Meet Tim Mahoney

Right now every Democrat in the state should be celebrating Howard Dean's fifty state strategy of contesting every congressional district in the country. Not only has lightning struck, it has struck twice. First there was Tom DeLay's vacant seat in TX-22. Now we have FL16 wide open for a shot. This is a shout out for Tim Mahoney, formely Mark Foley's opponent. Since Mr. Foley decided risking suggestionable advances on 16 year old pages was more important than running for Congress Mr. Mahoney suddenly has an excellent shot at picking up a Congressional seat for the Dems. As far as I can tell, the current rules stipulate that Mr. Foley's resignation was to late in the process to have his name removed from the ballot. Though his name will remain any opponent the State GOP can come up with will receive all votes cast for Mr. Foley on the ballot. This seat under Mr. Foley was a sure bet "safe seat." You can now mark this seat "leans Dem." Please visit Tim's web site here. Drop by and throw a few bucks his way. Trust me, it's worth it.

The Deafening Silence From The Self-Righteous

It's still fresh in my memory. The GOP's hand wringing moralizing about the Clinton WH and Monica Lewinsky. "What will we tell the children?" became the crying question of anguish. It seems they were so wrought with indignation the only recourse was impeachment. A consentual sex-act between adults outside the sacred institution of marriage the GOP keeps harping about was just to much to bear. Impeachment HAD to be the only recourse.

This brings us to Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL16). His resignation Friday regarding suggestive e-mails and Instant Messages to two underage Congressional pages has rocked the GOP 39 days before the November mid-term elections. Mr. Foley was a strong supporter of anti-gay marriage amendments as well as a supporter of President Clinton's impeachment. Mr. Foley's suggestive come-ons to two 16 year old Congressional pages who happen to be males only serves to underline the hypocracy of Mr. Foley's Congressional career as the Co-Chair of the Missing & Exploited Chidren caucus.

What's almost as interesting though is the deafening silence from the religious right. This silence has been particularly evident regarding the debate on torture as an official policy of the detainee bill. You would think that a scandal involving underage children and elected members of Congress would draw a cresendo of indignation from the likes of Falwell and Robertson. But so far, silence. I think this is very noteworthy. It will be interesting to see how long this silence lasts as the scandal unfolds and the subsequent cover-up. The party of "Traditional Family Values" indeed.

Shame.

Right now I'm thinking about my late father, a veteran of three wars. I'm thinking about the America he risked his life for. I'm thinking about the America that existed when he was alive. This evening I'm wondering where that America is. Where is my country and where did it go? As a Democratic Party activist I've had to endure the GOP calling me un-American. I"ve been called a baby killer for my pro-choice stance. I"ve been called anti-God because of my belief in separation of Church and State. I"ve been called angry because I"m a sore loser.

This evening I watched in horror as the GOP, the party that says it's with God, with a spineless Democratic Party on the sidelines watching, gut our constitution and leave us with an unelected President with power to arrest anyone he pleases with authorization to torture at will and leave incarcirated for as long as he wishes without due process. This isn't my country. This is a dictatorship.

I post this upside down flag - a signal of distress- to a moribound and hapless Democratic Party. I'm asking them to save us. Please. There is no one else left to turn to. There is no one else to call to for help. I'm asking the party to take stock and heal thy self. Please, before it's to late.

And to Senator Bill Nelson who voted for this unconscionable act: I hope you roast in hell. You just spat on my late father's grave and the service of my brother to his country. With this vote you just spat on the service of anyone who will chose service to their country. You've authorized other countries to torture if they are captured because we now do the same. A pox on you Senator. I' won't be voting for you in November. I can't vote for Katherine Harris either. Neither one of you deserve my vote.

New Vice Chair Elected To Duval County DEC

This evening Travis Bridges, a veteran and long standing local DEC and Democratic Party member, was elected to fill the empty Vice-Chair slot vacated by previous Vice Chair, Kevin Saunders, in his run for a county judge seat on the DEC this evening. A hearty congratulations to him and the entire DEC membership for making such a wise choice.

Travis is a dedicated and one of the hardest working volunteers in the entire DEC and a more deserving person could not have been selected. As of this posting there are 45 days left before the election making this a critical time for local Democrats to take action and make a difference. I'll be doing what I can and letting everyone know about any local news of interest.

African-Americans a monolithic voting bloc?
Don't bet on it....

I was just over at Daily Kos and commenting on baltimoremom's post MD Sen Why would black Democrats support Steele. My comment to her post was a basic concern about the way the Democratic Party treats it's African-American base and how easily it would be to take them for granted. One has to hope the Democratic Party does not assume they are a monolithic voting bloc by nature. They are, after all, intelligent human beings that make decisions on their very own. Imagine that. There is a racist under tone to thinking otherwise and believing they are like sheep and vote in lock step on que like somekind of robots within the Democratic Party. (Though there is a tendency to think of the GOP base like that!) We as Democrats had damn well better remember that.

Another reason is the growth of the African American middle class. Economic factors vary and have verying affects on voter outlook. I am not implying that prosperity automatically makes one drift toward the GOP. (A perfect example is myself, as I get older and better situated economically, the more entrenced I become as a Democrat underlining my liberal beliefs). What I AM saying is once you are in an economic position that gives you some discretionary spending, it allows one to factor in tangental reasons that have nothing to do with politics (i.e. religion, geography, domestic situation and e.t.c) to affect party affiliation or individual decisions on a candidate without taking in consideration party labels.

I'm always angry when the GOP makes claims (i.e. Affirmative Action policies) the Democratic Party wants to treat African-Americans as a special interest group and give them special priviliges other Americans do not enjoy. As Democrats we need to get a grip and start addressing issues that affect us all as human beings and pay special attention to issues that are of concern to African Americans (i.e. voter registration and polling access without being challenged) and let them know the Democratic Party is the party of EVERYONE without taking SOME for granted. All one can ask for is a level playing field and equal access to the American Dream. Or what's left of it before the GOP finishes with it.

It's my party and I'll deny it if I want to......

Nothing ticks me off more than a Democrat that won't admit their party affiliation in their paid media buys and presence. Over at his Bill Nelson for Senate web site the words 'Democratic Party' are as rare as a steak in a vegetarian's kitchen. The same goes for his T.V. ads. When your opponent is Katherine Harris, of all people, you should be able to shout to the whole world you are in fact a proud member of the Democratic Party. If he's so reticent to identify his party affiliation during this race than I have no other recourse than to assume he has a problem with it himself.

Though he gets my vote in November, it won't be without my nose being held. You can almost call him the Joe Lieberman of the South. Two votes that illustrate this comparison are his votes on Alito and the Bankruptcy Bill (S.256). His cloiture motion vote and then his subsequent vote against Alito is the perfect example of the "I was for him before I was against him" comparison. Then this unexplainable vote for the bankruptcy bill has every Democrat in the state reaching for a clothes-pin for the nose upon entering the voting booth. Next time I'm looking for a primary opponent I can vote for. All I want is a real Democrat, not a Republican lite.

Get a grip Senator Bill

With Democrats like these....

I was listening to a podcast of Lanny Davis, former Clinton WH advisor, in an interview with Al Franken on Thursday's Air America broadcast and I was somewhat dumbfounded. What an idiot. Where do we find these guys? In the interview he talked about how much he liked Bush and Rove and they were personal friends of his. This after Franken repeatedly gave examples of Rove's tactics such as Max Cleland and the whisper campaign he had against former Gov. and recently passed Ann Richards. Davis insisted they were not bad people and this was just politics.

Is it any wonder the Democratic Party keeps getting its assed kicked on a regular basis? Davis said he went to school with and socialized with Bush during their college years. Oh, and what a great guy he was. I not sure of the symmetry here when he's discussing someone who hasn't attended one funeral for a fallen soldier in his Iraq war. This is the same human being who's "administration" assured us many times the war would only cost us 1.7 billion dollars. We would be greeted as liberators. We would only be there for a few months and then leave. The lies told by this WH would take most of the night for me to document. Yet, Lanny Davis seemed as though he was oblivious to all this.

You can go here and listen to the entire interview. Al really hammers him for the things he said in his book and editorials the right keeps using for fodder against other Democrats. Too bad he can't get Lieberman on his show and run him through the ringer as well.

It's nice to be back....

Well my little hiatus should be over. The new addition to our family was, and still is, taking a lot of my free time. She is a beautiful little bouncing girl we are looking to adopt through the foster program. She was 8 months old on the 4th and she is a sheer joy and delight. I've spent every waking moment with her so far since May when we got her. I haven't had so much joy since my wedding day. Though like most new dad's I'm dying to show that wallet photo, privacy issues forbid me from posting a photo until the adoption becomes legal. After that, there will be many.

It's time to get back to the fight against the GOP world that's invading our consciousness with intolerance, torture, illegal wars and......well, you get my meaning. It's good to be back. I hope the few readers I had will come back as well.