Howard Dean at Yearly Kos

Thanks to floridagal for posting the link to the video of Howard Dean's speech last night at Yearly Kos, and to Donna for linking to Scarecrow's writeup at Firedoglake, Howard Dean: A tough act to follow.

Dean let us know that he gets it, that he understands how important this amazing community is and how much it’s changing the way democracy functions in America. He knows how this movement is transforming the Democratic Party and bringing America back from the abyss Bush created and towards which he is still driving us. Dean won the crowd early on, and as they listened many had tears in their eyes, lamenting again what the media did to a man who so clearly saw in 2003-04 where the country was going and tried to warn us. But he was not one of the beltway’s privileged and they got him. But the man was not done.

Dean pulled it all together — the trampling of the Constitution, the disgracing of the Justice Department, the neglect of government’s legitimate and necessary functions, the need for checks and balances, the need to restore our civil liberties and to stop commuting the sentences of people who lie and obtruct justice and betray patriots, the need to end the occupation of Iraq — yes, it was all there in the same terms we use to describe what we see and how we feel about what has happened to our country. But then he let us know, as few other politicians can, that he undertands what we, the blogging community, are about.

Click here for the rest.

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Yearly Kos

I'm aware that the Yearly Kos convention is beginning today. While I'm not a fan of the proprietor of the big orange blog it is named for, I am a fan of grassroots organizing. And of getting the opportunity to meet, in person, people who have previously been only words on a computer screen. I look forward to hearing some great stories.

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Open Thread

To go along with the photo, here's a link to the audio of Jonathan Coulton's Re: Your Brains.

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Twenty Years of R & D!

Happy anniversary to Renee and Demetrius, those HEPpest of HEP cats!

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Open Thread

Just wanted to mention we've got our Back to School portal up at our Cafe Press store.

Any news stories to share? I realize I haven't updated my shared items for a few days...will try to do that when we get back from the gym.

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Happy birthday Paul in Illinois

A very happy birthday to my little brother.

Have some virtual cake. :)

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The Rumpled Jedi Rides Again

Thank you, Barry, for posting a link to the article Joe Trippi's Renaissance in the comments. The link didn't work for some reason, but I was intrigued enough to go track down one that did. Ah, where to start...

This cycle, three presidential candidates courted him. He signed on with ex-Sen. John Edwards after bonding with Elizabeth Edwards -- there's a whole separate story here about how he's fitting in. But he's in. That "Hair" video -- vintage Trippi. Edwards hired Trippi in part because Iowa is Trippi's specialty -- he helped Walter Mondale and Dick Gephardt win the caucuses -- and Edwards needs to win the caucuses.

Well, obviously I can't let the words "Iowa is Trippi's specialty" pass without comment. Let us all take a moment and think back fondly to the magic that Joe worked for the Dean campaign in Iowa. Oh, wait...

As far as the "Hair" video, I did see it, and agree that it was clever, but as one of the people who commented on the Trippi article remarked, it came too late. Now that sounds familiar--raise your hand if you remember being frustrated with the Dean campaign's sluggish response to the "scream" story.

Here's something else I remember from the months leading up to the 2004 primaries. I remember, for the first time in my life, actually donating to a political candidate. Not only that, but putting up a "bat" and actually soliciting donations. That is so not me. But I believed in Dean. And I believed that I was part of a "people powered" campaign. I remember many other people feeling the same. Remember "Ramen for Dean"--someone was going to eat Ramen for lunch and donate the savings to the campaign. At least that's my recollection. The point is, people made real sacrifices.

But ultimately, we were not really "shareholders" in the campaign. Many of us balked when the official ads started going negative. We were disappointed in general with the low quality of the ads, and begged anyone who would listen to use some of the ideas that we in the grassroots were offering for free. Like the "Who we are" ads some of us made in response to that dreadful ad the Club for Growth ran against Dean in Iowa. Begged "anyone who would listen"...ah, there's the rub. The article goes on to say

The small-dollar Internet donor base attracted by the Dean and flogged relentless by Trippi has transformed the party's fundraising. Democrats actually counterpunch these days. Every single campaign uses Trippi-patented tactics to raise money. The men and women Joe Trippi cultivated on Dean's staff have stormed the gates and occupy positions of power in major party and campaign offices.

More "gate storming", huh? Much like the "gate crashing" that the proprietor of Daily Kos touts, the ordinary people are still stuck outside those gates. It's all well and good for the campaign professionals to pat themselves on the back for the "genius" of soliciting small donations from the teeming masses. But if that's all you want from us, and you're not going to listen to our ideas or be prepared to answer to us when you make bad choices in the way you spend the money we donated...well, we might just decide we can put that money to better use.

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Something so right

Some people never say the words "I Love You."
It's not their style to be so bold.
Some people never say the words "I Love You,"
But like a child, they're longing to be told. -Paul Simon

A couple of weeks ago I said that we are Love's imagined Lover. It can be hard to imagine that Love desired to Love and be Loved so deeply that, in a burst of unfathomable Force and Wisdom, multiplied itself by itself and, by simply adding the speed of Light, created all the universes that exist from scratch.

Love is patient. Love waited billions of years as here on Earth, and probably many other places Life emerged and became self aware, and here we are, together. Love and Beloved.

Over the past few weeks I've discovered that I resist being Loved. This, to me, was a profound revelation. Most times I consider myself as having too much Love as it is. Huge self storage warehouses of the stuff that I have to give away in thimbles as fast as I can to keep from drowning in it. I'll tell you right now, it's not easy being the happiest man on Earth.

Yesterday, the revelation hit me very simply. I was walking up the hill to the bus stop and a friend offered me a cup of coffee, which I politely refused. As I continued on, I began to realize that although I've rarely had trouble giving compassion or caring, I seem to lack the inner mechanism to RECEIVE.

Renee posted the Prayer of St Francis a few days ago. "It is in giving that we receive."

So often it seems in daily life that all we do is give. That's not a bad thing. It's meant to be joyous and uplifting. Love, after all needs to be Loved. So when we give Compassion and caring for one another, we are Loving the Love that imagined us.

Sometimes however, Love needs to Love you back. Sometimes Love needs to seduce YOU. Sometimes Love needs to show you its open heart and say " I may be Eternal and Omnipotent and all that, but it's really comforting to know that your shoulder is there for me to lean on whenever I need it."

This is a community of compassionate, caring and giving people. So my message here today, is "Be as open to receiving Love as you are in giving it away."

May the Love that knows no comprehension find refuge in your hearts and in your homes forever.

Namaste

Subway

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The good news

In last night's post, I shared my frustration with society's insistence on replaying the same themes over and over again--specifically the fact that the "haves" keep finding artificial ways of dividing the rest of us. And that people keep falling for it.

But of course, some things do change. These two kids, if they had been born a few decades earlier, might never have ended up meeting. Not in college, anyway, and not as peers. Even if they did meet, the odds against them getting married would have been pretty strong.

So, sure, we can look at the way our species keeps repeating the same mistakes, and yes, it's frustrating that it's taking civilized society such a long time to master those lessons we supposedly learn in kindergarten.

The good news, of course, is that things *do* change. Yes, as you've probably guessed, those two kids got married when they grew up. But the part that might surprise some people is that most of the time it doesn't even occur to us that we're "nontraditional" in some sense.

It will be 20 years next Wednesday. Can you tell I'm already getting way sentimental about it? ;)

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There's gotta be a better way

After today's bout of tummy trouble let up, I settled into some very tedious Cafe Press stuff. The section isn't done yet, and I'm not that thrilled with it, so I'm not linking to it directly. But while I was working on that, Doctor Who came on. The television is on Demetrius' desk, and usually he puts on headphones if I'm in the room--since, if I'm in here, I'm probably trying to work on something, and my concentration is shot pretty easily. But today, when he asked if I'd like to hear the show, I said yes, given that I was working on something pretty mindless, and listening to the same show together is the closest we're going to get to "spending time together" today. Sad, ain't it?

Anyway, the Doctor and his traveling companion du jour find themselves in New York city during the depression. They were talking to some of the residents of "Hooverville", one of whom was remarking of the Empire State Building, which was under construction at the time. He said something along the lines of "how can they find the money to put up a building like that when people like us are starving?" Demetrius said, "Well, those people aren't working for you!" And we talked a bit about how, the more things change, the more they stay the same. How we still have this huge chasm between the "haves" and the "have nots", and still have extravagant, things being built or planned while many lack for basic necessities.

But that's not the part that's really bugging me. The part I find utterly insane is that the "haves" manage to find these artificial ways of dividing the rest of us against each other, and the rest of us keep falling for it. "Culture wars", and the like.

It's just gotta stop, that's all. I don't know HOW exactly, but it's gotta...

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Open Thread

Stevie says "hey".

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One Vote '08

I like this idea--it fits with my belief that it's important to get candidates to endorse *our* agenda.

ONE Vote '08 is an unprecedented, bi-partisan campaign to make global health and extreme poverty foreign policy priorities in the 2008 presidential election.

The next president will take office in a time of great hope: there are effective and affordable solutions that save lives. AIDS drugs can now cost as little as $1 a day. A $5 bed net can keep a child from dying from a mosquito bite. With the force of more than millions of members from all 50 states and a coalition of more than 100 non-profit, religious and charitable groups, ONE Vote '08 will educate and mobilize voters to ensure that the next American president is committed to using "strategic" power to end global poverty and keep America strong.

I'm not interested in being on any candidate's team at this point. I'm tired of candidates and their spokespople telling pundits "what the people want". I'm much more interested in being part of a movement where the actual *people* tell the candidates and elected officials what issues are important to us.

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Make me a channel of your peace

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there's doubt true faith in you.

Lord grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood; as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there's doubt true faith in you.

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Alberto Gonzalez Testimony (and Open Thread)

I haven't had a chance to read through this yet, but Firedoglake had a number of posts (including some liveblogging) about the testimony of Alberto Gonzalez today.

Off topic, but I thought I'd share one of the new designs Demetrius has up. I've dubbed it the Hound of Heck. :)

Update: I took a break from other work and added a bunch of shared items here (in lieu of writing actual content, which I just can't take time for these days).

Via floridagal in the comments:

Ok, here are videos of Howard's appearances yesterday and today...except for the Rachel Maddow show.

And this comment from the spin room is just great. Love it.

"Let's give the last word to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who on his way out of the "spin room," said, "I thought it was great! It's fulfilling the promise of the Internet and is an end to the one-way TV. It's effectively handing the power to a new generation ... And it's going to be even more interesting when it's the Republicans' turn. I can't wait to see that one!"

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Tuesday Open Thread

Crossposted from My Left Wing because a little birdie told me one of the regular readers here has a crush on Lynda Carter. :)

“I want to do everything right now! This very minute. I am impatient, but yes I have goals. To be a real well-respected actress whom people know they can rely on to do a good job... whether they like me as a person or not!”

Lynda Carter, born July 24, 1951

Also on this day...
1974: Nixon 'must hand over Watergate tapes'

The US Supreme Court orders President Nixon to surrender tape recordings of White House conversations about the Watergate affair.

Ah, to have a Supreme Court that would insist the president is not above the law...

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Open Thread

Just finished watching the Daily Show, and Jon Stewart interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson, the host of Nova Science Now. Planning to check that out tomorrow.

Talk amongst yourselves...

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Jet Blue Nonsense

In spite of my lack of affection for Big Orange, this Jet Blue business is nonsense. No way should the company have cowed to O'Reilly and his minions. I previously addressed the Jet Blue story here, by the way.)

It only emboldens them.

If you'd like to write a polite letter to the company expressing your disappointment in their willingness to be bullied by Fox viewers, here is the e-mail address corporatecommunications@jetblue.com

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NYT: Power Without Limits

This appeared as the lead editorial in yesterday's New York Times:

But the administration has been extraordinarily defiant toward Congress’s legitimate requests for information. The low point came recently when Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, refused even to show up in response to a Congressional subpoena. Some of the questions she would have been asked might have been protected by executive privilege, but others no doubt would not have been. Ms. Miers had no right to ignore the entire proceeding.

The next question is how Congress will enforce its right to obtain information, and it is on that point that the administration is said to have made its latest disturbing claim. If Congress holds White House officials in contempt, the next step should be that the United States attorney for the District of Columbia brings the matter to a grand jury. But according to a Washington Post report, the administration is saying that its claim of executive privilege means that the United States attorney would be ordered not to go forward with the case.

There is no legal basis for this obstructionism. The Supreme Court has made clear that executive privilege is not simply what the president claims it to be. It must be evaluated case by case by a court, balancing the need for the information against the president’s interest in keeping his decision-making process private. Mark Rozell, an expert on executive privilege at George Mason University, calls the administration’s stance “almost Nixonian in breadth,” because of its assertion that “the mere utterance of the phrase executive privilege” means that “no other branch has recourse.”

Click here for the rest.

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Religion Post Gizmo

By Subway Serenade



(photo from Blatte's Fractals)

Over the past few days I've been thinking of what Religion will look like in the future when Entheogenic technologies will redefine humankind's relationship with Nature's Eternity. So much of commercial religion these days seems to focus on what divides us.

It is said that Buddhists, for example, don't believe in God. This is true in the sense that Christians envision someone sitting on a throne somewhere in "Heaven." This is not to say that they don't believe in Eternity, they just don't attach a human like entity to it.

It is also said that Hindus believe in many gods. This is also a misconception. In Hinduism, Brahma is God the One, but in essence God is a Trinity: Brahma, the Generator, Visnu, the Operator and Shiva, the Destroyer. However, one thing in common with the Great Faiths of the world, is they recognize that we are all part of an Eternal process that seems to know where it's going regardless of our place in it. All proclaim Love to be the highest value.

We stand in this time on a great threshold, similar in many respects to when our ancient ancestors began using the Entheogenic plants that grow throughout the world, and began laying the foundations of Civilizations through the power of their expanded minds.

A huge Awakening on a Planetary scale is happening around us. I look forward to the day when every house of worship is filled with folk who are fully aware of their Eternal Selves, and where Religion flourishes in focused Compassion , Justice and Mercy. I'll say it again. Heaven on Earth is merely a global change in perspective, and that change is happening, all around us, now.

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Forgiveness

I haven't had a chance to check it out thoroughly, but there seems to be a blogathon this weekend on the subject of forgiveness over at Street Prophets. I don't know if other blogs are doing the same thing--that's how little I've looked into it. But it looks like there are some interesting essays.

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