You think the Great Media Blackout of '07-'08 isn't real?  Read this and THEN tell me.

http://www.latimes.com/...

From Tom Hamburger in today's Los Angeles Times - a CONSERVATIVE paper, no less! - "Chamber of Commerce Vows to Punish Anti-Business Candidates".
This is the US Chamber of Commerce, the nation's "largest trade association."

I will post a little bit from the article but I suggest you read more, then draw your own conclusions.
All I can say is, Wow.

Cross-posted at MyDD - http://www.mydd.com/...

Are you as upset as I am about the Great Media Blackout on John Edwards?

And Yes, it's MSNBC, too.

Step up to the plate, batter up, and let's hit one out of the park!
Write a letter to MSNBC, our closest link to "real" journalism in Traditional Media, and let them know how you feel.

SEND MSNBC A MESSAGE:

I want to hear about John. Stop spinning it - give me hard facts!

viewerservices@msnbc.com

Fed up with Bali?  Me too. How can we get "regular folks" to "get" Climate Change?

This idea sprang from plf515's most excellent diary this morning, "What have you got to learn? (or teach) 49 with question)"
http://www.dailykos.com/...

THAT'S something I'd like to learn ... how to get people to understand the urgency of CC, and make changes in their lifestyle - or at least, to acknowledge there are things we CAN do. Some thoughts below the fold ...

My group and I want to get a nice Green retirement gift for our director, who's retiring in a week. We think he's the greatest boss and are sad to see him go.

Any ideas for a great green gift? We can spend up to about $100, dividing the costs evenly.

It can't be too big (like a hybrid car!).
It should be something he will treasure the rest of his life ...

We could use another WPA for America. Worked then, works now. - A NEW "New Deal" for America. Okay, I-35 and the AFL-CIO debate jogged my memory, but my Dad proposed a new WPA years ago, when I was in High School. He saw how many kids came out of there (and from college, too!) without knowing what they wanted to do, and with no idea of what public service could be.

From the wiki - The Works Progress Administration (later Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest and most comprehensive New Deal agency, employing millions of people and affecting most every locality ... It was created on May 6, 1935 by Presidential order ...  It continued and extended the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) relief programs started by Herbert Hoover and continued under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Headed by Harry L. Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. The program built many public buildings, projects and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media and literacy projects. It fed children, redistributed food, clothing and housing.

Mike Waltner of Pennsylvania - The "Key" to the Keystone State

Mike Waltner, Democrat, is running for Congress against an incumbent Republican in Pennsylvania - a state that SHOULD be among our Bluest! You took that bus and knocked on doors. You left flyers, and used those phonebanks for hours - no, weeks -- to "Turn PA Blue."  We all worked hard.

Pennsylvania still needs us.

It's July, and it's Gioia! ("Joy-ah.")

Eric Gioia, New York City Councilmember from Queens, just completed the Food Stamp Challenge. Some in Congress tried to do it.  Have you?  Could YOU live on $28 of food a week?

Did Eric pass the Challenge, or fall apart from an overabundance of empty calories?  Check out how he did: http://www.ericgioia.com/...

Democracy for NYC (DFNYC) is committed to the ideals of Democracy for America (you may know it as DFA), the group founded by Howard Dean. We're proud to have Kossacks as members.

DFNYC has continually petitioned electeds to end the war, and spoken out for withholding funds. A totally volunteer, non-profit political action committee, DFNYC works for fiscally responsible, socially PROGRESSIVE candidates to WIN, at ALL levels of government.

Because of yesterday's terrible vote, Democracy for NYC is NOT caving. In point of fact, we are CHARGED.  Read on.

UPDATE: Just got an email, and, incredibly, it was a gas line that blew several blocks from the hotel (Story below.) My apologies for the initial "URGENT" title, but I was really scared, and everyone there on the scene initially thought it was something worse.

ORIGINAL story ... Sorry about this short and unusual request, but I just got a phone call from a friend who's in Jerusalem right now as a tourist, and he says that there was a bomb blast outside his hotel ... I'm searching all the news outlets on tv and the net, and can't find word of it.

Can someone PLEASE search the net for me, and put anything you find as a comment to this diary ??

I'm going crazy trying to find something on the MSM and no one seems to be reporting anything yet. My friend said that the hotel shook and no knows what happened, but it seems to be an explosion. Thanks!!!

Okay, I know it's last minute and everything, and I'll make this REAL short, but retired Naval Commander Eric Massa of Corning, New York, needs YOUR vote, NOW.

Only 10 minutes (or is it less, now???) to go before the DFA Grassroots All-Star campaign is over - please go to this link - http://www.democracyforamerica.com/... - and vote.

Most of us here know Eric, but for those who don't, he is a champion for our veterans' rights, as well as for the economic improvement of upper New York State.

The latest on California’s groundbreaking stem cell battle - from the frontlines, by Don C. Reed - www.stemcellbattles.com ...
Religious right and anti-tax groups are still suing to shut down the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the stem cell research program voted into law as Proposition 71.

This matters to me. My son Roman Reed is paralyzed, and I intend to see him walk again one day. For that to happen, stem cell research must advance. The lawsuit is an obstacle.
I attended the first trial, and am following it closely: it moves now into the appeals court. Whichever side loses there will doubtless appeal it to the California State Supreme Court.

Read on for an update: the opposition’s attack, and our defense. (I say "our" deliberately; we all have a loved one with an incurable disease or disability; when California fights for stem cell research, it is for everyone.)

This story that I saw, from Marco Ceglie, National Co-Chair, Billionaires For Bush, says just what I feel ... so I'm posting it here, for all of us. Somehow I think we can all relate ...

It is, as they say, Morning in America.  Is it just me, or does it feel as if an entire Nation has awakened from a long, deep sleep?

I awoke this morning, still feeling a little sleepy myself, and read the following headline in a shaded text-box on page 2 of the local paper: "What Democrats Want". It so moved me that I'm sharing it here.  

A message from Don Reed, stem cell activist extraordinaire, and ordinary American. - www.stemcellbattles.com - Please send this to any disability advocate and senior advocate you know, whether or not they live in Missouri! Ask them to send Don's plea to those who can reach seniors and the disabled-voices too long ignored and left out of our democratic process.  Here is Don's message -

Imagine the struggle a paralyzed person has to go through, just to get out of bed. My son Roman Reed is paralyzed, a quadriplegic. And maybe he can't close his fingers, and maybe his legs don't work.

But nothing on earth will stop him from voting tomorrow.

Not to be missed under any circumstances! Cancel the weddings, postpone the funerals, tell the publisher's clearing house you don't want their millions--  but be sure to join your fellow stem cell supporters at 12:15 THIS MONDAY!

Meet stem cell research supporter John Garamendi, the man who defied the giant insurance companies and is now running for the critically important office of Lieutenant Governor of California--and why does that matter, you ask? The Lieutenant Governor can APPOINT FIVE MEMBERS OF THE ICOC BOARD--and Garamendi's opponent, Tom McClintock, opposes California's research so much he calls it "snake oil" and helped write the official opposition statement in the Voter's Handbook!

Meet Gavin Newsome, mayor of San Francisco and a man predicted by many to be President one day;

It's time.

Time to take a stand and stand up for what you believe. That's what Eric Massa has been doing all these many months, as we've followed his grassroots campaign - a real-life "Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington" story.

Now, in these final weeks, I would like to invite you to a timely and historic evening on Monday, October 23, for Eric Massa, the inimitable and original "Fighting Dem" and Candidate for New York State Congress in the "Fighting 29th District" - an event to be held here in New York on the West Side of Manhattan.

It's time. Time to take a stand and stand up for what you believe. That's what Eric Massa has been doing all these many months, as we've followed his grassroots campaign - a real-life "Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington" story.

Now, in these final weeks, I would like to invite you to a timely and historic evening on Monday, October 23, for Eric Massa, the inimitable and original "Fighting Dem" and Candidate for New York State Congress in the "Fighting 29th District" - an event to be held here in New York on the West Side of Manhattan.

Eric will meet with us one final time, direct from the Lake District of Corning, NY, in his strong and hard-hitting battle to take the Hill and take back the House.

Who ARE the 504s, anyway?

The 504 Democratic Club is a New York City-based coalition of Democrats working toward inclusion of people with disabilities in the political and social fabric of society.

All this week, the 504 Democratic Club is hosting candidate screenings, to discuss disability issues with candidates running in the Sept. 12 primary.

Field Trip to Connecticut to Support Ned Lamont and Beat Joe Lieberman --

Democracy for NYC, Democracy for Westchester, and NJ for Democracy are doing field trips on August 5 and 6 to help DFA-List Candidate Ned Lamont beat Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic primary.

We will take MetroNorth each day to South Norwalk (campaign headquarters - approx. 1 hour from Grand Central), where the campaign will pick us up with cars.