A couple of years ago my friend was going on vacation in Alaska.  She pointed out her own stupidity (or lack of awareness) by jokingly telling me that she had asked "What kind of money do they use there?"  Of course, my friend realized immediately that she had made a mistake because Alaska is not a foreign country!

This morning on C-Span, the usually fair Steve Scully made the statement that Obama was in Hawaii and would soon be "back in the States."  Just now I heard Cokie Roberts say that "Obama shouldn't be vacationing in such an exotic place, that he should be in Myrtle Beach."

These types of comments are not helpful to our candidate because they further the idea that Obama is not a real American because he has chosen to vacation in some foreign place.  I hope someone else noticed this and will make a big deal of it.  It may not seem that important, but it can subliminally reinforce a meme that can damage Obama.

I got the word today that the man we love to hate (or at least one of them) is coming to town this week to do a fundraiser for McCain.  Apparently, they're trying to fleece the local Jewish community with this event at a private home in our most exclusive gated neighborhood.  

So, we're planning to protest.  What we need from you are some creative ideas to make this a very special anti-Joementum event.  Put on your thinking caps and send those proposals my way.

A few minutes ago, Doug Tudor, the most excellent candidate running to represent the citizens in FL-12 sent out an email alerting his supporters to the ridiculous, insulting, despicable comment from his opponent, Congressman Adam "Opie" Putnam, about this afternoon's silliness by a "band" of GOP Congressmen.  How dare they compare themselves to the brave World War II soldiers who liberated Europe from the Nazis.  

More after the flip...

I live in Hillsborough County, Florida.  A portion of our county is represented by Adam (Opie) Putnam.  Putnam has voted with George W. Bush 98.7% in the past year.  He is a disgrace.

We have a bright light shining in Congressional District 12 in the person of Doug Tudor.  Doug recently retired from the United States Navy and is an unabashed progressive.  I am proud to support him, and I hope Kossacks everywhere will do the same.  Check out the video on the flipside.  

Over the course of the last several of months, we saw the media build Hillary up as the inevitable candidate.  Then following the debate question over drivers' licenses, we saw them jump on every opportunity to tear her down, unmercifully, I might add.  Since the Iowa defeat, they have pretty much declared her candidacy dead.

As a woman, maybe I'm a little sensitive to all the comments about how "angry" and "lecturing" she sounds.  

Today I've heard more than one pundit slam her for having her husband stand beside her on the campaign trail.  Granted he's not just any husband, but if he weren't there, wouldn't they be jumping on her for that too?

Keep reading...

On the Morning Joe program, I just heard Joe Scarborough get into a heated discussion with David Shuster and Mika Brzezinski over the destruction of the CIA tapes.  He doesn't think it matters.  Not only that, but he doesn't think waterboarding is torture and he sees no problem with our intelligence agencies employing it during interrogations.  And he seems to think that only a "small minority" disapproves.  When Mika brought up the fact that John McCain thought it was wrong, he dismissed her as being unfair and told her not to bring him into it!

I have actually enjoyed Morning Joe, but after today's show, I'm not sure I can continue to watch.

Here's the webform to write to the show.  You can send emails of complaint to viewerservices@msnbc.com.

My email after the fold....

Where's our DKos leadership?  I'm stepping up with this diary, and I'm hoping others will also, especially the frontpagers.

Over the weekend, I got hammered with emails from different peace groups asking me to contact my legislators about the Iraq funding bill that's coming up for a vote today.  It seems the Democrats are going to give Bush what he wants for Iraq if they get some more domestic spending.  What's wrong with these people?  Will our Democrats once again fail to do the right thing?  (Read the Washington Post article for details.)

Keep reading...

First he showed a clip of Hillary making a statement about not "having a one-night stand" with the voters, and he acted snotty and disgusted.  His comment was something like:  "Is thst the way we're talking now?"

Then he immediately followed up with a story about Larry Craig where he asked something foolish like: "What's tonight's big number?"  Well, the number was "eight," and that big number was the number of men that Larry Craig has supposedly had sex with.

So Hillary is wrong to use the term "one night stand," but Tweety sees no problem with playing cute with the Larry Craig story.  Give me a break.

Without even seeing that he was proving my point, an aide to Congressman Gus Bilirakis told me this morning that his own daughter gets government healthcare.

Here's the scenario:  Democracy for America and the Democrats in NW Hillsborough County, FL, have collected healthcare stories from citizens around the state which we have delivered to our Congressional representatives.  The delivery to Rep. Bilirakis' (FL-9) office was delayed because we wanted to give them to an aide during his monthly "Community Outreach" event.  This morning, I took the stack of stories to the library where the event was held.  The 40-something male aide was browsing the bookshelves when I got there.

Keep going--

Earlier today I got a "Google" alert on Congressman Gus Bilirakis that linked to the following blogpost.  Could Gus be laying the ground work for more than just military strikes against Iran?

http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com...

On September 25, H.R.3653, sponsored by Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-FL), to hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its human rights record and to support a transition to democracy in Iran, was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The bill makes a direct link "between the state of freedom and democracy within Iran and the efforts of the current regime of Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and the long-term success of the global war on terror." Senator Brownback (R-KS) introduced the Senate version of the bill, S. 1534, on May 25, 2007 and it was referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Quick diary.  David Shuster is filling in for Tucker and his guest is Rep. Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee.  The topic is GOP hypocrisy over the name calling of General Petraeus when Rush Limbaugh has done the same thing.  Blackburn only wants to talk about MoveOn's ad and the New York Times, but when Shuster asks her the name of the last soldier from her district who was killed in Iraq, she doesn't know.  She stammers and yammers.  He keeps asking her why she knows so much about the New York Times but doesn't know the name of the soldier.  She filibusters every question, as usual, and Shuster nails her.  It's a beauty, folks.

Updated:  Please write to MSNBC and give kudos to David Shuster for finally asking the obvious (thanks to Gabie for the reminder):

viewerservices@msnbc.com

Here's the link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

Here in Florida, there is a citizen initiative to get an amendment on next year's ballot called Hometown Democracy.  The Sierra Club is a big supporter of the amendment which gives local citizens a bigger voice in limiting out-of-control development.  The biggest opponent of this initiative is the Chamber of Commerce.  At a local C of C meeting in May, I heard a lobbyist say the Chamber was going to fight this amendment by trying to get petitioners to revoke their signatures.

Read below for more...

A short diary for sure, but the title is good, isn't it?  

I have a military friend who used that line tonight.  My friend isn't free to speak about what he knows of the progress of "the surge," but when asked what he thought, that was his priceless comment.  He also said that Basra will now see more violence because the Brits are no longer there to referee between the factions; and in Anbar we have handed out so many weapons that we have created huge problems for the long term.

As you know, we here in Florida are being punished because our legislature voted to move our primary date to January 29th.  The DNC gave plenty of warning to our legislators, and to our state party that we would be punished severely, those warnings were ignored.

Keep reading, please....

Okay, I didn't think of this one myself.  A family member did.  Our city (Tampa) lost out to Minneapolis/St. Paul to host the RNC Convention next year.  At first, we assumed it was because the convention comes during hurricane season.  That's a logical reason to choose a city in the north rather than in Florida, right?  Then we figured maybe it was because the DNC was close to choosing Minneapolis/St. Paul for their convention and the RNC wanted to screw them.  That also makes sense.  But now we know the real reason--It's because our airport lacks adequate bathroom stalls to accommodate the closeted Republicans.  Now we know the real reason.

I've gotten several emails this morning from DFA members around the state that our sell-out Senator Bill Nelson is holding town hall meetings on the sly.  I decided to contact Nelson's two local legislative aides by email about it, and to also follow up on my confrontation with Sen. Nelson on Monday.
http://www.dailykos.com/...

Continue to read the email I sent to his aides.

Today Florida Senator Bill Nelson held a town hall meeting in Pasco County.  I originally planned to attend the meeting on behalf of DFA Tampa Bay to present Sen. Nelson with letters from Floridians on healthcare.  But when I returned home from YearlyKos last night and began catching up on the news, and reading the details of the FISA story, I decided I couldn't use my chance with Sen. Nelson to talk about healthcare, not this time.  That will have to wait for another day.

Because I get nervous when I have to speak in public, I wrote out my comments and questions for the senator.  As the meeting progressed, focused mostly on issues dealing with the state legislature and not things coming under the responsibilities of a U.S. Senator, I was afraid I wouldn't get my chance.

There's more...

Good Morning All,
After a very successful Hillsborough County Jefferson Jackson dinner last night with our state chair Karen Thurman, Congresswoman Christine Jennings and Congressman Kendrick Meek (and a host of other elected and former office-holding Democrats), many of us are now spending the day preparing for our trip to Chicago for YearlyKos.  We have a group of 11 going from the Tampa area, and a scattering of others (that we know of) from around the state.  We would like to get all of the Florida attendees together at some point during the weekend.  If you are not in contact with either me or Ken Quinnell from Tallahassee, please email me.  My email address is stsmith222 at aol.      

Ken will be representing us on a regional bloggers' panel during the conference and I know he would like our support at that event.  I also heard that someone from the DCCC wants to meet with all of us while we're there.  Be prepared to talk about your Congressional district!

Thanks!
See you in Chi-town!
Susan