Dear Katie,

We never were formally introduced, nor did we hang out together, but we both were in the class of '79 at the University of Virginia.  

A friend of mine alerted me that someone from my class was the new host of the Today Show, so I looked you up in Corks and Curls and recognized you.  I remembered you as the friendly, very pretty girl, who always smiled and said, "Hey," when I passed you, occasionally first year, on the pedestrian bridge over Emmet Street.

I watched you religiously and thought you were clever, funny, and upbeat.  When you chose to go to CBS Evening News, I started watching the CBS Evening News.  If I am in a restaurant that has the TV on between 6:30 pm and 7, I ask the staff to turn to your newscast.

Funny thing about this election is that the media seems to think that Barack Obama’s challenge of appealing to both Black and White voters is somehow new.  Consider, as evidence, the following opening sentence of the John McCormick and Rick Pearson’s July 15th cover story in the Chicago Tribune.

"When it comes to African-American audiences, some have called Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential bid a ‘dual-track’ candidacy, one that seeks to prove he is in tune with the needs of the black community while also not alienating whites."

Really?!!  Then I suppose that makes McCain a dual-track candidate too, since he presumably has to prove that he is in tune with the needs of the white community while not alienating African Americans and other people of color.  After all, Latinos and African Americans alone comprise over 30% of the U.S. population.  Doesn’t McCain face the exact same challenge of appealing to voters across racial lines?  Hasn’t every single Presidential hopeful in modern times?  

Yesterday my dear friend in Germany called me.  She's been through all the ups and downs of the Bush years with me (well, there must have been some "ups" but I can't recall them) and has oftened sympathized with the disappointment I feel in my country's direction.

She, like many Germans, retains a different memory of the USA, one from her childhood.  One from when we were a country that did extraordinary things sometimes, things to be proud of.

She told me about "The Raisin Bombers."

I'm pretty sure my daughter Rory is traumatized for life after the last couple years. She's almost three, and waaaay too familiar with hospitals. It started in January of '07, when she got a staph infection; basically flesh-eating bacteria. We took her to the emergency room when she developed a fever and a pimple on her leg turned into a swollen area the size of my wife's palm. The emergency room sent us home with the wrong antibiotic, and said to contact her pediatrician within the next three days or so.

In the morning she wasn't any better than when we'd left the hospital, so I demanded a same-day appointment with the pediatrician. Apparently, if we'd waited for day two, she'd have lost the leg, and if we'd waited to day three, she probably wouldn't have made it.

Follow me across the jump if you don't mind reading a diary that doesn't touch on McCain's latest gaffe. It gets worse. Skull surgeries and broken vertebrae abound.

Thank you for considering my comments on the Draft Management Plan for the Papahanaumokuakea Marine Monument.  

NOAA's recent report on the state of coral reefs in U.S. waters showed the critical importance of conservation within the monument's limits. Conservation must be the prime directive. Other objectives must be pursued only to the extent that they are compatible with conservation.

The Monument is critical habitat to highly endangered species.

Endangered Turtle Rescue

I spent the last several days canvassing with the Fund For Public Interest Research, on behalf of a most interesting effort to organize a large network of progressive Americans. Called Progressive Future, it aims to use the canvassing model to articulate a shared set of core progressive values, to build a mobilizable and national network of progressives, and to train an awful lot of 20-somethings (and the rest of us :-) to go door to door spreading the message and to stand on street corners initiating political conversations with strangers, all for the sake of our cause.

Are you with us on this issue? Then please, follow me under the fold to 1. find out more about this new organization; 2. find out how you can support these efforts; and 3. help us with more and information and feedback.

In September 1940 at the height of the London Blitz, King George VI decided to institute a new medal to reward the many acts of civilian courage. The George Cross is awards for conspicuous acts of bravery by civilians. It is also given to military personnel but is "confined to actions for which purely military Honours are not normally granted" (for example when not under fire or engaging the enemy). It has equal status with the highest military award, the Victoria Cross.

Today it was announced that a 24 year old Royal Marine reservist has been awarded the medal for actions in Afghanistan. His story is one of amazing, instinctual courage and even more staggering luck.

by Mikhail Lyubansky

This is heresy I know, since most of the white majority likes to pretend that it’s colorblind, but race needs to be part of the calculus in the November election for all voters. Of course, it was never not going to be part of the equation. And race is certainly part of the explicit discourse for Black voters, as it always is. My point is that it's high time white folks join in the discussion and acknowledge that it matters. Because it does.

Here’s what’s at stake in November: For the first time in history, there is a real possibility that "The Man" won’t be White. The implications will take years to sort out, but here are some very early thoughts about why the candidate’s race is important enough to influence our vote. Because the implications of a Black President are somewhat different for different identity groups, I break it down accordingly. But, and make no mistake about this, all other things being equal, having a Black President would benefit all Americans -- well almost.

Ok, even though I am an Obama supporter, I admit it.  

The McCain campaign is right.

Their lack of coverage from the media is highly unfair and biased

There is a lot that the low-information public doesn't know about John McCain because the media has not given it enough attention.

So because I value fairness over my candidate, I suggest ten stories that the media need to cover more in order to give John McCain his due.

As the Bush Presidency mercifully draws closer to its end, the question of Pardons has started to appear. Given the criminal nature of the administration, many feel like the mass pardons are coming. I find it hard to disagree with this sentiment. Like every other aspect of power under President Bush’s purview, this too will be abused. The question becomes in what way? The power of the pardon is a sweeping one derived from the powers of the English monarch and so it has many possibilities. It is hard to imagine that Bush, who already believes himself a King, will forgo this temptation to insulate him and his henchmen from any criminal repercussions.

Today's Congress Party victory on the No-Confidence motion in New Dehli got scant coverage in U.S. media, reported more in the business press for its likely trade benefits to the American nuclear industry than for its profound social implications and probable beneficial impact with respect to Global Warming. The Indian decision to greatly expand its use of Carbon-free sources to meet its rapidly growing energy demand is the single greatest victory to date on Climate Change.

Running neck and neck for that title, however, is the epiphany of veteran oilman T. Boone Pickens, now an evangelist for a greatly expanded U.S. Wind Power sector, who recently dug into his very deep pockets to risk $4 Billion of his own cash on the world's largest wind energy project. His plan to convert 20% of American electric generating capacity to Renewable Energy represents greater progress on Climate Change and Energy Independence than all of the policies of the last eight administrations - of both parties - put together.

These are cause for Hope... (more...)

Continuing our full-fledged assault on Christian Fundamentalism (by which I mean the right-wing orthodoxy that has permeated the world), we make forays into some more of Nietzsche's work. First of all, we discuss his work, "Beyond Good and Evil."

Fundamentalism has codes of conduct that have served humanity for the last two centuries. But the problem is that in more cases than not, it has served as a restriction as to what we can and can't do and has prevented us from reaching our potential.

The Dhammapada teaches

Conquer the angry man by love.
Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.
Conquer the miser with generosity.
Conquer the liar with truth.

While most of us understand the logic of this approach in theory, it far too rarely spills over into practice.

   I’ve really been through the wringer on health issues the last year, pretty much losing every material thing I had and suffering what may be some long term damage from a Lyme infection that went undetected until just a few weeks ago.

   The state of Iowa pretty much left me to die due to the effect of an under funded program coupled with some doctors who plainly heard me say "I’m a mildly autistic adult", yet chose to disregard this and treat me as if I were a drug addict. Massachusetts, on the other hand, has come through with shining colors and ... I’m back to work!

When I went away to college, living away from home and being on my own was such a blast. Some of my best memories of school were in that first year -- dorm parties, my buddies on the second floor of Kreuger Hall, football games, and being surrounded by a small city of people my age. Heaven!

I was going to school full time and working between 10 and 30 hours a week to pay my way. I also got a checking account for the first time. Damn, I felt grown up. And then I started bouncing checks.

In some ways, much of Kathy Kelly's adult life has been a walk against war. So it was completely in character for her to be walking through Milwaukee Monday, on a 450-mile trek to St. Paul and the Republican national convention.

Kelly, (left) a high school and community college teacher, has repeatedly risked her life and her freedom as an advocate for non-violence.  She is now affiliated with Voices for Creative Nonviolence, based in her hometown of Chicago, which organized Witness Against War now making its way across Wisconsin.

UPDATE 2: Thanks so much goes out to our Rescue Rangers for rescuing this diary! This is only my second entry, and to make it this far is very inspiring! WOOF's to you all!

I am part Native American.  Although the blood in me is thin and the ancestry is long, the few drops of Seminole burn in my veins.  I feel the warrior in me come alive.  I feel that I should don my feathers and my war shirt and sharpen my spear, for the battle to reclaim what is ours rages on.

Many Native Americans live in hideous poverty.  Indians on the Pine Ridge Reservation live at the lowest level of poverty found in the United States.  Unemployment is as high as 45%.  Children run around barefoot, wearing clothes so worn out that their mothers are afraid to wash them because they may fall apart, then the kids would have nothing to wear at all.

My warrior soul weeps for my spirit brothers.

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Your Brother is The One Who Thinks Like You

The raging controversy over Barack Obama addressing the issue of irresponsible fathers in the Black community, clearly demonstrates that many of the old-school thinkers in the community are living in a time warp. We now have a Black man who is very likely to be the next President of the United States, yet there are those in the community who want him to keep quiet about the fact that we have soiled toilet paper hanging from our inaugural tux. Instead of saying, "Thanks, let me clean up my act", they're saying, "Why are you picking on me–I saw a White boy with do-do on him too–why didn't you say something to him?"