Hurrah for Air America Radio

[A bunch of us are upset with Air America Radio because they have cancelled Sam Seder and Marc Maron's weekday videocast of Break Room Live -- it exists on YouTube and elsewhere and you can follow where Sam and Marc land by checking out SamSederShow.com -- but even as I am miffed I am going to look at the silver lining of the cloud. Think about it, and please join all of us Sederistas and Maronites in changing the world into a better place. Thanks! What follows showed up at Sam's site.]

Hey, I am going to accentuate the positive and say I am glad that Air America exists even if I don't like this latest turn BUT perhaps without them I might never have found people like Sam Seder and Marc Maron and Thom Hartmann (with Senator Bernie Sanders) and Lizz Winstead and Rachel Maddow and Al Franken (more of a liberal now than what he was before, I think) without Air America. Okay, they/Air America are not perfect, but I am glad they exist, even as I continue to support Thom Hartmann apart from them and Sam Seder and Marc Maron wherever they land and Lizz and Rachel ALWAYS, and Kent Jones and the great Laura Flanders and of course Janeane.... So yeah, let's get upset, but let's move forward and insist our guys (and gals, if you don't think guys is gender neutral) end up economically and psychologically WELL and HAPPY. Let's push them, their video, their books, their body of work, wherever we go.

And another thing, I likely would have never met YOU Guys without THEM: MaggiesBoy, Fernando, Nefferkitti, Nightbird,ToniD, Kat-in-Manhattan...., all of YOU -- and you guys are GREAT!! So, yes, it isn't fair but it is what it is, and it sure is better than Right Wing America.

So kisses and Peace Hugs from NYC and know that it works out OKAY: together we will help heal the world and make it transform. Got to get Thom's newest book [Threshold] because it talks about our being at the crossroads. We are. It is tough times. But we are together going to do what we can. Pray God that it is enough.

Love you -- Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Hartmann: Where's the News?

While the net bloggers are digging deep into her history, Sarah Palin needs to be vetted (and reported on) by the corporate media that she's decrying. Air America Radio's Thom Hartmann posted on his web site some of the items they should be considering. I've printed it here in its entirety because of its importance.

Where’s the News?

As I could have predicted, the corporate mainstream media is falling all over themselves to congratulate Sarah Palin on her speech. The well known truth is that Palin's speech has galvanized the conservative base. The media is not and most likely will not ask the tough questions like…

--Why does Sarah Palin continue to lie unchallenged by the media about her support of the “Bridge to Nowhere?”

--Why did Wasilla rarely received few any earmarks before Palin became mayor? She actively sought federal funds and hired a lobbyist with close ties to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who made funneling money to Alaska his hallmark.

--Why did Sarah Palin not walk out of her church when just two weeks ago, she sat there while her pastor gave a anti-Jewish sermon?

--While the McCain campaign has stressed her command of the National Guard – Why has Sarah Palin has never issued a single order to them?

--How do the American people sit with Palin’s claims that American soldiers have been sent to Iraq "on a task that is from God?"

--Why is Sarah Palin involved with AIP? Several days ago the chair of the AIP, a secessionist party, said that Palin attending the 1994 convention. “she was there.”

From www.mediamatters.org:

Neither ABC nor CBS aired analysis from Democrats, Democratic strategists, or progressive media figures during their live coverage of the second day of the Republican National Convention on September 2 (the first day of the networks' live coverage of the convention). By contrast, both networks aired analysis from Republicans and conservatives, as well as from Democrats and progressives, during coverage of the second day of the Democratic National Convention on August 26.

Let the media know we’re sick and tired of the corporate and “conservative” bias that doesn’t serve, “We the People.”

Thom Hartmann

Hey, Corporate Media, surprise Thom and me and do your job! And let us Democrats and rational independents follow Thom's advice and tell the corporate media that we are sick of their bias toward the Republicans. (Would that we find out that Sarah Palin successfully shot herself in the foot last night and that the press are on it! A few of them maybe??)

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Mark Crispin Miller gave a stunning interview to Thom Hartmann yesterday about election fraud and the stealing of the 2000 and 2004 elections, heavily orchestrated by Bush thug Karl Rove. The show crashed the site it mentioned folks should go to for more information and action ideas, the Velvet Revolution's www.rovecybergate.com

Tell Congress to investigate Karl Rove’s cyber strategy to illegally manipulate elections. Click here to send an email to your Congress Members demanding immediate public hearings on whistleblower allegations that Rove architected and directed illegal attacks on Democrat candidates through the improper use of corporate funds channeled through fake Web-based front organizations, the improper political use of the Justice Department to prosecute opposition candidates, and the use of Internet based IT networks to alter election results. MORE

We can't let it happen again. Act now to protect Election 2008. (Go to AAR and listen to Hartmann's Tuesday August 19, 2008 show for this and great stuff on healthcare and energy -- one of the best of the best Hartmann shows.)

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

FreeRice.com: Play and feed the hungry

Thom Hartmann was interviewing someone at the United Nations this week who mentioned a learning/food giving site associated with Poverty.com called aptly FreeRice.com. It is vocabulary building for child, student, adult, and senior, and it will automatically set and adjust your level by how you answer or you can manually adjust the settings.

You are given a word and four definitions. If you are correct, 20 grains of rice are donated by the sponsors whose banners are displayed. (You see the rice mount up.) There is a little speaker which will pronounce the word if you click it, helpful. (I've been mispronouncing or perhaps alternatively pronouncing some words: AARgh!) I keep a running list of missed words or words I want to check further. The FAQ says the highest level is 60 but most don't get past 50. So far my best level has been 48 -- but I've only been playing two days. More important, I've help donate over 4000 grains of rice! Beat me!

I've added a smaller button to my side bar for your/my ease when this post gets buried, but try it now:



Let me know how you do and what you think of it. (My kids, Audient and Kat, generally ask me for a handicap when playing word games -- will they fare better with this? And how will my writer daughter-in-law Gina do?) Also spread the news. The playing number go way down on weekends, fyi, so play today to make the numbers jump!

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

4000 U.S. Dead -- Search FOR Peace

More demos -- Monday evening, I joined with the Grandmothers at Rockefeller Plaza to mourn the 4000 U.S. dead as well as all the Iraqi dead (and 5 million Iraqi children made orphans). I stood by Lillian who ended up holding my sign, the front page of The NY Daily News [with the Spitzer stuff cut off] when I went for my candle. Fine. I didn't need to hold both. And next to her was Arlene to whom I gave my extra large plastic cup to shield her candle from the wind. I didn't get the name of the woman on my right but her positive energy warmed me, too. I only got a demo photo as I was leaving -- but others noted we were there. And that is fine and the photo I got was poignant. This little one didn't get to be an orphan for long, if at all.



Tuesday night then I made it down late (after sending out a report) to Union Square for the UFPJ demo. My friend the Button Buddha a/k/a Ruth Klein reported that there were a couple of hundred people there. I got there just as they were winding down but stayed to speak to a few folks, one a 70 year old woman, another a 43 year old woman and all three of us saying, it isn't the country we knew as we were growing up. God forgive us, but America has lost our balance. America is Number One in war, in prisons, and in per capita energy usage. While we were standing there, Kathy Lawrence arrived even later than I -- she had been teaching. We connected and we reassured her that people had been there and some press had been there. Of course, it should have been more people and more press, but this is corporate America and it is hard to get our message out quickly as this demo demanded. But of course, demos are only one part of peace work. I spoke to one person on Saturday that peace isn't just for demos it is an everyday thing. We must become the peace we seek and go about our personal lives peacefully -- it has to be part of our every day routine, not just something for occasional demonstrations. Be kind and loving every day to those whose lives we touch, contributing therefore to peace.

I wear peace on my sleeve, or perhaps more graphically on my chest, thanks to Ruth's buttons. We decided to leave together and catch up. She had some great stories to tell about reuniting with some old Girl Scout buddies. (They are planning a summer reunion in the Bear Mountain New York area where their old Girl Scout camp had been. Some thirty women hope to attend!!) We ended up at Tasty Thai in Sunnyside and shared more stories and positive energy, contributing to peace, too, no doubt. She drove me home and I gifted her with some Girl Scout cookies. Ruth in turn gave me a belated birthday gift of some great buttons. I didn't tell her this, but just the other day I was wondering if I could find an old Girl Scout badge sash somewhere to make button-wearing easier for demo days. Still, I will have to take turns wearing them and some of her other truly awesome buttons. To get these or arrange to buy other terrific ones, write Ruth as buttonbuddha (at) gmail.com. [Double click it to enlarge the picture.]

Ruth's Gift

In the meantime, please contact the White House comment line (202-456-1111) and your Congressmembers (202-224-3121) to demand "No war on Iran!". I called today (politely) after hearing Thom Hartmann speaking that it had been reported in Germany and in Saudia Arabia that the Saudis were preparing for protecting people from nuclear radiation, this immediately after Dick Cheney left there. Darth Cheney is up to no good. No wonder that my two demo friends this evening voiced what I was feeling about our country. We want our country back! (I am sure they noted that Kathy Lawrence had aptly been wearing a Bush is a War Criminal pin -- she told me that someone had called HER a traitor for wearing it. This, when BUSH is the war criminal AND traitor!)

It was a day of work, a day of activism, a day of fellowship, a day of balance. I seek to be the change I wish to see in the world. I seek balance and love and justice for one and all. With God's help (or whatever YOU want to call God), I will succeed. Join me in doing what you can. Please call, act, be -- let's live peacefully and give peace to each other. We can and must create a better world.

Thank you for whatever you do for peace and justice. (And I will be posting more pix soon at my Flickr.com page.)

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Hartmann: Cracking the Code at Demos

Thanks to Gail Harper's prodding that doggie duty should allow a little time for fun, I joined a packed roomful of people at Demos on Fifth Avenue in NYC to hear Thom Hartmann speak about his latest book, Cracking the Code. He was great and inspiring, as always. And I got to see and be seen by Air America Radio's Mark Green who recognized me and gave me a kiss afterwards. (That said, he's still trying to place me, I bet :-)

I spent the last hour searching for what Thom called the best Madison quotation and found PART of it as well as a bunch of other great Madison quotations. The part is:

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

But check this out from the Crosby Report. Was Madison psychic? One thing for sure, George Dubya Bush would NOT be happy with James Madison. Indeed, he'd send a Homeland Security Team after Jimmy as Dubya probably thinks Dolly Madison is a cupcake and is clueless that James Madison is a dead president.

Kate Anne & Thom Hartmann

Yes, I took pictures but I haven't downloaded them. [Update: see them.] Best, yet, however, my new friend Avery Harris (synchronicity!) was kind enough to volunteer to take a picture of me with Thom and I was astute enough to return the favor. Thom endured it all and his latest visit to NYC not only earned Gail and me a friend but gave me the opportunity to connect with two great young gents behind us, John from Bergen Co., NJ and Ezekial from Newark, NJ: Neat guys with great spirit. (Wish I would have gotten their info, but maybe they'll find me again through this blog.) Yes, there is hope for this country and this world. Now to read my autographed copy of Cracking the Code in full sight in the subway and on buses and spread its message. Watch my Flickr.com (see links) for the pix and...

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

VERY Important PS, PPS, and PPPS

Lying in bed, what I didn't write in the original open letter to WWRL jumped in my mind. These are now printed on pretty paper, ready to be sent to WWRL's program director Rennie Bishop, copy to Air America Radio president Mark Green.


IMPORTANT LONG PS -- Good heavens!! Writing so late at night, I forgot to thank you about about the great Laura Flanders and her show Radio Nation -- then I realize that because I stream and blog with the other Laura Bloggers I haven't noticed that she's no longer on your schedule!! Now, sadly, her show is only an hour long early Sunday afternoon (NOT long enough -- and, both entertaining and educational, she was my favorite on the now defunct Air Americans Show, along with the wonderful David Bender). Please fit her Radio Nation in your schedule somewhere!

I could and perhaps should have mentioned Rev. Jim Forbes' inspiring show, The Time is Now -- but I haven't gotten any new podcasts and I have heard rumors that it may have been cancelled [update: it has been]. If so, what a loss! Whatever Air America does, I hope it remains on your schedule with new shows. We have to remind people that liberals can be spiritual. (That's one of the reasons I love Thom Hartmann!) The Rev. Jim is so appealing and New York and all of America need to hear his message.

Waking up and reviewing your schedule I am pleased to see you have Marc Sussman's Money Message -- I have to find time to manage what money I have and appreciate learning how to do it in a progressive politically correct way. Please keep him in your lineup. And as a nascent vegetarian, I also appreciate Bob Linden's show, Go Vegan, providing food for thought -- but I don't see it in your lineup. Consider it, please.

Finally, I deliberately omitted mention of left radio goddess Randi Rhodes, and perhaps I should explain. While I am glad she's on WWRL and I know she has a lot of value, she's just not my cup of tea. When she's really on target she's terrific -- and she's great for the novice listeners who probably appreciate her gushing about meeting certain celebrities, but I must admit her nastiness to certain callers (some of them obvious fans who get off on the wrong foot) turns me and my radio off. Hey, I can listen to podcasts of FAIR's CounterSpin or Bob McChesney's Media Matters [great archives for both of these!] -- these are two shorter shows on the very important media issue that are NOT currently in the Air America lineup that probably should be. And there's Matt Rothschild's Progressive Radio Show on a variety of topics. I don't need Randi most days -- personal preference. But her show has a role to play and she belongs on WWRL. Thank you!



IMPORTANT PERSONAL & POLITICAL PPS -- Good grief! I sound like the Left Wing version of my Ditto head brother. I sound like I only listen to talk radio. Nooooooo. I do have a life. But I listen when I can to learn and to act. That's the difference between me and my brother. I want to take what I have learned from blogging and talk radio to change the world positively -- to make it more peaceful, environmentally safer, and economically fair and just.

Interestingly, though, my rightist brother has started to listen to the LEFT wing talk shows on satellite radio and there are two things we actually agree on. We both cannot stand Hillary Clinton (albeit for different reasons) -- and we both would vote for John Edwards if HE gets the nomination. That says a lot doesn't it?

What also says a lot is the latest unannounced call-in presidential poll on Thom Hartmann's show. Everyone holding was dumped from the lines and it was everyone trying at the same time. The results were telling: Edwards: 26, Kucinich: 12, Obama: 4, Clinton: 3, Biden: 2 and one each for Ron Paul, Al Gore, and Higgens the cat. (If my call would have been answered, I would have said John and Elizabeth Edwards -- they are a great and winning team.)

Edwards is a populist and he polls well with lots of Americans of all and no party affiliation. Rolling Stone said John Edwards is the candidate the Right fears. How I wish that WWRL and Air America Radio would get behind him, like me and my rightist brother. Think about it. And again, thank you.

PPPS -- In true activist fashion I'm posting this letter on my blog PeaceHugs.com and telling my blog and listserv friends about WWRL, Air America, good talk radio, and John Edwards for President.

###

And a personal note to my blog readers: Of course, I don't listen to all the shows I like all of the time. Thanks to podcasting and the NY subway and bus system, I actually listen to quite a bit. It is important to learn to pick and choose. This is easier podcasting. If a show is a dud (and everyone has a dud now and then), go on to another podcast. That said, there are a lot of good podcasts -- just like books and movies -- that I and you will never get to. So be it. I am just glad that there is enough of our democratic republic left to have left wing radio (and let us NOT forget the great Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!).

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

An Open Letter to WWRL 1600 Radio

Mr. Rennie Bishop
Program Director
WWRL 1600 Radio
333 Seventh Avenue
New York NY 10001

Dear Mr. Bishop,

I am an Air American – listening to Air America Radio from Day One -- and a sometime WWRL listener who is extremely disappointed with the lack of Air America Radio shows on the schedule of WWRL, the supposed flagship station of Air America Radio. I would appreciate your consideration of my critical comments which follow.

Sammy and Army are awful, (im)pure and simple – and didn’t Armstrong Williams in the past receive payoffs to talk about certain issues?

Richard Bey – His show is lightweight and his singing syrupy and egotistical. He is a poor substitute for AAR’s Richard Greene whose CLOUT aims to foster much needed liberal/progressive political activism. (WWRL’s failure previously to carry Mark Riley’s Air Americans may have contributed to its quick demise.)

Alan Colmes – This is the person Al Franken referred to in his Lying Liars book as Colmes – I tried to listen, wondering if there was some substance there somewhere. I gave up after a number of poor caliber non-informative, limitedly entertaining shows. Part of his show conflicts with that of the superior and informative This is America -- Jon Elliott’s show – and you carry none of it regularly (though I will grant you that I have heard “A Best of” show over the weekend at some strange hour – and I would have a difficult time finding it.).

Sam Seder on Sunday Show – we get only an hour of an already truncated three hour show (even that is NOT enough – instead Air America has mistakenly given us nauseatingly puerile Lionel – not your fault – actually in this case I would appreciate your broadcasting some other progressive show – maybe re-air Jon Elliott in the 9 to noon weekday slot!) Please carry Sam’s full show. (I wish that AAR would give us MORE of Sam on a daily basis.)

WWRL seems to run a lot of (TOO MANY) health infomercials. I am a firm believer of alternative medicine and herbal remedies but WWRL’s programming is way overboard for a flagship station. Undoubtedly, these must be money-makers but please note that YES, I DO support sponsors when I can. (I have purchased a number of items recently from TekServe on 23rd Street – and I told them about hearing their ads on WWRL.)

Thank God for podcasts, but as a political activist I know that it is easier to recommend slightly older Democratic/political activists listen to certain radio shows rather than ask them to subscribe to and/or download a podcast. Besides, there is the immediacy of the original show. I stream AAR or WWRL while at work and frequently when I am home – Living in Queens I get way too much bleeding from the Disney channel after dark but it is sooooo nice not to be tied to the computer to hear good progressive programming.

All of this said, thanks for carrying Thom Hartmann and Rachel Maddow, my favorites – and I love Bobby and Pap’s Ring of Fire and Welton’s State of Belief, and enjoy Mark and Arianna’s 7 Days in America, but we need to give New York City’s radio listeners the ability to hear the best of the progressive radio shows, not pale substitutes or infomercials. With Sammy and Army, Richard Bey, and Colmes, a case could certainly be made that WWRL is complicit in the dumbing down of New Yorkers. Please. You can do better. Please do.

I welcome a response.

Thank you.


Respectfully,
Kate Anne

VERY IMPORTANT: PS, PPS, and PPPS re Laura Flanders, John Edwards and more

cc: Mr. Mark Green
President
Air America Radio
641 Sixth Avenue – 4th Floor
New York NY 10011

John Edwards says, "End the [Rigged] Game"

Labor Day, and the American workers are still being screwed by today's political practices. In Hanover, NH, on August 23rd, John Edwards addressed this issue aptly. His prepared remarks are the title link but here is a YouTube clip of part them, transcribed below.

Transcription of the Clip:

Will corporate greed be all that we value as we move forward into this global economy, or will we put workers and families first, so that all jobs pay fair wages, every American has health care and corporate profits work for democracy -- not the other way around?

Will we face our future .... This is unfortunately the game of American politics and in this game, the interests of regular Americans are being left behind. Real change starts by being honest. And I want to say something at the beginning -- the system in Washington is rigged. And I'll say it again, it is rigged, and our government is broken.

It is time for us to end that game and we can end this game together.

And I want to go, I want to go one step further. because it is also
time for my party, the Democratic Party -- the party of the people -- to end it.

The choice for our party could not be any clearer. We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats. Just swapping the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington insiders of another is NOT what we need.

The American people deserve to know that their presidency is not for sale, the Lincoln Bedroom is not for rent, and lobbyist money can no longer influence policy in the House or the Senate.

It is time for us to make a clear statement about who we are as a party. It's time to end this game. It's time to tell big corporations and their lobbyists who have been running things for too long that their time is over. It's time to challenge politicians to put the American people's interests ahead of their own calculated political interests, to look the lobbyists in the eye and just say no.
-- John Edwards, Hanover, NH, August 23, 2007

Thanks to Thom Hartmann for playing part of the speech on his Air America radio show. And if you haven't already, or if you can spare a little more, please donate to the John Edwards for President campaign. Thanks!!

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

PS -- Just found this variation on John's End the Game speech. Check out THIS inspiring video, too:

Go see The 11th Hour

Thom at the Cinema
Overcome August summertime lethargy. Do yourself and the world a favor and see The Eleventh Hour, Leonardo DiCaprio's new environmental film and then follow through on some of the action you promised yourself you would do after seeing Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth.

Gail Harper and I were fortunate to catch it at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema in the East Village and were treated to a special question and answer session by my favorite Air America Radio show host [and Renaissance man], Thom Hartmann, author of Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. Thom is a real inspiration and the brief Q&A just wasn't enough. I caught him again the next night at The Tank, home of Laughing Liberally. There, despite crappy rainy weather and the 9 pm hour, Thom was greeted by an enthusiastic standing-room-only audience. We saw a clip of the film and some additional DiCaprio enviromental footage available on his website then Thom gave us a mini-seminar. [Did YOU know that the population of the world would be best contained if women had full and equal rights?]

Bottom line is that we have to change -- and change NOW. We are the generation who have to change the world because the crisis is upon us. It is actually more like the 11th hour and 59 minutes. The solutions are there, or at least most of them, but we have to change our own lives and get others to do likewise. Government involvement is vital -- so let's start bugging our representatives, senators, mayor, goveror -- everyone! And let's note well the ideas on the 11 Ways to Make A Difference postcard which advertises the film [which I am manually typing as I can't find a link!!]:

1. Unplug appliances and chargers when you are not using them. Turn off lights, TV and power down computers when leaving a room or not using them.
   


2. Turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth, shaving and lathering in the shower.
   


3. Avoid using plastic bags and plastic water bottles. Take your own reusable bag to the market or the mall.
   


4. Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120 degrees and keep your home thermostat at 68 degrees in the winter and 78 degrees in the summer
   


5. Use cold water for laundry and clean the lint filter in your dryer after every load so that it uses less energy.
   


6. Turn off the drying feature on your dishwasher.
   


7. Learn about alternatives to household cleaning and laundry products that do not use hazardous chemicals.
   


8. Use compact fluorescent lightbulbs to save money and energy.
   


9. Walk, bike or take public transportation to work/school once a week.
   


10. Buy a hybrid or alternative-fuel vehicle on your next purchase.
    


11. Plant a tree or garden.

Let's follow through on our good intentions. We don't have to be perfect, but we have to be bettter, and we have to lobby Congress. Call them at 202-224-3121 to demand meaningful environmental reform now. And please, for the sake of humankind, check out http://11thhouraction.com/ for more action ideas.

Thanks, Thom! Thanks, Leonardo! And I will add a special thanks to my Aunt Betty Murphy who has never owned an electric dryer but has preferred a clothesline instead. (Think of the energy she has saved! ) Blessings one and all, and....

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne


Thom at the Tank

Don't Count Out the Real Liberal: John Edwards

Wonder why the mainstream corporate media isn't talking about John Edwards much, except to denigrate him for cutting his hair? They know he, with his populist message, is really the most viable Democratic candidate to win against Republican corporatist candidates. Thanks to Thom Hartmann, for pointing his listeners to the title-linked article, in Rolling Stone Magazine:

The Real Liberal: John Edwards is Third in the Polls, But Don't Count Him Out

by Tim Dickinson

If he weren't rich, handsome and so well married, you might feel a little sorry for John Edwards. Never before in the 231-year history of our republic have the inalienable traits that Edwards possesses -- his fair skin and a Y chromosome -- been anything but a prerequisite for presidential politics. Today, his race and gender stand a chance of derailing his campaign altogether. "There's a lot of democrats who would like to make history," says Markos Moulitsas, founder of the influential online forum Daily Kos. "The party is anxious to nominate a black or a woman," agrees Dick Morris, the former adviser to Bill Clinton. "You have to sign off on either of those two options before you even get to voting for Edwards." Indeed, Edwards has been all but eclipsed by the celebrity candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama: He ranks a distant third in national polls, and his $12 million cash on hand is barely a third of Hillary's and Obama's hauls.

But counting Edwards out would be a big mistake. Flying below the radar, the former vice-presidential candidate is pulling off a feat that Democratic consultants have long considered impossible: staking out the most progressive platform among the viable candidates while preserving an aura of electability. In head-to-head polling against the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, Clinton and Obama have managed to post only modest leads. Edwards, by contrast, not only bests every Republican candidate in the race, he trounces them -- by an average of twelve points.

"Edwards' message is more left than it was in '04, and it's attracting the right kind of people for the primaries," says Bill Carrick, a veteran party strategist. "But the general electorate still sees him as mainstream. He's doing a good job of threading that needle." MORE

If you like John Edwards, like I like John Edwards, support his efforts, populist efforts, by donating to his campaign. (And I do put my money where my mouth is. Matt Gerlach [sp? -- nice guy who used to work for IBM and know how important keeping jobs in the USA is] called from the campaign this past weekend and I donated another few dollars -- which add up! I donated on the web -- then I went to Dennis Kucinich's site and donated a few dollars because I like his message, too.) Thanks!!

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Keeping up, impeachment and life

My life has been a whirl with a mixture of personal and politics.

Politics-wise -- Dennis Kucinich's H.Res.333 to impeach Cheney first is gathering cosponsors. Click the title link for current info from Thomas, BUT these are current co-sponsors as of today:

Rep Clarke, Yvette D. [NY-11] - 6/6/2007
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1] - 5/1/2007
Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] - 6/7/2007
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9] - 5/1/2007
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] - 6/7/2007
Rep Wynn, Albert Russell [MD-4] - 5/10/2007

Call YOUR representatives and demand that they at least take a stand and co-sponsor this issue. It doesn't matter that in the end that Repugs would block it: we have to speak out against blatant corruption. Meanwhile Republicans yesterday blocked the tame no confidence vote on Alberto Gonzales. Outrageous! But it is especially up to those with Republican senators to bitch -- and insist that they and the Democratic senators impeach this person whose actions are so in oppostion to the law. There are currently 76,545 signers on the petition to impeach Gonzalez. Add yours to this petition to "urge the House Judiciary Committee to begin the process of impeachment of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in accordance with Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution".

Other things I have learned:

• Hillary Clinton was the Senator who got the most money from the Healthcare/Big Pharma industry last year after Senator "Man on Dog" Rick Santorum who lost his relection bid. And we should believe that she will give us reasonable health care and drug prices? Hello.
  
  
• Obama who claims to be anti-war campaigned for pro-war Senator Joe Liebermann. ARGH!!
  
  
• And so much more from Thom Hartmann whose show yesterday makes me further question our country's descent into fascism or at the very least feudalism. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. And what we are number one in is WAR and PRISONS. Our defense spending is bankrupting our country while making some Bush contributors very wealthy. And this spending is floating our current economy at the expense of our future.

Personal stuff: Yesterday was my lovely Aunt Betty Murphy's birthday. Friday was terrific button maker Ruth Klein's birthday (and her twin Maxine) -- and she provided me with some great buttons including one for John Edwards which I wore to All Saint's Church's Strawberry Fair and the Ridgewood Democratic Club's Dinner Dance this past Saturday. And we also celebrated my peace friend Sam Oast's birthday last week. Meanwhile, I'm making a little headway at de-boxing my new apartment but life in corporate America cuts into my time and energy. Still, until I win lotto, gotta earn money. So much to do, including read Al Gore's book, The Assault on Reason and Caroline Myss's book, Entering the Castle: An Inner Path to God and Your Soul. But first, to work....

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Birthday Sam