Donations for Change

OK, I don't normally do this- full disclosure- this is a message asking you to help fund a political campaign.

However, I truly believe that we need a new direction in the United States and I believe Barack Obama is the candidate best suited to help us break the chains of the usual polemic, for these reasons:

1. I believe is time for a new generation to take over and clean up the messes left by Republicans and Democrats alike. I believe that this country has turned a corner. My generation has seen the mistakes made by the last four Presidents to hold office. Politicians from other generations have had their chance at leadership and they have failed, ethically and practically. We need a change.

2. I believe we have moved past the need for Manichean worldviews and a domestic policy based upon division into "interest groups." I tire of being told I should vote for a candidate because they look like me or sound like me. I shudder at being pigeon-holed as a "red" or "blue" American. We do not need a Caucasian candidate, nor a male candidate (or female, for that matter,) we need the BEST candidate.

3. I believe it is time for our next great American President. As a free-minded citizen, I do not require leadership, I am part of it. In order to reunite these United States, we need a candidate with charisma and chutzpah, who understands the internal workings of government but has enough credibility with those who feel "outside" the mainstream to reach a wider audience.

I believe that Barack Obama stands in upon a precipice few leaders in our nation's history have had the courage to brave. Men like Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King have held the honor and unique responsibility of healing and uniting a wounded citizenry. Barack Obama holds qualities that I believe make him, like these men were for their
times, a leader for our times.

Please join me, if you agree, in supporting Barack by making a donation to my personal fundraising page:


http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/TankTX

MBT

Hair!

See the best YouTube campaign spot yet:



I'll bet there are a lot of sheepish Republicans after they see this...

MBT

Barack to the Future

It is time.

I was an at-large delegate to the 2004 Texas Democratic Convention voting for John Edwards. I have supported Edwards since early on in the primary process for the last Presidential election. I believe John Edwards is a good man and would make a great President. So please don't interpret this as any slight towards Edwards.

"If" Barack Obama runs for President in 2008 (all but a foregone conclusion,) I have pledged as much support as I can muster to his campaign. I do this for three reasons:

1. I believe is time for a new generation to take over and clean up the messes left by Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Cheney. I believe that this country has turned a corner in its overall direction. My generation has seen the mistakes made by the last three. Politicians from these groups have had their chance at leadership and they have failed, ethically and practically. We need a change.

2. I believe we have moved past the need for Manichean worldviews and a domestic policy based upon division into "interest groups." I tire of being told I should vote for a candidate because they look like me or sound like me. I do not need a Caucasian candidate, nor a male candidate, I need the BEST candidate.

3. I believe it is time for our next great American President. As a free-minded citizen, I do not require leadership, I allow leadership. In order to reunite these United States, we need a candidate with charisma and chutzpah, who understands the internal workings of government but has enough credibility with those who feel "outside" the mainstream to reach a wider audience.

I believe that Barack Obama stands in upon a precipice few leaders in our nation's history have had the courage to brave. Men like Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King have held the honor and unique responsibility of healing and uniting a wounded citizenry. Barack Obama holds unique qualities that I believe make him, like these men were for their times, a leader for our times.



MBT

Three Pressing Issues For One America

This is a post I recently made answering a question posed at the One America blog. It concerned what I believe are the top three issues facing us today as a country. Putting aside the obvious "getting out of Iraq" and "Republican leadership learning how to tell the truth," which I have just about given up on happening, this was my reply:

Number one for me would have to be education. Even though it has become a cliché, I believe that an educated population is one that has the ability to solve many of the other problems which plague us. People who have received an education commit fewer crimes, are more productive for society, vote, can figure out long-term solutions to problems rather than focusing on short-term thinking and on down the line. My parents were both teachers and I have seen firsthand how little education really matter to politicians from both parties. If we truly wanted to improve our public schools in the United States we would study how the best schools, both public and private, are run and utilize their methods. We would also pay teachers like the professionals they are- perhaps we could also exempt them from paying taxes- all taxes (along with cops and firefighters.) Spend $5 billion of that emergency funding for The War (tm) on reforming our education system in a way that benefits students rather than administrations and political careers.

Number two would be health care. It is sickening, all puns intended, that our country is ranked in the middle of several "third-world" nations in infant mortality rates and other health care statistics. In a nation as prosperous as ours, no citizen should have to worry about whether a problem with their health will be taken care of if it arises, period. There are successful models we could follow and improve upon if we really valued the well-being of our people over the profitability of corporations ruining our health care system- Big Pharma, Big Insurance and the like.

Number three in my opinion is one we MUST tackle before 2006. We desperately need election reform and election finance reform in our country. We must make sure EVERY citizen has an equal chance to vote and that everybody's vote counts. We need to investigate ways to increase the convenience of the voting process. We should make Election Day an official holiday that companies must honor by law. We should nationalize uniform voting procedures and election law. And there MUST be a paper trail to ensure that if a recount is necessary an individual's vote cannot be tampered with in any way. We have several states that have taken steps to make sure citizens from every economic strata have the chance to run for office- this should be the model for a nationalized set of campaign finance reform initiatives.

MBT

Hungry for Hope Over Fear

OK. Enough mourning. To use a cliche, it is time to Move On :-)

The Left will regather, revive and retake what was lost on November 2. Remember- WE REPRESENT 1/2 of the NATION! The opposition is trying to make it looks as if they hold some sort of mandate or majority but the FACT is that our nation is still split down the middle. What we need to do is figure out a way to communicate our message more effectively to 2-5% of the people, especially those in rural communities. It can and will be done. Howard Dean and John Edwards managed to do so during the primaries- old-liners couldn't see past Kerry's seniority and foreign policy expertise to realize that is not necessarily what would win in 2004. Kerry and his handlers allowed the opposition too much latitude in framing the issues. The party bigwigs were dead-set on Kerry from day one and ignored the populist groundswell behind Dean at first and Edwards later. We will do BETTER than that in 2006 and 2008.

Look at our own Chet Edwards as an example of how to win in the rural south. Chet won handily in a Tom DeLay imposed new Texas district specifically designed to oust him. How? By being genuinely himself. He managed to appeal to the middle without dismissing the hard Left. He never tried to appear as something he is not. This allowed him to come off as the rational choice and pushed his opponent to hard-right stances that alienated mainstream voters. He did this right in w's backyard.

Look to Barrack Obama in Illinois. Granted, he had virtually no real opposition- Ryan fled in scandal, Keyes is, come on, Keyes. But he is an electrifying speaker who presents himself well and understands how to tell his story and make it relate to you. Kind of like a guy I remember who won in 1992 and 1996...

People WANT to be inspired- they are HUNGRY to hear about real hope. It has to be communicated directly though- face it, we are a blunt-edged society where B.S. can be smelled from an inch away. In that environment, true statesmen like Edwards and Obama stand as breaths of fresh air. It is NOT about "values trump jobs" as the media and Karl Rove will tell you. Its about communicating clearly and standing behind what you say.

THAT is how we'll win in 2006 and 2008.

MBT

Field Report- Texas Democratic Convention

I always thought I had a stomach for politics. Politicians and the political process have long fascinated me. I have never shied away from situations requiring a little political gamesmanship. In fact I have always been drawn to them.

One of my early childhood memories involves politics. I can recall being greatly upset by Jimmy Carter’s performance in a key debate against Ronald Reagan in 1980. I was five years old.

About a year earlier I had sent a letter to President Carter and had received a signed glossy and postcard from The White House as a response. This is a big part of
why I became a Democrat later in life. That and the fact that my mother and grandparents were and are currently Democrats, excepting my grandmother’s vote in 2000 for- ugh- Bush. But we blame that on a stroke she suffered a bit earlier that year.

I never saw the end of the contest. My bedtime was 8:00 pm, which was the midpoint of the debate. I’ll draw the conclusion that Carter’s performance continued along the same lines from the results of the election. My point is, from an early age I have felt attuned to the nuances of political life. That is why my experiences at the Texas Democratic State Convention over the last weekend came as such an ambush to my sensibilities.

I departed South on Highway 6 to Houston at around 3:30 am, determined to be prepared for big city traffic. Traveled the 3.5 hours per Mapquest, 4.5 actual hours due to traffic, without anything eventful occurring. I arrived to find out that the map of Downtown I had download was terrifically useless in the real world. I did the non-typical male thing and called the Hyatt from my cellphone.

Found the hotel and stepped out. I had forgotten about Houston air. You know how in some cities there are pollution problems? In Houston, the air is made up of two things- floating drops of petrochemical sludge and high humidity. In Chicago, the wind can knock a man to his feet. In Houston, the air is strong enough to do it without any breeze at all- and there seldom is one.

After riding the shuttle to the Convention Center, I found the Edwards Caucus. Around 50 people were meeting in a lecture hall led by Jorge from the Texas Win With Edwards site and a lady named Duffy. Fine group of people from all across the demographic spectrum- and more than I expected.

I finally got an explanation of why planning always seemed to be too-little-too-late for the Edwards campaign... Jorge was pretty much it in Texas and staff was minimal all across the country. I also met a guy from the original blog from Uvalde, TX. That was cool. I asked Duffy if I could hype JRE Grassroots, which I did and several people noted the URL. After that we were instructed to go to the Kerry Caucus if we liked after a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT- more on that later.

I attended two other caucuses. First, the Progressive Populist Caucus, headed by David Van Os, the only Democratic Candidate running for Texas Supreme Court. I found myself thinking about bloggers I know- who would choose to go to what meetings. The PPC was definitely for the “tinfoil hat” and anti-Diebold machine crowd. Van Os gave a stirring address.

After that I left for the Peace and Justice Caucus. Several people from my District were there, including a man I’ll refer to as Bandana Guy, whose attendance at a peace and justice meeting later took on a semblance of irony. Fret not, we’ll get to his story. At this point, my “political stomach” still felt fine- no upsets, everything was digesting quite properly.

This brings us to the point when the District 22 Caucus began. Since I already knew I could not go to Boston, I treated it pretty low-key. I wanted to vote for the people I thought were best to represent our little enclave of Central Texas Democrats. Wait, strike the word little. As the fourth-largest delegation in Texas, I guess we really aren’t that tiny.

Anyway, we heard from just about every candidate for office from our area. Jim Dunnam spoke- the Democratic leader of the Texas House and the “Killer Ds” who invaded Ardmore, OK to protest redistricting. His law partner and right-hand-man John Mabry, my State Rep said a smattering of words. Chosen as the officiator of the whole process was Waco’s first African American mayor, the indomitable Mae Jackson.

I should mention as a point of advice for political convention newbies that the main activity in which you will participate is clapping. A lot of clapping. More clapping than could be done in two lifetimes if you are not a regular at these things. You clap at every introduction. You clap for every point a speaker makes that pleases you, even slightly. You clap when the speech is over. I even saw one guy applauding the only Coke on the Pepsi-sponsored Convention floor.

I would have clapped if it had been mine too.

I finally had to take off both rings that I wear. By that night I had bruises upon my palms. Clapping hurts.

The only thing more painful than the clapping is the long introduction each speaker receives. Everyone is introduced as “my good friend” or a “great, hard worker for the Democratic Party.” This is followed by what might best be called a small biography of each speaker, if by “small” you mean approximately the size of Clinton’s book. Facts are detailed from the introducee’s early childhood all the way through the contents of their breakfast that morning and how many times they visited the bathroom that day. Let’s just say the degree of anal-ness would have done Bob Graham proud.

Back to the caucus. I was sitting with my friend Toni, a Deaniac-cum-Edwards supporter and directly behind the aforementioned Bandana Guy. We got on pretty well- he had been involved in the McLennan County party for a long time. We were both newcomers. Mayor Mae was moving us along at a nice clip. Then we got to the Rules Committee nominations.

Apparently there has been a battle raging beneath the waters between the Democracy for America group and the other Democratic Groups in town. My understanding of the situation is that the old-line Dems want things to run the way they always have and for what they say to be gospel. The Dean group wants to change the way the process is run and is quite insistent about it.

A classic conflict, played out upon the shores of the mighty Brazos. I only wish it was even that romantic.

Toni and I had been riffing on the event with Bandana Guy. As the head man from DFA announced his nominee for the committee, our new friend leaned back and told us, “We’re about to see some blood.” He gestured to an older gentleman with long sideburns, another party vet. Up the man with the sideburns stood, his brow creased with worry and showing deep concern. Bandana Guy was beaming.

“Friends,” said Sideburns, “I didn’t witness it myself but I have heard from several people- several people- that the young man who has been nominated for this position is not even a Democrat.”

Anguish and murmuring from the crowd. Sideburns continued, “In fact, I heard that he stood up at a meeting and announced that before the primaries he had been an… Independent. He even said he had voted for McCain in the last election!”

The man with the Sideburns went on to say that he had worked for the party for years and only wanted “true blue” Democrats to represent his concerns on the committee. The whole thing was done in what in my opinion was a hateful and unprofessional manner.

The nominee said some words on his own behalf, including the- gasp- admission that he had indeed considered himself an Independent at one time and he did vote for McCain in the Republican primary in 2000. Bandana Guy observed with a bemused expression.
Needless to say, the nominee did not receive the committee position.

In fact, he lost out by a wide margin, especially among our county voters. My political stomach was beginning to sour but it hadn’t reached full fruition yet. That came later in the night.

Onward the event moved. I found out that I could have easily made it to Boston. There are gender requirements in Texas rules regarding the makeup of the delegation. Only one male had registered to be the one delegate our District was sending for Edwards and he was from a smaller county. If I had sent my registration, I could have virtually been assured of the spot- McLennan County is the largest in the district and I could have gotten those votes. Damn.

Since neither Toni nor I could participate in the remainder of the voting, as we signed in for Edwards and the rest had to be Kerry voters, I asked if she wanted to try to make it to the event the SPECIAL ANNOUNCMENT had told me of that morning. John Edwards had decided to do a special, unannounced meet-and-greet for his staunchest supporters in Texas.

Was I excited? Johnny Cash had returned to life and was playing my birthday party. My wife had given me the permission to go on a date with Charlize Theron and the actress was hot-to-trot for me. Donald Trump had decided a man with my sales skills was what he needed instead of all those Apprentice bootlicks and had offered me a seven-figure salary.

You’re damn right I was excited!

We ran as fast as we could through the Convention Center to the hotel suite where the M&G was taking place. I noticed that there were brownish Houston air-infected rain clouds in the sky. People were smoking and I couldn’t even smell it. Fat drops started to pelt the sidewalk.

I had wanted to meet JRE ever since my wife and I had started following the 2004 Primary Campaign. This was just the curative my political stomach needed. I would shake his hand representing my family, JRE Grassroots and his Central Texas contingency.

The room was packed from wall to wall. We arrived just as he was about to leave. Keep in mind, he was meeting with us between 4:30 and 6 and was scheduled to give the keynote address at 7:30 or so. If I was giving a keynote, I’d have to prepare all day and there’s no WAY I’d be in the mood to mess with the gushing throngs that poured through those double doors. I think that says quite a bit about the kind of person Edwards is.

I did get to shake his hand and got a picture. To my relief, I was not dumbstruck with awe and hero worship while talking to the candidate. Instead, I introduced myself and told him I was a frequent participant on his campaign blog and was now involved with JRE Grassroots. As so many others have mentioned before me, he looked smack into my eyes as he thanked me for the support. He knew of both groups and even seemed to recognize my screenname.

My stomach was completely settled as we left for the Convention floor. It would prove a brief panacea.

We sat on the front row along with a gay rights activist and a family from Cleburne, TX. After the World’s Longest Invocation I became painfully aware of a new trend among Democrats. I think we have all been listening to John Kerry too much. His iambic pentameter, stress-every-other-syllable form of sing-song rhetoric was the hottest thing going that evening. we MUST not SPEAK this WAY forEVer…

Heard from Houston Mayor Pro-Tem Carol Alvarado, a decent speaker who had received the memo I theorize circulated telling all female speakers to wear red dresses. She introduced Houston’s new mayor, Bill White as a legend in Texas. I had never heard of him. He gave a nice speech detailing the many changes the city had begun. Sadly none of them included doing something about the oily air. I had honestly worried about the rain igniting around the smokers outside earlier...

Speaking of igniting, John Edwards was the next speaker. I had seen Bill Clinton and Al Gore on their Texas bus tour in 1992. They had rowdy crowds. I don’t know if it is the political climate of the times or the fact that women ages 19-90 were clamoring to get to the front of the stage but their crowds had NOTHING on John Edwards!

His speech included some of the same lines from his stump on the campaign trail and some new lines as well. It was electric. I was amazed to see how much the announced crowd of 8000 thought of my favorite candidate. Edwards was actually called back for a curtain call. The atmosphere was like a rock concert.

An interesting sidenote- I had gone up front at one point to get some close-up photos. A chant started, “V-P, V-P, V-P…” The people who had started it were the John Kerry supporters who had run the Kerry Caucus earlier that morning. Draw your own conclusions.

That is when it started happening- my political stomach was bubbling and churning.

JRE was speaking about how we needed to be unified behind John Kerry and focused upon beating Bush. He talked about choosing inspiration and the politics of hope being victorious over those of cynicism and despair. My heart sunk down to my knees.

Oh, I believe Edwards was as serious and sincere about his message as he ever has been. That IS what politics should be about- making changes for the better in the lives of all people. Raising America to new heights and doing so together, despite what differences we might have. In my mind I replayed the events of the day and thought about the Deaniac who had lost out that afternoon.

It was after this speech that I realized what I had to do.

One of the 14 ½ interchangeable State Congresspeople was speaking by this time and echoing Edwards calls for unity, even quoting Biblical passages. I chose to be inspired. I went straight over to where Bandana Guy was standing chatting with a couple of people, ignoring a message he really should have been taking to heart.

I expressed my opinion about the events earlier in the day, about how we should be aiming higher and how the issue could have been handled in a much different, more inclusive way. I felt like I was a voice of reason, of sanity and unity.

My counterpart would have added “banality” to that list. I was totally ignored. In fact, stalked away from in a huff. I was told I didn’t know enough about the situation- the Dean group was a pack of spoiled brats who only wanted things their way.

Granted, the Dean group in Waco had always struck me as a bit… demanding, but my opinion is we shouldn’t be discouraging anybody who wants to participate in the process, many for the first time in their lives. In a county in which we are a decided minority, we can’t afford to alienate anyone.

Bandana Guy, as well as our party chair spoke to me that evening. Both sort of chuckled at my obvious political naiveté, giving me knowing smiles whenever my mouth would utter any idealistic words.

My poor, beleaguered belly was packing up and planning on retiring to Florida, an appropriate graveyard for the politically idealistic.

A few months ago a past party chair in my precinct give me a shot at being a delegate because he felt I could be part of the future of the party. Had I failed him now? Had I failed John Edwards? These questions were on my mind as I exited the building.

That is not to say I didn’t enjoy the rest of my time in Houston, despite the oppressive air. I got to know Toni better, who is a quality person and fun as can be.

I met guys like Pete from San Antonio, a former State Department consultant and Vietnam Vet who let me know just how strongly many vets feel indebted to John Kerry for saying what they could not.

I met young delegates like Jenny from Nacogdoches, a college student who was just in love with John Edwards and Zena from Houston, a longtime women’s rights advocate who was attending her umpteenth convention.

I met Vince, a large, pony-tailed biker type with a heart of gold and a great laugh. I even ran into an old friend from my dorm in college.

I got to be partly deafened by Lady D and the Zydeco Tornadoes and taste my first ever crawfish. Even the Legendary Bill White attended!

The next day I heard Sinfronia Thompson of Houston give one of the most honest, straightforward speeches I’ve ever heard. Rep. Thompson is an African American lady with large, black-rimmed glasses. She was funny and folksy but could change directions and speak to you straight to your heart in no time flat. I asked her to run for Governor after her speech. She did not decline. Rick Perry had better prepare to be flattened.

Which brings me back to my political stomach. That morning, somewhere in between the Texas Freedom Network’s symposium on reclaiming faith and freedom and Dennis Kucinich’s rousing Truman-esque address to the attendees, I realized that it no longer ached. I had not failed my patron from the District caucuses. I had not failed John Edwards.

Rather, I had finally gotten his message, in full and without distortion. I also finally understood Kerry's and Kucinich’s and Dean’s messages. I was not wrong in my thoughts. Those that have focused upon the odd little world they inhabit- that creates candidates for whom nobody feels good about voting- are wrong.

Those who desire only their goals to be achieved and damn everyone else are the ones who have failed. Our political process is about MORE.

Our view of the process is about making sure that no child, man, woman, sick person, gay, black, brown, transvestite, Independent, Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, moderate, janitor, mid-manager, CEO, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Unitarian or Atheist lacks a voice in what decisions we make as a society.

As Democrats, we are the party of the Optimism of Roosevelt, the Idealism of the Kennedys, the Faith of Carter, the Inclusiveness of Clinton, the Dream of King.

It may strike some as trite and naïve but most dreams do.

It turns out that my problem is not the lack of a stomach for politics. Nope. The only problem with me is that I have a heart that can’t tolerate political games that limit independent thought. That is a good problem to have, as it is one I believe I share with some pretty decent people, Kerry and Edwards included.

MBT

Kerry Should Keep It Real

Message on another forum regarding campaign slogans and assorted rhetorical devices:

"You know, I think a large chunk of the population is getting pretty tired of slogans, buzzwords, sound bites, jingles, shallow quips, cliches, rhetoric, and so on. Lots of people... not a majority, perhaps, but a good number nonetheless... are weary of superficial and irrelevant rhetoric."

My reply:

Boy I hope not. That is how I make my living!

Seriously, not every slogan, buzzword, sound bite, jingle, or quip is shallow or empty. Being succinct does not mean one is being superficial. I like Mark Twain's quote about the right word being the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. If you can find something short and pithy that has substance backing it up you have something mighty powerful. Without substance though, it carries no weight.

I designed an ad campaign for a client who manufactures and installs seamless gutters on houses. He wanted to tell people that they could protect the property value on their home, shield their flowerbeds from being torn up, make their outside living areas look neater and better control the flow of rainwater from roof to ground. He also did not have a huge budget. I advised that he run five second sponsored station IDs. In each, a thunderclap sounds and rainfall is heard. A man's voice says:

"Make Your Property Prosper. You need (client's name)!"

"Showerhead Over Your Flowerbed? You need (client's name)!"

"Wrangle that Rainwater. You need (client's name)!"

and my (and everyone else's) favorite, which they have adopted for all of their ads:

"Drippy-Droppy? Sloppy! You need (client's name)!"

While the statements are short, the message is clear, concise and concrete- there is power behind the statement and it evokes an emotional response from the intended audience. My client has proven quite successful using this campaign for a fraction of the :30 spots he might have bought to say things longform.

More from the master, Mark Twain, in a letter written to D. W. Bowser, 3/20/1880:

"I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice."

Kerry suffers horribly from overdoing pomposity and generality and sometimes saying nothing. One could accuse Dean of doing exactly the opposite. I always thought Edwards was the most effective candidate at utilizing language in the field from which we chose.

"Let America be America Again-" while I love the Langston Hughes poem from which the line comes, I feel it loses something outside its poetic context. I long to hear something fresh and dynamic. Here the phrase sounds lacsidasical, laconic and very 1970s in my opinion. Too bad he couldn't search in the same decade and find the old School House Rock jingle- Verb- that's what's happenin'! Which, by the way, is another great example of something simple and forthright that became a powerful message- ask anybody who was a child in the 70s or 80s to tell you the Preamble to the Constitution and listen to them sing it strong!

Kerry's slogan is passive and utterly devoid of inspiration or a sense of being hopeful. I even liked "The Real Deal" better! "Real" creates a sense that George W. Bush is not a real President, underscoring the untruths and irresponsibility of his frat-boy administration. 'Real" also speaks to Kerry's military experience and the need for a leader who "knows about aircraft carriers for real" to be devising our policy in Iraq. Kerry's people should have kept it "real" rather than "letting" it be.

There I go with cliches again. Damn ad salesman!

The Time is NOW for Kerry to Name John Edwards as VP

Ghandi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

I believe that applies to the situation we are in with the 2004 Presidential election. We need for Democrats to take ownership of getting our Independent and Republican-leaning-away-from Bush friends and associates out to vote for our party.

We won't need a protest march if Bush is elected again- we need it NOW. We need your vote, we need your time, we need whatever funds you can scrape together.

In my opinion there is no better candidate to raise the energy and involvement level in November than John Edwards. When he talks about two Americas he means two competing ideologies. The America where the opinions and values of the citizen are the motivation for the country and a foreign country I know nothing about, where people are classed together, told what to do and how to think. These words resonate with average Americans who sweat over how we're going to pay the bills each month and how we're going to pay for our children to go to college. To putit plainly, there was no candidate in the field during the primaries with as much power to inspire as John Edwards. He can connect to a group of voters that frankly, Kerry will find it difficult to penetrate with his message and presence.

I have been glad recently to hear John Kerry co-opting Edwards' rhetoric, as well as asking him to speak at many State Conventions. I will be attending the Texas Democratic Convention as an At-Large Delegate from my district in June. We had a well-attended meeting last Thursday evening where it was announced that John Edwards will most likely be our keynote speaker. There was an almost unanimous positive reaction to this news and much speculation we would be hearing from the Vice Presidential candidate- what an air of excitement was felt in that room!

I invite anyone with questions about John Edwards to read "Four Trials," which you can find at bookstores and on Amazon.com. There is a passage in it regarding the closing speech made at the conclusion of the final trial. In the speech, he contrasted Valerie Lekey, a little girl he was championing who was eviscerated by a swimming pool drain, as pure innocence, lifting one hand. Lifting the other and making a fist he characterized the negligent pool manufacturer as corporate indifference. Then he made the two collide to illustrate to the jury what happens when the whims of powerful corporate interests meet a defenseless individual.

His point was, and is, well-taken. WE must be the defense of the people. It is you, I, our neighbors, the people we grew up with and who live next to us today who have the power to stand up, draw a line and tell those who would continue this nation on the course it is following that we will allow it NO MORE.

This election, with an honorable man like John Kerry as Presidential candidate and a champion of the people like John Edwards for VP, will mark a turning point in our nation. Will we go forth in the optimistic spirit of my grandfather's generation, who overcame a Great Depression and won a World War? Of Martin Luther King, John and Robert Kennedy, who dared to rise against two centuries of oppression? Or will we succumb to the anti-values of the current administration? Are we blind consumers or producers? Tearers-down or builders? Soulless shells that shuffle our feet to the whims of a ruling class or living, breathing embodiments of the hope and dreams of our daughters and sons?

It will do nothing to protest later. You'll be a gentle breeze in the middle of a cyclone. NOW is the time for your wind to howl. NOW we have the power. NOW we have our say. NOW we win the nomination and NOW we take back what is ours, what is entrusted to us, has been bled for and will always belong to every American- our sovereign government.

The time is NOW for John Kerry to name John Edwards as his running mate- for our country's future

MBT

Something Hurts Around Here

Our President ™ w says that the economy is looking up, is growing and that his so-called tax relief plans have been successful. Our nation is on it’s way out of the recession and into some sunlit hinterland of eternal happiness; a conservative nirvana, thanks to the ministrations of Compassionate Conservativism ™ and popular war.

Pondering this information as I sit down late on a Tuesday evening... I have recently had an appendectomy and the resultant abdominal distress has me up viewing the late-night banality of Jay Leno. His genial jibes and the hoots of the audience would bore me to the point of sleep if it were not for the Arianna Huffington book in my hands.

Reading of people across the nation bound by poverty, I wonder if Bush has any concept of real life at all when he resounds with glee about our nation’s health. Health. I feel a wave of guilt pour over me for my sorrow at the soreness of my surgical wound. I should feel that as a blessing rather than the opposite- at least I have the good fortune to have insurance to be able to receive the health care necessary to solve my problems. I have a television on which to view Leno, no matter how lame he is, and a recliner on which to rest while doing so. I was able to afford a copy of said book.

“Fanatics and Fools” proves to me that I backed the correct candidate during the Democratic Primaries. It is a shame that he was not the man selected to represent the party due to McAuliffe’s purposely truncated primary season. Reading through Ms. Huffington’s prescription for the ideals a candidate should possess, I think of John Edwards- alpha male, appealing to voters, heroic, decisive and possessed of the ever elusive BIG vision.

The author seems to see these qualities in John Kerry. I must confess I have seen traces of them but little evidence that he in any way is blessed with the kind of superb confidence and authority Edwards exhibited, albeit too late to matter. She writes of “Portraits of Struggle,” short bios of everyday Americans who aren’t making it in Bush’s America, in fact people he doesn’t even recognize exist. I read these stories and think of one close to home.

My wife Carla and I are very concerned about her sister whom lives in another state. She works for Wal-Mart, on a night shift, for what some would think decent pay for a woman with only a GED. Has four children, husband left them and wants desperately to go to college and break away from the life in which she feels trapped.

Health care is a major concern- one of her children is diabetic and suffers from complications. She reluctantly went on welfare after the deadbeat father ran- no child support of course. She has asked Wal-Mart for a transfer to another shift- any other shift- at the same pay rate so she can better her condition. Of course, they know when they have a person locked in a chokehold. They will transfer her, they say, but they will have to cut her pay to do so.

With four young children, two below public school age, she has no means to escape from the trap which has snared her family. Conservatives would chide her for receiving a handout and not pulling herself up by the proverbial bootstraps. To them she is part of the problem. And that is true- she and her children are part of the problem- just not by any means the same problem about which the Bush voters talk. Her story personifies the message of “Two Americas” to me in a way not even John Edwards can. She is living it.

By the way- my sister-in-law thinks Bush is the greatest. Can’t get enough of him. A shame no other candidate is around who can convince her otherwise.

MBT

2004 Presidential Election- My Take

I will never, under NO circumstances, EVER remotely consider voting for Bush. I have seen the results personally of what he did (and didn't do) as Governor of Texas. Then he saddled up and did the exact same things to the entire country. I love the USA too much to EVER endorse the kind of "leadership" Bush offers.

I have found it hard to support Kerry, the candidate I feel was forced down my throat. Sometimes, like while listening to his '71 NBC appearance on CSPAN I'll see a little flash of something resembling a candidate I could support. Then- poof- it is gone and I am left with the laconic, dispassionate functionary that I still can't believe managed to become our nominee.

I am convinced that Kerry would make a better President than W. But what troubles me is the source of that conviction- less the man John Kerry than the people with whom he will surround himself. I find that I look more forward to see who his Attorney General and Secretary of (Department Name Here) will be than to see and hear Kerry.

What attracted me to John Edwards as a candidate were the qualities of true leadership that shined through each time he spoke. He is a person you can believe in and whom makes you believe in yourself (and no I don't think he's just a slick-talking lawyer. I am in media sales, a factory for slick-talking if I ever saw one. I know slickness when I see it.)

As far as Nader is concerned... is he really even worth mentioning? I love the IDEA of a viable third party but come on... if we really believe Bush needs to go, a vote for a Nader or a Libertarian or Green is far from substantive.

MBT