U-rah-rah -- Bleh

Over at my favorite political messageboard, Democratic Underground, I occasionally see posts for some candidate or potential candidate that does little more than cheerlead. Clark's the one! We need Gore! Hillary's right! (she certainly is, but I digress).

I've been toying with the idea of starting a thread over there with the heading "Kerry's the one! Woo hoo!" with the body of the message starting out "Annoying, isn't it" followed by a pledge not to do this with my chosen candidate.

I do find them quite annoying. Tell me what your candidate is doing. Post a speech he's made. Let's have a policy discussion. But for frick's sake, don't just stand there with pompoms in your hands. I do hate the "hard sell." Don't you?

A knife and a fork and a bib with a donkey on it

Don't let this happen to you.

I pledge that as we enter this highly partisan time of primaries and lining up behind potential candidates, that although I may express disagreement or displeasure at various candidates that are not mine, I will not bash. I will attempt, though I'm sure I will not always succeed, to consider thoughtfully each candidate and their words, and treat them fairly. I will not name-call. I will not distort. I will not slant their words. I will strive to keep what they say in context.

God forbid we should give ammo to the other side like we did in 2004. I don't want the Republicans being able to pick up the primary playbook and use it to defeat the man or woman we ultimately choose to represent us in 2008.

I will not eat my own. I will dine on tasty elephant instead.

Will you take that pledge with me

I'm sort of glad I said no to the DCCC

When they called a few weeks ago, I'd already given to the Friends of John Kerry, so I said no. They seemed sort of miffed when I gave them my reason. But hey, I'm not rich. And finding out today that James Carville is grousing that we won in spite of Dean instead of because of Dean just leaves me cold.

If people like Schumer or Rahm Emanuel, who apparently can't stand Dean, knew how to win before now, then why didn't they do it? Would we have been competitive in Virgina or Montana without Dean's 50-State strategy?

We won 10 more seats than the powers that be were predicting we'd win, and Carville is upset because we didn't win MORE?! Saying that when a tsunami like this hits the country it doesn't matter who's DNC Chairman?

I can't help but think he's trying to grab credit for himself and his buddies in preparation for a Clinton run at the White House.

And to suggest that Harold Ford replace Dean just makes no sense to me. I'm frankly not impressed with the guy, esp. when he joined the Republicans in slamming John Kerry. To me, the Dems who joined in on that smear were either damned dumb, or too politically calculating for my tastes.

But anyway, I stand with Governor Dean. And I'm glad I didn't give money to the DCCC. If the New Dems can't respect the netroots, and learn to work and play better with the rest of the party, they can kiss my shiny metal butt.

Hi honey, I'm home

Ya miss me?

Blah.

The 2004 election took more out of me than I realized. Here I am at midterm elections. The first election season after the heartbreaking defeat. I was all set to get involved. I found out where the Dem HQ was in town and their hours of operation. I thought to myself, "This'll be great. I'll pop in when I have an hour to spare just like I used to do at Kerry... headquarters."

Suddenly I had a knot in my stomach. And as the weeks went on, I found myself avoiding politics. I didn't even go to my normal Dem messageboards. Nothin'.

My escape for a while there was to get REALLY into Project Runway. Well, that's show's done now. So my distraction is gone. So FINALLY I'm starting to lit drop and such. And I'll go down to Dem HQ the day before the election for some good ol' GOTV action. Just like I did at Kerry HQ.

It's not easy getting over a broken heart.

I think I'm starting to "get" Kerry's stance on Venezuela

From during the campaign:

Kerry Statement on Venezuela

March 19, 2004

With the future of the democratic process at a critical juncture in Venezuela, we should work to bring all possible international pressure to bear on President Chavez to allow the referendum to proceed. The Administration should demonstrate its true commitment to democracy in Latin America by showing determined leadership now, while a peaceful resolution can still be achieved.

Throughout his time in office, President Chavez has repeatedly undermined democratic institutions by using extra-legal means, including politically motivated incarcerations, to consolidate power. In fact, his close relationship with Fidel Castro has raised serious questions about his commitment to leading a truly democratic government.

Moreover, President Chavez’s policies have been detrimental to our interests and those of his neighbors. He has compromised efforts to eradicate drug cultivation by allowing Venezuela to become a haven for narco-terrorists, and sowed instability in the region by supporting anti-government insurgents in Colombia.

The referendum has given the people of Venezuela the opportunity to express their views on his presidency through constitutionally legitimate means. The international community cannot allow President Chavez to subvert this process, as he has attempted to do thus far. He must be pressured to comply with the agreements he made with the OAS and the Carter Center to allow the referendum to proceed, respect the exercise of free expression, and release political prisoners.

Too often in the past, this Administration has sent mixed signals by supporting undemocratic processes in our own hemisphere -- including in Venezuela, where they acquiesced to a failed coup attempt against President Chavez. Having just allowed the democratically elected leader to be cast aside in Haiti, they should make a strong statement now by leading the effort to preserve the fragile democracy in Venezuela.

He was widely denounced by sites like Venezuela Analysis and Common Dreams, who said he must retract his position. They likened his position to Bush's, and said he'd bought the right wing propaganda.

I didn't think Human Rights Watch was into "right wing propaganda" personally.

http://hrw.org/doc/?t=americas&c=venezu

Why would we tolerate the same behaviors from Chavez that we abhor from Bush? Why would Chavez get the benefit of the doubt if Bush doesn't?

Meanwhile, on the liberal messageboard where I post often, I've been told now that the Human Rights Watch is a Right Wing site. Or even worse, the comment "Gee, George Bush does that stuff too. Why single out Chavez. No fair!"

And I've just been made aware that VenezuelaAnalysis, a site that defended Chavez and called for Kerry's retraction, is run by those who are a tad sensitive when Chavez is criticized, and attack those who would hold him accountable for his failures. That's all I ask. I don't seek to attack the guy out of the blue. But neither will I kiss his ring and genuflect in his direction and call him great. And my status as a progressive shouldn't depend on me doing such things.



WHAT?!

I condemn them both.

Withdrawal from Iraq: Party Lines are Crumbling

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/withdrawal-from-iraq-par_b_10140.html

I found this article to be quite amusing. The main jist is that both sides of the political aisle are divided on the issue of Ira, but not in way that people would necessarily expect.. Some of the Republicans are getting skittish as they look at the 2006 elections, the growing anti-war sentiments, while at the same time faced with a White House that, as McCain illustrated today, still says that they will do "whatever it takes" She mentions McCain, actually, and seems surprised that the "darling of the moderates" is the hawk on this issue, while an arch-Conservative like Brownback is actually more of a dove.

Um, Arianna? You should have asked us over at Democratic Underground. WE'RE not surprised. He's not a moderate maverick, esp on this issue. He's a shmuck who wants to be president.

Meanwhile, on the other side, you have Kerry and Feingold on one side, and Clinton and Reid on the other. Her main beef with the latter two seems to be that they are critical of the Prez without having any plan of their own.

Arianna comments that Clinton has essentially positioned herself to the right of Brownback (yikes) on the subject of Iraq. Brownback told Wolf Blitzer a couple of weeks ago: "You've got the potential for us starting to pull troops out in the first half of next year."

On the other hand, a Hillary supporter reported after speaking to her at a fundraiser: "Hillary basically said that since the White House is going to end up pulling troops out anyway before the election, Democrats can just stand by and let it happen without going out on a limb. She thinks that anyone one who lays out a plan is going to be immediately shot down. Better to just keep hammering the president for not having a plan of his own."

She'd like to see Reid do on the subject of Iraq planning what he did on the subject of the investigation into Iraq intelligence: ie, show that kind of leadership.

I also appreciated that Arianna picks up on the one really strong statement in Kerry's email from yesterday, and that Kerry sees Iraq as a major issue for winning back Congress in 2006. "If [Bush] fails to act," he wrote in an email to supporters this week, "we'll demand that Congress takes the decision out of his hands. And, if the Republican Congress fails to call the Bush administration to account, we will use the 2006 elections to take the decision out of their hands."

I mean, holy guacamole!

More on my favorite Senator if I get a chance. He's been quite the busy boy in the last couple of days. I'm so proud.

To commemorate the day...

Last year, for the election, I had taken Friday, Sat, Sun, Mon, and Tuesday off for GOTV.

On November 1st, I froze my ass off at a rally so that I could finally see Kerry for the first time. Two and a half hours later I couldn't feel my feet, but I got to see him and sorta shake his hand.

He looked like this:


On Nov. 2 I headed for one headquarters, and then was sent to another headquarters to phonebank. The Rapid Response team then had several of us go to union headquarters and get organized to go out and "hold the lines" with candy and goodies. We figured that if we could bribe the folks with snacks, they wouldn't leave the line even if it was long.

I then went to the celebration downtown and had my heart cut out.

This is me, getting my heart cut out:



Now if you will excuse me, I need to go cry. Again.