Progressive documentaries

Via FireDogLake:

This primary season has been tough on progressives. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the Obama-Clinton battle have tended to highlight the somewhat disparate nature of the coalition that has been forged over the years, particularly between the racial-minority and women-voter blocs. So it's important at times like these to remember that we're all in this together, and have been for many years.

Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation, working with the folks at The Nation, has come up with a terrific way to remind us of this. They've prepared a series of 30-minute documentaries, titled "This Brave Nation," which are essentially two-person conversations between major progressive figures -- some new, some historic, but all of them with shared goals. The icons range from Tom Hayden to Van Jones, and include folks like Dolores Huerta, Carl Pope, Bonnie Raitt, and Pete Seeger, Majora Carter, Naomi Klein, Ava Lowery and Anthony Romero.

Starting June 1, they'll be rolling out the documentaries with an episode per week, available in five-minute highlight videos and the full 30-minute films. The series culminates with a July 13 broadcast from Culver City, California, at which the first Brave Nation Award will be announced. They'll also be available on DVDs.

You can get a preview at the video above or at their website.

Here's hoping the series helps remind everyone that we have mutual goals at stake that extend well beyond any mere election cycle -- even one of historic dimensions like this one.

[Note: I would have linked to the Brave Nation website directly, but it immediately begins loading a video - not a good thing for our dial-up readers. Stephan]

Tie them to Bush

Frank Rich's addition to our weekly reader: McCain Can Run, but Bush Won’t Hide (free New York Times account required)

...It’s the third “safe” Republican House seat to fall in a special election since March.

Party leaders have been haplessly trying to identify possible remedies ever since. It didn’t help that their recent stab at an Obamaesque national Congressional campaign slogan, “The Change You Deserve,” was humiliatingly identified as the advertising pitch for the anti-depressant Effexor. (If they’re going to go the pharmaceutical route, “Viva Viagra” might be more to the point.) Yet for all the Republican self-flagellation, it’s still not clear that the party even understands the particular dimensions of its latest defeat and its full implications for both Congressional races and John McCain in November.

Please read the whole article, it is well worth it. With respect to CD6, we should use this picture as often as we can:

[source: wonkette.com, http://cache.wonkette.com/images/thumbs/0f4a067c335a50ebeaa0f28d81e1faab.jpg]

Being a liberal - a moral commitment

From teacherken at DailyKos

Too often we shy away from labels because they are used to demonize. But to me the word liberal should be reclaimed, as a proud banner, of a tradition of caring and commitment beyond one's immediate needs, one's kith and kin, one's social class. one's religion, one's ethnicity.

I do not condemn those whose orientation is different than mine. I seek to find common ground where we can come together for the greater good.

But I will not shy away from asserting my own beliefs. I am a human being who sees myself not so much in opposition to others as I do in sharing a common world, a common heritage, a common future, which means that we must find some commonality in how we work to ensure that future.

And so I give my reasons, make my explanations. I view the label as explanatory, but as more. It is a moral commitment.

I am a liberal.

Peace.

Honest debate. Maybe someday

Independent Progressive movement

From Digby:

...Congresscritters and Senators care about perception and image and what the opposition (and the media, by the way) will do because their careers depend on it.

This is why it's important to have a strong and thriving *independent* progressive movement, to push from outside the political process to build public support for specific issues.

Another Bill Moyers must see

Bill Moyers from last Friday on torture.

The Defining Moment for Climate Change

An important read and call to action. Citing our circumstances in football terms, Bill McKibben calls for a Hail Mary Pass. Let's hope for a touchdown.

Bill McKibben, The Defining Moment for Climate Change

Already climate change -- in the form of a changing pattern of global rainfall -- seems to be affecting the planet in significant ways. Take the massive, almost decade-long drought in Australia's wheat-growing heartland, which has been a significant factor in sending flour prices, and so bread prices, soaring globally, leading to desperation and food riots across the planet.
A report from the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia makes clear that, despite recent heavy rains in the eastern Australian breadbasket, years of above normal rainfall would be needed "to remove the very long-term [water] deficits" in the region. The report then adds this ominous note: "The combination of record heat and widespread drought during the past five to 10 years over large parts of southern and eastern Australia is without historical precedent and is, at least partly, a result of climate change."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174930/bill_mckibben_the_defining_moment_for_climate_change

Federal same-day voter registration proposed

From Feingold's website:

FEINGOLD, KLOBUCHAR, ELLISON WORK TO MAKE VOTING EASIER FOR ALL AMERICANS
Bill Allowing Election Day Registration is Introduced Following Supreme Court Decision Allowing Laws Impeding the Right to Vote

May 1, 2008

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) are introducing legislation to help more Americans register to vote by allowing Election Day registration at polling places for all federal elections. The Election Day Registration Act addresses chronic problems with the American electoral process – low voter turnout and archaic voter registration laws. Election Day registration is also seen as preferable to advance registration since voters are actually present when they register, reducing opportunities for fraud. The bill’s introduction comes days after the Supreme Court upheld an Indiana voter ID law that seriously impedes the ability of elderly and low-income Americans to vote. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Jon Tester (D-MT), who represent states that recently enacted Election Day registration, are also cosponsors of the bill.

Calendar

Don't forget to watch the calendar for progressive events!

For example, tonight (May 1st) Dr. Martin Marty will be speaking at Central Lutheran in Minneapolis.

Keynote speaker for this year's event will be Dr. Martin Marty. "Marty" is one of the most prominent interpreters of religion and culture today. He is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinquished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he taught for 35 years.

The title of his talk will be "WHAT IS IT ABOUT RELIGIONS ... That they can be 'killers that heal' and/or 'healers that kill?" Dr. Marty has been pondering this question in light of current events around the world. While today Christians think only Muslims kill, and that they don't heal, they forget that we Christians too have killed --but have also been great healers.