DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> My Bully Pulpit: October 2004

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Thanks, Howard

I'm watching Alexandra Pelosi's documentary on the 2004 Democratic Primary, _Diary of a Political Tourist_. Unfortunately, I missed the beginning.

Kerry just won the Iowa Caucus, and Dean just did The Scream Heard Round The World.

Remember all this? Remember the unstoppable Howard Dean Machine? I do. I remember liking all the good ol' lefty fury driving it all -- the sense of engagement, the sense of populist change --and my niggling sense that the Republicans would have made lunchmeat out of him.

Ach... thank you, Howard Dean. You got us motivated way back when -- you reminded us that this is our country to care about. I'll think of you this weekend in Pennsylvania, and we'll all think of you on Tuesday, when we all do our part to take our country back.

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Quiet Week

Sorry kids -- I've been quiet this week. It's been a fun one: RoomieSexyTyger was in town, and not only was it great to see her, she cleared out a lot of her stuff from our place, so I can actually move in. This is great news -- I've been getting a little crabby at living out of a suitcase! Plus, Aunt Benet came up to visit from ATL, so we had a series of fun adventures across the weekend too.

Other exciting news: my Jeep is now registered in Illinois, and I'm the proud owner of an IL drivers license. Woowoo!

In addition, on Thursday I'm going to PHL to meet PulpitMom for a weekend of volunteering for KE04. I expect this to give me lots and lots to blog about.

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Holiday 2003


Holiday 2003
Originally uploaded by missjasmine.
This picture is from last year, but I do love it so.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Wow!

Kerry sounds absolutely fantastic -- smart, cogent, firm and authoritative without being paternal or pedantic. It's great.

On the right side of my screen, GWB isn't sounding bad enough.

Grrrrrr.

Last Chance

Tonight, JK has to smack GWB so hard -- I mean, leave GWB staring at the camera in stony silence unable to speak for at least ten seconds -- that Karl Rove is terrified. Not just a little scared, but pissing his pants worried. Rove'll panic, and pull something so transparently desperate that will backfire.

Unless we get a massive Bush campaign screwup in the next two weeks, the Democrats are steaming towards a repeat of 2000.

Fingers crossed...

Monday, October 11, 2004

A Day in the Life of Joe Republican

From the blogosphere:

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffee pot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. With his first drink of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with good pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a workers compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noon and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the taxpayer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

First Volunteer Shift

This past Saturday I took my first shift volunteering at a reproductive health clinic in the western suburbs of Chicago. In order to keep some of the vocal anti-choice voices at bay, many clinics have volunteers to escort women from their cars to the doors of the clinic.

This is something I have wanted to do for many, many years -- and earlier in the summer I even tried to find out about opportunities in Chicago, unsuccessfully. A few weeks later I was with Jasmine at a BBQ hosted by one of her coworkers, Eric. We got talking and he mentioned that he was involved with clinic defense volunteering out in Dupage County and I told him I was interested. They always can use volunteers, and men are particularly needed. Plus, I feel better about doing this out in the burbs -- the clinic is in Glen Ellen, which is next door to Wheaton (of Wheaton College fame). This is a particularly Republican -- and Christian evangelical -- part of Chicago suburbia. I've got a car, it only takes 20-25 mins or so to get out there at 7:30A on a Saturday, and they need my help more.

I got out there to do my first shift with Eric, who got me hooked up with the group in the first place. The shifts are short -- 8A until around 9:30A, as the clinic schedules all the appointments early in the AM. Eric told me that one woman was inside already, and there were 12 scheduled appointments. Usually around 80% keep the appointments, so he was expecting around eight more women to come in. Eric was wearing an orange vest marked "Clinic Volunteer" and we went inside to get me one.

Anti-choice protestors are forbidden from entering the clinic property, so they stand out on the side street or in front of the clinic on the little strip of grass between the main road and the parking lot (Dupage County; no sidewalks). There were five this morning, several with rosary beads, praying.

When the first car entered the parking lot, Eric gestured them over to the driveway at the door to the clinic and explained to the two people in the car that if they got out there by the door, we'd escort them in (only six feet), park their car for them, and bring the keys in so they wouldn't have to park themselves and be subjected to the verbal assaults of the protestors for a longer time.

Almost all of the women took us up on the offer, and it definitely limited their exposure to the hateful speech being thrown at them.

Everyone was there within an hour, and we left. The protestors gave the usual yang about murder and the like, and one of them even yelled at me "You must really hate women to be here." Clearly, I didn't respond. Eric told me that there are usually a lot more people protesting, and that they are usually a lot more aggressive and disgusting in what they say.

I'm really amazed at how profoundly moving it was to do this, even if only for an hour. It really felt like you are on the front lines, and standing up to both the hatefulness of the anti-choice movement *and* helping women as they negotiate a really emotionally charged moment when they do not need to be verbally assaulted by prostelytizing religious wacko retirees.

I really can't wait to go back.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

A Brief Note to the Bushies

TR said "Speak softly *and* carry a big stick", not "or".

Just a reminder.

Thursday, October 07, 2004

Kevin and Adrienne get silly


Kevin and Adrienne get silly
Originally uploaded by missjasmine.
Adrienne is one sexy, sexy woman. I'm lucky to be allowed to sit next to her, especially in public at Wrigley...

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Ew. Ew. Ew.

I'm in DC for a couple of days for work.

I just got back from dinner at the bar where the DC chapter of the Young Republicans are meeting. As you might imagine, we left quickly.

I feel like I need a shower. Blech!

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Still Not Sold

Polls that show a majority of people believe that Kerry beat Bush in the debate do not matter. Had GWB smacked Kerry up, I'd answer that poll bt saying GWB won the debate and I'd still not vote for him. Plenty of people polled acknowledged that Kerry won the debate, and are still supporting GWB. Michael's link to polling data showing that a majority of polled people in swing states acknowledge that Kerry won the debate doesn't mean we're in any kind of a substantively better position than we were a week ago.

I don't think that energizing his base is where Kerry's priorities need to lie. GWB's scathing incompetance has mobilized our base just fine. I'm as motivated as I ever was -- but I have yet to be really enthusiastic about a Democratic candidate. I've voted for the Democratic Party and against the Republican Party in every election I've voted in, except for 2000 when I was voting both against the Republicans and against their candidate. I've never decisively voted *for* a Democratic candidate.

Kerry won the debate. He looked good. Bush lost the debate and looked bad. He needs to look *far, far* worse for all this window dressing to really make a difference. Kerry needs to land a suckerpunch --- say something in the debates that leaves GWB unable to respond at all. We need a 10-15 second awkward silence where it looks like GWB is pissing his pants. *That's* what we need to really take the wind out of the Republican sails.

Remember, all this talk-talk-talking stuff is what Democrats do instead of taking action.

In the meantime, we on the side of truth and justice have some encouraging momentum. That is *all* we have that we can take to the bank.

Saturday, October 02, 2004

Debates, Two Days Later

So, I was really pleased with how cogent Kerry sounded, and how moronic GWB sounded.

As I am *whenever* either of them speaks. (Well, OK no, I've gotten pissed at Kerry for not being aggressive enough).

But you get the idea: how can I be encouraged by my own perceptions of how the debate went? It blows my mind that Kerry isn't leading GWB by 20 percentage points across the country -- it's absurd that the Bushies have saddled Kerry with a credibility problem when their candidate is responsible for misleading the country into war, etc etc etc. I can't trust my own opinions of things, because the country has gone so far through the looking glass. Who cares what I think! Kerry could have walked out, pointed at GWB and said, "Are you kidding me with this guy?" and I'd have been thrilled. It would not have been terribly smart election year politics however.

So my opinions don't exactly gel with the national zeitgeist. The only explanation is, imho, that the Republican message of "we're bringing the fight to the terrorists and the Democrats are content to let them bring the fight here" has tremendous traction because of its simplicity and accessibility. Add that with the tendency of narrow-minded Americans to view the entire Muslim/Arab world as uniformly "terrorist" (allowing that little OBL=Saddam Hussein thing to work), and the damn message sells, even though it's a load of crap. Americans like the simple answers, and distain complexity.

That's all a bit of background to my conclusion: Kerry was great, but I don't think Bush was bad enough. I want to see him stand there, totally gobsmacked. Kerry had my fist pumpin' in the air, and GWB (oh, yet again) made me feel embarrassed to be an American, but does that mean any of this got through to squishy GWB supporters or the undecided? Did enough of them really say, "Hey, this Kerry guy is making some sense?" I'm, again, a big ball of pessimism.