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Thursday, November 25
12 Things Progressives Can Be Thankful For This Year
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 25 Nov 2004 04:24 AM CST
 12 Things Progressives Can Be Thankful For This Year
by Linda Thieman
Thanksgiving can be a bit of a touchy subject in the progressive community. One
can never assume that everyone will simply gather ‘round the turkey or
the tofurkey and join in a celebration which reminds many of the
decimation of the Native American population. On the other hand,
there are many who believe that to express gratitude for the good
things we share serves to increase that abundance.
In
trying to reach a happy medium, Blog for Iowa (with much cribbing from
American Progress) has compiled a list of 12 things that we
progressives can be thankful for this year.
1) We’re thankful for outspoken leaders like Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich who keep the progressive torch lit.
2) We’re thankful for George Lakoff and his dissection and exposure of the GOP meme factory.
3) We’re thankful that the Democrats finally broke the stranglehold that the destructive neocons had on the Iowa Senate.
4)
We’re thankful that the Green Party’s Cobb/LaMarche campaign has used
their legitimate position on the Ohio ballot to pursue the proper
course of action for an Ohio presidential recount.
5) We're
thankful for Jon Stewart for using comedy to highlight the essential
truths – about the media, politicians, and – especially - Tucker
Carlson.
6) We're thankful for California's trailblazing on stem-cell research.
7) We're thankful for Rush Limbaugh, Bill Bennett, Jack Ryan, and Tom DeLay for helping us understand conservative moral values.
8) We're thankful for Costco, for showing Wal-Mart that you can offer rock-bottom prices without paying rock-bottom wages.
9) We're thankful for Canada, for picking up the slack and providing affordable drugs to America's seniors.
10)
We're thankful for Republicans like Senators Dick Lugar and Chuck Hagel for putting principles over partisanship.
11) We're thankful for Air America for taking on conservative talk radio…and winning.
12) And
last but not least, we are very thankful for the policy wonks who read
the fine print of the omnibus and stopped the turkeys in Congress from
reading our income tax returns.
And a personal thank you to Trish Nelson for stepping up to the Blog for Iowa plate and doing such an outstanding job.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 11
DLC's Will Marshall Blames PROGRESSIVES for Kerry's Election "Loss"
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 11 Nov 2004 10:49 AM CST
 DLC's Will Marshall Blames PROGRESSIVES for Kerry's Election "Loss"
by Dawn Mueller
Marshall calls progressive Democrats "anti-American"
The DLC held a forum to do a post-mortem on the election:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6453647/
Sounds
like some have awakened to the fact that the Democratic leadership
needs to get down in the trenches with us common folk, and do some
party-building.
However, Will Marshall specifically pins the blame on the "Michael Moore crowd." He is quoted as saying, "We've got to repudiate the most strident and insulting anti-American voices out there, sometimes on our party's left."
The article reminds the reader of Evan Bayh's comment that the
Democratic Party is in danger of being taken over by the far left,
referring to Howard Dean's rise.
I
respectfully suggest that Mr. Marshall be informed that I just spent
three years of my life busting my behind to get the Democratic nominee
elected. If he thinks that you and I are "strident and insulting
anti-American voices," and that we should be "repudiated" because we
oppose/d a war in which over a thousand of our men and women have died;
tens of thousands have been injured; and heaven knows how many
civilians have been killed, maimed or rendered destitute by our
actions...
...then
my reply to Mr. Marshall is that I do not find him to be the unifying
voice of the Democratic Party. Mothers, fathers, sisters,
brothers and spouses should not be "repudiated" for trying to prevent
the death of their loved ones on the sands of Iraq, and the endless
draining of our pocketbooks.
I am
shocked that, after all of the Herculean grassroots efforts of everyday
citizens to make the Democratic party DEMOCRATIC enough bring in the
BIGGEST haul of voters a Democratic presidential candidate has ever
won, that a member of the DLC would treat us this way. If Mr.
Marshall has been properly quoted, I believe he owes us a big apology.
I am in favor of Howard Dean for DNC Chair.
Democrats need leaders who are intelligent, principled, care about us
and have the ability to sit down with us over a meal of Hamburger
Helper, without spitting in our faces.
The DLC website is http://www.ndol.org.
There is a link to the CSPAN video of the forum. Will Marshall is
the president of the so-called "Progressive Policy Institute," an arm
of the DLC. You might drop him a line and invite him to share a
dinner of Ramen noodles with you - use the online form, or give him a
call at (202)547-0001.
Dawn M. Mueller
In Iowa News, Gov. Vilsack appears to be considering the top spot at the DNC, too.
Saturday, November 6
Farewell by Linda Thieman
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 06 Nov 2004 04:05 PM CST
 Farewell
by Linda Thieman
Well,
the time has come for me to take my leave. I’ve been trying to
get away for several days now, but running Blog for Iowa is
addictive. I check my sources, get that “a ha!” spark when I see
some information that I just have to post, and before you know it, I
have spent several hours setting up three more posts. Kind of
like Al Pacino in “The Godfather Part III,” where he keeps trying to
get out and they keep pulling him back in. Perhaps that’s not the
best analogy.
I have
loved running Blog for Iowa. I have appreciated those of you who
have spread the word. Because of you, our readership has exploded
once again. I’ve adjusted the stats for a little glitch on
October 23 and 24; there was a 26-hour time period during which all
Blog Harbor stats stopped being recorded and over that two-day period,
posted nothing but zeros. We never got that lost information back. So, that being said, I believe we
actually reached 50,000 page views for the first time in October.
During the last two weeks of October, we averaged 1,010 readers per day
(distinct hosts served). That surprised me because I had expected
that as people became more and more consumed with the final days of the
campaign, readership would drop off. It didn’t.
The stats
for the first 5 days of November have been surprising, too. We
have averaged 1,400 readers per day. And, thanks to Dawn Mueller
posting links to Blog for Iowa over at Kos during an Iowa candidates
thread, we had our biggest day ever on October 11, with 2,170 readers
and 2,777 page views. (We did have one day with higher page
views; October 19 hit 2820 page views.) Truly amazing.
I’m sure
we all realize that the progressive movement is in its infancy. I
am proud of how hard we’ve worked. But if my leaving grants me
the right to offer one piece of advice, let it be this. We are in
this for the long haul. It took the neo-cons 35 years to set up
the structure that now poisons our democracy. It’s going to take
us a considerable length of time to repair it. So, pace
yourselves. Take the down time you need. Get some
rest. Find a way to make the movement a consistent part of your
life in a way that you will be less likely to suffer burn out. We
need you, and more important, we need you to take good care of
yourself.
Now that
we don’t have a national election hanging over our heads, we can focus
on what is most important, and that, of course, is building the
progressive movement from the ground up in Iowa. Iowa is where
it’s at because this is where we live. You may have heard the
rumors that the DNC is thinking of taking the first-in-the-nation
status away from Iowa because Kerry didn’t “win.” Well, if they
do, that’s the breaks. Would it kill us to let some other poor
souls give up two years of their lives every time the presidential
rolls around? Whatever happens, our top priority must still be
Iowa.
I have
just added some Writers’ Guidelines to the right sidebar of Blog for
Iowa. We welcome contributions about the progressive movement, in
general, or pertaining to the progressive movement in Iowa, in
particular. I’ve set up two links. Click on the top link to
read the Guidelines on the web; click on the bottom link to download
the Guidelines.
I don’t
know what my plans are or how long I’ll be AWOL – if it’s a short
period of time, this big goodbye is going to look pretty silly.
Anyhoo, I’d like to take this opportunity to say some thank yous.
Dr. Alta
Price: Alta and her enthusiasm drive Democracy for Iowa.
She’s the one who got the ball rolling. She’s the one who funds
Blog for Iowa. And you’ll probably see her at your door asking
for your input as Democracy for Iowa works on some bylaws and
endorsement procedures. Keep your eye on this gal. She’s a
go-getter.
Darrell
Lewis and Molly Regan: This one is rather personal, so if those
kinds of things tend to make you blush, skip to the next
paragraph. During the last seven and a half months that I worked
to set up and run Blog for Iowa, long periods of time passed when folks
remembered to read the blog but seemed to forget I was here. If
it weren’t for the moral support I received from Darrell and Molly, I
would have quit long ago.
Darrell
Lewis, Dave Inbody, and Dick Stater: Once when I was talking to
Alta, she commented that she thought it was funny that she and I were
“co-founders” of Democracy for Iowa because she didn’t know any two
people who knew less about politics than we did. That cracked me
up because it was so true. So, that being the case, I would like
to thank these three gentlemen for teaching me everything I actually
now know about politics. You’ve been kind and patient teachers.
Our
Regular Contributors: I’d like to thank our regular Blog for Iowa
contributors for their hard work and fine contributions, including
Connie Wilson, Ira Lacher, Darrell Lewis, Ted Remington, Andrew Smith,
Christina Butts, and the non-partisan Iowa Policy Project. (If I forgot someone, drop me a line and I'll add their name!)
Trish
Nelson and Ellen Ballas: I’d like to thank the co-coordinators of
Rapid Response – Iowa and everyone on the stellar team they worked so
hard to create for never letting up in the fight to hold the media
accountable. I’d also like to mention a special thank you to
Trish Nelson for setting up a system that allowed us to send out press
releases in an efficient manner.
Our
Candidates: I’d like to thank our beloved progressive candidates
for putting themselves out there to give voice to progressive
values. Personally, I think there is nothing harder than being a
candidate, unless you’re a Republican incumbent, and then you just hide
out and sit on your behind during the whole campaign season, until the
last two weeks, during which the Rove manual instructs you to do radio
and TV ads and mailings smearing and lying about the reputations of
your hard-working Democratic opponent. But, I digress.
The
Campaign Staffers: I’d like to thank all the campaign staffers
who helped keep Blog for Iowa in touch with what was going on with our
candidates. And I’d like to thank all the campaign staffers, in
general, for giving your all to get the word out about your/our
candidates.
The Meet
Up Hosts: A special thank you to the Iowa Meet Up hosts who have
kept the ground game going: Dennis and Robin Roseman in Iowa City, Alta
Price and Molly Regan in the QC, Dick Stater and Sue Astley in Cedar
Rapids, and Colleen Jennings in Des Moines.
And last
but not least, I would like to thank Cliff Day for taking over Blog for
Iowa for me. It’s a big job, Cliff. Always remember,
running the control panel is nearly impossible if you use Internet
Explorer. Mozilla it must be! And, of course, I’d like to
thank Howard Dean for awakening a movement, a movement that allowed us
to network extensively with folks who understand what’s what.
This thing is bigger than anyone realizes. We just haven't reached critical mass yet.
Just in
case you didn’t know it, ALL the articles ever posted on Blog for Iowa
can be accessed through the search feature on the left sidebar.
I've made 788 posts, and some have links to as many as five other
sources.
AND A BIG
THANK YOU to all the readers of Blog for Iowa (including our good
friends from Nebraska and Wisconsin).
There now. I think
that’s enough self-indulgence for today.
Linda Thieman
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