Blogswarm - Online Political News Magazine

"LIMBAUGH: Miss Plastic Surgery. (chuckle) And – I’d – I’d – I – I don’t – I don’t know what the winner – I – and, oh, I didn’t print out both pages, so I don’t know what the – I don’t know what the winner gets. Probably a certificate to go to San Francisco to have an add-a-dick-to-me operation. "

Information regarding the details of what was actually said (or depicted) during the allegedly indecent, profane or obscene broadcast. There is flexibility on how a complainant may provide this information. The complainant may submit a significant excerpt of the program describing what was actually said (or depicted) or a full or partial recording (e.g., tape) or transcript of the material.

In whatever form the complainant decides to provide the information, it must be sufficiently detailed so the FCC can determine the words and language actually used during the broadcast and the context of those words or language. Subject matter alone is not a determining factor of whether material is obscene, profane, or indecent. For example, stating only that the broadcast station “discussed sex” or had a “disgusting discussion of sex” during a program is not sufficient. Moreover, the FCC must know the context when analyzing whether specific, isolated words are indecent or profane. The FCC does not require complainants to provide recordings or transcripts in support of their complaints. Consequently, failure to provide a recording or transcript of a broadcast, in and of itself, will not lead to automatic dismissal or denial of a complaint.


The date and time of the broadcast. Under federal law, if the FCC assesses a monetary forfeiture against a broadcast station for violation of a rule, it must specify the date the violation occurred. Accordingly, it is important that complainants provide the date the material in question was broadcast. A broadcaster’s right to air indecent or profane speech is protected between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Consequently, the FCC must know the time of day that the material was broadcast.

Simon Rosenberg for DNC Chair

One of the most compelling things Simon Rosenberg ever told me was how much he doesn't like unity. Unity is bad, he said, because it's brittle. He prefers dynamism, vibrancy, debate, and wants to see our party as a true party of ideas, replete with healthy arguments. And I've seen him walk the walk. There's fighting passion around Simon, anger, and argument. It's not unity that Simon prizes, which is another word for top-down control. It's professionalism, and winning.

I have known Simon Rosenberg of NDN for less than nine months (I do consulting work for his organization), but he is to me the clear choice for DNC Chair. Simon is a blunt, hypercompetitive, disciplined and strategically minded political operative with that rare gift of appreciating political creativity. His roots are New Democrat, but he has long since abandoned their silly unproductive attitude towards politics, and embraced the netroots vision years ago. The Hispanic project, a groundbreaking media campaign in Spanish and English targeted at Hispanics in swing states, was a clear indication that he doesn't let constituencies fall through the cracks, and approaches old politics with a new mindset. He is a terrific listener, and a guy who can build this party into a modern political machine.

The issue for me in DNC Party Chair is and always has been strategy. The corporate culture of the left is one where strategy is submerged under a large soup of cronyism and dead methods. I have heard this from all quarters, and I believe it is true of the blogs (there's little cronyism among blogs, but a lot of amateurishness of which I can amply claim my share) as well as the state parties (though the state parties are truly neglected). We aren't connected as a party, and the atomization of our culture and message is the obvious result. Simon is a bridge-builder with a strategic mindset. He helped pull together the Phoenix Group, the answer to the vast left-wing conspiracy that will fund our new civil society. He posts on blogs, unlike almost every other political operative out there. He cares what people say, not because he's nice, but because it's stupid not to. People matter in politics, message matters in politics, infrastructure matters in politics - Simon gets this.

I urge you to read his visionfor the party. I believe that Dean would be an excellent choice, and shares many of these traits with Simon. What distinguishes Simon is that he is just a party builder, not a politician. That's important. Dean will lose much of his power if he has to back the message of Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid - and progressives will lose our best voice. And make no mistake, that's what Dean as DNC Chair will be. On message. I believe Dean would be a great President, and should run in 2008. I also believe that DFA needs to continue as a vessel for new entrants to the party. We need our Ken Mehlman, our guy to overhaul the professionalism and morale of the party. Simon can do this - his experience with TV is a boon for his candidacy (NDN has consistently done the best political ads of any group save perhaps Swift Boats); TV still matters, and it is the combination of the net, TV, and organizing that will lead to a progressive resurgence.

To some extent, my choice is colored by my view of the DNC as a vessel for coordinating and institutional bridge-building, not a message machine. I think that message can come from other areas, which is certainly how the right-wing does it. But most of it is due to Simon, who respects dissent, has a vision for the party itself, and values professionalism and reform. I can't say enough good things about Simon Rosenberg. Regardless of whether you support him, I hope that you really take the time to understand his arguments about where the party needs to go, because they are important. The right-wing is winning because of the power of their message and apparatus. We need someone who understands this, sees the potential way to combat it, and can play a holding pattern while the left gradually builds its own set of institutions.

Simon can do this.

Watch the Drafthoward.com TV Ad

A month ago we gathered together a coalition of grassroots leaders, fundraisers, and volunteers that believed we should have voice in the DNC Chair race. Since then we have teamed up with Driving Votes PAC to support Howard Dean. Similarly, many othewrs like Jerome at MyDD, DailyKos, Moveon.org and others have championed the need for a reform candidate.

Now, thanks to your donations, Drafthoward.com and Driving Votes PAC will be taking the next step and taking the grassroots case to the media. We have finished our first TV ad and we will be airing it as soon as we are able to secure time.

Watch the ad:

http://www.sinclairaction.com/

Led by Media Matters for America and supported by MoveOn, MediaChannel.org, Free Press, Working Assets, Robert Greenwald (Director, Outfoxed), AlterNet, and The Institute for America's Future, we have launched a campaign to protest Sinclair Broadcast Group's continued misuse of public airwaves.

The campaign aims to spur action against Sinclair Broadcast Group's use of the 62 television stations it owns or operates to systematically promote partisan political interests. Of particular concern is a nightly "news and commentary" segment titled "The Point," in which Sinclair vice president Mark Hyman consistently espouses one-sided, conservative rhetoric without any counterpoint.

We believe the fairest way to remedy this situation is for Sinclair to provide a meaningful opportunity for those with an opposing point of view to respond to editions of "The Point." With your help, we can hold Sinclair accountable for its slanted news programming and demand that it become a responsible steward of the airwaves to which it has been granted access on behalf of the American people.

We are hopeful advertisers will join our effort to encourage Sinclair to balance the content of their news programming by offering equal air time for a counterpoint.

Contact Advertisers

• Letter to Sinclair
• Letter to Advertisers

Kraft
Chief Executive Officer: Roger K. Deromedi (also Director of The Gillette Company)
Headquarters:
Three Lakes Drive
Northfield, IL 60093)
Main Phone: 847-646-2000
Fax: 847-646-2922

Staples
President and Chief Executive Officer: Ronald L. Sargent
Headquarters:
500 Staples Drive
Framingham, MA 01702
Phone: 508-253-5000
Fax: 800-761-7041

Target
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Robert J. Ulrich
Headquarters:
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Phone: 612-304-6073
Fax: 612-696-3731

Geico
Chairman, President and CEO: Tony Nicely
Headquarters:
5260 Western Avenue
Chevy Chase, MD 20815
Phone: 301-986-3000
Fax: 301-986-2888

McDonalds:
Chief Executive Officer: Jim Skinner
Headquarters:
McDonald's Plaza
Oak Brook, IL 60523
Phone: 630-623-3000
Fax: 630-623-5004

Sprint
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Gary D. Forsee
Headquarters:
Sprint World Headquarters
6200 Sprint Parkway
Overland Park, KS 66251
Phone: 913-624-3000
Fax: 913-523-8312

Governor Dean's Sunday appearance on Meet the Press is now available on video via the MSNBC website. Click below to go to the MSNBC home page—look for the box below to start the clip.

So far, it is an opportunity he has failed to respond to.  No email -- no phone call.  I have since followed up with another call, but only got through to voice mail.  I will try again tomorrow, but I am not holding out much hope.  It's unfortunate.

I don't blame Chairman Brewer for not knowing who Matt & Jerome are.  I also believe that most people would understand if throwing them out was a simple misunderstanding that given more time to sort things out and gain understanding would have played out differently.  I really just wanted to give them a vehicle to get their story out in the medium that is most displeased with the events that took place.  No hatchet job, that is the last thing on my mind.  Just an "open Q&A." 

I don't know what overtures, if any, they have made toward Jerome, Matt, and the blogosphere as a whole.  What I do know is that not reaching out or offering an explanation of some kind about the "mild furor" would be real evidence that they still don't get it.  I hope I am wrong.

ASDC Meeting - Orlando Speech
Remarks by Simon Rosenberg, NDN President
December 11, 2004
(Click here to download pdf version )

[as prepared for delivery]

“Meeting the challenges of the 21st Century”

I want to thank Terry McAuliffe for making the DNC Chairman’s job something worth fighting for. His investments and his leadership has left our Party strong, and prepared to tackle new challenges.

We are here today because together we want to help lead the country with a new strategy – a modern strategy – to restore the great promise of our nation and our party, ensure our ideals and our values and our candidates will win again in all regions of the country and stop the reckless path of the radical Republicans in control of our government today.

I join you today with profound optimism about the journey before us, and a deep belief that the future is ours to reclaim.

We here know – our Party knows -- what the Promise of America means. My family – like so many of yours – came to this country not long ago to work hard to make it in this remarkable land. My family’s history – like yours – is a narrative of hope, opportunity, and hard work.

My father’s parents started their own business but during the depression often had little food to eat. My mother never finished high school, and had three children by the time she was 19, four by the time she was 22. In those hard years, my parents found a home and a voice in our party. And it never let them down.

And that’s why I am a Democrat.

Today’s Democratic Party must become a winning Party again because if we aren’t fighting for all our families– the way we used to fight - then no one else will.

And in all the ways folks have talked about the directions we can go to win again – to the center, to the left, to the South, to the grassroots – I believe the single most important direction we can move as a Party is forward. Forward into the 21st century and all its particular challenges, forward into a new century with a Republican Party ascendant but struggling, forward into a new century with a new modern strategy that can restore the greatness of our Party and offer America a better and much more compelling path.

I don’t have all the answers for what we need to but I do have some thoughts.

We need a fifty state strategy. If we are to be a national Party, we must fight in every state, every county, every town and every parish.

We need a new partnership between the national and state parties. Together we can craft a new modern strategy that allows the national party to better learn from all of you, respects your knowledge of your states, and makes a solemn commitment to rebuild and modernize your parties from the ground up.

We need a bold 21st century vision that applies our traditional Democrats values to new times and that can play in all parts of the country. At its very core it must focus on opportunity, security and values. And we cannot cede the debate about the values that make our country great and our communities strong to the Republicans.

Our new agenda must include a commitment to win the war on terror, keep us safe here at home, lead the world towards greater prosperity and peace; and offer an economic approach restarts growth, is fiscally responsible, provides universal health care and puts people and working families first.

We need to embrace being a Democrat. If we are to convince the American people of our cause, we must make the word Democrat work in all regions of the country. NDN ran two multi-million campaign this year that promoted Democratic values in tough states like Alaska and Oklahoma. We have to embrace and define our values, not run away from them.

We should re-imagine what our Democratic community looks like. Technology has allowed us to envision a very different type of Party, one built from the ground up, with the labor, money and passion of average Americans fueling our efforts. We need to turn this new wave of activism into something that revitalizes your parties across the country.

We must build a new modern intellectual, political and media infrastructure to match what the Republicans have built over the past generation that will give you more support on the ground.

We need to invest in and better groom our leaders. Elected officials, party leaders, media consultants, investors, entrepreneurs, academics, bloggers – all need more and better training earlier in their careers. We must take leadership development much more seriously.

We can use modern media and technology to design strategies to speak to every community. Our proper obsession with swing voters cannot allow us to neglect groups like African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, rural voters, and young voters. NDN just completed a $6 million national media campaign targeted at recent immigrants. We can replicate this type of modern campaign in other communities and in every state.

We have to build our new majority in the coming America. Republicans are winning with growing regions and groups. They won in 97 of the fastest growing 100 counties; most of the so called red states are gaining population, the blues ones losing. They are making real gains with Hispanics, the fast-growing part of the population. We have to project forward and build a new majority coalition based on where people are going not where they’ve been.

And today, here in Florida of all places, we should commit to make sure that every vote is counted – and that in this DNC election: you have a say, you have a voice, your vote is counted, and there are no backroom deals. We need an election and a healthy spirited debate about our future.

I believe I am uniquely qualified to build this emerging Party of the 21st century. I have proven I can build, manage, unify, fight, lead and win. My organization, NDN, has raised ten of millions of dollars, helped hundreds of candidates win in all regions of the country, offered a compelling agenda for the future and produced powerful media that has made our voice louder and more clear. What I do today is very close to what the Chair’s job requires, and I have shown I can do my current job and do it well.

The task of building our modern party is urgent. Despite their effective political machine, Republican government is making America weaker, less prosperous, less safe and less free. Their government is weakening America, betraying its values and hurting the very people we represent. America is counting on to organize ourselves in a new way to defeat them at their game. Because Americans know if Democrats don’t effectively fight for them then no one else will.

We have an important to choice to make – status quo, or a modern path forward. This is no time to settle. It is a time to be bold and confident, a time to choose hope, progress, optimism, faith in the future and a new path forward that allow us to win again in all regions of the country and meet the challenges of this dynamic century.

Our best days are ahead of us my friends. I look forward to working with you to make them so.

Thank you .

Further study of this List of Shame shows that it includes 25 states out of the 32 with 2006 Senate races. (Maryland did not make the list, but their blog only has 2 posts).

This means 80% of State Parties with senate races in 2006 are unprepared to support our nominees with modern campaigns.

Luckily, we have time to correct the gross incompetence of the State Parties before the senate races heat up.

If you care about your State Party enacting the reforms and modernizations necessary for Democrats to win back the senate, please use the DNC Get Local tool to contact your State Party.

Monday, December 13th, 2004
It's Time to Stop Being Hit...a letter from Michael Moore

Dear Friends,

It is no surprise that the Republicans are sore winners. They have spent the better part of the past month beating their chests, threatening to send to Siberia any Republican who doesn't toe the line (poor Arlen Specter), and promising everything short of martial law if the Democrats don't do what they are told.

What's worse is to watch the pathetic sight of the DLC (the conservative, pro-corporate group of Democrats) apologizing for being Democrats and promising to "purge" the party of the likes of, well, all of US! Their comments are so hilarious and really not even worth recognizing but the media is paying so much attention to them, I thought it might be worth doing a little reality check.

The most people the DLC is able to get out to an event of theirs is about 200 at their annual dinner (where you have to pay thousands of dollars to get in).

Contrast this with the following:

*Total members of Move On: More than 2,000,000
*Total Attendance at Vote for Change Concerts: An estimated 280,000
*Total Union Members in U.S.: Around 16,000,000
*Total Number of People Who Have Seen "Fahrenheit 9/11": Over 50 million
*Total number of you reading this: Perhaps 10 million or more

The days of trying to move the Democratic Party to the right are over. We lost a very close election (a one-state difference) by running the #1 liberal in the Senate. Not bad. The country is shifting in our direction, not to the right. But the country was attacked and people were scared. They were manipulated with fear. And America has never thrown a sitting president out during wartime. That's the facts. Oh, and our candidate could have run a better campaign (but we'll have that discussion another day).

In the meantime, while we reflect on what went wrong, I would like to pass on to you an essay that a friend who works with abuse victims sent to me. It was written by a woman who has spent years working as an advocate for victims of domestic abuse and she sees many parallels between her work and the reaction of many Democrats to last month's election. Her name is Mel Giles and here is what she had to say...

Watch Dan Rather apologize for not getting his facts straight, humiliated before the eyes of America, voluntarily undermining his credibility and career of over thirty years. Observe Donna Brazille squirm as she is ridiculed by Bay Buchanan, and pronounced irrelevant and nearly non-existent. Listen as Donna and Nancy Pelosi and Senator Charles Schumer take to the airwaves saying that they have to go back to the drawing board and learn from their mistakes and try to be better, more likable, more appealing, have a stronger message, speak to morality. Watch them awkwardly quote the bible, trying to speak the `new' language of America. Surf the blogs, and read the comments of dismayed, discombobulated, confused individuals trying to figure out what they did wrong. Hear the cacophony of voices, crying out, "Why did they beat me?"

And then ask anyone who has ever worked in a domestic violence shelter if they have heard this before.

They will tell you: Every single day.

The answer is quite simple. They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence.

As victims we can't stop asking ourselves what we did wrong. We can't seem to grasp that they will keep hitting us and beating us as long as we keep sticking around and asking ourselves what we are doing to deserve the beating.

Listen to George Bush say that the will of God excuses his behavior. Listen, as he refuses to take responsibility, or express remorse, or even once, admit a mistake. Watch him strut, and tell us that he will only work with those who agree with him, and that each of us is only allowed one question (soon, it will be none at all; abusers hit hard when questioned; the press corps can tell you that). See him surround himself with only those who pledge oaths of allegiance. Hear him tell us that if we will only listen and do as he says and agree with his every utterance, all will go well for us (it won't; we will never be worthy).

And watch the Democratic Party leadership walk on eggshells, try to meet him, please him, wash the windows better, get out that spot, distance themselves from gays and civil rights. See the Democrats cry for the attention and affection and approval of the President and his followers. Watch us squirm. Watch us descend into a world of crazy-making, where logic does not work and the other side tells us we are nuts when we rely on facts. A world where, worst of all, we begin to believe we are crazy.

How to break free? Again, the answer is quite simple.

First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized. You don't do this by responding to their demands, or becoming more like them, or engaging in logical conversation, or trying to persuade them that you are right. You also don't do this by going catatonic and resigned, by closing up your ears and eyes and covering your head and submitting to the blows, figuring its over faster and hurts less if you don't resist and fight back.

Instead, you walk away. You find other folks like yourself, 57 million of them, who are hurting, broken, and beating themselves up. You tell them what you've learned, and that you aren't going to take it anymore. You stand tall, with 57 million people at your side and behind you, and you look right into the eyes of the abuser and you tell him to go to hell. Then you walk out the door, taking the kids and gays and minorities with you, and you start a new life. The new life is hard. But it's better than the abuse.

We have a mandate to be as radical and liberal and steadfast as we need to be. The progressive beliefs and social justice we stand for, our core, must not be altered. We are 57 million strong. We are building from the bottom up. We are meeting, on the net, in church basements, at work, in small groups, and right now, we are crying, because we are trying to break free and we don't know how.

Any battered woman in America, any oppressed person around the globe who has defied her oppressor will tell you this: There is nothing wrong with you. You are in good company. You are safe. You are not alone. You are strong. You must change only one thing: Stop responding to the abuser.

Don't let him dictate the terms or frame the debate (he'll win, not because he's right, but because force works). Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it fail-proof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, "loose," irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.

Even if you do everything right, they'll hit you anyway. Look at the poor souls who voted for this nonsense. They are working for six dollars an hour if they are working at all, their children are dying overseas and suffering from lack of health care and a depleted environment and a shoddy education.

And they don't even know they are being hit.

How true. And that is our challenge over the next couple of years; to hold out our hand to those being hit the hardest and help them leave behind a party that only seeks to keep beating them, their children, and the kid next door who's on his way to Iraq.

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com