In another thread, CTKeith said "Someone should set up a website Where all the Dean suppoters could pledge $20 (or more or less)a month ONLY if Dean gets the chairmanship."

Seemed like a good idea to me, so I did it. It's at www.programforprogress.com.

OK. A lot of you read this, and participated, yesterday afternoon and last night - My many thanks. But I'm not going to let this go until we've achieved our objective here.

Yesterday, Bexley Lane posted a diary about a paralyzed Iraq war vet who desperately needed a computer, and the bullshit he had gotten from some right wing motherfuckers online. Within MINUTES Kos people were putting their heads -and dollars-together to get this guy what he needs.

One can learn something new every day - even when one listens to NPR.

Came as something as a surprise to me at least that one of the tenets of the (ahem) "No Child Left Behind" law is a provision which dictates that any school which receives federal aid of any kind must permit army recruiters access to its campus.

Hello esteemed fellow Kos denizens.

I'm not asking any of you all to boycott anything or protest anything. Yet.

I have, however, come to steal your brains. Or at least borrow them for a little while.

I know, I know. You've heard it all already:

Hey everybody: I said some of this at the tail end of the earlier "Update Update Update" diary, but I wanted to repeat it here for the sake of those who weren't around to see it before that diary went into the black hole, as some acknowledgement & thanks are in order.

Thank you EVERYBODY for your intelligent insights, suggestions, talking points, and especially for being such an enthusiastic bunch of supporters during yesterday's prelude to the "Hannity & Colmes"  show. You have NO idea how much all of it helped. If I came off as at all composed or together on that show, it was directly attributable to YOU.

OK, it just got confirmed. I'm gonna be on Hannity & Colmes tonight at around 9:00 EST. With - bonus - special guest Ann Coulter. Y'all got any talking points for me? Hey, everybody:

I'm just so psyched and pleased that I had to tell someone. So I'm telling all 35,000+ of you.

Associated Press (and thus Yahoo News - link here: Yahoo News,) just posted their story on the inauguration day boycott protests Black-Thursday.com and Not One Damn Dime, both of which I believe germinated here - as well as the New Orleans Jazz Funeral.

Some of you were around for the little pissfest I was involved in last evening in a thread started by Delaware Dem entitled "It's Over." An interesting experience for me, and I'm sure quite tiresome for many others. But I found it instructive.

For those who don't want to go back and trudge through the muck, I'll offer a very brief recap: Delaware Dem - whose posts I typically agree with and respect - created a diary whose premise - uh, offended me deeply. And in my usual subtle, benign way, I said so, punctuating my comments with multiple - ah, instances of colorful language - designed to indicate my considerable displeasure.

There are a plethora of protest opportunities available for Jan. 20. I earnestly urge people to do all of them (Not one damn dime, dress in black, turn your back on bush, hang your flag upside down - I'm doing all of 'em). But one of the best ways to register your dissent (and, niftily enough, one of the most "zen") is by doing...nothing.

Nothing work-related that is.

Just thought I should let people know about some problems I've been having, as they seem to stem directly from my participation on this site. Don't know exactly what the solution is for others, but figured that people should be warned.

As some of you know, I have operated a number of anti-bush/anti-war sites over the last several years, and have experienced my share of harassment and problems from wingers. However, in recent months  I have seen a huge upswing in concerted efforts to knock my sites offline...details below.

One of the problems with coming late to the discussion "party" on Kos with what might (or might not) be significant information is that by the time you post it, the diary has slipped into the netherworld, ne'er to be seen again. So I wanted to post mention of this here: In response to ideas developed in an earlier thread and on the Not One Damn Dime Day thread, I created a "beta" version of a site for those interested in participating in buy nothing and/or work stoppage and/or whatever other creative ideas people have to commemorate the re-coronation of Dear Leader on January 20th.

Twas the night before Christmas and all through D.C.
No one was suspicious, not even me.
Who might have thought? Who might surmise
That Bush was a-plotting a December surprise.

"Thanksgiving in Baghdad worked out just fine
But I cannot think of a new trick this time.
Last year we pulled Saddam out of a hat
But now that it's Christmas, how can I top that?"

If you had any lingering beliefs in the sanity of American conservatives, you might want to re-think them.

WorldNet Daily isn't exactly the most reasonable site on the block, but even I would have thought that they'd stop short of open advocacy of genocide. Nonetheless, that is what they are at least allowing one writer to do.

Not like we couldn't guess it was coming. But did we have any idea it would be this bad? Today's INDEPENDENT outlines Bush's agenda for the environment - i.e., treat it like "terrorism," and smash it into nonexistence:

"George Bush's new administration, and its supporters controlling Congress, are setting out to dismantle three decades of US environmental protection...they have announced that they will comprehensively rewrite three of the country's most important environmental laws, open up vast new areas for oil and gas drilling, and reshape the official Environmental Protection Agency ...

In the spirit of both playing to the crowd - i.e., the public concerned with pocketbook issues - and "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" - i.e., adopting stump-speech and platform issues that work - I suggest that progressives adopt the republican mania for MORE TAX CUTS.

Yes, MORE TAX CUTS! Bush's tax cuts were "a step in the right direction," but government - HIS government - is still not so small that I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub (the Norquistian ideal). So let's just give credit where credit's due: Tax cuts are GREAT.

They just need to be expanded a little.

At various points in its history, the Democratic party has had the sense to eschew wars of choice and to decry unnecessary violence. The current paranoid era is not one of them; our recent presidential candidate vowed consistently to "finish the job" in Iraq. Many like me supported him not for any virtue in his stance, but out of the vague and perhaps unfounded belief that perhaps he'd be at least somewhat less senseless and barbaric than George W. Bush.

According to the BBC:
"The US army says it may send more troops to Iraq before the January elections, depending on the outcome of its offensive in Falluja.

US military commanders were considering whether to boost their troop levels in Iraq by several thousand, Lt Gen Lance Smith told a Pentagon news conference."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4027591.stm

The Associated Press is reporting claims that U.S. forces found Zarqawi's base in Fallujah:

"U.S. May Have Found Fallujah Militant Base
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops sweeping through Fallujah on Thursday said they believe they have found the main headquarters of the insurgent group headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.