Back Obama not the war
http://richardkanepa.blogspot.com/2010/02/back-obama-not-war.html
http://www.readersupportednews.org/pm-section/24-afghanistan/1015-suppor...
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/30169

The arrest of a Taliban peace leader is an opportunity to negotiate with him the end of the war.
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/news-flash-ny-times-mentions-mullar-baradar-...

Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, of Erie.

This is almost impossible to believe - but it's actually true.

About a month ago, the Obama administration announced its intent to write policy that would protect, by law, the freedom that has allowed the Internet to grow and flourish.

It's no joke that such protection is needed. Repression of the Internet by the corporations that control it has already started.

Last month, Apple told a healthcare reform group that they wouldn't carry a healthcare reform app on their AT&T network for 30 million iPhones because it was "politically charged"...

...two years ago, it was Verizon refusing to transmit text messages from NARAL Pro-choice America.

The House of Representatives is on recess, and the hottest political topic for Congressmen & women during their summer vacation is going to be health care reform. The Senate will go on recess next week, and will be coming home to constituent events around the state.

The same folks who showed up to McCain/Palin events and made outrageous statements about our current president are out in full force to deny him a major political victory--and they don't seem to much care that doing that will actually hurt everyday working Americans.

I attended yesterday's Town Hall meeting with Secretary of Health Sebelius and Senator Specter, and I think that the other health care reform supporters who joined me there will agree that we underestimated the fervor with which the right is organizing to defeat health care reform. Among other conversations I had with the Tea Party crew, one woman told me that people who don't have health care "just don't work hard enough."

In a recent column, http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/39129332.html, in the Daily News Philadelphia's Dwight Evans made an outrageous comment.

Excerpt:

When I point out to House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans that in the past he was never a fan of funding government through gambling, he says, "People change. We're living in a time of change we can believe in."

Here's some easy reading.

This Freakonomics article refers to a supposed "public library renaissance," and links to a Boston globe article purporting libraries to being a sort of recession sanctuary.

Just thought I'd quickly link to some nationally-read literature regarding the prevailing topic at hand, in case you might have missed them.

Last month, the Nutter administration submitted a $2.6 billion wish list to the Obama transition team. At the top of the money pile – ahead of new schools and a youth study center? The Market East/Foxwoods casino – coming in at a cool $167 million* (correction: $125 million).

Just because there’s no plan in place doesn’t stop the City from putting it forth. After all, here was Terry Gillen’s reason for including the Market East casino project:

"We just want to make sure the opportunity for funding doesn't go away just because the project's not ready to be defined," said Terry Gillen, executive director of the Redevelopment Authority and senior adviser to the mayor.

Well, it’s not just Philadelphians who aren’t sold on that kind of logic. Earlier this week, the national press, including the Washington Post and CNBC, took notice of this line item after GOP leaders flagged it as one of the top examples of a stimulus package that was pork barrel politics as usual:

I am still blown away (esp with the secret service saying McPailin's rheotoric increased death threats on Obama) by the overt racism in McCain's campaign, and the disgust I felt motivated me to support Obama the most yet. Indeed, the fact that many white people (I head 55% of whites voted McCain and 45% Obama) rejected this crap... This very fact is what I am excited about, but I am still cautious, and I think the most obvious thing that we need to do, is continue to harness all the positive energy of the Obama campaign, and take this as far to the left as we can... At least some New Deal stuff, you know.

Well, I hope you enjoy this new essay by Philly writer David Love. I like his perspective, much like Mumia's as in coming from a radical background, Love does acknowledge much of the good of Obama being elected... but also recognizes that we now need to battle to get the most from it.

It's barely 48 hours since the exaltation of Obama's win. But the mainstream effort to curtail Obama's progressive instincts has already begun, with a wide variety of politicians and pundits opining as on cue that the new president must go slowly, depend on Republican support, and delay perhaps indefinitely, anything that represents a real change of course. As progressives we have to fight that narrative tooth and nail.

Many of us put enormous energy into the fight to elect Obama. We owe it to all that we care about to fight like hell to make his Presidency a transformative one, not one that gets us all stuck in the middle of a potholed road. And so we must model ourselves after our new president. We must all become community organizers.

Can a night get any bigger than tonight? Wow.

Please join Drinking Liberally + the Northwest Philadelphia office of the Obama campaign at North by Northwest (7165 Germantown Ave.) at 8:00 PM tonight as we watch the returns come in, and hopefully celebrate the restoration of democracy to the United States. Regime change begins at home!

Drink to Democracy!
-Z

Here, and in 9 other battleground states nearly 1,600 have signed up to volunteer in the critical 96 hours before the election.

We're putting out names down for the last 96 hours because we worry this race could be much closer than the polls predict.

Will all of the hard work and long hours be enough?

With your help, it will be.

Click here to Volunteer in the final 96 hours

Here are a couple of reasons why we shouldn't take anything for granted.

* Record turnouts are expected on Election Day, but it's unclear if polling places are ready for the deluge of new voters. With long waits and new voting technology in several states, polls can't predict how voters will react.

On Election Day, Drinking Liberally: Mount Airy is going to join once again w/the Northwest office of the Obama campaign + watch the returns at North by Northwest, 7165 Germantown Ave., from 8:00 PM - whenever. Please join us and let's raise a mighty noise to the notion that regime change begins at home!

Drink to Democracy!
-Z

The PA Voter Protection Team needs your urgent help!

We have 1000 new names of attorneys and law students to call who might be able to serve as poll monitors on Election Day. Will you please help us?

Obama Field Office
15th St. & Sansome
4pm - 9pm + debate watching party!
Pizza & libations will be served

You do not have to attend the entire time. Please come when you want and for as long as you can! Bring your friends!

Please RSVP to Jennifer Hill (jhill@voteforchangepa.com) so that we can get a head count!

Thank you!

Voter Protection Team

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A recent study by Families USA shows that healthcare premiums for working families in Pennsylvania have increased by almost 90% since 2000. The average cost for family health coverage is now $12,513. At the same time wages are stagnating and companies are shifting an ever greater portion of insurance costs onto their employees. McCain's plan would significantly exacerbate this problem by eviscerating the employer sponsored model of health insurance and forcing people into the more expensive individual insurance market. Here is an article that does a good job describing what McCain's plan would do http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/29/125427/457?new=true

By contrast, Obama has set forth a proposal that would help alleviate this burden on working families while also expanding coverage for children and the uninsured. The following blog does a good job of contrasting this plan to McCain's http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jared-bernstein/guts-brains-and-health-ca_....

Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, recently described in an interview the catestrophic impact McCain's healthcare policies would have on healthcare coverage for children. Scary!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/childrens-defense-fund-fo_b_1...