Daily Kos

Well, I took a break from in house catching up and sat down. The wife was watching Fox news cover the UN deal and what do I see!. KO's on TV.They were scrolling the front page and telling how much effect we bloggers will have on this election-A LOT!!!!!!

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/14/201159/270
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The election is still more than three months away and a lot can happen. Still, it's hard for Democrats not to feel optimistic. And the Bush Administration appears to be working their way through the stages of grief over the prospect of a Democratic Congress.

They've gotten to stage three: bargaining.

One of the first tasks of a Democratic Congress is to correct the utter failure in the constitutional duty of oversight of the Bush Administration. Oh, where would we start--the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq, wiretapping without warrant by the National Security Administration, the use of "signing statements" to let the President pick and choose which laws he obeys, the intimidation of scientists and the censoring of federally-funded scientific research (a favorite of mine), the response to Katrina (another favorite).

Cheap plastic chairs, good wine and even better company greeted us Friday night when we attended the Raleigh stop of the Crashing the Gate book tour.

It was a cool night in North Carolina with a full moon rising.  Markos and Jerome arrived early at Quail Ridge Booksfor the event, with lots of great local Dems and representatives from assorted progressive causes there for the meet & greet.  

The crowd seemed a good match for the book's basic message of "people powered politics."  The theme of starting locally to build and support good progressive candidates so that our next generation is in place and strong when the party dinosaurs start to drop back was well illustrated by the whole atmosphere   The chairs were rickety white plastic and the microphone squealed with feedback all too frequently, but the energy and optimism in the room was refreshing.

I got an e-mail from someone who is producing The State of Things on WUNC 91.5 FM tomorrow (5/9/06) with Markos Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong on their Crashing the Gate book tour. She wasn't sure if she wanted to talk to me about some local context for blogging or to have me on the show.

Everyone, including national bloggers like Markos, talks about the importance of local politics, but not a lot of folks are doing anything about it. I suggested to the producer that she contact Lance from Blue NC as well, since that's more relevant than dailyKOS. At this point, she hasn't even called me. So don't look for a lot of local relevance on the radio tomorrow, I guess.

The Crashing the Gate Tour has Raleigh on its calendar for May 12th. They still do not have an event planned. I e-mailed some bookstore owners to see if they were interested, but anyone else with ideas should put them in the comments.

For getting Markos and Jerome to North Carolina (I will explain why this is important below), it looks like May will be the date from this on MyDD:

We are also in the works of adding a more stops in the South in early May. For the east coast leg, we have a lot more cities to add, so if you are anywhere within 8 hours of DC, go at it with helping to organize a tour stop in May.

From my earlier post describing the tour's desire to add dates and associated poll, it appears that most of our readers would like to have a book signing with the possibility of Brad Miller stopping by. I would like us to have a united plan for the tour; since I have not contacted any bookstores or Brad about appearing, please leave suggestions and contact information below. I will contact the bookstores (or coffee shops) and then set up an action plan to get all of us to suggest the same stop.

For those who are interested in following the free-market vs. government regulation debate at a conceptual level, this Kos diary is an excellent refutation of what the Pope Puppets have to say. Enjoy.