On Coalition building between DFH's and 'mainstream" farmers, by Bruce McF receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award

Recipient of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award: Cross-posted from Progressive Blue: http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3329 On Coalition building between DFH's and 'mainstream" farmers. by: BruceMcF Mon Dec 29, 2008 at 15:26:21 PM EST

Burning the Midnight Oil for the Next American Revolution We do not have a progressive populist movement in this country. We do not have an effective change coalition in this country. And the first implies the second, since successful progressive populism has been a component of all of our effective change coalitions for over a century. To fend off the possible semantic quibble ... yes, by an effective change coalition, I do mean to say change going forward. We have, obviously, had effective reactionary coalitions without a progressive populist component! In sketching out the potential membership for an effective change coalition, I have previously identified farmers. And so I take special interest when Stranded Wind at the Daily Kos adopts a provocative and potentially quite divisive framing for discussion of organic farming "versus" sustainable production of chemical fertilizer such as ammonia (NH3) derived fertilizers produced with the harvest of sustainable, renewable electric power: On one side of the field we have the hemp clothes and Birkenstocks set flinging organic tomatoes. The other side has Monsanto's minions, flinging GMO hand grenades with one hand and trying to lasso producers with the other. The official federal referee of the USDA would like to help but their rules are the province of misguided ideologues and sociopathic transnational corporations. Stuck in the middle is the puzzled farmer, who just wants a fair price for the work he does and some protection for when things go badly. They'd happily plow the earthly remains of all three of the above groups into the soil if it would increase yields and get unsolicited opinions out of their business. A reaction, after the fold ...

The substantive policy position in the piece is quite sound ... as we pursue a more sustainable and Energy Independent farming economy, we should also be aiming for decentralized production of key feedstocks, since the centralization of the current system leaves us exposed to substantial risk. However, there is mixed in the echoes of the "US agriculture feeding the world": First, let's stick a wrench in the complaints of the organic foods crowd. Yes, it would be better if we were more careful with our soil and if we had less chemicals in our food, but we feed six and a half billion with the current system. We're going back to the solar maximum for this planet and that is going to be ugly enough without some Great Leap Forward approach, which would starve more than are already going to face that fate given our fossil fuel depletion and the tight coupling between this and our existing fertilizer sources. This "US agriculture feeding the world", which features heavily in Monsanto and ADM advertising on Sunday morning political talk shows, has long been used as the cover story for the dumping of subsidized cereal grains that has devastated the local farming capacity of large numbers of low-income nations ... which means, of course, in driving subsistence farmers into mega-cities, ensure a market for the heavily subsidized cereal grains. Obviously, that income stream does not stick in the hands of the "mainstream" farmer ... it just passes through on its way to Monsanto and ADM. So a bit more care is needed regarding who "we" are when talking about US farm policy. "We" don't feed 6b people with our system ... even if you extent "our" system to mean the EU/US/Oceania agro-industry mono-cropping, then it certainly feeds well over a billion, but nowhere near 6 billion ... not unless you include feedlot animals in the count. And "our" system has two big redundancies built in. The first redundancy is the insistence on growing perfectly good food and then feeding it to animals, rather than using animals to convert plant production that is not edible for humans into a supplement for the crops we raise directly for humans. The second redundancy is the productive potential of low income nations that is held off the market by the practice of dumping US/EU staple grains in low income nations in order to ensure a broader market. We could be on track for a famine ... but famines are not about food production, they are about food distribution. Recall that Ireland was a net food exporter in each year of the Irish Potato Famine ... beef and butter and grain production was not affected, but beef and butter and grain was headed for the more lucrative markets in England. Over and above that, it is a mistake in advocacy strategy to accept a framing of sustainable-produced chemical fertilizers versus organic farming techniques ... let alone to spread it. In high income nations, we should be making soil husbandry payments for all farming methods that restore and rehabilitate soils, and if that means subsidizing a bunch of dirty fucking hippies, so be it. But that does not require imposing organic farming techniques, its simply a competitive advantage of organic farming techniques if we introduce a difference in income between soil establishment and soil mining. And at the same time, certification for marketing of organic produce requires compliance with something that the market for organic produce recognizes as organic production ... but certification for soil husbandry payments would be in terms of objective measures of the health and retention of the soil, and while it may well include maintaining fertilizer practices that do not lead to excessive fertilizer run-off in the watersheds, the income system would not require production that can be certified as organic production. And it should be obvious that fertilizer levels that maximize protein content in grains for use as animal feeds, where the majority of the protein will be dumped into the watershed, which results in collapse of riverine and coastal fish stocks, is not a net win in terms of total protein available for human consumption. Shifting farm income support from subsidy for staple grains to fee for service in soil husbandry opens up organic farming operations to participation, but would include any farmer that adopts sound whole-system soil husbandry. Since there is no necessary conflict between the needs of "mainstream" farmers, those sharing their watershed, consumers, and dirty fucking hippy organic farmers, the debating point on the extent to which organic farming can carry the load is a side track diversion from a reform of our farm policy. Controversy and debates are good for getting hits and high comment counts online, but the focus needs to be on finding common ground to build a large enough change coalition large enough so that the controversy and debate is between the change coalition and the entrenched opposition to reform. ... Older than Kosciuszko Driven back to Alice Springs Endless storm and struggle Marks the spirit of the age High up in the homelands Celebration 'cross the land Builds up like a cyclone Now the fires begin to rage ...

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Write Kareem: the courageous blogger in prison in Egypt by: Karita Hummer Cross-posted from Progressive Blue: http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3317&view=print Thu Dec 25, 2008 at 14:50:30 PM EST

(another Action Item for your holiday! Stand up and make some noise! :D - promoted by poligirl) Fellow bloggers, listen up this Christmas Day, one of our own, a fellow blogger, Kareem Amer, is in prison in Egypt for his blogging activity. Write him today in solidarity. Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman was charged and found guilty of the following: (1) Spreading data and malicious rumors that disrupt public security; (2) Defaming the President of Egypt; (3) Incitement to overthrow the regime upon hatred and contempt; (4) Incitement to hate "Islam" and breach of the public peace standards; (5) Highlighting inappropriate aspects that harm the reputation of Egypt and spreading them to the public. He is serving a four year sentence essentially for his free thinking/blogging. You may already know this story of Kareem, known as Kareem Amer, the name he had used as a blogger. Ihad never known of his story. Did you? I just found this story today, as I looked for Human Rights E Cards to send to some of my Social Activist friends, which led me to the Free Kareem site: http://www.freekareem.org/ More below...

Kareem's is an amazing and very brave story. View it at: http://www.freekareem.org/kare... But, perhaps, his own description of himself, says it best: I am down to earth Law student; I look forward to help humanity against all form of discriminations... I am looking forward to open up my own human rights activists Law firm, which will include other lawyers who share the same views. Our main goal is to defend the rights of Muslim and Arabic women against all form of discrimination and to stop violent crimes committed on a daily basis in these countries. http://www.freekareem.org/kare... Show your solidarity this Christmas Day. Write Kareem at: http://www.freekareem.org/writ... Karita Hummer, Advocate for Human Rights here and in the world.

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Cabinet Choices do say a lot

Cross-posted from Progressive Blue: http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3207 Cabinet Choices do say a lot by: Karita Hummer Wed Dec 03, 2008 at 20:53:44 PM EST [edit diary]

Obama has said vision begins with him and his team will implement it. This consoles me a little, but not a lot. He can't be everywhere at all times, and I should think we would want his Secretaries to be initiating policy recommendations for him to undertake. He simply can't know everything, nor initiate everything. That would be an impossible job. Whenever I have hired someone, I have looked for people who have shared my passion and vision. Saying this, I hope President-Elect Obama will still consider the idea of a Poverty Czar, to deal with global and domestic poverty, and I suggest that person be John Edwards. Then, I think we would have a true Unity Cabinet, with all of them, strong, with their own ideas, implementing a broad vision under the direction of a strong president able to integrate the best ideas of all of them. That means who Obama selects matters. If Obama does not choose to have a Poverty Czar, or name Edwards to it, then I would hope as a bare minimum, he would select John Edwards as Secretary of Labor and Robert F. Kennedy as Secretary of Interior or Secretary of Energy. Passion should count most in the selection of a Candidate for the Cabinet. John Edwards and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. have the kind of passionate commitment that would send a strong signal to the country about the place of workers and environment in the Administration's priorities. Progressive Heroes should matter! Karita Hummer

Karita Hummer :: Cabinet Choices do say a lot

Silver Pen Award to priceman

priceman, receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award for Letters from an Angry Constituent HR676 NOW! Cross-posted from Progressive Blue http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3123 Letters From an Angry Constituent-HR 676 NOW!! by: priceman Sun Nov 16, 2008 at 17:06:53 PM EST

(UHC - we mean it!!! - promoted by poligirl) This might be an odd time to writer a letter, but I felt compelled. Hopefully, we will reach the magic number 60 in the Senate, but keep in mind also that Bernie Sanders is one of two independents in the Senate who votes more correctly on progressive legislation like this than even a good number of Democrats in the Senate whom he often votes with 98% of the time and the other 2% is when they are wrong; being the only self described Democratic socialist [nothing wrong with that whatsoever] he will be supporting this legislation if it makes it to the Senate. However, I'm tired of the excuses; I'm tired of the incremental steps and now that we have the presidency back, and a majority in the House and Senate, it's time to push for what most other modern industrialized countries have some form of, even if it operates differently, through taxation. We pay much more than other countries do with "taxes" without the benefits and it's time most Americans realized this.

So let's do what advocacy organizations like the California Nurse's Association wants us to do and sign the Progressive Democrats of America's Healthcare NOT Warfare petition. And don't stop there, now is the time to write to your Representative as well. Healthcare NOT Warfare--Support H.R. 676 The market has failed. It is not free and never will be in this area. Our healthcare delivery system is in need of urgent reform. As the profits of HMOs and the salaries of their CEOs increase each year, so do the number of Americans who are dying and falling ill because they lack healthcare coverage. BTW, that doesn't trickle down; the facts and stats are in. Below are some frightening facts: * At least 18,000 Americans die each year from lack of healthcare coverage. * 80%of Americans who lack healthcare coverage are families with one or more jobs. * More than 50% of bankruptcies occur due to medical bills and half of those had private medical insurance at the time the illness/injury occurred. * Of all nations, the US spends the most on healthcare, 14.6% of GDP. * At 60%, the US has the highest rate of people who believe their health system should be reformed. * The spiraling costs of healthcare are negatively impacting American businesses making it difficult to compete globally. Interestingly, we're already paying for a national healthcare system; we're just not getting it. History will not look kindly upon elected officials who put corporate profits above the public health. And like I said, it doesn't trickle down. More Americans are getting that this kind of economic theory with our health care system among everything else, is costing more money and lives as insurance companies continue to play around with their record of surpluses from premiums in the stock market and write off the losses on patients like the Sarkinsyan family. The way our health care system is set up is just like the Wall Street bailout the people of this country cannot afford this kind of treatment and they are fed up with it. It is criminal. I urge you to co-sponsor HR 676, The United States National Healthcare Insurance Act, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers. The facts are in and any "market speak" about how "competition" will lower prices and provide better health care is false in every way, so I don't want to hear it. And don't give me the bit about the poor workers that will be laid off during this transition; HR 676 provides jobs for those workers; CEOs of Insurance companies and HMOs will have to take the hit and they should, because they have failed. I'm an active voter who is among the majority of Americans who want a national healthcare system, and I'll remember your position on this issue next Election Day. Now this series is called Letters From an Angry Constituent, because these issues make me and many people angry, and you don't have to use the same language, but keep in mind I live in TX and I have to be stern with my Representatives and especially my Rethug Senators, so I can counter the BS from their form letters back to me so they will think twice before sending me "market speak" as I mentioned. I hope you will write your representative and get HR 676 through the House and the Senate and to President Barack Obama's desk where he might not agree with the path entirely, but he will not veto this legislation if Democrats pass it to his desk. Thank you, Progressive Blue.

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"Historic Moments" receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award

Shankar Hemmady is awarded Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award for his poem, "Historic Moments" written on the night of the election of Barack Obama Cross-posted from Progressive Blue http://www.progressiveblue.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3048 "Historic Moments" spark joy! by: Karita Hummer Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 16:23:28 PM EST

My Facebook friend and poet, Shankar Hemmady, writes eloquently of joy and celebration in the wake of Americans coming to their senses. This time, all the negative campaigning, purges, caging and chicanery just didn't work. It just seems this time that the more they did it, the more they hurt their own cause. America woke up! From an awfully long sleep, and did not succumb to fear and smear! Hooray! Here is Shankar's lovely poem of celebration and joy. Cross-posted from Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/inbox/... Historic Moments Share Yesterday at 10:04pm When merry met happy And joy was born: heads came to their senses and hearts became soft! Silently we listened As shouts turned to whispers. Gently we cuddled As grabs gave into caresses. Yes, we shall celebrate Each and every moment For four more years. Congratulations, And God Bless America. -Shankar

Prayers Before Going to Vote

Rabbi Michael Lerner



Karita Hummer's Gold Pen awarded to Rabbi Michel Lerner for his beautiful and inspirational prayer on the eve of the Election, after 8 long years of hardship. KH

Prayers Before Going to Vote
Posted Monday, November 03 2008 @ 01:00 PM PST

Cross-posted from Tikkun Magazine and sent to me as a member of Network for Spiritual Progressives

http://files.tikkun.org/current/article.php/20081016155033441

By Michael Lerner and David Seidenberg

Meditation or Prayer Before Going to Vote
by Michael Lerner

Thank You, the Power of Healing and Transformation in the Universe, that Your energy has moved through human beings in the past and inspired them to create democratic institutions that would give me and others this wonderful opportunity to participate in shaping our world. I know that the outcome of this election will have consequences for all six billion people on the planet, and that if democratic norms were to be fully established that they too would be able to participate in shaping the decisions about how the world's resources should best be used.

So I hereby take it upon myself to vote in a way that is sensitive to the needs of all the people of the planet, not just to those who are blessed to live in the richest and most powerful society. I recognize and affirm the unity of all being, and the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all people with each other and with the well-being of the planet itself.

As I approach this holy act, I recommit myself to the message revealed to the prophets and sages of old: that our highest task on earth is to bring more love and kindness, generosity and sanctity into the world, and that to do so we must vigorously pursue a world of justice and peace and avoid violence and hurting others directly or indirectly. May my votes actually contribute to these results.

Please give strength to those for whom I vote. If they are elected, let them actually contribute to achieving a world of greater peace, justice and love. If they are not elected, let my vote be one of the factors that contributes to empowering them to play a positive role in continuing their efforts for peace, justice and love, so that they represent my intentions and so that they do not personally fall back into despair or into personal opportunism and forget that they have the task of vigorously articulating the aspirations of those who were seeking through voting for them to bring more caring and more generosity into the world.

Give me the wisdom to understand those who do not vote in the way that I do. I already know that most people on this planet share with me the desire for a world of peace, justice, loving-kindness and caring. So it is hard for me to understand why they don't support the candidates who I see representing those values.

Please give me the wisdom to understand the complex psychological, social and political factors that could take fundamentally decent human beings and lead them into paths that may, I believe, lead to a world exactly the opposite of what they really want. And let that understanding empower me to be more compassionate in the way that I think and talk about those with whom I disagree, and more intelligent in finding ways to reach them, speak to their goodness, and bring them through my love and compassion for them to be able to see a better path to achieve the goals that they share with me.

From this point forward, I commit myself to seeing the good in all others, and to finding the decency and generosity in those who disagree with me, and to keep that in front of my consciousness even as I continue to disagree with the paths that they have chosen - and let that understanding give me even greater energy to act for the causes of social justice and peace.

Meanwhile, let me also have compassion for the leaders of movements and candidates for office whom I do support - let me not judge them for their personal failings, for the ways that they are not in their PRIVATE LIVES the fullest possible embodiments of the ideals that they articulate. Yet let me simultaneously have the energy and commitment to hold them accountable in their PUBLIC ACTS to working even harder for social justice and peace and ecological sanity.

I know that my vote is only one little part of the whole, and nevertheless I will not belittle what I am doing today in going to vote. But neither will I use this vote as a way of excusing myself from doing more. I commit myself to putting more of my time and more of my energy and more of my money into activities explicitly aimed at tikkun olam, the healing and transformation of our planet.

Please let me be witness to a dramatic surge of the world's energies toward love, justice, peace, nonviolence, spiritual awakening, and ecological sanity - quickly and in my lifetime, and let it be so. Amen. Shalom. Salaam.

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with us!

Rabbi Michael Lerner
Tikkun Community


Voting Prayer
by David Seidenberg

With my vote today, I am prepared and intending
to seek peace for this country, as it is written (Jer. 29:7):
"Seek out the peace of the city where I cause you to roam
and pray for her sake to God YHVH, for in her peace you all will have peace."

May it be Your will that votes will be counted faithfully,
and may You account my vote as if I had fulfilled this verse with all my power.
May it be good in Your eyes to give a wise heart to whomever we elect today
and may You raise for us a government whose rule is for good and blessing,
to bring justice and peace to all the inhabitants of the world
and to Jerusalem, for rulership is Yours.

Just as I participated in elections today,
so may I merit to do good works and to repair the world with all my actions,
and with the act of...[fill in your pledge]...which I pledge to do today
on behalf of all living creatures
and in remembrance of the covenant of Noah's waters
to protect and to not destroy the earth and her plenitude.

May You give to all the peoples of this country the strength and the will
to pursue righteousness and to seek peace as a unified force
in order to cause to flourish, throughout the world, good life and peace,
and may You fulfill for us the verse (Ps. 90:17):
"May the pleasure of Adonai our God be upon us, and establish
the work of our hands for us; may the work of our hands endure."


If you can't pray in a voting booth, where can you pray? And where would you need more to pray? This prayer is not about casting a winning vote or supporting a particular party. It's a prayer that peace may come through whomever is elected, on behalf of the whole planet. It's also more than that: you, the pray-er, are invited to add your own pledge that embodies the ideals you are praying for and voting for, to live your prayer. This pledge is based on the Jewish custom of pledging to give charity, when going up to the Torah. What is your pledge on the occasion of "going up" to the voting booth? The two lines following this pledge express the intention to act in the highest interests of all creatures. Please modify these lines to express in your own words why you act. Read the Hebrew version at http://neohasid.org/resources/votingprayer.

~ Rabbi David Seidenberg, rebduvid86@hotmail.com www.neohasid.org, www.savethenegev.org. © 2008

Be Ready, Plan to assemble, if necessary. Paula Revere by: Karita Hummer Cross-posted from Progressive Blue http://www.eenrblog.com/showRec.do?diaryId=3018 Mon Nov 03, 2008 at 18:12:41 PM EST

If you have said, never again, what will you do if they try to steal the election once again. No More Stolen Elections has a plan of action, all ready for us to follow, easy as 1, 2, 3.. Follow the steps, one by one.This is what I received from them in my Email account this morning. From No More Stolen Elections http://www.nomorestolenelectio... WHAT WE CAN EXPECT, WHAT WE MUST DO Tens of millions have already voted. How many have already been turned away? On the eve of Election Day, one thing is already very clear: Our system of elections still does not work. In this election we have again seen evidence of a well-organized, partisan voter suppression effort involving purging of voter rolls, voter intimidation, voter misinformation, and polling place, voting machine, ballot, and pollworker shortages.* In this election, as in 2006, 2004, and 2000, already in evidence are vote flipping, the inability to conduct paperless recounts, and machine malfunction.* And we are again seeing an explanation being prepared for how the losing candidate actually won; in this case, we are supposed to believe that ACORN committed voter registration fraud, that the polling gap between the candidates is closing, and that in the end, white voters simple won't bring themselves to vote for an African-American candidate. As for what we will witness tomorrow night:* Expect the theft of a landslide victory in the presidential race. The announced results may still be convincing. But those results will not show the same level of mandate that the people voted for.* Be prepared for the possibility of a contested presidential election. McCain continues to insist, all evidence to the contrary, that he can win tomorrow.* Expect the theft of at least one, potentially many, U.S. Senate and House seats. Under any of these outcomes, democracy is denied. We must be ready. We must be organized. WHAT TO LOOK FOR TOMORROW At No More Stolen Elections!, we will be looking for, and reporting back to you, specific voting rights violations: * Vote suppression in the form of voter intimidation and polling place, ballot, poll worker, and machine shortages. * Voting machine problems involving vote flipping and denied recounts. * Exit poll manipulation and the possibility of a concerted effort to force the winning candidate to concede. WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO In the next 24 hours, please take the following three steps: 1 - PLAN TO ASSEMBLE ON WEDNESDAY - Go to our website and look for a Voter Assembly in or near your community. If you don't see one, organize one. Go to: http://www.NoMoreStolenElectio... 2 - TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT THE POLLS - Tell the media to report the truth on Election Night: http://www.nomorestolenelectio... 3 - REPORT VOTING RIGHTS VIOLATIONS - Report any voting rights violations you are aware of: http://www.nomorestolenelectio... Frederick Douglass said, "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. "Thank you for your refusal to submit. p.s. -- Almost all of the funding for this campaign has come out of the operating reserves of Liberty Tree, the sponsoring 501(c)3 organization. Since we sent out our first and only fundraising appeal on Thursday, we have raised just over $6,100 dollars from your generous contributions, and are one third of the way to our fundraising goals. We are very thankful for that support. But if you haven't donated yet, or would like to donate again, please do so: https://secure.groundspring.or... Thank you.p.p.s. -- If you have time to get a little inspiration, check out these four fun videos at: http://www.nomorestolenelectio... You are subscribed to this list as karitahummer@yahoo.com. Click here to unsubscribe, or send email to unsubscribe.306282.243273995.4947752476062797434-karitahummer_yahoo.com@en.groundspring.org. Please support No More Stolen Elections! right now. Our postal address is P.O. Box 260217Madison, Wisconsin 53726-0217United States Karita Hummer, Edwards democrat, demanding justice in the election booth.

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Non-Denominational Prayer for Our Nation by Laura Serena accorded Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award.

Laura Serena receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award for this beautiful prayer for America and all its citizens, on the eve of the 2008 Presidential Election, when we are hoping so ardently for change, after eight years of such wanton governance and greed. KH Cross-posted from Progressive Blue http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3014#45403 Non-Denominational Prayer for Our Nation by: Laura Serena Mon Nov 03, 2008 at 12:54:41 PM EST

We have wandered in darkness too long, Following idolators of the Golden Calf, Rushing headlong into the chasm, Washing our hearts away in the forgetful waters of Styx, Seeking to possess the rest of the world in our watery clutches, Where being dragged down, We all would drown. Too long have we hurled everything of value into the depths. Stealing the offering from others, Long before throwing away our own. And the greedy mouths of the damned have devoured it all, Ever hungry for more.

But look! Some disobedient souls have resisted! Tenaciously they cling to the slippery slope. They find a foothold here, A handhold there. Too weak to climb without support of many, They reach to those struggling for life upon the brink. A saving hand thrust down. Fingers barely caught. A mighty effort as each one is saved. And now the few become a throng. We rise with all our strength. A light shines through the cleft above. It will take all of us to reach it. Let no morsel of human flesh be tossed back to the mouths of the damned. Tomorrow, we begin the arduous ascent. Together. Please read the words of Mr. John Cusack on Huffington Post, whose clarity of insight inspired this more obscure and metaphorical assessment of our situation.

A Declaration ... of the people's plight ... by jamess, winner of Silver Pen Award.

Winner of KaritaHummer's Silver Pen Award When I read Jamess's timely piece about the origins of our freedoms for which we should be better stewards, this was my comment: Beautiful and enduring (0.00 / 0) and ever so timely. I believe we must be educating our citizenry about the origins of our freedom and our most basic values and principles. Again, for your important article, I give you my Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award. We have a lot of citizen education to do, so our history can, indeed, guide us. Karita Hummer Edwards Democrat, who believes that opportunity and justice for all are embodied in our most precious documents of independence and formation of governance through a Constitution that spells out rights and responsibilities. http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3006#45291 The protection of our freedom and rightful pursuit of opportunity require citizen vigilance, support and backbone, in order to withstand fear tactics and intimidation. Fellow citizens, know your rights and responsibilities and the principles on which our government was founded. Karita Miraglia Hummer Cross-posted from Progressive Blue http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3006#45291 A Declaration ... of the people's plight ... by: jamess Sat Nov 01, 2008 at 22:48:56 PM EDT

(some very essential reading for your Sunday morning... - promoted by poligirl) (click to enlarge) (more readable text) " Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring monument. Here, in exalted and unforgettable phrases, Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people. The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by John Locke and the Continental philosophers. What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in "self-evident truths" and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country. " http://www.archives.gov/exhibi...

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription (emphasis and line formatting added) ========================= " IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. --------------- He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. --------------- In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. " ========================= The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated: Column 1 Georgia: Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton Column 2 North Carolina: William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton Column 3 Massachusetts: John Hancock Maryland: Samuel Chase William Paca Thomas Stone Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Harrison Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton Column 4 Pennsylvania: Robert Morris Benjamin Rush Benjamin Franklin John Morton George Clymer James Smith George Taylor James Wilson George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney George Read Thomas McKean Column 5 New York: William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis Lewis Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson John Hart Abraham Clark Column 6 New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett William Whipple Massachusetts: Samuel Adams John Adams Robert Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams Oliver Wolcott New Hampshire: Matthew Thornton http://www.archives.gov/exhibi... ======= [ End of the unanimous Declaration ] ======= History holds many Lessons ... which are all too often forgotten, in our modern way of life. Our Freedoms, were not gained, however, as easily, as we have given them up in recent years ... Those who do not learn the Lessons of History, are destined to repeat its struggles ... Find the Cost of Freedom -- (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) Hopefully those lessons will be taken to heart, so that, we will not have to re-learn them, often ...

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The Socialist, poem, receives Karita Hummer's silver pen award

Shankar Hemmady is the recipient of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award for his poem, The SOCIALIST


I have received another lovely poem from Shankar Hemmady, a very apt commentary on the sorry state of politics in America today, where epithets, like Socialist, are being used to confuse and fool voters. Let us hope that Americans are not duped once again by scare tactics and demagogic put-downs that only line the coffers of those who have much. Let us keep in mind what our nation can do together, to give opportunity, like health care and education and employment, to all.

Shankar's poem speaks to my most powerful lessons of life, and what I believe so firmly. It is essentially a poem about love.

Karita Hummer

Here is Shankar Hemmady's beautiful poem, cross-posted from Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=feed&id=1455330101#/note.php?note_id=32683972198&ref=mf

The SOCIALIST

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Today at 8:56pm

He was neither a conservative nor a liberal.
Out of necessity, he was really a radical!

He never wrote a business plan
Nor did he give long-winding speeches.

Never ever did he invest
nor make a profit,
nor rupture a bank
nor bail out an insurance giant!

He was neither a Joe Six Pack
Nor did he talk like a Pistol Packing Princess.
I wonder if He even killed a rat!

He didn't fight over gay marriages
Nor did he quarrel over unhappy divorces.
He didn't impregnate teeny tiny girls
Nor did he leave them uncared
alongside wounded veterans!

He neither preached the death penalty
nor did He burn people at pro-life protests!

He simply stayed in his heart,
mumbling parables incomprehensible:
"The Kingdom of God Is Within You"
"Love Thy Neighbor"
"Love Thy Enemy"

He neither had a Get-to-Market strategy
Nor a Golden Parachute.
Nor did he even fathom an Exit Strategy!

Exit he did, the way He allowed it be:
Died He for us, out there on the Holy Cross.

Several sorcerers still sell stories
Capitalizing coolly on catchy classics.

He died for us
He died for our welfare.
How much more agony
Do you want Him to bear?

Lots of love,
shankar

The Role of a Free Press in a Free Society receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award

Jamess is the recipient of KaritaHummer's Silver Pen award for this important and very timely article. The Role of a Free Press in a Free Society by: jamess Cross-posted from Progrssive Blue http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2976 Tue Oct 28, 2008 at 09:40:29 AM EDT

(an accountability opinion.... :D - promoted by poligirl) [Abbreviated version of original post: Jul 20, 2007 by jamess, on dailykos] Freedom of the Press By Ellen Hume, Director, Center on Media and Society, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Mar. 29, 2007 ... four essential roles that a Free Press serves: 1. holding government leaders accountable to the people, 2. publicizing issues that need attention, 3. educating citizens so they can make informed decisions, and 4. connecting people with each other in civil society. http://www.democracy.gov/dd/en...

1) Holding Government Accountable The watchdog function is often the hardest to perform well. Government agencies and officials are not always willing to be transparent, especially if there is no tradition of public scrutiny. ... "Freedom of speech and exchange of information are not just luxuries, they are the currency on which global commerce, politics, and culture increasingly depend," observed David Hoffman, the founder of Internews, an international nongovernmental agency that helps train and develop independent media in 50 countries. 2) Publicizing Issues Without a free and independent press sector, the full responsibility for public information and safety resides only in the government. This lack of public engagement can seriously undermine a country's security and economic growth. For example, the Chinese media did not report the unfolding SARS epidemic in 2003 accurately, because they were following their government's wishes to minimize the crisis. ... In this case, the independent foreign media held the government accountable on behalf of the people when the local media were not allowed to do so. 3) Educating Citizens When they are able to function freely, local newspapers and radio and television stations can be important building blocks of democracy. In addition to serving as a watchdog on local institutions and alerting the public to safety issues, they can help citizens understand and access their distant government. ... The news is watched by the authorities as well as the citizens. When the government tried to shut down the station at one point in order to control its political influence, the public and sponsors protested, and the government had to let it reopen. 4) Connecting People Access to the local news can even save lives. When Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans, Louisiana ... To be sure, the free press does not always perform professionally, and there can be unintended consequences to opening up the media. But the more the news media offer balanced news and community discussions, the more the public values them. This civic information is the fuel of democracy. The people become better educated and take more responsibility for their own well being. The media can act as a safety valve by offering a forum for diverse voices to be heard. ... A second World Bank report, Consultations With the Poor, studied 20,000 poor people in 23 countries and found that what most "differentiates poor people from rich people is a lack of voice. The inability to be represented. The inability to convey to the people in authority what it is that they think. The inability to have a searchlight put on the conditions of inequality. These people interviewed do not have Ph.D.s but they have the knowledge of poverty, and the first thing they talked about is not money. It is lack of voice, it is lack of the ability to express themselves." A vibrant media sector, with competing independent newspapers, radio, Internet Web sites, and television, allows those voices to be heard. These media can spotlight problems, encourage fellow citizens and government officials to address them, and empower even the destitute with real information. Everyone gains if the poor have a chance to improve their lot, taking part in the opportunities afforded by free speech, free press, and the right to assembly in democratic societies. --------- Ellen Hume, Director, Center on Media and Society, goes on to summarize the importance of the Free Press by equating Information with Power: ... it is impossible to maximize political stability, economic growth, and democracy without the free flow of information. Information is power. If a nation is to enjoy the political and economic advantages enabled by the rule of law, powerful institutions must be open to scrutiny by the people. If technology and science are to advance, ideas must be openly shared. And if government is to be valued because it is accountable to the people, free and independent news media are essential to that process. That is why Thomas Jefferson, the primary drafter of the American Declaration of Independence, insisted that the U.S. Constitution include the public's right to free speech, a free press, and public assembly. "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter," he wrote in 1787. ... Hosted by usinfo.state.gov http://www.democracy.gov/dd/en... ============ [...] In my opinion, Corporations, including Media Corporations NEED TO BE GOOD CITIZENS TOO! (At least until that future day when the Supreme Court, reverses the ruling that "Corporations are really persons" too) [...] Does the average citizen realize the many dangerous implications of Presidential "Signing Statements" -- that they effectively put the Bush Administration "above the law"? Or another example, does the average citizen know where the Candidates stand on the Issues? (Hardly, unless you consider haircuts, gender, ethnicity, fund-raising, and polls, to be "important Issues"; which seems be all the MSM cares to report about the Candidates.) SO, NO the MSM FAILS TO EDUCATE CITIZENS TO BE INFORMED AND EFFECTIVE CITIZENS ! [...] Maybe when "Freedom of Choice" is combined with "Freedom of the Press", it's destined to result in a dumbed down, tuned out, apathetic electorate? Given SO many different Media choices, maybe it's like Bruce Springsteen says "There's 500 channels and nothin' on"? (Although, I doubt Thomas Jefferson would agree with this assessment, as he preferred Newspapers, over Government, given a choice!) When will Reality (and all its weighty consequences) finally trump the Angst/Apathy of this Media-saturated generation? (I'm talking about Reality-in-the-World all around us, NOT Reality-TV, which is staged and edited entertainment.) Perhaps if the MSM stepped up its efforts to publicize important issues again (like our "broken Health Care" system), and to educate citizens (like on "our system of checks and balances", and the threats it now faces), and perhaps if the MSM actually helped Congress, to hold Leaders Accountable -- instead of holding those same Leaders harmless -- well then just MAYBE ... that would WAKE UP the "tuned out" public from its yawning "Civic Apathy"? Perhaps IF ONLY the Media would work for the "Public Good", for a change, instead of its all-consuming Corporate Profits, well MAYBE then "We The People" would finally start to "feel good" about our Country, and our Future again? Maybe the MSM could actually restore Hope again? ... Could be? Until then it's up to Citizen-Bloggers, to fulfil these all-important "Roles of a Free Press in a Free Society". It's up to us to be the 4th Estate, the Government Watchdogs, to act as the crier in the public square, as an important linchpin of our Constitutional form of Democracy; And it's up to us to value Fact-based Information above all else! Afterall that's where the Power is!

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Block the Vote is the Republican Strategy according to RFK, JR and Greg Palast + their comic book

Block the Vote is the Republican Strategy according to RFK, JR and Greg Palast and not so funny comic book by: Karita Hummer Cross-posted from http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2975 Tue Oct 28, 2008 at 04:08:23 AM EDT

Vigilance before the election. Electoral Reform after the election. This fight is about OUR Democracy. Join it; it is worth saving. Sign the Pledge of Action now at: http://www.nomorestolenelections.org/subscribe Heads up!! Bobby Kennedy, Jr. And Greg Palast have a not so funny comic book on vote purging and caging, but passing it around before the election might help us get the last laugh. http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/ In a Rolling Stone Article, Kennedy and Palast also tell the amazing story of how the Supervisor of Elections in Las Vegas, New Mexico found himself purged from the voting rolls on Super Tuesday during the Primary Election. About 20% of the voters in that County were said to have been purged, compared to 10% at large in the state, a high enough number to make any Democracy loving citizen cringe- and cry! Kennedy and Palast claim there is much to suggest that voter suppression has been a Republican solution to the dangers of democracy for their party since the days of the first Reagan election. See: http://www.rollingstone.com/po... For example, from a Reagan election year, they quoted a statement by Paul Weyrich, whom they describe currently as "a principal architect of today's Republican Party". At the time, Paul Weyrich was said to have "scolded evangelicals who believed in democracy", saying. "Many of our Christians have what I call the 'goo goo' syndrome - good government," said Weyrich, who co-founded Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell. "They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. . . . As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."" http://www.rollingstone.com/po... More below the fold...

Yikes!! How scary can it get? For now, we must be vigilant. Right after the elections, we have to pursue electoral reform legislation with teeth, hopefully, with a filibuster-proof Senate. For the last laugh, get the Kennedy-Palast not so funny comic book available for a donation at http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/ It can be downloaded there at the site. This is a comic book for sharing, for sure, or get their equally not so funny movie, at http://www.stealbackyourvote.o... This all hot off the presses. Go for it. Karita Hummer Edwards Democrat, insistent on electoral justice.

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A Poet's Timely Plea to Six-pack Joes and Soccer Moms Everywhere: Joes and Soccer or Hockey Moms

Cross-posted from Progressive Blue: http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2934 Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 14:52:17 PM EDT

My Facebook friend, Shankar Hemmady, has written a very timely poem about tolerance and love. Written to Six-pack Joes and Sassy Socker Moms, his poem is timely in this political season and lovely. If heeded, his is a remedy that would go a long way to healing our nation of its syndrome of bigotry and racism, a sinful and nation/self-destructing disease if there ever was one. Joe Six-Packs and Socker and Hockey Moms, forsake the politics of beer friendship and drunken bonding and female sass for the sake of sass. Time for serious reflection and purpose. We have work to do in this nation. Heed this poetic plea, and heal thyself.

Karita Hummer :: A Poet's Timely Plea to Six-pack Joes and Soccer Moms Everywhere: Joes and Soccer or Hockey Moms

An Ardent Plea to Jovial Joe Six-Packs and Sassy Socker Moms by Shankar Hemmady Cross-posted From Facebook Notes: http://www.facebook.com/home.p... Withdraw hate Radiate joy. Heed the words of God: Love Peace Harmony with your neighbor your enemy your self your father your son your holy ghost. Isn't this a lovely poem? Will our nation heal itself of all its divisions, hatreds, and injustices? Karita Hummer Edwards Democrat, One nation for all.

Tags: Prejudice, bigotry, racism, Community, (All Tags) :: Add/Edit Tags on this Post

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Top Ten Liberal and Progressive Blogs - and my name change by: Laura Serena

Top Ten Liberal and Progressive Blogs - and my name change by: Laura Serena reposted from Progressive Blue http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2550 Fri Sep 12, 2008 at 19:29:23 PM EDT [subscribe]

First, let me get the meta issue out of the way. This is "be inspired." I've changed my name on the blog here to better match other sites I'm now blogging on. I'm getting serious about my writing, and I needed a more professional byline. My old articles are here, but I'm just not going to be blogging under that name anymore, at least not here. Second, I've just published an article, Top Ten Liberal and Progressive Blogs, on Associated Content. I bet you can't guess which blog is number one! ;-)

Laura Serena :: Top Ten Liberal and Progressive Blogs - and my name change

I can't publish that article here, unfortunately, because AC has the exclusive rights to it, but you can read it here. For those so inclined, you might want to digg it and give a boost to this blog, the others listed, and me. Thanks!

RFK Jr's Stark Warning and Appeal, "Count the Votes or Lose"

RFK, Jr. urges Democrats to ensure the votes are counted.



http://www.novoterleftbehind.net


RFK Jr's Stark Warning and Appeal, "Count the votes or lose" (+)
by: Karita Hummer
Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 00:23:51 AM EDT
Cross-posted from EENR Blog, http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2460



Ok, the title is a paraphrase of what RFK, Jr. actually said. To quote him, from an urgent appeal he sent out today, on behalf of the Democrats for America's Future Campaign called, "No Voter Left Behind", http://www.novoterleftbehind.net/ RFK, Jr. actually laid it out in the starkest of terms, saying, "Democrats can't win unless our votes are counted."

You will recall that RFK, Jr. had conducted a major expose' of the 2004 election, in which he connected all the dots from that sorry debacle of an election, mincing no words when he refers to the Republican effort of that election this way : "The Republican Party mounted a coordinated, criminal campaign to steal the 2004 Presidential election -- and it worked."

His expose', a great patriotic effort, published in Rolling Stone Magazine, got almost nary a yawn from most quarters, including from the Democratic Party, as far as I can tell. http://www.rollingstone.com/ne...

More below...
Karita Hummer :: RFK Jr's Stark Warning and Appeal, "Count the votes or lose"
Already heartbroken by the election theft of 2000, the last one of 2004 was even more devastating to many of us, because it represented a serial offense of the gravest sort for our democracy. It was especially hard when we, victims, were told to get over it or just move on. For me, it was a matter of justice, and I thought we needed redress for our grievance. I am still aggrieved, and I hold the Republican Party to be most at fault, but I think the Democrats should share some of the blame, for being such timid wimps, who by neglect, colluded in the theft.

Especially interesting to me in RFK, Jr's appeal is his support for "No Voter Left Behind Campaign's" policy of asking candidates, apparently up and down the ticket, to not accept the final results, until counts are completed.

RFK, Jr. did us a service by keeping the issue of criminal election theft alive, and I am ever so grateful to him.

We can do our part by supporting the effort of Leave no Voter Behind

Here is RFK, Jr's. patriotic appeal in its entirety:

A MESSAGE FROM ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.:

PLEASE SUPPORT NOVOTERLEFTBEHIND.NET

Dear Fellow Democrat:
Like many Americans -- especially those of us who worked on John Kerry's presidential campaign -- I spent Election Night 2004 wondering how the exit polls, which had overwhelmingly predicted defeat for George W. Bush, got it so wrong.
Baffled -- and sick at heart that a President so unpopular and incompetent was heading for a second disastrous term in the Oval Office -- I heard the rumors of a Republican campaign to suppress Democratic votes.
And then, painstakingly, page-by-page, with no agenda in mind but finding the truth -- the same skills I have employed in my career as an attorney -- I began to examine the evidence. What I found shocked me to the core -- and by the time I pieced it together in an expose for Rolling Stone magazine, I was convinced beyond all doubt:
The Republican Party mounted a coordinated, criminal campaign to steal the 2004 Presidential election -- and it worked.
Now, as another election approaches, you and I need to stand with Democrats for America's Future (DAF) to make absolutely certain it doesn't happen again. You can get involved now by supporting us here. http://www.novoterleftbehind.net/
We need to stand up because our country cannot stand for another four years of reckless Republican policies. But most of all, we need to stand together because the integrity of our democracy is at risk.
This is about more -- far more -- than who wins the next election, as important as that is. If we can't guarantee the citizens of a democracy that their votes will be counted, every other liberty we hold dear is at risk.
And that, I regret to say, is a guarantee that our nation failed -- abysmally -- to uphold in 2004. Consider:

Of six million Americans living abroad -- a constituency known to vote Democratic -- nearly half either never received their ballots or received them too late because the Pentagon shut down a web site that files overseas registrations.

George W. Bush "won" New Mexico by 5,988 votes -- but more than 20,000 ballots there weren't properly tallied.

Nationwide, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting machines.
You might be wondering how irregularities like that happened all over the country. After all, elections are administered by state officials free of partisan influence, right?
Well, allow me to introduce you to a man named Kenneth Blackwell. He's the former Republican Secretary of State in Ohio -- the state that, as you surely recall, officially tipped the 2004 election to George W. Bush.
As such, Blackwell's job was to administer an impartial election. But he had another portfolio that year -- Ohio chair of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.
If that sounds like a conflict of interest, it was. And Blackwell -- having earned his stripes as a top Bush-Cheney official during the notorious Florida recount of 2000 -- exploited it with relish.
In the run-up to the 2004 elections, Blackwell -- known in Ohio as a partisan Republican zealot -- allowed 300,000 voters to be expunged from the registration rolls, including almost one in four voters in predominantly Democratic Cleveland.
Blackwell also set up a network of kangaroo courts at which Ohio Republicans challenged Democratic voter registrations -- often without giving the voters in question a fair opportunity to stand up for their rights.
The whole affair was so egregious that a federal court declared it unconstitutional -- but by that time, much of the work was done. All told, more than 35,000 newly registered voters were challenged. Many were disenfranchised outright, and many more were intimidated.
I could go on. Sadly, though, we can't reclaim what I am now convinced was the stolen election of 2004 -- an election in which the Republican Party implemented a nationwide effort to suppress Democratic votes.
What we can do, though -- and must -- is work together to make sure every last Democratic vote is counted in 2008. That's where Democrats for America's Future comes in.
DAF is mobilizing a nationwide "NoVoterLeftBehind.net" project that will monitor voting on Election Day in 2008. The squad will shine a public spotlight on every last irregularity. Democrats for America's Future will urge every Democratic candidate not to concede a single race until every last vote is counted.
And from beginning to end -- from the voter registration process to Election Day challenges and beyond -- DAF will fight every last fight to the very end, insisting that every American is guaranteed a democracy's most sacred right: their vote.
Here's the challenge: We have every reason to believe the Republicans are, at this moment, preparing a 2008 vote-suppression effort that will rival, or even exceed, the dirty tricks they pulled in 2004.
Unless DAF is equally active -- unless they have the resources to monitor every vote, every precinct, every campaign, every court challenge -- the Republicans may very well get away with it again.
That's why I urge you, in the strongest terms, to rush a generous contribution of $30, $50, $100, $250 or even more to support DAF's "NoVoterLeftBehind.net". Your help will ensure that this effort is as aggressive and broad-based as it absolutely must be to succeed.
The 2008 elections are approaching fast -- and Democrats can't win unless our votes are counted. Please help today
Sincerely,
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
http://www.novoterleftbehind.n...

Remember, let's hold Democratic Candidates' feet to the fire to not accept results until the final vote is counted. (Just as JRE wanted to do in 2004, but Kerry and others wouldn't listen to him.) Once elected, we must still hold their feet to the fire to bring about true election reform, for Open Source code voting, and other verifiable systems, reform of campaign finance law, primary inequities elimination, electoral college inequities and arcane party rules that don't work for democracy.

candidate_pledge_header2
Insist that democratic candidates wait for the results. Noble humility is not what we need. We need fighters for Democracy, with backbone to stand for all of us!

Taking on the mantra of "no voter left behind" is a good beginning: http://www.novoterleftbehind.n...



Karita Hummer
Edwards Democrat, who insists that our party have backbone to stand against election theft, and call it when they see it. Candidates: Leave no vote4er behind.

Visit No Voter Left Brehind Campaign: http://www.novoterleftbehind.net/rfk_message.cfm