A dream over

John Edwards dropped out of the race for the White House. The candidate, with the most compassionate policies for America, for working Americans, and for the least among us, has ended his campaign. I really feel like he is the only one willing to tell the truth about how the government has abandoned the promise, how Americans are not taking care of each other, and how our hyper-capitalism allows MILLIONS of people to slip through the cracks. Economic Justice is no different from any other right, freedom, or liberty. Here is that Sen. Edwards said that really got to me:

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We sat with poultry workers in Mississippi, janitors in Florida, nurses in California.

We listened as child after child told us about their worry about whether we would preserve the planet.

We listened to worker after worker say "the economy is tearing my family apart."

We walked the streets of Cleveland, where house after house was in foreclosure.

And we said, "We're better than this. And economic justice in America is our cause."

**************************

How much more clear can a politician be? This is a moral cause. And he has given us the moral clarity to understand it as such. Someone else said it better. Maybe it was Sen. Obama. He said something like that the Democratic party needs to say, "No, I AM my brother's keeper." Our individualist nature as Americans is tearing this country apart. We need to have more concern for the least among us and we need an America that works for everyone, not just the wealthy or the gifted or the entrepreneurs. Isn't starting a family being an entrepreneur? We never reward them with free money to locate in our community or offer them low interest start up loans.

Every person who works 40 hours a week should have health insurance, from day one in their job. Our economic policies should restrain the crazy boom in housing prices that prevent young people from buying their first house so they can start a family. Our government should stop subsidizing ethanol just because the election season always starts in Iowa, and start subsidizing the green power industry that will create jobs all over America, not just in the corn belt. It shouldn't be easier for a business to declare bankruptcy than for a real person to do so. We should reward labor as much as we reward capital. Our American prosperity shouldn't be wasted fighting a war that didn't have to happen.

So many things to do towards economic justice, and now the most clear voice has called it quits. If the Democrats really wanted a candidate to beat McCain, they just missed the boat. All of this "oh, all three are really good candidates" business is fine and good when we think we are only going to have to beat a Giulliani or a Romney. When McCain bounced back Democrats should have stopped and thought a little harder about whether they want to make a statement and history with their nominee, or make the choice to put Democratic values and policies in place by electing a Democrat to office.

For America's sake, I hope the nominee has the brains to pick Edwards as Vice President, and that Edwards has the humility to accept.

Obama’s Feel-Good Campaign

My first DailyKos Diary! Read below or find it (and vote in the poll!) at DailyKos


Tue Jan 22, 2008 at 08:32:04 PM PST

Warning: My first Diary ever! Please don't be cruel..in fact, be kind. And as for advice, just forget about it...the wise don't need it and fools won't heed it. I usually alternate between wise and foolish, with little time spent in between.

My first Diary is not so much an attack on Sen. Obama as it is an observation on how many of my friends relate to his campaign. This started as a comment, but I realized that I should start making diaries out of all my several paragraph long comments. So here we go:

I keep on hearing people talk about what "appeals" to them. Does anyone else see this as a problem? Follow below for my thoughts (and a great poll!).

Of course Obama "appeals" to people. He has built his entire campaign (and arguably his entire political career) to be as appealing as possible. It's a common thing to see people who belong to a minority but live in a majority of "others" change themselves to be as appealing as possible. "Don't give them any reason to not like you." I am sure my mother told me that when I headed into unknown territory.

His campaign basically makes people feel good for buying into it. Don't get me wrong, all good campaigns have to stroke the egos of their donors and volunteers. Obama has gone much farther than just appreciating his supporters. He has tapped into the aspirations of people and made them believe that by being active in his campaign they are doing what is right and what is good.

IMO, Obama appeals to the psychological needs of many, and that is why he is so popular. So many people, now feeling guilty (and foolish maybe) for their tepid Bush vote or their previous tepid dedication to the Democratic Party, need the perfect excuse for why they have never given a damn but why they all of a sudden do.

Thank you Sen. Obama for enabling the masses of the mushy-middle and the politically unaware, uninvolved, and uncommitted.

Poll

I am active in my candidate's campaign because:
it's the best investment of my finances.
0% 0 votes
I feel good afterwards.
0% 0 votes
my candidate gives me hope.
31% 5 votes
my candidate is likely to get me a sweet civil service position.
0% 0 votes
everyone in my circle supports the same candidate.
0% 0 votes
I am a purist and my candidate is pure as snow.
6% 1 votes
my support will push a great candidate just over the line.
6% 1 votes
they asked me to. (its amazing how a personal call can do that!)
0% 0 votes
my union/company/organization that represents me made an endorsement.
0% 0 votes
they have the best chance of beating a no-name Republican.
6% 1 votes
they are the candidate who can beat a McCain-Huckabee ticket.
6% 1 votes
my capital (and capital earnings) will grow.
6% 1 votes
my labor will rewarded more.
0% 0 votes
their campaign will deny another candidate the nomination,
0% 0 votes
all ships will rise in their tide.
37% 6 votes

| 16 votes | Vote | Results

My Endorsement, and this Friday

Dear Friends,

That's right. This Friday is the day that average Americans, working Americans, union members, progressives, SOUTHERNERS, and populists of the liberal persuasion will stand together and tell America that we are ready for a President who will change the SYSTEM, not just change the gender or color of the White House.

I am supporting John Edwards as our next President because he has the deepest commitment to wrestling power away from the wealthy interests of big business, Wall Street, big medicine, and lobbyists. He understands that you can't compromise power away from the powers that be.... you must take that power back! He, more than any leading candidate, knows that for this country to survive we must have a more equal distribution of wealth, power, and knowledge.

This is not a two horse race! Nationwide polling shows that only John Edwards beats all Republican candidates in the general election. People all across America are realizing that we don't have to elect a candidate just because they raise a $100 million or because they were Mayor of New York on a very bad day in 2001. The media is just now realizing that, lo and behold, voters still make the decision in this country.

By supporting John Edwards, you will be part of a grassroots movement to make the agenda of the Democratic Party more progressive, more democratic, and more people-focused. Every dollar helps John Edwards get his message to people who are ready to hear it. Every vote cast for him in your state primary helps earn more delegates to the national convention. A strong Edwards delegation to the convention will become quite a power broker to establish the agenda of the Democratic Party as a people-focused, progressive, problem-solving, and populist one.

I am giving what I can afford on Friday. Will you be part of this awesome day too?

Sincerely,
Casey

The Reading Year 2007

For those of you who know me well, you know that I like to read. In fact, I read a fair amount. Ever since senior year in high school I have consistently read 25 to 40 books each year and I record my reading meticulously. I have kept a database of the books I have read each year and it is a document that is sort of dear to me. It definitely helps me remember which books I have already read and very few weeks when I update it I get to reminisce about what was going on in my life when I read each book.

This document was stored on my jump drive that I lost early this year. Luckily, I had a version saved on my hard drive and only had to reconstruct about 5 months of reading history. Then this summer my computer crashed…badly I think. Evidently my operating system decided to disappear. I don't know what that really means, but I assume my information is stuck somewhere in the bowels of that useless piece of junk. I did lug the CPU with me to Florida just in case I figure out a way to get my data off of it. Someone want to help me? (Not just advice, actual help!)

I stupidly decided in the spring that I should read something by Jane Austen because I liked one of the movie versions of "Pride and Prejudice." I had found an old copy of "Emma" in a box of trashed books one day, so that seemed like a good place to start. It was a mistake. I hated it, and it took me months to read it because I could only get through a few pages before I tired of it. I read several other books while I was technically reading "Emma."

A similar experience of extended reading has occurred with "Harry Potter y el Caliz de Fuego." I love the book and I read Spanish pretty well, but it is sometimes hard to keep focus while reading in Spanish. I have been reading on it for months, but I got a lot read during my Christmas trip back to Arkansas.

It's not often that I take the advice of anyone, especially in the matter of any sort of cultural consumption, but I did this year. Twice! The first happened with a very nice (and good looking) guy I chatted with online. He is an Air Force guy in Little Rock (formerly from AZ). It was sort of a low spot for me this spring when I didn't know what was going to happen after school ended. I was depressed and very worried, anxious about my life. He was such a great person to talk to. He suggested that I read "The Alchemist," and by chance I had a copy of it, but in Spanish. So I checked out an English copy, read it, loved it, and it was worth following someone's advice on it. During the fall I read the Spanish copy as well.

The second happened here in Florida. My new friend Ric (a certified Mac geek and a reader as well) highly recommended a book and even brought me his copy to encourage me to read it. "Kindred" by Octavia Butler turned out to be an excellent book about a 1970's black woman who is transported to antebellum Maryland. It's kind of science fiction, but it really gets in to the psychology of a woman figuratively and literally torn between two worlds.

Heading home to Fayetteville from Tampa, I had an awkward book moment. The woman next to me pulled out Clive Cussler's "Sahara" to read and I couldn't resist starting a conversation about how it was the first Cussler I had ever written and how my sixth grade teacher had been the one to turn me on to the author.

Lastly, I added Visual Bookshelf to my Facebook. It's pretty neat because I can see what my friends are reading, what they have read, and what they want to read. Hopefully I will get some good ideas for my future reading. Overall, a good year in reading it was and hopefully a good year 2008 will be!