Blogswarm - Online Political News Magazine

Thomas Menino is a dipshit. The Boston cops kill some 21-year-old Emerson student, and instead of blaming the cops for killing the girl, he blames the victim by blaming the fans?

This young woman is killed because some cop with small man's disease decided to fire "non-lethal" (but deadly) rounds into a crowd of 60,000 - 80,000.

But instead of suspending the police force, he suspends beer at the World Series??

What a fuckin dipshit. Whoever has the best chance of beating Thomas Menino will get a check from me. Menino can kiss my ass, anything he ever attempts to do for the rest of his life, I will oppose. Fuck Menino.

P.S. My apologies to the family of the young woman slain by the police. I hope the people responsible for her untimely death will be held responsible, including Mayor Menino.

We have the momentum right now in the state polls, so lets use it!  In fact, we have emerging evidence that we may have a Kerry landslide on our hands.  

Let's breed the momentum!  Make people start expecting a Kerry landslide!  Let the Dems know they need to get out and vote for the winner!  Let the undecideds know that if they back Kerry, they back a winner!

And this is just with the states where Kerry is up.  I'm setting aside the RED states where he's in striking distance in latest polling (like AR, VA, NC, CO, NV, WV - all of which have one or more polls showing Kerry w/in 5 points)  

Thread in the emerging stories that major newspapers (including many that backed Bush in 2000) and prominent Republicans are backing Kerry (or snubbing Bush) !  It's part of the tidal wave!

If you provide more positives, I'll update. Numbers below the fold...

Diaries :: VirginiaDem's diary ::

The latest polls (excluding Strategic Vision polls - a GOP outfit - and Fox's sketchy OH poll that still polls for Nader):

Ohio (Nader off the ballot):

ABC News: Bush 47% Kerry 50% - Kerry +3
SurveyUSA: Bush 47% Kerry 49% - Kerry +2
Rasmussen: Bush 47% Kerry 47% - TIED
U. Cinn. Ohio Poll: Bush 46% Kerry 48% - Kerry +3

Florida:

SurveyUSA: Bush 49% Kerry 50% - Kerry +1
Mason-Dixon: Bush 48% Kerry 45% - Bush +3
Univ of North Fl: Bush 44% Kerry 45% - Kerry +1
Rasmussen: Bush 49% Kerry 46% - Bush +3

Penn. (Nader off the ballot):

SurveyUSA: Bush 45% Kerry 51% - Kerry +6
Rasmussen: Bush 46% Kerry 47% - Kerry +1
Quinnipiac: Bush 47% Kerry 49% - Kerry +2
ARG: Bush 46% Kerry 48% - Kerry +2

New Hampshire:

Suffolk Univ: Bush 41% Kerry 46% - Kerry +5
Research 2000: Bush 45% Kerry 49% - Kerry +4
ARG: Bush 47% Kery 47% - TIE
Franklin-Pierce: Bush 42% Kerry 49% - Kerry +7

Iowa:

ARG: Bush 47% Kerry 47% - TIE
Chicago Trib: Bush 47% Kerry 45% - Bush +2
Rasmussen: Bush 46% Kerry 50% - Kerry +4
SUSA: Bush 47% Kerry 48% - Kerry +1

Wisconsin:

Rasmussen: Bush 47% Kerry 48% - Kerry +1
Chicago Tribune: Bush 43% Kerry 47% - Kerry +4
Gallup/CNN/USAT: Bush 49% Kerry 46% - Bush +3

Minnesota - including partisan GOP polls to underscore the point:

Rasmussen: Bush 47% Kerry 47% - TIE
Strategic Vision (GOP): Bush 45% Kerry 47% - Kerry +2
Star-Tribune: Bush 43% Kerry 48% - Kerry +5
Chicago Tribune: Bush 43% Kerry 45% - Kerry +2
Strategic Vision: Bush 46% Kerry 47% - Kerry +1

Michigan - including partisan GOP polls to underscore the point:

Strategic Vision (GOP): Bush 40% Kerry 48% - Kerry +8
Research 2000: Bush 43% Kerry 48% - Kerry +5
Rasmussen: Bush 46% Kerry 49% - Kerry +3
SUSA: Bush 42% Kerry 52% - Kerry +10  

Oregon:

CNN/USAT/Gallup: Bush 45% Kerry 53% - Kerry +8
Research 2000: Bush 44% 50% - Kerry +6
Riley Research: 48% 43% - Bush +5
ARG: Bush 44% Kerry 49% - Kerry +5
SurveyUSA: Bush 44% Kerry 53% - Kerry +9

Washington - including partisan GOP polls to underscore the point:

SurveyUSA: Bush 45% Kerry 52% - Kerry +7
Strategic Vision (GOP): Bush 44% Kerry 49% - Kerry +5
SurveyUSA: Bush 43% Kerry 54% - Kerry +11
Rasmussen: Bush 43% Kerry 50% - Kerry +7

Update [2004-10-20 15:47:38 by VirginiaDem]: Note that Bush is not over 50% IN ANY OF THESE POLL NUMBERS. Heck, he's not over 48% in almost all of them (save Florida). Not good for an incumbent President two weeks before election day.

Update [2004-10-20 15:47:38 by VirginiaDem]: Title changed per suggestion in comments. OpMo is joined - move out!

Update [2004-10-20 15:47:38 by VirginiaDem]: The movement needs battle plans:

1. Blast the media (as usual)

2. Blog about the Kerry landslide - use the polling numbers, GOPers supporting Kerry as proof. This will effect the media too.

3. Email everyone about Kerry's mo - heck just cut & paste my numbers into an email.

4. Word of mouth is huge! (Example: Everytime I hear a Dem say "Ugh" about a national poll, I say "that's just because of Texas and the praire states, Kerry is winning in Ohio and Florida.")

5. Of course, most important is keeping up all other efforts (like GOTV).

Why the Draft is Awesome!

From your friends at ENJOYtheDRAFT.com 

The draft is coming and I'm totally psyched!

Still, some of my friends are hassling me, spamming me with all sorts of scary stuff telling me how Bush is going to bring back the draft, so I should vote for Kerry. And I’m like, hello, I should vote to avoid the draft? Fuck that. The draft is TOTALLY GONNA RULE. So I started this site to make sure that no one takes away MY right to a draft.

But first of all, how do I know the draft is coming back?

And there’s other awesome things about Bush bringing back the draft, like travel. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never left the country. But when I’m drafted, I’ll get to go to Iraq or Iran or Syria or, who knows, maybe even North Korea. I've always wanted to see Pyongyang and other places no one has ever fucking heard of!

What else is gonna be cool about a draft?

• This time around there won’t be college deferments, so even if you’re already in college, you’ll get to go. It’ll be like cutting class for four fucking years. 
• At boot camp, you don’t have to hit the gym anymore because they have personal trainers to scream and beat you at 5 in the morning. 
• Okay, it’s not like being a real celebrity, but Michael Moore might include your grieving mom in his next movie. 
• The military will give you free health care if you lose a major body part, and they will totally pay for your funeral. 

They’ve really thought of everything!

Could we avoid a draft?

Sure, I mean, we don't have enough troops, but if we changed our foreign policy to cooperate more with other countries, we might be able to avoid a draft. But - like, hello? - why would we want to do that? The draft is gonna rule!

And since Bush keeps going into new countries to kick their ass, and has beat down Iraq to where we need more and more troops, we've got to reelect him and make sure that a draft could start as early as six months from now! 

Still, this election is going to be close. But Bush is slightly ahead in the polls, and young people usually don't vote, so things look good for both Bush and the draft.

Three months ago, nobody thought Ginny Schrader had a chance of winning in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District. Ginny was running against a popular, pro-choice Republican, because she wanted to talk about the issues and realized Democrats need to win decisively in the 8th CD for Kerry to capture PA's 21 Electoral Votes.

Daily Kos - Mon Jul 19th, 2004 at 20:43:28 GMT
Mr. Liberal: Breaking News: GOP Congressman Greenwood (PA-08) Leaving Congress This Year.

I just read this at PoliticsPA.com and in a breaking news e-mail from RollCall.com. Congressman Jim Greenwood, a moderate Republican in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional district, just announced he will not seek reelection this year, instead removing his name from the ballot. The Democrat, Virginia "Ginny" Schrader, is an attorney who has just $7,000 in the bank as of June 30th. Greenwood's district voted for Gore in 2000 by a decent amount, and the GOP is now scrambling for a replacement.

Schrader's website is http://www.ginnyschrader.com/ . A good place to contribute to would be at ACTBLUE at http://actblue.com/list/Schrader , as it will track the donations recieved for the campaign.

I would suggest that we get involved ASAP. This seat is a Democratic-leaning one, and is too good to miss. Schrader is a liberal-to-moderate, pro-choice Democrat. In addition, she supports civil unions and is against Bush's positions on Iraq and the Patriot Act. She is an attorney who ran for State Rep. in 2002 and lost by a respectable margin.

This is completely out of left field, folks, and it gives us another opportunity for a pickup. Ginny Schrader is the luckiest candidate in the nation today, but can her luck hold?

Daily Kos - Tue Jul 20th, 2004 at 01:20:09 GMT
Kos: PA-08: Ginny update

I just spoke with Virginia "Ginny" Schrader, and the news is spectacular. Between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET, her campaign has raised $14K online. Some from Daily Kos, some from other sources. This is a blogosphere-wide phenomenon.

She also going to be our candidate heading into November. And more importantly, she hasn't been asked by any prominent local or state Dems to step aside for someone else. That doesn't mean that the party can't change its mind once it has analyzed the situation with a sober mind, but 1) Ginny has put her entire life on hold for this race, and isn't about to drop it, and 2) the money coming in tonight will act as insurance, helping put to rest the "she can't raise money" excuse they might otherwise deploy.

Despite her limited resources, Ginny has already assembled a staff of two full-timers and a host of full-time volunteers, and has been receiving the enthusiastic help of local Dean groups (including one across state lines in New Jersey). I'm not sure if the Philly for Dean people are helping out, but that was one of the best Dean groups in the country. Hopefully they'll lend a hand. Especially since, given the ridiculously expensive Philly media market, her campaign plans on running a heavy ground operation.

Her campaign has already done joint canvassing with the local Kerry effort, and ACT is active in the area. It's going to be a battleground district for the presidential race, and their heavy emphasis on the ground game should have positive repercussions up and down the ticket. Spectacular news indeed.

Update: I originally wrote that Ginny had five paid staffers. My mistake, I misheard. It's actually two, but the new cash already has them looking to beef up their staff.

Swing State Project - Monday, July 19, 2004
DavidNYC: Help Ginny Schrader in PA-8

As you probably know, my election-year mantra is "Make Them Sweat:" Contest every race, and fight hard in each one. We won't win them all, but we'll make life a hell of a lot tougher for the other side. Just check out what Richard Morrison has managed to do down in Texas: For the first time in ages, I'm told, Tom DeLay is actually nervous enough that he's opened up a campaign office. (And not one, but two!)

The best part about following this strategy is that every once in a while, you get supremely lucky. And that, folks, has happened today. The blogosphere (led by DKos) has been abuzz with the news that Rep. Jim Greenwood, a "moderate" Republican representing Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District (Philly suburbs), has decided to retire.

This is a district which went narrowly for both Gore and Rendell. In short, it's a race we can definitely win, now that it's been thrown wide open. And you already know how important a swing state PA is, and how crucial it is for us to drive up turnout in the heavily Democratic Philadelphia region.

Our candidate, Ginny Schrader, looks good on paper in all aspects but one: She's very low on funds. We can make a huge difference overnight if we chip in to help her out - and we can also scare off any Republicans who might consider entering this race now. Imagine the headlines tomorrow or the next day if the blogosphere rapid-response network can toss Ginny some serious coin. I've seldom suggested donating to a particular candidate, but the special nature of this situation makes it impossible to pass up.

I suggest donating via ActBlue, which makes it much easier to track where donations come from. (And don't worry, ActBlue gives 100% of all donations to the campaigns.) I've already made a contribution - I hope you can make one, too.

Let's go, Ginny!

P.S. I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that as Bush's situation looks more dire, and the prospects for Democrats to retake the Presidency and Congress look better and better, more Republicans will start announcing their retirements. If you're in your 60s, say, and facing the possibility of returning to D.C. in the minority party, the warm embrace of your grandkids - and that cushy lobbying job in the private sector - start to look very tempting.

UPDATE: Kos just informed us that Ginny's campaign raised an astounding $14,000 online in just four hours tonight. This is going to be a big story.

Stakeholder -Monday, July 19, 2004 at 4:59 PM
Jesse Lee: Greenwood Out in PA-8?

politicspa.com:
Sources tell PoliticsPA that Congressman Jim Greenwood will end his re-election bid and retire. This sets off a scramble within the Bucks County GOP to find a suitable replacement. According the her most recent Federal Elections Commission report, the Democratic PA8 nominee, Virginia Schrader, has $7,741 cash on hand.

Check back for details.

Hate to see ya go.

Update: Reader Jason rightly admonishes us for not posting a link to Greenwood's opponent, Ginny Schrader. Go pay her a visit, and may Jason forgive us as it is our regular practice to do so, I simply got called into a meeting as it was happening.

Update II: The good folks at ActBlue write in comments-
We've set up a page at ActBlue to track donations to Ginny Schraeder. You can give here:
http://actblue.com/list/schrader

I'm doing periodic updates of how much people are giving on the comments thread on dkos and also on the web page.

MyDD - Tue Jul 20th, 2004 at 12:42:44 AM EST
Jerome Armstrong: The way of the blogosphere

There's an interesting thing happening. You could feel it growing from this morning, and kos and I were talking back and forth about the possibility. You just can't prepare for these things. It's like a mob blog or something. Neat stuff has happened since the story broke earlier by Yellin on Daily Kos, and Bowers here on MyDD.

The progressive & lefty blogosphere has been on fire all day today for Virginia "Ginny" Schrader, with probably nearly $20K raised so far today. If the campaign plays the news right, they will be able to propel the amount quite a bit higher, even into the six-digit numbers. Though most of the contributions have been rocketing through Daily Kos visits, there's a number of other sites trumpeting the blogosphere's bounty of cash on Ginny's candidacy. Pennsylvania's Atrios did a "drive by" post yesterday, Steve Gilliard has a post about it, Our Congress, the Swing State Project, and Blog For America just posted about the story.  Heck, even though the DCCC's official spokesperson is totally clueless ("Speed declined to comment on whether Schrader could -- or even would -- be replaced with another candidate") at least the Stakeholder can see what's happening, good work Jesse Lee.

While the DCCC states that "we're watching developments closely and are optimistic should the seat open up," the blogosphere is leading the way. The DCCC will come around, so likely will a Dean (Bakers) Dozen endorsement, and EMILY to make some bread.

Heading to Boston to cover the Democratic convention next week as a blogger, I've gotten more than a few reporters calling to ask about blogs and some are really trying to figure out what's happening, to get a handle on it... Well, look no further, this is live.

MyDD - Mon Jul 19th, 2004 at 05:48:33 PM EST
Chris Bowers: Ginny Schrader for Congress, PA-8

Democrats have just caught a remarkable break. James Greenwood, the Republican congressman from PA-8 (Bucks county, northern Philadelphia suburbs) has decided not run for re-election. This leaves Virginia "Ginny" Schrader with an excellent chance to win in this slightly lean-Dem district. In 2000, it went for Gore 50.7-46.9-2.4. This is exactly the sort of luck that Democrats need to pounce on in order to take back the House sooner, rather than in 2012.

I have never asked you to do this before, but today I am asking. Donate to Ginny Schrader today. Thus far, she has only raised $13,191, but that is going to change. Add $.02 to your donation so they know it came from MyDD.

If you need to check out Scharder's issue page first, be my guest. I do not think you will be disappointed. I am going to take a strong personal interest in this race. Go Ginny!

Update(Jerome): I chipped in $50 and my 2 cents toward Ginny. The philly burb has more on the story. Come on everyone, she's in the race to stay, she's the kind of progressive we want to elect, and all she's lacking is the funds to win this race. It's a Democratic district, Gore/Nader got 54% in the new redistricted 8th. Hit it.

Daily Kos - Tue Jul 20th, 2004 at 07:10:00 GMT
Kos: DCCC Fails Schrader

It's this sort of bullshit that keeps pushing me further away from the party committess:

This is a very good opportunity for a Democratic pickup. This a district that is every day becoming Democratic," said Greg Speed, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"Bucks County was carried by [Gov.] Ed Rendell [D-Pa.] by over 50,000 votes. We're watching developments closely and are optimistic should the seat open up," Speed said.

Speed declined to comment on whether Schrader could -- or even would -- be replaced with another candidate.

What these DCCC should realize is that you never, NEVER, talk down a candidate. Now, assuming Schrader is staying in the race as promised, Speed has made it look as though she's second choice. That given the chance, the DCCC would've preferred someone else in the race.

Well, if the fucking DCCC wanted someone else in the race, they should've recruited that person to begin with. But from where I'm sitting, Ginny is doing just fine. She has great creds, and has been working the district tirelessly over the last few months. And that $7,000 in the bank has taken a turn for the better over the last 8 hours, no thanks to the geniuses at the D-trip who have handicapped the Democrats into long-time minority status.

Let them try to touch her. Just let them.

The rules are changing. The party committees no longer have unquestioned control over such decisions. We now have a voice, and I'm taking this chance to flex ours.

As Jerome notes, Ginny is now a bona-fide blogosphere celebrity. Keep an eye on Technorati to gauge how the story spreads.

Update: Perfect example of what I'm pissed about. As the story breaks, Jesse Lee enthusiastically blogs the outpouring of support for Schrader over at the DCCC blog, linking to the ActBlue fundraising page and all. Then, a few hours later, he is forced toe the party line:

I know a lot of folks are wondering about our candidate situation, but if Greg Speed has no comment, nor do I - sorry.

The way to respond to the reporter's question whether the party would seek a replacement candidate would've been to say, "We look forward to working with Schrader to pull the district into the Democratic column." And then, they could've done whatever backroom maneouvering they felt necessary, however unsavory that might be.

But refusing to end speculation that the party may try to replace Ginny simply harms her efforts. Especially considering they can't force her off the ticket and she doesn't intend to go.

Update: Much of the commentary runs along the lines of, "well, maybe the reporter misinterpreted Speed" when writing that "no comment" line. Well, that's the nice thing about having a blog. The DCCC could easily clarify their position at the Stakeholder. Instead, they merely reinforced the "no comment" line.

I also cleaned up some of the language in this post.

---

Four days later, Salon: At the speed of blog:

After a Republican congressman resigned unexpectedly, a lefty blogger called for readers to send money to his opponent -- and the cash poured in.

On Monday afternoon, July 19, Stephen Yellin, a 16-year-old politics junkie and frequent contributor to the lefty blog Daily Kos, noticed an intriguing development in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District, an area to the north of Philadelphia. The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call was reporting that Jim Greenwood, the district's popular, moderate Republican congressman, had unexpectedly decided not to seek reelection, meaning that his House seat was now up for grabs. This is the sort of news that sets partisans like Yellin jumping for joy, and so, of course, he blogged about it.

"I would suggest that we get involved ASAP," Yellin, who goes by the handle MrLiberal on Daily Kos, wrote. Virginia "Ginny" Schrader, the Democrat running for the open seat, "supports civil unions and is against Bush's positions on Iraq and the Patriot Act," he noted approvingly. But she was woefully low on cash -- as of June 30, Schrader had only $7,000 in the bank. Yellin implored Daily Kos' politically obsessed readers to change that situation: "This is completely out of left field, folks, and it gives us another opportunity for a pickup," he wrote. "Ginny Schrader is the luckiest candidate in the nation today, but can her luck hold?"

What happened next was beyond anything that Yellin had expected. ...

Schrader on Act Blue:

Atrios

Kos

MyDD + SSP

PowerWomen 

Mr. Liberal 

Note: this doesn't include the early money Ginny Schrader raised online.

*Links to Ginny's Website were added to the above quotes.