Can I just take a moment for a shout-out to my mom? The DNC has basically finished off the dispute about Florida and Michigan, and despite some rumbling from some of the Clinton camp, the end result is that the delegates will be seated, the votes they count for will be diminished as punishment, and we are all free to move on to sealing the nomination for Barack Obama. Sorry, Mom, it's just that basically he won more delegates than she did.
dmsilev asked for a new thread for his diary. Here it is. We're doing lots of drinking here. Cheers to us. And jeers to Bush.
When dmsilev posted, there were not yet front page threads. Now there are of course, but if you want to stick with those of us who started out in his original thread, stick around. There's more wine (and lots of whine). I wish I to share it with you.
ORIGINAL DIARY--dmsilev said:
Don't see a diary or a front-page story, so why not?
There aren't going to be any surprises or anything. Bush sucks as a speech reader. We know this. He's going to try to elevate his legacy, such as it is. He will fail.
He'll get applauded now and again. Joe Lieberman will applaud fervently.
I've read with interest the various diaries that have begged and pleaded with the community to lower the level of vitriol in the candidate diaries. And I've read with disappointment a good number of the recent GBCW diaries, some of them from long-standing and long-loved members of this community. Many of those folks, luckily, are not bidding adieu forever--just until our nominee is settled.
Like them, I'm tired of the endless sniping, the flame wars, the over-the-top accusations being thrown around by some supporters of each of the candidates, and I"m even tired of the diaries (like this very one) that address this problem in a meta way.
So flip with me and read what I plan to do about it.
In another diary earlier today--a candidate diary, if you must know--I saw someone refer to Sen. Obama as "Mr. O." Hmm, I thought, Have we ever had an O president before? Thanks to the ever-handy dKosopedia I easily located a complete list of US Presidents and found the answer. Nope, no O presidents.
Mind the gap while we cross over to Alphabetville for a break from the candidate diary wars. Hey, let's whistle a little Mozart while we go (he wrote the Alphabet song, you know)....
My mother, now retired, worked in health insurance from the time she was 18 to the time she retired at 65 (with a brief hiatus for raising my sister and myself). She was in customer service, processing claims for, well you know, disgruntled patients who couldn't understand why the hell the insurance company wouldn't cover this or that or why there was a delay in a check being sent out. Not a fun job, but because of it, my mother has always been a great resource for our family's insurance needs. When the time came for me to restructure my business's insurance benefits for our employees, my mom was extremely helpful.
We're having a NYC meetup this Monday. But first...
I met the Clintons last night! Ran into them at an art opening at gallery in Midtown Manhattan. I said hello to Bill, but before I could even shake his hand or introduce myself someone grabbed his attention and he turned away. But I met Hillary and congratulated her on her big win. I told her that now that we've got the majority in the Senate we all want the Dems to agressively work to reverse the awfulness Bush has done to this country. She smiled and said "We're already hard at work at it!" Whatever, Hillary.
She looked great, and her hands were very soft. Anyway, the meetup. Details after the flip--
Alright, New Yorkers. I know how busy we all are. But it's time to get together and have a little party. It's called: WE WON!
As casperr said in her diary:
The first NYC meetup since the Dems took the House AND the Senate will take place on Monday evening at Yaffa's in Tribeca! It's time to celebrate our victories, lament our defeats, discuss our experiences, and start scheming about next steps.
Plans are coalescing, in a most last-minute way, for we NYC-area Kossacks to get together for a little post-election, pre-Thanksgiving celebrating!
Monday, November 20 is the day... The place is still being finalized. We could very well end up at one of the places we've been before (Yaffa in Tribeca, Mo' Pitkins in the East Village, etc...). I will update this diary with info as it comes up, or Casperr will post a new one.
Joe Conason, one of the most consistently straight-shooting political columnists, gives deserved props to Howard Dean in a short-but-sweet article in Salon (subscription or ad-view required).
Right from the headline--"Howard Dean, vindicated"--Conason lays out the story of how Dean's Big Idea as DNC Chairman poured the foundation for our victories on Tuesday night. Conason also throws us netsroots into the mix of folk deserving of credit:
Despite all the complaints and demands directed at him over the past 18 months, Dean stuck to his principles. He and his supporters in the netroots movement believed that their party needed to rebuild from the ground up in every state, including many where the party existed in name only. These Democrats prefer to think of their party as one of inclusion and unity. They openly disdain the divisive strategies of the Republicans who have so often used racial, regional and cultural differences to polarize voters.
My tolerance for George Bush's America is breaking. My patience with gay bashing is worn so thin that I sometimes think I will simply resort to violence.
In fact, that's what my boyfriend did last week. He was alone, admittedly more than tipsy on a few margaritas, and as he passed a hetero couple the woman made some comment on his boots and her boyfriend chimed in with "what a fag." This little 'insult' was spoken loudly, directly to my bf's face, just as he passed the couple on the sidewalk. He took a few more steps, turned around to face the couple, then simply walked up to guy, grabbed him by the collar, punched him in the face, pushed him down into some garbage cans, jumped on him to hit him again, took a punch to his own face, stood and kicked the guy in the ribs. Then he came to his senses, backed off, and left the couple behind him.
This is a diary about healthcare from a personal point of view. Certainly, many people know the ins and outs of this issue far far better than I do (I suggest reading nyceve if you want to learn lots about it!) . But last night I had a personal conversation that unsettled me deeply.
As someone who since 1995 has benefited from capitalism's best values--earning it yourself, relying on your team, sharing the pain and the glory--I can honestly say that the goals of capitalism, at least as it's practiced in this country, are at odds with the values I have as a person. I believe in helping those less fortunate. I believe in spending most of my profit to lift up those who earn less. The world doesn't work that way, and yet I continue doing my job in the hope to do better by the world. I myself am struggling to pay my monthly expenses, yet hoping to earn enough to give more of it away.
I've lived in New York for 13 years. One of my favorite aspects of living here, often overlooked by casual visitors and other residents alike, is the profound sense of American history one can conjure up simply by walking around. If you're taking a stroll along the winding streets of lower Manhattan, you might pass a church where George Washington once prayed. Or you might stumble on Federal Hall (really the US Customs House--the 19th-century descendent of the original Federal Hall, our nation's first capitol).
Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before. A Federal Government walks into a bar and says...
There's no punch line, because they don't say anything. They never say anything. They just take what they want.
First they started spying on us over the phone--without warrants, in a clear violation of FISA law. But just to up the ante on that one they recruited the major telcos to give them detailed info about all the other calls we make that they may not be listing in on. And now, The New York Times reports (free reg. required) that the same damn thing is happening with banking transactions.
Please allow me--by way of jumping on the I-Love-Brian-Schweitzer bandwagon--to kick the crutch from under the crippling reasoning of the radical right. Yesterday, Kos pointed us to Salon's hop up onto this very bandwagon, and as I read the entertaining, informative interview, I was stunned to see Schweitzer reframing, reprocessing, and rejecting the biggest lie of 'em all, the lie the lying right has used to create it's cesspool of violence, the lie that Lying Luntz likes to live by: "9/11 changed everything."
The last few weeks have been rather trying for me. You see, I love culture. And I love life. But you know, I hate Republicans, I hate what they're doing to this country, and I simply detest the phrase "culture of life." Every time I've read or heard that phrase during the sickening display of hatred and ignorance that's been the Republican take on the Schiavo matter, I literally want to vomit.
Flip with me, and let's do away with this so-called "culture of life."
Social Sites, Social Get-togethers, Social Security: Speak Up!
One thing we know from November 2 is that neighbors talking to neighbors is the best grassroots communication there is. The debate about Social Security which is growing larger every day needs a serious injection of progressive thought. The government--the Repubs and a lot of Dems--and the media are all using the Republican frames and terminology to discuss this issue.
I'm writing this diary to ask dKos members to plant some seeds of progressive framing and progressive language into the interpersonal conversations we'll all be having about Social Security. Raise your egg nog to a hugely successful program! More below the fold.
