Although he started the game as my fourth or fifth choice from the crowd of ten, by the time the primary came to Vermont, it was a no-brainer. I voted for Obama as well as doing some volunteer grunt work out of his Montpelier campaign office. I’m also an Obama delegate to the Vermont Democratic Party’s state convention coming up in a matter of days, which means I’ll be able to vote on which 3 men and which 3 women should comprise the 6 National Delegates we’ll be choosing at that point in the process (more will be chosen later, by the group chosen at the convention. It’s weird.) I’ve avoided making endorsements because I know a lot of the candidates, and I don’t wanna have to choose…. also, I want to be open minded for the people I don’t know. Who should get the nod from the assembled throngs? The people who did the most work? The people who give the best speech? Bright-eyed bushy-tailed newcomers who should get a cool opportunity?

But I’m kidding everybody if I don’t acknowledge two people I will definitely vote for. First is Vermont’s premiere political blogger and number 1 Obama booster in the local media – you know him, you love him, and you may have had him for a class once – Philip Baruth (I mean, c’mon – do I really have to tell you guys I’m supporting Philip?). Sure it would mean there’ll be competition from the convention for blogging coverage, but I’ll just have to make certain that he stays too drunk to type.

Also, I’ll be voting for Carolyn Dwyer. Yeah, Carolyn already has all the fun with all things Democratic in Vermont, but the fact is she busted her butt volunteering for the Obama campaign and really put her skills and contacts to work, so she has seriously earned it. And our kids are friends. Gotta make sure the kids are happy. (Also, I’m just informed that Neil Jensen, aka “Vermonter” on the sidebar, is on the candidate list… it’d be freakin’ criminal if he doesn’t get in, with all the work he’s done… I’ll be voting for him, too)

And that leaves me 3 more votes for other candidates, and I aint sayin no more.

…except to mention that there is one person you won’t be able to vote for for anything: me. Regular readers will recall that I was thinking very seriously about running for the position of Democratic National Committeeman, to take the whole gate-crashing blog-schtick straight into the DNC itself, but I’ve decided against it – simply because I may have an opportunity to implement a project very near and dear to my heart, and taking on something else under those circumstances would just be nuts. Maybe next time… thanks to all the folks who have been encouraging me (and I don’t mean to let anybody down – honest).

(UPDATE: Oh! Selene Hofer-Shall is on that list. I gotta vote for Selene. Uh-oh… now I’m just down to 2. Ack!)

Crossposted to Daily Kos

Clinic defense: it’s getting up very early on Friday and Saturday mornings and driving to a clinic which performs abortions in order to help the women who are coming to them from medical care get into the clinic without having to deal with the harassment of anti-abortion protesters.

It’s challenging work.  It requires you learn to focus on the clients and not react personally to anything the protesters say to you (gay-baiting, race-baiting, threats on your person, etc.).  

When you do clinic defense, you don’t even refer to one another by name where it can be overheard because if they have your name, they make the attacks much more personal.

It was difficult work, but it was well worth it.  It taught me a lot about myself, about responding to personal attacks, and it taught me a bit about courage, too.

The job itself was simple: when someone pulls into the parking lot, do your best to help them into the clinic and distract them from the protesters to ease their way in.

Sometimes, the protesters would play games, like having one of their people pull up and then drive away as they convince the person not to have an abortion.  Like we don’t recognize their cars that are parked along the road every week and don’t recognize the drivers in them as well?  But, I digress…

I’m talking about this because despite my occasional differences with NARAL (I’m not fond of groups which endorse incumbents over challengers just because the incumbents have acceptable voting records, even if the incumbent can do a lot better, so I’ve clashed with NARAL a few times over this), I think they’re a good organization that does good work.

So, if you’re angry about their endorsement, please be sure to let them know what your preference would have been, and if you’re happy about it, let them know that, too.

But whatever you may think about their decision, NARAL is no traitor and if it weren’t for them, some of these clinics I volunteered at wouldn’t even exist today.  They’ve been a major force supporting abortion rights for decades and they deserve some respect for that.

I’m going to close this with two quick stories:

The women who owned the clinic I volunteered at developed a brain tumor which eventually killed her.  While she was still alive, one of the protesters found out about the illness and they started mocking her for it.  

They would shout to her, telling her that this was God’s punishment for her sins.

These are the people who should be our common enemy here.

Once, one of the protesters herself came to the clinic to get an abortion.  She asked for special permission to come around through the back entrance so her friends protesting outside wouldn’t see her.  

The clinic complied.  

We didn’t challenge her on this.  That would have been unacceptable.  She had every right to get an abortion and she had every right to protest.  The contradiction between the two was her issue to deal with, and it wasn’t our place to make her feel terrible for it.

The next week, she was out there protesting again.

We never said a thing.

Legislative showdown ………

The reasoning would be similar to the logic behind IRV, which the public has already been somewhat primed with.

With a two way race or a stronger candidate this wouldn’t be needed and in some ways is making lemonade out of a structurally difficult situation. There is a certain elegance to having the Progressive candidate Pollina argue against a kind of IRV voting variant…hoisted on his own petard IRV.We have two leftist candidates and with the recent acknowledged 180 degree shift from some Democrats on this strategy it sounds like an idea whose time has come according to powers that be.  

why don’t you make good use of it?

Each and every one of us have three things to offer any office holder wannabe: time, money and vote. Those items are our bargaining chips, so how you use them does have meaning. You have to decide for yourself whether you’re making good use of your power.

The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

. . .

Involuntary chemical restraint of detainees, unless there is a medical justification, is a violation of some international human rights codes. The practice is banned by several countries where, confidential documents make clear, U.S. escorts have been unable to inject deportees with extra doses of drugs during layovers en route to faraway places.

Federal officials have seldom acknowledged publicly that they sedate people for deportation. The few times officials have spoken of the practice, they have understated it, portraying sedation as rare and “an act of last resort.” Neither is true, records and interviews indicate.

(Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation, Washington Post, 05/14/08)

Here’s a thought:

Sanders, Leahy, Welch and Symington have all stood squarely in the way of holding the bush administration, and in particular bush & cheney, accountable for being the most corrupt, dishonest and incompetent government in our nation’s history.

If Sanders, Leahy, Welch and Symington will stand to protect the likes of bush and cheney … who else and what else will they be willing to protect?

And if you’re not willing to use your powers of time, money and vote to force these “representatives of the people” to act in a time like now, when our constitution is in obvious peril, what else are YOU willing to accept just to vote for a Democrat or against a Republican?

It is not okay that the Catholic Church aided and abetted and looked away regarding horrendous child abuse no matter how many self professed Catholics there are in the U.S. Equally it is not okay that those carrying the mantles of “leadership” in the Democratic Party have actively aided, abetted or looked away as bush administration has dragged us down in manners not dreamed of eight years ago.

This is YOUR chance to force a change in our governments. But blind acquiescence to party labels is certainly not the way to do this … you should be looking at results.

From Politico.com

http://www.politico.com/news/s…

In Michigan, Edwards endorses Obama

By: Ben Smith and Carrie Budoff Brown

May 14, 2008 08:44 PM EST

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards announced his support for Barack Obama Wednesday, giving the Illinois senator a key endorsement prize and signaling that party leaders may be ready to coalesce around his candidacy.

The endorsement followed Obama’s 41-point defeat in the West Virginia primary to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, when he was overwhelmingly rejected by a core Edwards constituency: lower income workers. Edwards even received seven percent of the vote Tuesday despite dropping out of the race in late January.

Some of us around here, especially JD and me, have become regular readers of Pharyngula, a science and skeptic web page created and written by PZ Myers, a biology professor in Minnesota.

Today, PZ is covering the child rape case against the Vermont Catholic church, in which a jury just awarded the victim of the church's malfeasance almost $9,000,000.

It's a harsh penalty, but warranted by the way the church turned a blind eye to outrageously criminal behavior. I'd like to say that they'll learn a lesson from it, but the comments from Catholic officials suggest that no, they won't.

PZ's observation, which I totally agree with, is that the church still doesn't get it, as Archbishop Matano is still focusing on the tragic consequences of the monetary loss on Vermont Catholics, instead of looking at the harm that the church knowingly visited on young, vulnerable children.

Come to think of it, that's what punitive damages are for: we might not make them see things the right way, but at least we can teach them that they'd better do the right thing or it will cost them.

And with these guys, maybe that's the best we can hope for. 

Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) have an amendment pending in the Senate Judiciary committee to vacate a ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board that will likely increase Internet music royalties by an astonishing 300 percent to 1,200 percent, putting a horrific squeeze on the still-nascent medium. From Technology News Daily:

Currently, terrestrial radio stations only pay royalties to songwriters. Internet radio and satellite radio pay royalties to both songwriters and record companies/recording artists. However satellite radio only pays royalties of 7.5 percent of their revenue. The Internet Radio Equality Act of 2007 corrects the enormous disparity created by the CRB by putting Internet radio on par with satellite radio. Additionally, the legislation would create special royalty rules for the Webcasting arms of non-commercial broadcasters like National Public Radio and college radio to ensure they are not left out of reaching new listeners on the Internet.

“Our bill is about standing up for folks ranging from a small Webcaster in a basement in Corvallis to an innovative startup in Beaverton to a new band trying to be heard in Portland to a huge music fan in Coos Bay” Wyden said. “Keeping Internet radio alive is part of a broader issue that is important to me — keeping the e-commerce engine running by preventing discrimination against it.”

Okay, so all of this means that my favorite music website is in dire need. I just got this via email:

Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora,

I’m writing today to urgently ask for your help. Our future and that of all webcasters is being threatened by the actions of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). In an effort to cripple Internet radio they have defied Congressional direction to negotiate reasonable performance fees and are trying to shut us down.

In spite of overwhelming opposition, including from thousands of musicians, they have blatantly pursued a strategy of undermining the process, making outrageous demands, and trying to run out the clock, hoping we will just quietly fade away. There is only one way to stop this violation of the public trust, and that is by mobilizing the collective will of our listening audience.

I am writing to you because your Senator is on the crucially important Senate Judiciary committee. It would be tremendously helpful if you would take just a minute to call your Senator:

Senator Patrick J. Leahy: (202) 224-4242

** When you call, please tell them your home town, and ask them to support the Brownback Internet Radio Equality amendment that will be considered in the Judiciary Committee this Thursday.

This amendment sets webcasting royalties at the same level as those paid by satellite radio, which would compensate musicians fairly and allow web radio to survive. For more info on the bill, please visit: www.savenetradio.org

I hope you’ll take just a few minutes to call. It’s easy to do and it will truly, truly make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

Pandora.com keeps me sane on challenging workdays. If you’ve never visited – you should. It’s plugged into what it calls the “music genome project” – a genre/style/artist database that uses some clever logic to create user “radio stations” queued to the listener. What that means is that you can plug in the name of a song, artist or style, and the system will generate a playlist for you – often of cool music you’ve never been introduced to before.

It’s awesome – not only for listeners, but for more obscure musicians. I’ve been introduced to so many performers I’d otherwise never have heard of. Trying to price these folks out of existence is one of those cutting off of noses to spite faces (and make the quick bucks now at the expense of the long term health of the industry) policies. It’s unreasonable, unfair, impractical – and by god it will wreck my life! (okay… maybe not my life, but… you know).

Once again, its time to save the music industry from itself. Why does it seem like we have to do this every couple years?