Come On Up For The Rising: West Michigan's New Progressive Blog Is Launched!
We invite you to check out the next wave in progressive blogging -- West Michigan Democratic, progressive, populist and partisan blog: West Michigan Rising.
Toward a the Next Wave -- Regional Blogs
Progressive blogging began back in 2001 when Jerome Armstrong founded MyDD back in 2001, and really took off in mid-2003 when recently founded DailyKos started to take off in popularity in combination with the Dean campaign. These were national blogs and tackled mostly presidential campaigns, the US congress, and certain high-profile Senate (Obama, Lamont, Tester, Webb, etc) and some House campaigns, but not most...
Essentially the strategy is like the NCAA basketball tournament: Survive and Advance (and continue to raise enough money to compete).
Edwards' four-state strategy to propel his presidential bid has not worked out (in many ways, the strategy was correct, but Obama eked out the win in Iowa thanks to the Chicago Machine, non-Democrats and teenagers and then he got even more momentum, the Culinary endorsement, and more media, all while John has been under a media brownout).
Yesterday, Michigan Governor and Hillary Clinton-endorser Jennifer Granholm addressed the people of Michigan and Michigan Democrats in the following email:
Tomorrow, Michigan will play a critical role in choosing the next President of the United States if you are a Republican, though it barely means jack-shit if you're a Democrat.
The decision to move our primary to January 15th has put us in the national spotlight and, made us the laughing stock of the country. All eyes are on Michigan as we cast votes for our presidential nominees on the Republican side, on the Democratic side we're just "voting" in a strawpoll since all our delegates have been stripped, but watchout, on Tuesday night I'll claim this was a big vitory for Hillary Clinton.
The main problem with Kos' scheme is that we Michigan Democrats need to worry about picking our own nominee, rather than attempt to have some small impact on their nominee. It's more imperative that we Michigan Democrats do our little part so that we do not end up with Hillary, our weakest candidate and least progressive potential president.
Every vote for Romney is also a vote for the headline "Hillary Wins Michigan, Controls Race."
So, think before you follow a bunch of out-of-staters trying to get you to vote for a Republican and instead
It's fairly simple, the candidate running on the most progressive "change" program is also the most likely to actually win in November and get to implement substantive change -- genuine universal healthcare, massive investment in new energy (not coal and nukes HOPE, more like biofuel, wind and solar), end the war in a year, stimulate the economy in a demand-side way to stave off the recession, rebuild the union movement in America as part of a plan to save the middle class and build One America, etc, etc.
Edwards can run in the South, put Republicans on their heels and have a good chance to take North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and West Virginia and have a shot in Arkansas and Kentucky. The other candidates, they're looking at the Gore-Kerry 17-State Strategy of being forced to win Ohio or Florida and having Pennsylvania and Iowa as must-wins.
Well, we're only having a fake "primary" here in Michigan (thanks Debbie, Jennifer and Hillary), so if you want to do anything more than vote Uncommitted, it's time to pack up and head out to Iowa for a few days.
A bunch of Michigan folks for Edwards will be driving to Dubuque, Iowa to take part in the Iowa caucuses from 1-4 January. This is possibly a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take part in this incredible event that goes a long way to choosing our next president. We won't just be going to make phone calls and canvas, we'll actually be co-precinct captains -- we'll be inside the caucus room talking with caucus-goers and making sure we get wins for Edwards.
While the national announced on Wednesday that it is waiting until after Iowa, the UNITE-HERE Midwest Region (which includes UNITE-HERE Michigan) has endorsed John Edwards for President.
Noel Beasley, manager of the Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board, saidof her membership:
Our members are emphatic in their support for Senator Edwards, and anxious to get involved.
In today's oped Mandates and MudslingingPaul Krugman takes Barack Obama to task both for the "fundamental weakness" of his healthcare plan, engaging in the policitcs of "cheap shots," and for "echoing right-wing talking points" on healthcare and Social Security.
Coming from one of the premire economists and intellectuals in the progressive movement this ammounts to a comprehensive critique of the very heart of Obama's campaign themes.
Senate Republicans have decided not to take up the presidential primary bill passed Monday by the House, meaning New York Sen. Hillary Clinton likely will be the only top Democratic candidate on the [meaningless, delegateless] Jan. 15 ballot.
The state Senate today refused to take up legislation that would have restored the names of four Democratic presidential candidates to Michigan's Jan. 15 primary ballot.
Thank you Democratic Senate Caucus and our brave 35 NAYs on HB 4507 in the State House.
The fake "primary" with no candidate visits, no campaigns (no offices, mailings, ads, nothing), no actual National Convention delegates, and no voice for Michigan is now a completely meaningless joke.
Only Hillary, Dodd, Gravel (and Kucinich by accident) remain on this meaningless beauty pagaent ballot (that won't even make it out to overseas voters in time for them to get it back).
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette ruled yesterday that the 15 January Primary Act is unconstitutional since it gave the Democratic and Republican parties exclusive access to lists of who voted in their party's primary even though it was a state-run, public event.
No matter what happened in an Ingham County Circuit Court, the decision for a 15 January "Primary" and a 9 February Caucus will still be made tonight at 7:00 pm during the Michigan Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting in Lansing.
Let's face it, this farce should be stopped by Democrats, not by journalist and a list broker in court.
And make no mistake about it the Hillary-backers that have hijacked the attempt to move up still want to trade your right to vote so that Hillary can make some national news with a "win in a Michigan primary" after a loss in Iowa. That's all this is about, them sacrificing Michigan Democrats for a news story for Hillary Clinton.
The Michigan Democratic Party Executive Board is meeting TONIGHT Wednesday, 7 November at 7:00 p.m to discuss and possibly vote on the 15 January primary opt-out (going back to a DNC-sanctioned primary where Edwards will happily campaign in Michigan and be on the ballot).
Well, the Clinton campaign has sent Geraldine Ferraro out to make the most outlandish attacks of the primary campaign.
It appears that the Clinton campaign belives that if you criticize Hillary's policies on Iraq, Iran, immigration, Social Security and government secrecy that you are a "sexist" who "discriminat[es] against her as a candidate because she is a woman."
Refering to the debate last week, Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 vice presidential candidate who supports Mrs. Clinton said:
"John Edwards, specifically, as well as the press, would never attack Barack Obama for two hours they way they attacked her. It’s O.K. in this country to be sexist."
Democratic presidential contender John Edwards picked up the backing today from the 90,000-member Massachusetts chapter of the Service Employees International Union.
The Michigan Democratic Party is staring the abyss of a farceof a primary in the face. However, we can still prevent a one-candidate/no delegates beauty contest and instead have a DNC-sanctioned party-caucus in which all candidates will participate and campaign in Michigan.
But we can start a movement to have a real caucus with all the candidates. Encourage Mark Brewer to save the MDP and honor Michigan Democrats by moving our caucus back to 9 February. The MDP can be reached by telephone at 517-371-5410 or at http://www.democracyinaction. You can find your County Party website to find out when the next meeting is or how to contact the County Chair here.
I had the unique opportunity to host a reception and fundraiser this past Monday for the next First Lady of the United States -- Elizabeth Edwards. I have been bugging the campaign for a while to bring John or Elizabeth to Grand Rapids, Michigan and learned about a month ago that Elizabeth wanted to come.
On Tuesday morning, while in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Elizabeth took time out of her busy schedule to show solidarity with American workers in two separate visits before heading out of town to the United Steel Workers' "Women of Steel" conference in Toronto (another example of solidarity). I was there with her for some of the morning, so let me tell you what happened.
No hobnobing and celebrity basking, John wants you to roll up your sleaves, pick up a hammer (FYI he has the endorsement of the Carpenters Union), and get to work.
From an email from Campaign Manager (and Michigander) David Bonior I just got a few minutes ago:
John is going to help rebuild New Orleans—and he wants you to join him.
Soon, John will be taking a break from the campaign trail to work in an area of New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He'll need some help—so we're going to send five supporters like you with him.
We are going to select five supporters to join John in New Orleans. And if you make a contribution by the end of the third quarter on Sunday, September 30, one of them could be you!
