I'm listening to Joe Keating talk to Thom Hartmann about how the Pacific Greens are the only party that can and will protect our environment. I'm hearing from him the same line of crap we got from the Naderites 6 years ago: There's no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats.

O yea, they got that so right.

I wish the Dems were much stronger on the environment, but to make the claim that Kulo is just as bad as Saxton on the environment is to totally ignore reality. But that's politics. Candidates must pump themselves up; Ted's doing it, Ron has no choice because he's got nothing but his hot air, and Joe Keating is doing it. He has to take the line that the Dems are bad on the environment, just as he has to claim that the major environmental groups have sold out because they support Ted and the Democrtats. That's how this game is played.

100Actions.com has a post called "Take a Vacation Day" that's worth checking out...

Start planning for Election Day by taking November 7th off work. You can't help get out the vote if you have other obligations, so take a minute to clear your schedule early.

Steve Duin, columnist with The Oregonian, has had enough of Americans silently accepting their complicity in the pointless, brutal deaths of troops like Army Pfc. Tom Tucker of Madras and Spc. Robert Jones of Milwaukie. He finds the moments of silence at their funerals indicative of how we all have become silent allies in Bush's war.

John J Miller of the NRO had the lack of good sense to make a list of the 50 most conservative songs of all time. That it got published means either no one at NRO has any clue about rock or conservatism, or his editor hates him and wants to embarrass him. Suffice it to say that he puts John Lennon, Bono and Everclear in as conservative song writers.

Read the whole thing at

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When the Class of 2006 graduated from Corvallis High School the other night, teacher Rob Cornell delivered an address that clearly was political.  A bit odd, seeing that Mr Cornell is a math teacher, but he understands, it seems to me, one important point:  Life is political.  Every choice we make has an impact on other people, and the more choices we make — and the more public those choice — the more political become our actions.  (And never forget: the choice to not act is a choice as large as any.)  Mr Cornell spoke about the nature of contemporary American life and the way our present government behaves.  He asked the following of the graduating seniors:

In today's Gazette-Times, John T.L. Lee, a local Dem volunteer, asked "What was Howard Dean thinking?"  He's referring to Dean and the DNC's determination not to give up the religious vote, including that of evangelicals, to the radical Republican right.  Dean believes that on many issues, even fundamentalists have more in  common with the Democratic Party than the GOP. 

(i wrote the following for Blue Oregon after the debate between Pete Sorenson & Jim Hill. you can go to the original post to read the comments.)

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Democratic Debate in Corvallis: The Incredible Shrinking Governor

T.A. Barnhart

The Benton County Democrats and OSU College Democrats hosted a debate Monday night in Corvallis between the three candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor. Pete Sorenson and Jim Hill showed up, as they have been doing all around the state, and both represented their issues and personalities admirably. The governor was represented by a little old lady who could do nothing other than demonstrate how unworthy Ted Kulongski has become of our vote. He was not merely absent from the proceedings; he became "The Incredible Shrinking Governor."

it's great when someone in the community speaks, or writes, the unvarnished truth about why we are Democrats (although he did not exactly say that...)

Universal health care ‘outrageous’?

In last Sunday’s article about the Earth Charter, Republican candidate Robin Brown says that it is “fairly outrageous” that the charter calls for universal access to health care, and providing clean air, food and water for the people of the world. It’s helpful to be reminded every once in a while why I don’t vote Republican any more.

two former Demcrats, Pat Canan and Irma Delson, have started a project they call "PEARL". i can't remember what it stands for, but the gist of the idea is that they join the Republican Party in order to pull it back to the center. ok, that's one option, and it's so full of problems i can't even begin to list them. but i'll let this letter from the today's GT speak for me:

Lesson on road to common ground

the Gazette-Times is not a great source for local news that does not happen with 2 miles of the GT building, especially anything that happens in Salem. so for those of you who missed it, here's the Salem Statesman Journal's article on what turned up when court documents were released on Friday, Dec 16 -- it details how Salem police were looking for letters when they found meth in Kelley Wirth's car.

i'll let LoErna cover the actual meeting more properly, since i just happened to be in Portland on personal business and went to the SCC meeting to observe. but i do want to say this: we have a lot of passionate Dems in this state. people are not participating in this party because their parents were Dems and so they are; they are Dems because the believe in what this great party -- the party of Jefferson and now, by default, the true party of Lincoln -- stands for. a lot of the stuff that happens with so-called divisiveness is simply the inability of diverse Demos to not give a damn. we do, and we just so often find it impossible to let go. to not strive for our beliefs.

the Kansas Board of Education, seeking perhaps to reclaim their pre-Brown glory days, has once again placed the pseudo-science of "Intelligent Design" back into classrooms. if you have family or friends with children in those public schools, you might advise them to head somewhere with a real education system. like New Orleans.

i've written else about the possibility of civil strife between religious fundamentalists and political secularists in this country. this decision, if left intact by the citizens of Kansas (not to mention their courts who will probably be dealing with it right after breakfast), may be a cultural equivalent to Bloody Kansas. if religion can replace science, if any particular religion can be made official as is being attempted with fundamentalist Christianity in this decision, then our country's Constitutional foundation is in danger. this is not about science; this is about a religion that has absorbed the messianiac message of its historic leader to the point that every believer is now Christ on earth. they can't die for each other's sins, but they can proclaim themselves the last of the true believers and demand that the rest of the world bow down to their god -- who no longer resides in heaven but only in their churches.

the latest Zogby poll shows 42% of Americans favor impeachment of Bush if it is found that he lied about Iraq. well, we know he did lie; in time, evidence will make this point abudantly clear. especially if Dems can do well enough in next year's elections to force Congressional investigations.

but we can't really wait that long. pressure needs to be brought for this process to begin, and we need our Representatives to step forward. Peter DeFazio and Darlene Hooley have to set aside fear and whatever else might block them and be among the first (be the first) to call for the impeachment process to begin. the slaughter in Iraq has to end, and calling the President a liar -- and making him pay for his lies -- is a necessary step.

from the Seattle Times: "GOP candidate Rossi said the "political makeup" of the high court would have made it almost impossible to get Bridges' decision overturned."

what Rossi is saying is 1, the judge's decision is rock-solid and, 2, the last thing the Warshington Rs want is a Supreme Court precedent. they will let this one go so they can challenge another day.

the Rs picked this court and this judge because they believed of all their choices in the state, he was the most likely to favor them. and if he did favor them, we see how weak their case truly was. ineptitude does not equal fraud; fraud equals fraud, and there is a huge difference between the three stooges mode of King County and Rovian machinations in Ohio (2004) or Floridia (2000).

because george bush won the election and will be coronated tomorrow, and because the dems lost ground in congress, many progressives are feeling angry, hurt, and resentful -- towards the democratic party. there is a wide-spread belief that kerry blew an election that should have been his in a walk-over. and for former dean supporters, the loss is even more galling, given how their candidate was undermined by the leadership of the democratic party; in particular terry mcauliffe and al from. these people are not happy democrats.

and yet on the same day kerry booted the presidency, democrats across this country made extraordinary gains. montana and colorado, both so-called red states, voted for democrats in such a manner as to turn them a rich bluish-purple. our own state, oregon, had a few glitches, but with an 85% turnout the voters in this state declared themselves to be democrats.