Amazingly, the sun came out this morning!
I don't know how long this will continue, but lets take advantage of it while we can.

A couple of quick thoughts about where we go from here:

1) We need to reclaim religion from the radical right. Religion should be about love and helping the less fortunate, not about punishing anyone who is different.

2) We need to reassert the idea that government intervention in the economy is a good thing, not a bad thing. (I hope for this to be the main point of my blog)

3) We need to convince the middle and lower class, including small business owners and farmers, that our ideas of fairness and equal opportunity are really in their favor.

4) We need to continue to organize and speak out.

A day in the life of Joe
One of my loyal readers (Yes, I have some!) sent me this from the Wesleyan parents' listserve:

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his
morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging
liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first
swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are
safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their
safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical
plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid
medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe
to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the
meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is
properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total
contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what
he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes
is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the
laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to the subway station for
his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money
in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal
fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the
opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical
benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy
liberal union members fought and died for these working standards.
Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want
his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker
compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't
think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some
bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some
godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers
who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his
below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided
that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and
earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that in
addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state
funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his
farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is
among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal
fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded
roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in
the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers
didn't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal
stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural
electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on
Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking,
cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe
wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk
show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and
conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans
have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout
his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals
ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone
should take care of themselves, just like I have

A great President?
From Wealth and Democracy

A point to underscore: serious U.S. arousal against abuses of wealth and power has always transcended class lines -- class warfare is both a rare bird and a dubious term -- and many of the notable triumphs have been led by persons with sophisticated and affluent backgrounds: Jefferson of Monticello and the Roosevelts of Oyster Bay and Hyde Park. Indeed, George Washington of Mount Vernon led the earlier opposition to concentrated wealth and hauteur three thousand miles away in London that created the United States.

Also, Americans have given their highest regard to presidents who wove political battle flags from the various threads of popular indignation -- a definition that adds the names of Jackson and Lincoln to the four just mentioned. The lesser esteem given to those presidents hailing bankers or proclaiming that "the business of America is business" completes the historical measurement.

TV Ads
Is it just me, or are MoveOn's TV ads about a thousand times better than those from the Kerry campaign? This is one area where we have to get better.

JUST A THOUGHT
WHAT GOOD IS BEING CONSISTENT, IF YOU ARE CONSISTENTLY WRONG?

MUST READ ABOUT IRAQ
One of the best pieces I have read about the true costs of the invasion of Iraq.

http://richardreeves.com/columns/latest.html

Strange Bedfellows
More from Wealth and Democracy

Shrewd Republicans and conservatives have long understood their political danger from public outrage over such imbalances. Lee Atwater, the 1988 campaign manager for George HW Bush, summed it up: "The way to win a presidential race against the Republicans is to develop the class warfare issue [as 1988 nominee Michael Dukakis belatedly did at the end.] To divide up the haves and have nots and to try to reinvigorate the New Deal coalition." Page xiii

"Tax fairness" anyone? The "Middle Class Squeeze" anyone? George Bush's answer to everything -- "Tax Cuts For The Rich" anyone

Wealth and Democracy
THE MIDDLE CLASS SQUEEZE REACHES THE TOP OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Between 1979 and 1989 the portion of the nation's wealth held by the top 1% nearly doubled from 22% to 39%. By the mid-nineties, some econimists estimated that the top 1% had captured 70 percent of all earnings growth since the mid-seventies.
...
No one, then, should regard the $90,000-a-year accountant or the $125,000-a-year lawyer -- members of the top 5 or 10 percent -- as fellow riders on the same glittering escalator as the investment banker making $1.5 milion or the corporate CEO collecting $40 million in annual compensation. Many, many households in the top 5 percent of the population have seen their own status and access to luxuries shrink in the backwash of these new top wealth levels.

Daily Rant
In my mind, the choice in this election comes down to this:

When John Kerry was tested, and other people's lives were on the line, he turned his boat into the ambush, grabbed a weapon and personally went after the attacker.

When George W. Bush was tested, and other people's lives were on the line, he sat there reading My Pet Goat.

WHO WOULD YOU VOTE FOR?!

Kerry's plans
I thought I would change course slightly and intersperse some of John Kerry's economic plan with my selected quotations from Wealth and Democracy. It seems to me that Kerry has some excellent ideas about how government can aid the economy, ideas that need more exposure.

From his website, some ideas about broadband:

"Over the past four years, the United States has dropped from 4th to 10th in broadband use. Countries such as South Korea and Japan are now deploying networks that are 20 to 50 times faster than what is available in the United States. ....
Government research at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) led to the creation of the Internet and the government has an important but temporary role to play in catalyzing the extension of broadband to our entire nation.
It is especially important in creating new opportunities in areas of America -- especially rural areas and some of our inner cities -- that are now all but cut off from the economy of tomorrow. The same Internet technologies that makes it possible to export technology and services jobs to India can make it possible to create similar jobs in rural areas here in America, which often enjoy a combination of low business costs and high quality of life.
...
Expanding high-speed broadband is the information-age equivalent of the rural electrification initiatives of the Roosevelt years: a strategic public investment that could pay off a thousand time over in creating new economic opportunities,,,,"