This could start a groundswell of support for progressive women nationwide to consider running for office.  This is so exciting:  FOUR NATIVE AMERICAN PRO-CHOICE WOMEN RUNNING FOR THE SOUTH DAKOTA STATE LEGISLATURE.  Most of them face anti-choice Democrats in the primary, which is coming up soon on JUNE 6th, so your financial support is needed at once; please don’t put it off!  Even a few dollars goes a long way in South Dakota!

These women are creating an historical first in SD.  They are Charon Asetoyer, Faith Spotted Eagle, Paula Long Fox and Theresa Spry.  And when they win their primary races, they will join Theresa Two Bulls, an incumbent Senator running again for the Pine Ridge district seat, making FIVE Native women running on the Democratic ticket for state legislative offices.

AND! if each of these fine candidates makes it through her primary and wins in the general election she will REPLACE a legislator who VOTED FOR SD’s ATROCIOUS BAN ON ABORTION!  In fact, most of them face antichoice Democrats
in the primary and that’s what makes OUR help NOW so vastly important.

Help move these dynamic, progressive women candidates thru their primaries! They’re running on huge issues like reproductive health rights,including access to abortion, emergency contraceptives and pregnancy care. 

But they’re also running on other issues important to their districts and to all of us – sustainable energy sources, clean water protections, living wages, quality public education, quality health care for all, affordable child care, creating communities free of domestic violence and sexual assault and even testing for depleted uranium on soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (candidate Long Fox will represent the military families of Ellsworth Air Force Base) to highlight just a few.

Political races in South Dakota don’t take as much money to run as big state, big city races, but that doesn’t mean they can run on nothing and so far it seems pretty unlikely the SD Dem Party is going to pitch in for them before the primaries.  Our job is to help them win their primaries in a big way so that they are “viable” and can perhaps get their party support in the general election. 

A few dollars to each of these campaigns will help create change in South Dakota that we’ll all feel wherever we live.  The individual limit for donations to candidates in SD is $250, but $100, $50, or $25 can do a lot –
from helping to pay for candidate forums to ads in hometown papers and radio spots. Every single dollar gets used well!

Won’t we feel darned good for them, for SD and about ourselves when they win? 

Send your contributions to these campaign addresses and don’t forget to include your occupation and employer name if you are giving $100 or more. 

Charon Asetoyer (Dist. 21 Senate)
Campaign for Change
P.O. Box 472
Lake Andes, SD  57356

Charon@charles-mix.com

Faith Spotted Eagle (Dist. 21 House)
Faith Spotted Eagle for Change
P.O. Box 762
Lake Andes, SD  57356

Eagletrax@hotmail.com
more: Spotted
Eagle: Deksi (Uncle) Vine,
Braveheart

Society)

Paula Long Fox (Dist. 33 House)
10520 Canyon Place
Rapid City, SD  57707
LongFox7@aol.com

(more: American Indian Education   Foundation)

Theresa Spry (Dist. 35 Senate)
821 Halley Ave.
Rapid City, SD  57701

Sprybunch@aol.com
(more: Former teacher, family planning counselor for 14 years,
Chair of the League of Democratic Women among many other
efforts on behalf of women and her community.)

Thanks for everything you’re doing for these candidates.  We’ll keep you updated as we head for June 6th and beyond!  And don’t forget to PASS THIS ON.  We’re not just building grassroots political action, we’re building grassfires of progressive activism that can spread across South Dakota and our whole country.

Yours in solidarity,

Laura Ross
Pat Reuss
Sally Roesch Wagner
Laura Flanders
LaDonna Harris
Katha Pollitt

and add your name in solidarity!

Barbara

( – promoted by odum)

You’ve probably already seen the now-legendary Colbert “roast” (read: “assault”) on President Bush at the Correspondents’ Dinner that has been the source of so much discussion for being ignored by the press at first, and then retroactively demonized as unfunny and tacky. Check it out yourself at Crooks and Liars if you haven’t yet.

A man later identified as CIA veteran Ray McGovern confronts Donald Rumsfeld over his record of outright lying in this Think Progress clip. Rumsfeld tries to engage with him. Big mistake. Check it out.

…and this movie from Renew US is a somewhat corny, but mostly VERY encouraging (and very well done) futuristic “look back” on how humanity pulled together and solved the climate change crisis in the mid-21st century. It really does make you hopeful if you’re feeling hopeless (well, except for the goony Presidential, unity “independent” ticket they envision…bleh…you’ll just have to see it)

Unruly O’Reilly 2: More Bill O’Reilly! This time he said: “visit [Vermont] at your discretion,” because it is a “hopeless, hopeless state” that refuses to “protect the kids” from child molesters. As always, it’s not just a nasty viewpoint, it’s accompanied by outright lies. Check the coverage and clip at Media Matters

Vermont Daily Bloodying: Baruth is on fire this week. Check out this piece skewering Martha Rainville for her shameless flip flop on whether or not Rumsfeld should continue his employment. He’s also got a great piece taking Rich Tarrant to task for his lavish “campaign kickoff” (which virtually emptied the statehouse of Republicans during arguably the busiest week of the entire session) by entertainingly juxtaposing the affair against the lyrics of his campaign song “Taking Care of Business.” Fun stuff.

Graff Gaffe: If you haven’t heard, Chris Graff got fired for precisely the reason everybody thought he did. 802 online got it first.

Whatever: Laura Bush is coming to Vermont. Yawn.

…meanwhile the Dems had a massive Vermont lit drop as part of Chairman Dean’s 50-state canvass. Thankfully, folks are kicking in earlier than usual this time around!

Here’s the best blog entry ever (well for this week). It’s a take-no-prisoners impeachment piece. Should give the most extreme naysayers pause.

Taking the poll down. Only 17 votes, but nobody picked “impeachment” as a more problematic election stance than a gas tax increase (76% picked gas tax, “both equally” problematic 6%, “neither” problematic 18%). Just running the poll made my point, I suppose…

That’s all I have time for now. I may try to do another of these tomorrow, ‘cuz there’s more.