What we need to do NOW-Please add to the list!

[booley]

Ok, no matter how this Ohio thing pans out, I think there are things we need to do. Even if Shrub does pull off another cheat. And really, is this a surprise? we knew the repubs were doing everything they could to keep people from voting. We knew even without the cheating that this was likely to be close.
And we knew that the cheaters were the guys in power and so had an advantage.
BUT when you have a problem, you need a PLAN!

So here are a few brainstorming ideas. With gratuitouse stealing from Moore and Lakoff who thought of some of this first. Some short term and some long term. Please add too...

1. Just becuase they cheat doesn't mean we make it easy for them. Though I fear that the cheaters may once again prevail, we can still fight them. We knwo this looks fishy. we know the voting machines had problems, that too many Sec. of States had conflicts of interest. That to many times voters were denied thier rights under the law. And that too many ballots "disapeared'. Cheaters, even if they succeed, still leave a trail.
But this I think we already know

2. Support our Liberal Community. BUILD our Liberal Commiunity. We need our Liberal Think Tanks and we need our Air America and especially our activist groups. BUT not just that but we need to coordinate them together. Look at the FCC ruling and how we managed to stop that by gathering activist groups! That had hardly no coverage in the mainstream media and no initial support. Then they coordinated people against this and suddenly Micheal Powell was complaining about activists getting in the way and TRENT LOTT coming down on our side on this issue.

3. EDUCATE OURSELVES and EDUCATE OTHERS... we are already do this and do it here beautifly. So we need to continue to make sure that when our think tanks comes out with a report or we uncover a story the Shrubbery hid, we ALL KNOW THE DETAILS.
But we also need to make others aware. We also need to make sure that EVERYBODY KNOWS as well. And not only about the issues but just VOTING as well. Too many people got fooled by those fake letters. At my polling place, the Republican observer said that if a group like MOVE ON or ACT took your registration, it didn't count. And the DEMOCRATIC observer just sat there and didn't even counter it. (I mean, why would a Dem organization screw DEM voters?).

What if we formed a LIBERAL BOOK CLUB, buying up books at bulk rates and selling them out at discount or even giving them away? What would have happened if MILLIONS of PEOPLE hade a guide to thier voting rights in 2000?

4. TRUMP the MEDIA- Letters to the editors, supporting our own media, creating alternative media. yes, we al know that the mainstream media is not our friend. They wil undoubbtidly get a lot of stories wrong. BUT even that's better then letting them ignore it. When we force an issue to the front, even though they wil try to distort it they stil have to talk about it. And if people are talking about our issues, we have already won a major battle right there.

5. Learn to TALK like a CONSERVATIVE- Framing is how they get the poor, minorities, women and carbon based life forms to vote against thier interests. Abortion has gone up under Shrub, Shrub has lied and IS NOT a working class. He never has been. But the facts, while obvious, are ignored by people who have a conservative world view. Becuase cons know to talk to that world view so they can ignore the facts. FACTS alone are not enough.

And yes, that means reading Lakoff's "Don't think of an Elephant"

6. BECOME INVOLVED in the Democratic Party. And this goes especially for those leaning to third parties. You guys are right in that the DEMS have gone too far to the right, they don't FIGHT like they need too. So become the guy that helps decide the DEM positions on things.

7. RUN for OFFICE- Not everybody can do this, true. But out of the MILLIONS that did vote for Kerry, I am sure we can get quite a few good canidates. Paul Wellstone was a thorn in the Shrub's side and they did everything they could to get rid of him (no, I will go into conspiracy theories about his death..I'm talking politically) But what would happen if all of a sudden there were 10, 20 , 30 Paul Wellstones? That would be hard to beat.

8. SUPPORT SLIPPERY SLOPE LEGISLATION- Legislation that when passed, opens the way for other, more pregressive legislation. The cons do this for themselves. They don't care about the debt ebcuase the more debt means they are closer to destroying al the social programs they hate. So we form our own and support it and make it a grassroots effort and make politicans have to deal with it.
Like getting rid of WINNER TAKES ALL in the state electors or having run off voting for presidential voting. You may think this is too impractical but remember, 20 years ago all the republicans positions of today was part of the lunatic fringe. Today, they are just looney.

There are more I could come up with, but I also would liek us all to come up with stuff.

[booley]

1. A question

how much of a discount can you get for a bulk sale?

[pop goes the weasel]

2. slap an elitist today

All these whiners wanting to blame Kerry's loss on the poor, on the religious, on the South and Midwest. Slap 'em. Smack 'em but good. Ask them how they managed to miss taking a basic math class when they were in college and point out that you can mobilize every single BiCoastal Metrosexual in America and that number is still less than the uneducated, the poor, the Southern, the MidWestern, the lower middle class, the evangelical, and the military combined. You can't have a national party that only includes people who drink lattes. Once upon a time, Democrats celebrated the common man. Do it again, and Democrats will win. Continue to be elitists, and the Dems will join the Whigs and Federalists in the dustbin of history.