Workin' It: Thirty Eight Days Until the Election

Welcome BW Readers. Today I am reporting on a rally I attended in Champaign in which close to 150 were there cheering on our candidate, David Gill, who is running in the IL-15 Congressional race. It was a beautiful day and the turnout was pretty good, considering more people were en route to the UI football game. The rally theme: For a Brighter Future.

The gentleman in the pic on the left is Rob Fustin, VP of the Local UAW 751. He said that unions appreciate David Gill because he wants to raise the minimum wage and supports unions. Middle class was built today because of the unions, although he didn't say it literally that way.

I liked this poster which some folks gladly held in their laps. See picture on the right. Sorry, didn't get the name of the supporter.

Fustin was a really nice guy. He lives in the southern part of our district--one that is a Republican stronghold. He says that he speaks to retirees and sometimes he wonders if he is preachin' to the choir, but I pointed out sometimes they need inspiration. And I think David Gill can do that for them via the canvass of another Illinois-15 district resident.



We also were treated to seeing a speech by Tony Fabri, who is on the Champaign County Board, but also the Chairman of the Champaign County Democratic Party. Wow, he got the crowd going about why we need David Gill in Congress to fight Bush and the rubber stampers.

Tony is the in the blue jeans, David Gill in the suit, and the tall guy in the orange jacket to the right is Mike Frerichs, who I met earlier this summer, and is running for State Senator. I also got a nice chat in with him, and told him about my visit with JRE in June. He was very happy for me and seemed impressed that JRE gave me that type of accessibility. The point I was making is that more pols need to be like that, not that I am special because I'm not. He was more impressed that JRE was in Uganda as I told him about the IRC gig.

Then David Gill delivered a great rally speech after Tony. I hadn't seen David for months, but he was still the same dude--optimistic despite the odds, and gave really good reasons why he wanted to run. The main one: Americans deserve a change.

Gill pointed out that as an Emergency Room physican, he sees the underinsured or uninsured. I knew 47 million were uninsured, but today he told us another 100 million are underinsured. Gosh, that blew my mind. He said it's been a moral failure that our Congress and current adminstration has done nothing to help our people who go into bankruptcy because of health insurance costs. He gave an example of a man in his 40's who died in the Emergency Room because he waited too late when he had warning signs of a heart attack. The family later told Gill that he waited because they didn't have enough insurance for emergency care, let alone a regular doctor's visit. And this poor man became a statistic, in which another 180, 000 Americans are likely to die for that same reason this year.

David had so many stats about healthcare, it was incredible. And he said that in the 90K mileage he has put on his car, people still ask him all the time if he could look at their ailments, yet wondered why he wanted to be in Congress. He named pols such as Bill Frist, who has investment interests in HMOS which are driving doctors out of business, or Tom Coburn, who thought a doctor who gave a woman a necessary abortion should be punished. What kind of doctor is that?

There were children with their parents today. In my own mind, I thought about the costs of the war, but also, what if this child got sick? What if her parents couldn't afford her bills without going into serious debt. Would if they had to choose between the gas pump or electricity bills which are going to jump nearly 55% this winter?



I loved it when David said he was for Net Neutrality! Whoop! Clean environment, etc.

Later when I was doin' part of the meet and greet afterward (we do it afterwards in Illinois instead of first in Iowa, LOL--and we don't have to pay for them here)--just a donation if we like-- I found Fabri so accessible--and he surpised me. He's like David in that regard. I took a couple of pics of him and asked for his permission to blog it. He was very agreeable and seemed pleased that a relative newcomer was willing to get out and do the "v-socializing" for David and other Dems in Champaign. I also told him about my blog, and he said planned to visit it soon.

Additionally, Fabri said he like my button, and I had to ask which one as I had David Gill's first, then JRE/One America 2008 under that one, and he said that he liked both. He was telling me that he also liked John Edwards. I said David and JRE weren't much different in their vision for America, just different professions: David, a doctor; JRE, a lawyer.

David was there with Polly, his wife of 19 years, 3 kids, and she has had her cancer battles this year. Polly had some rough times this summer, but she is a big fighter, like Elizabeth Edwards, and I think Polly's battle may have been a bit more tumaltuous. Polly does appear to be a fighter. I met her for the first time today, and she said when I asked, "are you hangin' in there" and she said yes.

David reminded us all that he gets no money from DCCC. That's a shame on our own Illinois folks, such as Rahm Emanuel. If anyone has a high fiver or a ten to donate, click here.

Today was a good day to be workin' it but to see others workin' it. I thank my fellow David Gill supporter Dawn for the pics of rally (2 of them here), and I'm looking forward to meeting Mike Richards who is running for a Champaign county seat. I was invited to a gig tomorrow about 4 blocks from my house, so I will go and get his views .

Tags: David Gill, Polly Gill, Illinois Politics, Congressional Races 2006, Mike Frerichs, Benny's World

JRE Buzz (30): Courage Edition

Welcome BW readers to JRE Buzz where you can get the latest news and blog information digest about John Edwards and his family. (photo credit: bittar_earings)

Elizabeth is the big buzz this week, and will be for some days to come since her book, Saving Graces, was released to the public by retailers. I must say that I was fortunate to have ordered my copy from Amazon and I got it the same day as buying in the store. Is that service or what?

Elizabeth and her book were showcased on the Oprah Winfrey show on Wednesday, and on a segment of Brian Williams' NBC Nightly News last night. On MSNBC's site, you can e-mail Elizabeth a question. If you missed Oprah, my friend Machka of Southern Hope has recorded the session and posted it on V-Social.

People released another piece, this one online, that gave her a few Q's to answer off the cuff. (Photo credit: Grant Delin) Does she not look like a future First Lady here?

Rusty Jacobs at WUNC did a really nice segment as well for the locals in the Triangle area. Paul Jones, the ibiblio czar, posted Jacob's radio report on his blog, and thus gets a hat-tip. Click here to listen.

Tidbit: Jones teaches at UNC-CH School of Information and Library Science, and he started ibiblio there, using Open Source software by a nearby company called Red Hat. So as a librarian, I have great respect for Jones, who reminds me of a Berkeley hippie, and I think he's cool.

Back to the buzz...

Edwards is travelling in Uganda as I blog. But upon leaving for Uganda, which has been a hell hole along with Dafur, he issued a statement that would persuade us to imploring our Senators to vote NO for the Military Commissions bill. It was quite appropriate for Edwards to say something, considering that torture has been going on in Uganda for a long time. We should be following the Geneva Conventions. But did our great Senate listen to him? Hell no.

12 DINOS joined with the Republicans on the vote to give Bush permission to rewrite the writs as he sees fit, thus more leeway to torture prisioners and not give them a chance to defend themselves either.

Snarkville

Today's snark happened on Wednesday over one of my favorite places, the DU. Someone posted out of context a response that Elizabeth gave to a question about the differences in how Elizabeth saw the Kerrys and themselves.

Here was the title of the thread: Time mag: Elizabeth Edwards hints at Kerrys' 'lifestyle problem' in Q&A

Elizabeth was trashed so badly by some folks who support Kerry but also the Clarkies who haven't exactly forgiven Kerry for picking JRE over Clark as a VP nominee. On the Kerry forum, when I saw Elizabeth getting pounded a second time, I posted the following, as I have visited there many times, and know at least one person personally who is Kerrycrat:

I was so hoping you weren't going to do this here. As I supported Kerry/Edwards last time, I want to say my piece.

Elizabeth Edwards hints at Kerrys' 'lifestyle problem' in Q&A

There is nothing that says that in the Time piece. She does not say they have a lifestyle problem. That's absurd.

Additionally absurd is the interviewer's question about the plush lifestyle of the Kerrys--that is misleading as well. We don't know since it was in writing if that was the exact answer or not or the exact question either.

To me, what I read, but it was not literally written:

What are the differences in how the Kerry's and Edwards' spend their respective wealth-- since Edwards has said he was blessed with everything he could want. That is more appropriate question in this instance.

Now let's look at EAE's answer again:

EDWARDS: It's a different kind of luxury, I think. I know the people whose artwork is on my walls--they're not the old masters. I shop at Target. We eat at Wendy's (on their wedding anniversary, which they do each year--it's in the book--my note). Even though we have a lot and I feel very blessed, we are basically the same people we were when we first started out and made, between us, $28,000 a year.

Where they haven't changed either: Elizabeth still wears the $11 ring John gave her when they married. But Elizabeth and John will tell you they just built a new home and there's quite a bit of space in it on a good chunk of property outside of Chapel Hill, not too far where JRE works at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Yes, Elizabeth chooses to go to Target or Costco when she could go to more expensive stores, but she doesn't want to. I don't think she is criticizing THK or her family. It's just a difference of how they approach spending their money.

But we are all missing the point here.

Instead of passing judgment on both Kerry and Edwards' campaign, which many of us at the DU have strong opinions about, it's more important to focus on that Elizabeth is finally cancer-free and she beat it. The Kerrys were very supportive of them when they found out that Elizabeth had cancer. It was heartbreaking for all of them (and to all of us) to lose an election and have to whisk Elizabeth off to Mass General/Dana Farber to confirm their worst fears: she had breast cancer.

I looked up the poster to see other threads, and I noticed the poster doesn't come here very often, in fact I couldn't find anything, and it made me wonder if s/he was stirring up the pot, especially as there were quite a few threads today about JK contemplating another run.

So, Elizabeth did not trash the Kerrys. The only negative thing I saw in the book was that the K/E campaign folks were not prepared to give her much in the way of resources for a staff to help her campaign for JK/JRE. I'm guessing they were trying to keep the costs down, but considering EAE was a star on the campaign trail, it's a miracle she had a loyal staff. She did a fantastic job explaining Kerry's views and regulations that strangled our country...or that were too loose. No one could explain tax code like she could, as one saw in Harrisburg, PA.

Lastly, she didn't forget any of you when you sent her a note on the Prayers for Elizabeth site, that was later turned into a booklet that a JREG person compiled and sent to her. It's mentioned on page 321 of her book.

I can see how you all would be upset, but truly, this is BS doin' by someone. To me, it was to pit this community against others, and you noticed the Clarkies jumped in. Jeepers...wonder why.

I suggest reading EAE's book, Saving Graces, to get a better look at them and at her as a person, and to watch Oprah Winfrey's show today. See earlier thread here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ... .

Thanks for reading, and while I'm sorry to see you all in a tissy at the moment, you all illustrate how passionate you feel for a John Kerry Presidential run in 2008. And that's a good thing.

And I meant it. Know what? The pounding stopped..just a couple of ankle bites after that, and one of the forum leaders decided to take the high road and declare that the forum is for positive information, and were trying to lead others away from snarkvilledom. John Kerry should be proud. And I was proud of him too for voting NO on that stupid Detainee Bill.

Upcoming Events

Elizabeth is on the Today Weekend Edition tomorrow morning at 7:30. She hits the road starting Monday or Tuesday for the book tour.

Lastly...

How does this thread all add up to be about courage? The day Elizabeth discovered the lump, she went out shopping for some new clothes as she needed to get warm. Her red jacket of courage kept her strong, sort of like the red badge of courage. She was courageous in spilling out her heart in her book about her grief, yet meeting others in various ways who also helped her stay strong. John and Cate's strength in holding together as a family instilled courage and helped Elizabeth during her months of cancer treatment. John's going to Uganda which still is a dangerous place and an IRC worker was killed last month, but he wants to help the people there.

And courage from this blogger to stand up for others when there is more than one point of view to consider.

More buzz l8tr...

Tags: John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, Benny's World, Saving Graces, Oprah, Uganda, Detainees Bill, torture, Democratic Underground, positive actions, John Kerry

Superdome Celebration

JRE Buzz (29): Born Fightin' Edition

Welcome BW readers to another edition of JRE Buzz, the place where you can get updates on John Edwards and his family, which have been in the news almost as much as he has.

The photo to the left, courtesy of Raising Kaine blog, shows JRE stumping for former Secretary of the Navy and writer Jim Webb, who is running against George Allen, the sitting incumbent. Mr. Webb appears to me to be a man of many credentials, and I'm surprised he made the switch to the Democratic Party. OTH, he's not alone, as Heath Schuler of NC did also.

Lowell Feld, Webb's Netroots coordinator, had this reaction to Edwards' oratory skills:

Prior to today, I had never seen John Edwards in person. I had always heard he was a great speaker, and I had seen him on TV, but seeing someone in person is different. Now I totally get it; John Edwards is simply a great public speaker, no doubt about it. Maybe he and Barack Obama could have a Toastmasters faceoff for the world championship? Ha.

Here's a link to a video of his speech from by Brian Baer of the Free-Lance site (Fredricksburg paper), Quick Time plug-in required.

On Raising Kaine, walkabout reports that s/he was among the hundreds of people at the gig. Walkabout's comment, "I was fortunate to be in an audience of 2500 and on the front row so I got to shake hands twice with John Edwards. He is a fine speaker, but more important in this election he and Elizabeth are moral people.

The Fredericksburg paper says about 400 folks, but who's counting...:-) They had some good quotes from Mary Washington students who attended the rally.

Junior Jenny Bryant said she tends to align herself more with Republicans, but had come out to satisfy her curiosity.

"I thought [Webb] had good things to say," she said. "I'm now on the fence."

Ardent Democrats Emilie Begin, a freshman, and Anthony DiRenzo, a sophomore, were buoyant after the speeches.

Begin said she found the event uplifting and inspirational and was not concerned about Webb's support for women's rights.

"Times have definitely changed," she said, referring to his Washingtonian article of 27 years ago.

"If you are really concerned about women's rights, are you going to vote for Allen?" asked DiRenzo, noting that Allen does not support a woman's right to abortion.

JRE puts in a good plug for Elizabeth's book, Saving Graces and how she talks about the time she went to school at Mary Washington.


Speaking of..

There's a Q & A of Elizabeth about her memoir from Audible.com. USA Today 's Susan Page penned a quick review of the book. She summed it up this way, "Despite the expectations, this book is not about politics. It's about life and making sense of death."

Snarkville

Today's snark comes from the Mason Conservative blog concerning JRE's stump for Allen yesterday and got all of his information from the Richmond Times instead of looking for other accounts in the Fredericksburg news or other blogs.

"And the line of the night HAS to go to pretty boy John Edwards, who ran for president for the simple reaosn that he could not win re-election:

America can't be a leader just by being strong. You've got to be strong."

I guess you really can't be pretty and smart at the same time."

Here's what the Richmond Times' Kiran Krishnamurthy wrote (albeit still the article is slanted towards Allen), "America can't be a leader just by being strong. You've got to be strong. But you have to have the moral authority to lead," he said. "Whenever a crisis occurs, America today has to fight kicking and screaming to get anybody to join us in doing anything. People don't naturally come to us."

I always find it amazing that snarks like the one at Mason Conservative make comments on a youthful candidate's appearance and uses it against the person as though having them is a sin or a crime. What's the sin or crime here is that the snark forces his vacuous comments because he or she is berefit of any moral clarity. Moral people recognize that it's more than just looks and they seek to understand first.


Upcoming Events:

Elizabeth is on Oprah Winfrey 's show today along with John and Cate.

John is on his way to Northern Uganda at the invitation at the IRC organization.


More buzz l8tr...

Tags: John Edwards, JREBuzz, Elizabeth Edwards, Saving Graces, Benny's World, Jim Webb, Virginia Senatorial Race 2006, Raising Kaine

Edwards seeks White House, still loves Target, Wendy's

NEW YORK - With her husband considering another run for the Democratic presidential nomination, Elizabeth Edwards says her lifestyle might not change much if the family finally makes it to the White House.

"I shop at Target. We eat at Wendy's," she tells Time magazine in its Oct. 2 edition. "Even though we have a lot and I feel very blessed, we are basically the same people we were when we first started out and made, between us, $28,000 a year."

Edwards, 57, has stayed mostly out of the public eye since her husband, former Sen. John Edwards, and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the presidential candidate, lost to the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2004.

Read the rest here.

Tags: Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards, Benny's World, Saving Graces, books, Presidential Race 2008

Clinton Interview on Fox News Sunday (Video)

Watch the contentious discussion Clinton's record on terrorism and Fox News.

Update: Fox News has yanked all of Youtube submissions about this particular video and this one only. But you can view it here.

read more | digg story

Update, Sept 25, from Countdown, by Keith Olbermann. Excellent commentary concerning Clinton interview on Faux News. Video clip on Crooks and Liars, if you can get on or go here.

And finally tonight, a Special Comment about President Clinton’s interview. The headlines about them are, of course, entirely wrong. It is not essential that a past President, bullied and sandbagged by a monkey posing as a newscaster, finally lashed back.

It is not important that the current President’s "portable public chorus" has described his predecessor’s tone as "crazed."

Our tone should be crazed. The nation’s freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as Al-Qaeda; the nation’s "marketplace of ideas" is being poisoned, by a propaganda company so blatant that Tokyo Rose would’ve quit. Nonetheless.

The headline is this: Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done, in five years. He has spoken the truth about 9/11, and the current presidential administration.

"At least I tried," he said of his own efforts to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden. "That’s the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They had eight months to try; they did not try. I tried."

Thus in his supposed emeritus years, has Mr. Clinton taken forceful and triumphant action for honesty, and for us; action as vital and as courageous as any of his presidency; action as startling and as liberating, as any, by anyone, in these last five long years.

The Bush Administration did not try to get Osama Bin Laden before 9/11.

The Bush Administration ignored all the evidence gathered by its predecessors.

The Bush Administration did not understand the Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in U.S."

The Bush Administration… did… not… try.—

Moreover, for the last five years one month and two weeks, the current administration, and in particular the President, has been given the greatest "pass" for incompetence and malfeasance, in American history!

President Roosevelt was rightly blamed for ignoring the warning signs — some of them, 17 years old — before Pearl Harbor.

President Hoover was correctly blamed for — if not the Great Depression itself — then the disastrous economic steps he took in the immediate aftermath of the Stock Market Crash.

Even President Lincoln assumed some measure of responsibility for the Civil War — though talk of Southern secession had begun as early as 1832.

But not this President.

To hear him bleat and whine and bully at nearly every opportunity, one would think someone else had been President on September 11th, 2001 — or the nearly eight months that preceded it.

That hardly reflects the honesty nor manliness we expect of the Executive.

But if his own fitness to serve is of no true concern to him, perhaps we should simply sigh and keep our fingers crossed, until a grown-up takes the job three Januarys from now.

Except… for this:

After five years of skirting even the most inarguable of facts — that he was President on 9/11 and he must bear some responsibility for his, and our, unreadiness, Mr. Bush has now moved, unmistakably and without conscience or shame, towards re-writing history, and attempting to make the responsibility, entirely Mr. Clinton’s.

Of course he is not honest enough to do that directly.

As with all the other nefariousness and slime of this, our worst presidency since James Buchanan, he is having it done for him, by proxy.

Thus, the sandbag effort by Fox News, Friday afternoon.

Consider the timing: The very same weekend the National Intelligence Estimate would be released and show the Iraq war to be the fraudulent failure it is — not a check on terror, but fertilizer for it!

The kind of proof of incompetence, for which the administration and its hyenas at Fox need to find a diversion, in a scapegoat.

It was the kind of cheap trick which would get a journalist fired — but a propagandist, promoted:

Promise to talk of charity and generosity; but instead launch into the lies and distortions with which the Authoritarians among us attack the virtuous and reward the useless.

And don’t even be professional enough to assume the responsibility for the slanders yourself; blame your audience for "e-mailing" you the question.

Mr. Clinton responded as you have seen.

He told the great truth un-told… about this administration’s negligence, perhaps criminal negligence, about Bin Laden.

He was brave.

Then again, Chris Wallace might be braver still. Had I — in one moment surrendered all my credibility as a journalist — and been irredeemably humiliated, as was he, I would have gone home and started a new career selling seeds by mail.

The smearing by proxy, of course, did not begin Friday afternoon.

Disney was first to sell-out its corporate reputation, with "The Path to 9/11."

Of that company’s crimes against truth one needs to say little. Simply put: someone there enabled an Authoritarian zealot to belch out Mr. Bush’s new and improved history.

The basic plot-line was this: because he was distracted by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Bill Clinton failed to prevent 9/11.

The most curious and in some ways the most infuriating aspect of this slapdash theory, is that the Right Wingers who have advocated it — who try to sneak it into our collective consciousness through entertainment, or who sandbag Mr. Clinton with it at news interviews — have simply skipped past its most glaring flaw.

Had it been true that Clinton had been distracted from the hunt for Bin Laden in 1998 because of the Lewinsky nonsense — why did these same people not applaud him for having bombed Bin Laden’s camps in Afghanistan and Sudan on August 20th of that year? For mentioning Bin Laden by name as he did so?

That day, Republican Senator Grams of Minnesota invoked the movie "Wag The Dog."

Republican Senator Coats of Indiana questioned Mr. Clinton’s judgment.

Republican Senator Ashcroft of Missouri — the future Attorney General — echoed Coats.

Even Republican Senator Arlen Specter questioned the timing.

And of course, were it true Clinton had been "distracted" by the Lewinsky witch-hunt — who on earth conducted the Lewinsky witch-hunt? Who turned the political discourse of this nation on its head for two years?

Who corrupted the political media?

Who made it impossible for us to even bring back on the air, the counter-terrorism analysts like Dr. Richard Haass, and James Dunegan, who had warned, at this very hour, on this very network, in early 1998, of cells from the Middle East who sought to attack us, here?

Who preempted them… in order to strangle us with the trivia that was… "All Monica All The Time"?

Who… distracted whom?

This is, of course, where — as is inevitable — Mr. Bush and his henchmen prove not quite as smart as they think they are.

The full responsibility for 9/11 is obviously shared by three administrations, possibly four.

But, Mr. Bush, if you are now trying to convince us by proxy that it’s all about the distractions of 1998 and 1999, then you will have to face a startling fact that your minions may have hidden from you.

The distractions of 1998 and 1999, Mr. Bush, were carefully manufactured, and lovingly executed, not by Bill Clinton… but by the same people who got you… elected President.

Thus instead of some commendable acknowledgment that you were even in office on 9/11 and the lost months before it… we have your sleazy and sloppy rewriting of history, designed by somebody who evidently redd the Orwell playbook too quickly.

Thus instead of some explanation for the inertia of your first eight months in office, we are told that you have kept us "safe" ever since — a statement that might range anywhere from Zero, to One Hundred Percent, true.

We have nothing but your word, and your word has long since ceased to mean anything.

And, of course, the one time you have ever given us specifics about what you have kept us safe from, Mr. Bush — you got the name of the supposedly targeted Tower in Los Angeles… wrong.

Thus was it left for the previous President to say what so many of us have felt; what so many of us have given you a pass for in the months and even the years after the attack:

You did not try.

You ignored the evidence gathered by your predecessor.

You ignored the evidence gathered by your own people.

Then, you blamed your predecessor.

That would be the textbook definition… Sir, of cowardice.

To enforce the lies of the present, it is necessary to erase the truths of the past.

That was one of the great mechanical realities Eric Blair — writing as George Orwell — gave us in the novel "1984."

The great philosophical reality he gave us, Mr. Bush, may sound as familiar to you, as it has lately begun to sound familiar to me.

"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power…

"Power is not a means; it is an end.

"One does not establish a dictatorship to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.

"The object of persecution, is persecution. The object of torture, is torture. The object of power… is power."

Earlier last Friday afternoon, before the Fox ambush, speaking in the far different context of the closing session of his remarkable Global Initiative, Mr. Clinton quoted Abraham Lincoln’s State of the Union address from 1862.

"We must disenthrall ourselves."

Mr. Clinton did not quote the rest of Mr. Lincoln’s sentence. He might well have.

"We must disenthrall ourselves — and then… we shall save our country."

And so has Mr. Clinton helped us to disenthrall ourselves, and perhaps enabled us, even at this late and bleak date… to save… our… country.

—

The "free pass" has been withdrawn, Mr. Bush…

You did not act to prevent 9/11.

We do not know what you have done, to prevent another 9/11.

You have failed us — then leveraged that failure, to justify a purposeless war in Iraq which will have, all too soon, claimed more American lives than did 9/11.

You have failed us anew in Afghanistan.

And you have now tried to hide your failures, by blaming your predecessor.

And now you exploit your failure, to rationalize brazen torture — which doesn’t work anyway; which only condemns our soldiers to water-boarding; which only humiliates our country further in the world; and which no true American would ever condone, let alone advocate.And there it is, sir:

Are yours the actions of a true American?

I’m K.O., good night, and good luck.

Keith is our new Edward R. Murrow. He's blossomed so much in the past year.

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Tags: Bill Clinton, truthfulness, Keith Olbermann, Countdown, Benny's World

News & Observer Book Review: Saving Graces

Straight Shooter: Elizabeth Edwards offers a refreshing twist to the campaign memoir -- candor

By Rob Christensen, News & Observer

Most campaign autobiographies are self-serving pap, filled with Oscar-night style thank yeeeews to everyone who helped along the way. There is a little bit of that in Elizabeth Edwards' gracefully written book, "Saving Graces," but thankfully not much.

Indeed, the would-be First Lady Elizabeth Edwards has written a campaign autobiography unlike any other -- filled with questions about death and grieving, illness and recovery, and yes, her husband's ongoing pursuit of the White House. Her refreshingly intimate and, at times, powerful account of her life includes her harrowing battle with breast cancer just after the 2004 election and the devastating loss of her teenage son in an automobile accident in 1996, as well as her adventures in the world of big-time politics.

LINK

Tags: Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards, Saving Graces, Ron Christensen, North Carolina, book reviews, Benny's World

John Edwards in Gopher and Cheesehead Lands

Edwards speaks in La Crosse at Kind’s corn roast, calls for new national leadership (photo credit: DickRinkier)

By JOE ORSO | La Crosse Tribune

John Edwards, former senator and vice presidential candidate, said the United States is hungry for a new kind of leadership Saturday evening at the Copeland Park shelter.

“We’re responsible for the United States of America, maintaining our strength,” Edwards said. “But we’re also responsible for the interests of humanity. Without that we cannot lead. You don’t lead just by being powerful. You have to have the moral authority to lead.”

LINK

Earlier, Edwards was in Minnesota.

As Stephanie Hemphill of MN Public Radio reported, St. Paul, Minn. — Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards headlined rallies in Minnesota in support of statewide and congressional DFL candidates on Saturday.

Edwards first stopped in Stillwater at a rally for 6th District Congressional candidate Patty Wetterling in what was billed as a "rally for education," at Stillwater High School.

Edwards used the occasion to call for a bigger commitment to education.

LINK

To listen to an audio version, click here.

I might add that Patty Wetterling, one of the folks JRE stumped for, didn't mention this event on her website. I'm disappointed that both she and Nick Lampson failed to report these events, even though folks voted for them in the One America Votes contest. She got $5000 from Russ Feingold.

No tags from this blog for Patty.

Tags: John Edwards, JRE, Ron Kind, Wisconsin, Minnesota, One America Committee, Benny's World