My Message to the President

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Wednesday September 09, 2009 · 4:42 PM PDT

2009/09/09 · 16:42

I just sent this note to the White House, through the contact form. Yeah, it's probably kinda late to influence the speech, but I thought it had to be said. As I mention, I've been trying to get through but have been pushed out by robodialers all week.

It says that I really want to help the President, but I just need something to be fighting for. He may not be insisting on the public option, but I am. If it's part of the deal, I'll work for it. If it's not, I stay home, or maybe even hit the streets against it, if it's an abomination like personal mandates with no public option.

Enjoy.

zeke L

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Wednesday July 29, 2009 · 7:01 PM PDT

2009/07/29 · 19:01

one thing that is truly unfortunate in our current political environment is that people become so partisan that they are unable to appreciate true artistic accomplishment when created by people from the other side of the political spectrum. a case in point is sarah palin's farewell address last sunday.

mary oliver, watch out. because some of us know the real reason governor palin resigned, and the real nature of the book she's working on.

it's going to be a poetry chapbook.

her farewell address was actually a poetry slam.

so here, over the flip, i've presented three of sarah palin's forthcoming masterworks, "north to the future," "the honor of serving you," and, "we eat therefore we hunt."

zeke L

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Tuesday September 09, 2008 · 10:22 PM PDT

2008/09/09 · 22:22

Hot off the presses from Salon:

Freedom Fighter

Sept. 10, 2008 | "Country First!" That's the Republican battle cry this presidential season. But don't try selling that slogan to Lynette Clark, chairwoman of the Alaskan Independence Party, whose motto is "Alaska First -- Alaska Always." Clark -- a blunt-spoken, gravel-voiced pioneer in the Alaska independence movement -- spoke with me from her home outside Fairbanks, where she and her husband, Dexter, another veteran Alaskan freedom fighter, work a gold mine claim. Clark was born in Illinois, moving with her family as a child to the Alaska territory in 1951. But, she says, "in my heart and mind, I'm an Alaskan. I don't identify myself as an American."

They've got the video of Palin's videotaped address to the AIP this year, as well as some more interesting background from Clark.

For instance, this damning quote from Clark: "As I was listening to her, I thought she sounds like what we've been saying for years. I thought to myself, 'My God, she sounds just like Joe Vogler.'" That was her impression on first meeting Palin at an AIP convention, in 2006.

zeke L

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Friday September 05, 2008 · 8:33 AM PDT

2008/09/05 · 08:33

If you're reading this here on Daily Kos, you're a political junkie like me. Last week was full of energetic highs and flashes of inspiration and insight. By the weekend we were emotionally exhausted and low on sleep, but ready to come down off the mountaintop, turn on, drop back in and change the world.

But this week? Uhhhh.

What a long, bad trip this week has been, even mercifully cut short one day. Again if you're like me, you probably woke up yesterday morning all strung out and sick to your stomach after Wednesday's night festival of phantoms, hate and fear, led by ~~the white witch~~ Sarah Palin. Do these people really like this kind of intense exposure to these negative, reptilian emotions? Apparently they do, but we'd rather go with a diet of hope and inspiration, with a little spice from righteous anger instead of manufactured outrage.

So what's a Kossack to do to get back some of the mountaintop experience from last week?

Time travel! Yes we can relive last week, and I'll show you how after the jump...

zeke L

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Wednesday July 23, 2008 · 6:45 AM PDT

2008/07/23 · 06:45

In his interview with Der Spiegel, that part that really got my attention was not the implicit endorsement for Obama's 16-month timeframe, but a comment that directly slams McCain, the whole Republican Party, the pro-occupation faction and their media enablers. So far I have not seen this comment addressed in the mass media. Surprise, surprise.

I'm referring to the response after the one about the 16 months. After he said 16 months would be the right timeframe for withdrawal, der Spiegel continued,

SPIEGEL: Is this an endorsement for the US presidential election in November? Does Obama, who has no military background, ultimately have a better understanding of Iraq than war hero John McCain?

Maliki: Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic.

[emphasis mine]

Remind me again who's talking about short time periods again? Oh yeah...

zeke L

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Friday June 20, 2008 · 1:32 PM PDT

2008/06/20 · 13:32

Right this very minute. Every commercial that airs, every T-shirt and mailer printed, every minute every paid staffer works, every copy they make at every campaign office. He can do this openly and with impunity because the Federal Election Commission has been rendered inoperable by the current Republican administration.

This is the most glaring and salient fact about the state of public financing of the presidential election right now, and should be a prominent part of every article written about Barack Obama's decision to opt out of public financing.

But it's somehow nowhere to be found in discussions in the old media. Why? Because it's too complicated for Joe Sixpack to follow? Nonsense. Let me explain it with a simple dialogue.

Hey, let's make a deal you and me. Let's commit to only spending $100 a month on gas from now until the end of the year...

zeke L

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Friday March 14, 2008 · 6:24 PM PDT

2008/03/14 · 18:24

hey this is zeke, reporting LIVE! from the escher hilton in rye town, new york.

many props to swordsmith for putting together this dKos meet & greet at the con.

after a ong hard day of flaming about topics like the ethicality of settling mars, or whether the scientific revolution could have started in the 14th century, or the impact of magic on societal structure...

some of us decided to kick back and flame about, you guessed, it politics.

join the discussion.

C-SPAN Liveblog thread for Iowa Dem Caucus

zeke L

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Thursday January 03, 2008 · 5:01 PM PST

2008/01/03 · 17:01

(Non-candidate edition)

This is a placeholder for liveblogging in comments of the Democratic Caucus coverage, via C-SPAN. Video is live from Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines.

Comments should focus on what's happening at the caucus they're covering on C-SPAN 1.

No pictures.

If someone wants to do the Republicant caucus, go for it with another diary.

From 7 PM on CSPAN has been broadcasting the coverage from local station KCCI. As of 7:30 they are interviewing a caucus leader.

Just started the live coverage.

zeke L

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Tuesday May 01, 2007 · 7:45 PM PDT

2007/05/01 · 19:45

Veto? Bring it on.

In Chapter 3 of the Tao Te Ching the sage advises:

For those who practice not-doing,
everything will fall into place.

If only we had some Democrats in Congress who could learn the way of the Tao in the face of a Presidential veto. If they did, they'd realize that they're sitting pretty right now, they hold all the cards.

Instead they think they have to "do something" like try to override the veto, or go crawling to a 29%-approval president. Or send another bill. Let me explain why all of those options are foolish, and why doing absolutely nothing is both ethically correct and a big political winner.

Note: I ripped the Lao Tzu epigraph off from this post at My Left Nutmeg, Hey Congress: Time To Sit On Your Hands. Read the whole thing.

zeke L

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Friday March 16, 2007 · 6:59 PM PDT

2007/03/16 · 18:59

This diary for liveblogging the dKos Meet&Greet at Lunacon 50 as advertised by Swordsmith.

It's a dark & stormy night (to quote an old, old SF writer) here at the M.C. Escher Hilton in Rye Town, New York, deep in darkest Westchester County.

zeke L

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Tuesday January 23, 2007 · 9:05 PM PST

2007/01/23 · 21:05

Did anyone else see some of the things I did during the broadcast?

One bizarre thing I noticed was at least two instances where the video subtly faded from one frame to another. If I had been watching it on a webcast, I would have said it was a buffering error. The first one I thought I was imagining it, but the second one was clear, if subtle. That one came, IIRC just a couple minutes before the "lookit these people in the gallery I brought in as props" segment.

He was saying something along the lines of "...and Congress fff... fun... [SPLICE] funded the program..." Visually it was obvious because there was a slight shift in Pelosi's image as she was sitting down, it faded from one position to another, as if the video had shifted a couple seconds forward. Is that possible? Could the network have had the president on a 7-second delay or something?

zeke L

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Wednesday January 03, 2007 · 12:53 PM PST

2007/01/03 · 12:53

The 110th Congress will open tomorrow. The first order of business will be organization, including any challenges to whether members are seated. As you know by now, one of those questions is the results of FL-13, where touchscreen voting machines mysteriously made 18,000 votes from the Democratic part of the district disappear.

If we want to have House Democrats stand up for the integrity of elections in the most egregious case we've seen so far, we have to make ourselves heard, and this afternoon is our last chance to do so. Tomorrow they'll already be in session, and by the time they get your message whatever is going to happen may well be over.

A procedural move is planned to keep options open, but I think we should push for something stronger: declaring the FL-13 seat vacant. If nothing else we set the bit with Congress that what happened in FL-13 is simply unacceptable to voters.

What I want you to do: Contact your representative and the rest from your state, both Republican and Democrat. (If you're from a really big state like NY, just get the closest 5.)

More info and links on how to do this and what to discuss on the flip...

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My Message to the President

"north to the future": the beat poetry of sarah palin

New Article on Alaskan Independence Party

Kossacks, Recharge!

Even More Damning Words from al-Maliki

John McCain Is Breaking the Law Right Now

liveblogging from Lunacon 2008!

C-SPAN Liveblog thread for Iowa Dem Caucus

Bring Back the Do-Nothing Congress!

Live From Lunacon50!

SOTU Meta: Who Saw the Fades?

FL-13: Please Call Your Congresscritters Today