( – promoted by odum)

The Deerfield Valley News has published the second in a series of articles on the planned “western Reception Center”, part of the Entergy Nuclear evacuation plan. 

After 9/11, when one of the hijacked planes flew down the Hudson past Entergy's Indian Point reactors, Selectboards in the Emergency Zone began asking for an additional center so people west of VY wouldn't be expected to evacuate toward the reactor.

As you've likely heard by now, Senator Leahy has subpoenad documents from the President and Vice President's offices. As you probably have also heard, the decider and the fourth branch of government have, predictably, pretty much repeated Cheney's oft quoted admonition to our senior Senator delivered in the Senate Halls some time back. Leahy has since responded:

This White House cannot have it both ways.  They cannot stonewall congressional investigations by refusing to provide documents and witnesses, while claiming nothing improper occurred.

“Increasingly, the President and Vice President feel they are above the law — in America no one is above law.”

From a moral standpoint, perhaps. From a legal or procedural standpoint, perhaps not.

First off, they can say whatever they want. We're well past the point where it's realistic to believe that anyone in the White House thinks that anyone in the public puts any credence in what the say anymore. I doubt even the 20-some percent of lingering die-hard supporters in the polls actually believe him, they just support his “whatever-it-takes” approach to their shared agenda.

As far as being above the law, well, that just depends, doesn't it? Are we talking academically or practically? The fact is that these are legislative subpoenas that may or may not be endorsed by a judge. When it comes to subpoenaing the Executive Branch, a supposedly co-equal branch of Government, the court's involvement is likely to look different. It's easy to imagine if the matter goes before this Supreme Court (with its unrestrained Bushite judicial activism), the court is likely to say “forget it.” They'll likely tell the Legislature that they won't support a non-Judicial subpoena over a claim of executive privilege, and if the Legislature wants to force action, they have their two Constitutional options: the pursestrings, and of course, impeachment.

(With impeachment “off the table,” that frees up the Executive quite a bit, eh?)

All this reminds us that, when the rubber hits the road, much of the functioning of our government depends on an honor system. With Bush and Cheney willfully scrapping both the “system” and “honor,” it creates more than a little quandary for the Legislative Branch, now struggling for some semblance of relevence.

Today ActBlue marks its 3rd Anniversary. Seriously, 3 years? I know- time flies.

Back in 2004, our founders Matt DeBergalis and Benjamin Rahn thought they could build something that would change Democratic fundraising- making it, well, more democratic. The two of them, living off of savings and limited investment, set out to build a platform that would end up changing our Party. Working out of their homes, they built the first generation of ActBlue.

This innovative, secure, and groundbreaking way to give money to Democrats was launched in June of 2004 before the end of the fundraising quarter. The earliest adopters, the blogosphere, helped push $250,000 into federal campaigns that summer. Printing $1 million in checks out of Matt’s living room by the end of 2004 was an accomplishment for the start-up. ActBlue caught the eye of Democratic campaigns, organizations, and establishment investors and it was time to grow.

And grow ActBlue did. You can see it for yourself in the numbers.

Total Raised for Democrats through ActBlue: $24,167,741

# of fundraising pages on ActBlue: 4,204

# of people contacted in just 3 weeks via ActBlue’s new Spread the Word tool: 3,751

# of active entities in ActBlue’s directory: 3,739 (will grow towards 10,000 this cycle)

# of candidates and committees receiving funds to date: 1,725

# of states where ActBlue is active for state level activity: 23 (24 soon)

# of people behind the ActBlue curtain: 6

# of months until ActBlue outgrows its 600 sq foot office: 1
  (that’s over $40,000/sq.ft. of productivity!)

There a lot of talk about investing in lasting infrastructure for the Democratic Party. ActBlue returns over $20 in aid for Democratic candidates for every $1 in investment. We have more ideas under the hood than you can shake a stick at, limited not by our creativity, but by time and investment.

ActBlue is an investment in our Party. ActBlue is an investment in a Democratic future.

So, in honor of our 3rd Anniversary, will you invest in ActBlue?

http://www.actblue.com/page/investinactblue

With your help, the future will be more than just bright- it will be Blue.

So I offer a toast: the undiscovered country . . . the future. Here’s to turning 3.