OK, Planned Parenthood supporters, here's the play

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Thursday February 02, 2012 · 1:00 PM PST

2012/02/02 · 13:00

Supporting Planned Parenthood is great, but it isn't enough.

When the Susan G. Komen Foundation decided to defund PP ostensibly over a right-wing "investigation" that originated with the anti-choice forces in the Republican House of Representatives, we knew it was politics, even before we knew that SGK hired a new Senior VP a few months ago, a failed Republican gubernatorial candidate from Georgia named Karen Handel, whose platform had included defunding Planned Parenthood.

We want the Susan G. Komen Foundation to understand exactly how bad their error of judgment has been.

Tools for this endeavor are provided after the jump.

vard

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 11, 2011 · 7:28 PM PDT

2011/09/11 · 19:28

Back in the dark ages when I was a Girl Scout, we learned that the American flag should never be allowed to touch the ground. But when I picked up the national edition of today's Sunday New York Times from my porch, unwrapped it, and opened the Sunday Styles section, I saw this Ralph Lauren ad in which the flag's entire width drags across the grass.

Poll

34 votes Show Results

Did you know that the American flag is never supposed to be allowed to touch the ground?

34 votes Vote Now!

Did you know that the American flag is never supposed to be allowed to touch the ground?

Yes, of course

31 votes

I thought something like that, but wasn't sure

1 vote

2 votes

hey, John Edwards, I want my money back

vard

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Thursday January 28, 2010 · 2:31 PM PST

2010/01/28 · 14:31

Here's the thing: I didn't just support John Edwards for President the last time around. I basically loved John Edwards.

Not as much as I loved his smart, feisty wife Elizabeth, but I loved him nonetheless, and I loved him even more for being married to her.

One of my most cherished beliefs has always been that the best and most revealing way to truly understand a man is to know his wife. I've seen this borne out over and over in life. So even though I supported Howard Dean in 2004, when I started paying attention to John Edwards, I decided that even if I didn't always agree with him, I really approved of his taste in women, and by extension, his core personal values. When 2008 rolled around, like a lot of other progressives, especially here in Oregon where I live, I liked the way he sounded and decided to support him, partly for his own sake (including what I then believed to be his relative electability HAHAHAHAHAHAHA), and partly for the thrill of making Elizabeth Edwards the First Lady. Who could resist that narrative?

vard

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 28, 2008 · 5:00 AM PDT

2008/10/28 · 05:00

Think you have this election more or less figured out?

Are you brave enough to go on the record with your picks?

Do you have $5?

Then surf on over to the Oregon Democrats' November Madness site and play along.

More below.

vard

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday June 07, 2008 · 10:43 PM PDT

2008/06/07 · 22:43

I decided a few weeks ago that I might take a shot at running for one of the Obama delegate slots to the Democratic National Convention from my congressional district (OR-3).

I knew the odds were against me. The Fightin' 3rd is a strongly Democratic district, with a large activist population. We had six Obama delegates and one alternate (4M, 3F) to elect, and almost 120 candidates in total registered (among 300 Democrats registered to participate as delegates to the 3rd CD convention).

The Democratic Party of Oregon did a great job with an online registration site that made the whole process as painless as possible.

More below the jump.

vard

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Friday May 23, 2008 · 3:11 PM PDT

2008/05/23 · 15:11

I'm still in mourning for the US Senate campaign of my friend Steve Novick, which ended on Tuesday after a last minute infusion of about $400K of independent advertising and phone calls funded by the DSCC for Novick's opponent in the Oregon primary.

Whatever. Those reasons are in the past now and we're all on the same team, the team that will take down Gordon Smith in November.

But Steve gave the most gracious, funny, gallant, dignified, and upbeat concession speech I've ever heard, or heard of. Maybe the best ever. And it would be a shame for the dailykos community not to get a chance to see it..... although I sure as hell wish I had never had to hear it.

I present it below the fold for your delectation.

Poll

40 votes Show Results

Steve Novick: Great concession speech, or greatest concession speech?

40 votes Vote Now!

Steve Novick: Great concession speech, or greatest concession speech?

Great concession speech

13 votes

Greatest concession speech

19 votes

I'm sorry, I was laughing too hard, could you please repeat the question?

8 votes

navel-gazing in Oregon: time to choose

vard

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday May 07, 2008 · 2:38 PM PDT

2008/05/07 · 14:38

Like many of you, I came into 2008 as a strong supporter of John Edwards. After he dropped out of the race a lot of the interest went out of it for me. I have been undecided for a very long time, and struggling to make up my mind.

I was hoping that by the time the Oregon primary rolled around my Presidential primary vote would be irrelevant, the way it has been in the past. But not this time.

Here in Oregon we vote by mail. My ballot arrived almost a week ago, and it's due on Tuesday, May 20.

Normally I vote immediately and mail my ballot in right away. This year I've been waiting, trying to be sure who my Presidential choice would be. But we've got a few big races downticket in this primary, and I have a business trip coming up on Wednesday May 14. So I've decided that I need to vote before then, so that even if my plane crashes my candidates for the US Senate (Steve Novick) and Attorney General (John Kroger) will still get my vote.

vard

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 18, 2008 · 12:21 PM PDT

2008/04/18 · 12:21

Almost sixteen months ago, when my friend Steve Novick first broached the idea of taking on Senator Gordon Smith, he asked me if I would help him.

It wasn't as if we were really close friends then. We weren't. I would say we were casual friends. But I had seen something in Steve that I responded to. Perhaps it was his remarkable intelligence and sense of humor. Perhaps it was his ease in his own skin, despite significant physical disabilities. Maybe it was just that I knew he was reliably progressive, very hardworking, and a veritable pithy quote machine. In any case, I felt instinctively that no matter who else might decide to get into the race, I just loved the very idea of Steve Novick being my next US Senator, and I was willing to work hard to achieve that goal. I especially enjoyed imagining the net karmic transfer that would result from swapping Steve in for Gordon Smith. And I felt that despite the fact that Smith had survived two re-election campaigns against well-meaning but inept Democratic challengers, Steve would be different.

Turns out I was right. More below.

Poll

47 votes Show Results

Would you rather be represented by a Senator who goes along and gets along, and believes that one should never criticize a fellow Democrat, or one who always tells the truth, and occasionally pisses people off?

47 votes Vote Now!

Would you rather be represented by a Senator who goes along and gets along, and believes that one should never criticize a fellow Democrat, or one who always tells the truth, and occasionally pisses people off?

Politeness is my highest value

3 votes

The stakes are too high for anything but the truth

43 votes

another Iraq war resolution, another Yes vote, another weak excuse

vard

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 21, 2008 · 3:05 PM PDT

2008/03/21 · 15:05

Part of what makes "better Democrats" actually better is that they avoid Republican traps, trickery and nonsense.

Five years ago today, March 21, 2003, Oregon US Senate candidate Jeff Merkley was faced with just such a trap as a member of the state House. On that occasion he cast a vote some might call craven, others simply stupid. Others, more charitably, might just say it was a mistake.

In any case, like Hillary Clinton, he still doesn't realize it.

Five years ago the Oregon House of Representatives passed the now-notorious HR2, setting forth the rationale for the Iraq war and then validating it. All but five Democrats in the chamber, including Jeff Merkley, voted Yes.

An analysis of the resolution, and the vote, below the jump, along with the full text of the resolution itself.

Poll

10 votes Show Results

Barack Obama was a state legislator in 2003. How would he have voted on HR2?

10 votes Vote Now!

Barack Obama was a state legislator in 2003. How would he have voted on HR2?

2 votes

F#ck No

5 votes

Yes

1 vote

"Present"

2 votes

as if John Edwards had never existed

vard

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday February 26, 2008 · 10:15 AM PST

2008/02/26 · 10:15

Yesterday both of Oregon's leading Democratic US Senate candidates, Steve Novick and Jeff Merkley, endorsed Barack Obama. Both had formerly supported John Edwards, as I did and as many kossacks did (and some of us still do). Merkley, in fact, was a cochair of Edwards' campaign in Oregon.

The words they chose are revealing of the two men who want to be my next Senator. While Novick acknowledged Edwards and the issues he championed, Merkley simply wiped the slate clean and wrote on it anew, as if John Edwards had never existed.

vard

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday February 17, 2008 · 10:20 PM PST

2008/02/17 · 22:20

I supported John Edwards. I was (OK, I still am) one of those diehard flaming Edwards supporters who especially loved his fighting spirit and his commitment to economic justice.

While I'm sure that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama consider economic justice to be a good and important thing, neither has really made it a centerpiece of their respective campaigns. But they are the only two games in town right now, and some or us have to choose up sides (if our states haven't voted yet, or if we give money to candidates we support.

Since I live in Oregon and we don't vote till May 20, and since I have been known to give money to political candidates I support, and since my butt has been perched on this fence for a few weeks now and it's starting to hurt, I need to make up my mind.

Poll

260 votes Show Results

Did you ever support John Edwards?

260 votes Vote Now!

Did you ever support John Edwards?

No, never

50 votes

Yes, but only in 2004

24 votes

Yes, both in 2004 and 2008

13 votes

Yes, and he's still #1 in my heart

72 votes

Yes, but I've switched to Obama

88 votes

Yes, but I've switched to Clinton

9 votes

Yes, but I've switched to McCain

0 votes

Yes, but I've switched to Huckabee

1 vote

Yes, but only because of his mother's pecan pie

3 votes

why it's bulls#!t to say "I vote for the person, not the party"

vard

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday February 11, 2008 · 6:45 AM PST

2008/02/11 · 06:45

I hear people say, all the time and with pride, "I vote for the man, well, the person, not the party," or "I don't care if the candidate is a Democrat or a Republican or whatever, I vote for the one I think is best qualified."

Alternatively, sometimes I hear people say, "If [my preferred candidate in the primary] doesn't win, I'm going to vote for [other party's presumptive nominee], because [non-preferred candidate in the primary] is too conservative" or too untrustworthy or too polarizing or whatever.

Well, that's just crap.

Maybe it wasn't always crap, but it is now.

It is essential to suck it up if necessary and vote Democratic. Stay tuned and I'll tell you why.

Poll

60 votes Show Results

Do you ALWAYS vote Democratic?

60 votes Vote Now!

Do you ALWAYS vote Democratic?

F@*k yeah

24 votes

Yes, except in nonpartisan races

5 votes

Presidential, for sure

3 votes

I vote for the person, not the party

27 votes

I'm a Republican who got lost on the internets. Does anyone know how I can find my way back through the tubes to Ted Stevens?

1 vote

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RSS

OK, Planned Parenthood supporters, here's the play

Ralph Lauren dishonors the flag

hey, John Edwards, I want my money back

November Madness! make your picks

I just got elected as a delegate to the Democratic convention!

OR-Sen: the greatest concession speech ever?

navel-gazing in Oregon: time to choose

OR-SEN: why I support Steve Novick

another Iraq war resolution, another Yes vote, another weak excuse

as if John Edwards had never existed

What it would take for this Edwards supporter to switch to Obama

why it's bulls#!t to say "I vote for the person, not the party"