Way to go, Howard !

Dr. Dean you are still my hero! Please keep speaking out and hopefully the spinal transplant will take, and the rest of the Dems will follow your lead. This disaster is beyond tolerance and the Republican Party is blantently "reality challanged." Their behavior will not stand. ENOUGH!

Everyone please watch this remarkable video of Charmaine Neville (of the famous Neville music family, New Orleans, LA.) Please share this heroic woman's story with your friends:

http://tinyurl.com/a9gr8

The Federal Government and George W. Bush was slow and unacceptable. I do not think Howard Dean's bickering will make up for what was done. The Democrats need a real solution.

Yes Howard, and that is a DEMOCRAT who comes from a long tradition of standing By the People, being Of the People and who is honestly For the People. Our forefathers are turning in their graves. The reason why it is so hard to choose among all of you is that there are so many Good Dems!!!!! And to that I add, we need a CONGRESS that is not corrupt and greed driven nor hypocritical, nor blinded by any religious fundamentalist or other false ideology, is not part of any clique or controled by any one group too powerful so that it becomes a cadre or star chamber that chokes the People's basic rights and freedoms as in the Bill of Rights. At once, we need a strong defense and law that is just and orderly and enforced for safety and a good sensible inclusionist peaceful educated civilized population of Americans that are here to really be Americans, not feudal Lords and their slaves or subjects.
It is time to get under the big umbrella and coalesce on the survival issues and really be a democracy by demanding our rights and that includes the freedom to fairly be chosen not as and elitist, as in WHO we know, but by the quality of our knowledge and skills as true experts which we aspire to and achieve in our learning and graduation in the field of our own calling...by WHAT we know. Everyone is gifted in their own way and can hold a position that benefits others while making a fair living doing what they want. We need to level this thing out and in doing so create trust and see our intrinsic beauty and the beauty of others, not the glitz, but in true character - of just loving the life and spirit in the eyes and the warm hands to hold. see the value of your loved ones. Oh how we miss the ones who we have lost in the final passing. Is there truly anyone who has never loved and lost and knows this?
Katrina has just revealed to us what is next for a disaster in anycity USA in any neighborhood, and this my friends, is the People's Party...it is us whether a party or none, whether we like it or not, we are along on this ride of life anyway so we had better build our own forts fast.
Also THINK about it when you struggle with your debts and bills, can no longer claim bankruptcy while the priveledged on the top of the titanic get an estate tax break and you barely pay your heating bills on time and show up as bad credit because you had to wait between jobs and now the employer looks you up and tests your urine, and sees bad credit and will not hire you. Or you are one of those silent heros holding up your family for years making due with a minimum wage that has not been raised for years to match the cost of living, or even a raise at your work and no thanks after years of loyal employment frightened that you may lose your job - THINK how we got to this point that it is so bad that MIDDLE America is hurting to stay afloat and we are too intimidated to make a peep or complain, or if you get sick with no health coverage because the company just cut that out, or no insurance coverage is there after years of a monthly or yearly payment for your demolished home because your flood clause defines a flood as only a sewer back up internally in your basement and not from outside... and that is anycity U.S.A. and everycity U.S.A. hanging in the balance NOW.
As a mother, I'm worried after Katrina...for all of us. Any leader in there is better than this dysfunctional delusional dynastic bunch...oil barons are not supposed to be presidents...the affairs of corporations are only supposed to take up part of the big space on our pie shaped map privately. At the very least there is not supposed to be any active bribery or continued employ or management or the bias of vested interests clouding up the neutrality of governance... the only check for runaway capitalism and monopoly is good government. This is not a pretend Democracy, or a disguised dictatorship as long as we the people do some of the decision making. If we get pegged and cannot get going and make this democratic economy work by freely doing good deeds in the spirit of service to each other and the world, if we cannot build and work or create new solutions, if we cannot speak, express art, teach science or find new discoveries, or explain, or defend ourselves in a fair court, well, you get the point. For those who refuse to take responsibility for their lives, you can believe others will, and in so doing, will take away everything that is YOU. To thine own self be true and do unto others as ye would have done unto you.
Think of these things when someone looks at you and says, "It is not what you know anymore, it is who you know silly", and answer them with "From your lips to God's ears", and then walk away. Yes, I do pray for all on this earth, but that does not mean I am a Republican. In all humility, thanks again Howard the healer!
And for you I can only give a little - but many littles make a lot! (Remember Little John?) M.

I support Governor Dean's comments. It's time we focus on the common problems of our nation, acting neither as Republicans or Democrats, but as human beings who are inherently equality.

no new taxes=piss poor services

GOP=Gouging Our Poor

Greed Over People

Grandstanding Obstructing and Prevaricating

Governor Dean, I have been trolling the GOP blogs and there is the beginning of discontent amoung the Republican faithful with President Bush. There are those who have been stating that prior to 9/11 he was ineffectual but after 9/11 he gained popularity but now it seems he just don't know how to lead. This is an opportune time to fan the flames of discontent in his party. It is unfortunate that Katrina should be the instrument to end his presidency. I honestly believe if it is done correctly we may get an IMPEACHMENT. By the way the GOP blogs censor anyone who uses the(I) word.

Gov. Dean,

You and Feingold are the only two people worth much in this party. You speak truth to power - the rest just want power. I believe it is time to tell all the Republican voters who turned Louisiana red to sleep in the bed they voted for. They want less government and an ownership society, they got it. They own Louisiana so they can can fix it - not me. I want more tax cuts because I can spend my money better than they can. They need to be accountable for their choices. They vote for the Bush crime syndicate, then they live and DIE by it. They can't have less taxes and more government help, too.

My heart is hurting...

I am humiliated and ashamed to be an African-American in a country that is blinded by class/and or/race

Yes, I gave a donation--so please do not talk to me about Blacks need to come together and help their own - the words are truful, however, under-educated and lower-class proverty is part of being Black in America.

Caucasian as a whole in America never have to worry about proverty as much.

While everyone was shocked and appalled by what they saw on T.V or the Internet.

One cannot conclude but, that racial boundaries would still be a big part of the picture when it comes to saving lives in America's next disaster.

If we Blacks could unified together as a whole and quit fighting amongst each other and destroying our race with the drug traffacking--by the way, which was shipped into our neighborhood by the "MAN").

I would urged my people to get out of this materialistic, racial country and go back home to Africa and rebuild from there...Yes it would be hard at first but what is life without risks!

And besides they have the Mexicans working for cheaper labor (however, their pay is slightly higher than our's were, for picking cotton).

Even though the history books showed our Black fore-fathers help built this country (under humiliation).

Katrina landed one thing on shore for most Blacks to be frighten by this place will never be for us - to claim as home!

That is why we are Democrats because we believe in good government that cares for people.

What if every Democrat being interviewed on TV, radio, print always ends with....That is why I am a Democrat because I believe that......

This will help people and leaders know the Democratic Party.

"We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not," Dean said.

Governor, You are an artist in the politics of hate-mongering and class warfare. However, I believe that America is tired of this and has long moved past the '60s. I could jump to your side of the fence and be a better Democrat than you. The days of using the kind of villification of our own people (yes, George Bush is an American) when you wouldn't say a bad word about Saddam Hussein are coming to an end. To all the real American Democrats who read this blog, you may wish to do your best to get rid of old Howard. As for me, I am cheering for you to stay governor, because you will singularly cause the end of the Democratic Party of FDR and Wilson.

I am discusted with Mr.Dean's comments and his actions. With his medical knowledge and political clout he COULD be advancing the recovery effort greatly but instead he is playing politics. I think it is horrible that people are not funneling their efforts into helping. I am embarrassed to be a Democrat right now. I feel we are causing much of the problem with dividing this nation. It's my sense Hillary,Dean,Gore,Kennedy,and Sharpton want this hideous situation to stay hideous or get worse because then they can have more to bad mouth. I wish they'd take a lesson from Oprah! She mobilized her troops and is down there making a real difference, using her influence and money to be part of the healing process. Dean is discusting. Hillary is hendering not helping. God Bless Bill, he's limiting his politicizing and working hard. People need to act and talk responsively, rather than feed each others weaknesses of being selfish and self-centered. We need to help people rise above their base and most primative compulsions.

Wake up and smell the apathy, America. This quote from Governor Dean nails it:
"The truth is that we have ignored the poor for far too long. And until it washed right up on our front doorsteps, we might have continued to ignore the reality that poverty has too many of our fellow Americans in its grip, and we have a shared moral responsibility not to ignore it anymore."

First, that was a great speech; where can we find
all of it? Will it be on C-SPAN?

As for the criticism of Gov. Dean's speech here
and elsewhere, as well as the characterization of
its content that I've seen in the media (not one
report I've seen mentioned that the main point was
that we need to help lift more Americans out of
poverty!): I guess it's a pretty good indication
that Gov. Dean is actually saying something. I
hope that this speech, and similar ideas being put
forth by people like John Edwards (two Americas
indeed!), start our party back on a course where
we again affirm the ideal of working for *all*
Americans, not just a select few.

Making each of us stronger, so we can all be
stronger: now there's a clear message for the
party.

I have written in some of these blogs before, and I mentioned that I am a moderate Democrat, and also a poor college student. I absolutely LOVE politics, but I am ashamed that we are trying to politicize this tragedy for the sake of our own party... the Founding Fathers would be turning in their graves alright, but not because of George W. Bush and his Republicans, but because of the way we have compromised our nation for the sake of gaining congressional seats. Im' just a college student, so you probably think I'm stupid or something, but I do know that Republicans and everyday Americans wiil soon pick up on our blatant hypocrisy, and they will soon destroy our party. If everyone here thought that we got a Texas-sized whoopin' in 2000 and 2004, I think we're about to be in for the shock of a lifetime... people are tired of hearing the constant negativity, and we have taken a blind-eye to America's complaints. I sincerely hope that this is not the case, but I truly think it will be if we don't step it up and start pulling some real solutions together.

Once again, I'm a college student, and I'm POOR!!! I'm barely making ends meet to pay my bills and student loans. Where is this "poor people help" when I need it??? YES, there ARE two Americas, and the likes of Dean, Edwards, Kennedy, and Clinton are in the upper half... why aren't they sending personal finances to help the victims, or people like me to help me get through college?!?! I'm not going to listen to any of their comments until they personally get involved with their millions of dollars... Lily-white rich people indeed!!!!!

Have you ever noticed how the Republicans and their blogger apologists always use the same talking points at the same times? Now it's something like, "for shame, the Democrats are blaming and fingerpointing and being negative while we are problem solving and making progress!" Get real. The Bush Administration is guilty of at least criminal negligence. That's not a political observation, that's just plain obvious.

They knew this storm was coming. The local authorities begged for help for days before it hit. The Canadians sent help before it hit. Bush did nothing. Then his administration rejected aid from a variety of foreign sources, and his FEMA prevented aid from such diverse sources as Wal-Mart and our own Navy from getting in!

The National Weather Service briefed Bush that the levees would break. A few days later he said he didn't know they would break. This is not propaganda, this happened.

It's time for Americans, particularly Democrats and independents, to wake up and realize that this president and his administration are made up of compulsive liars who want to maintain their grip on power at any cost. They want this a country ruled by the super-rich, and the right super-rich at that, ie, them. They will help their own, but why should they care about a few hundred thousand poor black people in New Orleans?

Fingerpointing? Blame game? Fine. Let's call a spade a spade. George W. Bush is incompetent. He is a liar. He is racist. And he is a fascist. And if you read this and are offended, look at the facts first and think for yourself.

politicslover,

By you being in college now, you must be pretty young and don't know what happened in the early 80's. When Regan was elected, his administartion started cutting every education benefit he could. I was going to a secondary school at the time (1983) and seen any funding to me drastically cut. You have to remember, the president has the veto even though the Democrats may have had a majority in the senate at the time. This went on for 12 years! Then Clinton did see to it some funding was raised. What did we get after him, another damn republican, probably the worst one since this country was founded (worse than Hoover!). Now the GOP has him, and both houses so anything a Democrat would ask for is quashed. You'll never see anymore eductaion funding until we get the republicans out of office and gain the presidency, house, and senate back. I really hate to say this but folks brought this on themselves by electing who they did. I dont mind one bit seeing the ones who voted for Bush and the GOP suffer every day. The problem is, folks suffer who didn't vote for them. Hopefully, this president, especially since this week, has opened up voters eyes to what he and the GOP really are. Politics is a damned if you do, damned if you dont scenario. If we Democrats didn't stir the pot, it wouldn't get stirred. The only time it would be if the GOP had something to benefit them. If a Democrat was in office now, the GOP would be running ads on TV downing us like the "Swiftboats for Peace", you can bet your bottom dollar on that!!!

Will Matney, Ohio

This is why we all love Gov. Dean and hate Joe Biden. The Gov. has balls!

AN AMERICAN ABROAD
Democrats: Got balls?
By D.A. Blyler | RAW STORY COLUMNIST

During the past week John Kerry’s campaign misfortune has been chewed over by all the usual suspects—who also served up advice for what Democrats must do in fielding a winning candidate. Clinton’s former labor Secretary Robert Reich claimed that technocratic policy talk needed to be eschewed in favor of the language of morality. The boys over at Slate.com echoed a similar refrain, citing the importance of Gods, Guns, and Gays inside the national psyche
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The boys over at Slate.com echoed a similar refrain, citing the importance of Gods, Guns, and Gays inside the national psyche. Meanwhile Paul Krugman at The New York Times beat yet again that tired, old mule of how the Dems must more effectively rally their base.

Obviously at a loss, The Nation’s editors resorted to vague generalities about the need for politics of “conviction, passion, and substance.” Arianna Huffington mined the same platitudinous vein, declaring that a return to the “generosity of spirit” which characterized JFK and FDR was the order of day. And channeling a literary muse, Professor Camille Paglia, argued, with all due seriousness, that a humanist message delivered in “poetic” language was the key which might unlock the White House doors.

What a steaming load of horseshit.

What John Kerry needed, and what the Democrats horribly lack, are balls. The simple courage to hang the polls and tell the public the straight story. To give them their medicine, no matter how nasty it may taste at first. When things are “fucked up,” say so openly and not just to a Rolling Stone interviewer. If personally attacked, challenge the accusers immediately and forcefully with withering contempt. Temper that frankness with an ounce of self-deprecating humor, a dash of laughter at the expense of the sitting President and the national press Corps, and voila, you have a winning recipe.

For decades now the Democrats have been afflicted with an insidious disease I’ve come to call SWNS, or Sudden Withdrawal of Nutsack Syndrome. This nasty disorder not only finds a suitable host in politicians, but among professionals of all trades.

Last year actor Johnny Depp was felled by a serious case of SWNS following a conversation with the German magazine Stern (wherein he compared America to a broken toy and a dumb puppy with teeth). Showing up at a press conference several days later, a noticeably pale Depp, his register several octaves higher, delivered an apology and rebuttal of his reported comments, which he claimed were “taken out of context.” In John Kerry’s case, the disease took a strange course in that his ample nutsack (which swaggered so noticeably in the early 1970s) didn’t suddenly withdraw but was instead willingly handed over to castrated poll junkie Bob Shrum, who thought they looked better pickled in a jar on his nightstand.

SWNS is one affliction, though, that never seized John F. Kennedy, and the Democrats would be wise to rediscover, on a highly personal level, the balls of the 35th President, rather than continuing to invoke the intangible mythic dream of Camelot. If JFK were running for president today, he’d whip the public with one frank observation from the outset. America is FAT. And, with 60 percent of Uncle Sam’s brood now supersized, we are seriously jeopardizing the country’s future, while failing miserably in our responsibilities to the young.

Back in the early 1960s Kennedy was already fearful of how out-of-shape Americans had become, writing an eloquent essay for Sports Illustrated called “The Soft American” in which he detailed the growing crisis. As Commander-In-Chief, he tried to stem the flabby tide by furthering the development of the Presidents Council on Youth Fitness and championing physical education in the schools.

Needless to say, Jack would be horrified at today’s bloated state of affairs—having strongly believed that physical “fitness is the basis for all other forms of excellence” (including the prowess to make smart decisions on Election Day).

How dare that Howard Dean turns the hurricane disaster into a race issue. Everyone and I mean everyone has suffered and yet the fingerpointing and blame game has started while people are busting their balls trying help with rescue and relief efforts.

Does anyone with a wit of common sense really think that a 90,000 square mile area could have been totally evacuated before the hurricane hit? Get real folks. Why wasn't the Federal Government blamed for other major hurricane disasters in the past years. Even if the funding for leavies had been approved, how long would it have taken for the project to have been completed. My understanding is that this has been a major concern for almost 50 years and nothing was ever done.

Actually, the policial (both parties) and media landscape reminds me of a bunch third grade tattle tails. I for one, am sick and tired of all this crap. For Goodness sake, let's get back to tying to do what's right for the United States.

Neither party really gives a rat's ass about the average citizen anyway. Well, maybe at election time when the sheep are promised a better deal if they'll vote for me or my party. Nothing changes. The same poor blacks that live along my highway are living in the same shacks since the before the 1950's.
Both parties are in the clutches of the powerful special interest, period.

This country is unraveling more each year.

There are Republicans who are disgruntled with Bush, and Democrats who are disgruntled with Howard Dean. I am a Moderate Democrat who not pleased with the Bush Administration or The Dean Leadership. my only reputation of Howard Dean is "I Have a Scream" speech. Besides His extreme left views that why he is not suited for Chairmen of The Democratic Party. If The Democratic National Commitee Council was serious about winning elections, Howard Dean was not a good choice. The National Democratic National Commitee leaders is out of touch and too far to the left for mainstream America. I am not G.O.P. I support state democratic candidates. I am advocating is more moderate mainstream appeal by presidential candidates and chairmens. The State Candidates and State Parties depend on area of the nation have moderate candidates.

Elgin-tex,
EVERYTHING in this country is a race issue. The sooner that white folks come to grips with that reality, the sooner we can seriously begin to heal the Black-White problem in this country which has its roots in once again slavery.

Thanks for the sympathy Will_Matney!! But... the point I'm trying to make is, it's not a big deal to me if the government raises education funding or not. When the government tries to fund things, it ends up failing or bringing down the overall economic environment. I just hate the fact that the Liberals of our party are blaming the "Rich, White Republicans" as if they're the ones who made everyone poor. I'm not a huge Bush supporter, but I do know that I benefited tremendously from his tax cuts, and I will continue to do so (Im' also Native American!)... and I'm FAR from being wealthy!! I just think that the Rich White Democrats need to examine themselves before they start blaming everyone else for their penny-pinching ways.

Monica, surely you can't believe everything is still a race issue and that it's a white person's problem only. What about the minorities that refuse to intergrate themselves into the mainstream? Do they not have a problem? I feel a select group of people want to keep that issue on the front burner and use the it to serve their personel agendas by keeping themselves in the news? Could it be that you're one of those who want to keep this issue alive and to what purpose?

I made a point about poor black people in my area that were promised better lives for over 50 years by both administrations. It doesn't appear these poeple have seen any real improvement even though they may receive govenment assistance.

My community is made up of equal portions of blacks, latinos and and whites. It isn't a perfect world and I agree we have a long way to go, but by and large most of us do get along with each other very well. The road to tolerance begins in each of our hearts and minds.

elgin-tex writes: "This country is unraveling more each year."

Yes. Especially the last five years.

For all of you anti-Dean Democrats, wake up!!! When are you going to realize that the radical, right-wing plays hardball. They smear and slander all Democrats all the time and get away with it. You have to face facts, everything is about politics. Our opponents take every situation and evaluate it by deciding how to gain politically. They express disdain about any Democrat who would dare do the same. Many Americans buy that garbage, too. We have to stand up and tell the truth. We must point out anyone who will listen the hypocracy of the Bush administration. Until we all are willing to play by the same rules the right-wing plays by, we won't win elections. Gov. Dean is the perfect person to lead us to victory. His outspoken comments may ruffle some feathers and cause the right-wing to scream at us, but that's too bad. Keep speaking out, Governor Dean, it's the only way we'll ever win.

Dean also needs to start talking to some middle class groups. The poor are now energized and will join us whole-heartedly in the fight to regain the Congress next year.

While the middle class is in a state of anxiety. Many left us in the last decade with promises of family values .. only to find out that the only families the Republicans are interested in helping are their own.

We need to reach out to those in the middle class who finally have seen the truth in those horrific scenes from the Katrina rescue fiasco. Many now feel that they have been deceived and lied to with this Republican Contract For America.

No more excuses for the Republican incompetence. Time to ask the poor and the middle class alike to join us in making America strong again. We have been drugged down to the sewers on New Orleans, but still this administration spins that everything is going to be alright "the next time" lightning strikes.

Who really believes it anymore?

I have just read all the comments that with the stream following Gov. Dean's speech. One of the most frustrating aspects of politics is the "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Democrats are constantly critized for not responding enough or in this case trying to politicalize the situation.

We have done it to ourselves because we don't come out with any real solutions. We talk about how bad it is but what are we offering? Let's be "damned" and offer some solutions like; forming a cleanup/reconstruction team. This horrible disaster would be made even more horrible if we don't take advantage of cleaning up and rebuilding with forward thinking ideas. If New Orleans and Biloxi are to be rebuild, then let's implement architecture for homes, buildings and levy's that can withstand mother nature.

Let's not play the blame game as to who or what department didn't respond properly, let's discuss the importance of FEMA and require that it be removed from Homeland Security and become independent again with qualified staff.

If we must point our fingers, than I agree with Gov. Dean, let's ask why millions of Americans whether they be white, black, hispanic, asian, etc. live in poverty.

Let's take on healthcare and education. Let's offer plans for universal healthcare and fund education on all levels.

Let's find the candidates that embrace these ideas and work our butts off to get them elected!

Posted by politicslover on September 8, 2005 at 05:24 PM I just think that the Rich White Democrats need to examine themselves before they start blaming everyone else for their penny-pinching ways.

I think we all need to ask ourselves if we love this country enough to pay taxes. Do you "politicslover"?

Posted by elgin-tex on September 8, 2005 at 05:40 PM

What is untrue in Dean's statement? the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not.

Posted by politicslover on September 8, 2005 at 05:24 PM the Liberals of our party

That's too funny (the "our party part")

I do know that I benefited tremendously from his tax cuts

What about your children (and mine)? They will pay the bill.

When the government tries to fund things, it ends up failing or bringing down the overall economic environment.

What do expect when we elect people who think that government can do no good?

I think Dean's message of community brought some libertarian minded folks to blog :)

To teacher on September 8, 2005 at 06:10 PM,
I am proud I am a anti-dean moderate Democrat. Howard Dean or John Kerry, Hillary Clinton is not the choice. I give them credit they are a quarter of a inch to the right of Peter Miguel Camjo a ex-communist turned green party. I support moderate democrats. I am politically Moderate Democrat. I like The Democratic Party because I support candidates and on the Democratic mailinglists. I just do not like the National Leadership

Dean is doing exactly what he needs to do? Several of us that have read and studied the Bible especially Gospel of Jesus Christ in the New Testiment have advised him to do that! The so call Christion Right is far from God in their works but they draw near God with their mouth. God is not pleased with this type of Christian because they deceive even the very Elect? If the Christian right ever start studying the Bible, not just reading it, they will know many of the right are phoneys. The True Christian World will fall away from that form of religion.

Posted by ondich on September 8, 2005 at 09:08 PM
a quarter of a inch to the right of Peter Miguel Camjo a ex-communist turned green party.

More humor from the not-so-swift-boat wing of the GOP :) I didn't know you folks had a sense of humor. I thought you all were a cranky old lot.

Posted by oneforall on September 8, 2005 at 09:29 PM

:)

And "all for one" - funny how that "United We Stand" thing works.

Speaking of faith, have you read anything by former Senator John Danforth (R) Mississippi and former UN Ambassador?

He's a Presbyterian Minister and has some very insightful things to say about humility and treating everyone with respect - especially in politics - especially if we wish to stand united "oneforall".

Welcome to the DNC blog.

Is there an audio version of Dean's speech available anywhere?

I am so pleased with what you have all contributed in this dialogue, there so many great points! Power to the People.
To Will, .
One bit of local news, I have a friend and she is a teller over at the local bank. She mentioned to me that everyone who comes up to her window the last few days talks about Katrina. She says it is a pain because she cannot count as fast, do the forms, etc. She said also that she was so surprised that approximately eighty 80% percent of those who commented, folks that she thought had always been stiff-lipped, die-hard, church-going right wingers not only spoke negatively about Bush, they wanted him out for what happened. They said he had been - IMMORAL AND IRRESPONSIBLE for taking so long and for witholding tax moneys which led to the misery of many. That also went for Taft, the governor, but CRIMINAL was the word. Once they know what has happened, these people do feel strongly about something bad or not right.
Wow....for Ohio, the tide may be slowly turning.
"My People are a rainbow and I am a mixture like millions of kids everywhere. What about us, the children of America? This is our home and our future too." (...a statement from a fourth grader to me in '84).
It is a long story of life, many chapters...
For the children I will keep pushin, we will get there with the hidden wealth of our own awareness...a foundation of being a human in the universe, a tabletop that is made up of every unique sparkling gem imaginable...and we will keep it, each our own sovereignty, brilliant and beautiful People of the United States of America.
Hope and strive and live and love and listen to this old hippie woman...(by the way, hippie means "seeker of the light" in Greek)....Follow the way of peace in your world.
To those who have suffered, a hug for your hearts. We will not forget. Healing Purple vibes of your beloved angels surround you New Orleans, Swing low sweet chariots,
Jah, Eli Solasi.
So...it seems, that Leonardo DaVinci was right, "what can be imagined can become real". We have the dream. We just HAVE GOT to try.
Have you ever been experienced? (Hendrix)

dorsano- first of all, please do not insult me by insinuating that I have not the patriotism to pay taxes! I'm in college, you know how much I pay in taxes and governments loans every year?!?! Probably more than the average American's salary! Also, I am getting ready to show my patriotism another way by joining military forces in Iraq or elsewhere! Our children wouldn't have to pay for our tax cuts if we would have a sensible way to help out people in need, and hadn't created a welfare state, instead of constantly promoting the fact that as long is the government is there, it will take care of them. That's NOT the point of government... it is to protect the shores of America from foreign invaders, and PROMOTE the General Welfare, not provide for it... it is supposed to PROVIDE for the common DEFENSE... and we didn't elect people who thought that government could do no good, we elected people who thought that TOO MUCH government could do no good! Please reread your history before you show your complete ignorance on the subject of American history.

Posted by politicslover on September 9, 2005 at 12:08 AM dorsano- first of all, please do not insult me by insinuating that I have not the patriotism to pay taxes! I'm in college, you know how much I pay in taxes and governments loans every year?!?

I'm a little confused here "politicslover", liberal that I am, is a loan a tax?

I have 4 kids in college and none of them are learning (fortunately) that a loan is a tax even if the lender is the United States of America

which by the way it isn't

we would be better off if it were - we can talk some time if you like about the difference between the "National Direct Student Loan Program" which my Republican parents created during the Eisenhower adminstration - where the U.S. governement was the lender

and the "Guarenteed Student Loan Program" that we have today - where public monies are used to subsidize the private sector at a cost of about $20 billion a year.

Which college is teaching you that a loan is tax?

And what kind of job do you have - while carrying a full load in college - where you earn enough money to pay taxes?

Posted by politicslover on September 9, 2005 at 12:08 AM That's NOT the point of government... it is to protect the shores of America from foreign invaders

That certainly is one of the most important thinks this governement has failed to do.

Posted by politicslover on September 9, 2005 at 12:08 AM Also, I am getting ready to show my patriotism another way by joining military forces in Iraq or elsewhere!

Well, even if you decide not to enlist, you can visit here if you wish to help.

Posted by politicslover on September 9, 2005 at 12:08 AM Our children wouldn't have to pay for our tax cuts if we would have a sensible way to help out people in need, and hadn't created a welfare state, instead of constantly promoting the fact that as long is the government is there, it will take care of them.

Clinton pretty much took care of the "welfare state" - it's called welfare reform - I know it's tough to admit - but sometimes reality bites.

You might be able to hang on to a few more voters by trashing "welfare moms" but that sort of divisiveness is wearing pretty thin now a days.

It's new world today "politicslover" - new threats, new challenges - it's time to move on.

Posted by politicslover on September 9, 2005 at 12:08 AM we elected people who thought that TOO MUCH government could do no good!

Seems we threw out the baby with the bath water.

Posted by politicslover on September 9, 2005 at 12:08 AM PROMOTE the General Welfare

From a skinny kid with a funny name ...

If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child.

If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent.

If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process - that threatens my civil liberties.

It is that fundamental belief, it is that fundamental belief, that I am my brother’s keeper, that I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.

That's the heart of the Democratic message "politicslover". You got a problem with that?

As far as I'm concerned, the libertarian mindset - the notion that we are each in this alone for ourselves -

the antithesis of "United We Stand" -

the pipe dream that we can remain a great power without working together as one people through an energetic, active, engaged government -

along with wedge politics -

are the most destructive forces at work in the country right now - they are a greater threat to our standard of living and to our safety than al-Qaeda.

That libertarian mindset is something that has to be addressed in the "realm of ideas" - the hearts and minds of at least some of us need to be changed.

If the underlying mindset isn't changed, policy can't be changed and it won't much matter who's warming the seats in congress and the White House.

Any Democrat running for office that doesn't understand the seriousness of that mission, doesn't deserve our support

and any Republican that demostrates an understanding of that mission - will get my support.

Well. I'm not sure our present line of attack is going to payoff for us. I work in advertising for a large firm and I deal with people all day long.Many people are accusing us of using the corpses in New Orleans as political capital. And its not just one or two people, and its not just pubby activists. In our rightous lust to get rid of W we've commited a strategic error that will come back to haunt us. It would have benefitted us more to simply express our solidarity with the victims and roll-up our sleaves and help. So far we've lost every Congressional election since 1994 and yet we never question our tactics or the delivery of our message. Hatred does NOT SELL with the American people. The pubbys found that out in 1996 against President Clinton. What we need is a coherent messenger to deliver our ideas to the people, not screaming spitting maniacs show casing rage and hatred. I have no dought my advise is falling on deaf ears, and thats unfortunate.

It’s a disgrace that many people in the Democratic Party are using this disaster as an excuse to attack Republicans. It's an utter disgrace to attempt to use race a part of that argument. The Mississippi Gulf Coast was totally devastated, but not much is being said about that. Not any political clout gained from showing destroyed casinos and antebellum homes along the coast? Not as much viewer appeal to those watching CNN? What happened was a terrible tragedy but what is worse is the fact that you (Governor Dean) are using this to attack fellow Americans. This should be a time when the entire country pulls together to help each other.... FORGET POLITICS

The moderates here need to all open their eyes, and soon. This isn't about the "talking points blame game".

This was a complete failure in policy and a disaster. Go read the truth and see the pictures of the poor dying, and then decide if its not time for blame. It has ALWAYS been time for blame.

Mr. Dean, you are a great american for speaking the truth. There is a severe class-racial divide and its time for the whole world to see it. As for not offering solutions, he's offering them every day. Its time for the rush-limbaugh brainwashed republicans to turn it off and wake up to reality: This is YOUR america, this is YOUR failed GOP policy, this is YOUR disaster.

Own it like a statesman owns his own team. I have been sending letters to the LTTEs, the age of accountability is here right now.

Not just wrong on George for President, but wrong on everything.

National security- The GOP Agenda was completely wrong on national security, and we are completely unsafe as disasters like Katrina have proven. And there will be more I'm sure of it.

The democratic party is unwavering in our commitment to keep our nation safe. That's why we led the fight to create the Department of Homeland Security and continue to fight to ensure that our ports, nuclear and chemical plants, and other sensitive facilities are secured against attack.

Specifically, democrats advocate a national policy to seperate FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security so they are not privatized.

Their vision is one where FEMA and the neccesary agencies are full of able bodied competent people who can not only save millions of lives, but can prevent disasters from ever doing critical damage to our country. If they had been in charge, Katrina would not have destroyed the many thousands of lives it did and costs for rebuilding the city would have been kept low.

Top priority would have been given to all victims, and their families.

As well the democratic party stands for only going into wars when they are left with no choice to defend its people. Rather than going into wars for oil & profit, and making exscuses.

That commitment is reflected in an agenda that emphasizes the security of our nation, strong economic growth, affordable health care for all Americans, retirement security, honest government, and civil rights.

And we fully stand behind it, I stand behind it. An election system that is openly fair and verifiable, not privatized by insecure voting machines. A national security force that is open and free to respond to natural disasters like Katrina, not privatized and saturated.

In addition to that, we stand for immediately moving to Alternative fuel sources and putting the age of Big Oil companies and disaster in the past.

There is a wealth of fully neccesary options for alternative fuel and it is time we engage in them. It is time we get rid of greenhouse gasses, and corrupt oil companies who price gouge to make money for the politicans who support them.

For a long time, we've seen desperate oil companies find ways to start wars or play politics in order to increase their capital. This sense of pay to play scheme, is the culture of corruption that's wrong for all americans.

The democrats stand behind ending this corruption once and for all and I fully back it.

We're not going to drown the nation's resources in a bathtub, instead we are going to make sure every american is safe and secure. Instead of privatizing each and every thing, we're going to enrich the nation hy putting the people in charge. Its time for an end to corporate fraud, and a beginning for real jobs and a caring federal government.

Instead of playing poker or going fishing, we promise to bring water and food in times of crisis and care for every working and non-working american the same way they take care of eachother.

We'll stop the gutting of federal programs, and putting money into a rich man's wallet while workers in Louisiana get their wages slashed.

That's our mission, and that's what we've always been about. We stand for civil rights and saying no more to bigotry.

And I'm here to say that the vote is our most important priveledge, and I'll never let it be taken away.

I'm proud to be a progressive and I'm proud to be an american. Are you?

Joe Silver
St. George Utah

nick

dorsano- It's called "you have to PAYBACK your loans!!"... you know... plus interest, plus a retroactive loan subsidies tax your hero Bubba imposed. Well, in layman's terms, 25% of the interest rate over 20 years, with an annual fixed processing fee. In the future, please don't question that which you have no knowledge in. By the way, I also work as a part-time grocery stocker/manager during school, and full-time during breaks (while taking 17 hours in college)... yeah, that's right; good, honest, hard work, which I'm not ashamed of! As for foreign invaders, ONE terrorist attack happened on our soil during Bush's tenure... That's as good as any other president, so I think that's a pretty good track record! Next time, try to write constructive thoughts on how to better our party instead of demeaning fellow Democrats' character.

Dear REpubbyBLICAN - I'm left wondering if you took the time to read the transcript of Gov. Dean's speech - if you did, you missed the entire point.
You said "This should be a time when the entire country pulls together to help each other.... FORGET POLITICS". Gov. Dean said "I want to talk to you not as the Chairman of the Democratic Party, but as an American. Last week, we witnessed tremendous acts of courage and heroism, of people coming together, opening their hearts to one another trying to reach out and help one another. That was America at its best."
And your unfounded accusation that the Democratic party is playing the race card is implicitly contradicted in another of Gov. Dean's statements: "The truth is, what we saw on the television in New Orleans exists here in Miami, and in every part of our country, every day. Because people are poor throughout our country. They are old. They are young. They are black, white, and brown. They are not refugees. They are our fellow Americans."
In the future, please consider reading the context of the message being presented before posting unfounded and devisive commments.

Posted by dorsano on September 8, 2005 at 09:36 PM,
Actually some us modearates are young and envisionary like the Founder of The Democratic Party Thomas Jefferson. I believe that government needs to be open and honest, but smaller in size also. I can say I am a Fair Tax advocate. I am a new form of moderate democrat that believes in smaller government and protecting American workers. I know some democrats do not like smaller government or protecting american workers from unfair foregin competition. I believe in these values as moderate Democrat

The Democratic Party must change the map of the United States.I believe it was NBC that came up with the "Red States" and "Blue States" to illustrate which party won in each of the 50 States. The Democrats allowed this erroneous pictorial that gives the impression that practically the whole United States is Republican.To solve
the problem, take a very large blank map that is divided by States, Counties and Voting Disricts.
Bring in volunteer artists and have them color every voting district in exact proportion to the
voting results with blue for Democrat, red for
Republican, white for all other candidates and,
most important, BLACK for the percentage of eligible voters who DID NOT VOTE.The result will
represent how each area of the United States voted...not by the numbers of voters.The map will assuredly show that the large cities went
Democratic and the rural areas voted Republican.
Regardless of where the voters live, they are all Americans and, most probably, a large number
of big city Democratic voters are the offspring of rural ancestors. Copies of the map should be sent to every news media,with the title: "Democratics Are Everywhere".Could you also acknowledge it as my idea?

Posted by ondich on September 9, 2005 at 05:25 PM I am a new form of moderate democrat that believes in smaller government and protecting American workers.

There's nothing "new" in that ondich.

I can understand anyone's concern with this adminstration's excessive spending especially given the fact that it's leaving the bill for our children to pay.

Words like "moderate" and "smaller government" and their implied opposites are loaded words with all sorts of meanings to different people.

They're usually used to dismiss an argument or a person without examining things on the merits.

What matters is good, effective government. Whether it's "big" or "small" depends on whether the job it has to do is big or small.

Social Security is "big". Does it have a place among all you "new forms of moderate democrats"? Is it big government?

By the way, don't forget Jackson when you talk about founders of the Democratic party.

And I suggest you read up Dean's record as governor before you label him one way or the other because you sound like you don't know what your talking about.

or run and hide from the noise machine that will one day paint "new forms of moderate democrats" as a quarter of a inch to the right of Peter Miguel Camjo a ex-communist turned green party.

Posted by politicslover on September 9, 2005 at 04:24 PM our party

You are too funny with the "our party" stuff. :)

Where did I demean your character? Did I call you something like Bubba?

Posted by politicslover on September 9, 2005 at 04:24 PM dorsano- It's called "you have to PAYBACK your loans!!

Good - I'm glad you understand that paying back a student loan guarenteed by the government is not a tax.

Here's an article by Representative Tom Petri (R) from Wisconsin who worked many years on Direct Lending programs for educational loans.

If you and ondich take the time to read it you will find the conservative Republican Petri believes the U.S. Government should lend money directly to students rather than subsidize the lending industry to do so because it's more cost effective.

Perhaps he's remembering the part of the Republican Oath which states: which states I BELIEVE government must practice fiscal responsibility and allow individuals to keep more of the money they earn

Or is congressman Petri advocating "Big" government? What do you think?

And since government is competing side by side with private sector in this scenario, is Petri (oh my God - I hate to even contemplate this) is he advocating Socialism? gasp!!!! What do you think?

Perhaps, the government should say the heck with it and not lend politicslover any money for school at all. That would be "small" government - plain and simple and eveyone could rest easy.

Posted by politicslover on September 9, 2005 at 04:24 PM

By the way politicslover - my kids worked pretty much the same schedule and types of jobs going through college that you described and didn't have to pay much income tax at all during Clinton's years

but they didn't have any unearned income so maybe that's the difference.

Posted by dorsano on September 9, 2005 at 07:36 PM

And thank you Mr. Petri - for your work in Wisconsin which gave me access to a low cost student loan which put me through technical school while working midnight to 8 at a phenolics plant.

But hey - I was a Republican then, not one those "new forms of moderate democrats" and certainly not the slothful liberal I am today.

Paybacks, paybacks. If they would let those who got their diplomas into the professional positions they deserve, maybe they could and would happily pay back their loans. No, they wouldn't do that, just pat each other on the back, remember, it's not what you know anymore, it's who you know. Yes, we all got duped by the come on of the big business of higher education, and credit cards too. Now we work making minimum wage on the assembly line if we are lucky and haven't been disqualified by the international competition. Do you not think for one split second that anyone with a diploma who earned that would be more than happy to get that off their back? It's impossible to file bankruptsy so your minimum wage gets garnerished. How can one support a home on that kind of income every month? Go figure. How many hoops, new classes, licenses, fees, and glass ceilings will it take before we realize the jobs are not open...they ask you for a transcript. The college will not release one for you if you are in late pay or default. You may as well never have gone to college at all. What a rat race for single moms it has been. But our Mr. horse man friend got in just fine and look what happened. I am going to get a horse and buggy before I pay higher gasoline. This is getting crazy.
Meanwhile...back on my surreal TV, what the deal with Mexican troops on American Soil, what is that, PR for Vincente/Bush or George/Fox ? I am totally confused. Is this supposed to be like some version of Cheech and Chong..."Hey Chongo, I see a troop of Mexican Sandinistas at my front door. They came marching up here and I don't know what the ....to do....what the .... has W done now, I don't think Davey Crockett would like this....Alamo???? This will make the backwoods redneck boys go balistic whatever the party affiliation. From reading comments about lower pay for cotton picking, I think the Black Community is a little offended too. I can hear it now, "No Mexican Army on my land!!!" What a little s... stirer. Get these nut cases out of Washington now!!!
Meanwhile...the Amazon Hughes is here, doing the small fighting for Condi.
It just keeps getting weirder as they smile and congratulate themselves on a job well done five days too late a week later. Reminds me of Tricky Dickey doing his peace sign everywhere he went...I can still see those two fingers on both hands waving at me. Peace? It started to look pathetic.
I am feeling sick in my gut. Is this what we get to look forward to for voicing our opinions in dialogue with others in the polis of the Free America? Well, if I get dissapeared here, remember that I love all of you. Now, if they want to go to Europe and march or whatever they try to do I think they will be booted out rather quickly. The French and Austrians were not treated very well in Mexico in their relvolution.
And finally....
And I suppose you would put George Washington, Ben Franklin, Tom Jefferson, Tom Paine and all our revolutionary soldiers in debter's jail too, the lawyer would defend them as just poor farmers, but too bad, you must foreclose Montecello anyway, and I thought you were the think tanks for America's defense???. Good luck, united we stand? Your W can pardon the loans of poor countries but not the loans of his own poor American students so they can work after our parents have been paying taxes for years??? I call that real unequal opportunity and a catch 22.
Still, after all this insult and contra dict ion to the American People, I pray that cool heads will prevail. Yes, I have wandered off my script...I am not a robot or a Barbie Doll.
This has all got to be levelled out honestly. Why do they keep believing their lies? How can they do that? Did you notice the quiver in Condi's voice as she was ruling the world?
That Stepford style pepsodent smile just about blinded me as much as the pearls. I don't know if they are feeling scared or guilty, or both...it is so sad and unconvincing. Look at how the women are fighting for their rights on the other channel...Pistol packing Mamas guard your home!!! It's gonna be a cold winter...
So this is a preview of their MORAL HIGHGROUND? I didn't know it was so much like the last scene of Platoon. Way to go "Masters of the Temple". You are shirking behind your closed cabinet of Elizabethan Amazons and sicking
Chicano Sandinistas on your own Eastern Stars (poor Betsy Ross) and the whole world continues to watch the new age Albigensian Crusade unfold on TV.
It may be a great plot for a mystery movie as W preaches "so sincerely", but this is more like another rerun of some ancient Greek tragedy as an empire spins round and round...this voice is just a tin trumpet while We have to muster up for the sacrifices. He stands on a pedestal while the rest are rotting away, too bad while some aren't alive to hear the speech today, just those who are invited from a little crowd that is acceptable and can stay on the script.
I thought we were trying to get away from all that back in the late seventeen hundreds, go read what Thomas Paine thought of another Georgie? What about the original thinkers? How much of this hard work of amendments is going to get knocked down and how many more pretenders will get hired to act out some ideological illusion. Let's get serious about governing and out of the big ego...focus on the real work now. What can be done as a real solution? For your own sake do not sell out your country, do not borrow from the Orient, repeal the estate tax repeal now and use that to cover some of this tragedy for New Orleans. Or are you already robbing Peter to pay Paul....hey, up there, we want to know whats on your books...it should be public information. We mere poor relations are just inquiring about your budget like you always watch ours...fair enough.
Lets all get back to reality now and roll up our sleeves to help the healing...or clean up our house, where-ever we are, we cannot dither in such psycho dramas like Alice, we are just the little folks. Lunch is over...back to work.
Sorry about this jaberwocky - if it was just jibberish, it was still good therapy with a few polka dotty questions - any one want to try to figure this out? I need some answers...
God/dess Bless and Keep all the little folks at home safe and sound.
Move on anyway...good luck.

Posted by dorsano on September 9, 2005 at 06:58pm,
It's Howard Dean's ideas that are identical to Peter Miguel Camejo and Lyndon La Rouche. Open and efficent government generally means smaller government. If you think bigger government and overspending in general is effeicent it is not what the majority of Americans advocate. This is not about G.O.P or Bush they are another problem to deal with. I oppose the War in Iraq and I advocate a non-interventionist foregin policy.

Posted by ondich on September 9, 2005 at 08:33 PM It's Howard Dean's ideas

And which ideas are those ondich? I know Howard's ideas quite well as I met him a number of times -

but actually I'm really more interested in your answer to my questions here Posted by dorsano on September 9, 2005 at 07:36 PM

What do you think? What should we make of Tom Petri? He is conservative, I can attest to that and he's definately Republican. Have you ever heard of a conservative socialist Republican?

I don't know what to make of it myself.

So you think that smaller government is more efficient? Let's face facts, government is, by it's nature, inefficient. That's how it is, deal with it. But there are just too many things that only govt. can do reasonably. The GOP has for years promoted the "starve the beast" policy. so they cut FEMA's budget as well as other important budgets. Than they throw money away on missle defense systems that don't work, highways to nowhere and bridges to deserted islands. If you want goverment to do something, you have to provide the money to do it with. Cutting taxes has a point of diminishing returns too. When they cut taxes for the top 2% of earners, they remove the bulk of the revenue. We, as concerned citizens, must come to grips with the reality that we will have to pony up the funds to get it done. And you know what? We really can afford it.

dorsano- if your intelligence matched your smart-mouth, you might make a formidable debater!! I applaud you, but, alas, once again you really have no idea what you are talking about. The average annual tax rate for lower-middlee class Americans (like me) is lower than it has been in twenty years... I have the government documents right next to me if you'd like to know the truth. Honestly, I commend your children for working hard during college, and I hope they are the quite the model citizens because of it! But you seem to miss the point... Government loans are not REALLY paid by the government, they are guarantees by the Federal government to back any money that is not returned to the banks and their subsequent lenders. If the government paid out of its own pockets (really yours and mine), the country would have been in a constant depression. There is no way that a government, even American, can support that high amount of direct expenditures. By the way, I'd gladly stop accepting "government" loans at anytime if you'd also like to advocate "small" government and forfeit your home, because I'm sure you got loan help at some point, your car (for same reason) your children (what's that about insurance?), and so on and so forth...
Also to LAMinKi- NO, we really CAN'T afford it!! Some of us don't actually have a wealth of reserve money that we can pull out of in hard times! It's a simple fact of tax expenditures and returns- less taxes out of citizens' pockets equals more of their money in the very institutions that fund our way of life- retail industry, banks, private sector employment and production, and in effect, actually MORE tax revenue because they have more money to spend on things that will actually pull in more taxes than a simple progessive tax on goods... And actually, the top 2% of wage earners pay over 50% of all taxes... the numbers don't lie!

The Wiz

The Land of Oz lives==With the return of Karl Rove to DC I can feel the spinning of the country as I type. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain for the great and wonderful Wizard is at work. He puts a stop to all the chaos by revamping the problems. Oh woe to the man who attempts to understand what happened and why.Who is accountable for this tragedy? The victims of course.The poor unwashed have embarassed the administration.They do not need water to drink or food to eat Let Geroge do it.Ah shucks -he did.So they faded and some perished of thrist and hunger in the streets of Emerald City on the Emerald Coast now fetid with the stink of bodies,oil and chemicals.The Wiz must now make them disappear from our memories.Put them on planes and scatter them to the four winds and pray no one remembers next year or heads may roll. If the Wiz and all just click their heels together they will all go away.Hey the Wiz will blind the masses with money pilfered from the pockets of his subjects. It will all go away if you do not look behind the curtain. Dorthy.

The little deal with scattering Katrina survivors doesn't necessarily mean that they are goiong to cover up their negligence. Ever hear of word of mouth advertising? Why isn't the Democrat Party screaming for impeachment, right now? The longer they wait to stand up and scream the more they are creating the impression they are just Republican Lite. Up until this election I considered myself a split-ticket independent. This last election was the absolute FIRST time I voted a straight ticket. The more Republicans I meet the more I like my yellow dog, but the Democrats really need more fire in their bellies.

Posted by politicslover on September 10, 2005 at 02:04 AM

Hey politicslover - What do you think about Tom Petri posted here by dorsano on September 9, 2005 at 07:36 PM

What do you think? Is Tom advocating big government, or socialism?

Posted by politicslover on September 10, 2005 at 02:04 AM If the government paid out of its own pockets (really yours and mine), the country would have been in a constant depression.

Direct Lending worked pretty well under the National Direct Student Loan program (Eisenhower) and a number of governors (Republicans actually) have direct lending programs in their states today - looks like you haven't read Tom Petri's piece yet.

There is no way that a government, even American, can support that high amount of direct expenditures.

Actually - some counties provdide higher education for their children using general tax revenues or a dedicated revenue stream similiar to the way we fund public education here. Not only is the country not guranteeing loans, or lending money directly, it's (gasp!!!!) giving every kid who wants to, the chance to go college - oh my God!!! those disgusting socialists.

a simple progessive tax on goods...

I've never heard of a progressive sales tax. Do you have an example of one those?

Say politicslover - now that my kids are out of college and are model liberal citizens - I'm thinking of advocating for small government and saying the heck with all this loan and eductation stuff and get the government out of the lending and education business altogether

What do you think?

Posted by dorsano on September 10, 2005 at 01:01 PM,
How is a conservative socialist republican possible. I can see a Liberal Republican or moderate Republican like there is Moderate Democrats and Conservative Democrats. Tom Petri just could say he's a Liberal Republican or Moderate Republican it would not confuse people as much. I say I am a Moderate Democrat. A Moderate Democrat is a centrist with mostly liberal tendencies or european terms center-left.

Posted by ondich on September 10, 2005 at 02:04 PM Tom Petri just could say he's a Liberal Republican or Moderate Republican it would not confuse people as much.

Tom would never call himself a socialist - believe me :)

But he's advocating a government program that competes (very successfully) with private lenders (which is socialism)

It's a great deal for kids - it's a great deal for parents - it's a great deal for the country

Sometimes thinking is confusing

but actually it's only confusing if you live the spin world or the world of labels

Step outside the spin and a conservative socialist Republican is not confusing at all - it makes perfect sense, especially when taken in context of the fiscal responsiblity portion of the Republican oath.

Step outside the spin and you see how silly things like "Moderate Democrat", "centrist" "liberal" or "European center-left" sound.

Posted by ondich on September 10, 2005 at 02:04 PM

Here's another one for you ondich ...

Did you know that higher education in Georgia is paid for by the state. Any kid in Georgia that wants to go to college can.

State schools compete side by side with private schools like Mercer. Georgia's a frickin socialist state.

No wonder red is used by Republican's - they're leading this country down the slippery slope to communism!!!!

Can you believe that? What is this country coming to? Is there no bastion of pure, fundamentalist, free-market capitalism left in the world?

Posted by ondich on September 10, 2005 at 02:04 PM

Did you read all of Tom Petri's piece - did you see what the banking industry did?

Did you see what the Republicans in congress did because they thought it was Clinton's plan?

Did you see the misinformation about the plan that was spread both by the industry and the members of congress (both Democrats and Republicans) that sided with the lenders

and did you happen to notice that some of that very same misinformation was repeated by politicslover on this very thread?

And let's - how long ago did all that happen - over a decade?

If your not a radical, conservative liberal or a radical, liberal conservative by age 50 - you're being used.

Get radical ondich

Slothful liberal that I am, I think I'm going to take a nap.

Posted by dorsano on September 10, 2005 at 02:27 PM,
Georgia is not a socialist state by any imagination. California education programs maybe not Georgia's. Former Senator Zell Miller when He was governor of Georgia from 1991-1999 he introduced Peach Care and Higher Education. The Constitution of The United States has never clearly mentioned what local and state governments could do. The Constitution only limits the Federal Government. I understand your concern. The Republicans put congress in trillions of dollars of debt because of the war in iraq and other useless programs. It is amazing what people who call themselves Fiscal conservatives can do to a country. The Republicans always calls us socialist. Republican Hypocrisy at it's finest

Hey ondich, I'm from Georgia, I'm mostly a lurker, not a blogger...I know Dors pretty well... he was trying to be funny with his Georgia post, he knows what it's like in Georgia and California...

and Georgia really did do well under Zell Miller before he lost his mind.

Have a wonderful day :)

Posted by ondich on September 10, 2005 at 02:49 PM California education programs maybe not Georgia's.

Georgia has the 4th largest University system in the nation. It was the first to offer a state-funded, merit-based scholarship program (under Zell) for students attending public universities, technical colleges and some selected private institutions (since 1996).

Georgia calls theirs "HOPE". All students, regardless of need, are eligible for the HOPE merit based awards.

Students need to maintain a B average in both highschool and college - the scholarship covers all tuition and fees and provides a book allowance. The value of the scholarship is capped at $3000 for students attending private institutions (Georgia will only pay the private sector institutions up to $3,000).

Applicants must apply for Pell Grants first (money from the Feds) which reduces Georgia's cost of to award the HOPE scholarships.

There is also HOPE Grant program which is needs based and applies to non-degree progams.

Georgia ranks 5th in the nation as in terms of grant aid as % of higher education expenses. It's rise to the top ranks of state-sponsored grant aid is due entirely to HOPE which has no means test.

Sounds like a bunch of socialists to me. Plus they take money from the feds in order to work their magic. So typically socialistic isn't it?

Now you tell me ondich - that seems like some frickin big government to me don't you think? I mean, education is important and all but at the expense of being called a proponent of big government? That's simply too big a price to pay it seems to me.

Here are the facts from the University of Georgia.

Posted by GiG on September 10, 2005 at 03:07 PM Have a wonderful day

It's sure nice to see that cute, sexy smile on this blog. You should post here more often. :)

I cant believe I once held so tightly to the republican party. I refused to even listen to other candidates and just went with the flow. After recent world events I have "come to the light" so-to-speak and have changed parties. VIVA LA DEMOCRATE VIVA LA LIBERTY!

I wish to say one thing to all the republicans that are complaining about democratic fingerpointing, but I choose not to use that kind of language here. But I will say that when it comes to fingerpointing, republicans are the champs! In every breath that comes out of their mouth there is something about "it being the liberals fault". In this case there was a screw up somewhere in the ranks but I will not claim to know where. I hope that it will come out and not be covered up like so many other misstakes. But if no one would point the finger in this case and address the fact that someone did not do their job right, how would people know that something actually was wrong? In some cases fingerpointing is very important, other times it is just to cover your own rear and I will not say that either side is innocent of that. And about the comment posted sept 8th by "politicslover" about politicizing this event, well if you are a politician that is your job!! Get real, republicans are doing that about 9/11 saying that "if there would have been a democratic president at that time nothing would have been done about it". I don't think this is any different. Of course we have to make it in to a political issue, that is what it is! Everything that got done or not after this tragedy is political, the tragedy it self is not. Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

Posted by AlienMe on September 10, 2005 at 10:45 PM Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

Thank YOU for speaking.

P.S. Don't forget to vote in your primary elections - whether Democratic or Republican. Chances are they're taking placing next week - maybe Tuesday.

WE MUST STOP BUSH AND HIS RIGHT WING KKK PARTY MUST BE STOP THE POOR MUST STAND

We saw people desperately trying to survive in conditions we could not imagine in an American city.

As survivors are evacuated, order is restored, the water slowly begins to recede, and we sort through the rubble, we must also begin to come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not.

And the question that emerged: how can this happen in America?

The truth is, what we saw on the television in New Orleans exists here in Miami, and in every part of our country, every day. Because people are poor throughout our country. They are old. They are young. They are black, white, and brown. They are not refugees. They are our fellow Americans.

The truth is that we have ignored the poor for far too long. And until it washed right up on our front doorsteps, we might have continued to ignore the reality that poverty has too many of our fellow Americans in its grip, and we have a shared moral responsibility not to ignore it anymore.

... from my man Howard, who told me a few years ago, when he won me over, "I'm gonna tell you things that you don't want to hear, BUT must hear."

Dean spoke to the National Baptist Convention of America in Miami on Wednesday, September 7th

a 55yo UPstate NY 'i'NDEPENDENT for DEAN

Well, well. This has been very interesting reading indeed! I am really enjoying it from the cotton field to the yellow brick road! Many good points.
First of all, after what I have lived through regarding my graduate studies, I would like to inform everyone that after hitting a student loan glass ceiling over here with a grade point average high enough to qualify for scholarships...now this was interesting. I had filled out all deferment forms on time and they were changing the rules in the early eighties...so I qualified for ed. abroad to the UK, then when everything was ready, my counselor went to the financial aids office - they told him I was suddenly in default. Now how can an ongoing student do that? It was a blurp in the big computer somewhere but they didn't know...so when we asked that they correct it they refused. They wouldn't even let me finish out that quarter! So I took my transcripts, yes I was smart enough to get them a few days before graduating with my bachelors...so I had some, and my letters of recommendation and I packed it up and went to England independently. I ended up getting my residency and proceded to get in to my grad. studies at a good U. and paid about 30 pounds a month...that comes to about sixty bucks. It took me about 2 years because I had gotten credit for a year's basic classes in grad level in CA. My thesis is on file with the Library of Congress with a copyright, but I owe more for those classes out in California, it comes to about twenty thousand. Now don't get me wrong here, it was not easy. I had to live on about 36 pounds a week for everything so I would go and count out every little pence for my food and basic necessities on St. Gyro's Day and save out of that to pay my tuition up front - so given that, I would have to classify myself as a very conservative liberal...by conservative I mean penny pincher like you would not believe.
Meanwhile, I was happy to see that, wonder of wonders, there was actually an organizational communications consultant on one of the news shows last night. Which Democrat educated the Repubs about doing that? Like a good guy from the phone company, he had traced all lines of communications on all levels within each org. and how they interfaced with each other...he also explained the places where communications broke down...when, how but was lacking in the why department. It seems that there were communications...just that no one did anything. Wonder who that was.....I suggest that we get some good shrinks in to check out the mind set of the individuals that were not responding or providing leadership, look at what Al did in contrast with his resources...now that is efficient leadership. Perhaps we can call him, in comparison to all that the big guy patting himself on the back there has - a very conservative liberal...and this jargon, this thing with words...Liberal means, suitable to a freeman, broad minded, in favor of progress, tolerant....there is no shame in that now is there? Hmmmm....they thought I would be too lazy to look it up in the dictionary I guess.
You know, I heard it said once, that there is nothing so dangerous than an egotistical person who thinks they know it all but has only slightly lifted that curtain. My point is, that unless we are the ultimate Renaissance scholar that has taken everything, and even that person, cannot know everything, but if we all do a little brainstorming and bring different pieces of info to the table, we can put a pretty good jig saw puzzle together...
We did just that in 1979 when we studied the President's Commission Report on the Accident at Three Mile Island...about a fourth of the controls were out and several of the monitors in the fields around the plant were out of order, and you know, it was mostly human error due to mind set and mismanagement on all levels of organizational communications...to put it plainly, most employees were too afraid of losing their jobs to complain.
One more point, in the Senate hearings...Joseph Hendry just about had fits when Ted Kennedy's investigative team asked him why the NRC had not checked the water...What water? The huge amount of radioactive water that had been dumped into the river at Harrisburg.... how did you guys find out so the whole world could know??? Way to go Teddy!!! Thanks for saving...lives.

I think we need to make a better Fair Trade policy than what we got. It is just being used as a phrase by some democrats of whom who signed CAFTA. I advocate a Fair Trade policy that advocates a rigid "Buy American" policies that patronizes American made goods and labels origins of food items where they came from. We need to increase tariffs on imports 20-30%. I call for the withdraw from NAFTA,CAFTA,GATT,and WTO. We need to reclaim our economic independence.

Top 10 Reasons Why the Democratic Party Sucks

10. Rather than putting Dr. Dean on chartered planes with hundreds of other physicians and nurses wearing Democratic Party t-shirts, and going to actually treat real patients in the Gulf coast states, the party bitches about Bush and does nothing else.

9. Rather than creating a "shadow-FEMA" that would, as Shaqille O'Neal has done, rent apartments for hurricane and flood victims, the party bitches about Michael Brown and does nothing else.

8. Rather than creating college funds, paid internships in companies owned by Democrats, or other opportunities for poor students to get an education, the party bitches about the Department of Education and does nothing else.

7. Rather than advancing a plan to fix the economy and restore the deficit, the party bitches about Bush's economic policy and does nothing instead.

6. Rather than propose plans to guarantee that government contracts are awarded after a fair bidding process that allows all American businesses a chance and minimizes costs to the American taxpayer, the party says...absolutely nothing.

5. Rather than create a real plan for keeping manufacturing jobs in this country, so that ordinary people who can't or won't attend college can have productive jobs that bring them dignity, the Democratic Party remains mute when unions are fighting for their lives as we are right now here in California.

4. Rather than instituting programs that improve the lives of the poor, such as restoring America's once-proud system of inexpensive and reliable public transporation, the Democratic governors and state legislatures have, like their GOP counterparts, allowed petrolium and automobile corporations to become even more wealthy and powerful.

3. Rather than maintaining their role as representatives of the freedom of the people and ensurers of the checks and balances of the tripartite government, Democratic Senators and House Reps passed the Patriot Act without reading it.

2. Rather than repeat the mistake of blindly following George Bush and voting on bad legislation like the Patriot Act once again, the Democrats on the Hill authorized the War in Iraq and have not loudly called for the recinding of that authorization.

1. Rather than act like an opposition party, patriotically dedicated to free discourse and actively campaigning to gain control of the government through elections, the Democratic Party kowtows to the nonsensical accusations of disloyalty made by the Republicans, thereby abdicating its role as opposition and thwarting its ability to present itself as a viable alternative to the GOP.

The bottom line is that the GOP has an evil plan, it's clear, but the Democratic Party has no plan at all. Is putting Nancy Pelosi on TV once a week to scream the best the party can do? Come on.

Alternatives:

1. Make a goddamned plan. Please. If it's a simple plan, even better. Call it "The Five Point Plan," repeat it over and over until every American knows it by heart, and then repeat it again.

2. Get spokespeople that have some charisma. Someone likable to conservatives tired of Bush. Dump Pelosi, who comes across like a pedantic, pissed-off mother-in-law.

3. Ridicule Bush by giving him nicknames like King George, President Vacation, etc. Use humor to show the people his weaknesses as a leader.

4. Get Carville back and keep Donna Brazile at least 150 yards away from campaign headquarters. Also, don't let any candidate's kids run a campaign, unless Carville's parents are running for office.

4. Fight dirty. Exploit weaknesses. Publish humiliating photos of your enemies. Replay the clip of Bush telling Michael Brown, "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie," and of mama Bush saying that the evacuaees are doing better over and over and over again until everyone everywhere has heard them enough to get angry.

5. Grow a spine and oppose the damn GOP, their judge nominees, and their greedy plans. Reclaim your status as the opposition party.

Signed,

Sac_Liberal
University Professor in Northern California

Top 10 Reasons Why the Democratic Party Sucks
10. Rather than putting Dr. Dean on chartered planes with hundreds of other physicians and nurses wearing Democratic Party t-shirts, and going to actually treat real patients in the Gulf coast states, the party bitches about Bush and does nothing else.
9. Rather than creating a "shadow-FEMA" that would, as Shaqille O'Neal has done, rent apartments for hurricane and flood victims, the party bitches about Michael Brown and does nothing else.
8. Rather than creating college funds, paid internships in companies owned by Democrats, or other opportunities for poor students to get an education, the party bitches about the Department of Education and does nothing else.
7. Rather than advancing a plan to fix the economy and restore the deficit, the party bitches about Bush's economic policy and does nothing instead.
6. Rather than propose plans to guarantee that government contracts are awarded after a fair bidding process that allows all American businesses a chance and minimizes costs to the American taxpayer, the party says...absolutely nothing.
5. Rather than create a real plan for keeping manufacturing jobs in this country, so that ordinary people who can't or won't attend college can have productive jobs that bring them dignity, the Democratic Party remains mute when unions are fighting for their lives as we are right now here in California.
4. Rather than instituting programs that improve the lives of the poor, such as restoring America's once-proud system of inexpensive and reliable public transporation, the Democratic governors and state legislatures have, like their GOP counterparts, allowed petroleum and automobile corporations to become even more wealthy and powerful.
3. Rather than maintaining their role as representatives of the freedom of the people and ensurers of the checks and balances of the tripartite government, Democratic Senators and House Reps passed the Patriot Act without reading it.
2. Rather than repeat the mistake of blindly following George Bush and voting on bad legislation like the Patriot Act once again, the Democrats on the Hill authorized the War in Iraq and have not loudly called for the rescinding of that authorization.
1. Rather than act like an opposition party, patriotically dedicated to free discourse and actively campaigning to gain control of the government through elections, the Democratic Party kowtows to the nonsensical accusations of disloyalty made by the Republicans, thereby abdicating its role as opposition and thwarting its ability to present itself as a viable alternative to the GOP.
The bottom line is that the GOP has an evil plan, it's clear, but the Democratic Party has no plan at all. Is putting Nancy Pelosi on TV once a week to scream the best the party can do? Come on.
Alternatives:
1. Make a goddamned plan. Please. If it's a simple plan, even better. Call it "The Five Point Plan," repeat it over and over until every American knows it by heart, and then repeat it again.
2. Get spokespeople that have some charisma. Someone likable to conservatives tired of Bush. Dump Pelosi, who comes across like a pedantic, pissed-off mother-in-law.
3. Ridicule Bush by giving him nicknames like King George, President Vacation, etc. Use humor to show the people his weaknesses as a leader.
4. Get Carville back and keep Donna Brazile at least 150 yards away from campaign headquarters. Also, don't let any candidate's kids run a campaign, unless Carville's parents are running for office.
4. Fight dirty. Exploit weaknesses. Publish humiliating photos of your enemies. Replay the clip of Bush telling Michael Brown, "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie," and of mama Bush saying that the evacuaees are doing better over and over and over again until everyone everywhere has heard them enough to get angry.
5. Grow a spine and oppose the damn GOP, their judge nominees, and their greedy plans. Reclaim your status as the opposition party.

Signed,
Sac_Liberal
University Professor in Northern California

Yes, I need to learn to spell. I am a product of American schools.

We have to have someone start making a lot of noise, Conress is crippled, the Judiciary is being taken over and the Administration is destroting our future more every day. The press got active last week but is back to normmal this week. Someone has to bring all of the madness into the spotlight and keep it there. Does no one pay attention to history.

Thanks Prof!!!
That was loverly. When in England always vote Labour!!! Also visit the mines in Wales!!!
What is going on with the distancing between the Dems and the Unions??? We all have to coalesce under the big issues. Yes, I have been frustrated also with the intimidation routine and the silencing and attacking of credibility, etc. etc. etc.. I am just saying what any good soc or psych major has known for years...and trying to put things in proportion...the wishy washy stuff leads to cooptation and sliding of what is described as moderate to slightly right.
As I have said, there has not been anything near to radical around for years...since we were something around 7 years into Nam with thousands more dead....please no more trauma...had to see boyfriends dead, now my son??? They are really punishing the generation gap baby boomer hippies that had the courage to be on the frontlines of questioning right wing authority...will always love JFK....he was the first that started us all thinking. And there were so many other brave participants in finding new answers...but we have got to remember that the workers of this world hold it all up and we have a very extensive history of the Industrial Revolution and the Labor Movement in the USA and I am proud to be a supporter of hard hats and miners out here in the Appalachians. I think we all have to pay more attention to fairness in wages and checks and balances on the profiteers that make over 100% profit...imagine that, while the little guys risk their lives from a cave in. Right here in the good old USA kids are going to bed hungry at night, without hot running water, in shacks....I would rather be helping here... so be aware of this class distinction thing and stop it from ruining this country. Let's bring back Inclusion and the broad middle class...
That was refreshing to read everyone...good ideas always on this blog...so glad we have it!

Firefighter to Replace Brown As FEMA Chief

R. David Paulison, head of FEMA's emergency preparedness force, will lead the beleaguered agency, according to three administration sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.

Duct tape sales rise amid terror fears

On Tuesday, less than 24 hours after U.S. Fire Administrator David Paulison described a list of useful items, stores in the greater Washington, D.C. area reported a surge in sales of plastic sheeting, duct tape, and other emergency items.

These items, Paulison said, can be helpful after a biological, chemical or radiological attack.

The "conservative" movement (which has been hyjacked by a bunch of libertarians) suffers from a failure of imagination.

Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.

Hugo L. Black U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice.

Sac_Liberal,

The democrats have already been doing alot of what you're saying, thankfully. At least the Howard Deans have. The problem is largely these 'plans' do not make it out to the majority of americans, because someone is always shouting like a sorry dropout student in the GOP.

So basically, they need to control the media message more and more. That's starting to happen, as the corporate media gains back independant thought and blows its "deal" with the Bush Admin. Make no mistake, the corporate media will always be evil....whoever it favors.

But, they can also get independant discussions going and this is vital. Democrats like Howard Dean and Wes Clark need to take advantage, and spread their messages plus plans far and wide. Hit to the gut at every intersection, this will be the tide that changes things!

Oh and yes, be sure and remember to kick out the machines. No more voting machines....paper ballots, and individual voters. Fucking ram these greedy old bastards to the wall! We all agree.

nick

Is it true the Amtrak offered to send trains to New Orleans to help evacuate the area?

I am also wondering how to interept Senator Landrieus remark saying how most mayors across the country have a hard time getting the city employees to come to work on even a sunny day.

Estate taxes or the death tax, How does Howard Dean come up with the figure that doing away with the tax will only benefit 20,000 American? Every family who loses a loved that leaves something to the family gets hit with the tax.

Right on! I do hope all members of this party realize that the real problem on display after Katrina is the sheer number of poor in this nation...and largely black. We will be better served by addressing the poor issue as the major "talking point" by us Democrats...the blame game can be played anytime.
It is the first time, and in prime time where the statistic of 25% of blacks are poor, were given a face to associate with the number. It is very difficult to understand such poverty in this nation, in Darfur? Possible...but not in what some refer to as a "Christian Nation". The storm washed up a disconnect between the Christian tenets and the Christian Nations practice, and/or only the politics are Conservative.
How can the "Right" talk so much about their faith...but have problems explaining why the black unemployment rate is twice that of whites. Their policies have weakened all the mechanisms that were put in place by Democrats, to level the playing field...NLRB, NLRA, EEOC, are just shells of their intent.

Right on! I do hope all members of this party realize that the real problem on display after Katrina is the sheer number of poor in this nation...and largely black. We will be better served by addressing the poor issue as the major "talking point" by us Democrats...the blame game can be played anytime.
It is the first time, and in prime time where the statistic of 25% of blacks are poor, were given a face to associate with the number. It is very difficult to understand such poverty in this nation, in Darfur? Possible...but not in what some refer to as a "Christian Nation". The storm washed up a disconnect between the Christian tenets and the Christian Nations practice, and/or only the politics are Conservative.
How can the "Right" talk so much about their faith...but have problems explaining why the black unemployment rate is twice that of whites. Their policies have weakened all the mechanisms that were put in place by Democrats, to level the playing field...NLRB, NLRA, EEOC, are just shells of their intent.

I would like to know what is going to happen during primaries, elections etc about the refugees from Katrina. In alot of cases, it took considerable to locate and register voters for previous elections etc. Won't it be convenient for the Republicans because the voter registration rolls have been "lost".
The relocated refugees will suddenly not be able to vote where they are because they do not have the necessary ID or cannot meet the other registration requirements necessary to vote where they now are. Looks like we are going to get the shaft again.
As for the $75 Billion... the rich pay a lot of lip service to charity. I notice, however, that most of the real "givers" seem to be the "little" people. If they can raise all that money for Jerry's Kids and then add to the donation for the people of Katrina that says something important.
That money should be automatically used to help in any disaster effort. The estate tax fund in the future should be kept specifically for these kinds of things so that all victims get a fair chance at rehabilitation.
Regarding John Roberts.... how come he automatically gets to be the Chief Justice. Why don't the sitting judges according to seniority get to be considered for the post? They have the experience and know the job. I am not happy that a "rookie" would get the top job for life. I also wonder what he's hiding. Conveniently, his approval hearings just happened to be postponed long enough for him to fall into the chief justice post. Wasn't his first consideration to fill the seat of Sandra Day O'Connor? Bush keeps falling into the "piles" lately. I am highly suspicious of all of this and you can bet that I am using my vote more and more often now. I used to only vote for the President. Then I graduated to the congressional off elections also. Now I'm voting for "dogcatcher".
This isn't over and frankly I'm getting a very "baaaad" feeling about all of this.

I, for one, I am sick and tired of living so far below the poverty level and having my rights and life run roughshod over by large rich multinational corporations. And, I am sorry to say that there are far to many in both parties that have cozied up to these monied interests and put them above the average American citizen such as myself.

There are still a few shining examples of those in the Democratic party who are willing to fight for what is right, but sadly, they are becoming fewer and fewer, as they accept corporate lobbyists' money just to stay in the game. Just as there were far too many that voted for this illegal and immoral war that far too few will now speak out against. It's time the rest of the Democrats get together and grow a backbone if they are to stand a chance at taking back this country and turning in back in the direction it should be headed.

It's okay to say yo are wrong. People respect that. It's okay to say you made a mistake. People respect that, too. And when you can stand up there and say these things and come together, stand together as a party that will take this country and unite it again instead of further divide it, make it stronger instead of weaker, roll back laws that benefit the rich over the poor, protect the environment instead of giving away what doesn't belong to us alone, but to our children and theirs and theirs and theirs, etc., then and only then will the Democratic Party have a chance to take back Congress and the White House and stop these radical reich wing appointees to lifetime positions on the Supreme Court.

You can restore faith in our country's goodwill in the worlds' eyes. People don't hate Americans - they hate our politics. it isn't weak to say you were wrong, made a mistake, or that you were lied to. It's the honest truth. and right now our country needs a good dose of that.

Otherwise you will continue to lose some of your base to third parties that do these things. You can't just be Republican-lite. Please come together and restore Americans' faith in the Democratic Party before there is no party left. We need you.

As a life-long Dem, I am pleading with the powers-that-be in the Democratic party to show some "courage and heroism" for the sake of preserving the party. All these emails and speeches mean nothing to me any more. The majority of Americans will never even see or read them! Why not put some visible action where your mouth is - use of of the DNC's campaign war chest (a couple of million would be good)to put into real action for the people to whom we give so much lip service. All the money in the world will not get a Democratic president elected without a real show of courage and action.

Rather than bicker back and forth, I believe that it has come time to take stock in what we want to create. There is a bottom line in this quagmire. We as United States citizens have the opportunity to believe in what we choose. There is no wrong or right, as long as it doesn't impact or hurt others.

Since the 1970's, and the woman movement, we as women have chosen to take part in creating our own destiny. We must continue to have choices available to us. It is imperative that we don't go back, but rather forward.

I marched in the 1970 moratorium in DC. I am now a mother of twins, a son and daughter. My daughter is studying to be a learning disability teacher at the University of Iowa, and my son is a freshman at George Washington Law School in DC. I have raised my children to respect others, to be open and honest. I don't want to lose the fight. The civil rights movement and women's movement must continue, so we not forget, no different from the holocaust. Younger people have not had to deal with the religious prejudices of the 50's, but yet have had to deal with suicide bombers in this new millennium. There is always something to be disgruntled about. The Supreme Court, the Court of our land must exhibit our beliefs. Please let us not go backward in time, but continue to raise the bar and learn from our past mistakes. I have always believed the democratic party is the party of choices. Please continue in this quest.

To the "moderates" who think that Dean and Clinton are "far left" and that we need "less government" and "more tax cuts". There is a party for you: It's called the Republican Party. Yeah, I know they suck and they are full of fools, but there is your mirror folks.

What exactly makes Dean far left? That he balanced the budget in his state? That he opposes federal gun control? That he believes goverment should help the least of it's citizens? That he believes in health care for all? That he believes in programs that work? That he was the first to point out the war in Iraq was a mistake and that we should focus on Iran and North Korea (boy, what a kook!)?

At least have the balls to join the Republican team. Don't call yourself a Democrat if you think Clinton and Dean are far left. They are the moderate progressives of our party.

You guys have sipped a little too much Republican Kool-Aid.

Posted by laidback on September 13, 2005 “Estate taxes or the death tax, How does Howard Dean come up with the figure that doing away with the tax will only benefit 20,000 American? Every family who loses a loved that leaves something to the family gets hit with the tax.”

The moral of my reply, laidback, is going to be “You are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” - DP Moynihan.

Facts on the Estate Tax (popular GOP name: “Death Tax”):
Myth: Many average Americans are hurt when forced to pay the estate tax.
Reality: 98 of every 100 people who die face no estate tax whatsoever. Only the super-wealthy – the richest 2 percent of Americans – are subject to the estate tax. By 2009 when the exemption level rises to $3.5 million, it is estimated that less than one-half of one percent of Americans will have to pay the estate tax.

This is because there is a big up-front deduction for all estates: The 2002 Tax Reform law set the individual exemption at $1 million (and 2 times that much for a couple). And everybody with a million or so to leave knows that they get around the Estate Tax by transferring their assets to a Charitable Foundation, or by giving large chunks to their kids every year (tax-free to the kids if you keep it under a certain, rather large amount).

Reality: Less than one percent of people who died last year paid an estate tax.

So, laidback, those are the facts. I don’t know where Dean gets his, but most folks accept the numbers cited by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Why do I care about this? Well, under the current tax law, the estate tax is being gradually reduced. In 2008, the estate tax exemption is set at $2 million for an individual ($4 million for a couple); in 2009, the exemption rises to $3.5 million ($7 million for a couple). A top tax rate of 45 percent applies in both years. Although this current tax law only really affects the super-rich ( not family farms or anything), there are radicals who want to go a lot farther. There is a radical tax proposal to make the repeal of the estate tax permanent as of 2010; that proposal is expected to come up for a vote this session of Congress.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that extending repeal beyond 2010 would reduce revenues by $290 billion through 2015, including $72 billion in 2015 alone. The revenues losses associated with 10 more years of repeal — for the period from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2021 — are much higher, about $745 billion.

When the associated $225 billion in higher interest payments on the debt are taken into account, the total cost of repealing the estate tax for a decade would be nearly $1 trillion. AND THAT’S ASSUMING CURRENT, HISTORICALLY LOW INTEREST RATES..which ain’t gonna last.

Now, we’ve been hearing a lot about Social Security is In Big Trouble!! Well, no, it’s not - if you keep the estate tax monies in the Treasury to fund the government, and stop taking the Social Security monies to fund whatever current goodies the current Administration & Congress want to spend on.

please define what "wealthy Americans" are, there should be no death tax, they were taxed all the time making the money, and this party wants to keep taxing them after they are dead. Also keep the tax cuts, let Americans spend their money instead of sending it to Washington for one pork barrell project after another. When has this party ever not approved of any tax, its the economy stupid, its Americans working paying their fare share of taxes and employing people and providing economics for the towns and citys they live in. And Gov Dean, ya, he knows finance, how much did he spend on primaries and lost, was that $40 million, ya, he knows how to run a budget...

This is one of the most positive, solution oriented speeches I have seen come from Dean. Good job! Almost reminds me of MLK or Kennedy. Dean could be President if he would stay away from personalities e.g. Bush - back to Crawford, etc..

Also, if Jim wants the definition of "wealthy Americans" who are above the estate tax, there is a great article at http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Retirementandwills/Planyourestate/P52707.asp which explains the tax system. Would people just read up on the issues from credible sources (not FOX) rather than rant & rave???

Also is Jim actually implying that spending $40 million to lose an eleciton is wasting money? Jim, do you want to reform our current Democratic Republic process? What would you have it be so that we don't "waste" $40 million here and there on primaries?

Jim-

A lot of the money paid in estates taxes come from capital gains (e.g. houses, farms, stocks, bonds, real estate, and collectibles) which don't get taxed. Statistically speaking, I doubt that any sizable portion of those paying the estates tax are "hard-working Americans"; rather, they are the beneficiaries of men and women who had some money and speculated well.

Also, I guess Dean's ability to create a balanced budget as governor of Vermont really hurts his credibility as a budget manager...whatever...(sorry, I couldn't resist being sarcastic there!).

James,
The Clintons had 8 years of flowing money with no real wars to fund and they couldn't cure the plight of the poor black population in America.
New Orleans and the State of Lousiana both had Emergency preparedness plans in place to take care of the people of Lousiana(poor or not)and both the Governor of Lousiana and Mayor of New Orleans failed their people. The federal government can't just walk in to a state and take over, they have to be invited in.
The Federal government is not the great nursemaid of the universe. If you want the poor populations of this country to get out of poverty, don't treat them like victims. Treat them like men and women who are responsible for their own lives. The Democratic party has treated minorities with such total disdain over the last century it almost makes one laugh.
Blacks from Africa come to this country and succeed because they seek opportunity, not "entitlements".
John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean don't give a damn about the poor in this country. They are career politicians. Outside of possibly Dean, I don't think most of them has ever held a real job.
Oh, and by the way, I don't know a single soul who was a slave, neither do 99% of black people. Quit using that as an excuse to be a failure.
I came from a poor family, but chose to not be poor. I worked my way through high school and college. I opened my own company at age 22, worked my butt off (at manual labor) and chose to make my life better than my mothers. I had no father and my mother died when I was 12. I lived in foster homes. So What!
If you want to help black people or brown people or white people or anyone else who is poor then don't tell them the government is there to take care of them, it isn't and never was. During the Great Depression 83% of the people in this country were employed. Good odds by my book.
Quit crying about the Big Bad Corporations in this country. They employ millions of people, but ya know what, 87% of the people in this country are employed by small businesses, not large corporations.
Do the Democrats in this country know how to do anything other than bitch and whine. Come up with a solution to problems, find ways to employ people, get personally involved. Get your hands dirty, make a difference.
As for taking shots at Christians and this being a Christian country, get a grip. In three days our church body has come up with over $150,000. for people displaced by Katrina. We collected over a semi truck load of ready to serve baby formula to drive to Lousiana and Mississippi tomorrow. We've taken in 123 families and found them new homes, given them furniture, clothing, food, pots and pans, helped them with transportation, given them jobs. Ya want to know what the most common comments are that we get from these people, that they are glad as hell to be out of New Orleans and that they feel like they have a real chance at making it in life now.
I personally and my horrible, "reich wing" (as we are called by one post here) Christian friends have given thousands of dollars to the Red Cross, to the Salvation Army, to faith based ministries who are sending people into these towns and communities; doctors, nurses, medicine and just ordinary things like food, water and clothing, batteries, flashlights, mundane things like cleaning gear and supplies. We don't think it's a big deal, we just do what we can.
The Democrat mayor of New Orleans, who is, by the way, black, is living in a new house in Houston. Yeah, he's really in it for the long haul, huh.
What happened to just doing what is right because it's the right thing to do. What's wrong with personal responsibility, with being a responsible adult and getting your family out of harms way. The people in New Orleans found out last year how bad it could get. A slow adult can walk 3 miles an hour. Hell, in 24 hours they could have walked to Baton Rouge. If my family is in harms way, I'm walking, I'm not looking for someone to take on the responsibiltiy of hauling my butt to safety. That is my responsibility.
Quit whining, grow some balls, get a backbone, be a part of the solution. Make someone's day better tomorrow and quit looking for someone to take care of you. You help take care of someone else. Realize the world is not about you.

I agree with what Dr. Dean had to say. I'd like to see our response be a strong and positive one.

I feel kind of funny about democrats using this hurricane disaster primarily as a political recruitment opportunity. I hope we’re careful about how we frame the politics and don’t restrict our emotions to anger over the response to a disaster that wouldn’t have been good under anyone’s leadership.

I don’t disagree that the hurricane response points to a core position about responsibility for the less fortunate that differentiates us from the right, but I'd like that positive difference to be our focus rather than blaming ineptitude. I fear there's enough of that to go around.

It’s hard for me to hold either “side” blameless for the lack of preparedness and negligent infrastructure maintenance that is responsible for most of the destruction under our current operating parameters.

What I’d really like to see is our democratic leadership take up the situation as a wake-up call and publicly question how we set our spending priorities in this country.

Today I heard Bill Frist (or someone from the right) characterize the democrats as ‘tax and spend’ liberals. I'll wear that label proudly if we define it properly.

I’m proud to belong to a party that recognizes it has an obligation as members of this republic to participate in caring for one another and pooling our resources to create and maintain infrastructure for the common good.

What differentiates us from the right is that we recognize that role of our collective government to work together to promote the public good, when appropriate, and do these things in anticipation of need, not only in response to it.

In the end, I think we should portray ourselves as far more fiscally responsible than the other side. Had we insisted on doing the needed infrastructure repairs to the levees in Louisiana at an appropriate time, it appears we’d likely have saved tens of billions of dollars and much hardship and heartache. Is that tax and spend? Call me a liberal.

If we work harder to educate more of our children, the costs will be returned a hundred-fold. Is that tax and spend? Call me a liberal.

I'd much rather spend my money that way than on a Halliburton contract to secure our cities from impoverished hordes desperate to grab a soaking stereo from a flooded outlet mall. Is that tax and spend? Call me a liberal.

I’d like to see our side stop blaming the right and instead, seize control by setting out guidelines for the discussion of spending priorities from here forward.

We should admit that we’re not blameless in allowing decisions about spending to be compromised by political expediency, but we should correct that behavior by taking the leadership to stake out a strong position that sets a responsible course of action that will not let such irresponsibility happen again.

Mr. Dean, good points but you sound very preachy. It's kind of a turn off. Although your speechifying /moralizing may be convincing to the already convinced core, it will be noise to the swing voters.

Hit 'em where it hurts:
1. Katrina. It's strike 3, after 9/11 and Iraq. It's the latest potentially preventable disaster helped along by a pattern of criminal neglect, stupidity and incompetence.

2. Rovegate. It's the worst scandal in American history. It's a huge smear campaign with an unprecedented coverup that duped us into a war with Iraq on the false pretense that there was good evidence that Iraq was about to obtain nuclear WMD. And you can take out Dr. Evil himself.

3. Iraq. The post-war reconstruction was criminal neglect. Thousands have died and hundreds of billions of our hard-earned dollars are being wasted. We want some accountability.

And please don't fall into the Republican trap of making a big stink on Roberts. You've got nothing on him that will convince swing voters. Hey, you can say you care more about the base than swing voters, but I can say that means you lose for sure. The only focus on Roberts should be why are we talking about all those ancient docs he says he can't remember much about, as opposed to the much more recent relevant ones the Republicans are inexplicably holding back!

AmericanPatriot and Christian American:

That is total baseless bullcrud. No christian I know of would support the Death Tax and cut all the taxes for the real estate brokers.

The real story behind the Death Tax.

If you want to tax anyone, let it be the corporations and not the poor. The greedy bastards like General Electric are taking billions which is making more poor people every damn day.

And the democrats need to be smart enough to jump all over this. You folks may say you are christian, but you do the opposite and actions speak louder than words.

No working american, middle-class or lower that I know would support the Death Tax.

Just like nobody would support suspending Davis-Bacon so you can create more poor people, who have to relocate.

Wake up to the world around you. The welfare system is not a Clinton boondoggle, its the result of corporate sponsored GOP death tax. You say that people should take care of themselves: That is bullshit. Not everyone is capable of taking care of themselves, or saving themselves. And anyone saying so is not a good american, they are a rich stuck up fool.

I don't need any lectures from a rich troglodyte. I earn everything I work for buddy, and I don't need your stupid death tax or your luxury cruiser taxes.

And you are positively greedy if you blame this bull on welfare programs. To reform welfare programs, we need to end the "tax breaks" first and get back to regular curbs on corporations. Corporate powerbrokers control who lives and dies. I don't want that anymore buddy. And most people don't want it either.

Howard Dean is dead on. We get rid of this BS right here and now, before 70% of small time companies go belly up. GOP says one thing and does another, that's the new tell tale. Say the truth. You aren't for the poor, you screw the poor over.

While you pretend to take care of them, and then fill your checkbooks. Jump on this tangent democrats, and ride it all the way home. They are the greedy old pastor party, and never WERE the party of the american taxpayer.

nick

Hhmmm. I'm bored. These blogs are old. The GOP's blogs are also too long. Everyone's writing; few are reading.

Is there anything we can do about thread management: specific thread topics maintained specific throughout and one all purpose "blab" thread. Limit the blog to 100 entries, as well?

Perhaps also varying your topics more than 1/month?

As a longtime Democrat, I would like to see us come up with someone like Karl Rove. Surely we have a strategist who can get the message out there consistently. Bush and his conservatives are so good at the spin, so can't we find our own public relations guru?
As for Judge Roberts, once Bush got re-elected, this issue is over for the American People. Our Congressional leaders showed how they would deal with radical judical nominee's by caving in and letting them all get appointed. And now, we want to be shocked that a right wing conservative will be appointed to the high court. Please. It's a done deal and so is the next one.
While I applaud Howard Dean for submitting articles for publication on this, I would prefer we get the truth about what is happening to our country on the airwaves. In one of the most colossal failures of our government, Hurricane Katrina, the conservatives are now "spinning" that it is the Mayor's fault and the Governors. While they can certainly share blame, the FEMA response is the real story.
Democrats cannot be politicaly correct and win the hearts and minds of this nation. I supported Governor Dean for President because he is a straight shooter and "tells it like it is". We must cut through the lies of the Republicans and "tell it like it is."

Governor,

I agree completely. It is time to rebuild, we do have to adress the poor, and we certainly must investigate the horrors we have witnessed. I would like to know about the following myself. Who was in charge of law enforcement keeping people from leaving New Orleans.

We held a mass meeting to decide a course of action. We agreed to camp outside the police command post. We would be plainly visible to the media and constitute a highly visible embarrassment to city officials. The police told us that we couldn’t stay. Regardless, we began to settle in and set up camp.

"In short order, the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge to the south side of the Mississippi, where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the city.

The crowd cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation, so was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, “I swear to you that the buses are there.”

We organized ourselves, and the 200 of us set off for the bridge with great excitement and hope. As we marched past the convention center, many locals saw our determined and optimistic group, and asked where we were headed. We told them about the great news.

Families immediately grabbed their few belongings, and quickly, our numbers doubled and then doubled again. Babies in strollers now joined us, as did people using crutches, elderly clasping walkers and other people in wheelchairs. We marched the two to three miles to the freeway and up the steep incline to the bridge. It now began to pour down rain, but it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm.

As we approached the bridge, armed sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions.

As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and the commander’s assurances. The sheriffs informed us that there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn’t cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the six-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans, and there would be no Superdomes in their city. These were code words for: if you are poor and Black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River, and you are not getting out of New Orleans." from The Real Hereos and Sheroes of New Orleans

Also about this:http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0908wsj-katrina-wealth08-ON.html

That goes to a Wall Street Journal article about the wealthy effectively ushering out the poor. I think our first moral choice should be to keep the "haves and the have mores" as Bush calls them, from barring New Orleans to its poorer residents. Thanks for speaking out

way to go Dr Dean. I voted for you in 2004, and you are the best choice for chair. The best way we can win back congress and the white house is to offer soulutions and give alt. ways of doing things other than the republican way. we are better. we care about people. Jesus cared about people, we have the moral ground, why are the evangelicals repub?

yet another idea. I must go to inner city St Louis to a hospital several times a year and am forced to interact with poor urban people.(I am poor white fairly well educated and rual)The biggest differece between me and some poor black man of the city is his music taste, and cars. Everything else is very similar. He wants a nice place to live, more for his family than he had, etc. I have much more i common with a poor black man than a rich white man. The biggest dividing factor is class not race. Race is used to keep the poor fighting each otther not the rich.Black are poor in greater percentage because of the past racism and lack of education which squashed oppertunity for future generations(now and future) to catch up.

Lets help all of our poor people by making our government accountable at all levels. Just pointing fingers at the White House may help our political cause but we need to clean house in our own party starting with Kathleen Blanco, Ray Nagin and our own chairman Howard Dean! Fortunately Geaorge Bush will not get another term but can we put together a victory march for 2008 with our current leadership? I think not.

On the cost of and aftermath of Katrinia - Why isn't the gov. accepting ALL the contributions other countries have offered? This would go a long way towards helping with the cost. We don't have to do it alone.

It's all well and good for the Party Chair to call for moral choices, but where the hell is the rest of the party. There are elected Republican officials ripping-off the tax-payer and BushCo cronies making billions securing uncontested contracts in Iraq and hurricane disaster areas, and not a word from the Party. I'm about this close to joining the Green Party!