Impeach Bush and Cheney; Things Are About To Chnage In DC

(1) This Is Not Meant To Be Silly…Let Them Know We Are Watching, Paying Attention And That We Sure As Hell Care About Every Move They Make…Including MOVING OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE.

(2) The OpenLeft Post heralds an event perhaps even more important than that of Politico.com.

If you are not too tired from reading and writing all night, making phone calls, plotting your next anti-war, pro impeachment move, fighting off the nagging feeling that people are trying to inflict upon you, that somehow you are a treasonous anti-administration conspirator, (you can shake that off with a good nights sleep), and you can still add up one and one, then add up an announcement in The Nation, review the pedigrees of Mr.s Lux, Stoller and Bowers, couple them with a working relationship with Neas and PFAW and other organizations of integrity and you have a power house in the making.

DC is ready for this. There are a couple of organizations around here that have just about worn out their usefulness as meaningful advocates for the liberal voice in America.

"It's up to individual bloggers to stick to their guns," despite pressure to change, he explained in a recent interview about OpenLeft. Bloggers can benefit from access, he added, as long they maintain their "wild animal" approach.

The Courtofimpeachmentandwarcrimes stands ready!

The Bush Administration's reckless contempt for the rule of law has broken new ground. First Dick Cheney claimed he wasn't part of the executive branch. Now President Bush wiped away a prison sentence for his crony and convicted perjurer Scooter Libby.

For the past six years, Republicans have showed us no argument is too ridiculous and no action too reckless to avoid accountability. Despite Libby's conviction by a jury of his peers for lying to the FBI and obstructing justice, Dick Cheney called Scooter Libby "one of the most capable and talented individuals" he has ever known.

President Bush went even farther –by giving his friend Scooter Libby a 'get out of jail free card' for his crimes. Congress is holding hearings this week to ask tough questions about the President's role and hold them accountable.

You can send a message directly to the White House to express your outrage. Send an e-card to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, telling them no more 'get out of jail free' cards for their cronies.

For too long the Bush Administration was not held accountable by the Rubber Stamp Republican Congress and the American people suffered.

Those days are long over.

Oversight by our Democratic Majority is ensuring a New Direction for our country. For example, right after news reports surfaced about the horrific conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center, we immediately began hearings and fought for funding that corrected the deplorable conditions.

Do you think this kind of accountability would ever happen under a Republican Rubber Stamp Congress?

Help us continue to hold the Bush Administration accountable when they try to twist the law to protect one of their own. Send an e-card to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, telling them there are no more 'get out of jail free' cards for their cronies. We will deliver your messages directly to the White House.

Sincerely,Brian Wolff Executive Director

P.S. Anyone who breaks the law should be held accountable, including well-connected public officials like Scooter Libby.

You can tell them just how disgraceful you think their actions are by sending President Bush and Dick Cheney a message. Send an e-card to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, telling them there are no more 'get out of jail free' cards for their cronies.

If you are having trouble with any of the links, cut and paste the following into your browser: http://www.dccc.org/r/75949/91067

OpenLeft Aims to Open Doors in DC
Ari Melber

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070716/melber

Two giants of the liberal blogosphere joined forces today with a longtime Washington consultant to launch a new website, OpenLeft , designed as a hub for dialogue between progressive outsiders and Washington insiders.

Former Clinton White House official Mike Lux is leading the effort with Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers of MyDD, the influential blog that forced tight-fisted Democrats to donate more than $2 million to candidates last year, it helped stymie Fox's Democratic, presidential debate, and launched one of the first “grassroots polls” in the history of American politics.

"OpenLeft is not just about tools and tactics. We have a different set of ideas about how our culture and country should work," says Stoller, a 29-year-old Harvard graduate who has repeatedly rocked the Democratic establishment with searing blog attacks and aggressive grassroots campaigns.

"We believe that power and wealth should be distributed more equally than they are now," he explains. So the site aims to empower netroots activists, challenge and criticize institutional players--and somehow build progressive coalitions along the way.

The organizers envision OpenLeft--named as a counterpoint to the 1960s' New Left--as the newsletter of the broader progressive movement, which increasingly uses Internet activism to force "open" transparency and accountability on the political establishment.

Of course, that establishment includes some bloggers, who now work for politicians or run "A-list" blogs, which draw enough readers and revenue to make them free-standing media elites. As Bowers emphasizes in his first post on OpenLeft, "what was once a fluid, 'outsider' and 'open' form of new media is now witnessing the crystallization of a new 'establishment' all its own."

Yet unlike most liberal blogs, insiders will not just drop by OpenLeft for "chats" and fundraising. The organizers are recruiting institutional partners to fund the site, collaborate on campaigns and stick around for sustained criticism from their fiery bloggers and commenters.

LUX SAYS OPENLEFT WILL WORK WITH ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THE SIERRA CLUB, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY (PFAW) AND USACTION to provide "a bridge between outside movement people and insiders."

The blog offers organizations potential visibility, members and fundraising, if they engage readers in a real ongoing dialogue about their strategy and policy objectives. Lux thinks groups will embrace a chance to engage new members, because the old model for liberal organizations is already dead. He has a point.

Most of today's activists are not card-carrying members of anything, they don't respond to direct mail fundraising, and they are unmoved by initiatives that assume their support and ignore their ideas.

RALPH NEAS, A LONGTIME WASHINGTON INSIDER, FORMER SENATE COUNSEL AND PRESIDENT OF PFAW, SAYS HIS ORGANIZATION WILL PARTNER WITH OPENLEFT BY PROVIDING POLICY BLOG ENTRIES AND BUYING ADS.

The site is a "perfect political marriage" of a "savvy political operator [and] two young aggressive and talented political bloggers," says Neas, and he should know. After the Senate confirmed Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination, Stoller blasted Neas' organization for turning a potential victory into a “system failure” When Neas saw the criticism, he asked Lux, a former political director of PFAW, to arrange a meeting with Stoller.

After a two-hour breakfast rehashing the nomination battle at the Mayflower Restaurant in Washington, Neas came away converted. "The sense I get is the Matt Stollers and Chris Bowers are going to be around a long time.

[They are] very astute, very aggressive and impatient," he added.

The interaction may serve as a model for OpenLeft's attempts to constructively challenge the progressive establishment. Last month, Bowers and Stoller sparked an extensive public exchange with the leadership of Third Way, a new centrist "strategy center" in Washington. It began when Bowers questioned the group's moderate motives, which Third Way protested.

Stoller found their response "unsatisfying," and went on to criticize the group for using "fraudulent" economic analysis, "dishonest" polling data and generally "triangulating against the left" to raise money. Third Way offered an extensive, rebuttal, defending its moderate Clintonian politics.

Leaving aside the left-center debate, the exchange was remarkable for its candor, depth and speed. There are very few avenues for activists to study or challenge the unelected liberal establishment, which routinely "speaks for" the left in Washington. And excluding major donors, letters sent to most liberal leaders go unread--never mind a response.

Yet now, a blog like MyDD or OpenLeft can convene a substantive debate that would otherwise not occur, at least in public, based on the site's visibility, influential audience and fundraising potential. (OpenLeft will be a partner in the netroots fundraising page at ActBlue.com, which raised $1.5 million for Democrats last cycle.)

OpenLeft wants to scale and routinize these debates. So the blog will adopt an unusual policy for the blogosphere: a right of response. Stoller says every liberal organization or person facing criticism from the site will have a right to respond in a thorough "front page" post. (Right-wingers need not apply, since OpenLeft only caters to a progressive audience.)

The rule would address a common failure of both the traditional media and the blogosphere; neither generally allow sufficient space for rebuttals from most subjects of their coverage.

Some critics point out that blog attacks are not always the best starting point for engagement. William Beutler, the former editor of the, Hotline Blogometer, thinks that Stoller's confrontational style may alienate insiders.

"I don't see [OpenLeft] as being a website the establishment will leap to get involved with," said Beutler, who works at New Media Strategies, which advises Republican Fred Thompson. Daniel Drezner, a conservative academic blogger who has battled with Stoller online, voiced a similar skepticism of OpenLeft's goals. "I'm not sure Matt Stoller is going to be a bridge-builder," he said.

Other power players say it's essential that bloggers remain aggressive while working within the system. "Whenever something is effective, the establishment would like to refract it for its own purposes," argues Rob Johnson, a board member of an elite group of Democratic donors called the Democracy Alliance.

"It's up to individual bloggers to stick to their guns," despite pressure to change, he explained in a recent interview about OpenLeft. Bloggers can benefit from access, he added, as long they maintain their "wild animal" approach.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE TAKE ACTION NOW


Kucinich for PresidentHad Enough Yet? Join Dennis to Reclaim Americakucinich.us
Welcome to The Rail
Blog Home

Poised or Posed?Posted: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 : 11:56AM

Hoppy Kercheval was touting some poll numbers from May on his show Monday that show a generic Democratic presidential candidate defeating a generic Republican presidential candidate in West Virginia in 2008.

Of course they would. But that doesn’t mean Hillary R. Clinton or Barack H. Obama would defeat Fred D. Thompson or John S. McCain here.

Here’s how he opens up the column he drew from the data:

Research shows West Virginia is tilting back toward blue for the 2008 presidential race. A survey of 400 likely voters completed in May by the political consulting firm of Fabrizio, McLaughlin and Associates finds that if the election were held now 46 percent would be more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate, 24 percent for the Republican candidate while 29 percent are unsure. Sen. Hillary Clinton leads the field in West Virginia for 2008 at this stage of the campaign.

Clinton has a favorable rating of 45 percent, more than Rudy Guiliani (40 percent), Barack Obama (39 percent) and John McCain (36 percent). Clinton does, however, have higher negatives than the other three. Thirty-nine percent say they have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton compared with 33 percent for Giuliani, 31 percent for Obama and 30 percent for McCain.

You can read the whole thing here.But the central argument is that West Virginia is reverting to its Democratic ways after a flirtation with Republicans on the national level. Hoppy acknowledges that the information is dated, that the poll doesn’t include all candidates (like Thompson) and that there’s a long time to go until Election Day.

He closes thusly:

The national Democratic Party fumbled West Virginia badly in the last two presidential elections, once by ignoring the state and once by sending an unelectable candidate here. Now with Bush's ratings in the tank and a dissatisfied electorate, the Dems get another shot.

And the early survey numbers show the pendulum may be swinging back the other way. In the modern political era, which I argue began with the resignation of Richard Nixon, West Virginia has gone for Carter twice, Reagan once, Dukakis once, Clinton twice and Bush twice.

You could argue that West Virginia has always gone for the candidate from the farthest south, or that incumbents are particularly strong here or almost anything else.

But on the Republican v. Democratic tip, West Virginia doesn’t look like so sure a thing as the conventional wisdom would hold.

Dukakis won here by 30,000 votes (about 5 percent), with a smaller margin than either win by Bush the Younger. Dukakis was also theoretically the worst candidate for the state – worse than either Kerry or Gore, and I’m not sure if he ever set foot here during the campaign.

In short, the Dukakis win versus the Gore loss looks very convincing in terms of the electoral trend.

There is no indication that the national Democratic Party is going to do any more to try to pick up a church-going, coal-mining, gun-loving, Islamist-hating state in 2008 than they have for the previous two cycles.

When we were a freebie, Democrats were glad to have the votes, but as I am always reminding you, we are not worth jeopardizing Ohio or Illinois for.Yes there is Republican fatigue right now (count me as afflicted), but that still doesn’t mean that a candidate who ignores the state and has unpleasant positions will win here, especially if the Republican is more like West Virginia voters in style and position.

With word that the Republican field is headed for a crackup and Fred Thompson looks hotter than ever, that possibility becomes more distinct.

Send Your Comments to Chris