Good morning from Faneuil Hall in Boston!

Today at noon, Senator John Kerry will be delivering a policy speech at historic Faneuil Hall. The topic is officially "A 21st Century Economic Strategy for America's Middle Class" - the advance press release subtitles it: "Plan would reverse Bushonomics and strengthen America's Middle Class."

This is the fifth in a series of speeches that began in April 2006 with a rousing statement of the importance of Dissent to a free society, and continued with the topics of Energy / Environment, Health Care, and National Security.

Every speech has been excellent, demonstrating John Kerry's broad and deep understanding of the critical issues of the day. I had the good fortune to attend the first speech, Dissent, and am looking forward to today'a which be the finale of the series. Follow me below as we live blog the event!

When Meredith Efken approached me in March with the suggestion that we do a "blog tour" to promote Teresa Heinz Kerry's upcoming Pittsburgh conference on Women's Health and the Environment, I had no idea what a blog tour was. To make it more intriguing, I learned from Meredith that a "blog tour" is something more and more book authors are doing to promote their newly released books - but Meredith was suggesting to adapt the technique to promoting the conference. Hmmm. Why not?  So with the approval of the good folks at the Heinz Family Philanthropies and Teresa herself, we embarked.

Since 4/14 Teresa has visited 15 blogs, with great answers to interesting and challenging questions at each. In between, she prepared for and delivered (with of course the help of the other wonderful sponsors) the main event, an absolutely great conference on April 20th.

More...and LOTS of links...after the flip!

I know a lot of folks - including myself - are really upset with what transpired today. I see comments about not supporting this or that Democrat who voted for the torture bill, and comments about not voting at all. Looks like Rove's plan worked just splendidly, huh? Not only do they get their get-out-of-jail-free bill plus (maybe) license to continue doing all the vindictive brutal (and reportedly ineffective) crap they were already doing, they also seem to have succeeded in demoralizing a chunk of the Democratic base. Well, a chunk of the Democratic base that frequents dailykos and some other sites, anyway.

Well, I'm not here to pass judgment on anyone's anger. Mine has pretty much run the spectrum today.  But I do want to propose an outlet, an idea of how to shrug off that demoralization once you recover from the hangover of all the  booze you're going to down tonight to numb the ache of witnessing the rape of your country's soul.

Details below...

Update: I have received email that says this amendment was ruled non-germane. That means it is dead for now. Whew!

Apologies for the quick and short post.

Please contact your Senators about this amendment that I am told here is being debated now:

SA 4085. Mr. McCONNELL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 2611, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

(snip)

``SEC. 304. IDENTIFICATION OF VOTERS AT THE POLLS.

``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding the requirements of section 303(b), each State shall require individuals casting ballots in an election for Federal office in person to present before voting a current valid photo identification which is issued by a governmental entity and which meets the requirements of subsection (b) of section 202 of the REAL ID Act of 2005 (49 U.S.C. 30301 note).
 

Full text of amendment below the fold.

You can find contact info for your Senators at www.senate.gov .

I am writing this as I ride a train from Philadelphia to Boston, on my way to witness what, to me, is a momentous anniversary in our national history, even if it will be barely noticed in our national media, let alone by the circus-captivated American public.

35 years ago this Saturday, April 22nd, a young former Naval officer appeared before the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate, to tell the truth as he had seen it in the American War - known to Americans, of course, as the Vietnam War.

On this 35th anniversary that young man, now a Senator himself, will reach out once more to cast forth the truth, as he sees it, for another generation, of another war that America wages for dubious goals as it wreaks havoc and bloodshed in the lives of brown-skinned people in a distant land, at a terrible cost of American lives and credibility.

35 years - why are we back at the same point again?

35 years and what did we learn?

Bob Rovner will be interviewing Joe Sestak between 1:30 to 2 pm Eastern time.

WNWR home page:
http://www.wnwr.com/...

Listen Live link is on the right of the page.

If you are in the broadcast area (metropolitan Philadelphia area and some Southern New Jersey and Northern Delaware) it is AM 1540.

(I couldn't get the stream to work :( but hopefully that is because of the firewall here at my company. Hopefully they'll make the show available as an archive later.)

I only just got word Joe was going to be on...wanted to let anyone know who is interested in this race!

Joe Sestak is facing "Moonie" Curt Weldon for the PA-07 house seat. ... (see below the fold for the rest of this paragraph...scoop says I am too wordy, sigh.)

Learn more about Joe at http://www.sestakforcongress.com .

Looks like the Admiral has made the political grade fast.

Admiral Joe Sestak that is.

He only announced in January that he was running against Curt Weldon (PA-07), because he had to first retire from his 30-year Navy career.

Already he's been profiled at dailykos, had excellent write-ups by Atrios, Chris Bowers, and Booman (just to mention a few). He's been added to the Netroots ActBlue page, John Kerry has endorsed and fund-raised for him, and by the last FEC close he'd raised over $420,000.

We've seen some excellent local press, and now the national MSM has joined in.

Link and quotes from the Time piece below the fold.

Just saw this at Democratic Undeground:

Will Pitt: Source tells me Kerry is now openly in favor of a filibuster

and corroborated here.

* [new] CALL NOW! (4.00 / 5)

Just got off the phone with Kerry's office in DC. They're working on other senators to filibuster on Alito. They said to tell you all to CALL YOUR SENATORS AND ASK THEM TO FILIBUSTER!!!

http://www.congress.org/....

PLEASE DO IT NOW!

Posted by: madame defarge at January 26, 2006 11:10 AM

at the Democracy Cell Project

The Democracy Cell Project

by dwahzon on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 11:48:07 AM EST

I'll post more text soon - wanted to get this up fast.

CALL SENATORS AND ASK THEM TO SUPPORT A FILIBUSTER
Switchboard number: 888-355-3588
Ask for Senator by name...start with your own (even if it seems hopeless) and work your way down the list...see below.

UPDATE: FAX 100 Senators at once - good diary here tells how!

I just received this email from John Kerry, asking for signatures on a petition to Senators. He promises to enter the names of signers in the Congressional Record, as a formal record of opposition to Alito's placement on the Supreme Court.

Petition link:
http://www.johnkerry.com/...

Full text of email below the fold.

As WildEyedLiberal at Democratic Underground noted:

The more names on this petition, the better: Kerry will enter the petition and say "Look - one MILLION AMERICANS want us to stop Alito using any means necessary." This can be your chance to help make a filibuster likely, [dailykos] - sign the petition!

....

Here's a diary to continue discussion on John Kerry's This Week appearance this morning.

I'm doing this in an attempt at public service - John Kerry himself (or staff) posted a diary earlier for this purpose but it already has almost 800 comments.

Here goes...fire away...I have a half hour delay (TW starts at 10:30 for me) so I can't even contribute transcription for ya.

Related Diaries:

• Thank You by John Kerry
• Sunday Talk: Are we safer now than we were 4 years ago!! by Al Rodgers
• John Kerry Calls for Independent Counsel to Investigate Bush Warrentless Wiretaps by kerrygoddess

Related Links:

• ABC News: John Kerry Bashes Bush Wiretaps, Talks of 2008: Kerry Wants Independent Counsel to Investigate Wiretaps by EDWARD O'KEEFE
• RNC Response to John Kerry's Appearance Today On ABC's This Week
• NYT story referred to by JK: Pakistan's Push in Border Areas Is Said to Falter By CARLOTTA GALL and MOHAMMAD KHAN Published: January 22, 2006, New York Times

UPDATE: CSPAN is now showing the start time for Kerry speech to be at 10:23 PM EDT.

I know the speech itself was diaried at least 3 times today (links below the fold, for any who managed to miss it).

But from all accounts this was quite a speech. So I thought it worth posting for those who are interested: it will be on CSPAN1 tonight, starting approximately 9:23 EDT tonight and then again at 1:10 AM.

Please watch out for the dreaded CSPAN "estimated" start times - set your TIVO or VCR a little early for this one.

Also, Kerry will be interviewed on Hannity & Colmes tonight on Faux News. That one should be interesting. 9 pm EDT. Yeah, I know, gotta unblock that channel first.

And one more. Kerry was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered this evening. You should be able to stream the audio from here:
Kerry Urges Troop Withdrawals Post-Iraq Elections

I heard this on the 8 p.m. top-of-the-hour news on WHYY, but unfortunately was unable to find the story on their website. But WNYC has a brief story, Changes Ahead for NJ Voters, which notes that Acting Governor Richard Codey signed several bills today affecting the conduct of elections in N.J.:

• The requirement that every vote cast have a verifiable paper trail will go into effect by 2008.
• In 2008 New Jersey's presidential primary will be moved to February (from June).
• Voter registration will be allowed up until three weeks before an election.
• Voters requesting an absentee ballot will no longer have to give an "acceptable" reason.

(I'm looking for a complete list of bill numbers.  From VerifiedVoting.org it seems the VVPT bill was N.J. Senate bill S.29.)

This is great news. To see how other states are progressing with VVPT, you can look at the map at VerifiedVoting.org.

(cross-posted from my blog, Freedom's Fire, Brightly Burning.)

I received an email from PennEnvironment yesterday. The bill they are talking about has moved from the State House to the State Senate.  Among other things, it will restrict the ability of local governments to protect open space. Please review this and consider signing the letter at the PennEnvironment link provided.

I apologize for just posting without analysis - I'm at work and have very limited time. I thought it was worthwhile getting the info out though.

You can read the actual bill on the PA General Assembly site.

PennEnvironment email and links below the fold.

On Tuesday, June 21, leading Congressional Democrats held a press conference regarding Henry Waxman's proposal (H.R.3003) to create an independent commission to investigate detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, or other situations arising from the "War on Terror."

In his opening statement, Henry Waxman notes that the House has essentially ignored its responsibility to investigate the causes of the abuse and the responsibility up the chain of command:      
     

     

more below the fold...

Raw Story informs us that there is definitely a letter being passed around the Senate for signatures: Kerry confidantes say senator is seeking others to cosign letter on Downing minutes. [Note - excerpt below the fold.]

Folks, we have work to do! Let's contact our Senators and let them know that we want them to sign onto Senator Kerry's letter, which requests the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate the Downing Street Minutes.

I know not everyone here is a big fan of the tall guy from Massachusetts. But it seems he is the one carrying the ball on this issue in the Senate.  Is getting more attention on the Downing Street Minutes worth setting aside our differences and backing him up on this one issue?  

Please read the details below, if you care about holding Bush and cronies accountable for what they've done to our country.

WaPo lets us in on how Kerry has been "raising the issue":

Hat tip to Mass and Pirate Smile at DU. More discussion at these DU posts:

WP: Democrats Looking for a Road Map to Downing Street (Kerry Letter to *)
and
Kerry and the DSM

more...

From Alternet, War makes beasts of men:
     
I watched the video and was most struck by Delgado's description of his awakening:

(see below the fold)

[cross-posted at my blog, Freedom's Fire, Brightly Burning and Booman Tribune]

NPR's Marketplace Morning Report Friday morning (6:50 EDT rendition) reported a recent study that found entrepreneurship is down significantly in the U.S. from 2003 - 2004. The study found the number of persons starting new businesses in America dropped by 4 million in 2004, to about 18 million from about 22 million in 2003.

The study, Entrepreneurship in the U.S.: 2004 Assessment, was conducted by Paul Reynolds of Florida International University and can be downloaded from the Entrepreneurship Research Institute website.

more below the fold...