All Points Bulletin

News stew...

Okay...it's not very creative but it is appropriate.

Here's a mishmash of news and issues to comment on today:

Our friend, Tbogg, is fed up... he says:

But I am tired of the antics of Hillary Clinton and her campaign.

I even more tired on some of the Democratic leaning blogs that are totally and inexplicably in the bag for Clinton, and believe me, Obama was nowhere near my first choice. Or my second choice, for that matter. I can understand some people's (read: young peoples) passion for Obama, but Hillary Clintonphilia leaves me scratching my head.

I don't care about todays polls because they don't mean anything this early. The polls next week won't be any more illuminating.

I think we're all tired of the primaries by now.....make. it. stop....please.

Although via Digby, we learn that Naomi Klein (author of Shock Doctrine)thinks we're missing an opportunity. Here's a snippet:

Many argue otherwise. They say that if we want to end the war, we should simply pick a candidate who is not John McCain and help them win: We'll sort out the details after the Republicans are evicted from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Some of the most prominent anti-war voices--from MoveOn.org to the magazine we write for, The Nation--have gone this route, throwing their weight behind the Obama campaign.

This is a serious strategic mistake. It is during a hotly contested campaign that anti-war forces have the power to actually sway U. S. policy. As soon as we pick sides, we relegate ourselves to mere cheerleaders.

On the local level...Dave wants to remind us about the Caucaus...he writes:

Also, our county caucus will be Sunday, April 6 at Legion Hall in Pittsville. Doors will open at noon and the event is scheduled to start at 2p.m. sharp (those arriving after 2p.m. by rule can not participate). This is the first step of the two step process I discussed last month that will determine our Seventh CD delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver next summer. I'm not running this year, but we do have county party candidates hoping to get to Denver. We hope to have Wood County again represented at the national convention.

Another message from Dave.........apparently.......

On an even MORE local level. I haven't talked to my friends in Rapids yet but the local politics here are getting really nasty.....it's hard not to take sides because the two sides have been so radically polarized.

Oh yeah, the Smoking Ban proponents in Marshfield got a boost yesterday from EAU CLAIRE. The City Council in Eau Claire voted 7-4 for a complete indoor smoking ban. I'm guessing it will go to a referendum.

The soul of conservatism

E. J. Dionne Jr. sums it up well in this link.

And I riffed on it here.

enjoy

County Party meeting

Hi Everybody....

Dave emailed the agenda for Thurdsay night's meeting....some interesting stuff here...like the resolutions for the 7th CD convention....could get some interesting resolutions ...

DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF WOOD COUNTY
THURSDAY, MARCH 20-6:30 P.M.
PITTSVILLE LEGION HALL

AGENDA
I. Secretary’s report (Dede)
II. Treasurer’s report (Deane)
III. Chairman’s report (Dave)
IV. Committee reports (chairs)
V. Special reports (elected officials and reps)
VI. Discuss and vote on CD resolutions*
VII. Solve all of the world’s problems in 120 seconds (two minutes by anyone on anything)

*We can take up to 10 resolutions to the Seventh Congressional District Convention is Chippewa Falls in late April. These must be under 100 words and can deal with any topic---national, state, local or party.



Coming up in April:
-Discussion of CD, state and national conventions
-Discussion of county party dinner and county party field trip

Blurb and X-post

First, the lengthy cross-post here

and a short blurb.......

Blue Texan who blogs at firedoglake gives us the latest slap at Obama' Patriotism from the last remaining brilliant essayist of the modern Neocon movement, Jonah Goldberg.....

got that?

Okay, when your done laughing click here to read the funniest parts. But here's a snippet, or two:

"If you can't even say the word [patriotism], how can you claim to love your country?"

Hmmm, good point. I can't really remember the last time I heard Obama say the word "patriotism" -- so clearly, he's an America-hating subversive.

But wait! Teh Google tells me that Obama says the word "patriotism" all the time. Whew.

snip:

"When Democrats do speak of patriotism, it is usually as a means of finding fault with Republicans, corporations or America itself. Hence the irony that questioning the patriotism of liberals is a grievous sin, but doing likewise to conservatives is fine."

Now I'm totally confused.

I thought we had established: (1) Obama, like other Democrats, never talks about patriotism. (2) Not talking about patriotism makes you unpatriotic, whereas talking about it proves you're patriotic. But now we've got, (3) Democrats talk about patriotism to say mean things about Republicans; therefore (4) Democrats are in fact, according to (2), patriotic.

Go read....enjoy....

A Message from Russ...

Dear Wisconsin Progressive,

As the Democratic Presidential contest continues to chug along throughout our country, it’s important to remember that whoever our nominee and eventual Democratic President is come January 2009, he or she is going to need a Democratic Congress to work with to get our country back on track.

And while much of the talk has been about building on our gains in Congress this election cycle, we cannot forget about the strong Democrats who were elected last time and who now face stiff challenges this November. Here in Wisconsin we need not look any further than Congressman Steve Kagen in the 8th CD.

Since coming to Congress, Congressman Kagen has been a leader on a variety of issues - including advancing our combined effort of making universal access to affordable health care a top priority.

He’s refused to cave in to the Bush administration’s fear-mongering tactics by not immediately passing a flawed extension of the so-called "Protect America Act" – legislation that would weaken privacy protections for American citizens and provide retroactive immunity to telecom companies. In fact, a phony issue group has run television ads that accuse Congress Kagen and other freshman Democrats of being weak on national security issues – when nothing could be further from the truth.

It’s up to all Democrats in the 8th CD and across the state of Wisconsin to stand and fight for Steve Kagen leading up to this election. I’m going to continue to fight to keep him Congress and I hope you will join me. For more information, or to join our effort to support Congressman Steve Kagen, please contact the Kagen campaign at 800-255-9355 or brad@kagen4congress.com.

With high hopes,


Russ Feingold
United States Senator
www.russfeingold.org

Wisconsin Supreme Court Race

Thanks to our fellow Wisconsin Blogger and DGL (damned good liberal), ColdH2O who runs the blog BillyCreek, we get a look at a story that has been all but buried in the press. In addition, he gives us links to OneWisconsinNow who has been all over this story from the beginning.

Here's the gist of it:

Former Republican Governor Scott McCallum admitted Thursday he manipulated the judicial appointment process established by his own executive orders in order to appoint Republican Party official Mike Gableman, a McCallum donor and fundraiser, to the Burnett County Circuit Court.

Republicans linked with money and corruption? Nah.....say it ain't true!

and another snippet:

“Governor McCallum confirmed what we already knew, that Mike Gableman got his job as a judge because that’s what McCallum wanted for his donor and fundraiser,” said Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now. “Why are there no state documents showing that Gableman ever formally applied for the job, that he was ever interviewed for the job, or that he ever answered the extensive questions designed to indicate his qualifications and competence to have the job?”

Cool.....I wish somebody would give me a job I didn't even apply for.....

He also points out something I missed in the land of GreaterBlogSylvania: Here's the link and a snippet:

We had to suffer the bullshit of the right's attack on President Clinton in the '90s. I, for one, was happy we had a President who actually had an active sex life. All the money spent to impeach him, what a fucking waste of time. However, when Bill says stuff like this is really pisses me off.

And then he painted this scene: “She and John McCain are very close,” he said. “They always laugh that if they wound up being the nominees of their party, it would be the most civilized election in American history and they’re afraid they’d put the voters to sleep because they like and respect each other.”

I can tell you I'm not at all happy about that quote although I haven't seen it published anywhere else...but there IS this picture.

Go to the link and read the whole site. And also put BillyCreek in your favorites file!

Wow! Hillary made a comeback!

I'm going to suggest (at the risk of getting flamed) that the political landscape is strewn with the corpses of pundits who have underestimated (misunderestimated?) the Clinton's ability to campaign until they drop and the overwhelming desire.....make that obsession...for winning. She pulled it off last night winning both Texas and Ohio and also Rhode Island. From what I understand, she ended up with a net gain of about 10 delegates but nobody knows how the Texas Caucaus vote will settle out.

It ain't over yet!

Respect for Conservatives?

I wrote a pretty good tribute (I think) to William F. Buckley over on my own blog the day after he passed away. Although some of Buckley's positions were repulsive (Praise of Joseph McCarthy for one thing) he was the most eloquent speaker the Conservative movement ever had and he alone came closest to providing a true philosophical basis for the Conservative movement.

But it seems our "friends", the modern neocons who have managed to completely trash Buckley's vision of the true conservative movement, are none too happy with ANY praise or respect we liberals (known to the right as DFHs, or dirty f**king hippies) give to conservatives.

Our friend Thers over at Whiskey Fire Buzzards has a great post....Here's the link

And here's the "money shot".

"
"The strange new respect liberals have for Ronald Reagan would be another."

That would be a very strange phenomenon indeed, were it to exist. Reagan is "respected" by liberals only to the extent that he was no George W. Bush, which is like saying that snot is "respectable" because it's not diarrhea."

Read the whole link...you'll enjoy it.