Trip to NM
Here are a few pictures from my recent trip to NM
What’s next? I Have No Idea.
I tried writing this nice conciliatory post about how silver the lining to this awful election loss really is, but I keep coming across little anecdotal snippets of people who waited in line for 10 hours in Ohio, 6 hours in Florida, and 4 hours in VA (my brother and sister-in-law) and I can’t quite get over the sneaking suspicion that the election was stolen. I just cannot believe that people would wait in line for a whole damned day to vote for the status quo. How many people could truly be that afraid of gay people getting married or whatever “moral values” means? Of course, like I said, these stories are all anecdotal and therefore don’t, include verifiable evidence of fraud. I still wonder why Kerry folded so fast. I think he should have waited the 11 days for the provisional count in Ohio and had his legal team kick over as many stones as possible in the interim. I think he failed us there, but there is nothing any of us can do about that, and I can’t hold it against him.
On top of that I heard Bush’s press conference this morning and I almost had a stroke. His arrogance goes to 11.
At this moment, my political feelings can best be summed up by the chorus to the Bloodhound Gang’s “The Roof is on Fire”. It’s probably not constructive to feel that way, but that’s the way it is.
I don’t have any answers. I don’t know what the Democratic Party is supposed to do now. I don’t know who should lead it. I don’t know if they should swing right or left or spin around in circles. I do think there is a lot of entrenchment and inertia in the party hierarchy on all levels and somehow that needs to be cleaned out. Of course I don’t have a clue about how to do it
My gut tells me that some really bad things are going to happen in the next 4 years. I hope to God that’s not the case, but, if the far right really is allowed to fulfill its agenda, I hope it wakes people up to the fact that the most pressing social problem in the nation is not gay marriage.
There are a few slivers of silver, I guess. On a personal level, I have made a lot of friends and gotten to know people I would never have met had I not become involved in the political process. Those friendships will carry on. We’ll need each other for moral support.
On a larger, less personal level, we on the left have some nascent institutions that weren’t there in 2000. We now have groups like the Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America, MoveOn, ACT, the New Democrat Network, and Democracy for America. We have a new media outlet in Air America that will continue to grow. We have an online community that has real power when it is united (see Dean and Sinclair). We need to support all of this stuff and probably more so than the party apparatus. If I had to guess, I would say these new institutions are where our success lies and our new leadership and direction should come from.
For now, I am going to take a step back from activism in the purely political realm. For the immediate future, I’m going to focus my energy on getting involved in my community. Initially I have chosen to volunteer with an organization that mentors kids in inner-city public schools. I feel that I can make a difference there, and Lord knows public school kids will need all the help they can get in the shadow of No Child Left Behind. I think a lot of Democrats who don’t know what to do next would do well to try the same. It can only be good for the soul after this awful, brutal campaign. On top of that, secular non-profits are really hurting right now. They need help and they are surely not going to get it from this faith-based administration.
As for this blog, all I know right now is that I have no desire to spend the next four years posting articles about Bush Administration atrocities. Others can do that. Additionally, as much as I enjoy it, I will probably not post many articles about process. I think that was part of the problem with the Democratic effort this time. Many of us, myself included, got too focused on polls and strategy and electability and just being anti-Bush. Somewhere in all that mess we lost our message, or at least allowed it to be diffused. The truth is I don’t want to be solely against something anymore. That sucks up too much energy. I want to be for something. Maybe I can use this blog to figure out what that should be. At the very least it will be a convenient place to post pictures of my cats and dogs.
So that’s it for now. It’s over. And it sucks. But we are still here and we have to move forward.
Stranded!
This morning, as Mrs. get donkey! was leaving for the day, I noticed that I had a flat tire. I have changed a lot of flats in my day, but never on this vehicle. I went about assembling all the tools and the jack and all. When I tried to loosen the lug nuts, however, I soon noticed that the lug wrench was too shallow for the rounded lug nuts on the wheel. I huffed and puffed for a good hour, but finally, I had to give up. I ended up calling roadside assistance. They promised that someone would arrive in a bout 30-40 minutes. That was about an hour ago. I am now told it will be another 30 minutes or so. At least this all happened in my driveway, and I am stranded at home and not on the side of I-45 or something. It is kind of embarrassing to have roadside assistance come to your house, however.
How the News is Created
Thank you to Marc, who emailed me the finest piece of political journalism you will see this year.
It’s a piece by Jon Stewart describing how GOP talking points pervade the news without any question or research. I don’t want to say anything else about it. If you haven’t seen it yet, got watch it now.
Afternoon Radio Treat
At 1PM this afternoon, my local Pacifica station (KPFT 90.1) broadcast a special show hosted by HCDP chair Gerry Binberg with special guest the Hon. Chris Bell. The topic, of course, was Bells ethics complaint filing against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. About five minutes into the show, after Rep. Bell briefly laid out the substance of his complaint, Gerry started to take calls, and who should call in by Rep John Culberson, a Republican and backer of Tom DeLay. Hilarity ensued.
Of course instead of engaging Bell on the substance of his complaint John Culberson employed the time-honored GOP defense style of attacking the messenger personally. The two main thrusts of Culbersons “defense” of DeLay were that Bell was a “pathetic loser” and that the complaints were based on things that happened at least a year ago. Culberson also dismissed the alleged ethics violations as “garbage” simply because Tom DeLay himself said they were untrue and Tom DeLay, to paraphrase, is an honest man with nothing but the interest of his constituents in his heart. Any time Bell tried to speak to the substance of the alleged violations, Culberson called him a sad loser that was trying to talk over him. In reality, the only person that came across as laughable and pathetic was Culberson.
There was also a caller that first tried to represent herself as a disinterested party that didnt care about things like campaign contributions to Tom DeLay. When Bell tried to explain to her why there was more to it than that, she immediately began attacking his motives and revealed herself as a GOP partisan (after, of course, whining that the show was partisan which was laughable since it was being broadcast on a radio station that is unabashedly liberal). It was great radio.
Now, Bell did try explain that the reason why this complaint is coming out now was that it had taken time for his office to build their case against Delay and there were delays (NPI) in their investigation due to Bells attention being focused on his own primary campaign. He said that it didnt matter when he filed the complaint, because he would have been criticized whether he won his primary election or not. He also said that if in the unlikely event it turns out that there is nothing to his complaint, he will gladly take his lumps.
The news out of the show was that the House Ethics committee, from what I understood, had ruled that there was enough to Bells complaint to examine it further and not dismiss it. This news is good. Bell pointed out that this committee is actually balanced in the ratio of Democrats to Republicans, so it will be harder for DeLays cronies to simply brush this matter under the rug.
Again, it was a great show. Hopefully KPFT will either re-broadcast it or at least put an audio file of it up on their website. If so, be sure to listen.
Great Kerry Piece
Via the comments on an Atrios post, Here is a link to Charles Pierce’s fantastic Eqsuire write-up on John Kerry:
The Misunderestimation of John Kerry
It’s long, but it’s worth your time.
As if you didn’t already know
Chicago Tribune public editor, Don Wycliff pens a piece about how the press protects President Bush.
Here is a sample:
Why is the Democrat-loving, Republican-hating, pond scum-swilling, lower-than-the-rug-on-the-floor, biased, liberal [curl upper lip when pronouncing] press protecting George W. Bush?
You don’t believe it’s happening? Well, then, tell me about the furor over W’s speech last week to a joint meeting in Washington of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Newspaper Association of America.
You didn’t hear about it?
That’s the proof.
If the press were not protecting Bush, you’d have read in your Chicago Tribune–or Washington Post or New York Times or Wall Street Journal or USA Today–that he delivered one of the most confusing, inarticulate public addresses since … well, some people would say since his press conference a week earlier.
As it was, those hopelessly biased reporters who cover Bush overlooked the mangled syntax, penetrated the rhetorical fog and extracted some usable lines from the dross and manufactured stories that had the president sounding, if not quite statesmanlike, then at least intelligible.
The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller led with Bush’s response to a poll that showed the majority of Americans expect another terrorist attack in the U.S. before the November election. “Well, I understand why they think they’re going to get hit again,” Bush was quoted as saying. “This is a hard country to defend.”
The Washington Post focused on his remarks about Iran’s effort to acquire nukes. “The Iranians need to feel the pressure from the world that any nuclear weapons program will be uniformly condemned–it’s essential that they hear that message,” the president was quoted.
Neither The Wall Street Journal nor the Tribune carried a story about the speech per se, although the Tribune carried an Associated Press story that wove one quote from the speech into a story on the unexpectedly high costs of the Iraqi excursion. “The Iraqi people are looking at Americans and saying, `Are we going to cut and run again?’” the quote ran. “And we’re not going to cut and run if I’m in the Oval Office.”
I hope we start to see more columns like this.
A little perspective
I am getting old and cranky.
I am reading through the Kerry-bashing comments on the Kos, and the first thing that keeps popping into my head is “silly kids”. Its really starting to annoy me.
I know Kerry isn’t being real exciting right now, but he certainly knows the politics. It would be silly for him to be constantly throwing red-meat at the left now that we are in the general election. I think some people forget that not even half the people in this country are liberal. Kerry needs to win some of the more centrist people over, and it’s going to take a while to do it. A lot of people are still in a haze over everything this country has been through in the last 3 years. Not everyone has been paying as close attention as the average left-wing blogger. Kerry needs to be careful not to alienate people by appearing in any way extreme.
That’s not to say that Kerry is above criticism, but we Dems who have been choking on our outrage for the last three years should give him a bit of slack while he tries to fine-tune his message and bring the rest of the country up to speed. We still have a long way to go until November 2. A lot can and will happen.
Anyway, how anyone could be upset that an incumbent wartime President who was polling in the high 60’s and 70’s less than a year ago is now polling even with a challenger that hardly anyone in middle-America knows anything about is beyond me. Back on April 20, 2003, I would never have dreamed we Democrats would have been in as good of shape as we are now.
Look at how much has changed in the political landscape just since the beginning of just this year. It’s unreal.
You know what? I’m not cranky, I’m pretty darn happy.
BTW, for another heaping helping of perspective, check out this other Kos post
get donkey! Perpetuates Stupid Bumper Sticker Memes For You!
Not seen this weekend on a Volvo S40 driven by a sullen, Birkenstock-wearing, Latte swiller…
“Widowed by Dean, Flirted with Edwards, Slowly Coming to Accept the Crushing Reality of an Arranged Marriage to Kerry.”
get donkey! Presents: Less than Great Moments in iPod Shuffle-Play Music Criticism
The pulsing bass-line and pounding drumbeat of The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” when juxtaposed with the tender lilt of Diana Krall’s take on the time-honored chestnut, “Let’s Fall in Love”, engorges you with the throbbing pangs of teenage lust, yet also leaves you longing for the warm, loving arms of Estelle, your wife of sixty years. It is a feeling at once titillating and strangely disquieting, so much so that you experience the need to scoop a dollop of it atop fresh strawberries and devour it followed by a snifter of fishhooks.
My New Daily News Online Article is up
Is There a Case for a Two-Man Race?
John Edwards’ close second in the Wisconsin primary could possibly create a speed bump in John Kerry’s road to the Democratic nomination. Now that Dean is done, the media seems to be itching for a two-man race. Should Democrats give them one?- full story
I’m still here
One of these days I really need to give this blogging thing a try.
For all you folks living in Houston City Council District H who have no clue who to vote for in order to stop Hector Longoria from winning…
I met 3 of the candidates in the race so far.
Richard Cantu, who is a longtime Democrat. Very brief, nice to meet you and good luck type of conversation.
Adrian Garcia, also a Dem. Seemed like a nice guy.
And the current get donkey! favorite…
Diana Davila Martinez– used to be a state Rep (1995-1999), Harvard Grad, and a Dean supporter. Stopped by the group of us marching in yesterday’s Heights Festival parade for a brief chat.
I did not get to meet Gonzalo Camacho, though I did just find his website this morning, and am interested in finding out more since my local coffee shop/hangout is supporting him (well at least they have signs out front).
In other news, I am still alive. I have been lurking a lot more than posting lately, mostly because I feel like I don’t have anything new to contibutribute what with the other bloggers of the world doing such an excellent job. Additionally most of my free time has been consumed with working on Dean stuff, and I don’t want this space to become a Dean blog (although I may be posting on a new Dean for Texas campaign blog soon).
I expect this place to be pretty quiet between now and the Texas Democratic primary if it is still held on March 2 (which isn’t looking to good right now). I’ll try to stop in now and again to keep the page from going totally blank. I’m also planning on posting my endorsements for the upcoming Houston election, although I bet there are all of four people who are even remotely interested in hearing who I support.
Oh, before I forget. Many months ago, a man by the name of Nathan Rudy asked me to post a link to his campaign site. Unfortunately his email got buried in a sea of spam, and I didn’t find it again until I cleaned out my inbox this weekend.
Nathan and his running mate Kimberly Francois are running for Freeholder in Somerset County, NJ.
According to Mr. Rudy, “a County Freeholder is primarily responsible for managing county parks and roads, and also for setting the budget and public policy priorities for the county. The latter job is pretty much setting the
$$s that go to the County Clerk, Sherrif, Prosecutor and Surrogate to
run their offices’.
If Nathan wins, it will be the first time a Democrat has held the office in 24 years.
So whether you live in Somerset County or not, please swing by Nathan’s site, and see what he is all about.
And Nathan, I apologize that it took me so long to post the link.
Until next time, that’s all from your get donkey! internet funtime pal.
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.
One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.
So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968
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