What’s going on?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
26 Comments
What’s going on?
There is a new midwest thread.
Is anyone in MI working for the Edwards’s campaign? I think that I am seriously interested in doing some volunteer work. I’ve checked out his website, but the MI branch looks very inactive at the moment.
Did you see this page in the “One Corps” section Toni?
http://blog.johnedwards.com/chapters/state/MI
I don’t think there is probably much else other than One Corps organized in states other than the ones where there are early primaries. Previous to his announcement, I heard a lot on the “One America Blog” about yahoo groups that were forming in many states, but I can’t find anything about that there right now.
Thanks for that link. I had not seen it!
I’m signed up, Toni, but not as Kidspeak. I’m using my actual first name and last initial – look at the group, you’ll see me.
And I plan to get involved here in Missouri for Edwards.
Someone has a diary up at the Edwards blog listing the dates for primaries. I see that you all in Missouri are pretty early – Feb. 5th. Should be an exciting place to get involved. We’re not until March in MN and usually things are pretty well decided by then. I’d love to hear any updates about how things are looking in Missouri as things progress.
Yes, Michigan is the same day as Minnesota. Bummer, I wish these things weren’t so loaded in this fashion. At least we are now partly de-coupled from the usual Iowa-New Hampshire juggernaut.
I’ll take a peek.
Scribe and I also signed up at meetup.com to see if anyone is organizing a John Edwards group here in St. Paul. There are over 170 people signed up – but I don’t know if any groups are actually meeting yet. Who knows, if there’s nothing happening yet, maybe we’ll get something going.
Senator Edwards said “get involved.” So there are many ways to do that in support of his campaign.
That’s a great idea. Thanks so much.
You know, I suppose, that Dave Bonior is working for him full time? That sent me over the edge into complete support…
One of the Dems who jumped ship on the stem cell bill was Bart Stupak. This is an old position with him–one that I’ve argued on end due to my son’s paraplegia. He’s taking some hits. He’s taken his position on stem cells off his website.
Before the vote to overturn the veto, any chance of some help in pressuring him? (I quoted Thomas Aquinas! Surprise, this isn’t a catholic doctrine that’s rooted in traditional writings.)
I heard him give his position. I was very surprised. Is that the pressure of UPers?
The area where he lives, like Stupak, is very traditional Polish catholic. Despite some pretty firm statements by Catholic hierarchy, the actual positions of Catholics are pretty diverse. I think he has some uninformed opinions. His form letters to me contain some pretty aweful biology mis-statements, that sound like they are coming directly from fundy propeganda. What bothers me is that he won’t write or personally engage on the topic, just repeating the inaccuracies and talking points.
I had no idea how large this 1st Cong District is! 44% of the land mass of the state at 24,875 square miles, it’s the second largest CD east of the Mississippi River. Not overly aged, tho’, with only 18.1% of the 663,000 population being over 65.
Another ethnicity in the Upper Peninsula is French Canadian. They are likely to be strong, conservative Catholics also.
That’s a shame that Rep Stupak is spreading inaccuracies. I’ve watched him in hearings with Rep Whitfield of Kentucky, concerning the exploitation of children over the internet. He seems very deliberative and dedicated. I had to smile that his homepage has a tab for “Accutane.” Must have been a passion of his a few years ago.
I sent him an e-mail on stem cell research. Had to choose Miscellaneous for my topic! I have some other relatives in Michigan and I’ll see if they’ll help out.
He used to have stem cells as a choice!
I finally did it–broke down and bought XM Radio. After my last speeding ticket I just knew that I had to concentrate on the road and not on punching “scan” over and over, trying to avoid right wing hate and pseudo-religion. But the problem remains.
The most powerful radio station in Michigan and thereabouts is WJR. It is heavily right wing, sandwiching the Tigers between Rush Limbaugh and other hateful programs. Michigan is a blue state. Why do we tolerate it? Hit scan again and again, and unless you are close to Detroit 1310 you get the same vile talk.
I can only wonder how these multiple right wing stations can stay in business. Obviously, their base is smaller, and they split up the pie so many ways. (Most of the time you can access several different AM stations with Rush Limbaugh simulataneously.) One can only imagine that the advertisers and parent companies are taking losses in the hope of creating political change without having to call their losses political contributions. Can there be any other explanation?
There is an active movement against one hate station in California heavily politicized on DailyKos. It has made these stations very nervous, since many of the advertisers are actually part of blanket agreements. If the advertiser finds one part of that agreement particularly offensive or problematic, they pull the package.
So here’s the deal. Is it possible for a group of enthusiastic Midwestern residents to get together and contact all of the advertisers on major AM hate stations, again and again, complaining about the bias of the station? One can’t do it; a thousand can.
I think that it would be simpler to go after one advertiser at a time.
I remember the WJR of my youth not being so political, just a bunch of MOR music. All of my parents’ friends listened to it. Now that I approach my 40s, I don’t know a single person who listens to it – a giant shift in 20-25 years. It is almost irrelevant.
Here in the Chicago area, I listen only to the CBS affiliate radio station, WBBM-AM. It never carries Rush, and I’ve never, ever listened to him except to read some quotes or see some clips of his current outrageous opinion or behavior.
Full replays of both Face the Nation and 60 Minutes are broadcast on Sundays, but I studiously avoid both.
Since I’m no help on which sponsor to boycott or bombard, let me move on to the XM Radio programming. You can listen to Congressional hearings on C-Span radio, for example, this morning the House Foreign Affairs committee is taking testimony from Madeleine Albright. Their schedule is at http://www.c-span.org/.
Air America radio is also carried. The XM Radio website has the channel number.
Lastly, if you haven’t bought the package for home use, it’s a good investment b/c this brings in all the good programs and makes better use of your subscription.
Sorry about your traffic tickets, too! Were you “weaving” or speeding, might I ask?
If you are in Michigan, you must contact you state rep and senator about the proposed cut to the per student funding for K-12 education. There are talks that these cuts could be up to $220/student. In a district like mine with approximately 3000 students, that is a loss of $660,000. We simply cannot afford it. We are already losing programs and have just laid off 10 teachers.
I’m in MI, and I think we need to consolidate districts – unfortunately. I like them smaller, makes them more accountable; but it also increases duplication. MI is in so much financial trouble, I don’t know how Granholm keeps anything afloat.
Sadly, my district would consolidate with Detroit and I’m not interested purchasing a ticket on a sinking ship – unless all of Wayne County consolidates. Now that interests me.
Fat chance of that. Can you see Grosse Pointe ever consolidating into Wayne County? For that matter, can you see Detroit doing this? Most of the lege who talk about anything, talk about breaking up Detroit into smaller districts – which I think would just compound the difficulties we have here.
The Pointes, Livonia, none of them would ever consolidate. I grew up with many kids who had never been to the city, ever.
As for the city, Detroit teachers won’t even allow the AFT to try and organize charter school teachers. All those teachers not paying into the state pension, what a wreck.