Edwards Evening News Round-Up Revisited

Good evening, and welcome to a semi-retro version of the EENR: the Edwards Evening News Round-up.

My friends, family, and acquaintances have all thought John and Elizabeth disappeared into the sunset since they are not on the MSM nightly news or in national newspapers. Not so! John and Elizabeth have been traveling and speaking at venues this past week about the issues Democrats care about. Included are video clips from TV and radio appearances (courtesy of NCDem and other outlets).



Top stories:
1. John Edwards Interview in Rolling Stone
2. John Edwards Speaks at USW Conference
3. John Edwards Talks to Campus Progress and NPR in DC
4. Elizabeth Edwards Jumpstarts Healthcare for America Now
5. John Edwards Travels the Northeast for Half in Ten
6. Elizabeth Edwards Discusses about living with cancer on NPR
7. Is John Edwards on the Short List for VP?

Quick Interview of John Edwards in Rolling Stone magazine

In the June 26th edition of Rolling Stone, there is an appended interview piece to an article about John McCain. Without reading the hardcopy, or having a subscription, this interview is not freely available on the Net. Here are some excerpts:

You entered the 2008 race back in 2006 earlier than anybody in history. Why didn't that give you the edge? I was running against two historical candidacies, and it was extremely hard to be heard in that environment.

Were you pissed that the boldest parts of your agenda--providing UHC and capping carbon emissions--were co-opted by Clinton and Obama? I didn't like it when it happened. (laughs) But it put the Democrats in the place we need to be. If we don't have a visionary president at this moment in history, the risks are extraordinary.

After all your years on the campaign trail, is there one thing you would change about the way America picks a president? Is there any way to fix the mess we've made? That's democracy. I don't think there is a clean, efficient way to have democracy.

John Edwards Speaks at USW Conference

Week before last, Edwards was one of the keynote speakers at the United Steelworkers' conference in Las Vegas. EENR core supporters may recall that the USW initially endorsed Edwards last September on Labor Day. He thanked the USW for helping him during the campaign for all of their efforts. He spoke of "the wall around Washington", the special interests and what was at stake in the election this fall. I liked it when he talked about "unloading tractor-trailers" for a summer and encouraged to go back and study. Edwards was on fire and his speech stirred the union members to go to work for Barack Obama this fall. "Eight is enough."



The other keynote was Barack Obama, whom Edwards introduced via satellite as Obama was in Colorado Springs. USW endorsed Obama after Edwards endorsed Obama.

John Edwards at Campus Progress

On Tuesday, John Edwards talked at the Campus Progress 2008 Conference. Campus Progress, which is sponsored by the Center for American Progress (and where Elizabeth is a senior fellow) is comprised of college and graduate students across the country who are progressive activists (or wish to be). Edwards' keynote emphasized combating poverty and cutting it in half in the next decade, but he also answered a few questions, particularly about Senator Obama's political moves towards the center. He reminded the audience that the young people have created movements before and pushed the social/political agenda in the past and they can do it again.

The video is here.

Later that day, Edwards appeared on Talk of the Nation. He was asked about Half in Ten and whether or not he would consider being Obama's running mate. John's response was that he wasn't seeking the office, but he would "seriously consider anything Obama asked him to do" to serve his country. This comment set off speculation by most of the progressive blogosphere.

Healthcare for America Now Kickoff



A consortium of progressive groups, think tanks, trade unions and activists are set to launch a $40 million health care campaign to prepare the ground for the next president to sign expanded care early in 2009.

But the group, with Elizabeth Edwards as its leader, offered expanded insight into the details of its campaign during a meeting on Monday. In addition to spending $40 million — $1.5 million of which will be put behind an initial ad buy (cable, print, and online). Additionally, HCAN is going to take advantage of Moveon.org’s massive data files to reach out to like-minded supporters and officials promised to work in Blue Dog districts.

Their first ad is this one, entitled "The Magic 8 Ball":



With Elizabeth Edwards leading the charge, downtickets will need to win in pushing the party, their colleagues, and the White House occupant to move towards more affordable coverage for all Americans. Health care, in addition to rising energy costs, is the number one domestic priority issue. McCain won't be able to ignore it with a bigger Blue majority in the Senate and House.


Travels to the Northeast





On Wednesday, JRE was in NYC to be interviewed on the Brian Lehrer Show. In one of the more substantial interviews since Edwards left the campaign, Edwards and Lehrer discussed the many facets of poverty and approaches in cutting the poverty rate in half in the next ten years (Half in Ten), such as child care for single parents, increasing the earned income tax credits, putting housing vouchers in different places and not clumping all of the poor together, rural vs urban poverty differences, family breakdown, property taxes, drop-out high school rates, global poverty related to food shortages etc.

Quite a few callers were those who supported Edwards in the past and/or still voted for him in the NY primary on Feb 5th.

JRE visited the Yorkville Pantry at noon. Joel Berg, NYCCAH Executive Director, and who joined Edwards to talk with a group to discuss emergency food initiatives at the Pantry gave Edwards kudos:

These initiatives would profoundly impact the 1.3 million New Yorkers living in food insecure households. "Poverty in the U.S. and New York are unacceptable, and Senator Edwards is absolutely correct in calling for it to be cut it in half in a decade. In a society with as much wealth as modern America, hunger should be doubly unacceptable. The Senator's visit not only highlights the growing domestic hunger problem, but enables us to begin a national discussion of the basic steps necessary to make sure that all Americans have access to the food they need to lead productive and healthy lives.”

The next day, Edwards visited Hartford to talk about Half in Ten at a Boys/Girls Club. Hartford has a high unemployment rate which is why it was on his poverty campaign stop. From the CT News Junkie blog:

Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez said “it’s great to have somebody with a national reputation talk about the critical issue of poverty.” He said most of Edwards 12-point plan involves things Hartford already is working on.

Hartford resident Urania Petit, who participated in the roundtable discussion as a member of the Working Families Party, said she’s “excited about the prospect we can do something in just 10 years.”

Edwards also said it was "wrong" of the governor to veto the minimium wage raise bill. He said in places that have increased the minimum wage the economy has actually improved.

Additionally, Edwards remarked that

things such as raising the minimum wage and organizing workers into unions doesn’t cost government any money.

Fortunately, the Legislature overrode the veto.

On Friday, JRE was on Good Morning America to talk about Half in Ten, but was asked more about Obama's positions and whether they had shifted. More about this later in the diary. Edwards also stopped in Newark to meet privately working families at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. At a press conference later, he said he was in favor of raising the minimum wage in NJ. According to the Star-Leger:

He joined the New Jersey Policy Perspective and the national Raise the Wage Campaign in urging New Jersey to raise its $7.15-per-hour minimum wage [to $8.50]. The rate ranks behind 13 other states and Washington, D.C., but matches New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth Edwards on Talk of the Nation with Ted Koppel

EENR's "Lady" via WUNC affiliate and Leroy Sievers, who has a blog entitled "My Cancer" were guests on Talk of the Nation, with special guest host Ted Koppel. This was a reunion discussion of sorts, since Leroy and Elizabeth (along with Lance Armstrong, but not at present this time) were on Ted Koppel's "Living with Cancer" show in May 2007 on the Discovery Channel. Elizabeth told the listeners that she would be having a scan soon, and for her, the scan would present an opportunity to know good news or bad news, and move forward, or perhaps move backward. She also said that it was important that all people get universal health coverage, which includes pre-existing conditions. It was the only allusion to the HCAN initiative. Overall, the discussion was meaningful for those of us who aren't afflicted with cancer, but also for those who are. Good solid advice on how to talk with someone with cancer, especially in being transparent as much as possible. One bit of humor by Elizabeth: one woman wrote her, that her (the woman who wrote her)

chemotherapy made her look like Dick Cheney.

That drew a laugh from the live audience and from this blogger.

Is John Edwards on the VP Short List for Obama?

Paul Rosenberg at Open Left has reported many times that SUSA polls, and other analysis done by Chris Bowers, indicate that John Edwards would be an excellent running mate for a winning ticket with Obama.

On Talk of the Nation, Edwards seemed to have left himself open to the idea.

On Brian Lehrer's show, Edwards made it clear that he would have voted against the FISA bill, whereas Obama was expected to vote for it. Lehrer questioned Edwards as to whether or not he was seeking a position on Obama's cabinet or ticket if they vote for different things. JRE's view? "I think what I think."

On Good Morning America, Edwards did a very able job in defending Obama's change in position about getting the US troops out of Iraq and ending the war.




One will note that when JRE was asked if he had been requested to submit more information for the VP vetting process by the VP search committee, he evaded the question. Maybe he has...and maybe not.

cross-posted from EENR blog this evening

Quick Hits for June 11, 2008

EENR launched a new series, Progressive Pages, which is talking to authors about their books. David Sirota, progressive activist and author of The Uprising, live blogged at EENR this evening. He wasn't able to answer as many questions as he was on the road and had to do a call into Rachel Maddow's show, but his answers were pithy.

Quantcast: a website that keeps up with demographics on blogs. Here's the one for the Big O. Tell me if this is what fits the other Big O's demographics in running for president and why he won the primaries.

Obama goofs in selecting Jason Furman as director of his economic policy group. I just hope he's not unwise enough not to invite Mark Penn either as part of the "many voices" group. I've heard in some quiet circles Obama is a closet libertarian in economic policy and it will be interesting how he will make the populist message work in rural areas when the two are mutually exclusive of one another. Mudcat, your phone will be ringing at 3am many times or he will throw you and David Bonior under the bus as Obama did Jim Johnson today.

White suburban women currently favor McCain over Obama. Not surprised. Maybe that will change.

Taylor Marsh has been savaged by her readers for getting on the Unity Bus. That's too bad. She's a smart lady and she started getting on this bus sometime ago when she saw it was better to do that then have the bus leave her behind. I hope Obama's Internet team will reach out to her, but they may not. She and I have had our differences about the Edwardses and their campaigns, but by the by, I think she's gutsy. She's a bit like Clinton in many ways, sometimes she just hears her own drummer, and sometimes she's playing like a full fledged band. I happen to like her and her radio show.

John Edwards to appear this Saturday at a Caregiver's conference near Kansas City.

Best snark video this year: "I'm Voting Republican."



My favorite line:

women just can't be trusted to make decisions about their bodies. Never. ever. ever.

I'm certain the Freepers will have one of their own soon, but at least the Dems were first.

Searching John McCain

Greetings BW Readers. Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I have been very busy blogging at the group blog, EENR Blog, in the evenings. We've had some exciting candidates come by to live blog in a town hall style in allowing us to ask questions about issues and concerns about how our government is currently run. All we have invited are very progressive and share many of John Edwards' vision of a government that is great is one that works best for all of us.

Harry Taylor, the same guy who stood up to Bush in 2005, is running in NC's 9th district against the incumbent Sue Myrick. We think Harry has an excellent chance to be the change for his state. Between Larry Kissell and Taylor, we think they will tip NC into the blue column instead of just being purple.

Scott Kleeb, Senatorial candidate for Nebraska, is live blogging tonight at EENR. You won't want to miss it. I met him briefly at Yearly Kos last year, and he is a sweetie, as well as very humble but articulate. My picture of Scott is on the FP as I type this.

We endorsed Kevin Miskell, IA-04, last night. He's definitely a JRE Democrat, and boy, is he smart on all kinds of issues, including problems in Asia, food shortages, and immigration.

Meantime, you are probably wondering, what about "Searching John McCain."

During my lunch time, I visited Open Left, and saw that Chris Bowers had a post about putting on the blogroll John McCain's crappy ideas that have been in the news . That means anytime you click on "Searching John McCain", you will be led to Bowers' post about McSame's continuation of the worst policies of this failed administration. Of course, Bowers' blog gets some change from advertisers, but I chose it because it will be static, where as the news links may not be.

So Click the link on my blogroll (to your right) "Searching John McCain", and give Open Left some change. They have set up an ActBlue page for another John Edwards Democrat, Ed Fallon, IA-03.

Thoughts about the Progressive Blogosphere Post JRE 2008

I have been watching the political blogsophere with keen interest for the past 4 years. I was completely new to blogging during the 2004 presidential campaign. One night while visiting California, I watched a debate between 9 Democratic contenders in Iowa a few days before the nation’s first caucus. I was torn between Dick Gephardt and Howard Dean as I thought both were for the working man and women. Dean’s anti-war message and better access to health care appealed to me, but I also had a soft spot for Gephardt, the union man’s champion. However, there was this one candidate, John Edwards, who was polished on the stump, and wasn’t afraid of taking on one of the great debaters, John Kerry. I thought Kerry was OK, but I was not happy that he and Lieberman had both ducked the final vote on the Medicare D bill, and I remember Edwards had stayed to vote no “on a bad bill.”

I wish I could remember what exactly Edwards said that night that captured my attention, but sadly I can’t. But it was his articulate delivery of his message, and Mr. Benny (who many know by now is a Republican) was struck by the same thing, and said, “Edwards is the most articulate out there, isn’t he?”

That was it. JRE was my candidate.

In the 4 years, I have been consumed by the passion of JRE’s message and his agenda for our country. Why in the hades anyone wanted the job of the presidency, was another story, but I figured if anyone could fix the problems, especially after all of the personal crises he and Elizabeth had been through, and helped so many others, he was the man to do it.

On a cold January 30th morning, 4 years later, the most progressive candidate suddenly suspended his candidacy. I was in shock, considering I had been on a conference call with Joe Trippi and Jonathan Prince two days before that, and they laid out their plans going into Super Tuesday. No, they didn’t expect JRE could win first place in the primaries, but he could garner enough delegates by taking 2nd place in states like Oklahoma and possibly Massachusetts. But I think JRE knew it was going to be next to impossible, with the media marginalizing his message. Despite winning most of the debates in the viewers’ and bloggers’ eyes, he didn’t have enough resources to win and he had already opted for public financing, which also dealt him some other unanticipated blows: Act Blue donations were not eligible for matching federal funds.

JRE got cornered. And if there’s anything that JRE knew about, it was when to walk away from a fight. Takes guts considered how many of us were working our hearts out for him and he didn’t want to let us down. But the truth of the matter was that issues didn’t matter: was the idea of forwarding a bi-racial or woman candidate by the Democratic Party. After all, we had fought for civil rights too long, and the wallets were open for them, but not for Edwards this time.

Read More!

Blogging and Blogs for JRE’s Message

I was in close contact with the Online Communications team as I was one of 5 stealth troll patrollers for the JEFP blog (actually OAC blog, then it morphed into the JEFP site). Admittedly, I didn’t spend as much time as I would have liked as I was busy blogging or chasing diaries other places, mainly the Democratic Underground, the Daily Kos and MyDD, in which the two latter sites are part of the Hotline’s Blogometer of regular places they check and thus the national press did too. But I did clip my share of trolls and spam, especially around Xmas time when it was getting close to the Iowa Caucus.

During the first few days of February, I asked if there was a way to keep up the JEFP site, at least in a static sense, or donate it to Ibiblio.org. The team checked on the legal status, and the answer was no. During that time when the last post by Tracy Russo went up, tons of trolls came by. The troll patrol along with Joe Clarke, were clipping nasty messages right and left. Most of them were diaries or comments that said that JRE and EE were losers, and now it was time for us to join Clinton or Obama. I don’t have the blog to prove it, but my recollection is that it was mainly Obama supporters.

So, some of the regulars at JEFP scattered and formed their own groups after the Daily Kos became the Daily Obamakos, and MyDD became a Clinton site. The DU is probably more Obama also, but the criticisms lobbed at the Edwardses about not endorsing have been especially disturbing. They continue today, in which there is hardly a day I don’t see “Edwards needs to endorse or he won’t matter” or they criticize anything that is critical of Obama, especially in the health care agenda. Thus, these are the main community blogs I have seen that carry the progressive torch that John and Elizabeth handed off to us. I have them in my blogroll here at Benny’s World.

JREG

Since this is being cross-posted at JREG, I wanted to mention this one first. JREG is the Blogmother that picked up the ball and gave us a place for JRE supporters to go make their voices heard in 2004. Of all of the blogs, it is the most established and well organized. The administrative group is small, but nimble, and they fix problems very quickly. Xpanshun has made numerous improvements over time, switching software, and allowing videos and pictures to be posted. One uses code buttons to install links and emoticons, which saves a bit of typing. There is an opportunity to edit, which is great. The software is still more bulletin board style, and takes some getting used to, but I find it easy to navigate. I also liked it that they established rules of respect early on.

I like the private mail function too, something that not many blogs offer, except the DU, and at that, I think one has to be a donor to have that perk. I don’t offer it at my blog and another blog I am affiliated with doesn’t have that function either. A lot of it is because I don’t wish my e-mail addy to be broadcasted due to troll mails. I’ve known other bloggers who publish their e-mail addies, and I hear horror stories about the hate mail.

JREG focuses on issues, but they welcome any news about Democratic candidates, and as long as it is done respectfully, criticism of any politician is permitted. Membership is easy to obtain, and it’s nice that they have status, such as “senior member” and the number of posts, plus an anniversary date. JREG is commercial free and does not solicit donations.


John Edwards Movement Continues

JEMC’s blog is to JREG’s BB style format. Like most blogs, one can read the posts without being a member, but one has to sign up for membership in order to make a comment. I am not aware of their waiting period to make comments, but I did notice one can sign up as a guest and be online with them for a finite period of time, something I’ve not seen on other blogs.

The topics are very broad at JEMC and somewhat disorganized, but from observation, it seems to work for their community. But what is different compared to JREG and EENR (which I will get to in a moment) is they have no compunction to be critical of the other Democratic candidates’ and their supporters. I wonder how they keep the trolls out, but they must manage it somehow.

They would like to be the next semi-"One Corps" type community, whereby they think of action items they would like to pursue. Of all of the blog communities, this one is the most active as there are posts every day. This group is the newer generation of JRE supporters who were regulars on the JFEP blog and populated it with many diaries every day, even if the diaries weren’t much of substance (my only little criticism, and small one at that), but they cared about the people who blogged there and developed friendships, just as the JRE2004 and OAC’ers bloggers did. I commend them for working on action items directly and they are seeking to get an audience of some sort in Denver to talk about media and election reforms. This group has a good chance to survive, just as JREG has.

JEMC is commercial free, but it openly solicits donations via Pay Pal.

Edwardians Meeting Place

This group grew out of the DU (and to a certain extent, the Daily Kos) and formed shortly after JRE suspended his campaign. The DU is no longer very hospitable to JRE supporters, not even in the JRE forum as recently a thread was locked because of the bickering that went on about John Kerry and the Kerry Crats, who have no other place to hang out, carry weight at the DU. Like the Daily Kos, the DU got Obama fever, with Clinton supporters getting in a comment now and then. Two America’s got PB software that was identical to the first JREG 1.0 and set it up. There were some administrators and they were trying to organize it. However, within a few weeks, the admins group sort of imploded, and now it is just out there for the next couple of months. The blog is likely not to continue in the future, but I give them credit for trying. My observation is that most of them want to be back at the DU and will continue at the DU once a nominee is determined.

EENR Blog

The EENR brand was born in a year ago on the Daily Kos. It was a way to get the news out about the Edwardses since the media was already marginalizing the campaign. It had a strong following as many appreciated the positive message it sent about Edwards. Other groups soon followed suit.

When JRE suspended the campaign, the group temporarily disbanded as practically, Edwards was no longer going to be in the news everyday. The group re-emerged as the Edwards Evolution Next Revolution) and it posted on Sunday nights. However, too many Obama supporters trashed the diaries and after a certain point, it could not make it very easily on the recommended list. The group decided that it wanted to continue focusing on the issues.

The EENR group (Edwards Evolution Next Revolution) in late February launched a blog using Soapblox, the same software that many state blogs and Open Left use. Its functionality is not quite as powerful as JREG’s whereby you have to know most of the code, except Bold, Italic, Quote, Preview, and Save. There’s also capability to delete the diary without time limits. Front page diaries are changed during the day about every 2-3 hours, and at night, there is a late night open thread. The Front Page diaries are written by editors, but many of them are readers’ diaries that are promoted, similar to what they do at Open Left and MyDD.

In terms of content, the site is organized in 12 categories: health, international issues, national securities, candidates & causes, JRE news, progressive news, poverty, education, and the environment. Rants & Raves are for fun items, such as travel, humor, and sometimes a rant. The strength of the site is the draw of Congressional candidates who would like to be endorsed and links to their donation pages. EENR has done two live blogs so far with Charlie Brown of CA and Jerry Northington of DEL. However, the guidelines are clear that bloggers are discouraged in penning diaries that attack the two remaining candidates unless they are framed in criticizing their issues and not their supporters. EENR has to had ban a few folks because of repeated sexist and racist comments about the candidates or ones that invite pie fights.

EENR blog is commercial free and doesn’t solicit donations at this time.

Edwards Google Group (not on my blogroll)

NcDem Amy and Nannyboz set up the Edwards Google Group, a listserv. Although it is not a blog, it is a way to get news about Edwards. However, it also sends alerts to request swarming of diaries at the Daily Kos to try to get diaries on the recommend list. And if one wishes to vent about the two remaining candidates and their supporters the listserv is also an avenue. But it is not a substitute for a blog.


Blog Traffic is Low on JRE Sites? Why?

JRote posed a very interesting question yesterday at JREG entitled, “Where O Where” and had this for her opening paragraph:

have all the bloggers gone? We used to have so many conversations here and I want it back. I know there are lots of blogs out there, but JREG is tried and true and one of the best.

My observations are for Jackie’s and anyone else’s benefit in particular as I read her note intently. If I read her post correctly, she wondered out loud why more people weren’t back at JREG as it happened before in 2004. She is aware that EE is considering creating her own blog or having one that reunites One Corps. But most of all, she misses the community and the spirit of JEFP blog and is not comfortable with going to other places. She was also slightly off about EENR and how often the editors post or promote a community reader’s diary, but when she was one of EENR’s beta testers, there were front page topics very often, and it was only during the beta test period.

During the month of March, lot of people signed up at EENR, very parallel to JREG back in 2004. But EENR newbies were mainly refugees from the Daily Kos who were fatigued with the lack of issues and were tired of the worship sermons of Obama’s candidacy. But if you look at the amount of posts, there aren’t that many each day. The site is getting plenty of eyeballs, but personally, I think most bloggers are kind of tired of the primary season. They read, but the topics may not be of interest to them, or if they are like me, sometimes I’m not an expert on a topic, so I don’t comment. I also think they miss the adrenalin rush of the Daily Kos, whereby you would get a diary up and there was something thrilling about getting a diary on the rec’d list because Kos has over 150,000 readers.

But I would suggest to Jackie and others, it is tribal as to why the JRE traffic sites are low. I’ve described the groups and their migration patterns. Until a couple of weeks ago, the news about JRE was quiet and thus, a JEFP couldn't continue.

I suspect things will calm down at the Kos, the DU, and MyDD, whereby their long time community refugees will return and there may be some interested in downticket races. For Jackie, as she is not clearly interested in downticket races this year, my guess JREG is probably her best bet, with JEMC a close second.

Time will tell with Elizabeth and what she does about blogging. She would have to have a staff person to design the site and keep the trolls out, not to mention the legal implications, which again, why JFEP was not feasible in the long term. Going to the Center for American Progress is an excellent venue for her.

JREG, JEMC, and EENR will have some core supporters. But I don’t expect big amounts of bloggers at any of them unless there is a party rift. Then who knows.

Benny

Breaking: Obama and Clinton Drop Out of Race

Reported by CJ Sarah Lane (and cross-posted from EENR by permission)

In a stunning development, both Obama and Clinton have decided to drop out of the race for President. Word from both camps is that Hillary and Obama had a private meeting last night over cocktails. According to an anonymous source, both Clinton and Obama had been nervous about their poll numbers against John McCain. They were sick of fighting with each other, and they wanted the election to be about the issues again. The anonymous source said that both candidates agreed that conceding the election to John Edwards was the right thing to do. We should be expecting a press conference announcing their withdrawals from the race later this afternoon.

I was thrilled to hear about the developments. No more bickering between campaigns. No more negative attacks. No more attacks by way of their surrogates. Both Obama and Hillary have decided to take the high road and hand over the nomination to Edwards. The press has been trying to reach the Edwards Campaign all morning, but their spokesman said they were not available for comment.

If things couldn't get any stranger, when Karl Rove heard the news today that Edwards was going to be the nominee, he fled the country. Rove's spokesman said that there was no place for him in America if Edwards was President. There have also been reports of Cheney bashing his head into the bathroom wall in the Capitol Building. No one is sure if it's because Edwards is the nominee, or if another puppy peed on his leg. Apparently, it happens to him regularly.



Thanks Sarah Lane, for this wonderful snark. Now if only it were true....


(image courtesy of Pioneer, EENR Blog)

Classic John Prine

(h/t to CrazyShirley)

This was written during the Vietnam war, but it fits this war too. I've heard this song for a very long time.

4000 US gone. For more statistics, go read Chris Bowers' post at Open Left. He reminds us of the other fatalities.

Easter Spirit: For The Beauty of the Earth

This is a pretty good version of one of my favorite hymns I like singing in the spring. I would prefer in the Refrain "Source of all to thee we raise", but I could not locate a UU version.



Enjoy and Happy Easter. Check out my post at the EENR Blog.

Off to the Volunteer State

Within a couple of hours. Will do some blogging there and perhaps post a few pics during the week.

Meantime, check out EENR blog (on my blogroll), and David Mizner's excellent diary at the Daily Kos, entitled "Do You Miss Edwards Yet?"

L8tr...

Second Peek

Truck over to EENR blog and check out my regular Friday blog column, Second Peek. Folks are talking about the FISA vote in Congress today.

EENR Blog Growing Beautifully

At last count I think there were about 325 who signed up. Many are refugees from Daily Kos, which has become the Daily Anti-Clinton.

I post at EENR on Fridays what I think will be a regular diary, Second Peek. It's a round-up of overlooked diaries or ones that didn't get as many comments (or on the FPs) on EENRb, and leave it as an Open Thread. Best way to get to know the folks around there.

We now have 2 bloggers from 2 A-List blogs and a politician who have posted diaries at EENR.

Have a lurk around there. Friendly people.

EE--if your lurkin' psst..come on by.

Announcing EENR Blog

Dear BW Readers,

As you know, this blog is devoted to the Edwards family and their vision of One America. However, it is under sole custody of moi and I choose the topics. I appreciate anyone who comes by and cares to leave a comment.

However, I am also part of an endeavor to make a real home for Edwardians. It is called the EENR Blog. This is the official flyer so to speak, that I am posting here and will be in other places as well.




Introducing EENR (http://www.eenrblog.com) – a new home for Edwards Democrats, progressive activitists, and all interested in serious discussions to further a progressive populist agenda, with a side of fun of course!

Brought to you by many of the same folks (and several other familiar faces) who brought you EENR every night at Daily Kos and now the new EENR For Progress series on Sundays at DKos and Docudharma.

EENR is up and running and ready for you! We're announcing it today to all the great Edwards Democrats and progressives we've met along the way over the past year through the John Edwards 2008 run for the Presidential nomination. We want to give you the first shot at coming on over, signing up (yea! low UIDs), and getting comfortable. Later this week, we will make the Big Announcement on the major blogs.

EENR is a community blog, and we hope you will be part of that community. We've tried to set standards for discussion that reflect our desire for open communication, the search for truth, and that wonderful lesson we all learned in kindergarten, "Play Nice and Share Your Toys." There are lots of toys, too. There's a wonderful video wall, lots of diaries already there waiting for your comments, links to a mirror of the JRE campaign website, and much more. We'll have Open Threads, and special guest bloggers. And we're always open to suggestions!

EENR has a really unique feature. We have 12 subject sections located on the left hand side. This gives us twelve front pages and if you write a diary with one of the sections in your tags or use the drop down menu in creating it you can be a front pager in any section except the Home Page. ;-) Please join in creating the community discussions in all progressive areas.

EENR is a work in progress. Our resident designer, RedJet is still working on the overall look. Do expect a few changes as you join in and watch the development of the blog.

So come on by and get comfy. It's your home, your local hang-out, the coffee house where everyone knows everyone and the conversations flow.

Welcome to EENR! Come make it your own!

One final note: We want to give a very special hat tip to those in our merry band who took on extra responsibility to help build and put this blog together. They know who they are, and you'll find them if you need help, have questions, or ideas to make things better! Without their technical abilities, passion and service, the EENR blog as you see it now would never have come to be!

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From the About Us section:
EENR: Who We Are


Welcome to the EENR blog, a community to provide a discussion space for progressive issues.

Our acronym, "Edwards Evolution, Next Revolution," reflects the formation of the EENR group originally as Edwards Evening News Roundup for supporters of John Edwards during the 2008 presidential primary.

We have continued as EENR because we want to continue the movement for progressive change based on the platform laid out by John Edwards, which we consider the gold standard model for progress in America. We are not affiliated in any way with John Edwards, except as supporters, but we have retained his surname in our acronym as a nod to his significant contribution to the progressive movement.

We are unapologetically progressive and populist. We welcome discussion on a range of progressive issues. We believe in bold, transformative change. We reject the notions of baby steps, moving to the center, bipartisanship, and letting corporations run our government. The current system is out of balance, rigged to favor the powerful interests, unable to hear the voices of those without power. We believe in public financing of all federal elections as a cornerstone to achieve change.

Our government and Constitution belong to the People, who should be protected more than profits. Equality and economic justice are cornerstones of the progressive movement. Universal heath care is a fundamental right, and poverty a fundamental wrong, here and globally. We believe that work should trump wealth, and that a progressive movement must include the working class, unions, and people from diverse backgrounds in all 50 states.

Before commenting on this blog, please see our Community Guidelines.

We encourage intelligent discussion of progressive issues, and substantive communication based on the exchange of ideas. We discourage attempts to define politics as a sporting or money event. Candidates should prevail on their character, honesty and the power of their ideas and plans to effectuate progressive change, not by how much money they can raise, their stature in the polls, silly gaffes, or the whims of punditry.

So please, enjoy yourselves and let the discussion begin. We plan to keep fighting until the Next Revolution becomes a reality, and you are invited to participate.

EENR blog...a real home for the supporters of John Edwards and his vision for One America. Go grab a snack and look around.