I don’t usually get too personal on this blog, but here’s a rare exception, so if you’re not into hearing me venting, click somewhere else today, I can dig it. Every now and then I get into a funk when I think about the state of the nation. As I was doing some last minute holiday shopping in Burlington today and saw so much ‘stuff’ being bought, it hit me.

Mostly, as I read the news and see how Bush is obviously not going to budge on Iraq, and I don’t think the Dems have the balls to cut off funding or impeach or anything else daring and effective, the anger hits me, but it’s not so much the anger at the government. I’m really mad at the ordinary people in this country who have enabled all of this bad behavior. Whether it be because of the intellectual deficiencies that allow them to be so easily emotionally manipulated, or the laziness that prefers American Idol to Being Informed, or just the fact that so many in this country are shallow, selfish and materialistic and just buy in to all the rah-rah we’re #1 bullshit, it drives me insane. Many of us acted like little, scared, whiny pants-poopers after 9-11, and didn’t learn a goddamn thing.  And I’ve really had it up to here with fundamentalists, like this asshole.  I can’t help but agree with this by Jesse over at TV News Lies:

All I can say is that this is what you get for believing even for a moment what the US corporate media wants you to believe. The rest of us Bush haters are Bush haters for one reason and one reason only; we pay attention! So to my new former Bush supporting friends who seem to be suddenly surrounding me and telling me that I have been right all along: you can tell me I was right but after that shut the hell up because it is too late for forgiveness. From now on, just shut up and listen. Think about it!

It’s easy to say that, well, “we get what we deserve”. I sure as hell don’t deserve what has been happening to this country. Do you?

You can read more of JD Ryan at five before chaos. But why would you want to?

( – promoted by odum)

Another Saturday with crappy weather. In between trolling eBay for Spaghetti Westerns not available in the U.S. (someone badly needs a life, eh?), I put together a linkdump for y’all. Enjoy.

I’m still kinda baffled by all of the Obama hoopla on the left. I don’t know what to make of it. I’m still cynical in the sense that I believe the race/name thing will make him pretty unelectable in the nether regions of this country. And I think that a lot of people are latching on to him because of his charisma and the fact that he’s not Hillary. I haven’t seen anything in his legislative record that stands out as something that would make me want to vote for him (and see a few things that would make me NOT want to, such as his support of the bankruptcy bill). And he seems to be pretty good at Clintonesque triangulation, a serious black mark in my book. Yet people go nuts over him, as in this latest account by Vermont Daily Briefing of an Obama meetup in Burlington this last week. I’m sure I’ll continue to be baffled many times in the next two years.

Good rundown of the misconceptions floating about since the election from TPM here. Things like, you know, how Bush gives a shit about what anyone else thinks.

More gov’t censorship dep’t – White House puts the kibosh on an op-ed piece by a former National Security Council member criticizing Iran policy, that had already been cleared by the CIA.

Apparently, it’s quite possible to turn your cell phone into a listening bug without you even knowing about it. Not paranoid hoopla, this is for real.

With all the Bible-thumpers going on about ‘how we’re a Christian nation’ bullshit, many often forget or don’t know that many of the Founding Fathers, such as Jefferson, were deists. In a nutshell, deists believe that God came and did his work, and left. Dr. Gerry Lower over at Smirking Chimp has a great piece that gives the whole rundown on deism. Being a staunch atheist of the Richard Dawkins variety,I don’t buy into deism but it’s always been interesting to me because of the historical angle.

You can read more of JD Ryan at five before chaos. But why would you want to?

( – promoted by odum)

Seems like John McCain’s really got it in for the blogs. According to an article at Think Progress, he is proposing legislation that: would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles. Some highlights of the legislation:

– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”

– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.

  – Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” – such as deleting user profiles – to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.

You can read more of JD Ryan at five before chaos. But why would you want to?

As I catch up on the news and see that Iraq has turned into an even bigger shitstorm over the last few weeks, and see increasing calls for withdrawl from all sides (including the upcoming Baker report), and I see our dipshit-in-chief’s refusal to do anything but ‘stay-the-course’, I have a question that hopefully someone out there with a bit more knowledge about the legal workings of government can answer for me. Now, I know the Prez is the ‘commander-in-chief’ the armed forces. But is there any way to withdraw the troops without his explicit order to do so? I know about the politically iffy ‘cut-off-the-funding’ approach, but I’m envisioning a scenario maybe six months from now where things are even worse, and other than the executive branch, there is no support for the war anywhere else. What can be legally done?

You can read more of JD Ryan at five before chaos. But why would you want to?

( – promoted by odum)

(or.. How I learned to Reluctantly Co-exist With Some Democrats)

Ok, time for a post I feel that is long overdue. As most of you know, I live, breathe, eat and shit politics. I’m a nerd about it. And, living in the People’s Republic of Vermont (which I proclaim proudly), I’m subjected to all varieties of left-wing politics, from the rational to the ridiculous. There’s the stereotypical banana-republic-lovin’ types with their Che Guevara posters, the conspiracy theorists (I’m even now hearing how the Democratic victory was some sort of Republican conspiracy), left-leaning Democrats, moderate Democrats, activists of all stripes, pointless let’s protest-everything-that-moves-types, neo-Luddites, back-to-the-landers,you name it, it’s here. And many of these people are my closest friends. And I agree with many of them on many issues, namely that our American system is inherently rigged to benefit moneyed interests, and other than throwing an occasional bone to the masses, it’s always been that way, and that a major change and realignment are necessary for this country to move forward.

The idea that we need to have a better relationship with our planet is one I hold higher than just about anything else. Our government’s priorities have always been screwed up, whether it’s our interventions in the doings of foreign nations or our incessant worship of the stock market and consumerism. Much of middle America makes me want to puke.

I ultimately think that will end up prevailing in the end is some weird synthesis of socialist democracy and capitalism. In principle, I agree with many of the tenets of my anarchist and socialist friends, and wholly support a grass-roots movement to change things. A shift to everything becoming more local-based would benefit all regardless of what side of the political spectrum one resides. I’ve gotten arrested in political protests before, as well as participated in affinity groups that have been a bit on the subversive side. I don’t want corporations to have even one tenth the amount of influence they now do. A glance around my blog attests to whose side I’m on. So I’ve got some semblance of credibility.

But here’s where things differ. I also realize that the current system, even with all of our well-intentioned goals and actions, is not about to come crashing down like the Soviet Union did (well, one could almost say the neo-con implosion was similar, I guess). And so, along with supporting the goals that we on the left strife for, I have made a conscious effort to participate in the system as well as outside of the system. And believe me, I catch hell for it.

A few months ago, Joel Hirschhorn at Smirking Chimp wrote an article called ‘Neo-Cons Meet Neo-Progressives’. It struck a nerve with me:
 

What is now apparent is that we have a whole lot of “neo-progressives,” people who have no hesitancy in supporting mainstream Democrats in the name of defeating Republicans. Neo-progressives cannot resist the temptation to support the lesser-evil as a pragmatic strategy, justified in the name of saving the country from yet more years of Republican dominance.

Ok, I agree with that to an extent. Now here’s where I think he misses the mark:
 

Neo-progressives seem blind to the fundamental deficiencies of the Democratic Party and its candidates. The concept of a two-party duopoly and the reality that Democrats as well as Republicans are beholding to many special economic interests, are also corrupt and dishonest, and when in power do not seriously pursue what were historic progressive and populist values ? all seem now to be lost in the pseudo-ecstasy of anticipating a Democratic victory this year, enough to take over one or both houses of congress. Objective reality is lost in the heat of anti-Republican anger and frustration. Neo-progressives, it seems to me, have let their emotions out-gun their deeper intellectual knowledge and principles. They seem drunk from drinking Democratic Party Kool-aid.

You don’t now how many times I’ve been accused of ‘drinking the Kool-aid’ for the simple crime of pointing out how a Democrat has a good stance on a host of issues, or for dismissing the importance of a party-organizational decision.

Part of the problem with some of us on the left is that we are so disgusted with the political system that we refuse to partake in it in any way, shape, or form. I can’t think of a bigger disenfranchisement. I don’t know how many people I’ve known over the years with great ideas and passion, that haven’t accomplished one single goal. And I’m not saying that all efforts have been completely for naught; we’ve made great strides here in Vermont in the past few years on several fronts, such as gender equality, and restricting GMO’s and bovine-growth hormone. They’re great examples of what good, local politics can accomplish. Over the past few years, nothing has been more important to me than putting the brakes on the neo-con Republican juggernaut. Nothing. It is, without a doubt, the most immediate, dangerous thing I’ve seen in this country in my 35 years of existence. And the biggest short-term solution, as I see it, is the recapture of the U.S. Congress and Senate by the Dems, which is now a reality. I’m not looking forward to the ’08 presidential race. Nobody even comes close to representing my values, least of all, Hillary.

So, I’m stuck in a rock and a hard place. Part of me feels at the very least, like many in the netroots, I should do as much as possible to influence the Democratic party in a way that will help to accomplish our progressive goals. It’s not much, but it’s something, and it’s better than not engaging at all, isn’t it? The idealism I encounter outside of the system is at times refreshing and inspiring, and other times frustrating. I’ve said this before; I hear a lot of where we should be at at point ‘G’, and we’re currently at point ‘A’. What’s step ‘B’ or ‘C’? That, and I think that on the further reaches of our side, I often get the sense that many of us don’t have a clue as to how backwards many parts of this country still are. We carry on like we can’t understand why our beliefs are so marginalized when they just make sense. And that’s one of the things that keeps my idealism in check; last time I looked, there was still a Bible Belt. And Beverly Hills.

I’ll still take every opportunity to ride the ass of every Democrat who dares drift rightward (are you listening, Mr. Welch?). And I’ll still work with my comrades (had to say it) to organize and press hard for our ideas, no matter how out in left field they may seem to some. And I can do it without selling out or being some ‘party hack’ as some called me. But it takes a sense of nuance, knowing that yes, not everyone in the system is completely evil (or those who work with them), but to know ultimately that things need to change, and it’s not going to happen overnight.

crossposted at Five Before Chaos and Daily Kos

(JD’s been busy. – promoted by odum)

So, Peter Welch is going to be our next congressman.  Have you ever asked yourself where his contributions come from? Well, you can find out at Open Secrets, by the Center for Responsive Politics. There’s a wealth of information here, including breakdowns of business, labor, PAC’s, etc. You can look up any U.S. Senator or Congressperson.

So who donated to Peter and, based on that, what can we expect? In political action committee (PAC) contribution breakdowns, Peter got 11.8% from business, 43.4% from labor, and 44.8% from ideological/single issue PAC’s. So it is a safe bet that Peter will be a friend to labor interests. Hopefully, he will support trade policies that will benefit the American worker, and will not support more NAFTA-like agreements. His top contributors were unions of different stripes; teachers, firemen, you name it.

Of the companies that were in the top, Burton snowboards and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters were ones I noticed. Better than Exxon-Mobil, no doubt. Nothing surprising about large Vermont businesses giving donations to political candidates.

I looked up a few of the PAC’s… ‘Forward Together PAC’ seems to be a PAC set up for the purpose of electing Democrats. I couldn’t find much info on it, but ‘Our Common Values PAC’ seems to be of the same kind. Committee for A Livable Future is another Dem PAC, but its purpose is ‘to help elect Democratic Members of Congress who support the policies and principles that will make the U.S. government a partner in building and maintaining livable communities that embody smart growth principles.’ That one sounds pretty good to me. Welch also received $10,000 from the abortion rights group, NARAL.

To be honest, I didn’t see anything to disturbing or shocking. I was expecting something questionable to show up. His top industry contributor were lawyers and law firms ($107,650), no surprise, especially considering that Welch himself is a lawyer. He did receive $2000 from defense industry PACs. Not surprising either.. it’s small, and there are a few defense industries in the state (it would be nice if he didn’t take it, though).

You can even see expenditures there. He spent $34 at Dunkin’ Donuts… if that doesn’t send up a red flag, what will?

So, what does this all mean? Well, as I said before, Peter’s going to be a friend to labor. He’s solidly pro-choice. I think he’ll work to get contracts for the small defense industry (something Pat Leahy has done quite well), good or bad depending on where you stand on that. And he probably won’t support much in the way of tort reform or lawsuits that limit corporate liability (good). All in all, I think it’s a mixed bag, but definitely one that is more in support of our values than against. We’ll see what happens. Whatever the case, as I’ve said before, we need to be vigilant with the Democrats and if they don’t  do the right thing, we’ll let them (and others) know about it.  There is another whole issue underlying this as well… the very idea of how much money gets tossed around in campaigns and wondering what is expected in return. That’s also a big part of the problem.

ADDITION – Tues A.M.: I cross posted this to my site and Daily Kos. On my site, former VT  U.S. Congress candidate Dennis Morriseau asked me about  pro-Israel contributions to Welch. Here was my response:
I spent about an hour researching this, and couldn’t come up with anything. I then called someone I knew who used to work in the State Department and also worked with AIPAC. Apparently, AIPAC does not contribute money to candidates. Their main focus is lobbying. Welch did not take money from the Women’s Alliance for Israel PAC, nor from the Women’s Pro-Israel National PAC. Bernie didn’t either. There is a list of pro-Israel PAC’s here that you can go through (I don’t know if they are single-issue Israel or PACs that are multi-faceted as well as Pro-Israel) here –
http://www.opensecre…
I looked through a few of them and couldn’t find any contributions to Welch. The only thing I could find was a voter guide on the National Jewish Democratic Council’s Voter Guide, at http://njdc.org/take…
It says, according to the questionnaire they sent him, that he is a ‘strong supporter of Israel’, but I couldn’t find any specifics other than that.

You can read more of JD Ryan at five before chaos. But why would you want to?

( – promoted by odum)

Ok, I said I’d talk more about the Washington County Senate race when it was over. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but as you know, the incumbents stayed in, Kim Cheney was 4th, Donny Osman was 5th. Republican businessman archetype Jim Parker was 6th (which became my joke du jour, as I was constantly lambasted for playing it safe in that one prediction I was sure of).

The Osman campaign was the first campaign I worked on. My job was basically to brainstorm, come up with various tactics to get the word out, and to craft the message. I also designed the bumper stickers and those blue signs some of you saw everywhere. And I learned quite a bit about campaigns and campaigning.

One of the most profound things I learned was that the poison that infects national politics, and to a lesser extent, our statewide races, was nonexistent in this campaign. Peter Young, the campaign manager, and Donny often tempered my instincts to go for the jugular. I’m not talking about dirty tricks or anything, just a bit more aggression in challenging the others on the issues. The idea of running a clean and more importantly, congenial campaign was going to be the way things were done.

We had some pretty good advice getting out the gate. Early on, we had dinner with Doug Racine who offered us some tips on campaign strategy. We also met with the Democracy For America people and a rather popular Barre politician.

Donny worked his ass off, knocking on over 6,000 doors in Washington County. He seemed to have a lot of support in Montpelier. My concerns were the other three big towns, none of which nearly as liberal as Montpelier. Northfield is a tough town for a liberal. Donny even noticed a difference in the demeanor of people in the different towns, depending on the political leanings of the town.

We had a great GOTV effort, with lots of enthusiastic supporters helping to write postcards, stuff envelopes and such. In dealing with the party apparatus (one that I am incredibly skeptical of), we listened to some advice and ignored some.

Donny went into the studio and cut a folksy radio ad with Colin McCaffrey. We went and then put together a short low-quality video on YouTube. When it was well received, we had a professional film another one, 10 minutes long, about the issues, which was available on Donny’s website as well as YouTube. Donny’s son Daniel set up a MySpace page for Donny as well. We were trying to think a bit outside of the box(at least for a local campaign).

  The frustrating thing about working on a local campaign is that there are no polls, nothing to indicate how you’re actually doing. It really feels like a crapshoot. I did a fairly good job keeping my optimism in check. Throughout the race, right till the end, I had no idea if we’d win. I didn’t want to be like, let’s say, Orrin Hatch’s presidential campaign team where you have to suspend reality just to show up to work on the campaign.

On election night, it was decided pretty early. Donny came in 3rd in Montpelier, a big deal considering that all of the incumbents live in Montpelier. He came in first in his old rep district, Calais/Marshfield/Plainfield. We had put a lot of legwork into Barre, I was kind of surprised that our numbers weren’t higher there. Northfield was no surprise, nor was Waterbury. Even though it was somewhat somber at election headquarters that night, I still felt really good inside (and what was happening nationally helped keep my spirits up,as well). We ran a great campaign, and we worked our asses off. They say James Brown is the hardest working man in show business; Donny was definitely the hardest working man on the campaign trail. And we did get a lot of progressive-minded people very excited.

What went wrong? Well, I think we really underestimated the power of incumbency. We were running against three popular incumbents, in a somewhat benign environment (compared to the civil union days). Kim Cheney was also well known, for it was his 3rd run. Donny is well known in Montpelier and some of the outlying towns; many more people don’t know him (well, after this campaign, hopefully they do). My own personal miscalculation was the heightened optimism I felt when watching the debates. No disrespect intended to any of the other candidates, but I think Donny kicked some major ass, very engaged, impassioned, and personable. Where I screwed up was forgetting that 95% of the electorate didn’t see or hear those debates. If they did, we might have won.

I have my own personal feelings abut the other candidates. In the interest of having a future in political doings around here, I’m not going to let  ‘er rip. Let’s just say that all of them are personable, decent people. Some of them have some pretty bad politics in various areas, and some of them have just been around too damn long.

Running for senate and winning the first time is an uphill battle. It’s important to keep that in mind when doing it, but not to let it demoralize yourself. What does the future hold for Donny Osman? We’ll see… it could be a very different race two or four years from now. I suspect we haven’t heard the last of him. At least I hope not.

You can read more JDRyan (why?) at Five Before Chaos

Ok, there is just too much to talk about right now.  Unfortunately Donny Osman didn’t get the Washington County, VT senate seat, but nonetheless we ran a great campaign and things went great nationally. In addition to waking up and hearing we won the U.S Senate as well, now Rumsfeld just resigned.  I just need a day to let it all digest. More tomorrow. And if you want to feel really good, if you can stomach it pop over to the wingnuts at Free Republic and watch the meltdown. Gloat till you crap your pants. You deserve it.

Ok, time for self-aggrandizing pundit minute.. predictions… Lest any of you bite my head off because you don’t agree with some of them, I’m doing this as an observation, not a ‘rah-rah’ thing. Sorry.

First, VT Gov – Jim Douglas, at least 10 points

Lt. Gov. – probably Brian Dubie (sigh) by a small margin, but I’m not 100% certain.

VT House – at least 10 more seats, possibly a veto-proof majority (let’s hope)

VT Senate- I think they’ll pick up at least 3 seats. As far as my own Washington County race, jeez, I really don’t know. I do think that if our candidate Donny Osman wins, it will be from bumping off Republican Phil Scott or fellow Dem Anne Cummings. Republican Jim Parker will come in 6th, of that I am certain. And who knows about the Doyle factor?

National races… I’m expecting a lot of Republican dirty tricks, they’ve already started. Those and Diebold will cost the Dems a few seats, but I think the Dems will take the house with at least a 10 seat majority. The Senate, I don’t have a clue but I think worst case 50-50, and I think regardless, we’ll have the Senate 2 years from now.

Of course, like most pundits, I’m probably full of shit. We’ll see on Wednesday.

you can read more of JD Ryan at

( – promoted by odum)

I just got back from the Montpelier Bernie rally. It was something else, it was a who’s who for VT politcs. Pat Leahy was there, as were Dunne, Welch, Markowitz, Parker, and a host of other VT senators and congressmen. And Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! was there videotaping it.

My candidate, Donny Osman, kicked off the introductions, and was loud and got the people on their feet instantly (his fiery intro surprised the hell out of me – but it really got the crowd worked up).

Pat Leahy gave a rousing speech, the man talks like a true statesman. All of the other major players each gave a speech, ranging from truly inspiring to tepid (I’m keeping my mouth shut until the 8th!). And you can learn about a person by the way they shake your hand (which, in my crazy handshake analysis, corresponded directly to the quality of the speech).

The turnout was fantastic, the organizers had only ordered food for 200 and at least 2 to 3 times that showed up (please only take one roll!). It was a pep rally, but as it was over , I turned to my partner Jenni and said… this one’s different.

I know during the last two presidential elections, we knew how high the stakes were. I remember how numb we felt when we realized that dumbass got in there again. Somehow, I think the stakes are higher now. We’ve seen the damage of the neocon policies first hand. All of the lies are revealed, in a way that the evasions and parsing and ‘truthiness’ don’t cut it anymore. To the American public, the things happening nowadays aren’t just ‘liberal claptrap’ easily dismissed by the media. They are real. We were right, but that doesn’t matter now. What matters now is that people, even many who are diametrically opposed to many of the things we here at GMD value highly, are seeing things for what they are.

And for the first time in going to a political function, I actually walked away believing that we’re going to win this one. Many times I go to these as a supporter, but more so as an observer. I watch the crowds. I look for subtleties in the speech, the reactions in the audience, what words seem to resonate and inspire (and I’ve used this quite a bit in the Osman campaign). And there wasn’t that sense of desperation that there was at rallies 2 or 4 years ago. It wasn’t like watching John Kerry or Mike Dukkakis and just crossing your fingers and hoping. This one was downright confident. And electric.

you can read more of JD Ryan at