It's about an hour up the road from me. ANSWER/LA sent me a flyer to tell me about the planned demonstration. So I'm heading up there, to arrive about 2:00 to get a sense of how the crowd builds.

I'll walk around with my FlipVideo and talk to as many people as possible, then upload over the Sprint broadband card directly to my YouTube channel.
 
   www.youtube.com/roadette

You'll be able to see the debate in the church on live TV...CNN will be there. I'll be covering the demonstrators outside the church. I'll add updates to this diary throughout the day, posting the URL of the videos on youtube as I post them and maybe writing a word or two as well.
It's a gorgeous day in SoCal, likely to be a few degrees hotter inland where the church is than it is in my home town, San Diego.

I'll check comments here too if there is anybody you know you want to say hi to or anyone/anything you want me to shoot or ask or find out about.

Roadette

I've worked to bring Dr. Mona Nasir to the US for two years.

In March-May of 2003, I produced and videotaped in Jordan and Iraq for ABC News Nightline. I traveled from Amman to Baghdad five days after the US troops occupied the city. My assignment was to shoot footage of a private medical aid shipment and of Iraqi hospitals, caregivers, and civilian casualties. You can see some of the footage I shot here and here.

I made contact with US Army Col. (Dr.) Butch Anderson and he linked me up with Dr. Mona Nasir in the Ministry of Health. She was the Director, Nocosomial (Hospital-acquired) Disease for the entire country. Mona was my guide for the next 10 weeks -- a lovely woman, diplomatic and thoughtful.

But things did not turn out well for her...

An article today by Ben Smith, Obama Asserts His Americanness, tries to make the case that a too rapturous reception in Europe could hurt Obama politically in the US general election. I strongly disagree and decided to post my response. As I read down the comments, I was surprised by the number of wingnut verbiage, so if you have a chance to post over there from time to time, it might balance the comments a little...not that Obamans weren't there too.

Here was my response:

I've heard the wingnut chatterati recite this meme before...popularity in Europe could hurt Obama.

I disagree and think this is a misreading of most of the American public. We like a rock star. We like being popular abroad. We enjoyed Clinton's popularity and it never hurt him at all...and I don't think it will hurt Obama either.

To the contrary, I think it will help him a lot with independents and reinforce the choice for Democrats.

The one exception to this prognosis is the 27% of people who still support Bush (the Republican partisan base). They are often Europe haters for what they see the region's of socialism, universal health care and general anti-americanism. (Plus they take way too many vacation days.)

While the president is overseas taking his lameduck Grand Tour, beating the bushes against Iran, Barack Obama should be seen to do what a good president does: Inspires, heartens, and lifts up people.

He can go there and call for FEMA to get going, highlight stories of hardship, and call for an end to the Katrinas.

If ever there was a time and a place for the message "Yes we can," this is it.

I just watched the Fox News Special Porked: Earmarks for Profit, which aired tonight at 8:00 pm (EDT). The 60 Minutes-style 3-segment documentary program, hosted by Chris Wallace and reported by Gregg Jarrett, covered allegedly skuzzy earmark deals that are claimed to have benefitted politicians or their families. The show covered Rep. Dennis Hastert’s (R-Illinois –retired) involvement with the Prairie Parkway; Rep. Paul Kanjorsky’s (D-PA) channeling of earmark money for government contracts to a family-owned company, Cornerstone; and the real estate deals of Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA).

The program was well-reported and edited, but short on new information. As the Washington bureau of the Chicago Tribune commenting on the Hastert parkway deal noted, "Expose may be a strong verb for a story that the Tribune reported two years ago."

I've been reading the posts on WVA and find them all interesting. I'd like to consider the messaging implications for communicating with a coalition's leading edge and its trailing edge.

For the past eight (OK, 40)years, the Republicans have messaged in the language of the trailing edge (evangelicals, some from WVA), all the while pursuing the policies of the leading edge (rich corporatists). We Dems can't do that because we can't adopt that language and because we don't want to practice those kind of deceptive politics.

On the trailing edge, we are dealing with many relatively uneducated but religious people. In the '06 campaign, I worked for Jim Webb and separated the "love and service" Christians from the "fire and brimstone" Christians. An article in the Seattle Times here
points to younger generations' disillusionment with the Republican Party. And a Reuters story points to even the elder evangelicals' growing belief that they should step back from injecting religion into partisan politics. here

So what should Dems trailing edge strategy be? After the jump...

So I got this email on my work account with the subject: John McCain's remarks about the Pledge of Allegiance. It had passed through several hands. My short response is on top, below the fold...followed by the original email.

I expect to get a blast from any number of people on that list 'cuz I did a 'reply all'...well screw it, I'll just try to be as cool as the bama-man and give 'em my master teacher pimp hand. ;-)

Some people think we shouldn't take the time to respond to this stuff, but I think we need to engage at every turn. It's like the 50-state strategy versus the blue state DLC strategy: only it applies to individuals instead of states. I think we need to address people when they blurt this nonsense and confront them with the real state of affairs. If we let these childish attacks go, then we make it appear that everyone at least tacitly agrees with them.

Not me. I'm stepping up to say, "everybody doesn't agree. Some of us think you and the party you road in on are full of crap."

So, responding to Nettee...

Right after confirmation of Huckabee's win, McCain was on the phone to congratulate him. And no wonder...the huckster opened a pathway for the old POW to deliver a pow of his own: Now that Huckabee has slapped Romney's right cheek in Iowa, McCain will slap his left cheek in New Hampshire.

I think these two do a lot for each other. McCain puts Huckabee on a national stage, in venues where his corn pone evangelism will not play. And Huckabee delivers the religious right foot soldiers to McCain, giving him a ground game. In addition, if there is a message from Iowa, it is that voters of both parties want change: Huckabee will also give McCain the fig leaf of being a change candidate.

A formidable barrier to this ticket is that Wall St, the remaining third of the Republican stool (pun intended). They will fight hard for Romney to make sure their K street trough stays filled for DC pols.

In thinking about what this ticket would mean for the Democrats...

This is an account of my personal journey towards deciding which primary candidate to support for the Democratic nomination. I do not belong to any  faction now and have not joined one at any time during this primary season. Moreover, since 2000 I have committed myself to support the Democratic candidate in the presidential election, no matter who it was. That decision still holds, particularly given the Republican field for 2008: I'd never vote for any of them.

In this primary cycle, I haven't been able to decide who to support. Early in the primary campaigns, I thought I  might choose Bill Richardson, but he never seemed ready for prime time.

After that brief flirtation, my default support has gone to HRC. In my view, she is competent, smart, experienced, and interesting. I'd like to vote for a first woman president. I have nostalgia for the (mostly) good times of the Clinton years. But I have problems with some of her positions, and they have grown rather than diminished as the primary cycle has continued. For example, I am not a supporter of free trade; rather, I support fair trade...or, at least, careful trade. I was disgusted with her unwillingness to say the U.S. would be out of Iraq in 15 (!!!) years and horrified by her vote on Iran.

Follow the march over the flip...

She is an exceptionally capable individual who was engaged in a nationwide effort to reduce infection among women giving birth. Her work saved thousands of lives.

Now she is gone. I have word she arrived in Istanbul three days ago.

I'm so sorry for Iraq and so relieved for her.

If anyone has ideas or the ability to help get her to the U.S. or Canada, please let me know. I have arranged for her to enter a Master's program in Public Health (where she could probably teach!), that will give her a Western supplement to her already impressive medical background -- she is an  MD with specialized post-med school training. Here is her letter to me two weeks ago:

MSNBC played the tape twice at 1:00 pm (PDT). USN&WR reporter Ken Walsh pointed to the contentious and he said-he said nature of the exchange, concluding that it left the situation open to interpretation.

I disagree -- I think the tape is devastating. Craig sounds like a weasel who is gradually realizing the seriousness of the situation he is in. I am sure this tape will be played many times in the next few days and everyone will reach their own conclusion.

When the police officer reaches the end of his patience, his impatience and irritation ring true to me.

She was introduced by founder of Emily's List and took the stage to a rousing welcome. Clearly pleased by her reception (far different than the boos she received last year), her speech is cadenced and well-thought out. so far, it's very domestic, very Dem...health care for "our families," women's rights in the workplace, etc.

She is slighter than I imagined, perfectly groomed with a polished but relaxed look: Black pants, mustard poplin jacket, tan and black spectator l/2" pumps.

Now she is on to the Constitutions, wiretaps, US attorneys, secret jails, government scientists silenced, retaliation against people who stood up, Katrina a national disgrace...rising pitch now...

Special DVD to Prez to pay attention while bodies floated downstream.

Catastrophic war in Iraq that has taken such a human toll.

A stunning record of secrecy and corruption, cronyism run amok. Everything the constitution designed to prevent, everything founding fathers were afraid of.

PLF515 has created another diary of needed political action for the '08 election cycle, here

I've taken the info and created a second database of House members we should support..in addition to the database of House members we should target for gentle persuasion to become more progressive, or GPP.

Both databases, the variable (field) codebook, and the underlying information provided by PLF515 are available for download at: (below the fold)

Kossacks have been considering action to take to help Democrats be Democrats, to make good on their campaign promises -- or at least function as a real alternative to BushCo. See: http://www.dailykos.com/... and http://www.dailykos.com/...

Many of those who commented congratulated them on their work but wished there were a searchable database that would let people look at priorities, states, districts, etc. In the interest of helping move the ball forward, I created that database in M$ Access and exported it to Excel. I also created a codebook for the dataset.

(Below the fold for link to database files and details...)

C-Span3 with Links to View or Listen
  http://www.c-span.org/...
Drational's Goodling Testimony Preview. Some great analysis by drational, as always.  http://www.dailykos.com/...

Master Diary by Live Blog is Here.  Rec only the Master.
http://www.dailykos.com/...

As always, rule #1 of liveblogging is NO PICTURES.  

Do NOT Recommend this Diary.  Recommend the Master: Monica Goodling vs. House Judiciary Committee Liveblog

Recently I've noticed just how long it is taking DK pages to load. I timed the wait time duration that the Google adserver is taking to to connect and allow the page to complete loading:
  #1:  24 seconds
  #2:  31 seconds
  #3:  34 seconds

These wait times are unacceptable on the Net. And I don't see it happening on doesn't on other sites I visit. I'm accessing the Net via DSL, and it's bad enough. When I'm on my Sprint broadband card, it takes about l/3 longer!

During the wait time, the DK page doesn't load, especially the right hand diary log/blog roll. Can't you change the code so that the adserver isn't holding up the page? Can't google do any better, or does DK need a faster adserver?

The Republicans have accused the Democrats of proposing a 'slow bleed' strategy: 1) "designed to gradually limit the administration's options" and 2) "to block further relief and reinforcement for American troops, leaving them exposed and unable to succeed." (See Weekly Standard)

I would agree with the first definition and fight like hell against the second one. However, it seems to me that the Republican bloviating is designed to draw attention from the own 'fast bleed' strategy...

Watching the Beltway Boys (and they truly are far more inane and childish than most 9-year olds) discuss Harry Reid's statement that "the administration leadership knows that we have lost the war," I was struck by Reid's bravery -- and his sadly incorrect characterization of the situation.

Harry, please...get this right:  The military won the war. They did what was asked of them, and they did it brilliantly.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, & Bremmer lost the peace.

I was in Baghdad in March-May of 2003. Here's how the peace played out there ... (below the fold)