Something Positive

[yesthattom]

I’ve been pretty pessimistic about our world lately because of all the bad things that the Bush Crime Family is doing to our world. So I’m trying to collect a couple reasons to be optimistic about our future.

• Liberals are meeting to leapfrog the Conservative thinking about the constitution
• ACLU is doing something about government spying. Is the Government spying on you? how to tell!
• Ridge admits that the “Terror Level” was often set for political reasons (don’t deny that it was used to distract people from Kerry’s campaign)
• Liberals are getting their shit together with a anti-Terror plan that is SMART.
• Microsoft is breaking ties with Ralph Reed
• Pat Tillman’s parents are speaking out against Bush, Jr and his war

Post your positive news here!

Comments

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

Howard Dean called. My house, that is. M had written him a righteous rant about what happened at the Massachusetts Democratic convention (how the State Committee had taken ALL power and possibility of power away from party activists (read: progressives)) and he actually called to find out more. Maybe there's hope, after all. Slim hope, but hope.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

http://www.forbetterlife.org

I'm hopeful that if we concentrate on the good, the rest will follow.

[mycroft.livejournal.com]

There are multiple ways to read that. Certainly the fact that our government is repeatedly lying to us does not make me optimistic. At all. And the fact that they are starting to groom Jeb to run in 2008 makes me even less so.

[kathdem.livejournal.com]

Bush may have lost his "political capital": http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/30/AR2005053000891.html (requires free registration."

[rakshathewolf.livejournal.com]

Now that Deep Throat's out and being hailed as a hero, maybe someone will be inspired to follow in his footsteps.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

We've had a number of attempts by former Administration officials to blow the whistle on what they've seen in the Bush Administration: Paul O'Neil, Richard Clark, Joe Wilson, even Tom Ridge in the cited story. The press pays attention for a minute, the White House and the right-wing spin machine vilify the critic, and the news cycle moves on, without any lingering sense that the Administration's credibility has been damaged. We lack two things that really did Nixon in: a press prepared to challenge the president and an opposition Congress. I think that things need to be changed at a more grassroots, organizational level, under the media's radar.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the article about liberal constitutional strategies. I'm in agreeement with those who stress that liberals need to rediscover the arts of populist persuasion and legislation. It's the only way to combat the "liberal elite" stereotype. Moreover, the winning political side ultimately gets to pick the judges.

But I notice that the article virtually defines liberalism as "minoritarian" and conservatism as "majoritarian." That's the trap that the left absolutely, positively has to get out of. "Majoritarianism" is basically populism, and populist movements can respond to either the majority's economic worries (left-wing populism) or their cultural ones (right-wing populism). I agree with Thomas Frank (author of What's the Matter with Kansas?)that conservatives are in control now in large part because they've learned to harness cultural populism, and that the left needs to rediscover economic populism. When populist economics are harnessed to a commitment to human rights, you have a politically viable liberalism that can really contest the right's grip on Congress and the presidency. Of course, turning your back on the corporate world would mean having to find a better way of financing campaigns--something like Howard Dean's internet-based fundraising machine ...

you want something positive ...

[geeksdoitbetter.livejournal.com]

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp01082002.shtml

has been one of my favs for awhile - the archives kick ass, start at the begining