Activism

69% of Latinas do not vote. Even though we have the highest pregnancy rates and the fastest growing incidences of AIDS in the United States. 70% African American and Asian American registered voting women also abstain from voting.

Pass on this video clip to every single, Black, Latian, Asian, Native US American woman you know and ask them to pass it on to their family friends.

Faced with the prospect of a McCain presidency that would squash any hope of Universal Health Care and would put on the bench Supreme Court Justices that would bring back reproductive slavery, it is absolutely necessary that each and every minority woman and man go out and vote.

From the EngageHer blog :

Kyle has compiled a whole collection of images from white supremacist rallies against immigrants. Here's the lede:

The Sanctuary:: 5 English Lessons From the Anti-Immigrant Movement: "Any nativist will tell you that polls show 1,000% of 'Mericans support speaking only English in the United States of America. It doesn't matter if the U.S. can't even understand the languages of the countries it goes to war with (you don't need to understand people to shoot at them). If people can't speak English like they're supposed to, they're not real 'Mericans.

Using this iron-clad logic, I thought I'd compile a list of five English lessons for those that want to learn to how to be a real 'Merican and speak English."

The results are HYSTERICAL. Go see the whole collection, NOW!

(Via The Sanctuary:: 5 English Lessons From the Anti-Immigrant Movement.)

Yesterday I had a bit of fun at the expense of the Republican noise machines and their efforts to paint themselves already as a loud and marginalized minority in Capitol Hill. I was so caught up on the moment that I didn't blog about it until this morning but Kenneth Quinnell described it as a "Twitter Bomb" and has happy to spread the word :

Twitter Bomb

This wasn't my idea (although I came up with the cool name), I think Liza Sabater was the one who started it, but it's too brilliant to pass up.

Those of you who are on Twitter, send as many tweets as you can over the next few days with #dontgo in them. The conservatives are using this hash mark (like a tag) to spread misinformation about offshore drilling and their latest publicity stunt. What Liza and a few others started doing was to flood that hash with counter-commentary or irrelevant posts. Sort of like a google bomb, this can either disrupt what they're doing or, at the very least, annoy the crap out of them. We can all do this.

Whatever you're posting on twitter, try to fit #dontgo into it. And make sure you include the # sign, which is key.

If you aren't on Twitter, this might be the type of thing to get you into it.

And before I even start to explain, let me break down the lingo for you.

Image by Pantone801, found at Flickr.com

This is so mindboggling it defies commentary. Up until the 1st of July of 2008, Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the United States.

Bush Removes Nelson Mandela from Terror Watch List
By VOA News
01 July 2008

U.S. President George Bush Tuesday signed a bill that allows Nelson Mandela to enter the United States without special clearance.

The measure officially removes Mr. Mandela and his African National Congress from a U.S. terror watch list.

The former South African president may now visit the United States without the U.S. secretary of state having to certify that he is not a terrorist.

Mr. Mandela was placed on the list because of his work with the African National Congress (ANC), which fought to end white minority rule in South Africa.

Mr. Mandela spent 27 years in prison for his work with the ANC to fight apartheid rule in South Africa.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner turns 90 on July 18.

Un.

Be.

lievable.

Last time you heard me rant about the Associate Press was in relation to Rogers Cadenhead's plight, where he was hit with more than 7 take-down demands and threatened with a lawsuit. Please read "AP has their legal vampires chasing bloggers. I blame Hilary Rosen" and "More about the AP copyright takedowns against Rogers Cadenhead" for the back story.

Well, within hours there was a boycott of the Associated Press by a big chunk of the single and community blogs that form the "netroots". Why? Because we have back channels of communication through which we talk to each other for either political or business purposes.

That was the case this past weekend.

Barack Obama was there on 1 May 2006. Will you join in on 2008?

AfterDowningStreet.org has an amazing historical overview on why tomorrow there will be massive demonstrations and labor union strikes all across the country : 122 years of the 8 hour week and end of child labor, 5 years of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, 3 years since the discovery of the Downing Street Minutes, 2 years since the nation-wide immigration rallies of 2006, almost 2 years ago when Nanci Pelosi and Democrats in Congress and the Senate took the impeachment of George Bush for misleading the country to war, "off the table". Yet in one of the most mindboggling examples of the Bush Administration's information war against Americans, May 1st has been declared Loyalty Day.

And here's the thing : You and I know that when it comes down to it, the war against immigrants is a war against labor which is part of a larger attack from the only people who benefit from the other kind of corporate-led violence like the occupation of Iraq.

As my friend Roberto Lovato said earlier, paraphrasing ActUP, "Silence = Death". If you are like me, you hate marches but you go to them because you know that as a symbol of solidarity in dissent you need to go.

So dust off your walking shoes and get your arse to the streets and square.

Baratunde Thurston, Some Rights Reserved

Baratunde has been going to Philadelphia almost every weekend for the past weeks. So yesterday, thinking what I am going to do with the kids this week --they are in Spring Break. I decided to rent a car and drive down to Philadelphia to help out the Obama campaign any way we can and in the process, be a part of history.

I'll post later today updates and definitely come back here after 10pm when we'll have the chatroom open while waiting for the results.

C'ya later!

Robert Shales is right on the money when he says, To this observer, ABC's coverage seemed slanted against Obama. Memeorandum exploded in posts from irate liberals and journalists who saw nothing but a thinly vieled hatchet job against the front-runner of the Democratic Party.

Close to fifteen thousand people have sounded off at the ABC News post about the debate (which, by the way, they changed from "Clinton, Obama find brotherly love at Philly Debate" to "Philly Fight Night : Democrats Spar over Electability").

I suggest you add to the comments over there as well as give a ring to their offices :

Call 818-460-7477
Press 2,
Press 1

Then you can press one of these two choices :

967 (News wth Charles Gibson) or
199 (other news)

As I wrote at the chat last night, it's as if ABC News wanted to outfox FOX News. It was an incredibly embarrassing scene to watch.

Not only that, George Stephanopoulos should not have been one of the moderators. As the former speech writer of Bill Clinton and still a Clintonista, if you are going to have someone so biased, then you ought to create balance. Which is why I shall forever refer to him as "Clinton's Boy".

We need something nice and smooth here. It's been kind of a drag of a week, and it's just Wednesday! Who better to groove to than Marvin Gaye.

"What's Going" is one of the most perfect "artivist" protest songs ever created. And it is a work of art, so much so, that the Gaye's record label rejected it as being uncommercial.

I love the song because the lyrics and music are almost trance like, turning subverting the radical antiwar message of the song. It's almost subliminal the way the grooves hook you while the words slip into the unconscious.

It's as if Gaye becomes with this song an R&B shaman.

Last night I saw a flurry of emails blanket my inbox with a series of "unbelieavable", "still in shock" and the not so occasional "I'm angry".

I had spent most of the afternoon trying to sort out my thoughts fast enough for an Op/Ed, and I would always come back to the misgivings I've had since he took office a little over a year ago. That Eliot Spitzer's problem and weakness has always been his success because he never really needed anything other than a vote from you or me to get elected.

Eliot Spitzer didn't really need a million New Yorkers giving $5 or $10 donations to his campaign to get elected. He never needed to learn how to get people out on the streets to support his campaign to get him elected. He never needed to swallow his pride and shut up and take criticism from his own base in order to gain political influence. And he certainly never had to pound the pavement and get people out on election day to make sure people would get out of their homes and offices to cast a vote.

Metro newspaper just published Voices: Spitzer floated on air, but lack of roots did him in, my Op/Ed on the Spitzer debacle.

Here's the money quote :

For netroots activists like me, who have had the chance to take a peek at the mechanical beast, the New York State Democratic Party, Eliot Spitzer was nothing but a political insider’s rock star that only needed “The (little) People” to vote so the “politics as usual” could rock New York and roll into Albany. Yet there’s a reason why “politics as usual” is losing the fight in the Democratic Party’s presidential primary.

Eliot Spitzer’s weakness has been the lack of a true grassroots base. He never had his feet held to the fire by his own party base, by The People who ended up voting for him. The Republicans have known this all along, and it’s not a coincidence that they tried to scare him last year by astroturfing the Internet with fake attack blogs.

Go read the whole thing.

Baratunde, political vigilante and stand-up comedian extraordinaire, is in Texas working as a volunteer poll worker and tweeting whatever he can.

I'll update more as it comes in.

Kenneth Cole on blogging :
So why have I jumped on the blogosphere bandwagon? Well, throughout most of my adult life, I have been a reasonably successful, designer, businessman, parent, and philanthropist but I've always been a frustrated activist. This venting arena is the perfect venue for personal expression and for encouraging genuine change (not to mention taking some of the pressure off of my pharmacologist). Over the last 25 years, through my Company and personal pursuits, I've attempted to be topical and relevant to our ever-changing society and raise social awareness, but the fact that you're reading this is proof of how the world is changing. I realize that my monologist approach of the past is as appropriate as wearing socks with sandals - today's must-have is dialog. Sure, I can always help you with what you wear but now you can help us all be more aware.

I am a huge fan of Kenneth. First because I am a shoe whore and I LOOOOOOOVE his style, especially his boots. I used to have a pair of boots of his that I basically wore down to the bone. They just felt like butter and I haven't been able to find a pair like that, although I might actually go out and buy this pair to wear with jeans. Although, OMG, I am totally feeling these, these, these and these as well.

As I said, if there are shoes involved, I am there. And don't get me started with the handbags ... yes, yes, I know ... the truth is, I am really shallow deep down inside.

Yet it's the company's history of ad campaigns that totally rocks my world. As with the Benneton fashion house, Kenneth Cole the fashion designer and company has never shied away from voicing their politics. And grock knows we need that in a realm of culture and society not necessarily oozing with consciousness raising and committed activism.

Who can forget, for example, the "We All Have AIDS Campaign"? How about the infamous black and white posters that just stopped you on their tracks with slogans like : The Homeless Got What They Deserve. And, of course, there's the t-shirts. I am totally feeling this one.

So when I received an email from David Hershkovits, one of the publishers of Paper Magazine asking me if I'd be interested to blog for KC, I was more than flattered. Smelling salts and an EKG were involved in my efforts to say yes.

I have to give a huge shout out to Ron Mwangaguhunga of The Corsair blog fame for this opportunity. We've had blog crushes on each other since forever and it was he who recommended to David to work with his team. The other team is composed by the fine people of Electronic Artists, the company that manages the blog.

So without further ado, let me give you a looky of one of my posts (featured on the front page of the blog).

A BLOG POST exclusive to MTV (as it must be, contractually) can be read by clicking the image above. No video this week. But a specially-crafted Non-Super Wednesday message instead.

Crossposted to The Unapologetic Mexican, Jesus' General, and OpEdNews.

I started writing "Una Carta Abierta a Barack Obama" about a week ago. It was at the same time I wrote my love letter to John Edwards and my pointed rant to the junior Senator of New York about Billary. Yet I had a heck of a lot of trouble putting my words down.

First, it was my ambivalence between writing in English and Spanish. Whenever I started in English, I'd have to stop. Words failed me in my adopted language, like they always do when I am working through a profound realization.

What was most interesting is that words in prose failed me.

My area of expertise in Latin American Studies is not only history but aesthetics. More exactly, neobaroque aesthetics in contemporary Latin American poetry. I know it's a mouthful, but I have a reason to invoke them : poetic language is considered not just revolutionary, but mind altering and conscious raising. Poetic language for the likes of a Jose Lezama Lima, Severo Sarduy or David Huerta, is a tool for altering consciousness, for exploring the multiplicity inherent in identity and for exposing the duplicity in "what you see is what you get".

CLICK the pic to the left to find yourself magically transported to a page hosting my latest MTV Street Team '08 video, which was shot in Eugene, Oregon at a Martin Luther King Jr. rally and march on January 21, 2008.

All shooting, editing, and sleeplessness by Nezua.

Crossposted to The Unapologetic Mexican, Jesus' General, and Corrente.

YOU MAY RECALL, I posted a request for Olbermann last week or so, passing on the wish/hope/dream that one person in the Native American comunidad expressed for a greater level of exposure of their particular need. That need was that a home be bought, a refuge home for Native American women who have been victimized and have nowhere to go, especially as the law is arranged in such a way that there is very little protection or recourse for them in these times they would need such a shelter.

My request for Olbermann's platform was that he highlight this case because it represents an epidemic in the reservations. And because, well, face it. He has a large, virile platform. I know I can't take my eyes off it. And more importantly, who the hell are we to ignore the pains and suffering of the Native American community? Don't make me point to one of my dreaded "brown" diatribes! (Damn, I did it anyway!)

Unfortunately, Olbermann did not respond to the plea I passed on, nor the charge I made that his comments were getting a bit "frothy" except for a week later with a sudden explanation and defense of his much-needed and "vociferous" Special Comments. (Keep the faith, baby, estoy de acuerdo). And hey, okay. I knew the chances were slim. But really, this ain't about Keith, and we know that. And it's not about the way some issues are highlighted in Big Media and some are never really seen (well, okay, it is, a bit). Primarily, and today, this is about the women in the reservations. And really, helping them doesn't have to have anything at all to do with the past. Because here in the Now, people—people just like you or your mama—are hurting. And have nowhere to go. And guess what? Last time I posted on this, many of you chipped in and we helped bring these women $1500 closer to their goal. That is a real world effect of your actions. I thank you. And so do others.

OLBERMANN, I already know you read me, dawg. Stop LYIN'. And we all know you are down with tha populace, and have been a beacon of hope to many of the voiceless. You have put that pretty mug in front of the camera and scoffed forth many important statements on many crucial topics. (The War on Billoism is fun to watch, too.) So yeah. We're in this together, and even tho you iz da elite, you have positioned yourself in the endzone of social justice lately. Please push your envelope (sorry to abandon the football metaphor, I roused it in your honor, but I just feel too damn corny to continue), let's get that Olbermann® brand up there with the hardcore truth-to-powers, let's get all Historical on their asses. Let's bring attention to an epidemic of violence and poverty among those who have already suffered too much at the hands of this nation's "development" (forgive the gross euphemism, indigenous friends, I'm trying to butter up Olbermann sssh).

Keith, you and I don't need to quibble at the ubiquity of violence that seeks women in our culture. We know it is a reality. And in the American Indian Reservations, this violence flourishes in disproportionate numbers. And consequences for those who would harm these women—as well as protection and justice—withers, caught between indifference, legal complications, and/or hostility. There are at least shelters on-rez for them. It's not a cure. But it is something. A place to go to be safe, to learn, to find some comfort and figure out what to do next.

Except when there is no money for such a place. Then, where could these women hope to find help?

AND WILL THEY SAY nobody could have foreseen the weakness of the levees?

For the first time, Washington D.C. has collected data on H.I.V. and found that in the nation's capital, the "modern epidemic"—as the Washington Post calls it—is now primarily one affecting blacks.

The numbers most starkly illustrate HIV's impact on the African American community. More than 80 percent of the 3,269 HIV cases identified between 2001 and 2006 were among black men, women and adolescents. Among women who tested positive, a rising percentage of local cases, nine of 10 were African American. [...]

The District's AIDS rate is the worst of any city in the country, nearly twice the rate in New York and more than four times the incidence in Detroit, and it has been climbing faster than that of many jurisdictions. [...]

—Study Calls HIV in D.C. A 'Modern Epidemic'; More Than 80 Percent Of Recent Cases Were Among Black Residents

And big propz must go to the woman who dares try and change the world, as well as shout out the truth as she lives and sees it:

Stonewall Democrats, along with an amazing coalition of gay advocacy organizations and bloggers, are asking people like you and me to support their petition. Their goal was to gather through their No Substitute site 3,000 signatures; and take them to Congress to show the support for an all inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Well .... they're up to 5100+ signatures.

Oh hell yeah.

SPONSORED POST

Discrimination isn't sweet. Congress has the chance to pass HR 2015, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would protect Americans from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Now a substitute bill has been introduced as HR 3685, which would not stop discrimination based on gender identity. Removing gender identity from ENDA would leave an artificial aftertaste. Not only would the substitute bill leave some working Americans behind, it would also create divisions among Democrats and fair-minded advocates.

Please go to their website and sign the petition. They have about a week to go before delivering the signatures to Congres. Take a moment and email this post to your friends and ask them to do the same. I'd love to see that number go from 5 to 10k.

SAVE THE DATE & Unite with other activists and leaders around a progressive platform for change — for 2008 and beyond. This is where we will forge a new vision of social and economic justice and gain new power to make that vision a reality.

If you see me in a suit it generally means one of two things: I am going to a wedding or I am invited to an event with Bill Clinton.

The work I have done for Kiva, both as a lender and a blogger, has gotten some attention. My Kiva diaries are among the more popular ones I write. A little while back I was interviewed by BBC World News as a lender. And most recently, I was invited to a private panel discussion for the release of Bill Clinton’s latest Book, GIVING: How Each of Us Can Change the World. I do not have a copy of this book as of yet so this is not a book review, though that might come. Instead I want to discuss the event and some of the individuals and organizations that were highlighted.

Three people I have had previous contact with were on the panel: Bill Clinton himself, who I got to meet at a fundraiser for Christine Jennings, Majora Carter, an awesome NYC rising star, and Premal Shah, President of Kiva, the organization I have been working with that got me invited to the event. Rounding out the panel were Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children’s Zone (which hosted the event), Mark Grashow of U.S. - Africa Children’s Fellowship and a 6 year old girl named Mackenzie who organized a beach cleanup for her birthday. The panel discussion was moderated by Tavis Smiley.

UPDATE AT BOTTOM: Eliot Spitzer threatens to sue Bush to get healthcare for kids.

The Democratic Governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, is trying to lead a bipartisan effort to ensure quality healthcare for American children. His message focuses on New Hampshire but his efforts are aimed nationally and his call to action is for all of us to write Congress and the White House to lobby for affordable, quality healthcare for all American children. Here is Governor Lynch's message:

Here in New Hampshire, we are working to make sure every child has access to quality, affordable health care. Just this year, we passed a budget that will allow us to provide affordable health insurance to another 10,000 children and expand our outreach efforts.

That is why I am so disturbed about rule changes that the Bush Administration proposed last week.

If we are serious about giving every child the opportunity for a good education and a good life, and if we are serious about strengthening New Hampshire's future, then we need to be make sure every child in New Hampshire has access to quality, affordable health care. Now is not the time for the federal government to make it harder for states like New Hampshire to provide coverage - we should be expanding access to health insurance.

These proposed changes could negatively impact 2,000 kids currently enrolled in Healthy Kids. It also could jeopardize part of our efforts to enroll 10,000 additional children in the Healthy Kids program over the next three years.

Today I thought of our friend Richie Perez who tragically died three years ago of cancer. He was truly a great spirit. Among many other things, he was a Young Lord, a teacher, an activist, and a visionary. Richie faught against so many things with absolute dedication. He took on issues of police brutality, racism in our educational system, prisoners' rights, and the rights of Puerto Rican people. He became a strong advocate with a powerful voice. Above all, I admired Richie's ability to connect and communicate with young people. He knew how to listen and create meaningful dialogue about critical issues of our time.

Richie was also highly intuitive and I believe that he was able to take the pulse of an entire community and push for progressive political and social reform. He was one of the first male activists I ever met that learned to question gender discrimination and women's rights issues within people of color communities. He knew how to effectively communicate the key issues that intersect race and gender. He was a gifted educator in this way.

Many of Richie's teachings had a strong impact on my beliefs. I believe that his work and philosophy have touched the lives of many people. If you want to learn more about who Richie Perez was, you can go to http://www.cssny.org/pubs/urbanagenda/2004_04_01.html

This comes from Indiana Progressives:

Indiana Progressive Caucus at IDEA

Start: Aug 25 2007 - 9:00am
End: Aug 25 2007 - 10:00am

Come to Indiana's Annual I.D.E.A. Convention and caucus with the Indiana Progressives PAC. Join in the discussion about oure exciting plans on moving IP PAC forward in 07, 08 and beyond! Discussion will include a draft of our new bylaws and upcoming election of board members and officers of Indiana Progressives.

For details about I.D.E.A. and the Belterra Casino Resort Spa where it will be held go to the Indiana Demcratic Party website at http://www.indems.org/

Indiana Progressives believe to win nationally we must first win locally. Our message is positive, practical and progressive!

Many people have been discussing the recent FISA fiasco which has taken America one further step away from democracy and torn yet another hole in the doncument that DEFINES America, our Constitution. I can practically hear Patrick Henry's rage and George Washington's sad disapproval.

Let's keep one fact firmly in mind before we discuss the Democrats: the erosion of American civil liberties, the destruction of our defining document, the Constitution, and the betrayal of our founding fathers' dream for America, has been led by Bush, the bulk of the Republican Party, and that Benidict Arnold, Joe Lieberman. Most of the blame for this crap is squarely on the Republicans.

Most...

But not all.

And therein is a massive problem for those of us who want to fight against the destruction of American democracy. We don't have too many choices in how to fight. As I recently outlined, the Republicans are actively attacking America's very foundations: the Constitution, our economy, our national security. Being an independent or Green or whatever other nobody flash in the pan is tantamount to having no role in how our nation is run whatsoever. Political insignificance, the path of the independent, the Libertarian, the Green, the apathetic...that is doing nothing but abandoning American democracy to destruction at the hands of the Republicans. Like it or not, that is what it is.

This is the one post that you should read over and over again, as I do, to understand what gets Liza Sabater's inner blogsheroe going.

I wrote Secular Blue America after an election "post mortem" written by Steve back in 2004. Steve's article is titled, They Voted For This Mess and it talked about how important it was for 'liberals' to understand that those who voted for Bush in 2004 were not stupid.

In Steve's reality check book, people who voted Republican did so because they had to:

UPDATE BY LIZA SABATER:
Kos speaks --Steve

*****

The Rude Pundit is responsible for my finally meeting Steve. Lee had just released the CD of his awesome one-man show and he threw a party to mark the event.

At he time I was a homeschooling mother of two and sometime consultant so I had barely any time to drop by. Lee said the magic words : Steve is coming.

O. M. G.

Having the opportunity to meet two of my superheroes in one night was too good to pass up and so I begged and implored the patriarchy at home to release me. As fast as I could, I oiled myself into a pair of jeans and scooted to the West Village.

When I got there once I gave a big hug to Lee I jumped all over Steve and to say he was a bit taken aback but loving it is not to be off the mark. I needed to let him know how much he meant to me as a writer, as an activist and as a blatina. I needed to cram as much in as little a time and thusly went to town.

Believe it or not, he blushed.

Steve was a muscular writer but in person he was could be quite unassuming. "Stop it!" He said it many times and so after the fangirlishness susbsided, we just shot the shit.

At that time neither of us had medical insurance --an issue of which we wrote about occasionally. I knew he had problems with his kidneys but once he told me the litanny of ailments he had and I told him ours, we had a bit of a bitch fest about doctors and money and the whole 'culture of health' in this country. I gave one last hug for good measure, hoping it would not be the last.

excerpted from cnn.com:

here's the link to the story: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/28/sheehan/index.html

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Quoted text was removed for two reasons: a.) too much text was directly quoted from a commercial site (CNN.com) and b.) no link was provided to that commercial site. The former can get us into serious copyright problems and it is standard procedure on blogs to quote only a few paragraphs of text directly from other sites to avoid potential copyright issues. The exact number of paragraphs that are "allowable" varies, but quoting the vast majority of someone else's work from a copyrighted site is always considered unacceptable. Not providing a link to the site you quote is considered both rude and can make people suspicious about your quote. We want people to know where our writers are quoting from so we encourage such links...unless we know a commercial site uses our work without a link. It is ALWAYS safer and more polite to provide the link. I encourage the author to rewrite the diary in a way that complies with the rules of this site and the standard blog protcedures when quoting others. I would like to note that there was no particular problem I had with the content of the diary, merely the quote of an extensive block of another person's work without so much as a link. There are legal issues here!]

I have admired Cindy Sheehan's dedication/devotion to the anti-war effort and am saddened to see that she is throwing in the towel. She is a remarkable woman whom many of us have had the opportunity to meet and/or participate in rallies and events she attended. This happens to a lot of activists who put their heart and soul into the cause and then don't see results at the end of the day. You start wondering if the battle was worth fighting. You ask, "when do I see something for all this effort?", "when do we win?"

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have breasts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.

It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,

Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

John Edwards by Liza Sabater

I have to say that John Edwards may be the hardest working candidate from the whole crop of presidential hopefuls on both ends of the political spectrum. It's not just the fact that he is the only one who continues to put out the most policy proposals on a regular basis. It's the fact that he started earlier and with a clearly long-term strategy represented by the community platform his developed under for JohnEdwards.com.

Whereas Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton have created sites to support their candidacies money making strategies, Edwards site was founded as a platform for communications, strategy deployment and community building before it became a source for his presidential fundraising.

You can tell by perusing John Edwards's site that he has a well developed and strategized use of blogs, forums, chatrooms and other new media tools. The feel and tone of his site is head and shoulders above the Obama and Clinton sites as far as full civic engagement that goes beyond his candidacy.

Which is why I am completely impressed by his use of Memorial Day to call for action. This is the kind of strategy that would not only spring from an online community but that would be called by someone who knows they can pull it off with the community of communicators, influencers and citizen leaders they have cultivated.

"The power to end the war is in the people's voices, not in Congress' ability to fund the war".
John Edwards

I just got off a conference call between John Edwards and several members of the blogosphere.

John Edwards has just launched an initiative to end the war in Iraq. With Support The Troops, End The War, Edwards is asking Americans to reclaim patriotism from the Bush Administration on this Memorial Day by holding events all across the country that show We The People's support of the troops by demanding an end of the war :

Take Action May 26th, 27th, 28th
As citizens, we honor and support our troops for their service and sacrifice.

As Americans, we are blessed by that sacrifice and support, which keeps us safe and keeps us strong.

As patriots, we call on our government to support our troops in the most important way it can - by ending this war and bringing them home.

This Memorial Day weekend, we will all take responsibility for the country we love and the men and women who protect it. We will volunteer, we will pray, and we will speak out. Each of us has a responsibility to act, a duty to our troops and to each other. Support the troops. End the war.

In the Q&A Arianna Huffington asked if he was going to ask other Democrats in Congress to put pressure on those who didn't vote against Bush's veto. He said that, indeed, that was part of the strategy of this call to action. He has been running ads in DC focused on members of Congress; yet the second veto makes it clear that unless the American people take the war into their own hands, we will continue to have the political push and pull going on between Congress and the White House.

Press Release after the jump

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Consider this post the result of my taking a good idea and running with it.

A letter writing campaign is more than writing the letter. Believe me, I know. While in college, I helped coordinate letter writing campaigns for Amnesty International. With AI, things are slightly easier because they refine a form letter for you. We printed the letters, learned about the causes (sometimes coupling them with presentations to the public), set up an outpost in a high traffic area, and we convinced people to read and to sign the letters. And that was merely one step for the letter signing activist and one step out of many for us.

So starting a letter writing campaign from scratch requires a little more work, unless there are websites who already have form letters. If you have a form letter, some of the work has been done for you. For the Imus situation, I understand that the National Organization for Women has taken up the massive hint they should be involved in this matter where Imus publicly insulted black women. They have form letters to the station manager Chuck Bortnick (most direct superior of Imus), CBS Communications Director Karen Mateo (CBS Radio owns the station generally), and MSNBC Television (they hype the show like it's its favorite play cousin). Now, if you want to get someone fired, those three people are good people to try to convince, right? Yes...but in our money-driven corporate media, do you think the letters telling them to cease and desist will be enough? No doubt they play a role, but will they be enough?

Veteran/author/activist Lori Perdue read this poem at a gathering of progressive politicians, activists, and artists the other night at Washington's 'Busboys & Poets' venue. I can't say for sure just who it was she was describing in these words, but I suspect we can all think of several potential candidates for the honor... *grin*

Driven 9/25/06

One handed freestyle keyboarding and talking on two cell phones at once, she is driven, on a mission.
She catches my eye.
The buttons on her jacket are mis-aligned, making her collar jump up on one side.
She is unaware of her visage, she is driven, on a mission.
She hangs up the phone in her hand and places it on the table beside her computer,
Seamlessly sliding into another conversation, another gear, another thought process, talking into the phone balanced in the crook of her neck.
She squints at the screen of the laptop in front of her, clicks on something, passes on the retrieved information to whomever exists on the end of the sound wave, and signs off.
Letting the phone slip from her shoulder to her waiting hand, she ends the call with a practiced thumb and the slightest of glances at the tiny screen on the face of the device, and expertly drops the phone into the unfastened pocket of the ill-buttoned denim jacket.

It's been just a few weeks since Molly Ivins went to the great editorial meeting in the sky, but I already miss her like crazy.

So much weird, wild, woeful, and wonderful stuff is going on in the world of people-powered politics these days that we really need somebody like Molly to help us make sense of it all.

And knowing how much sheer unadulterated delight she took in the rough and tumble nature of citizenship in this great big sprawling country of ours, it's a real shame that she's not here to enjoy all the goings-on now that things are finally starting to turn back towards legislative sanity again.

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce."
-- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

Molly's not here now, though. That means it's up to us to step into her Texas-sized shoes and do what she asked us to do in her stead. So here are a couple of causes that were always near and dear to Molly's heart, and some ways in which we can all go kick some Beltway butt the way Molly always kept telling us to do.

(Update by Liza Sabater, Publisher : Hello Salon Readers! Feminist bloggers are not taking the attacks against Amanda, Melissa and other feminist bloggers lightly. We are working now harder than ever to create a Feminist Bloggers PAC.)

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Richard Cranium is calling for an email campaign and blogswarm.

Let’s be clear on something - Amanda and Melissa are among the most savvy, articulate progressive commentators in the blogosphere. The Edwards’ campaign is most fortunate to have both of them working on internet outreach. So, to me, this is just another example of right wing blogs pushing a story into the mainstream media to create some noise based on out-of-context cherry picking of inflammatory buzzwords and snarky posting. But afterall, isn’t that what this medium is all about?

Ok, so, I’m going to ask you to do something. If you feel as I do, that this is a trumped up manufactured controversy by organizations that wouldn’t vote for Edwards in a million years anyway, please drop a line to the Edwards campaign.

We need to support our own in this regard. If the Edwards campaign buckles on this one, and fires Amanda and Melissa, I will immediately drop my own support for John Edwards. It’s not that I will have changed my views on his issues, but that his campaign will have shown no spine early on. And I want a candidate (and campaign) with spine.

Make sure you put "SUPPORT AMANDA AND MELISSA" on your email to the Edwards campaign.

Here's a list of posts so far :

me : The swiftboating of John Edwards Political Courage

Zuzu at Feministe : This is really getting out of hand and Jill with The Backlash Against the Edwards Bloggers

Chicago Dyke at CorrenteWire : Courage vs. Popularity

Misty at Shakespeare's Sister : Ol' Bill is ticked

Jessica at Feministing : The post in which I scrub my skin off with a brillo pad

UPDATES!

We did it people! Craig Johnson WINS!!

STATE SENATOR-7TH SD-UNEXPIRED TERM
264 EDS COUNTED 264 EDS IN RACE
CANDIDATE NAME PARTY RESULTS CANDIDATE TOTAL

CRAIG M JOHNSON D 24,915
CRAIG M JOHNSON W 1,537
26,452

MAUREEN C O'CONNELL R 18,988
MAUREEN C O'CONNELL I 1,689
MAUREEN C O'CONNELL C 2,252
22,929

Ok, the wifi in this hotel just totally sucks. The same thing happened at the Take Back America conference last year. People! The Washington Hilton suckkkkkkkks.

Anyhow, I am really excited.

Howard Dean is talking about being a proud Democrat ... after Reid's mellowness people are just ready to throw their panties at Howard. He just knows how to work a crowd.

At least I am getting a good show. I left at 4:40am after literally jumping into the train whilst it was leaving the station. This after only 3 hours of sleep because last night we had a knock out fundraiser in NYC that raised more than 100K for the Craig Johson campaign.

We rocked last night. We really hit it out of the ball park and it's with that energy that I am here.

Howard just said "no escalation" and people are jumping out of their chairs. What's amazing about Howard is that physically he is not that big a guy, but put him in front of a podium and in front of a crowd --big or small-- and he just whips people into frenzy. He i