2008: Russ Feingold

[haus]

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare for the revolution...

It's time to stand up - not to cheer, but to fight back.

-- Sen. Feingold's dailykos.com Blog Entry on Executive Power. [2006-02-02]
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/2/10581/84829

[-V-]

so if you gave Russ a 10 that must mean he's your #1 choice. I remember him being aggressive on a few issues several years ago but I haven't heard him making any waves lately. I don't know enough about him yet to judge.

[haus]

Choosing a candiate is a complicated project. Everyone has their own ideological litmus test. Everyone has their own criteria for determining if a candidate has the leadership gene. Is the guy (or gal) likable? Is he effective? Is he aggressive? Is he for real, or is it all just an act?

There are two candidates who meet all my tests. They were both surprises for me. One of them, obviously, is Russ Feingold.

(The other, the bigger surprise, is Wes Clark. I'm sure some people reading this paragraph have just come to the conclusion that I've popped my cork, flipped my lid, or some combination of the two. If I jumped in the WayBack Machine and told November-Haus that Wes Clark is a liberal wreckin' machine, I think November-Haus would offer me a strong cup of tea & the number of a good psychologist.)

Unfortunately, I've got to head to work now. But I'll leave a news-nugget. The USA-PATRIOT Act will be re-authorized in the Senate today. The nation isn't paying any attention to that fact. But there's a guy that's still fighting against it. Guess who? (Here's the answer.)

[-V-]

Clark is viable. I threw his hat in.

[haus]

Want to thank Russ for his work on the USA-PATRIOT Act? Free trade? Wiretapping? ANWR? Alito? Energy and the Environment? Civil rights? Campaign finance reform? Want to wish him a happy birthday? Want to nudge him to run for president? Here's your chance.

The Progressive Patriots Fund is sponsoring an online text chat with Senator Russ Feingold on Friday, March 10 at 10:30AM Eastern Time. Sign up early at The Progressive Patriots Fund.

More or less x-posted from http://ohio4russ.blogspot.com

[haus]

Here's the audio for Feingold's call in the Senate to censure bush this afternoon.

Windows:http://news.globalfreepress.com/gall....php?pos=-3582
Everyone Else:http://news.globalfreepress.com/mp3/...e-03-13-06.mp3

I watched this live on C-SPAN 2 this afternoon, and it was GREAT. I haven't seen any video surface on the web yet.

(h/t to bpilgrim@DU)

[-V-]

Feingold is looking better all the time.

As you can imagine, however. I'm not satisfied with the antiquated concept of "censuring" a President. Citizens don't have the option of being "censured" when they commit a crime.

[haus]

I'm looking at the censure resolution as part of a process, rather than an end in and of itself. It should fuel debate and reinforce Conyers' resolutions. It should also help in November.

Weird trivia: the only other President to get censured was my great-great-great-great Uncle. Cantankerous old bastard.

[Jane of Arc]

Great, Great, Great, Great Uncle Haus!

He looks a lot like John Kerry, doesn't he? Weird.

[MAGI]

I'll bite.............What was his name haus?

[haus]

Andrew Jackson. Not one of your more notable presidents, but the Democratic Party's Donkey symbol descended from so many people calling him a jackass, and him thinking it was kinda funny.

[MAGI]

Well, Andy has one fine Great, great,great Grand Nephew!

[haus]

Russ is going to be on the Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart Wednesday night. Should be a fun show -- I predict a little ass-kicking.

[-V-]

i'll be watching

by the way, i had to deduct some karma points from Fiengold for saying that impeachment may not be appropriate in a time of war.

[haus]

This extension to the FireFox browser contains links to approximately 70 web resources of interest to supporters of Russ Feingold for President. These resources include the National "Russ Cafe" discussion board, the chat room at russforpresident.com, prepackaged searches through many of the leading search engines, all the blogs in the "50 Blogs for Feingold" program, as well as Feingold's official Senate, Senate Campaign, and PAC sites.

This extension only works with the Mozilla FireFox browser. That is to say that it won't work with Microsoft Internet Explorer or any other Netscape browser. You can get the FireFox browser for free by clicking here.

The extension is available for download at addons.mozilla.org

This is one of several projects in development at RussForge. RussForge is an independent group of techies and artists who support Russ Feingold for President. RussForge is not affiliated with any candidate or committee.

[haus]

I'm doing a project and could use some input.

It's difficult to condense the experience of following Russ Feingold's battles in Washington into "5-Easy-Bullet-Points", but getting an accurate read of the landscape is important as we roll into close to two years of presidential primaries.

So I put together an IRV poll to rank how people relate to Russ and would like to know what you think.

Here are a few of the items to choose from:

• Opposed to Iraq War from the beginning
• Fighting for Universal Health Care, rated 100% by APHA
• Defender of public educaion, rated 91% by NEA
• Leader in fight against Bush's Torture Policies
• Keep Church and State separate: 0% rating by Christian Coalition
• Introduced bill to censure George W. Bush
• Fought hard against the Patriot Act
• Adamant supporter of Fair-Trade, 25% CATO voting record

It's entirely possible that we missed some fairly obvious and significant items on the poll, which is why starting the discussion is so important. So, please consider taking the poll, and I'm all ears if you have questions/comments.

[-V-]

Haus, if it were my choice, my ticket would be Gore-Feingold. Or better yet, Kucinich-Feingold, then you'ld really see some changes. But at some point it, unfortunately, it does become a question of realistic strategies and playing the numbers.

I'm not up on the science of election winning. But isn't it the consensus that any viable candidate has to have some reach in the South?

To be blunt, can a liberal Jew from Wisconsin muster up enough support across this country to get the job done in 2008?

[haus]

Let's look at 2000:



The electoral vote was 271-266. Do I think Russ can win these states? Yep. I also think he can add Ohio, Indiana, Florida, New Hampshire, and Missouri. 73 electoral votes...so, that'd be 339-198.

He's won every election he's been in Wisconsin, which has a higher degree of redneckosity and not significantly more Jewish than the average state.

Also telling is that the August Zogby Blind Bio Poll puts him within 2% of the front-runner.

So, yeah, I'm not as concerned with the general election as I am the Democratic Primaries...

p.s. I saw this the other day and thought it was cool. I think electoral college votes are proportional to house seats, so this map from govtrack.us shows the relative importance of states:

[Jennifer_SFBA]

Between the Devil and the deep blue sea with only Democrats and Republicans representing, not We, the people, but the powerful, enormously wealthy RepubliCratics of America, I must vote Green Party 2008. Not even Feingold stood up to philabuster the bill that destroyed habeous corpus and that allowed the U.S. to determine what part, if any, of the Geneva Conventions the U.S. would adhere to. Feingold was certainly no "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" at the time someone, anyone was most needed!!! Their oath of office means nothing to our U.S. Congressional representatives. In my view, they are all traitors to the principles of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. My bottom line: NO FASCIST DICTATORSHIP IN AMERICA where law applies only to the citizenry while the most heinous evils committed by federal elected officials are protected in the name of National Security!

Habeus Corpus defined:

http://www.lectlaw.com/def/h001.htm

Keith Olbermann's video commentary on the destruction of Habeus Corpus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En9eA...elated&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSBI6...elated&search=

Amateur 'video bloggers' under threat from EU broadcast rules

http://snapshot.jkn.com/758538.288233697832

Vote GREEN for all United States federal candidates for federal political office in 2008, and make U.S. government the government of the people, for the people and by the people once again!!!

I began with Feinstein this year, 2006, by casting my vote instead for Todd Chretien, the Green Party candidate for CA U.S. Senator. Any religiously oriented or learning, or non-progressive candidate for CA state or local office, I likewise voted down and then proceeded to affirm my vote FOR the GREEN PARTY candidate.

For state judicial candidates where their record was NOT available on legal rights descisions like gay marriage (marriage equality), GLBT rights or abortion, etc., I looked up whether they had been Republican or Democratic appointees. With no other compelling information available to me, I voted against Republican governor appointees for judicial positions and for Democratic governor appointees. Had there ever been GREEN PARTY judicial appointees, I'd have felt more assured in my vote that they represented my values for America, "with liberty and justice for all."

[-V-]

I removed a bunch of posts that strayed too far off topic and were not at the level we've come to expect from both posters. Peace out.