Firstly, i'd like to give very well deserved props to Kossack, rhfactor for current top rec'd diary, IT'S HERE! TimeWarner caps Tubes with tiered-bandwidth: 5g/$30
for calling this all to our attention.
Now, we've got an obligation to our democracy to get this crucial news out to the top Net Neutrality organizations who have been so effective on spreading the word in the recent past regarding such issues.

I know, I know John hasn't won a state yet.
He finished 2nd in Iowa, beating the Clinton machine and despite being outspent 6 to 1.
He finished a distant, yet solid 3rd tonight despite a complete MSM blackout regarding NH...
But it's time to make a choice. Despite what some of you may think, John Edwards national numbers are consistently rising, Edwards is the only Democratic candidate that's polled to beat evey repub candidate in a GE.
It's 2008, in the digi/internet age more people have access to the truth, the facts then ever before.

This is not a time to be defeatist. This is not a time to give any ground. Despite what many would have us believe, the nomination is still VERY up for grabs.  John Edwards made a second place showing in Iowa, beating the "inevitable" AND despite being outspent 6 to 1 by his two main competitors.
True, Iowa could have gone better but....it certainly could have gone ALOT worse.
More than anything, Iowa was a testimony as to how Edwards message & platform trumps money and celebrity.
When you have a candidate in which fighting corporate greed, abuse of consolidation/power are at the top of the "to-do list" your gonna have quite a struggle.
This is an uphill battle very well worth fighting, and it's a battle that's very well winnable.
This is a time to re-power up, donate to the cause, create a surge of people power that can't be ignored.

After the first week, John Edwards was clearly winning this thing with Barack close behind. Then came in the peak of the Draft Gore movement which put a suprising fun twist to the whole affair. Now, seemingly outta nowhere Dennis Kucinich begins trouncing everyone in the final sprint.
The Democray For America poll ends tonight at midnight EST.
Currently, at approximatly 6pm CST time, the stats are as follows:
Dennis Kucinich 45193 30.7%
Al Gore (write in) 37678 25.6%
John Edwards        22649 15.39%
Barack Obama        20963 14.24%
Bill Richardson        6239          4.24%
Hillary Clinton        6204          4.21%
Other                3099          2.11%
Christopher Dodd     2412          1.64%
Joe Biden                1628          1.11%
Mike Gravel              1135          0.77%

How many more "Inevitable HRC" front pagers from Markos must we have to endure?!
Up until now, the MSM has virtually given Hillary Clinton's views & positions on the primary trail a pretty tame ride. Very rarely has Hillary ever been in a position throughout her POTUS bid thus far, in which she is confronted in the public eye with the real tough questions. Very rarely is she ever forced out of her canned comfort zone. The few times she has been however, it's been a VERY startling look at the truth behind the masks. We saw it at YearlyKos, we saw it in Iowa when a man asked about Kyl/Lieberman & we saw it a few nights ago in the debate.
DailyKos & the progressive blogosphere have a history of generally being out ahead of the MSM curve. The MSM has been saying HRC is inevitable because of all her name recognition, her vast experience in the limelight, her time in the whitehouse & because she's Bill's wife.

Howdy everybody. I just got a most interesting email update from Al Gore via Current.

Current, the media company I co-founded six years ago with my partner Joel Hyatt, just last week launched a new web site that integrates television and the Web in an unprecedented way. It provides, as never before, a platform for citizens to make the media their own.

Yesterday, on October 24th, John Edwards talked about some of the significant differences between himself and other candidates, especially HRC, at a community meeting in Glenwood, Iowa.
After watching the YouTube video of this talk posted by the Edwards campaign last night, and realizing that less than 200 people have watched it thus far, I felt the need to bring it back up to attention.
There's something Edwards said that i've been thinking about ever since I watched this last night.  Something very defining...

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An anti-war protester waved blood-colored hands in U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's face at a congressional hearing on Wednesday and shouted "war criminal!", but was pushed away and detained by police.

"The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands!" yelled the protester, Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz of the Code Pink organization which often disrupts hearings on Capitol Hill with protests against the Iraq war."

Here's the picture:

Now, that was dumb, you don't approach an offical like that putting your blood painted hands in the back & front of the Secretary Of State. Capital police responded appropriately by swiftly sweeping the woman away. Fine, done deal. I get it.

Dear Democratic POTUS candidates,
Before early 2003, I had never volunteered for a campaign. I had never given money to any campaign. I had never given money to the Democratic Party. I didn't follow politics on a daily basis, nationally or locally.
Before early 2003, I didn't think I could make much of a difference. I didn't think the Democratic Party cared or even ever wanted to know what I thought....and I certainly didn't donate time & money to help Democratic candidates in states like Montana or Virginia, let alone in my own state.

Sorry, but i'm not about to let another heavy handed boomer post one more recommend diary about how no music has "spoken to the people" since Jefferson Starship....gimmie a break. Here's some post boomer songs/videos to inspire.

M.I.A.'s "Bucky Done Gun"

Here's "Know Your Rights"  by The Clash
set to a montage of police brutality....

Ok, in light of the current political landscape, we've been pretty patient. Now with the summer coming to a close i'm getting pretty anxious. I'm starting to wonder whether we've really done everything we can to stir a groundswell of support to Draft Al Gore for president. I simply think we could be doing alot better.
Ya see, I think right now is the time we need to be giving the full court press. If by the very unfortunate chance that Al Gore does not run, it shouldn't be for a lack of enthusiasm & groundswell support!

Extremist communist/nazi/far-left/far-right propagandists Yahoo News have a zillion different companies giving them ad dollars!!!
Random people have left hateful, inappropriate comments in the talkback forums of Yahoo's news stories. Yahoo stands behind and believes in every comment anyone has ever left in one of their talkback forums.
Consequentially, Yahoo & anyone that advertises through Yahoo endorses all the viewpoints & all the comments that were ever made in there forums.
I for one, am boycotting Yahoo and the zillion companies who advertise/endorse these hate mongers!!!!

Yesterday, not long after I read the much needed, "Ron Paul Hates You" diary...I turned on some Air America as I usually do while working on my computer.
Randi Rhodes was on, I'm a regular listener & fan. Most of Randi's show was spent on the GOP NH debate from the night before. I laughed along as she played & comented on Huckabee's sunday school stump speech, Guiliani's lighting strikes, Tommy Thompsons back asswards explaination on what he'd use W Bush for, if once elected.
Then came this, "but there's one man that braved to stand above them, & that man is Ron Paul" bit.  She kept going on & on & ON...only to keep coming back to gushing about Ron Paul.

I searched the DK archives about this story suprisingly to no avail...it's not breaking, but it's a vitally important issue to our democracy..

"Small periodicals across the country will see their mailing costs swell thanks to new postage rates written by a major media conglomerate and adopted by the US Postal Service.
The rate-increase plan, approved by the USPS in March, will go into effect on July 15. The increase was recommended by the Postal Regulatory Committee, an agency independent of the Post Office, and is a modified version of a rate structure proposed to the Committee by the media giant TimeWarner.
Critics of the rate changes are predicting a crippling hike that, in the words of the media-reform organization Free Press, "could push many smaller magazines into bankruptcy and make it almost impossible to launch a new independent publication."

Here's the full link:
http://newstandardnews.net/...

Turns out all that talk Vilsack was drumming up on his short lived POTUS bid about being "the real outsider" candidate and his sudden change of heart regarding the Iraq war with his call for immediate withdraw was nothing more than complete disengenious Grade A horseshit.
To think that I was actually giving this guy props for a minute....

My homestate's satirical newspaper The Onion, has a FP story running this week that speaks in a disturbing volume of truth. Remember, this is the same paper that declared, "America's Long Standing Nightmare of Peace & Economical Prosperity Is Finally Over!" directly proceeding the final results of the 2000 election...

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Yesterday, I came across this in one of my city's papers, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

"How expensive is the Iraq war? Try $400 billion and counting.

And the price tag is going to go higher, a lot higher."

I was having lunch with a friend of mine today, and we ended up discussing the location of the 2008 DNC Convention.
We found it hard to believe that there was any indecision about having it in NYC vs. Denver.  Denver hands down, seemed so obviously the better choice of the two, than simply singing to the choir & letting agenda Hillary have her stomping ground.
The West is the new breed of Democratic inspiration, and we need to reinforce & foster that. I mean, where else in America at this time, could there be a better location?