Pacific Views

Around the Blogs

Billmon wants everyone to join the popular front, and looks at Republicans' attempting to court the Hispanic vote.

Atrios wants people to contribute to these special election candidates in particular, and explains why they should donate to the Democratic party committees in general. He says we have to work to take back congress, and hold our ground in the senate, or it won't do much good to get a Democrat in the top job.

You can see the theme here? I'm not a big Kerry fan, but I don't think we can survive another four years of Bush too well. I'm not a big DNC fan, but the Democrats at least nominally deal with issues that will never see progress when Washington is in a Republican headlock. It's time to settle in for the marathon.

The Democratic party is anemic. Many became disaffected during the Clinton years, and local parties all over the country are mere husks. I'll never forget a 70 (?) year old woman at the DFA bloggers' breakfast in Iowa who said the people in her local Democratic party were worried that no one would be there to take over for them when they were gone. This situation is eminently correctable by anyone willing to meet a couple times a month with a bunch of Democrats, walk the odd precinct, and maybe do a little phonebanking. Get a move on.

Ampersand on how many women yearly die from unsafe abortions because there are no legal options, or in some cases even birth control, in their area.

Axis of Logic on how the mainstream media failed in Haiti.

Calpundit on lead in the DC water supply, and comments on the North Korea see-saw policy.

Confined Space on the targeting of an asbestos safety activist, and many more goodies for your scrolling pleasure.

Dave Johnson on those wacky, nuclear armed Straussian elitists.

dKos: Yes, somebody might be spying on you, which doesn't make you paranoid. Why Nader is just irresponsible at this point. A diarist notes that Lou Dobbs has become an unlikely champion for the working class, which has been pretty amazing to watch recently. Also, in further evidence of Bush's unseriousness, he's let Zarqawi go 3 times.

DNC: Kicking Ass, on the neglect of South America, how small business loses with Bush, and notes that Senate Democrats are speaking out against the FMA.

DSCC: From The Roots posts on open Senate races, and the strategy to get to 51.

The Guardian reported recently on the EU trade sanctions, and IT World makes the point that the already battered US tech sector could be hit hard.

Matt Gross on media myopia.

Nathan Newman talks about gay marriage in the context of polygamy, our phoney recovery, what judicial reviews can mean in Iran and other countries with Islamic law provisions, and a victory for NYC taxi drivers.

Orcinus on how we ignore to our peril recent incidents of white supremacy and terrorism at home.

Pandagon last week reviewed a get thyself to the kitchen screed by the usual conservative suspects, and lately, Ezra gets into a dust-up with Lileks over weak Kerry criticisms.

Political Wire points to a case study of the Trent Lott affair and the blogs, and points to reaction to the Bush ads.

On randomWalks, Dru Blood points out an article in the Black Commentator on racial discrimination in school funding.

Rap the Vote on the fight of students at a black college in a white rural county won the right to vote as residents.

Sisyphus finds some notable items around the blogosphere. Also, she pointed out a while ago that Monsanto wasn't upfront about the impact of GM plants, which just surprises the daylights out of me.

Tom Tomorrow on why the sunny face of outsourcing is bunk. Just below that, he alerts readers to the fact that the NYT pays good money for columns suggesting that it's pure Marxism to assert that the poor, get this... need jobs!

Wampum: MB reviews the durable goods report. Dwight points out that all these 'responsible adults' in the Bush administration have taken up the unified cry of don't blame me, finds three very good reads, and says that Kerry has nothing over Bush when it comes to waffling.

Yahoo! ran a report on striking South Koreans who were fired via IM. Let's hope that trend isn't catching.

Note: These especially long link roundup posts will now have comments turned off by default. This is because after they go into the archives and become food for trolls selling prescription drugs and porn, the trackback feature crashes the link to my MT server when I try re-saving them sans link spam and future commenting. So.