I post this at the end of Ripper's diary just before it fell off the page so I guess few saw it. Ripper suggested I make it into a standalone post so here it is.

I was in Miss Hanson's second grade class at our brand spanking new
Worthridge school when the principal came on the PA to call all the
teachers down to his office that day in November 1963. A few minutes
later a visibly shaken Miss Hanson came back to class and announced we
were all being sent home early, the president had been shot, and we
were to go to straight home. Walking those 6 blocks my friends and I
were sure it was the work of the Russians and World War 111
was about to start. At the age of 7 we didn't really know what that
meant but we'd never seen the teachers so distraught before so we knew
it couldn't be good.

All that weekend we watched the funeral procession on our black and white tv, the incessant beat of the drums, John John saluting the casket as it passed, Jackie in her veil. They reran the scenes nonstop.

On March 31, 1968 I watched LBJ make his "I Shall Not Seek, and I Will Not Accept" speech with my Republican father. My dad hated LBJ and I was 12 so I hated LBJ too. As Johnson began to talk I mocked him hoping to goad my dad into changing the channel. The big ugly Texan and his Johnny Reb drawl was making another boring speech and I was sure there must be something better on. My father told me to shut up, the president was speaking and I was to respect the office. So we watched.

Less than a week later I was confirmed in the Episcopalian church at the big cathedral in Chicago. On the way there we sat in the car silently at an intersection in the city for what seemed like an hour waiting for what looked like the entire Illinois National Guard to pass by in speeding big olive drab Army 4x4 trucks, rifles at the ready, on their way to the West Side. I noticed my mother gripping the dashboard with both hands, her knuckles white. Martin Luther King was murdered the day before and a lot of the West Side was burning to the ground. Some of those lots remain blighted and empty today.

Two months later I was at my new school in Downers Grove in 6th grade. We'd moved the year before. It was the last day of the school year if I remember correctly and we discussed Bobby Kennedy's assassination when we were let out early with our report cards on a bright sunny day. It was senseless. While still a nascent Republican I couldn't figure why this Jordanian man killed RFK out of fear for his allegiance to Israel. RFK was for peace in Vietnam, surely he wasn't for more war in the middle east.

I was pretty sick of and very confused by these assassinations. I just wanted them to stop.

That summer I watched the Democratic convention in Chicago, 30 miles away on TV, again with my dad. My father was never a fan of Mayor Richard J. Daley. He was an arrogant ass merely interested in amassing as much power as he could for himself as far as dad was concerned, I of course agreed. We watched the police riot. Together we saw them gleefully wade into the crowd bludgeoning anyone within reach with their clubs. I watched dad's reaction, he was as troubled by what we saw as I was. The next day I went to school and heard tales from a classmate whose 17 year old brother came home with his head wrapped in bandages. That night Dad and I watched Mayor Daley's infamous "the police aren't there to create disorder, they're there to preserve disorder" press conference. He pulled out baggies of feces as "proof" that his men were provoked by the demonstrators.

Right then is where I began coming of age politically and thinking for myself. My father accepted Daley's explanation for what we witnessed live on television the night before wholeheartedly. I guess he needed that reassurance from a authority figure even if he reviled him. I was amazed. I couldn't believe it. I argued with him to no avail. We both saw what happened but he refused to believe his own eyes and instead bought the excuses.

I still believed in Nixon's "secret plan to end the war". If I had had the vote that fall I would have voted for him right along with my parents. I remember my mother's angst, she was tired of voting for losers. Once elected it wasn't long before Nixon's plan went by the wayside and I started growing my hair long.

Within a year my parents couldn't understand me any better than they understood Abby Hoffmann.

My dad and I didn't agree on politics again for decades though we'd argue all the time. He thought Nixon was railroaded out of office. Reagan, from western Illinois like him was his hero. No appeals to decency or common sense would change his mind. Nothing I ever said got through.

I knew he voted for Obama in 2004 for senator but that was no test, his opponent Alan Keyes was nuts. Even my Republican congresswoman all but admitted she voted for Barack in that election.

But about a year ago, suffering from aphasia and unable to speak Dad came into my office with a Obama fundraising letter in his hand addressed to me. Pointing to his chest he made it clear he wanted to me to help him contribute to the campaign. Happily I took his debit card and sent in $50 in his name. Dad died in April but I still get emails from the Obama campaign addressed to him. So when I can I double up on donations for both of us. I know he'd approve.

Last Monday July 21st Sarah Topy and her staff at the http://www.scottharperforcongress.com/ campaign were looking forward to a week of data processing, fundraising and preparing for a big push in August after the immensely successful event they organized called "13 for the 13th" on July 13th, the single biggest Dem canvass ever held in IL-13.

There was a lot of file updating yet to do and wouldn't you know Monday was the day the state guys finally had the new voter file ready to download. The new VAN basically updated and transformed all our files to new software and it was an all day procedure installing it. The files were still offline Monday night when I showed up at campaign HQ to make some calls. Rich Caparrell the field director was in Maryland for a much deserved long weekend off. We had another canvass scheduled for Saturday but volunteer turnout was expected to be light in the middle of vacation season and especially so soon after the big effort on July 13th. It wasn't downtime but it's as close as they'll get in the next few months on Harper's campaign.

Well that was the plan anyway, but it wasn't to be. Read on for how those best laid plans went out the window in an instant and what happened next.

So just when they figured they'd be able catch up on some data entry the DCCC picked that Monday morning to announce the Mobilize for Change, 100 Days to Victory Contest which gave all Dem House challengers across the country just five days to see who could organize the most volunteers to pitch in on Saturday. The DCCC runs these contests periodically but I've never seen one so early in the cycle before. Running one this soon was a smart idea, competition gets the juices flowing just like the primaries particularly when House campaigns need some excitement in the dog days of summer. The reward for the winner is an email shout out to all three million contributors on DCCC chair Van Hollen's email list that will bring in a significant chunk of cash and priceless name recognition and respect that's sorely lacking for a lot of our House challengers.

So with the field director a thousand miles away and the computer files out of action til Tuesday they got to work. They called everybody on their own phone contact lists and emailed any and everybody in their personal address books who they thought might be willing to canvass all afternoon or make phonecalls for as little as half an hour on Saturday.

By Tuesday morning the voter file was up and running again. By Wednesday morning Rich was back in the office and the place was rockin'.

Here's what they accomplished by Saturday:

635 volunteers made phone calls.

Hundreds attended phone bank sites or phone bank house parties and hundreds more took advantage of our call from home program. We had phonebank parties set up as far away as Seattle where one of Scott's old classmates organized a party, to Denver where members of his family had 20 people making calls to NE Pennsylvania where Rich's family pulled together in Hazleton with their cell phones.

64 volunteers went door-to-door.

Canvassers carried literature about Scott Harper and local Democratic candidates. I picked up a couple of DFA activists at the Fairview train station in Downers Grove and gave them their walk packets and lit. One guy, Greg Hodgson left his house in Indiana at 7:30 am and didn't expect to get home until 7:30 Saturday night. The other guy William Maggos grew up in the district in Woodridge and came out from the south side of Chicago. You just gotta love dedication like that. It's the kind of selfless sacrifice that wins elections.

59 volunteers wrote letters and delivered yard signs from our Naperville headquarters.

In all 758 Volunteers Mobilized Throughout the District and Across the Country to help Scott Harper in Just One Day!

When you consider they put all that together starting from behind with four days on the computer to work with instead of five like everybody else and the field director out of town until Wednesday that's just incredible.

Scott’s broad base of support, not just among activists but among Democratic candidates and party leaders was a real key to our success. With the vast majority of candidates for State Representative, State Senate, and local office and all of our elected officials helping out by making calls or hosting sites for us, this whole event was a truly coordinated effort.

I can't emphasize this enough, if your House candidate isn't running a coordinated campaign up and down the ballot with other Dems in the area please contact them and let them know how effective it is. We had too many co-sponsors for this event to list them all but here are just a few who brought many of their own volunteers out and organized canvass staging sites and phonebanks through out the district.

A Big Thank You Goes Out to All the Co-Sponsors especially:

Candidates

Dianne McGuire for State Representative
Joe Heneghan for State Representative
Audrey Manley for State Senate
Will County Board Candidates Karen Gonzalez and Jackie Traynere
DuPage County Board candidates Karol Sole and Bob Brandt

Elected Officials

State Senator A.J. Wilhelmi
State Senator Linda Holmes
State Senator Dan Kotowski
Will County Executive Larry Walsh
Judge Sarah Jones
 
Without these folks and many others and their organizations the Harper campaign wouldn't have been able to mount this great team effort on such short notice. I don't know as of yet who won the Mobilize for Change 100 Days to Victory Contest, I guess the DCCC is still tabulating the results. But I can tell you this is a tremendous success for the Scott Harper campaign and all our other candidates. With all of us pulling together like this we will win in November. And that's just the beginning.

So thanks again to everybody who took time out on a beautiful summer Saturday to make this happen. Whether we win, lose or draw the DCCC contest we've taken another big step toward victory this fall. It's change we can believe in because we are mobilizing that change ourselves.   

 

Tomorrow Saturday July 26 marks the beginning of the 100 Days to Victory campaign. I'm calling on anybody and everybody across the country to help Scott Harper in IL-13 by phonebanking for half an hour calling just 5 people from a list of names and numbers and a script we'll send you via email or fax. This is an excellent opportunity for newbies to get their feet wet volunteering for a campaign and you don't have to be anywhere near Illinois to participate. You don't need any campaign experience to help. If you know how to use a telephone that's good enough. Of course if you're an experienced activist who wants to do more you can make as many calls as you want and we'll also be canvassing and phonebanking from many locations across the district. 

We'll be identifying voters which means we're simply asking them a few questions to discern their political leanings. There's no persuasion involved, we're not "selling" the candidate and most folks are more than happy to answer our questions.

Now why should you get involved in this race? Well first of all I met Scott at Yearly Kos last summer. He was looking to get involved in politics after a successful business and acedemic career and he figured there was no better place to start. I invited him to our local township Dem meeting where our leadership recruited him to run in the 13th. Scott's a smart dedicated Democrat with a lot of real world experience who will help President Obama end the occupation of Iraq and rebuild our country. You can look up more of his bio and positions here: http://www.scottharperforcongress.com/

Harper outraised 10 year incumbent, and Bush favorite Judy Biggert in the second quarter. He's also already outraised her four previous Dem challengers combined and beat her and her even more wingnuttery primary challenger (is wingnuttery a word? if not I just coined it, so there Colbert) together in the primary by 25,000 votes on Super Tuesday. CQ, a little behind the times imo has just uprated this seat from "safe repub" to "repub favored". From what I've seen and heard canvassing and phonebanking since March it's a toss up right now. The point is, this is no quixotic campaign, we're doing what it takes to win this race, not just show.  

Two weeks ago on July 13th Harper's campaign organized the biggest
canvassing event Dems have ever seen in IL-13. In July no less. This was a tremendous effort, we put a lot into it, phonebanking for weeks on end to get volunteers to give up a Saturday in midsummer to come out and canvass with us.

The poor field manager Rich who we've been working like a sled dog finally got some time off afterward and spent a long weekend with his buds at the Maryland shore burning off a few brain cells and recharging his batteries. I'm happy to report he's back at work, sending out emails and holding two phone converations at once while trying to get the printer working with his toes. Well ok, maybe that's an exaggeration but not much of one. Everybody at the HQ is working their butts off. And Rich hasn't walked into a wall even once since he came back so that's a real positive sign.  So why do are we doing  this again so soon you may ask? Aren't we running the risk of burning ourselves out before the playoffs start? 

Well in case you haven't heard the DCCC has announced a contest, the 100 Days to Victory Challenge, inspired I'd like to think by our success a couple weeks ago, calling on all Dem House challengers to see who can attract the most volunteers to their campaign for one day: tomorrow.

The winner gets a email blast to the 3 million people on DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen's email list and a whole a lot of respect (not to mention name rec) from Democrats all across the country.

So here we go again, all hands of deck, we're gearing up again. If you live in a safe Dem district or a red district that's hopeless this is one race where you can make a real difference. Wherever you are sign up today, give us your email address and we'll get back to you tomorrow with a script and five names to call. Like I said this shouldn't take more than half an hour of your time and you'd be helping one of best Dem House challengers with a great shot at turning one a longstanding Repub district blue. 

Here's the link, click on the 100 Days to Victory link inside.  

 http://www.scottharperforcongress.com/
 

Step right up ladies and gentlemen, step right up! There's plenty of room right down in front here, don't be shy, just crowd in a bit so you can hear me. 

Now, I ask you friends, is your government

impeding your ability to make money? Have the people of your country, province or even your county made a terrible mistake by putting a bunch of crazy marxists or bleeding hearts in power?

I see a lot of nodding heads out there, you know what I'm talking about. You had it all laid out, your financing lined up, the equipment leased to drill for oil or mine those precious resources but now that new regime, those illegitimate commies or brainless do gooders have nationalized your

holdings or won't sign off on your project because of some whacky environmental laws or crazy concepts about what's "good for the people" (air quotes).

They don't take your calls, let alone your bribes while an endless parade of local tribal chief swindlers and "fair practice" (more air quotes) co-op conmen and women are whisked into their offices while you're on the outside looking in. Am I right or am I right? You know I'm right! 
 
Well ladies and gentlemen we at Blackwater have the solution to all your problems! There's no

doubt about it, you need friends in high office and when the voters keep sticking a thumb in your eye or the new regime can't be reasoned

with we're here to help.

With our training, aviation and logistics capabilities we can have you back in the catbird seat with a new set of compliant friends in the president's palace or even the county seat ready to bend over backwards for a nominal fee to sign any form, scratch any back or shoot any troublemaker you need to make your financial dreams a reality. 

That's right, you heard me, even when it looks like all is lost we can have your strip mine or derricks up and running in no time. But that's not all. We'll have you in business using local labor so terrified they'll work 15 hour days for practically nada and live in squalor that'd make a Nazi labor camp commandant blush! 

Oh I know you're skeptical. How can he make such claims you're saying to yourself. He doesn't know my situation, my country, this all sounds too good to be true. 

Well I'll tell you how we do it folks. We have hundreds of former US special forces on call, ex Green Berets, Navy Seals, even black ops CIA guys, the cream of the crop of the finest fighting force ever assembled. But that's not all. We also have goon squads composed of South African cops trained under apartheid, and death squad members from all over the world, many of them trained at the preeminent camp for state police forces in Ft. Benning Georgia.  I like to say "coup" is their middle name. They don't know the meaning of human rights. These fellas are experts at bringing down governments or keeping even the most blatantly corrupt tinhorn dictator anyone can imagine on the throne. And I don't know about you but I have a pretty vivid imagination! (Wait for laugh) 

And speaking of tinhorn dictators, in a few short months with our patented methods, we can train up a few of your cousins, that idiot brother in law of yours, (point to a member of the crowd and wink knowingly) yeah sir, you know who I'm talking about don't you? (wait for chuckle) or... I know you'll find this hard to believe but it's true - because we've done it - even train some of your downtrodden wretched refuse yearning to breathe free to be the most ruthless strongmen this side of Idi Amin.

They'll proudly wear the new uniforms you'll pick out yourself for your very own spanking new junta we've helped you put into power.

Now I know what you're thinking. All well and good so far, but I know my brother in law, he's a stupid greedy pig. He'll find some way to screw

it up or worse, screw me. Even if your first choice goes sour...and we all know that old song about power corrupting and absolute power blah, blah, blah.

I won't lie to you, it happens to the best, humans are frail creatures and some fall prey to the trappings of power no matter how many times you strap the electrodes on in training. But I'm happy to tell you we've got that contingency covered too.

No fears there either ladies and gentlemen because as part of the Blackwater Advantage Package we provide not one, but two complete secret police forces trained and led by members of our team with an ironclad guarantee they'll have absolutely no local allegiances. We select only the best and we're proud to say our operatives have no more conscience than your average alley cat.

And we keep it that way using our tried and true methods including an elaborate series of cutouts and numbered offshore bank accounts. You'll be pulling the strings because you'll be the one paying two different goon squads that are all that stands between General Doofus and angry mobs who'd rip his ears off if they had half a chance. As long as our guys get their cut you can count on their complete loyalty to you and only you.
 
Why the redundent systems you ask? Isn't it a little pricey to have two Stasis? Well first of all it's not as expensive as you might think and second do you want to sleep soundly at night or worry yourself into a heart attack? Our experience has shown it's the only way to go when you're in the business of seriously pillaging a whole country's patromony. Sure you can go with some cheaper outfits that cut corners but if you do you'll regret it when your new gold mine winds up feeding somebody else's Swiss bank account.   

Now in the unlikely case Cousin Ernie does go renegade on you or some local chief manages to rile up your labor force and acquire enough AK-47s to be pesky or God forbid start a real revolution before you've made your fortune and are ready to move on to the next unexploited godforsaken backwater ready for the taking ...(deep breath)...there's still no problem.

Sure when you're raping the bejesus out of a country there's always something that can go wrong. That's why we provide not only two secret police forces completely independent of each other and like I said loyal to only you, but we've also trained two or three of your cronies as back ups ready to take the throne if it becomes necessary to throw that fuck up Ernie to the mob as a sacrifice. (chuckle ruefully)

We keep a close eye on all our projects. With our 24/7 monitoring capabilities we're prepared ahead of time and know just when and how to transfer power to Thug No. 2 who we've already coached up to become the next "man of the people" (more air quotes) and split with the now

discredited supreme leader at just the right time in a seamless transition. In nine out of ten cases it doesn't result in a single day's disruption of your operation or enough dead miscreants to make

the papers. I kid you not. The proof is in the pudding folks. Raise your hand if you've ever  read about any Blackwater operation other than

Iraq in the paper.

Now I know I shouldn't bring up Iraq but I

want to talk about it anyway. I'm not gonna shy away from it. I can see by the frowns a lot of you think it wasn't our finest hour. It may surprise you but I agree with you, it wasn't. But folks let me be honest for a second here, Iraq wasn't our deal.

Don't get me wrong, we gained a lot of valuable experience there but most importantly we learned that it's in everyone's best interests that we run the show and take responsibility for the whole shebang.

Iraq was a government operation and we all know what happens when you let (big sneer) government run things don't we? They make a mess of it. They let in media and a whole lot of namby pamby middlemen with their own agendas that not only don't coincide with making money the old fashioned way but actually impede

your progress. That's not what you want and it's not what you get with Blackwater running the show.

Right from the gitgo we tamp down or co-opt any local opposition and interest groups. There isn't any phony baloney democracy or "parliament" (air quotes again) you have to

kowtow to, and we make sure the whole world isn't watching every little thing you do. No sirree, not with Blackwater in charge.

We work with you and your stooges to make sure it stays that way and if push comes to shove we have the capability to airlift in thousands of

trigger happy goons at a moment's notice who are trained in coups, counter coups, suppressing rebellions and general mayhem ranging from

surgically picking off selected loudmouths from a mile away with the latest in sniper gear to burning whole provinces to the ground. Our guys live and breathe this kind of stuff. They have to, it's what they're trained to do and we don't hire anybody who can make it in the real world doing anything else.

Looking at my watch  I can see it's almost time for lunch so I'll stop here. I want to thank you for your time on behalf of the Blackwater Corporation folks. If you'd like to learn more please give your contact information to my assistant Amy or take one of my cards on the table by the door and call us at your earliest convenience to set up an appointment. We'll be more than happy to sit down with you and figure out how we can help you solve your problems. It's what we're hear for.

Step right up ladies and gentlemen, step right up! There's plenty of
room right down in front here, don't be shy, just crowd in a bit so you
can hear me.
 
Now, I ask you friends, is your government
impeding your ability to make money? Have the people of your country,
province or even your county made a terrible mistake by putting a bunch
of crazy marxists or bleeding hearts in power?

I see a lot of
nodding heads out there, you know what I'm talking about. You had it
all laid out, your financing lined up, the equipment leased to drill
for oil or mine those precious resources but now that new regime, those
illegitimate commies or brainless do gooders have nationalized your
holdings or won't sign off on your project because of some whacky
environmental laws or crazy concepts about what's "good for the people"
(air quotes).

They don't take your calls, let alone your
bribes while an endless parade of local tribal chief swindlers and
"fair practice" (more air quotes) co-op conmen and women are whisked
into their offices while you're on the outside looking in. Am I right
or am I right? You know I'm right! 
 
Well ladies and gentlemen
we at Blackwater have the solution to all your problems! There's no
doubt about it, you need friends in high office and when the voters
keep sticking a thumb in your eye or the new regime can't be reasoned
with we're here to help.

With our training, aviation and
logistics capabilities we can have you back in the catbird seat with a
new set of compliant friends in the president's palace or even the
county seat ready to bend over backwards for a nominal fee to sign any
form, scratch any back or shoot any troublemaker you need to make your
financial dreams a reality. 

That's right, you heard me, even
when it looks like all is lost we can have your strip mine or derricks
up and running in no time. But that's not all. We'll have you in
business using local labor so terrified they'll work 15 hour days for practically nada and live in squalor that'd make a Nazi labor camp commandant blush! 

Oh
I know you're skeptical. How can he make such claims you're saying to
yourself. He doesn't know my situation, my country, this all sounds too
good to be true. 

Well I'll tell you how we do it folks. We
have hundreds of former US special forces on call, ex Green Berets,
Navy Seals, even black ops CIA guys, the cream of the crop of the
finest fighting force ever assembled. But that's not all. We also have
goon squads composed of South African cops trained under apartheid, and
death squad members from all over the world, many of them trained at
the preeminent camp for state police forces in Ft. Benning Georgia.  I
like to say "coup" is their middle name. They don't know the meaning of
human rights. These fellas are experts at bringing down governments or
keeping even the most blatantly corrupt tinhorn dictator anyone can
imagine on the throne. And I don't know about you but I have a pretty
vivid imagination! (Wait for laugh) 

And speaking of tinhorn
dictators, in a few short months with our patented methods, we can
train up a few of your cousins, that idiot brother in law of yours,
(point to a member of the crowd and knowingly wink) yeah sir you know
who I'm talking about don't you? (wait for chuckle) or... I know you'll
find this hard to believe but it's true - because we've done it - even
train some of your downtrodden wretched refuse yearning to breathe free
to be the most ruthless strongmen this side of Idi Amin. They'll
proudly wear the new uniforms you'll pick out yourself for your very own spanking new junta we've helped you put into power.

Now
I know what you're thinking. All well and good so far, but I know my
brother in law, he's a stupid greedy pig. He'll find some way to screw
it up or worse, screw me. Even if your first choice goes sour...and we
all know that old song about power corrupting and absolute power blah,
blah, blah. I won't lie to you, it happens to the best, humans are
frail creatures and some fall prey to the trappings of power no matter
how many times you strap the electrodes on in training. But I'm happy
to tell you we've got that contingency covered too.

No fears
there either ladies and gentlemen because as part of the Blackwater
Advantage Package we provide not one, but two complete secret police
forces trained and led by members of our team with an ironclad
guarantee they'll have absolutely no local allegiances. We select only
the best and we're proud to say our operatives have no more conscience
than your average alley cat.

And to keep it that way using our
tried and true methods including an elaborate series of cutouts and
numbered offshore bank accounts you'll be pulling the strings because you'll be
the one paying two different goon squads that are all that stands
between General Doofus and angry mobs who'd rip his ears off if they
had half a chance. As long as our guys get their cut you can count on
their complete loyalty to you and only you.
 
Why the
redundent systems you ask? Isn't it a little pricey to have two Stasis?
Well first of all it's not as expensive as you might think and second
do you want to sleep soundly at night or worry yourself into a heart
attack? Our experience has shown it's the only way to go when you're in
the business of seriously pillaging a whole country's patromony. Sure
you can go with some cheaper outfits that cut corners but if you do
you'll regret it when your new gold mine winds up feeding somebody
else's Swiss bank account.   

Now in the unlikely case Cousin
Ernie does go renegade on you or some local chief manages to rile up
your labor force and acquire enough AK-47s to be pesky or God forbid
start a real revolution before you've made your fortune and are ready
to move on to the next unexploited godforsaken backwater ready for the
taking...(deep breath)...there's still no problem.

Sure when you're raping the bejesus out of a country there's always something
that can go wrong. That's why we provide not only two secret police
forces completely independent of each other and like I said loyal to
only you, but we've also trained two or three of your cronies as back
ups ready to take the throne if it becomes necessary to throw that fuck
up Ernie to the mob as a sacrifice. (chuckle ruefully)

We keep
a close eye on all our projects. With our 24/7 monitoring capabilities
we're prepared ahead of time and know just when and how to transfer
power to Thug No. 2 who we've already coached up to become the next
"man of the people" (more air quotes) and split with the now
discredited supreme leader at just the right time in a seamless
transition. In nine out of ten cases it doesn't result in a single
day's disruption of your operation or enough dead miscreants to make
the papers. I kid you not. The proof is in the pudding folks. Raise
your hand if you've ever read about any Blackwater operation other than
Iraq in the paper.

Now I know I shouldn't bring up Iraq but I
want to talk about it anyway. I'm not gonna shy away from it. I can see
by the frowns a lot of you think it wasn't our finest hour. It may
surprise you but I agree with you, it wasn't. But folks let me be
honest for a second here, Iraq wasn't our deal.

Don't get me
wrong, we gained a lot of valuable experience there but most
importantly we learned that it's in everyone's best interests that we
run the show and take responsibility for the whole shebang.

Iraq was a government operation and we all know what happens when you let (big sneer) government run
things don't we? They make a mess of it. They let in media and a whole
lot of namby pamby middlemen with their own agendas that not only don't
coincide with making money the old fashioned way but actually impede
your progress.

That's not what you want and it's not what you
get with Blackwater running the show. Right from the gitgo we tamp down
or co-opt any local opposition and interest groups. There isn't any
phony baloney democracy or "parliament" (air quotes again) you have to
kowtow to, and we make sure the whole world isn't watching every little
thing you do. No sirree, not with Blackwater in charge.

We
work with you and your stooges to make sure it stays that way and if
push comes to shove we have the capability to airlift in thousands of
trigger happy goons at a moment's notice who are trained in coups,
counter coups, suppressing rebellions and general mayhem ranging from
surgically picking off selected loudmouths from a mile away with the
latest in sniper gear to burning whole provinces to the ground. Our
guys live and breathe this kind of stuff. They have to, it's what
they're trained to do and we don't hire anybody who can make it in the
real world doing anything else.

Looking at my watch  I can see
it's almost time for lunch so I'll stop here. I want to thank you for
your time on behalf of the Blackwater Corporation folks. If you'd like
to learn more please give your contact information to my assistant Amy
or take one of my cards on the table by the door and call us at your
earliest convenience to set up an appointment. We'll be more than happy
to sit down with you and figure out how we can help you solve your
problems. It's what we're hear for.

From the making lemons into lemonade file. When Barack Obama appoints his new attorney general (I'm hoping for John Edwards) he should immediately charge him or her with using the new now legal ability of the executive branch to spy on Americans almost without limits to bug all communications by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their aides past and present.

There's ample evidence to suggest they've been working against the interests of the American people. They've worked in concert with nefarious characters who are on our terrorist watch lists like many in Maliki's government in Iraq and let's not forget Ahmed Chalibi who is accused of giving highly classified information to Iran. Under their watch billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of weapons have gone missing in Iraq, much of it suspected to have fallen into the hands of enemy insurgents, possibly even Al Qaeda.

And that's just Iraq. It doesn't take much imagination to suspect what they've been up to behind the scenes and will be with nationals of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.  

Once out of office Bush and Cheney will be looking to cash in for all those favors they've doled out to their cronies, many of them overseas.

They also very well may be interested in hamstringing President Obama with backroom deals amounting to treason.

There's plenty of reason to suspect Reagan's people, Bush's father included, had a hand in prompting Iran to declare the weekend before our electon in 1980 that they'd be willing to release our hostages only to leave Carter twisting in the wind. Releasing those hostages the day Reagan took office and his subsequent admission of trading of arms for other hostages in the Iran-Contra scandal seem to be more than just unlikely coincidences. It's where the phrase "October Surprise" originated. 

Further back in history we have Henry Kissinger and Madame Chiang Kai-shek doing Richard Nixon's bidding whispering in the ears of the South Vietnamese negotiators at the Paris Peace Talks in 1968 to reject the peace treaty LBJ put together to end the Vietnam War shortly before our election. Nixon promised them a better deal if he was elected.

There are plenty of reasons to suspect that neocons of Cheney's ilk will do what they can to undermine an Obama administration that has pledged to take American foriegn policy in a different direction from their radical empire model. They are not the kind to just pen whiny op-eds for the WaPo if they can sabotage major iniatives covertly, especially Cheney.
 
In short, they won't be morphing into choir boys, leopards don't change their spots. They also can't very well do without modern communications. 

This survellieince shouldn't be conducted with just an eye to avenge past wrongs. Bush could wave hs magic pardon wand excusing all in his administration for crimes they don't even admit are crimes and haven't even been indicted for before  leaving office obviating that path anyway. The more serious concern in any case is the ongoing danger to not just the Obama administration but to the Republic they pose. Does anybody think they wouldn't try to subvert a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, a transition out of Iraq or a Iranian nuclear deal? 

The new AG can use the new FISA law we find so sour and make lemonade if he or she is able to finally indict, convict and imprison Bush and/or Cheney. I don't much care if they get them on the worst war crimes charges or just petty graft as long as they get them.

There will be several benefits to this. Our standing in the world will rise immediately. President Obama's approval ratings here at home will soar. If the MSM clutchs their pearls and shrieks it will only serve to marginalize them further. Sleazeballs like Curt Weldon and his arms dealings may garner the attention he deserves and earn himself a prison sentence. Most of the Republican party (and not a few Dems too) gulping at the thought of what wiretaps could reveal about them will swing 180 degrees and adopt Ron Paul and Bob Barr langauge when discussing the 4th amendment.  

In the end if Bush and/or Cheney are prosecuted using the new FISA law then in an irony of ironies, you can expect congress to quickly see the "error of their ways" and move to restrict it's use very quickly.

It's a win/ win and makes for a sweet drink from a very sour fruit.

We had the biggest canvass Dems have ever had in IL-13 today organized by Scott Harper's campaign. We canvassed in all 13 townships in the IL-13 thus it was named "13 for the 13th".

About 10 of us had a "stuffing" party last night, putting lit in bags for today's efforts and then bagging and boxing them them into their respective districts. Then we watched "Why We Fight", a documentary about the Iraq War that just makes you want to smack Rumsfeld among others into next week. At campaign HQ I understand they had about 20 interns and the staff up til the wee hours doing the same. In the Will and Cook County areas of the 13th they all did their part.

Today at noon I arrived at the local coffee shop where one of our 3 meetups was kicking off at one. I was supposed to get there at 12:30 but seeing as I had all the lit in my car I figured I'd get there early to set up. Waiting were about 19 young Obama interns and 5 middleage DFA members from the city fired up, ready to go.

By 12:30 Harper's field manager Rich Capparell, a 25 year old kid from PA who lives out of 7 rubbermaid totes and sleeps on a cot in a supporter's spare bedroom, showed up with the walk packets. Rich likes to call himself a "political carny". He's worked all over the midwest the last few years, moving from campaign to campaign in his beat up old Ford pickup truck. Claire McCaskill, Hillary's campaign in IA and MN before he bailed and came to the Obamaland in the Chicago burbs to work for Scott Harper. God knows where he's worked before then. I'll ask him someday when he has the time. Some days, like yesterday he works twenty hours straight, but mostly I guess it's a steady 12 hour day. On a pittance of a salary, he makes a lot less money than your average carny. We have all kinds in that office, Rich still loves Hillary, so do some of the others. But that didn't stop any of them from going to Indiana and canvassing for Obama the Saturday before their primary with all of us because it was good for our campaign.   

Anyway after Rich gave them a 20 minute primer on canvassing, the specific questions to ask, etc. everybody was on their way.

We knocked on doors spreading the word about our coordinated campaign candidates, handing out lit and most importantly figuring out who our voters are, who the gettable voters are and who to ignore.

The point? We can all wring our hands over the purity trolls, the few Hillary supporters who have gone off the deepend and the idiotic media or we can help our candidates run effective winning campaigns. I talked to dozens of voters today. The fourth person I talked to, a 67 year old woman wants to be a precinct committeewoman doing what I did today. She gets it.

I didn't meet one person today and have yet to talk to one in thousands of phonebanking calls or on dozens of other days I've spent canvassing this year who said they will never vote for Obama because of their hurt feelings over Hillary. I HAVE talked to hundreds of people who have told me "I used to be a Republican...", and "if he's the Democrat he has my vote". No one ever mentions PUMA, FISA isn't on their radar and more often than not they say McCain just seems old and weird.

This isn't rocket science, it's good old fashioned politicking like it's been done in this country since George Washington and Ben Franklin wore tricornered hats. It just takes the ability to form words with your mouth, walk and a little practice. And the will to do the work that needs to be done. The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare. To win these races we need to lay the groundwork now. If you wait til after Labor Day we'll lose. Simple as that.

We're doing what needs to be done out here in the Chicago burbs in the 13th district and elsewhere where no one has ever even tried before. We stay up late, give up our weekends to walk miles on sore feet knocking on doors.

The cavalry came when we called for help for Bill Foster in Denny Hastert's old district in March, 700 of them from all over the country in the bitter cold that weekend. They came again today, 19 kids and 5 middleaged men and women from the city to my township alone all looking for a race where they can make a difference. And they are making a difference. All over this country.

We dirty hippies had a saying back in the day: if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem. If you're sitting here fretting about PUMAs, single issue FISA trolls or the AP you're part of the problem. Make a difference. Get off your ass and get in the game.

In honor of John McCain "imagining" we're in a recession I propose the following theme song for his campaign. If someone with Youtube skiils and an ability to mimic Lennon's voice or maybe a dirty hippie chorus wants to appropriate this for background music in a montage of his "misstatements" please do, just send the link, I'd love to see it.

So with apologies to John Lennon, anybody who liked John Lennon, TPM, everybody else on the planet and any animals who were hurt in the production of this post here we go.

Imagine there's no Iran

It's easy if you try

No oil below us

Above us only spies

Imagine all the people

Living for today...



Imagine there's no Iraqis

It isn't hard to do

No Kurds to kill or die for

And no Maliki too

Imagine all the Iraqis

Resting dead in peace...



You may say I'm a dimbulb

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us
We need more less fortunate sons  


Imagine no recession

I wonder if you can

No need for food or whining

Shopping carts full of spam

Imagine supplysiders

Shafting all the world...



You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us
Stupidity burns like the sun.

Republicans keep repeating the claim that the Chinese and/or Cubans are drilling for oil off the coast the Florida. Myopic, traitorous, fish hugging Democrats are letting communists suck up the black inky lifeblood out of the Gulf that rightly belongs to us! While I'll bet if you squint real hard you can almost see the rigs from Sloppy Joe's in Key West.

The argument is now so prevalent I thought I'd do some googling to find out what's really going on. Besides that I thought I read somewhere the Chinese have signed some contracts with Cuba and may actually start drilling some exploratory rigs in the Gulf off Cuba as soon as next year. I envision wingnuts claiming "we were right all along" if that comes to pass.

So here is what I found. Repubs like to quote an old article from May 9, 2006 in the NYT about this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/washington/09drill.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

In that article the Times incorrectly predicted the Chinese would start drilling in the Gulf off the coast of Cuba in 2007. But here's what the Times also said, 

"The United States Geological Survey estimates that the energy field on
Cuba's side alone may have 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion
cubic feet of natural gas. That much energy is equivalent to just a few
months of the United States' total energy consumption."

Jesus how far off can you be? 4.6 billion barrels of oil is equivalent to a few months of our energy needs? According to the US Energy Information Agency we used 20,687,000 barrels/day in 2007. 4.6 billion barrels of oil would amount to about  6 years of our needs. Either the Time's Michael Janofsky or the USGS doesn't know how to add.

Of course that's in Cuban territory and most of it is probably two miles down well out of reach to anybody without the most sophisticated deep sea rigs available. Did I say available? That reminds me oil rig availability seems to be a problem. Prices have skyrocketed for existing rigs 60%. Why is that? What's with too few rigs when everybody has known demand is going way up for years? For some reason they just don't seem to be building oil rigs like they used to.

Let's all remember that Exxon Mobil, the most profitable corporation the planet has ever seen, which sets a new record for quarterly profits it seems every 3 months spent all of $3 billion dollars on R&D over 5 years from 2001 to 2006. Well here's a guess and it's just a guess. Maybe Exxon doesn't think there's enough recoverable oil way down there to justify spending big bucks on a lot of deep sea rigs. Maybe the ROI just doesn't add up.

But let's go back to the beginning shall we? In 1977, the US and Cuba signed a treaty that evenly divided the Florida Straits to preserve
each country's economic rights. They included access to vast underwater
oil and gas fields on both sides of the line. Damn that Jimmy Carter!
Oh wait, President Bush, renewed the 1977 treaty in December 2005 for two years. Well he's just a jackass defeatocrat in sheep's clothing anyway. Nothing like St. Ronnie right?

Quoting the Times article again:  Almost all of the country's Outer Continental Shelf, waters within 200
miles of shorelines, has been off limits to drilling since the early
1980's because of Congressional bans and executive orders.

How'd that happen? Where was Reagan? He was too busy slashing taxes for the rich and getting his ass handed to him in the 1982 midterms after he tried to make Social Security into a welfare program to bother fighting Tip O'Neill over oil nobody was gonna drill for anyway with prices heading for $10 a barrel by the mid 1980s.

The congressional moratorium was enacted in 1982 and has been renewed
every year since. It prohibits oil and gas leasing on most of the outer
continental shelf, from 3 miles to 200 miles, offshore. Since 1990, it has been supplemented by the first President
Bush's executive order. In 1998, President Bill Clinton extended the
offshore leasing prohibition until 2012.

What? Not Poppy Bush too! Here's what a June 18, 2008 article in the Int'l Herald Tribune says:

Offshore drilling is blocked by two bans, one imposed by Congress
and the other by the first President Bush's executive order. Asked why
the current president did not act at once to lift the order imposed by
his father, Keith Hennessey, director of the president's economic
council, told The Associated Press, "He thinks that probably the most
productive way to work with this Congress is to try to do it in tandem."

But the Institute for Energy Research, a nonprofit research
organization that promotes "free-market energy and environmental
policy," has called for Bush to rescind the executive order and chided
him on Wednesday for not doing so.

"The president has chosen to speak softly when American consumers
need him to wield a big stick," the group's president, Thomas Pyle,
said in a statement Wednesday. "This was a missed opportunity."

Bush could rescind his father's exec order and Clinton's extension. But instead he wants to work in tandem with Congress and do it together. Isn't that sweet? He wants to work with Congress! I guess bashing Democrats nonstop for high gas prices instead of the oil companies for sitting on 68 million acres of US oil leases and restricting  refinery output constitutes working with Congress.

But back to Cuba. I looked up some articles from long before wingnuts decided to make this a campaign issue. You can't trust the media when
Republicans are making an argument.

According to this article in the Energy Bulletin dated July 5, 2004 :

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/940

it turns out back in 2004 Repsol YPF, the big Spanish oil and gas company, hired a Norwegian drilling platform, the Eirik Raude, at a cost around
$200,000 a day to search for oil in Cuban waters, in a narrow sector of
the Gulf of Mexico off the northwestern coast. The venture, established
with Cubapetróleo, the government-owned oil company was in Cuban waters about 18 miles off their coast about a mile down. 

Sadly for Cuba and Repsol YPF they didn't find any commercially viable deposits let alone a gusher.

Here's a few other quotes from that article:

In the meantime, new technology to squeeze more oil from the small
existing fields on the island's north coast has increased output to
about 75,000 barrels a day from about 10,000 in the early 90's.

More than half of Cuba's oil is now produced by a Canadian company,
Sherritt International, which has been active in Cuba for a decade. "We
had the advantage of getting in early and sticking with it," said Ernie
Lalonde, Sherritt's director of investor relations. He said the company
was considering an exploration project similar to Repsol's in the Cuban
portion of the Gulf of Mexico, which covers some 43,000 square miles.

Other foreign energy companies that have ventured into Cuba lately
have not been as lucky as Sherritt. Brazil's national oil company,
Petróleo Brasiliero, or Petrobras, one of the most experienced offshore
producers, came up empty-handed after spending $17 million drilling in
Cuban waters in 2001.

Keep in mind this was written in 2004.

Cuba still depends on imports for about half its oil, nearly all bought
on preferential terms under an agreement with the leftist Venezuelan
government of President Hugo Chávez. The cost strains Cuba's limited
hard-currency earnings, and the country is striving to reduce its
dependence on imports.
...
When more than 100 representatives of American agricultural companies
attended a trade conference in Havana this spring, senior energy and
finance officials in the Cuban government used the opportunity to
suggest Cuba as a destination for energy investments. "There is no
reason U.S. companies shouldn't take advantage and compete so close to
home," said Juan Fleites, a senior executive at Cubapetróleo.
...
An oil discovery large enough to yield exports as well as satisfy
Cuba's own energy needs could change that, by significantly improving
the economy and adding a major new source of hard currency to the
modest amounts Cuba now earns primarily from tourism. With more
resources to make payments, the Cubans would have an easier time
settling the old claims.

"Put simply, oil would lift Cuba's boat, especially if crude prices
stay high," said Tim Lynch, an expert on the Cuban economy and director
of the Center for Economic Analysis at Florida State University.
"Enough oil would also lessen Cuba's dependence on Venezuela, redrawing
the political and economic map of the Caribbean."
...
A significant find might catapult Cuba into a category of small
countries that are emerging as risky but alluring new targets for oil
development - among them Mauritania, Senegal, Morocco and
Guinea-Bissau, according to Robert W. Esser, director of global oil and
gas resources at Cambridge Energy Research Associates. A dry hole, on
the other hand, would reinforce the conventional wisdom that American
and Mexican waters are the best parts of the gulf for oil.

"Cuba's way out on the frontier of present-day wildcatting," Mr. Esser said.

So how has Cuba's dreams of striking it rich or at least becoming more energy independent gone since 2004?

Here's an article from McClatchy on June 11, 2008 where they talked to some unnamed foreign diplomats (Canadian? Brazilian?)  in Havana:

China's Sinopec oil company does have an agreement with the Cuban
government, but it's to develop onshore resources west of Havana, Pinon
said. The Chinese have done some seismic testing, he said, but no
drilling, and nothing offshore.

Western diplomats in Havana tell McClatchy that to the best of their knowledge, there is no Chinese drilling in or around Cuba.

"I've never heard anything about this," said one diplomat from a country in the hemisphere.

The
Western diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to speak to the media about energy issues, said
they believed there is no new drilling occurring off the coast of Cuba,
just exploration.

Cuba's state oil company, Cupet, has issued
exploration contracts to companies from India, Canada, Spain, Malaysia
and Norway, according to diplomats.

But many oil companies from
those countries have expressed reservations about how to turn potential
crude oil into product. Cuba doesn't have the refinery capacity, and
the Cuban embargo prohibits the oil from coming to U.S. refineries,
Pinon said.

The most recent high-profile contract with Cuba went
to Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras. Cuba inked a contract with
Petrobras in January, allowing the Brazilian energy giant to search for
oil in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico that are within Cuba's
sovereign territory. Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, traveled
to Cuba last month and talked up the oil business, along with a joint
venture between Cuba and Petrobras to produce lubricants.

Here's another article from USA Today dated 2/22/07:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2007-02-22-cuba-usat_x.htm

They too predicted by the end of last year Cuba would start searching for oil in the Gulf.

A few snippets:

Cuba is modernizing a dilapidated Soviet-era refinery at Cienfuegos
with help from Venezuela's state-owned oil company, PDVSA, and
refurbishing three other facilities, (I believe these are the appropriated Exxon, Texaco and Shell refineries dating back to before 1960) Rodriguez said. Within 18 months,
Cuba will be able to satisfy all of its refining demand, he said.
Independent analysts are less optimistic.
...
In the modern era, Cuba's first significant oil
find came in 1971 when Soviet engineers discovered the Varadero field,
east of Havana. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba opened its oil
program to foreign investment in 1993. Today, companies from Spain,
Norway, India, Malaysia and China are involved, either drilling wells
onshore or using horizontal drilling to reach reservoirs in shallow
coastal waters.

Canada's Sherritt is the most active foreign
company with nine fields operating onshore and five exploration or
appraisal blocs being drilled, says Michael Minnes, a company
spokesman. Daily output from the company's wells averages a modest
30,000 barrels a day, down from about 43,000 in 2004.

"It's like any other foreign jurisdiction or
developing nation. There are challenges, and there are opportunities,"
Minnes said. "We see Cuba as a great environment to do business in."

So far, only one offshore well has been drilled,
in July 2004 by Spanish oil company Repsol. The company said it found
oil at the site 95 miles southwest of Key West, though not in
commercially viable deposits. Since then, the Spanish company has
teamed with Norway's Norsk Hydro, one of a select number of global oil
companies with expertise in deepwater exploration, according to Jorge
Pinon, the former president of Amoco's Latin American operations.
...
Offshore wells aren't cheap: Those envisioned in
Cuban waters will cost $40 million to $50 million, says Pinon, the
former oil executive now affiliated with the University of Miami's
Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. "This is a very
high-risk, high-reward area," R.S. Butola, managing director of India's
ONGC, said on the company's website.

Since 1981, the U.S. has observed a moratorium
on coastal drilling, except for a portion of the Gulf of Mexico and
limited areas off of Alaska. The drilling ban was enacted after a
series of high-profile oil industry environmental disasters. Perhaps
the most notorious: the 1969 Santa Barbara spill that released 3
million gallons of oil in waters off of California, coating 35 miles of
coastline with oil up to 6 inches thick.
...
One year ago, a U.S.-Cuba Energy Summit attracted representatives from
Exxon and a handful of smaller oil service companies to three days of
meetings in Mexico City. Attendees viewed PowerPoint presentations from
Cuban government ministries including state-owned oil company Cupet
that invited American companies to help exploit "several giant oil and
gas fields."
...
For now, any U.S. involvement remains only
hypothetical. Houston oilman Antonio Szabo, president of Stone Bond
Technologies, says U.S. companies likely would require greater
transparency, a commitment to the rule of law and market economics in
Cuba before investing significant money there.

Some in the oil industry also have long memories
when it comes to Cuba. At the 1997 World Petroleum Congress in Beijing,
a Cuban official approached Lee Raymond, then Exxon's chief executive,
and asked in a jocular tone when the U.S. oil giant might return to
Cuba. "When you give us back our (expletive) refinery," Raymond growled.

Cuban officials note they already have willing
partners from Canada, Spain, Norway, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Venezuela
and China. Rodriguez made clear that the United States has no veto over
Cuba's oil plans.

"Everyone knows how advanced is American
technology," the Cuban diplomat said. "But we are going to continue
with our programs — with American companies or without American
companies."

That's all I got. If you've read this far then you have more than enough to show your Republican acquaintances how they're once again living in the past, bleating outdated false information and itching to put scarce expensive deep sea oil rigs in a hurricane alley where not so incidentally the chances of finding a motherload of sweet crude aren't very good.

The fact is all that's keeping US oil companies from exploring Cuban offshore oil fields outside our territorial waters is our embargo against Cuba and that it's an unlikely bet that a big find is anywhere near Cuba. Like Esser the director of global oil and
gas resources at Cambridge Energy Research Associates says any good stuff in the Gulf is probably closer to the US and Mexico than Cuba. 

Josh has been putting up emails from readers on the frontpage lamenting McCain's big TV ad buys  in Missouri and the negligible Obama response.

Lotta handwringing going on and we have a poll even showing McCain taking the lead in MO. Well in case some of you have forgotten we're supposed to be the people powered campaign. We're the change we've been waiting for, remember? That means more than sending Barack $25 every chance you get and then sitting back and complaining about how he's running the campaign. It means gathering up the information you need to counter McCain's harebrained plans and phony Republican arguments and spreading the word.

Be ready with the facts anytime to your idiot cousin or stupid brother in law says the Chinese are drilling off the cost of Florida or we're "winning" in Iraq. The Chinese aren't stupid enough to drill where there isn't much oil and US Special Forces just killed one of Prime Minister
Maliki's relatives in a raid in Najaf which has the whole government ready to tell Bush to shove his 58 bases.

Get involved with your local Obama group, candidates or county Democratic party. Damn near every little town in America has a summer festival. Sign up to help out at the local Dem or Obama booth, pass out literature, talk to people, refute the lies.

March in the local Fourth of July parade with your local Dems. I'm in 3 parades on 7/4 this year and one on 7/3. Being in the parade is a hell of lot more fun than watching one anyway. You get to throw candy to kids. I shout loud and clear like I'm the town cryer, "If you love this country vote Democratic!"

You folks in Missouri are from the Show Me State. Ok, I just did. Now please show us what you got.

Here's a link you can start with:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/uniteforchange/

Please use the rest of this thread for other suggestions on what you're doing to help elect Obama and more and better Democrats to congress. We have lot of smart people here. Let's your ideas.

Senator Byron Dorgan was just on CSPAN2. They don't have the video up on http://www.c-span.org/  as of yet but keep an eye out for it. he has more quotes from the CEO of Marathon Oil and others decrying the unregulated speculation in oil.

In the meantime here is Dorgan's proposed bill that would put downward pressure on on gas prices by cutting oil speculation.

Here is a key quote form his press release:

“We are trading 20 times more oil than we take delivery of each day.  The
world uses about 86 million barrels of oil per day, yet trades
approximately 1.5 billion barrels of oil per day,” said Dorgan. “This
casino-like speculation is causing sky-high gas prices" 

http://dorgan.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=299624

Read the whole press release for details on what his legislation would do.

If you're done being distracted by trolls who tell you Obama is going to invade Pakistan or deserves to lose because he won't singlehandedly veto the FISA bill here's something you really ought to pay attention to.

Check out the testimony yesterday on CSPAN about the Enron loophole.
This is the provision that has allowed speculators to game the market
and inflate the price of oil to double what it ought to be. The
president of Shell Oil says a barrel of oil ought to be $35 to $65
right now. This is the kind of thing you ought to be paying attention to. 

Phil Gramm, McCain's top economic advisor snuck that provision it into a huge omnibus
spending bill in December 2000 at the end of the session. There probably wasn't a Dem
senator or anyone in the Clinton administration who even knew that
version of the bill was in the package.

Go to:
http://www.c-span.org/

And scroll down to:
House Energy & Commerce Subcmte. Hearing on Energy Prices: Panels One & Two June 23, 2009

House Energy & Commerce Subcmte. Hearing on Energy Prices: Panels Three & Four June 23, 2009

From Bluestem Prairie blog written by Ollie Ox for Tim Walz MN-01:

http://www.bluestemprairie.com/a_bluestem_prairie/2008/06/house-natural-r.html

_ On the Outer Continental Shelf, 82% of federal natural gas and 79%
of federal oil is located in areas that are currently open for leasing.

_ Onshore, 72% of oil and 84% of natural gas resources are either fully accessible under standard lease stipulations designed to protect lands and wildlife, or will be accessible pending the completion of land-use planning or environmental reviews.

_ Between 1999 and 2007, drilling permits for oil and gas development on public lands increased more than 361%.

_ Since 2004, the Bureau of Land Management has issued 28,776 permits to drill on public land; in that same time, only 18,954 wells were actually drilled.

_ Oil and gas companies have stockpiled nearly 10,000 extra permits to drill that they are not using to increase domestic production.

_ Onshore, of the 47.5 million acres of federal lands leased by oil and gas companies, only about 13 million acres are actually producing oil and gas.

_ Offshore, only 10.5 million of the 44 million leased acres are currently producing oil or gas.

_ Combined, oil and gas companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres of federal land that are not producing oil and gas.

_ The 68 million acres of leased, inactive federal land could produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.

_ That would nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural gas production by 75%.

_ 4.8 million barrels of oil equals more than six times the estimated peak production from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

_ Development of and production from the 68 million acres currently under lease but not in production would cut US imports of oil by one-third.

There's much more and a link to the majority report of the House Committee on Natural Resources.  Check it out and spread the word.

 

Guy Molinari: Hi, Dennis? Guy Molinari here. How ya doin! Boy, it sure is good to talk to you, been tryin to reach ya for weeks.   

Dennis: Uh, yeah I heard you called, been kinda busy, sorry I haven't gotten around to callin you back. So anyway, what's new with you Guy?

Guy: Well, as you probably know I'm sort of in charge of finding a candidate to replace Vito Fossella in the 13th.

Dennis: Yeah I heard that.

Guy: So anyway I was thinking about who'd be a good congressman, and I won't beat around the bush here, but you immediately came to mind.

Dennis: Immediately? I heard you already asked about 6 other guys.

Guy: Well yeah ok, but you were always <i>my</i> first choice, but some of the people I answer to wanted me to try some of those guys first.

Dennis: Well thanks Guy, I knew you were always a stand up guy.

Guy: So anyway Bob, I mean Dennis, whaddya think? How would you like to go to congress?! You get to live in DC, actually make legislation, lotta perks involved. You should see the gym they got!

Dennis: Geez, I dunno know Guy. After what Vito done and the last 8 years of clusterf*ck you think I'd have a chance?

Guy: Sure you would Dennis, sure you would! You gotta a great shot at it. I don't care what people are saying now, in the fall they'll come around.

Dennis: Yeah well if that's true then how come  none a dose other guys jumped at it?

Guy: Oh you know Dennis, they got family stuff,  Jimmy's got little kids, Vinnie's mom is living with him now and she don't get along so well with his wife. You know how it is.

Dennis: Yeah I guess, but look Guy I never run for anything before, I got no freakin <i>clue</i> how to run for congress. I got no money and I hate to admit this, but you're the first party guy I talked to in months. I couldn't even get any precinct committeemen around here to help me hold a garage sale last summer and I hear the local township chair up and moved to Florida without so much as saying goodbye to anyone a month ago.      

Guy: Well I ain't gonna sugarcoat it, it ain't  gonna be easy, but c'mon we can do it. This is a Republican district for chrissakes Dennis.

Dennis: Well ok, now what's this "we"? Like I said I got no money. If I do it are you gonna get me some help? I don't wanna spend the next 5 months of my life workin 20 hour days for nutin.

Guy: Well sure Dennis, sure we'll get you some help. We're not just gonna throw ya to the wolves.

Dennis: Ok like what? I figure I'd hafta have a million bucks minimum to hire people, for tv ads, mailers, walkin around money. How much you think the big boys in DCs can pony up?

Guy: Well geez Dennis, a millions a lot, it ain't like it used to be ya know what with the  recession and all.

Dennis: You gotta be f*ckin kiddin me. Why are you even wasting my time? You think I'm stupid? You know what tv costs in New York Guy. How would I win without that kinda money? If you think I'm locking myself in a room for the next 5 months and callin donors who are gonna laugh in my face and hang up on me you're nuts. Even if I did I'd still start out way behind. Ya know dat.

Guy: Aw c'mon Dennis, don't be like that, we'll get ya some help, all I'm sayin is we're hurtin right now. We got a sh*tload of seats to defend. I can't promise ya a million bucks just like that. I'd be lyin to ya if I did.

Dennis: Look Guy, I appreciate ya thinkin about me and all, I really do. Give me a week or so to sleep on it ok? I'm not makin any promises unnerstand? I just wanna think about it.
 
Guy: Ok Dennis, I hear ya. But when do you think I'll hear back from ya? I gotta know pretty soon. The big boys are breathin down my neck somethin serious here.

Dennis: I dunno. I'll call you. Let's leave it at that ok Guy?  

Guy: Ok Dennis, it's good talkin to ya. You let me know as soon as you can ok?

Dennis: Yeah sure, bye Guy.

Guy: Bye Dennis.

*click*

Dennis: Joanie! I'm callin the phone company, we're gettin our number changed and unlisted.

Joanie: What? Why? What are you talkin about getting the phone changed for?

Dennis: Don't ask.

I met the author of this diary last summer at Yearly Kos. I was stunned
by the details of the Abramoff scandal he just pulled off the top of
his head. This guy knows more about Jack A. and machinations than any 5
other sources I've seen and that includes Josh.

He ties
Hillary to the Tan family, the major sweatshop operators in the
Marianas. She can not be the VP candidate with this around her neck.



Hillary Clinton. Sweatshops. Abramoff. She has not been vetted!


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/13/215317/551/504/515125