Cross-posted on the Florida Progressive Coalition Blog

First let me just say a few thing. Firstly, I will support the ultimate decision of the Florida Democratic Party on how  to proceed, although I would very much prefer they let our votes count. Secondly, I like Howard Dean and I always have, I'm directing my anger in this case to the DNC Bylaws Committee. Thirdly, I was on the other side of this issue a few months ago (I didn't really mind if we lost delegates)--mostly, this was out of selfishness because I knew my preferred candidate, John Edwards, would fair better in a caucus and not a primary (meow_missy talked me out of this position on FLA politics). I would also have preferred Florida's primary on February 5th.

That said, here's my advice to the FDP:

One of the most ceaselessly annoying ideas to come out of some "progressive" circles is the misguided notion that instituting the draft, or rather talking about instituting a draft, is going to solve our problems with respect to the War in Iraq.

The logic goes that by instituting a draft, we force more Americans (especially more well-to-do Americans) to think of the true costs of the war, and ideally, the troops come home.

This ignores one key important fact: the chances of Congress instituting a draft is much smaller than Congress actually growing a spine and defunding the war. Not only that, but those pushing a draft are assuming that the American people will fight tooth and nail against the war because of the draft. There is no draft in place right now, and if one were seriously proposed the American people would fight tooth and nail against it before it was enacted and before it could help end the war.

Besides it makes no sense to devote our energy to overcome one massive hurdle in order to surmount some other slightly less massive hurdle. Why not just focus on ending the war?

Yell for Health is a brand new innovative website created to agitate for change in the United States health care system. It's still in its nascent stages, but Yell for Health's aim is to collect the stories of individuals who have been victimized by the inefficiency, greed, and waste of the current system in order to give voice to the millions of American men, women, and children who desperately need change in U.S. health care.

This is truly a people-powered movement for change. Yell For Health is not connected to any other organization and it does not represent any industry's interest. We are just regular people fighting for what we believe are basic human rights.

Florida is a critically vital state in the upcoming 2008 presidential election. We need to hear a loud Democratic voice down here, and we need it SOON. With our new primary date of January 29th, we don't have a second to waste.

Cocoa is a small town compared to the other large cities competing on Eventful. We're trying our hardest because we know how important Florida is to the White House win, but we need your help.

It doesn't matter which candidate it is--we just need a voice to spread the word. We want people down here to hear a voice of sanity in hopes that their minds will be swayed, and their votes will travel in the left direction.

If Cocoa gets the most votes, Cocoa wins John Edwards.
So no matter if you support him or not, you support the Democratic party.
So help us out. Help us all out.

Turn Florida Blue in 2008.

The President has decided that the opinions of the American people are worthless. More, the President has decided that the troops can wait to get their funding, can wait to get proper training, can wait to get proper medical care, can wait to get redeployed out of a civil war that they cannot hope to stop.

The troops cannot wait! The American people cannot wait! The Congress of the United States must know that the American people vehemently oppose Bush’s politicization of the war, his stubborn refusal to accept the reality on the ground in Iraq, his careless disregard for our troops, their families, and the American people.

Congress must not bend, must not yield, and must not give in to this President. The President is wrong. We know he is wrong. Over 60% of Americans know he is wrong.

More below the flip.

There has been a recent bit of contentious dialogue concerning youth in the modern political process. A recent example can be found in the comments of irishwitch’s recent diary entry(to her credit, she has differentiated conservative fundamentalist youth from the rest of the pack).

For example:

kids today, in general are selfish and lazy beyond belief.

And such gems as:

Our kids are raised to be hyperindividualized, alienated, shallow, ADD, and materialistic...Try getting a bunch of scene-sters to spend a little less time studying fashion trends, The Latest Hot Band, their favorite drug, What's On TV Now, and their myspace page and you'll know what a losing battle feels like. That stuff evolves faster than you can learn about it, let alone unplug it.

While eugene has chimed in with an excellent diary of his own, I'm still left with the impression there are lingering misconceptions regarding the attitude and political stance of today's youth. I will attempt to address these issues below the fold.

The recent elections have given progressives in Florida a solid moral boost. The question is, how can we capitalize on this increase of enthusiasm? How can we further push the progressive agenda? How can we bring Florida up to par with the change that has swept through the rest of the nation?

To better answer these questions, I will establish the stages of a well-run progressive campaign leading up to and through 2008.

(cross-posted at my new local progressive blog Space Coast Rising)

The 2006 elections yielded mixed results for Florida Democrats. Great gains were made, but they fell behind many expectations. We reelected Bill Nelson (D) to the United States Senate, but we fell short of electing a Democratic governor. We have a new Democratic Chief Financial Officer, but the majority of statewide offices are still held by Republicans. We made gains in the state legislature, but we are still outnumbered in both chambers. The biggest gain came from the U.S. House seats. Only four districts in the whole Southeast region flipped--two of them were in Florida. Another one is currently contested, and might end up in a recount.

Below I will examine our gains and losses while making suggestions for future strategies.

Below I have reproduced Space Coast Rising's first entry. Comments and critiques are welcome. I will probably cross-post more diaries over the next few weeks to promote the new blog.

But you know that. You've probably read it a thousand times. There are hundreds, no thousands, of people analyzing the results right now: celebrating, commiserating, pontificating, prognosticating, and strategizing for next election.

What I'm about to talk about is something I've seen pushed to the margins in the last 24 hours, something of extreme importance for both our party and the integrity of the political discourse and democracy in this county.

Corrupt, insidious members of the GOP were out yesterday suppressing the vote, threatening voters with guns, intimidation, false information, and downright deception. The NRCC itself was engaging in deceptive phone calls to Democratic voters in order to trick them into not voting for the right candidate. These phone call were quite possibly, no in all likelihood, illegal.

1) Every cover up in motion will remain in motion unless acted on by an outside investigation

(Whether it's Hastert, Reynolds, and Boehner in the Foley scandal, Cheney & Co. in the Valerie Plame investigation, or the missing billions in Iraq.)

2) F=ma

Where "F" is the force of denial, "m" is the quantity of indicting evidence, and "a" is the rate at which the media asks questions. (Delay, Ney, Hastert, Reynolds, Boehner)

3) For every action there will be an unequal and disproportionate reaction

This could go either way, whether it's a 1% chance of a nation having WMD leading to the invasion of said country and the deaths of hundreds of thousands, or Tony Snow calling Foley's correspondence with young male pages "naughty emails"

Join me below for some additional physical laws of Republican action