What passes for a local columnist in small town IL If you can stomach it, go to this website and read the screed that caused me so much grief. I warn you, it's poorly written and full of republican talking points.
So, as an intelligent, well read kossack, I did my duty and sent a well thought out, clearly written, albeit heavily sarcasm-laden letter to the editor. Mine was not printed. Please jump below the fold to see what was.
At a time when organizations across the country are focused on increasing voter registration, the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) has worked hard to make sure that when those newly registered voters go to the polls, their votes will count.
Today the movement to protect our votes will take a giant leap forward when SAVE teamed up with Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Congresswoman Jan Shakowsky of Illinois and Congressman Steve LaTourette of Ohio present the Student VOTER Bill of 2008.
Well, this is a little surprising, I have to admit. The latest Rasmussen poll shows Obama's lead over McCain in his home state is only 50%-37%. Now sure, that's still a double-digit lead. And I doubt anyone thinks Obama won't easily win Illinois.
But I had thought he'd at least get above 50% in his home state. I mean, running against Alan Keyes, Obama got 70% of the vote in Illinois for Senate! (Granted, with leaners included, Obama leads McCain 52%-41%.)
FWIW, this is a state where John Kerry got 54.82% of the vote in 2004, and Gore got 54.60% in 2000.
"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control," he said, "you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings."
As it turns out, and as many right wing blogs pointed out, this was wrong.
I e-mailed Dick Durbin's offices after the House vote in order to find out what his stance on the new House FISA bill is. Fortunately, it appears that he continues to be opposed to retroactive immunity and he took the House to task for supporting a bill with retroactive immunity.
I know, I know...it's not likely, but a brother can dream can't he?
Following up on my post from yesterday and incorporating some of the suggestions/corrections from the comments made there, let's take a look at our best case scenario in the November Senate elections.
Right now, we're at 49 Ds, 49 Rs and 2 I's. When the smoke clears on election night in November we'll be at 62 Ds, 37 Rs and 1 I.
Here's how it's going to happen....
I cracked up tonight watching CNN (the only cable news network to cover the speech live). Rick Sanchez brought Durbin and some Clinton super delegate with the last name Schultz. I really wanted to know how the campaigns were going to react to the speech. Turns out that both representatives came across as evasive weasels - sorry.
Durbin was asked first to comment and he moves right into the canned statement the campaign has been giving about Wright for a month now. Sanchez interrupted to ask him about tonight's speech, and it turns out that... Durbin didn't hear it, other than a few "edited" items.
The flat and immediate denial of any action against Senator Lieberman is nothing short of appalling, and it calls into great doubt the leadership of the Democratic Party in the Senate (doubt that has been commonly held here since this Congress was installed in January '07).
Senator Durbin, according to the frontpage diary by Kos, made a statement that needs to be closely scrutinized, for it reveals him either to be (a) disingenuous or (b) a complete fool.
The headline says it all as it was a very busy and sometimes hectic week. I started out the week Sunday and Monday in Harrisburg where I was attending the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania spring conference. I really wish I could have been in State College to see Senator Barack Obama’s historic visit to Penn State but, I had already scheduled to attend the CCAP conference several weeks ago. I’ve heard from people who attended and they were all still buzzing late in the week from the rally.
A peculiar thing has happened since I joined this community. I have been stripped of all my illusions, found my childlike beliefs in the good intent of political leaders destroyed, and been introduced to a reality that increasingly fills me with hopelessness.
Back in October of 2007, Senator Dick Durbin introduced legislation to aid homeowners in the predicted mortgage related foreclosure mess. He proposed that bankrupcy judges be given authority to reset interest rates to avoid the coming disaster.
That far seeing effort was soundly defeated by lobbiest for the mortgage industry with the help of the Republicans.
Just as Romans in an arena, Americans love a good fight. Citizens of this country voice their pleasure as they witness the battle. Nationwide, we watch look for blood as we advocate for peace in the Middle East. Hillary Clinton has pulled ahead in some political polls. The public, like the Romans have no empathy for the victim of merciless attacks.
It's a buzzword we hear all the time in the coverage of the presidential race, but here in Illinois the netroots community has been a true catalyst for Bill Foster's incredible surge over the past week or so. And with less than 48 hours until the Special Election on Saturday, we're just in time.
Last week I posted a little bit about Bill, his district, and how significant it will be if we can elect him to Congress in the Special Election on Saturday. As NYBri put it, if we can put the former Republican Speaker's seat in our hands, the headlines will be clear: "There are no safe Republican seats in November."
If a nominee emerges on Wednesday morning, he or she will have the daunting task of unifying the Democratic after a long, expensive primary battle. Although the conventional wisdom is that Democrats will quickly rally around whoever wins the nomination, there is the potential for the supporters of the losing candidate to be so deeply offended by the actions of the winner (or his or her supporters) that they stay home in November.
Bill Foster isn't a rocket scientist -- but he's close. Bill is a FermiLab physicist who was so fed up with George Bush and his allies in Congress that he decided to do something about it. He decided to run for public office for the seat that Dennis Hastert vacated. The pundits all laughed.
Last week, they stopped laughing.
Bill is tied in a recent poll against Jim Oberweis, a self-funding multi millionaire, in the special election scheduled for Saturday, March 8th.
The Justice Department revealed Friday that its internal ethics office was investigating the department’s legal approval for waterboarding of Qaeda suspects by the Central Intelligence Agency and was likely to make public an unclassified version of its report.
This is the first "official acknowledgment" of the Justice Department's internal review of documents created since 2002 that authorized waterboarding and approved Cheney's "robust interrogation" methods. Gen. Michael Hayden, Director of the CIA, has admitted that waterboarding was used by CIA agents. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has said that CIA agents would not be prosecuted for actions the Justice Department had advised them were legal.
I can see Mukasey's point, but someone should be held accountable. A memorandum drafted by John Yoo and approved by Jay S. Bybee, then head of the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, is apparently the justification for CIA agents torturing people.
If Mukasey will not prosecute CIA agents, then he should hold Yoo, Bybee and the other DOJ lawyers responsible for the memo(s) accountable.
If you haven't had a chance to see this morning's Meet The Press with Tim Russert it is must see TV for anyone who cares about the Presidential nomination process for the Democrats this year. The guests were Senator Dick Durbin (for Barack Obama) and Senator Chuck Schumer (for Hillary Clinton).
The emerging themes of the discussion were winning the nomination based on merit and principle vs. a desired outcome and making that happen at all costs. The discussion included super-delegates and the seating of delegates from Michigan and Florida.
Here is the video link where you can watch for yourself then comment below. (includes the roundtable discussion afterwards: 'Capital Gang', with Margaret Carlson, Al Hunt, Bob Novak, Kate O'Beirne and Mark Shields.)
I have also included parts of the transcript below with a poll.
UPDATE: added video link from Face The Nation (Clinton: Howard Wolfson and Obama: David Axelrod)
At a time when organizations across the country are focused on increasing voter registration, the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (
