Since we had rec/rate restored over here, I was hoping that the admins would do whatever was needed to also restore diaries that disappeared.  Well, it seems they did.  Today I checked my page and everything is intact again!  w00t!

(x-posted from the great orange satan)

Hey everyone, I missed out on the fun here last night because I wanted to just tune everything out and listen to what our candidates had to say.

Contrary to what the entire traditional media is saying - and contrary to the outrage expressed by many who are upset that Clinton didn't outright conceed last night - I believe that last night Hillary did exactly what she needed to do.  Follow me beneath the flip and I'll explain....

x-posted from TexasKaos - where we're taking Texas back!

I'd like to draw everyone's attention to Box Turtle's most recent SUSA polling numbers:

Do you approve or disapprove of the job John Cornyn is doing as United States Senator?

SUSA sampled 600 adults on March 9-11, and released the numbers a few days ago.  Let's keep in mind that these numbers are from before Cornyn's pro-troop-killing vote on March 22.

Clearly, with numbers under 50% nearly a year from the Republican primary and nearly two years before the election, Cornyn is vulnerable. 

(x-posted from TexasKAOS, where we're taking Texas back!)

CNet is reporting that some disturbing information about the NSA's data collection techniques was revealed at last Friday's "Search & Seizure in the Digital Age" symposium at Stanford.

Paul Ohm, a former employee of the Justice Department who worked in their Computer Crime and Intellectual Property division, explained how data-gathering has changed since the federal government abandoned it's Carnivore program a few years ago.  While Carnivore was set up to only collect data which matched certain filters, the full pipe technique (aka "the vacuum cleaner method") is highly invasive and puts our privacy rights at risk:

"What they're doing is even worse than Carnivore," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. "What they're doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets."

I liked this part: "On January 8, members of the TexasKAOS staff are going to hand deliver a copy of Crashing the Gate to every TDP officer and SDEC member." Way to go Anna, Jerome

(x-posted from TexasKAOS - where we're Taking Texas Back!)

When Chris Bowers posted Become the California Democratic Party back on December 8, it struck a chord with me.  

Back in June, a contingent of reformers got their first shot at taking over the Texas Democratic Party.  Made up largely of former Dean, Clark, and Edwards supporters, the movement nearly succeeded.  We forced a rare runoff, and fell only 3% short in the second round of voting.  Although the reform contingent constituted a majority of present delegates, we were outvoted by delegates who held proxy power (ie, multiple votes) for non-present delegates.  The loss was heartbreaking for many of us. There were two candidates - Glen Maxey and Charlie Urbina-Jones - who understood that people powered politics is the way of the future.  But we were defeated by the old-schoolers who clearly knew how to work the proxy system.  Lesson learned.

After the convention, we went home defeated but determined to work for and support our Democratic candidates.  The convention was over - it was time to STFU and get to work.  Or as Bill Clinton put it, "Fall in love, then fall in line."  We were good soldiers, and we expected that our party would support the Democratic slate from top to bottom.  Needless to say, the convention loss wasn't our last disappointment of this campaign season.

Happy Friday everyone!  This entry is a cross-post from TexasKaos, where we're Taking Texas back. The Texas Progressive Alliance - a coalition of the top twenty five liberal Texas blogs - is proud to announce the winner of the TPA's Second Annual Texan of the Year: Carolyn Boyle and ParentPAC.

<-- ParentPAC's Carolyn Boyle, courtesy of the Austin Chronicle

I'm cross-posting because I thought yall might be interested in learning about some of the power players in Texas. You're probably familiar with Swift Vet Liars for Bush funder Bob Perry. We seem to breed those types down here. The latest GOP sugar daddy is James Leininger of San Antonio. His pet project is pushing vouchers and destroying our public school system. But good things are happening here. Regular people are starting to fight back. The story of ParentPAC is a true grassroots success story, and I think it serves as a great example of what we can accomplish when they band together.

From the diaries--Chris

I'm still processing everything that transpired over the weekend down here in Texas, but I'll go ahead and lay out a few things for you to ponder.

Ladies and gentleman, the gate has been crashed.  =)

I'm proud to announce that today I won election to the State Resolutions Committee.