W's appeal explained

My friend, Mike, forwarded this to me. If you need a laugh, check it out. You won't be disappointed.

Russell Bates, Comedy Central:

Harlan McCraney

DNC vs DLC?

From what I've read & heard, the main problem with our party is that we are split into two camps: the liberal Democrats (us) and the centrist DLC (Democratic Leadership Council) Democrats. To me, they are Republican-lites.

Of course, I'll take ANY Democrat over another Republican any day, but we should be aware of this.

From Daily Kos:

...Keep chasing the "vital center", and you'll prevent the Democratic Party from standing for core principles. The GOP polls to find the best ways to sell their agenda, the Democratic Party polls to find that "vital center", and then demands its politicians chase after those popular positions.

Yet time and time again, the public rewards those with convictions (Feingold, anyone?), and punishes those who wanter the political landscape aimlessly, with no moral compass or overarching core philosophy.

The netroots and grassroots both get it. The DLC doesn't. Instead of working as a team, they want to divide. They want to excommunicate certain Democrats from the party. They are as bad as the single-issue groups they love to decry. They are the enemy within. And Democrats that associate with them are telegraphing who they stand with.

Read the whole article here.

Best slogan so far: Karl Rove: The Voice of Treason

Email I received from MoveOn.org:

Dear MoveOn member,

It's been almost a week since we all started writing letters-to-the-editor about the Karl Rove CIA-leak scandal. So far a whopping 34,928 letters have been written by MoveOn members. That's a new record for us. The media is beginning to report on Rove again, but we need to create some buzz—the sort of public outrage you can see when you're walking down the street.

That's why we want to create a downloadable poster that you can print out and hang up in your office, home, locker, car and wherever else seems right. But here's the thing: we aren't quite sure about the right slogan to write on the poster.

Somebody suggested just putting up, "Fire Karl Rove." Another favorite was, "Fire the Liars." We thought the best thing to do was to open the slogan-writing to all MoveOn members. If you've got the slogan-writing bug you can take a couple of minutes to suggest something at the link below. If you don't have one in mind, you're welcome to read them and rate them.

Fire Karl Rove Slogan Contest

The collective ratings of MoveOn members will decide the winner. Slogan writing and rating ends at 8:00 PM Eastern on Tuesday, August 2, 2005. We'll then have a professional graphic artist design the downloadable poster that is the right size to print on a desktop printer and e-mail to all 3.5 million MoveOn members (with credit in the e-mail to the slogan's author). If you're the winner, we'll send you a framed copy of your poster in full-color.

The best slogans are short, witty and sometimes combine different clichés. For example, two years ago President Bush made now-infamous statements about "regime change" in Iraq. One slogan writer suggested, "Regime Change Begins at Home" as a good poster to kick off MoveOn's election efforts. It was short and witty. A lot of people downloaded and hung up that sign. If that happens this time, the poster is one way we can get the message out about Karl Rove's leak of the identity of an undercover CIA agent. (Did I mention that the slogan absolutely needs to be short?)

What should the poster slogan communicate? It should be solely about the Karl Rove scandal and his lies, but if it's generally applicable to the Bush administration, that's even better. (Examples: "Fire Karl Rove" or "Fire the Liars") But the judges are MoveOn members—impress all of us!

This poster campaign can begin to get the buzz going about Karl Rove and it will be fun too. We encourage you to check back periodically to see how different slogans are doing. Just click below to get started with your poster slogan or rate the slogans of other MoveOn members.

We're using MoveOn's ActionForum to let hundreds of thousands of people pour over all of the slogan submissions and vote on them. It is really easy and simple to use.

Thanks for all you do.

–Tom, Jennifer, Eli, Marika and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team Thursday, July 28th, 2005

P.S. MoveOn members who live in the Washington-DC-area have been helping out in some extra ways. Hundreds of them showed up at three different protests to express public outrage about the Karl Rove scandal. They carried colorful signs and the video footage and photos from these protests have contributed to a lot of press coverage about the Rove scandal. Both Time and Newsweek magazines last week included four column photos. That's a circulation of 4 million among each publication. All the TV networks, The New York Times, the Associated Press and elsewhere covered the protests. Check out some photos from their protests at the link below.
http://political.moveon.org/firerove/photos.html?id=5868-3340402-83LWWfBD.GdfdyOQtFHXMw

New family member

A few months ago, Tom and I started talking about getting a bird. I have had birds in the past, so I knew what I was getting into. I did a lot of research and narrowed it down to three species: an African Grey, Eclectus, and parrotlet. In the end, I chose an African Grey parrot.

I found a breeder and put down a deposit on a 6 month old. (I didn't buy it outright because I don't have a cage yet.) We think it's a female, but we won't be 100% sure until I have a DNA test.

The bird will need a name. I usually chose people's names for my pets, but I'm not sure what to do with this one. I could pick a name that would blend well with my dogs names, Norman & Stella. Or, I could go with an African name. However, my favorite names are the ones that you would appreciate - Wellstone or Kennedy, but my family doesn't like those very much (for a bird.)

Any ideas?


African Grey parrot (not mine.)

My girl

Stella looking up and giving me a big smile.

In an insane world, my dogs help to keep me sane...although some may disagree with that last part..

My boy

Norman & I hangin out in the backyard, on a hot summers day.

Pop Quiz: This pic cuts off the last letter on my shirt. What is it?

(Am I) Jaded, or right?

Maybe it's just me, but whenever something big and/or horrible happens, my immediate thought is that Karl Rove had a hand in it. I think this prick would do or say anything to further his agenda (or at least keep his job.) Personally, I wouldn't put anything past him. Anything.