Monthly Archives: August 2010

(Community Matters) a bit homoerotic?

Hat Tip: Towelroad

(Community Matters) Evidently this photo has created quite a stir.  Too bad, it’s exquisite

(Community Matters) updated Ken Mehlman has finally come out. Anyone who finally comes out of the closet should be welcomed with love into this community, and this isn’t mutually exclusive from accountability for their previous behavior, especially how they’ve treated others.  I appreciate that he’s seriously engaged in marriage equality advocacy.

it’s up to others much wiser than me (some would say only a divine being) to determine if his marriage equality advocacy is adequate penance.

(Community Matters) Yesterday, I toured this “home.” The Masons built the building in the 1800s and donated it to the city to house a horse drawn fire truck.  The current owner has renovated it from the Capitol Saddlery location into a home. Loved it

Story

(Community Matters) I don’t believe the dismal forecasts.  If polls were to be believed, President Obama would not be president.  The field game we played during the election, defied forecasts.  President Obama was elected with the highest margin for a first term president in a very long time – because of the field game.

We’re deploying that same approach in the 2010 elections – pouring DNC/OFA resources into contacting our 15 million first time voters from the 2008 election.  We already know,  when we make contact with them at their front doors and the President asks for their help preventing a return to the previous eight years . . . and when the Congressional candidates we’re supporting connect and we remind them to vote – preferably early vote – they will turn out, in margins sufficient to win their elections.  I agree, a lot of ifs and ands.  Good thing we built a 50 state grassroots campaign during these last 19 months. We will preserve both houses.

We’re pouring $50 million into Organizing for America’s field game, and we’ve already given millions to state parties.

No doubt we’ll lose seats – with few exceptions, the party in power loses about 18 House seats and 4 Senate seats every mid term. And, we’re facing extraordinary times, a great recession as we rescued America from the Bush era Great Depression.  Yet, we’ll hold the House and Senate.

(Community Matters) Enjoyed attending a preview party with Suzanne Deal Booth as Larry Connelly’s guest.  Lots of others in attendance including Don Hamlin, Charles Gentry, Roland Cook, Elisabeth Challener, Dave Steakley, Sharon Watkins, Anton Nel and lots others.  What an outstanding season this is going to be – Rent, Steven Dietz, Suzan Lori-Parks, August Osage County . . .

I love seeing more traditional theater included in their season

(Community Matters) the terror funder . . .

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Community Matters) Which YouTube sites generate $100k+ per year for their creators?

#1 site here

#2 site here

(Community Matters) Remembering many friends no longer with us. This is an epic song from an iconic band, The Pet Shop Boys

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Community Matters) Also from Mike Allen:

E.J. Dionne Jr. in the WaPo, “Why won’t the GOP say ‘no’ to extremism?”: “What’s missing from the Democrats’ campaign is a willingness to raise the stakes of the election. … The principled case that must be made is that the brand of conservatism seeking power this year is irresponsible, incoherent and untrue to the best of its own traditions. … But there is something far more troubling at work: the rise of an angry, irrational extremism — the sort that says Obama is a Muslim socialist who wasn’t born in the United States — that was not part of Ronald Reagan’s buoyant conservative creed. … What the current right has on offer is far worse than anything Bush put forward … A victory for this style of conservatism will be a defeat for the kind of conservatism the country needs.” http://bit.ly/aq5ekL

(Community Matters) This sounds right:

From Mike Allen:

THE BIG IDEA -“Dems urge Obama to take a stand,” by John F. Harris and James Hohmann: “By declining to speak clearly and often about his larger philosophy-and insisting that his actions are guided not by ideology but a results-oriented ‘pragmatism’-he has bred confusion and disappointment among his allies, and left his agenda and motives vulnerable to distortion by his enemies. The president’s reluctance to be a Democratic version of Ronald Reagan … has produced an odd turn of events: Obama has been the most activist domestic president in decades, yet the philosophy behind his legislative achievements remains muddy in the eyes of many supporters and skeptics alike. … The ability to transcend ideological divides and unite disparate parts of the electorate was a signal strength of his candidacy in 2008. But that has given way to widespread-if often contradictory-complaints about his agenda (too radical or too cautious?) and the political tactics (too partisan or too conflict-averse?) he uses to pursue it. … ‘You have to provide the country with a narrative of where we have been and where we need to go and how to get there,’ said Don Baer, communications director in Bill Clinton’s White House. ‘That requires a theory of the case on the role of government-and the role of the president … [P]eople need context, and I imagine this leaves the president unhappy when they reach what he thinks is the wrong conclusion’ about his vision for the country.” http://bit.ly/9GcdSN

(Community Matters) My guest article on the Haiti trip in yesterday’s Austin American Statesman