Month: September 2005

Markos wrote:

Media savvy will carry a movement much further than any march, regardless if it had 100,000 or 500,000 or a million people. Cindy Sheehan had the right idea with the Crawford protest — there was a story line and drama which the media could use to create a narrative, hence a long-running story.

Cindy had the right “idea”? That’s hilarious. You’ve never lost a child or you wouldn’t say that.

Cindy Sheehan had PAIN. From her PAIN she, on her own, decided to go to Crawford, and camp out to confront Bush. To try to stop him from killing another mother’s son.

Cindy Sheehan had no clue that bunches of people would come join her, to spend time asking the same question, or that it would become a media moment. After all, she’d done scores of other actions, other speeches, that didn’t provoke all that.

She didn’t know how long she’d be there, if Bush would come out the first or second day. She didn’t care if she was arrested, run over, made fun of by Bush or by national news. Enough pain puts you past caring about details. She just knew she had to stand up and do what she, as one person, could do to try to stop the war.

Why? So years later, when people asked her, “What did you do to try to stop it?” — she wouldn’t have to say, “Nothing, I sat home in my living room and watched TV.”

There comes a time in a person’s life when they have to stand up and do SOMETHING to “speak truth to power”. To go to the seat of power, and stand up against it.

And that is EXACTLY what everyone at the march in Washington DC, or Seattle, or Sagebrush, Nebraska was doing. Standing up for what’s right. Voting with their feet, their spines, demanding that their government listen to them and get out of this despicable war.

You think it didn’t make any difference that millions of people marched against the Iraq war before it happened? Think again. It was an unprecedented event, a pivotal event in world history.

Maybe you think marching doesn’t take guts, but maybe that’s because you haven’t tried it. It took guts for Cindy to go alone to Texas. It took guts for every single person to go to DC. To every single local march. If you’ve never tried to get yourself off your rear to a march, you don’t know that.

To imply — to even imply! — that one second of the time and effort that anyone spent getting to an anti-war march should have been spent doing something else is to entirely misunderstand the nature of social and political change.

It isn’t an “either / or” decision. It’s an “and / and” situation. Every single time that someone stands up for what’s right, for what’s true, for better treatment for humanity, it matters.

We can’t intellectually “discover” one perfect approach and then get people behind it! Life isn’t like that, perfection doesn’t exist. Life is too complex for any one person to dictate a “right strategy” to everyone else. (Yoo hoo, that’s what’s wrong with a “dictatorship”.)

We’re weaving a better world. A military planner once said, “If I come at you from many sides, it’s because the frontal attack is obsolete.” We need to celebrate each and every person who does something to make things better — no matter what it is – AND celebrate the person next to them who made a different choice.

And / and.

Thank you for marching, all of you, and thank YOU for writing a book! And thank you for taking in a homeless kid, and thank YOU for Freeway Blogging, and thank YOU for helping the senior on your block, and thank YOU for running a solar panel business and thank YOU for working to establish paper trails for all votes in your state.

This positive action and that positive action, all adding up into streams and rivers of change. Eventually changing our world. And / and.

TOGETHER we’ll get there.

Courtesy of mrboma:

The place for all things DeLay.

I recorded it on my IPod, so the transcript is accurate.  It was a takedown of the Tom Delay defense…  I was Oscar from Detroit…  (for the record, I’m Mike from Albany, but Hannity doesn’t like me, so I have to use some subterfuge…)

context:  the caller previous was a Marine from Wilmington

flip for the transcript:

Hannity:  Detroit Michigan, JR, Oscar on th eSean Hannity Show.  Hello.
Me:  Semper Fi to the Sergeant.  I spent four years in Cherry Point, North Carolina…
Hannity:  Yes Sir!
Me:  As a plane captain.  Anyway, I wanted to talk about Tom Delay.  He can spin all the paranoid conspiracy theories he wants about the whole world being out to get him, but we remember Tom Delay was repremanded by the Republican Ethics Committee last year and he’s got more offensive ethics charges facing him this year…  And him and that Jack Abromoff character, they wuz like peas and carrots…
Hannity:  Hey Oscar, I don’t have a lot of time in this segment, so let’s get right to the brass tacks here…  tell me specifically what he has done…  in this case.
Me:  He funnelled money from one organization to another organization, which is the same thing drug dealers do when they launder money.
Hannity:  Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!  Do you have any evidence that Tom Delay funnelled money?
Me:  I expect to see evidence at the trial.  You don’t see that level of evidence in an indictment.
Hannity:  You don’t see any…  You don’t have any now.  You just want him to go down because you don’t like him politically, isn’t that true?
Me:  Was he reprimanded by the Republicans Ethics Committee last year?
Hannity:  (blowing a gasket)  I didn’t ask that!  Do you have any evidence except that you want him to go down because you disagree with him politically?  Do you have any evidence whatsoever?
Me:  YES!  Yes I do!
Hannity:  What?  What is it?
Me:  His character.  His character.  He’s got a history and record of ethics violations.
Hannity:  His Character.  OK.  You’re a liberal.  I don’t like your character.  Does that mean I should go and indict you?  
Me:  No.  I don’t have a record of ethics violations either…
Hannity:  Do you know how idiotic you sound?
Me:  Does he have a record of ethics violations, Sean?
Hannity:  I asked you if you had any evidence and your evidence is, “Well, I don’t like his character.”  You just don’t like his political views.  Admit it.
Me:  He’s got a history of ethics violations…  Why are you defending that?
Hannity:  I didn’t ask you that!  What evidence do you have.
Me:  Of this particular crime?  We’ll see it in court.
Hannity:  Nothing!  Repeat after me Mr. Liberal…  Nothing.
Me:  We’ll see it in court.
Hannity:  Nothing!
Me:  Take care Sean… I love your show.

It’s been kind of interesting to be reading the many opinions being expressed in the blogs regarding the effectiveness of protests.  Here’s my protest experience from last night.

Word came to me through email a few days ago – Arnold Schwarzenegger would be appearing at a private fundraiser at the Lafayette home of former Dreyers Ice Cream president Rick Cronk and his wife, Janet, and the Alliance for a Better California was organizing a protest.  Since there is no on-street parking available near the Cronks’ residence, protesters were told to gather at the BART parking lot to be shuttled up the road to the house.  

As I approached the parking lot, I saw a small group of people with an American flag.  Eureka!  I’d found them.  I parked my car, joined the group, took a placard without even looking at it, and started to make small talk.  After a few minutes had gone by, I looked at my placard – “GO FOR IT, ARNOLD!”  Acckkk!  I had unwittingly joined the dozen or so counter-protesters!  I dropped the sign and said, “You know what?  I’ve made a terrible mistake.  I don’t support you or Arnold.”  They looked sort of startled, and I just scurried away as quickly as I possibly could.

Whew!  Well, I finally made it to the right gathering spot, met up with a couple of friends, and we were soon on the shuttle.  A quick ride in the van and we were there.  And what a sight it was – 400 people out on this little suburban lane, waving placards and shouting and chanting just as loudly as they possibly could.  Teachers, students, entire families, nurses and firefighters, lots and lots of firefighters.

Top photo is taken from across the street looking to the left of the Cronks’ driveway.  Bottom photo is mostly looking to the right of the driveway.  The Alliance for a Better California monitors (in the orange vests) did an amazing job of crowd control, managing to keep the driveway mostly clear.  Lafayette police were stationed further inside the driveway, but the monitors kept everyone in order on the street.  And every car that arrived had to pass through this phalanx of people booing and chanting “Shame on you!”

Now, one thing you need to know about the Bay Area is that even in the upscale suburbs, people are still mostly liberal.  So the majority of the Lexuses and Mercedeses and Porsches that were passing by were madly honking their horns, and the Escalades with half a soccer team in the back were giving us the thumbs up.  The neighbors across the street had pulled lawn chairs out into their driveway and were sitting there with cocktails, watching the hullabaloo.  And the media were everywhere.

Looking down the driveway

For me, the highlight of the evening came when my friend Kathy decided to join the counter-protesters.  Her sign seemed ready made for the moment.  And what was so funny was that they had absolutely no idea how to react to her!  Can you pick Kathy out???

But the news just kept getting better.  Schwarzenegger had been scheduled to arrive at 7:00.  I was able to stay until 8:00, and he still hadn’t shown up.  It was already dark, and the crowd was starting to dwindle, but those who stayed kept making plenty of noise.  Schwarzenegger didn’t arrive until nearly 10:00.  Each and every local newscast covered the protest, and at least two of them still had reporters broadcasting live at both 10:00 and 11:00.  And the coverage was reasonably extensive and came early in the newscast.  All of them!

Insidebayarea.com had this to say:

LAFAYETTE — The sheer size of a protest outside a private fund-raiser for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger surprised law enforcement and even organizers Wednesday.

Organizers expected maybe 50 protesters to show up outside the Lafayette home of retired Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Inc. executive William Cronk, where the governor was expected to appear by evening.

Instead, as many as 400 nurses, firefighters, teachers, students and others lined the narrow, suburban Contra Costa County street to protest the governor’s reforms.

And Alliance for a Better California had this to say:

We had huge numbers yesterday at a protest outside a fundraiser for Arnold, the article gets it right we were thrilled to see such strong numbers in Lafayette, not exactly a huge town. Arnold himself avoided showing up while the Alliance supporters were there. After the nurses have gotten such great coverage from their chasing him in their scrubs he has adapted his behavior to avoid the media shot of him slinking past protestors and instead either going through the backdoor, the playground or in this case making a bunch of rich supporters wait until late in the night for him to even show.

So we got to have a wonderful time, but did we make any sort of difference?  Gee, I’d like to think so.

Froggy Bottom Cafe Beer on tap, Peanuts on floor! Welcome to Blue Country!

Crossposted from Dameocrat Blog

No rapes have been reported to the police.  Neither have any shootings at helicopters.

Fear Exceeded Crime’s Reality in New Orleans – New York Times: “In an interview last week with The New York Times, Superintendent Compass said that some of his most shocking statements turned out to be untrue. Asked about reports of rapes and murders, he said: ‘We have no official reports to document any murder. Not one official report of rape or sexual assault.’

On Sept. 4, however, he was quoted in The Times about conditions at the convention center, saying: ‘The tourists are walking around there, and as soon as these individuals see them, they’re being preyed upon. They are beating, they are raping them in the streets.’

Those comments, Superintendent Compass now says, were based on secondhand reports. The tourists ‘were walking with their suitcases, and they would have their clothes and things taken,’ he said last week. ‘No rapes that we can quantify.’

Rumors Affected Response

A full chronicle of the week’s crimes, actual and reported, may never be possible because so many basic functions of government ceased early in the week, including most public safety record-keeping. The city’s 911 operators left their phones when water began to rise around their building.”

I am betting crony controlled fema spread them to cover their asses. Afterall fema would constantly announce on cnn it was suspending operations based on these reports.

(cross posted everywhere)

For those fed up with the unfairly high cost of prescription drugs, Proposition 79 provides a simple solution: Proposition 79  will use the purchasing power of the state of California to negotiate deep, enforceable discounts on prescription drugs for millions of Californians.

The drug companies have raised a record-breaking $80 million dollars to run false and misleading ads around the state; They also have sponsored a sham counter-measure, Prop 78, that looks similar but lacks enforcement–it allows the drug companies to decide which drugs get discounted, which get excluded, what levels the discounts are set, whether the drug companies participate at all, and if enough don’t, the program ends.

In order to fight against the most expensive ballot campaign in the history of the nation–financed by the ultimate special interest, the drug companies, the Proposition 79 knows it needs to do something different.  Something never done in the history of ballot campaigns.
Instead of having Proposition 79 fought on behalf of consumers, Proposition 79 will be fought by consumers, those fed up by the drug companies’ unfair prices. The consumer, health, senior, and community groups behind Proposition 79 are turning the campaign over to the people. We’ll let consumers, on the Internet, design and choose the campaign TV ads for this campaign.

The drug companies are notorious for their false and misleading advertising and marketing tactics, for their products (with the disclaimers about all those side effects!), and in this campaign. Numerous newspapers, from the Sacramento Bee to the Orange County Register, have cited their ads as false and misleading.

We don’t need to do that. All we need to do is simply tell voters the differences between the measures (78 lack enforcement, 79 has it), who supports which measure (the drug companies versus consumer groups), and who benefits (Prop 79 provides deeper discounts to twice as many Californians).

As an example, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has produced one ad that the Yes on 79 Campaign is beginning to air. But we are looking to YOU to help us design and pick an ad that we can use in the final weeks of the campaign.

The Alliance for a Better California, with the Yes on 79 campaign, will host this new contest, “No Disclaimer Needed Ad Contest: Better Ads for Cheaper Drugs.” But the best way to confront the drug companies is to participate and to enter!

Here’s how it works:

1. Make your own ad that tells Californians about the differences between the consumer groups Proposition 79, and the drug companies’ sham Proposition 78.  The ad can be video, animation, text and images, or even simple text and audio.  Be creative. The only restrictions are that the ad must be on message, be 30 seconds or less in length, and that you have the legal rights or license to use to all content you include.
2. Between now, and  11:59 P.M. October 16<sup>th</sup&gt 2005, submit your ad in MPEG or Apple Quicktime format to BetterCA.com’s contest site. Include your contact information – and let us know how you would like to be identified on the site (full name, first initial last name, first name last initial, nickname, etc.).  
3. All the submitted ads, except those that are judged to be inappropriate by the administrators, will be made available for viewing on the Alliance for a Better California’s website.
4. Beginning at 12:01 A.M. on Monday, October 17<sup>th</sup&gt 2005, BetterCA.com community members will judge the submitted content based on the clarity of message, the originality and creativity, and most importantly the overall quality and impact of the ad. Community judging will end at 11:59 PM, Tuesday, October 18<sup>th</sup&gt 2005.
5. At the close of community judging, the site administrators will tabulate the results from the community, and select the top 5 entries. These will be posted and announced as “Community Favorites.”
6. A panel of media experts, who will again rate the entries on clarity, creativity, quality and impact, will judge the community favorites.  The entry with the highest average rating from our panel of media experts, will be declared the overall winner. The winner will be announced on or about  Wednesday, October 19<sup>th</sup&gt, and will be featured on BetterCA.com. The winning ad may even be broadcast all over California.

You can help us defeat the big drug companies, and get cheaper prescription drugs more Californians can count on. submit your ad today, or contribute to help air the winning ad.

Please see the official rules.

Help us spread the word, link back to this post or the main contest page on BetterCA.

to join in the irc chat:
irc.chatspike.net
/join #daliykos

software:
Windows:  mIRC
Mac: ircLE, Snak x-chat
*nix: X-chat

see you there!

what gives?

ePluribus Media article Bush Overloads Civil Rights Commision with GOP members by writer Andrew Brenner illustrates how the Republicans packed this Commission with partisans.

A snapshot of Brenner’s conclusions:

In December 2004, the Bush administration dodged the legal requirement to have no more than four members of one political party on the US Commission on Civil Rights.

snip

Abigail Thernstrom, who had been appointed to the board as a Republican in 2001, changed her party affiliation to Independent in an attempt to skirt federal regulations.

What do you think?  Transparency or Court Packing?

Other contributors to the work are: Jill Lehnert, SusanG, Sue in KY, Biblio, Sawcielackey, Ron Brynaert, JeninRI.