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This Sunday July 6 will be George W. Bush's 62nd birthday.
As you can see from the photo, his nearly eight years in office have been as kind to him as they have been to America, Iraq and the rest of the world. I know I feel like it's been about thirty years since relative peace and reason (and the Constitution) prevailed in America.
So, what do you get a sixty-two year old has-been/tyrant for his birthday?
I suggest you send a donation of $62 to your favorite Democratic candidate, in any race, national or local.
This would be the gift that means so very much, the gift that keeps on giving, the gift that says "We're thinking of you Dubya, and we really want to do something special that you will remember the rest of your life!"
Nice thing about this kind of gift, it's not easily broken. Dubya has a funny habit of busting things left in his charge (the military, the economy, the environment, the Constitution, etc.) A gift of $62 dollars to a Democratic candidate is nearly impossible for him to break, and I'm sure he'll be able to feel the special love that comes with such a thoughtful gift.

I might send him a bag of pretzels too.

GG

My friends, I hear the good folks at KPOJ, and see Keith Olbermann on TV, talking about the only constant in John McCain's policies: he changes them.
A lot.
So I did a quick little Google search of "list McCain policy flip-flops" and struck gold. Lots of interesting observations and comments, and the one I chose to share with you all comes from Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report. Here's a link to the entire post, the list is reproduced below for your enjoyment and education. Use it to educate your friends and neighbors about our dear senator from Arizona, how he changes his position on issues like the weather changes in Oregon: constantly!

* McCain supported the drilling moratorium; now he’s against it.

* McCain strongly opposes a windfall-tax on oil company profits. Three weeks earlier, he was perfectly comfortable with the idea.

* McCain thought Bush’s warrantless-wiretap program circumvented the law; now he believes the opposite.

* McCain defended “privatizing” Social Security. Now he says he’s against privatization (though he actually still supports it.)

Sign-up to volunteer on-site for the August 10 Washco Dems fundraiser “Victory in November”. There are no meetings to attend – just show up and report to your team leader at the event. Volunteers will work in shifts with a team leader so that all of will enjoy the event while making a significant contribution to its success. The event will take place at Rood Bridge Park in Hillsboro.

Volunteer on-site jobs include set-up, check-in, check out, merchandise sales and clean-up.

Check-in and check-out volunteers will need to attend a one hour training which will be scheduled a few days before the event.

Sign-p by contacting Linda Erickson, 503-693-1755 or hd29-1@washcodems.org

A short story made long.
I have a terrible memory for facts and figgers. I really stink in a debate because I read so much stuff and it makes an impression at the time but I cannot pull the details up on demand. And I really needed it recently, when asked "What has Barack Obama done as a Senator? I heard he has been a lousy Senator".
This past Saturday (June 21) while many of you were in Monmouth at the State Delegates Convention, I took my little airplane up to blow the dust off the wings. I flew from my home airport in Hillsboro over to Fly For Fun, a privately-owned, pulic-use field near Battle Ground Washington. My friend George owns this grass field, once in the middle of rural Clark County, now surrounded by houses. It's what is known as an 'Airpark' with houses with attached hangar-garages backing up to the strip. My dream is to someday live on such a place (in Oregon of course) and enjoy the freedom of waking up, climbing into the plane and departing the runway literally from my back yard. But that's not what I wanted to talk about.
George was hosting his annual Fly-In Breakfast, and lots of pilots from NW-OR & SW-WA show up to hang out, drink coffee, and swap rides and flying stories. A relaxing and fun time. And of course we ended up talking politics.
My flying pal and fellow Yellow Dog Glenn (with two "N's") started chatting with me, and soon our mutual friends who are nice guys and flying buddies, but major righties, started going off about the socialist state, the threat to America's future if Sen Obama is elected, yadda yadda, and one even admitted to getting all his news from Bill O'Reilley! Glenn & I just looked at each other. Then my right-wing friend stated Obama hasn't done much as a Senator from Illinois, and he wants to tax hell out of my 401(k) and raise taxes to give to welfare slobs and so on and things of that nature.
After a few minutes of listening I excused myself to take another friend (a Dem thank goodness!) flying and to clear my head.
So the point of this long story is, I thought about it for a while, did a little research at home and sent an email the next evening to all who were involved in the 'debate', which included this excerpt from Daily Koz:  (Click Read More for the data)

In walking my neighborhood, about 30 Democratic households in the list I was given, I have encountered, thus far:

1. Two people who registered Democrat so they could vote against the better candidate. Both men volunteered that information.

2. A Clinton supporter who has voted Democrat all her life but is going to vote for McCain because Clinton lost. She was visibly angry as she spoke.

3. A Republican husband who told me to get off the property even though his wife votes Democratic.

4. A couple, maybe in their late thirties, who are waiting for the voter manual to decide which candidates get their votes, i.e., they plan to "pick and choose."

5. One person who said he would not vote for Obama but did not volunteer why.

6. Others who say they are just too busy to follow the campaign.

This is the first time that I have experienced these situations. Getting into discussions wasn't my goal but I admit I was a little taken aback by the lack of interest in discussing the campaign (or the candidates).

I would like to have handouts to give to everyone I talk with. This would enable me to give people the necessary information and not tie them up at the door. Simple handouts that compare positions of the candidates. Enough detail to indicate substance. No "cut taxes" or "full employment" talk unless there is a plan on how to make it work. FAQs. Talking points. etc.

Any feedback on this proposal for a convention button?

I missed the program but here's an interesting tidbit from my compatriots in Claremont, CA:

"Frontline" on 4/15/08 had a program on health insurance in various countries. I found 2 of them particularly interesting.

Switzerland formerly had a US-style health insurance market. A national referendum barely approved government-regulated insurance. The current President of Switzerland, who had opposed the change, now supports it, since it's popular. There is one mandated package of services. Insurers compete on service quality and price.

Taiwan, which recently established a government-run system, studied all of the others and picked the "best" features. Prof. William Hsiao -- of Harvard (as I recall) -- was the consultant. Taiwan's government is the single insurer (a la Medicare), participation is mandatory, administrative cost is only 2%, the program costs 6% of GDP, and it operates at a deficit. I don't recall whether the 6% is the amount of premiums collected or the actual cost of the program.

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Can anyone point to a report that compares the various countries? A few weeks ago, I went to the WHO site, http://www.who.int/en/, and tried to find a readable report in their "Data and statistics" section but couldn't find any coordinated, integrated report.

Bob

The Washington County delegation to the State Delegate Selection Convention was almost entirely present and those missing had good excuses.  And, we had sufficient time to seat replacements for those who could not be there so we were well represented.  We have a committed and powerful group and I am very grateful to be part of it.

The voting, presentations and vote counting were sufficiently overlapped in time to allow the convention to proceed at a reasonable pace but we still spent 5 hours in the process.    The two round voting rule cut down on time and eliminated may people who did not seriously campaign in the first round.  Those that did campaign seriously seemed to make it to the second vote. 

The results were a mix of elected delegates who were either people who have spent the Bush years working for change or passionate new people who have been brought into the party by Obama.   It’s pretty hard to argue with the results even though I was disappointed in one or two cases.  

I voted for people who have shown they are committed and who will still be here doing the hard work after the confetti settles.   This does create a bias for people we know but I was happy that we could still help a few committed workers from eastern Oregon and add a few new people to the party ranks.

Delegate A:  "Who is this Lupita Maurer person, anyway?"
Delegate B:  "Oh, she is the Chair of the Washington County Democrats, and they just love her."

The love was transformed to votes on Saturday, as Lupita was elected on the PLEO (Party Leader and Elected Official) ballot, over some pretty high powered competition.  There was a lot of fierce campaigning, both before and during the convention.  But nothing could match the efforts of the "Maurer Power" team of dedicated Washco Dems, that came down early, and made sure that every shirt in the place had at least one "Lupita! Si se puede!" or "Maurer Power" sticker on it.  (There were so many stickers from all the candidates, that DNC Committeeman Wayne Kinney said he thought he had walked into a Nascar convention.)  Many thanks to all those who participated, and stuck it out for a long day of balloting, candidate introductions, and run-offs.

In addition to Lupita, Washington County added Brad Avakian to the list of Delegates from our county. More details are forthcoming.  Stay tuned!