Elizabeth Edwards: Live Chatting at 8 am this morning.

now I have to clean coffee off of my monitor!

CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.

Cindy Sheehan made me angry. The half laugh when he joked about the Texas woman on death row who had found religion. I don't want to smack him. I just want him not to be my President.

after listening to Doug Rokke speaking about the
health effects of
depleted uranium on Alex Jones radio show this
afternoon Id like to have word with George too. According to recent research by Joesph Stiglitz and LindaBilmes,
caring for wounded soldiers from this illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq will cost the taxpayers 127 billion.

I was sitting between Kristin Breitweiser (a bright and courageous and beautiful 9/11 widow) and our daughter Cate when Cheney said he had never met John. I had sat for 2 hours next to Lynn Cheney -- 2 hours! Next to Lynn Cheney! -- at the National Prayer Breakfast when John was chairing it. And John was sitting that whole time next to Cheney. When Cheney said that in the debate, I turned to Cate and Kristin and said I cannot believe he lied. And when the debate was over I went to the stage and confronted him. His response? A small smile and an Oh, yes.

but the worrying has changed. I worried about my children being hurt or abused or -- in my worst nightmares -- dying. And then, oddly, after our oldest child died, I had to appreciate the folly of that worry: we cannot protect them from every harm that might come their way. We can only do what we can do. So I do -- I ask if there is a gun in the home of children with whom my children have playdates, I own about 4 times the number of car seats I need, and I try to instill in them a sense of reasonable fear about dangers. But I cannot stop the wind, and I quit worrying that I needed to. But I do worry about the world in which they will live. I worry about that all the time.

That is pathetic. She better watch out in Chapel Hill or she's likely to get a Venti Carmel Macchiato in her gas tank.

I worked the polls at the Dogwood Acres precinct this year handing out voter guides and the few, VERY FEW Republicans that came in were none too happy to see us. I saw a friend of my wife getting her kids out of the car to vote. It was raining so I went over to help her with my umbrella and walk her to the "line", at which point I asked if she wanted a Democratic Party voter guide. She took it but looked like she was sucking on a lemon. Later my wife reminded me that SHE was the one I was never supposed to discuss politics with at the "Mom's Club" dinners. Oops.

CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.

simply boggles my mind. My bumper sticker says

I wish you hadn't voted for Bush. - God

at times to demonstrate your back-bone AND to have 7 - layers of skin so that something like that can be perceived as pathetic, and not offensive. I respect you for that, Mrs. Edwards. I had an anthropology/religion teacher at university who shared that when one explores the context of the time when Jesus lived, the concept of "turn the other cheek" was a radical demonstration of empowerment. To be struck on the cheek, and then to offer up the other cheek, is to say -- "Is that all you got, 'cause it's gonna take a LOT more than that to take ME down." You've probably already heard that because you're brilliant -- but it's just a little tid-bit that helps me survive as a Progressive Social Worker in Republican - country, i.e. KANSAS.

Hello, Linda. John actually did some things for Robbins -- a water treatment system I think was on the list of North Carolina projects that I thought had passed. And, whether Robbins knows it or not, he has -- in his private life -- tried to draw investment to Robbins. For those of you who do not know Robbins, it is a small town in Moore County that used to have a textile mill, where John's father worked, a chicken plant, now closed, and a manufactured home factory, also closed. There are still some jobs in the area, but it is precisely the kind of town that has been in crisis with job loss. The town is now 50% Hispanic -- the largest percentage in the state -- and unemployment, underemployment and the rapidity of change there has caused a lot of problems. By the way, the Children's Room at the largely privately funded public library was a gift by John in honor of his parents.

And everywhere I go!
My mom got a master's degree in library science in 1972 at UNC and my father was transferred to NATO in Italy. She didn't work there, but when he retired and came back to DC, she was the librarian for a nonprofit, the Electronics Industry Foundation -- what we used to call all high tech jobs. The foundation placed the handicapped workers in technology jobs. She did that work for about 4 years before she retired to NC.

I remember his reading it -- although, unfortunately, I don't remember having any conversations with him about it, so that is all I can tell you.
And the book -- all our books in fact -- are finally in one place in our new home.

but maybe I am wrong. I was the first person I know to saw Jesse wouldn't run again. I said it after he had his headstone put up at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh where he will be buried. No one, I figured, who was thinking about headstones was also thinking about another political campaign. As for Liddy Dole, I never understood why she wanted to be a Senator, and since she has been one -- and one now in the minority, she may start wondering that, too. We have a lot of good potential candidates on the Democratic side, but I am not one of them.

I am not inspired particularly by people in the public eye. The hardest work is done by those who work in the trenches -- in hospitals and assisted living centers -- by families who care day after day for family members who need their constant help. One woman who inspired me is a dance teacher I had in Japan. I talked about her in my book. She had trained to be a geisha -- an honorable profession -- for many years and after her training she went home before moving to Tokyo. Unfortunately home was Hiroshima and she was there when the bomb was dropped. Her chest was blown off. She was no longer perfect and therefore could not be a geisha. And so, with great sadness and great dignity, she readjusted her life's expectations -- even to the point of teaching the skills she had learned to young American girls, the daughters of pilots not unlike the ones who had dropped the bomb that shattered her life. That kind of serenity and grace is inspirational.

of the maturation of the medium, -- is fractionalization even a word? -- so I do not fear it. It allows the dialogue to be more provocative. And I also think that there will be some consensus -- although not uniform -- about a small number of candidates with everyone coming together as the number of candidates in the race dwindles.
And I, of course, disagree that there is no single natural netroots potential candidate.

in Columbia I heard. I will look for your photo.

The part of the book about our son's death is the rawest writing I have ever done and that makes it hard to read, I know. But there was no point in writing the book if I wasn't going to be honest about these experiences. But remember, after Wade's death, we chose to have more children, to take that chance again, because after all is said and done if I had to choose between the having the boy AND the pain or having neither, I choose the boy and the pain everytime.

As for 2008, the thing we have to remember is that someone will be President in January 2009. If things are so bad -- and I think you and I agree they are -- then the person we elect is unbelievably important to your family and mine. IIf we get it wrong, then the sacrifices that we all will make are going to be enormous.

All of these ideas are things that -- in one form or another -- John has embraced. I don't know where you can get his policy book from the 2004 primaries online but if you could, I think you would be pleased. But he thinks we can do even better than that . . . without tipping his hand on any particular policies.

Your story and the story of my own family is so similar, we could be sitting at the same kitchen table! I can completely connect to your experience, as it is my own. I am grateful that we have a time in sight when we will be able to "get ahead" -- barring crises. I will say though, that we pay the same amount each month to pay off our college loans as we do for our mortgage. Education is priceless, but we are reminded each month of how much must be sacrificed.

is really a community that is run by the participants, which makes us very proud. All we have done is create as many opportunities as we can to allw the conversation to take place -- with our involvement, in blogging, in podcases and video-blogging, whatever, and without our direct involvement. We don't know --a as we embrace a new format whether it will work for the exchange of ideas and the formation of communities that will eventually be communities of action not just interaction, so as we find a new format, we put it out there, see how the community accepts and uses it and that allows us to refine as we grow.

is the culprit. Think of this: there is an intersection in Garner where a large number of young people had been in car accidents -- maybe it was near the high school, I forget exactly where. But it took a string of actual deaths to get a traffic light at the intersection. It is the problem with getting the momentum we need on our environmental policy: "oh, we will run out of fossil fuels in 200 years? Well, I won't be around." It is why prevention and screening, which health insurance companies ought to be clamoring for, but instead resist, despite the fact that the short-term costs will be more than made up in long term savings -- and that doesn't even take into account the improved quality of life. We need visionary leaders who can see the problems ahead and can motivate people to act contrary to their nature.
And thanks for reading the book.

And I do think that the voices associated with the administering the site have to be cautious in that regard. Markos probably wishes he had been a little more cautious. But there are a number of ways to do it, it seems to be. A candidate a day, for example, where on a particular day someone says why they want Robert or on another day why they want Laura or on a third why Amy -- using your names as examples. Polls with rationale for your votes is another way that allows people to see that all their opinions and preferences have a place, which is all you need to accomplish in order not to disrespect other voices.

that many of us have, well ME, have voiced a desire to focus on keeping NC Blue at the state level. I would imagine that while we fire things up occasionally for the Presidential Primary, that we will also have a cadre of good Progressives to back here in NC.

Please, please, let us have a good group of Progressive Dems to back at the state level.

Great question SD.

CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.

"Uhmmmm {wipe sweaty palms off}, Hi, errrr, wanna blog on BlueNC?"

"Sure, let me know when."

Let's just say it wasn't a hard sell and y'all are lucky for that.

CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.

I have always thought our state motto (or is it the slogan ;-) was so cool. Glad to see you sporting it. We should send Bush a copy of it but he'd try to read it upside down.

CarolinaGirl. Thanks for asking this question!

Robin Hayes Hates Puppies

And there are parallels -- their emphasis on social justice and poverty are the most obvious, but also the parallel about Vietnam and Iraq, and the courgae of each of them to admit their mistake. John and Cate went to see the movie over the weekend and, despite lukewarm reviews, they both enjoyed it. John was really moved, I could tell, by the intelligence and warmth of Bobby's speeches. Which, I hope, is also a hallmark of John's speeches, but without as many quotations from classical sources!
By the way, one of the signs in Iowa in 2004 that made me smile was one at a rally for John that read: Bobby Lives.

I believe I have watched the unraveling of our nation's social contract over the last six years.

true true

I feel so very hopeful when I watch you and Senator Edwards fully participating in the "grunt-work" required to sustain our nation's social contract

and Amen.

Side note:

ontherise is one of my dearest friends in the world, and this is her first time ever visiting a blog. She even posted a comment! What a great name, too!

Thanks, sweetie pie. I hope you get addicted.

actually, if you are in Chapel Hill you might actually BE a friend of mine. Or, at least someone I've bumped into at Whole Foods.

CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.

Two Americas would be the underpinning of a campaign if John decides to run, but the campaign would not simply be a reprise of 2004 -- we know the problem, John identified it and with Katrina, the nation was hit in the face with the truth of it. Now it is time to move forward from that with actual ideas and a commitment to end poverty, to end the diffences in health care, education, to end the imbalances in the tax system, to promote our rural communities with the same vigor we once gave (and need to give again) to our urban communities.

Great work is done on the blogs -- some of the best investigative work - 60 Minutes on the R side, Duke Cunningham on the D side was done by the blogosphere. It does more than provide another source not constrained by advertisers and linear inches; it also puts pressure on the MSM, which has had a mixed record of late.

is the place to start. And to include it as part of a universal health care plan.

I hate to leave any questions on the table. I will try to get back later in the day to "clean up" anything I left undone.

Thanks again.

We owe much appreciation to Robert who did the thing that matters most: he took action.

CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.

worked late (very late) last night so I could stay here this morning. Sleep is for sissies. :) Now i gotta scoot. Duty calls. w00T!