041221 Posting

I’ll begin with a short John Kerry update and end with a Progressives update. My personal recommendation is to read about the 1/5/05 meeting by the Progressive Dem’s of DE if you want to work on gaining ground in 06 and 08, and/or look for inaugural protests under 48% club and the September 11^th coalition.

Recount status—I continue to recommend the following two sites to monitor the status of the 11/2/2004 presidential election recounts-- http://www.verifiedvoting.org and

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/. Sadly, I am not expecting anything to come of this before 1/20/2005, D Day (Dubya Day).

Framing—A common theme of Monday morning quarterbacks is that the Kerry campaign and DNC failed to effectively ‘frame’ our candidate. There are some VERY interesting articles at http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/projects/strategic/ . The Framing The Dems article is particularly insightful (disturbing). Of the groups listed below, the Progressive Democrats of DE are the only one with a team specifically looking at learning about this. Many folks are talking about the Don’t Think of an Elephant book, which I found to be a wonderful introduction to ‘the framing thing’.

Progressives Update—There are three local organizations designed to further the progressive agenda in the Delaware region. Two of them use Yahoo Groups, which are an alternative to email lists, and are far easier to administer than email lists. You can go to http://groups.yahoo.com to find out more. You will need to have (or obtain a free) Yahoo signon to access these groups. In the past I chose the Daily Digest form of getting updates, to limit the number of emails I receive, I have recently changed it to only Special Notices. You can even request no emails, so you simply go to the group site to view messages without being barraged. Yahoo Groups offer very useful functions such as uploaded files, and calendars. Note that if you subscribe to multiple ones, you run the risk of seeing the same thing on several fronts. I recommend that you decide which group suits you best and jump in with both feet to that organization. There are too many wonderful groups doing wonderful things for me to adequately summarize them. Again, find your best fit and join, and cut me (the middleman) out!

Progressive Democrats for Delaware, at http://www.progressivedemsdel.com is a well organized group with a very clear charter. Check out their list of What Do We Believe? at http://www.progressivedemsdel.com/believe/ . I think that you will find kindred spirits there. If possible, join their Yahoo Group ‘ProgressiveDemsDel’. Their next meeting is Wednesday January 5^th at the HQ of the Delaware Democratic Party, behind the News Journal building off Basin Road. The meeting should be dynamite. It will be a workshop on ‘how to talk to/with conservatives and the press’. Activism and action will be the theme. It should be so good that they are recommending that you bring a folding chair! For more information, contact Rebecca Young at createrhy@aol.com .

The 48% Club is a group of folks who “did NOT give a ‘mandate’ to Bush in 2004”. They are continuing to meet regularly at First Unitarian on Concord Pike. They, too, have a Yahoo Group, at 48_Percent_Club. You can also contact Mickey Kelley for more information at mkelley@versalign.com . Their next meeting is Thursday 1/13/05 at First Unitarian at 7pm (go to http://www.firstu.org/ for directions). One of their primary items for that meeting is planning an inaugural protest on 1/20/2005.

A new, nationwide organization has been launched as a result of the last election, designed to provide the infrastructure for building a grassroots multiple issue campaign/movement, working on critical local and national issues, as well as collaborating with similar groups nationwide. Note that this group is not affiliated with the Democratic Party, in order to broaden the support for their shared ideologies and common issues related to social and economic justice. Their next meeting will be on January 15^th at 11am at 234 Cheltenham Road, Newark, Delaware. If you plan to attend, please email Phil Pollner at leadcoal@aol.com.

Do Not DeLay— The Ethics Committee admonished House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) twice over the past week for improper conduct on three separate matters. He also has a third black mark on his record from 1999, when the panel admonished him for yet another matter. I believe the time has come for Rep. DeLay to step down. He is ethically unfit to serve as a leader of the people's House. America has higher standards than to let someone with his track record lead an institution as important to our democracy as the United States House of Representatives. Ask Tom Delay to Step Down now! Go to: http://www.commoncause.org/stepdownDeLay

September 11th Coalition for Just and Peaceful Intiatives—project of Pacem in Terris—There are two options shared by the coalition for Inauguration Day Protests. For more information, contact June Eisley at juneeisley@earthlink.net

Buy Blue—Go to www.buyblue.org to find out which organizations support more Democratic candidates than Republican. If you haven’t finished your holiday shopping yet …

The Green Party—There are many very active Green Party folks in the area quite dedicated to progressive issues. As such, many of them are well represented in the groups listed above. Go to www.greendel.org for more information. Their top current issue is the proposed LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal across the Delaware River from New Castle. Another top issue is the city of Wilmington’s dumping of sewage into our streams, behavior that the current (state and federal) administrations appear to condone.

The 48% Club’s Tom Vincent includes the following note at the bottom of his email postings: 1946, while awaiting trial at Nuremberg, Nazi Reichs Marshall Herman Goering told an interviewer: "Of course the people don't want war...but...the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country."