NY-29: Eric Massa

post from Daily Kos on 30 March 2006 11:48:21 PM. © Daily Kos

Why was Eric Massa added to the Netroots page? Let me steal from DavidNYC:

Massa is running against a freshman, Randy Kuhl, who was only elected with 51% of the vote in 2004.

New York's 29th Congressional District has a Partisan Voting Index (PVI) of only R+5.2, which means that over the last two presidential elections, the CD was 5.2% more Republican than the nation as a whole. That's not very much. For instance, two freshmen Dems who won seats last time out - Melissa Bean in IL-08 and John Salazar in CO-03 - ran in districts with almost identical PVIs.

Randy Kuhl is a totally insane nutbag, who threatened to shoot his ex-wife with TWO shotguns in the middle of a dinner party at their own home! Please click the link - I swear I am not making this up.

Massa is not only a Fighting Dem - he served in the Navy for twenty-four years - but he's been at the forefront of his band of brothers and sisters. He authored the founding pledge (MP3) which forty fellow Fighting Dems all united behind on Feb. 8th in Washington, DC. In short, he is a leader among leaders.

Massa's already done a decent job fundraising. He had raised $218,000 by the end of last year, which is a very solid sum for a candidate who isn't on the radar screen of the major establishment players.

To continue with that theme, the fact that this race isn't considered "top-tier" makes it a perfect opportunity for the netroots to get involved. In a race where both sides will raise millions, the marginal difference we can make is small. But for races which aren't receiving tons of attention, our time, resources and money can have a very big effect.

Finally, I don't usually make predictions, but I am confident that Democrats in New York are going to have a huge year. With Hillary Clinton and Eliot Spitzer at the top of the ticket - both of whom should easily clear 60% - there will be major Dem coattails all the way down the ballot. Guys like Massa are exactly the sort of people who are perfectly positioned to take advantage of this - if they have enough help from people like us.

I have a good feeling about NY this year. With the disaster that is the GOP at the state level and no top-tier candidates for Senate or Governor to drive voter turnout, down-ballot Republicans face serious disaster.

He was featured on the Fighting Dems segment on Air America late last year, and I have to say he was one of the most impressive I've had the pleasure of hearing on that segment.

It's races like Massa's that we need to pick up to gain the majority and a Democratic Speaker of the House.

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Project 354

post from Eschaton on 30 March 2006 11:47:00 PM. © Eschaton

The blogosphere is vast. Gazillions of people read liberal bloggers.

Lamont only needs 354 more donations to meet the goal of 3000. $10 all you can give? No problem.

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http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_03_26_atrios_archive.html#114378051906029371

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Faces

post from Eschaton on 30 March 2006 11:43:00 PM. © Eschaton

Not meant to be shot.

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CT-Sen: Lieberman booed at state party dinner

post from Daily Kos on 30 March 2006 11:09:57 PM. © Daily Kos

Not even Obama's endorsement could spare Lieberman the embarrassment of being booed at the Connecticut Democrats' annual dinner tonight.

Lieberman became Obama's mentor when Obama was sworn into the Senate in 2005. They stayed close at Thursday night's event, too, entering the room together and working the crowd in tandem.
Despite the camaraderie between the two, the crowd was clearly more receptive to Obama's remarks than Lieberman's speech about party unity and the potential for Democratic victories at the ballot box this fall.
In fact, scattered boos greeted Lieberman when he took the podium, and he had to stop three times during his remarks to shush the crowd so he could deliver key points.

It's a sad, pathetic sight seeing Lieberman scramble for respect despite his long years of incumbency against what should've been a quixotic challenge. Instead, he's facing a real foe, with real support, and a restless state media and political establishment.

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Is one race really planning for control of U.S.
territory

post from Crooks and Liars on 30 March 2006 11:00:31 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Is one race really planning for control of U.S. territory?

Alex Koppleman takes a look at Malkin's embrace of the Aztlan and reconquista theme.

tbogg has more: "Another American Flag Down"

"Yes. Because if there is one thing that the people of this great nation need it's important breaking news involving a Florida condo association."

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/03/30.html#a7732

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Bahamas government bans Brokeback Mountain

post from AMERICAblog on 30 March 2006 10:28:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

Well, time to stop going to the Bahamas.

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Yet another body armor snafu

post from AMERICAblog on 30 March 2006 10:23:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

We're going to be involved in in our 3rd war before Bush and company can figure out what the hell is going on with the body armor. This would be funny if it weren't so deadly serious. Could these guys be any more incompetent? Four years into these wars and they still haven't figure it out.

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Motive, Meet Your Cohorts Opportunity and
Intent…

Man, when Murray Waas writes an article, he doesn’t kid around, does he? His new article in the National Journal puts the justification for going to war in Iraq under a microscope — and asks some pretty damning questions[...]

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http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/03/30/motive-meet-your-cohorts-opportunity-and-in
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Joementum [Nedrenaline Mix]

Soon to sweep clubs all across the nation.

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http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_03_26_atrios_archive.html#114377350044060960

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"The banality of evil"

A few words about Hannah Arendt and her essay "Eichmann in Jerusalem." Something to keep in mind the next time someone tries to tell you that a vicious Republican like Jesse Helms or Pat Buchanan is actually a very nice person when you meet them. Rather than calling that person crazy, consider the nuance of what they're actually telling you:

She controversially uses the phrase 'the banality of evil' to characterize Eichmann's actions as a member of the Nazi regime, in particular his role as chief architect and executioner of Hitler's genocidal 'final solution' (Endlosung) for the 'Jewish problem'. Her characterization of these actions, so obscene in their nature and consequences, as 'banal' is not meant to position them as workaday. Rather it is meant to contest the prevalent depictions of the Nazi's inexplicable atrocities as having emanated from a malevolent will to do evil, a delight in murder. As far as Arendt could discern, Eichmann came to his willing involvement with the program of genocide through a failure or absence of the faculties of sound thinking and judgement. From Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem (where he had been brought after Israeli agents found him in hiding in Argentina), Arendt concluded that far from exhibiting a malevolent hatred of Jews which could have accounted psychologically for his participation in the Holocaust, Eichmann was an utterly innocuous individual. He operated unthinkingly, following orders, efficiently carrying them out, with no consideration of their effects upon those he targeted. The human dimension of these activities were not entertained, so the extermination of the Jews became indistinguishable from any other bureaucratically assigned and discharged responsibility for Eichmann and his cohorts.

Arendt concluded that Eichmann was constitutively incapable of exercising the kind of judgement that would have made his victims' suffering real or apparent for him. It was not the presence of hatred that enabled Eichmann to perpetrate the genocide, but the absence of the imaginative capacities that would have made the human and moral dimensions of his activities tangible for him. Eichmann failed to exercise his capacity of thinking, of having an internal dialogue with himself, which would have permitted self-awareness of the evil nature of his deeds. This amounted to a failure to use self-reflection as a basis for judgement, the faculty that would have required Eichmann to exercise his imagination so as to contemplate the nature of his deeds from the experiential standpoint of his victims. This connection between the complicity with political evil and the failure of thinking and judgement inspired the last phase of Arendt's work, which sought to explicate the nature of these faculties and their constitutive role for politically and morally responsible choices.

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