Tim Kaine, Tom Keane, Mistakes and Learning

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Wednesday February 01, 2006 · 3:53 PM PST

2006/02/01 · 15:53

For my part, apologies to those I offended with my offhand critique of Tim Kaine's response to the SOTU speech last night. I was not careful in my language. However,I continue to note a disturbing trend here on Kos and in other liberal/progressive communities that has elevated and appropriated right winged tactics in handling dissenting or diverging opinions. Read More

The Wound of Katrina Slowly Festers

SwimmertoFreedom04

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Monday November 21, 2005 · 12:28 PM PST

2005/11/21 · 12:28

Disparity, injustice, incompetence and corruption infect our response to this national tragedy. This diary upholds my vow to "never forget" or let others forget New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Katrina.

The Katrina disaster will, I believe, be the most revealing event of this time in US history. The fury of Katrina brought the loss of a unique national treasure - a part of our economic, social and artistic identity, a major American city, a port, a huge swath of the Gulf Coast and the home to some of our most fragile and forgotten citizens. Though our leaders always knew that it would happen someday and we had "plans", the plans turned out to be empty promises. Promises that continue unfulfilled. When do we call them lies?

More bellow the fold...
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A Local Contest Highlighting Trends for Progressives

SwimmertoFreedom04

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Tuesday October 18, 2005 · 9:41 PM PDT

2005/10/18 · 21:41

I am writing about this to update Kossites on a small but important local race that highlights some of the issues that will be increasingly front and center in restoring a constituency for progressive issues such as balancing growth with appropriate service infrastructure, the needs of the environment and broad based economic development not driven by building and construction trades alone.

Whatcom County is in the furthest northwest corner of the furthest northwestern blue state in the US - Washington. About 175,000 people share a beautiful green landscape bordered on the west by Puget Sound and its inlets, on the east by the Cascade Mountains and on the immediate north by Canada.
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Losing more time - Need your help in Mississippi

SwimmertoFreedom04

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Wednesday September 14, 2005 · 7:27 PM PDT

2005/09/14 · 19:27

I am posting this diary for a fellow Kossite, "under the bodhi tree" who has a very slow system but wants the word to get out on this. I begin with his post:

Dear Friends,
Below is an op-ed like article by Attorney Karen Lash, who went to Mississippi last week after a call for lawyers. She quickly found herself
doing many things -- lawyering was not one of them. I hope that you will circulate it widely, and take the steps suggested.
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NOW is the time for a New Approach to Non-Violent Citizen Action!

SwimmertoFreedom04

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

Wednesday February 09, 2005 · 5:19 PM PST

2005/02/09 · 17:19

"The conventional view of power is that it is something some people have and others don't. Power resides in soldiers, authority, ownership of wealth, and institutions. The nonviolent theory of power is essentially different: rather than seeing power as something possessed, it argues that power is a dynamic social relation. Power depends on continuing obedience. When people refuse to obey rulers, the rulers' power begins to crumble"

"Nonviolent action is not simply any method of action which is not violent. Broadly speaking, it means taking action that goes beyond normal institutionalized political methods (voting, lobbying, letter writing, verbal expression) without injuring opponents"

- Bob Irwin and Gordon Faisal - Why Non-Violence? - Introduction to Theory and Strategy
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Flashing Back

SwimmertoFreedom04

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Tuesday January 25, 2005 · 10:45 PM PST

2005/01/25 · 22:45

This is my first diary ever on Kos. I have been nervous about starting, but today I had the incredible feeling of living aspects of the past again.

The Iraq War has surfaced many comparisons to Vietnam. Having lived in that sad period of US history as a teenager, one of the things that strikes me about our time now, is how devoid of artistic documentation it is. You see, we had the MUSIC to speak of our feelings, to shape the drama and importance of Vietnam and what it symbolized. Read More

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