity; I support this final recommendation to add Nevada and South Carolina in the pre-window period. I also want to thank all of the states who applied, their participation has been absolutely critical in ensuring the rigor and integrity of this process."The reaction from New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Kathy Sullivan is predictable:
"The short sighted action taking by the DNC Rules and Bylaws CommitteeI'll be curious to see how this plays out. New Hampshire could decide to hold its primary before the Iowa caucus to preserve its "first in the nation" status. New Hampshire law says that no similar state contest can be held seven days before or after the state primary.
exacerbates the current problem of frontloading in the primary calendar. In
addition to ensuring that the Democratic Party will have a nominee by February 5th after only a handful of states have voted, the committee trampled on the grassroots tradition of the New Hampshire primary. Instead of going door to door and meeting the voters face to face, the candidates will spend millions of dollars on television advertising."
Gov. John Lynch warned members of a Democratic National Committee panel
today that if they vote tomorrow to add a state presidential caucus between the Iowa and New Hampshire that the state is fully prepared to send the presidential nomination process into chaos.
In a letter to members of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, Lynch said they should assume Secretary of State Bill Gardner will move up the date of the state's first in the nation presidential primary, even in front of Iowa if it has to.
I know not everyone likes that phrase used in connection with Howard, but I look at this picture mprov took at DemFest, and that's my first thought. ;-)
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I posted a link to this diary in the comments last night, but since there's an update, I thought I'd do the frontpage thing with it.
Dear Chancellor Merkel: UPDATE petition
There were a lot of comments, so the page is hard to load, but here's a new diary about the petition:
Apology to Chancellor Merkel: Sign The Online Petition!
Hello friends,
I have decided this morning to NOT qualify for the 2006 general election for the Florida House. This was a difficult decision - as I believe I could have won this race and played a significant role in bringing change to our political system from the level of the State of Florida.
With the legal battles ongoing I have had to neglect my campaign to instead redirect efforts into the fight for the rights of the residents of one city in my district.
I believe that, at this time, the best use of my talents and those of others who support me is to focus them inward - prove we can indeed take back our government for the people in one city - while at the same time building a true grassroots movement in the counties of North Central Florida in preparation for the 2008 election cycle.
This will enable us to refocus these efforts over a two-year period of organization and development so that we can be even more effective in our struggle.
I hope to build the Alachua Project in two directions: 1) Recruiting national support for a grassroots effort to take back one town - and prove we can do it; 2) Expanding this to taking back the local level of government town-by-town across Florida and across the nation - thus turning it into the Democracy Project.
I believe that if we can direct 10% of the national grassroots movement into a focused local reform effort - we can level the playing field and we can begin re-establishing the true rule of law and real democratic government BY THE PEOPLE. With our collective knowledge, energy, resources, etc. we can take back America one town at a time.
I believe, furthermore, that with two years of organization and mobilization through such a project we can lay the foundations for a truly independent grassroots wave of empowered citizens who will be the primary, rather than secondary, forces in the 2008 election cycle nationwide.
I will announce my plans for the next two years in the upcoming days. I apologize to all of you who have done so much to support me and I hope that I have not let you down. This is a very hard decision - but I believe that in the long-run it will prove to be for the best.
This is not about me alone - but about all of us - and I am committed to do any and everything in my power for the next two years to accomplish our goals and objectives. This is about all of us - as a community.
I will need your support in these endeavors - and hope that I can call on you for assistance in these efforts.
Feel free to call or email me to let me know your feelings on this and if you have any ideas or suggestions.
Again, I apologize to all who have done so much to assist me in this effort to date. Its people like you that have given me the ground upon which to remain optimistic that WE, together, can fight this very important battle - and it is a struggle that will not be won overnight - and bring it to a victory within the next few years.
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jc has some new designs up at her graphics blog.
I've downloaded the photo and posted it here. So, for anyone who's been clamoring for this, don't say I don't ever do anything nice for you. ;-)Thanks, Corinne, for pointing this one out to me...
Crossposted at My Left Wing and Daily Kos
Have you seen this new ad Ken Blackwell has put out, targeting African American voters? Pardon my French but, holy crap is it bad!
From Openers:
Black voters should be afraid of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland, who is white.Geez, and here I was trying to resist the temptation to go negative. While I was messing with bumper sticker ideas recently, I was thinking of stuff like sing with bumper sticker ideas recently, I was thinking of stuff like "White supremacists for Blackwell". Or "Ken Blackwell: honorary rich white guy".That's the implied message of a glossy new piece of campaign literature being distributed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, who is black.
It features an image of a black man, dressed in a T-shirt and baggy sweatpants, who looks as if he'd just seen a ghost, mouth agape and hands up. The image is also distorted, which makes the man's head as big as his torso. The headline reads: "Strickland for Governor? NO WAY!"
"Blackwell '06: this time, he'll rig his OWN election".
Maybe we need some ads showing African American voters standing on long lines to vote, courtesy of Ken Blackwell. Or the picture of him acting all chummy with this person
You know, the woman who showed this kind of compassion for Katrina evacuees:
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this [she chuckles slightly]is working very well for them."
Yeah, Ken Blackwell is all about looking out for his homies.
Just only when they're agreeing with him on "values" issues. When they're standing in line in the rain on election day--or concerned about cuts in funding for schools and various social programs--not so much.
But I do have his blatant play for the Black "values voters" (as well as Bush's veto of stem cell research) to thank for these new bumper stickers Demetrius just made.
