Defenders of Democracy

Received the following via email... posting here as requested:

Hi Peter,

I love the blog you have set up for Dave and would love it if you could post the following as an entry. I posted it as a comment but think it needs more presence.

Hello Patlak Supporters and Defenders of Democracy

We hope you are all energized after the amazing speeches from the Democratic National Convention. Please tap into that energy and help us on Saturday.

If you live in the Miami area we need your help tomorrow to stand up to the Bush Administration and defend families and freedom.

We are gathering outside of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's office to protest the new Cuba policy. Dave has gone on record saying it is an un-American, unjust and inhumane policy. The travel restrictions and remittance limitations don’t hurt Castro. They hurt American families here and their families still in Cuba. It redefines what family means. Aunts, uncles and cousins don't count. It puts a price tag on families and limits how much money a Cuban- American can send back to family still struggling on the island. And it forbids Americans from visiting their family every year. Instead, Americans can only visit family every three years. Imagine if you had a family member ailing or dying and you couldn’t rush to their side because you had already been back once in the past three years. Is this the land of the free?

Do you cripple a foreign dictatorship by punishing Americans? No.

Do you topple a regime by redefining families? No.

Not one special license has been issued permitting travel back to Cuba since the policy went into effect. What has happened is that now Cuban-Americans are forced to defy the law, travel to a third country and fly on a Cuban carrier back to the island. Castro winds up making money where he didn’t before. The same applies to remittances and care packages including family photos.

Cuban-Americans who were born in this country or arrived after 1980 are registering Democrat, and this policy affects them directly. As Democrats we must all stand together. As Americans we need to fight social injustice.

So we are protesting outside of the office of one of the most strident backers of the new policy. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Please join us and stand up for families, freedom and fairness.

The protest begins at 11am. We will meet at 10:30am and distribute post cards to protestors that we will collect and deliver in person to the publisher of the Miami Herald. The office is located at 9210 SW 72nd Street, Suite 100 Miami, Florida 33173

Please look for David Jordan or anyone wearing a Patlak for Congress T shirt.

Thanks,

Jody Finver
http://www.patlak.org/
Stand Up For Democracy. Volunteer. Contribute. Vote.

What is the best way to bury a scandal?

According to a recent op-ed piece, the best way to bury a scandal is to "bring out the bad news when attention is focused elsewhere."  Sounds like a pretty good ploy.  While the collective eyes of the country were on the 9/11 report, the Army released it's report in a hastily called session of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Transparency in government is not all that apparent.

It is interesting to read

The finding is contradicted by the international Red Cross, which warned U.S. authorities of systemic prisoner abuses in May 2003, a year before the scandal first broke in public view with the release of photos of prisoners who were beaten, on leashes and in humiliating sexual positions.

And, it's interesting to read

And the Army's attempt to pin the blame for prisoner mistreatment on officers no higher than mid-level in rank ignores the role military and civilian superiors played in encouraging such behavior.

What we need is accountability.  And if we're not going to find it in the Executive Branch, then I guess we'd better elect some folks to the Legislative Branch who can help bring it about.

Dave Patlak is such an individual, I believe.  I urge you, gentle reader, to think about the issues, determine what policies you believe in and stand for, and then get out and support candidates who are aligned with your thinking.  If you think America should stand alone, if you think America should alienate entire cultures, if you think military might always makes right, well, I know which candidates you support.  If you don't agree that America should stand alone, but should be a partner with other nations; if you believe that other cultures and religions have value and should be celebrated; if you believe military might should only be used with other elements of national power including diplomacy, information, and economics... then Dave Patlak is your man.

Support Dave!

What does it mean to be?

The last couple of weeks have had me wondering: What does it mean to be a Republican or to be a Democrat? For years, I've been a staunch Independent (I think, among other things, that means you will not find a mainstream, nation-wide website which accurately pegs me); I've been an Independent for as long as I could vote, casting my first votes in a Presidential election for John Anderson.  That Independent streak ran to other things in my youth, also:  I didn't join a fraternity or Greek organization in college, preferring the "independent" label.  I still wear it proudly.
 
But, I've also come to realize that for the most part, the United States political system, for better or worse, is a two party system.  And that's not likely to change in the very near future.
 
So, I look around and I ask myself:  What am I like?  What's important to me?  What are my values?  Sure, I guess I'm in favor of capitalism, but I'm also in favor of taking care of my neighbors and good health care for all and excellent education for our children (education which isn't measured by biased tests).
 
And then, I wonder, which party is in my corner.  Click through to the national party websites, and tell me what you think.  The Democratic site is fairly positive with upbeat postings about the possibility for the future, and a platform which is one which all of us who believe in the America can get behind.  The Republican website is, well, damn negative; it's mostly about what they are against, not what they are for.
 
Now, why do I raise this?  Well, several weeks ago, I heard the Chief of Naval Operations talk.  As I noted in my personal blog, Tidewater Musings, one of his points was this: 

Everyone, especially leaders, must come to grips with this question: What is it you believe? We must not be against but for something. What are you for and how do you translate that into something you can deliver?

I think this is important in the race in Florida's 18th District for this reason:  Dave Patlak is for things, not standing against things.  He is a postive force, a force which will represent the 18th District with grace and wit and determination and honesty and integrity.
 
And what is clear is that his campaign exceeds partisanship; he has Democrats and Republicans and Independents and Greens and whomever else in his corner.  People understand that Dave has a focus which puts his consituents and America first.  And, they understand that no matter which party they belong to, Dave is the best and right choice.
 
Please do more than read this blog.  Please get out and help Dave, and America, in any way you can.  Contribute.  Volunteer.  Join this blog and post your thoughts.  Let's send Dave Patlak to the United States House of Representatives, representing the great citizens of the 18th Congressional District in Florida.

The summer rolls on

Accorging to the AP, "America's children are less likely to commit a violent crime or become a victim of one, but more of them are living in poverty, according to the government's broadest measure of children's well-being."  Now there's a good news, bad news kind'a thing.
 
I've been on vacation for the last two weeks (thus my silence here on the Patlak blog) deep in the woods of Pennsylvania in a cabin with no phone and no computer and no television.  While I've been reading books -- including The Pentagon's New Map and  Power, Terror, Peace, and War -- Dave has been out meeting the people of the 18th District and has been gearing up to do the work as the elected voice of the people.  Dave's key issues speak directly the points raised in the AP article.  We cannot have a society where our children live, and die, in poverty.  The American Dream must be more than a dream, it must be a reality, a truth, for all people -- and particularly our children.
 
We need Representatives who understand we, as a society, must do something to alleviate the ills which negatively impact our children.  Dave Patlak is such an individual.