Sayin' It With Pictures!

A few pictures to start. The first group was taken during events held by the Stonewall Dems. I really wish I'd had my camera with me at a late-night party at the nightclub, Tracks. Although this is probably not what Lerner and Lowe had in mind when they wrote about dancing all night, the driving beat got me going on the dance floor for quite a while.

Saturday night and Sunday morning with the Stonewall Dems

Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of Kansas, spoke at dinner Saturday evening.

Sunday morning band and parade

Governor Deval Patrick and David O'Brien, DNC

The governor spoke at the Stonewall Dems breakfast on Sunday morning.














Donna Edwards, MD and Keith Ellison, Minnesota introduce John Conyers at From Fannie Lou Hamer to Barack Obama, a forum sponsored by the Colorado Public Library, Colorado PBS and The Nation magazine.

John Conyers, Ohio and John Nichols, The Nation

More to come...

Amy Goodman has been arrested!

(Also posted on Blue Mass Group.)

This afternoon, I watched today's edition of Democracy Now!, which included a piece about the St. Paul police conducting preemptive raids in advance of the Republican convention, targeting groups of protesters, journalists and videographers, including videographer, Elizabeth Press, who works for Democracy Now!.

I just received the following email announcing Amy Goodman has just been arrested.

I spent time volunteering for Democracy Now! last week in Denver, where I distributed information about the show at events around the city. Amy produced a 2 hour show daily during the convention in Denver, and planned to do the same this week during the Republican convention.

I hope you will consider placing the suggested call.

Amy Goodman and Two Democracy Now! Producers Unlawfully Arrested At the RNC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 1, 2008

Contact:
Denis Moynihan 917-549-5000
Mike Burke 646-552-5107, mike@democracynow.org

ST. PAUL, MN—Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfully detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were being arrested on suspicion of rioting. They are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul.

Democracy Now! is calling on all journalists and concerned citizens to call the office of Mayor Chris Coleman and the Ramsey County Jail and demand the immediate release of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar. These calls can be directed to: Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman's office at 651-266-8535 and the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350 (press extension 0).

Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.

During the demonstration in which they were arrested law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. Several dozen others were also arrested during this action.

Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism's top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar is a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists from the nation's leading independent news outlet.

Democracy Now! is a nationally syndicated public TV and radio program that airs on over 700 radio and TV stations across the US and the globe.

Video of Amy Goodman's Arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

##
= = = = = = = = =
ABOUT DEMOCRACY NOW!
Democracy Now! airs on over 650 radio and TV stations, including
Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public
access, PBS, satellite TV stations (DISH network: Free Speech TV
ch. 9415 and Link TV ch. 9410; DIRECTV: Link TV ch. 375); on the World
Radio Network's European Service and on the Community Broacasting
Association of Australia service; as a "podcast", automatically
downloaded to your computer or portable audio player; and streams live
M-F at 8am EST at www.democracynow.org
= = = = = = = = =
Now real-time CLOSED CAPTIONED on TV!
You can also view/listen/read all Democracy Now! shows online:
http://www.democracynow.org
To bring Democracy Now! to your community, go to:
http://www.democracynow.org/get_involved/bring_to_station
= = = = = = = = =

OK, OK...

....I'm back. And I'm sorting through hundreds of photos.

Two reasons I didn't post from Denver. First, I was out, mostly taking pictures, from 7 in the morning until 1 or 2 a.m. every day. That leaves just enough time to download pictures to the computer and sleep a little (not enough!). I'd planned some time to post on Tuesday, but had a computer disaster to deal with.

So I'm spending the next few days editing and posting, and if you check back, you'll see what I saw!

In the meantime, check out Marianne Rutter's blog. Marianne was a delegate, and my roommate, and, is evidently really good at writing in her sleep! ;-)

OK. Back later.

Oh, by the way, check out the Newburyport Daily News from last Saturday. More on what I think of the piece and the fact they ran the photo on the front page later...

I'm going to Denver!

As many of you know, I'm going out to Denver as a Convention volunteer and plan to take advantage of as many offerings as possible.

I just posted this schedule on Blue Mass Group, where there's a discussion started by Charlie, who has asked for suggestions about what he should focus on and cover in Denver. Please visit there to read the discussion and add your imput.

I'm taking my computer and camera (with 2 batteries and three memory cards=8GB) and am ready to be involved to the max and totally sleep-deprived!

I'm signed up to attend the following workshops:

• Sunday: From Fannie Lou Hamer to Barack Obama and PDA's Progressive Welcome to Denver
• Monday: Rocky Mountain Roundtable Unconventional Women
• Tuesday: Rocky Mountain Roundtable Energy and Climate Crisis and the National Women's Political Caucus reception
• Wednesday: Rocky Mountain Roundtable International Relations
• Thursday: PDA's Constitutional Law and Congress

That doesn't include the volunteering time, convention or parties, all of which is up in the air.

Lot's more about the convention soon!

This may be moot by morning

I just finished watching Countdown, in which Keith Olbermann predicted Obama's pick for VP will be Joe Biden. He narrowed down the widely-reported short list of three by eliminating:

• Virginia's Governor Tim Kaine, because of the announcement that former VA Governor and current US Senate nominee, Mark Warner, will deliver the keynote address to the convention, therefore negating the possibility of featuring another Virginian in the same venue the next night; and,

• Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, because if elected there's a high probability his democratic senate seat would become republican. His replacement would be appointed by Indiana's governor, who is currently republican Mitch Daniels. Daniels is running for re-election; he has a democratic opponent, but he holds a substantial lead and the power and money of an incumbent, so in all likelihood, the appointment would be his to make. The person appointed would remain senator until a special election, which, if I understand this correctly, would be during the next election cycle, two years from now. (This is different from the House, which requires members to run every two years, and for which a replacement of a member is not done by appointment, but rather is the winning candidate of a special election held as soon as possible.)

Olbermann concludes that the choice must be Biden and says of that choice, "it certainly would make the covering of campaign speeches a lot more interesting."

You can watch the segment from Olbermann here.

Oh, and if you have a couple of minutes, check out the "Bushed" segment and be sure to listen to the rant for #1 about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Unit (ICE). Chilling.

Candidate for WORST PERSON (company) IN THE WORLD: CLEAR

First, let me say that I’m a card-carrying member of the ACLU and take my right to privacy very seriously.

Sometime this past spring, I accepted an invitation through my Marriott membership for a free, one-year membership to Clear, a company offering pre-authorized airport security. After a lengthy internal debate about whether I wanted to be in their system, I decided, what the hell, and filled out an online application. I knew I wouldn’t be traveling more than once or twice over the year, but wanted to experience “fly[ing] through airport security" before my privileges expired.

There are a handful of airports currently operational (my home port, Boston, is not among them), and in order to activate the account, I have to present myself at one of the participating airports to supply my biometrics—consisting of fingerprints and an iris scan. Denver is one of the airports in which Clear is up and running, and since I’m signed up to volunteer at the Democratic convention, I thought I’d complete the process in August.

Last Wed, August 7th, I received an email from Clear. I assumed it was going to be information about my enrollment: there were more airports online where I could report to complete the process; or they’d decided I wasn’t qualified to be among the elite to whom they cater; or too much time had passed between my internet application and showing up at the airport. I don't have a good enough imagination to have come up with the actual reason for their email.

This, from a company dedicated to helping keep our airports secure:

From: Clearsupport@flyclear.com
Subject: Information About Your Clear Enrollment
Date: August 6, 2008 4:47:28 PM EDT
To: (ME)
Reply-To: Clearsupport@flyclear.com

ABOUT YOUR CLEAR ACCOUNT

Dear (ME),

We take the protection of your privacy extremely seriously at Clear. That's why we announced yesterday that a laptop from our office at the San Francisco Airport containing a small portion of your pre-enrollment information (but not your Social Security number or credit card information) recently went missing. And we were prepared to send you the appropriate notice yesterday morning detailing that situation.

However, the laptop was recovered yesterday just before that email went out. And, we have determined from a preliminary investigation that no one logged into the computer from the time it went missing in the office until the time it was found. Therefore no unauthorized person has obtained any personal information.

We are sorry that this theft of a computer containing a limited amount of your personal information occurred, and we apologize for the concern that the publicity surrounding our public announcement might have caused. But in an abundance of caution, both we and the Transportation Security Administration treated this unaccounted-for laptop as a serious potential breach. We have learned from this incident and we have suspended enrollment processes temporarily until all pre-enrollment information is encrypted for further protection, which means you cannot complete in-person enrollment at this time. We will let you know as soon as you can. The personal information on the enrollment system was protected by two levels of password protection, but Clear is in the process of completing a software fix - and other security enhancements - to encrypt the data, which is what we should have done all along, just the way we encrypt all of your other data. Clear now expects that the fix will be in place within days. Meantime, all airport Clear lane operations continue as normal.

The data in question included a limited amount of your personal information, but did not include any credit information, including credit card numbers. And it did not include your Social Security number. And of course, it did not include any biometric information, such as your fingerprint or iris images which are only supplied during the second, in-person enrollment process that takes place at the airport. All of that data is already encrypted and not stored locally at any enrollment center or Clear lane.

As you may know, our Privacy Policy states that we will notify you of any compromise of your personal information regardless of whether any state statute requires it. This letter is a good example of our policy: no law requires that we notify you of this incident because our investigation of the recovered laptop revealed no breach. But we think it's good practice to err on the side of good communication, especially when, in this case, we did make a mistake by not making sure that limited portion of information was encrypted.

Please call us toll-free with any questions at 866-398-8151. Again, we apologize for the confusion. We look forward to welcoming you to a Clear enrollment center just as soon as we've reopened enrollment.

Sincerely, 
Steven Brill
Clear CEO

P.S. A reminder: One of Clear's unique privacy features is that all members and applicants are given an identity theft protection warranty which provides that, in the unlikely event you become a victim of identity theft as a result of any unauthorized dissemination of your private information by - or theft from - Clear or its subcontractors, we will reimburse you for any otherwise unreimbursable monetary costs directly resulting from the identity theft. In addition, Clear will, at its own expense, offer you assistance in restoring the integrity of your financial or other accounts. So had there been any actual compromise of your personal information, you would have been additionally protected.

I felt compelled to visit the CLEAR website for more wise words from the CEO.

This is the second of three points in a mission statement on a page-long venue for the CEO to espouse his altruistic reasons for starting his company. (The same person who wrote, or at least, signed, the email. Nah, what am I saying? Of course he wrote it! That email certainly was not the product of a PR firm!)

Second, we think we have a special responsibility to protect your privacy. Yes, we are using biometric identifiers such as fingerprints and iris images. Yes, your enrollment application will be submitted to the government for a basic security threat assessment before we can issue you a Clear card. But we do not believe the process and the questions stop there. We know that this kind of new idea and new process is bound to make many people uneasy about what we are doing with their personal information, especially at a time when every day seems to bring new headlines about identity theft. I started this company because I thought there was a right way to do something like this - a way that confronted privacy issues head on and embraced uncompromising dedication to privacy protection.

So, there you have it. I suppose by broadcasting this on the web, I can probably kiss my clearance goodbye.

Of course, when it comes to protecting my right to write about this, there’s always the ACLU!

Five hundred, thirty-eight

Five hundred, thirty-eight. That's the number of electors in the electoral college.

And, FiveThirtyEight.com is the name of a website, whose creator, Nate Silver, appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight.

Earn the admiration and gratitude of the number-crunchers, political junkies and geeks in your life by passing on this link to them.

It all about the numbers and the polls that capture their moment in time. And, wow, is it impressive.

A New Tag

For about six months, I have been using tags instead of bookmarks; instead of drilling down through files and folders, I just assign key words to what I want to save. It's really changed the way I organize everything. Actually, "organize" is the wrong word. That was the problem with the old way--it depended on me filing things where I could find them again. (Not!) Now, I can search for it by whatever obvious words come to mind when I save it. And I can save something in as many different catagories as there are words to describe it. I could tag what I've written so far in this piece with: files; folders; bookmarking; organize; tags; reference....whatever. And whichever word comes to mind when I search for it, will point me in the right direction.

I have about 500 tags in my cache, and it isn't all that uncommon that I tag something with a word I haven't used previously. But I gotta tell ya, when I went to tag this piece, I was blown away that I'd never used the word before.

So, now I've added two new tags: liberal and The"L"word. I'll try to put them to good use. In this piece posted on Politico though, the word has a bit of a right wing edge to it.

Liberals to warn potential GOP third-party organizers

Greg Palast

I don't know if any of you have had a chance to visit any of the links I've provided to websites and blogs over to your right, but let me direct you now to Greg Palast's blog. His new entry is about the evils of nuke plants and how McCain's and Obama's proposed nuclear energy policies differ.

Once you've read that, click on Greg's home page and look around. He's an investigative reporter who is passionate about election protection, knows a great deal about election fraud and writes about it for the BBC. Note: he's an American, but writes for the BBC, because the American MSM won't hire such a blatant truth-teller.

If you read my post from July 28 (the link from Common Dreams) about the role of the DOJ in the firing of U.S. Attorneys, you'll be interested to know that it was largely due to the investigative work of Palast that the practice of caging voters came to light, an issue on which he collaborates with Robert Kennedy, Jr. They are currently investigating why thousands of democrats have found their names missing from the voter rolls during this year's primary.

FACT: On Super-Tuesday, the number of Democrats missing from voter rolls in New Mexico exceeded George Bush’s 2004 ‘victory’ total by 300%. No wonder McCain’s campaign says, New Mexico is “in play.” The question is who’s playing with it?

I hope you will comment about what you read there.

Btw, I've had a request from a friend that I remove the restriction that requires one to sign up on blogger before making a comment, and I've done that. So, let the conversation begin! (You can go back to any of the previous posts on this blog and comment. It's never too late!)

Paris (not France) and the (not Hanoi) Hilton

h/t to Conrad...
OK. I got sucked in. These are links to the videos you've likely already seen.
First, the ad about Paris Hilton:
here's the ad the created the uproar (posted on the McCain campaign site);
here's Paris Hilton's response;
and this fantastic commentary from Seth Grahame-Smith of Huffington Post.

Now, the video around the Sturgis "beauty contest" speech. In case you're not aware, Sturgis is the town in South Dakota that once a year is overtaken by bikers from all over the US. My guess is McCain is trying to claim the title of candidate-you'd-most-like-to-have-a -beer-with from GW by speaking there. Unfortunately, it comes off (no pun intended) more as, "Let's have a beer and humiliate my wife."
Here's the video of the speech;
And here's a link to the video of the beauty contest, known as Buffalo Chip, via the TPM website, which will allow you to read a bit more before deciding whether or not to venture on.

Yankee Homecoming Parade with Congressman JohnTierney

The 2008 Yankee Homecoming Parade will be remembered as "wet!" It started to sprinkle about half way through, followed a few minutes later by vivid lightning and booming thunder, accompanied by rain that can only be called a deluge.
You can find pictures taken along the route here. (Try watching it as a slideshow.)

These pictures demonstrate the progression.













DRY


















WET












SOAKED

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Here are links to some weekend reading:

Glenn Greenwald on this week's news with an excellent chronology and updates about the anthrax scare.

There is a move to promote the idea of Wes Clark for VP here and here.

China parks 1.5 million cars, closes factories and spends 18 billion dollars (yup, that's B for billion and $ for dollars) to turn dirty gray skies to blue in time for the Olympic games.

Have you noticed McCain's recently-flipped stance on squeaky clean campaigning? It's because there's been a change of personnel. Here's a piece about the nasty campaign tactics being used against Obama by Steve Schmidt, who ran "Karl Rove's war room" against Kerry in 2004.

What Schmidt and his associates have apparently concluded is that McCain’s weaknesses—on the election’s most salient issues and as a candidate—are so pronounced and Obama’s vulnerabilities so glaring that the low road is their guy’s best, and maybe only, route to the White House.

More later (maybe)...

Kerry v. Lieberman on this Sunday's Meet the Press

This Sunday on Meet the Press (10:30 a.m. ET), Tom Brokaw will moderate as John Kerry, for Obama, goes head to head with Joe Lieberman, for McCain. (How odd to feel compelled to remind readers who is advocating for whom.)

If you're as angry with Lieberman as most Dems, and if you have a propensity for throwing things, you might want to watch it on an old TV.

We in Newbury/Newburyport had hoped that Senator Kerry might find time to march in the Yankee Homecoming parade this Sunday. I guess this news establishes his alibi! ;-)

UPDATE: For a preview of what we might expect from Kerry on Sunday, take a look at his appearance on Friday evening's Race for the White House, in a segment called "Face Off," in which he blew Arizona Senator John Kyl out of the water.


Speaking of Sunday, after you kill your TV, you'll have just enough time to get to Newburyport to support Congressman John Tierney by marching with him in the Yankee Homecoming parade! (Details to the right.)

Please endorse Clint Curtis for congress in FL-24

UPDATE: A debate between Clint Curtis and Suzanne Kosmas was held by WMFE, the PBS affiliate in Orlando, last Friday, August 8th. Watch it here.

Congratulations, Clint, on a terrific performance. There's no doubt who is the better, and more progressive, candidate!

UPDATE #2: The FEC has filed charges against Kosmas:

This has caused the state party to step up campaign activity for her and has resulted in Federal Election Commission charges being filed against the Kosmas campaign for deliberately misrepresenting themselves to the primary election voters. Paid campaign staffers were using state party offices and phones to place calls to registered Democratic primary voters, identifying themselves as representatives of the Florida State Democratic Party, and urging them to vote for Kosmas. This is a violation of FEC rules and a charge has been filed.

Check it out here and here.

* * *

I got an email from the Clint Curtis campaign a couple of days ago. Clint's running for congress in FL-24 against incumbent republican, Tom Feeney (tied to Abramoff) and he has an opponent--Suzanne Kosmas--for the primary.

I met Clint Curtis in Washington, DC, just after the 2004 election, when people gathered to protest the the acceptance of the electoral college vote, and again at a DFA conference in NH in June of 2007. He is smart, dedicated and committed to serving his district in Congress. He knows more about election integrity and electronic voting machine issues than most members of congress. He is a former computer programmer and whistle blower, who testified at a 2006 congressional hearing (see video below) held to investigate election fraud in Ohio in 2004. He came very close to winning the 2006 general election against Feeney, despite being outspent 26 to 1!

From Clint Curtis for Congress blog

In 2006, Curtis launched his first congressional bid — as a Democrat — taking on Feeney himself for his FL-24 seat. A pre-election Zogby poll showed Curtis in a statistical dead heat with Feeney — despite Feeney’s big-money smear campaign against Curtis (‘CrazyClintCurtis.com’ featured doctored photos of Curtis wearing a tin foil hat.) But on election night, Curtis took a double-digit drubbing. Problem is, those election results didn’t make much sense based on the Zogby poll, exit polling or Curtis’ own internal polling. So Curtis did something remarkable. He filed a Congressional election challenge.

His team went door to door collecting signed affidavits from FL-24 voters testifying as to how they voted. The results were shocking. The official results were wildly off, by double digits in places. Despite this evidence, the Democratically controlled House committee summarily dismissed his election challenges (along with several others.)

But I digress...

Suzanne Kosmas, wealthy real estate developer and owner of Prestige Properties of New Smyrna Beach, served in the Florida state legislature from 1996 to 2004, where she co-sponsored a resolution to support GW's invasion of Iraq. She announced her candidacy for US Congress on January 31st of this year. This is Kosmas' opening statement on her website:

Welcome

I am running for Congress to change the priorities in Washington and bring a moderate, common sense, and fiscally responsible approach to government.

During my time in the state legislature, I worked hard to focus on people over politics. I frequently voted across party lines, because it was my job to represent Florida families - not a political party.

Suzanne Kosmas

Wow.

So, guess who the DCCC has endorsed?

Now, in order to tell this tale, I need to add US Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, FL-20, to the cast of characters. Considered one of the "brightest stars" of the current Democratically-controlled house, Wasserman Schultz has mightily angered the left, as demonstrated by the following quote which was taken from the popular blog, Down with Tyranny:

Wasserman Schultz, the sorry chairperson of the DCCC's very compromised Red to Blue program, virtually endorsed 3 extreme right South Florida Republican incumbents-- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart-- with the clear intention of sabotaging the campaigns of the three Democrats running against them-- Annette Taddeo, Raul Martinez, and Joe Garcia-- and making it impossible for them to get serious institutional money in Florida. She angered enough people, who pressured the DCCC, so that she finally made nice with Raul Martinez and Joe Garcia. She is still doing everything in her power to undercut Annette Taddeo, the challenger in the least Republican-leaning of the 3 districts.

So, the congresswoman refused to endorse the Democratic challengers to Republican-held congressional seats in south Florida, and the DCCC made her the chairwoman of the Red to Blue program. What am I missing here?

One of the candidates Wasserman Schultz has endorsed for Red to Blue is Suzanne Kosmas. Her PAC, DWSPAC (Democrats Win Seats/Debbie Wasserman Schultz) has given Kosmas $4,378. The main tactic Wasserman Schultz and Kosmas have used against Curtis, a viable candidate who came close to beating Feeney in the last election and who announced his candidacy long before Kosmas thought of running, is to ignore him. Kosmas runs against Feeney. Period. Curtis has asked for debates; she hasn't responded. No one ever mentions Clint Curtis. And, because Curtis doesn't have the machine backing him up, he struggles to stay in the public spotlight.

(More about Wasserman Schultz from the Huffington Post here and here.)

This is from Curtis' email:

My opponent has received lots of media attention and money – most of it from out-of-district donors who can write big checks – but for what? She can’t win. The polls prove it. Even a poll by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Emily’s List puts her far behind the Republican incumbent: http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/congress/florida.html

Here are a number of posts about Clint at Brad Blog.

Here's Clint's website. And, while you're there, don't miss his blog.

Help Clint Curtis by going to DFA and add your vote urging them to endorse him!

And, if you are able, please contribute to his campaign.

Concert to benefit Obama campaign Sept. 12

There's a wonderful event coming up on September 12th: a concert to benefit Obama will take place at Jordan Hall (not a bad seat in the place). Tickets start at only $20.

Many well-known Boston area musicians are coming together to perform a concert to benefit the campaign. And to entertain us!

Here is the announcement on BlueMassGroup as well as a post from Wednesday requesting we buy our tickets by the end of the month. Hey, that's today!

Who's going to carpool down with me?

BREAKING NEWS

TWO stories in the category of NEWS YOU NEVER BELIEVED YOU'D HEAR:

From TPM:

The House Judiciary Committee has just voted to hold Karl Rove in contempt for failing to respond to a subpoena to face questioning from the Committee on the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

AND
from Federal Times
IG: Justice illegally weighed political leanings of job applicants

Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales violated federal law and Justice Department policy by using political affiliation as a factor in hiring decisions — a process that slowed the hiring process and left key positions unfilled, according to a new report from the department’s inspector general.

In one case, an experienced prosecutor, with more than 15 years in criminal law, was turned down for a job on a counterterrorism detail because his wife was an elected Democratic official. The job went to a Republican prosecutor with less than three years’ experience. Another candidate was recommended for a job because she was “pro-God in public life” and “pro-marriage, anti-civil union.”

Watch the video of the Inspector General testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on c-span (link in the blogroll on the right). Since it happened this morning, there's no permanent link to post yet, but the video is available on the front page of the c-span site.

Oh, one more irresistible quote from the Federal Times:

Goodling also used the Internet to search for information about candidates’ political and ideological beliefs, running searches for terms like “sex,” “NAFTA,” “Iran-Contra” and “spotted owl.”

What an amazing day!

TAKE ACTION! Election day registration in MA

UPDATE: Check out this post at BlueMassGroup.

This was in my in box this morning. I called my state rep, Harriet Stanley's office. (Had to leave a message on her office voice mail. I left a message asking for her vote and asked for a call back.)

If you live in MA, please take action today! Thanks!

URGENT: Election Day Registration will pass or fail by Thursday. Please call right now!

We've never been this close.

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Senate passed the state's most important voting bill since 18 year-olds were given the right to vote — a bill for Election Day Registration.

Hundreds of you called your senators, and we heard directly from their staff members that those calls made a difference. Now, we must do the same in the House.

Unfortunately, we are fighting against time. We have enough votes to pass Election Day Registration. But the 2008 House session ends on Thursday. To pass this historic bill, a critical mass of representatives needs to bring Election Day Registration to the top of the agenda.

If you want to help pass this historic bill, call the Massachusetts State House at (617) 722-2000 and ask to speak to your representative. Ask him or her to bring Election Day Registration to the floor for a vote.

If you don't know your representative's name, simply tell the operator where you live and you will be connected to the correct office.

The nine states with Election Day Registration have turnout rates that are 10 to 12 points higher than states without. Election Day Registration is of particular benefit to young voters, first time voters, voters of color, and new citizens. The bill passed the Senate 33 to 5.

Election Day Registration in Massachusetts could bring over 200,000 new voters to the polls. The enthusiasm surrounding the 2008 elections is tremendous. Election Day Registration would ensure no eligible citizen need be turned away from voting.

Please call (617) 722-2000 now and urge your representative to support Election Day Registration.

Thank You for working to build a better world.

Leah Donahey, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

Matters of the media and FCC

A few things of note going on re. the FCC today:

• Re. the XM/Sirius merger...they merged today--look here and here;
  
• Republican Chairman Martin joined the 2 Democratic commissioners to demand Comcast stop restricting internet P2P (peer to peer) file sharing reported here;
• and, AT&T bans same (P2P) from wireless phone service.

Oh, Chairman Martin's notoriety expands exponentially with this.

And, speaking of oversight,

Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., on Monday sent letters to 24 companies that receive large subsidies asking a host of questions, including whether they take that money into account when building out their networks or during merger talks with other companies.

Don't breathe in the kitchen!

Last Saturday, I went on the Newburyport kitchen tour. Less than 10 miles of driving, including backtracking (about $2 in gas), and 14 kitchens later, I'm still liking mine! (It'll be even better when it's finished, whenever that happens. Lucky I like it the way it is.)

Most of the kitchens on the tour had granite counter tops. I've never liked granite, and chose not to use it. Guess I got lucky. Boy, how often does that happen?

Take a look at this piece from last Thursday's NYTimes.

BTW, more on what I did use deserves its own post, but the story can't be written until the kitchen's done. Don't hold your breath!

h/t to Melissa for telling me about it and Robin for reminding me!

Folks, grab a soda and a box of popcorn or M&Ms, turn up the air conditioning and put on a sweater, turn off the light and take a minute and 41 seconds to watch this trailer of the new Oliver Stone movie. It's called, "W."

BTW, some of the comments on the Guardian site are pretty good. I especially like the one by dholliday, who wrote, "Yay, all the bad guys are in it."

Hat tip to Robin for the link!

Is it early today or late yesterday?

From Politico via Common Dreams:

“Today’s report describes ‘systematic’ violations of federal law by several former leaders of the Department of Justice,” Conyers said in a statement released by his office. “Apparently, the political screening was so pervasive that even qualified Republican applicants were rejected from Department positions because they were ‘not Republican enough’ for Monica Goodling and others. ...... The Report also indicates that Monica Goodling, Kyle Sampson, and Alberto Gonzales may have lied to the Congress about these matters. I have directed my staff to closely review this matter and to consider whether a criminal referral for perjury is needed.”

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Every week I download the podcast, The Campaign Trail, from the New Yorker, and either listen to it online or on my ipod. In this week's podcast, David Remnick, Hendrik Hertzberg, Ryan Lizza, and George Packer discuss Obama’s visit to Germany and the future of the war in Iraq.

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From The Independent:

With $33m (£16.5m) in venture capital funds, Anne Patterson and two other Google alumni – Russell Power and Louis Monier – yesterday took the wraps off [a new search engine,] Cuil.com. ... If it's out there, Cuil will find it for you. ... Cuil (pronounced "cool") will be easier and nicer to use and will have a longer reach.

Then check it out yourself! cuil.com

(Not to be confused with my friend, Sheila's website, kkooll !)

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ABC reports Homeland Security is instituting a POHA (period of heightened alert) from now until July, 2009.

The reasons: There are no specifics indicating an attack on the U.S. is imminent, and U.S. officials do not want to be accused of trying to inject themselves into the presidential campaign.

"That's a balancing act," said Jerry Hauer, former Homeland Security official and ABC News consultant. "They really have to focus on these events and this critical time we're going through as a nation, but they have to be very careful about the public message to not make it look political or like they're fearmongering."

Right.

In pointing to the piece, Talking Points Memo titled the link, "US to be place on 'heightened terror alert' in response to Republican efforts to maintain hold on presidency."

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Sunday morning

This morning, when I remembered Obama was going to be on Meet the Press, I flipped on the TV and found myself watching c-span, the channel I was watching last night before going to bed. The congressional hearing exploring the horrible policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell was being aired, and I ended up watching the entire thing. (You can find the link under the Congressional Hearings heading in the column on the right.)

When it was over, I watched Senator Obama here.

I spent most of the day learning bits of html and exploring the layout and posting options of this blog. It's a little overwhelming, but lots of fun. (It would be lots more fun if someone would pay me to do it!)

Now, I'm going to stop this. I've been waiting all day for a few moments to read the latest post on Dick Cavett's blog, What's So Funny About Nebraska If you didn't know about Cavett's blog, but remember his TV show, you'll be pleased to discover his writing entertains with the same unique and refreshing style. I envy those of you who have yet to discover the posts in the archives of his blog!

1st post: Al Gore's 10 year challange to make electricity production 100% carbon-free!

It seems appropriate that the 1st post on this blog links to what I believe will be the speech that finally sets the course for a dramatic and holistic change in the world's political, industrial, economic and social landscape.

On Thursday, July 17, 2008, Al Gore gave a speech in Washington, DC in which he said: "It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now."

Bluntly truthful. Refreshingly open.

Did you know scientists are warning there's a 75% chance that in 5 years from now, the Arctic polar ice cap will totally disappear during the summer? (Note to self: write piece speculating on where Santa will spend the summer, whether he'll move the workshop or shut down for the season, and implications for on-time holiday deliveries...)

Watch the speech. And then, as Robert Greenwald says, "Psssst--DO SOMETHING!"