Spent way too much of this weekend petitioning in the hot weather to get Joy and me on County Committee and our friend Devin Cohen on the ballot for Civil Court judge. I can't complain too much because Devin is wearing himself out walking districts, petitioning for himself and others, meeting voters and generally doing his part. But even the small part we did with Devin wore me out. But it also gave me yet another personal encounter with Republican ugliness. It isn't my first and it won't be my last.

The primary is over and our nominee is Barack Obama.

This was going to be a historic moment no matter what. Once the field narrowed to Obama and Clinton, we KNEW we would make history. We would have either the first black or first woman nominated for President by one of the two major parties. Well, THIS, folks, is history. Real and amazing history. We have now done what our parents couldn't do.

I have been reading two books that deal with pre-Columbian America: 1421 by Gavin Menzies and 1491 by Charles Mann. Both present controvesial but interesting theories of what happened before Columbus in the Americas. I find my self only partly convinced by each book and, in fact, think that the two theories wind up, in their extreme forms, to be mutually exclusive. I want to discuss these two books and hear other people's views.

Twenty two years after losing his parents and 5 siblings to Union Carbide's criminal negligance at Bhopal, India, activist Sunil Kumar Verma has committed suicide after fighting for years with paranoid schizophrenia an illness which affected many Bhopal survivors.

Meanwhile, Union Carbide and its buyer, Dow Chemical, has largely gotten off scott free.

What makes a good candiate? Groups like Emily's List and Working Families Party have a tendency to look to the candidates who have money, whose skills are in fundraising. Some people seem to think only lawyers can be effective politicians. And some simply think all candidates are pretty much the same and despair of finding excitement in supporting a candidate.

I don't buy any of those. I do get excited about candidates. They do not tend to be the ones who are supported by big money interests, and they are not always lawyers, but they are the candidates who are smart, articulate, and good on the issues. But there is one thing more that really makes a candidate kick ass. Dedication to the community. In some ways this may be the thing that can break through racial, cultural and political divides, because a candidate who proves him or herself to the community can get broad support: black and white, rich and poor, liberal and moderate. I want to discuss just such candidates.

This is a new campaign that I first saw on Daily Gotham but I am pushing it hard because I think it may be a real sign of things to come. New Democratic Majority is one group that is coming on board to fight the Republican Culture of Intolerance and to bring the Delaware Pogrom to the notice of the nation.

We often talk about the Republican Culture of Corruption, the excessive cronyism that exists between current Halliburton Republicans and the military-industrial complex. In today's Republican party, there is the ultimate fulfillment of what President Eisenhower warned the nation against. But bad though the widespread Republican Culture of Corruption is, there is an even worse side to the modern right wing: the Culture of Intolerance and Violence. One of the worst examples of this was the Delaware Pogrom.

I spend a great deal (probably too much) time analyzing Congressional races across the nation. I look at things said here, I look at what the Democrats are targeting and what the Republicans seem most scared of losing. I even pay attention to what BBC is calling the states to watch in 2006. I also focus on finding the most corrupt Republicans and look at how to best target them.

From these various musings I have started putting together various Act Blue sites designed to help win big in particular states where I consider victory particularly within reach and particularly sweet. The states I am choosing are ones where particularly close, hot races can be combined with races that can be TURNED competative if we can make corruption a big issue AND also throw in some long shot but still possible races. More below for three of these efforts.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

In honor of Earth Day, watch TV tonight! More specifically, watch the global warming documentary TOO HOT NOT TO HANDLE on HBO. It airs tonight, 4/22 at 7 PM and will be re-shown throughout the week. My wife, Joy, was interviewed for this show, though we don't know if the footage of her made it into the show.

I have been pushing my own campaign to not only fight the Republicans nationwide, but also to scare the shit out of them. This started from a pacnicked post on a NYC Republican site where their fearful leader expressed desperate concern that the Republicans could be swept aside completely in NY State. Unlikely? Maybe. But if they are scared, I am more than willing to feed their fears and strengthen the Democrats as I go along.

My original aim was NY State. Now I am expanding. I am expanding to Iowa, where Democrats could make major gains, and South Dakota, in an effort to fight the anti-American attack on women's rights in South Dakota. Read more below.

A funny thing happened to a random, off the cuff diary I wrote. It went platinum...or the blog equivalent. Front paged on MLW and for awhile TOP of the Recommended list on dKos and recommended on Booman. Thanks to all who read it! Now, based on lots that I have thought about before and based on the flood of comments I received, I am writing this follow up diary with the goal of giving you all the information and the power to do something.

Many want to hear more from Jim Hansen. I am using my connections to try and pass on that info. But...you can have a hand in that as well. Keep reading for suggestions on how you can help shape public opinion.

I am surprised no one else has covered this...I was even the first on dKos to post it. 60 Minutes just ran a piece NAILING Bush.

My wife works at GISS, the agency that Jim Hansen heads. She is a climatologist and she describes to me the increasing dread among climate scientists as it becomes clear that global warming not only is happening, but it is ACCELERATING faster than we had previously imagined. "Danger" and "tipping points" are words that Jim Hansen claims he has been told by the Bush Administration not to use. Tonight on 60 minutes he used them.

Yesterday I posted a diary calling for people to write letters complaining to ABC Family about their airing of Pat Robertson's "700 Club" given Robertson's advocacy of violence and his repeated anti-Muslim statements. The most recent trigger for an outcry against Pat Robertson's hate speech was something he said on the live version of his "700 Club" program (see below).

Today I want to take this one step further. What Pat Robertson is doing is, in essence, spouting hate speech on television...on ABC Family Channel, no less. It is time to complain to the FCC.

On September 11th, 2001, New York City was attacked. I was there and I heard the planes when they hit, though only later found out just what those loud, strange noises meant.

One of my co-workers at the time is a Shi'a Muslim. He was horrified by the attacks. As an EMT he immediately rushed down to ground zero to help. His very first reaction was to go and help. This is typical of his personality: a genuinely moral and kind person.

In my last article on this topic, I reintroduced KIVA and showed how 1.) what they do really can help create successful small businesses in East Africa and how those businesses help the community in which they exist, and 2.) how our efforts on the blogsphere have helped KIVA become so successful that they cannot keep up with the outpouring of help. But they are also bringing on the businesses in need of loans faster than ever, so jeep checking back. Congratulations to all who are making this such a success.

In this diary I want to reiterate the context in which KIVA works and how we also have to help that context. This will partly be a reiteration of diaries I have written before, explaining why I am calling for an "integrated" approach to development that we in the blogsphere can participate in. This is my vision of how you and I can change the world from the bottom up.