Lubbock Left

Tonight I find inspiration from an unlikely source: a 2008 Kansas Democratic state representative candidate who lost: Sean Tevis.

Kansas and West Texas have some things in common. We share a common water source (the Ogallala aquifer), arid open spaces, and determined pockets of progressive Democrats. I think those of us in West Texas could benefit from sharing the lessons of Sean Tevis’s post-campaign activism as well.

Tevis, who is also a web developer / information architect, sums up his post-election activism in a nifty webcomic. Behold the crucial flowchart:

Tevis thinks outside the box and comes up with option four.

Option four is what each of us should be doing all the time anyway: meeting with our elected officials as often as possible to make our feelings, beliefs, and opinions known. The interactions between elected officials and constituents are what make democracy work. Both ends of the equation have to live up to expectations. Elected officials must be willing to meet constituents (and set aside time for such meetings), and constituents must get off their butts and make the effort to meet with their representatives.

Over the years, I have learned that the thing that helps the “option four” process the most is focus. This is also mentioned in the webcomic. Because it’s his passion and has affected him recently, Tevis’s focus will be on Kansas campaign finance reform. (Bonus fun fact: I am totally in favor of Tevis’s proposal to require politicians to wear nascar-style jackets with patches for all of their corporate sponsors.) I think our focus for meeting with elected officials here in West Texas will be most effective if it is one of the big issues for our area: agriculture, wind/solar energy, education, and/or health care.

Regardless of the chosen issue, the main point is to keep going. The work of progressives, especially progressive candidates who ran and lost, is not over when the election is over, and we don’t get a holiday until a few months before the next election.

Now is not the time to start, suspend, or stop a 2010 campaign — do the work of option four and communicate with elected officials, even the ones that you oppose. In the worst case (where you are ignored), your attention will at least gather plenty of material for the next election. In the best case, you might even reach a consensus and get something good done.

It has begun.

Misleading ads attacking universal health care are already here. It’s the opening salvo from those who have a vested financial interest in keeping our broken health care system the way it is. To that end, we will hear lies and distortions aplenty from insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and their proxies.

I expect that many “health care reform” bills will be floated in Congress, some deliberately weakened to the point that they’re not real reform. So, let’s be clear on our goal: a public option for health care. Americans should be able to choose either a universally available public health care option like Medicare or for-profit private insurance. Anything less than this is a watered-down reform that doesn’t come close to solving our health care crisis.

Moreover, we need to be careful not to pass a plan that makes the situation worse. For example, a “universal health care” plan that mandates the purchase of private health insurance is a terrible idea, but it’s being talked about within the UHC framework. It will be important to stay informed about the details of health care reform bills as they are voted on by our representatives. Just because something claims to be “universal” or “single-payer” doesn’t automatically make it a good idea. (A good solution will be both universal and single-payer, but there are plenty of bad solutions that are also universal, single-payer, or both.)

You can learn more about this issue and get involved at StandWithDrDean.com

Well, we’re past the 100-day mark and one thing remains clear:

(Political Cartoon by R.J. Matson in The New York Observer, found via Job’s Anger)

The GOP is the party of NO. No new ideas, no desire to participate in the process, and — important to their own future — no emerging leaders.

To illustrate the fact that today’s GOP is a bunch of obstructionist clowns, here are some of my favorites from some dude’s hilarious Flickr set (click for big):

Rick Perry, Secessionist Clown

Michelle Bachmann, Crazy Clown

Newt Gingrich, “Party Like It’s 1993″ Clown

And let’s not forget the new logo for the GOP:

Happy Monday!

While talking to students at Stanford University on Thursday, Condoleezza Rice may have stepped in it by admitting to conspiracy.

Here’s the crux of it:

In a video that surfaced Thursday, Rice said, “The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligation, legal obligations under the convention against torture… I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency. And so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.”

(emphasis mine)

I was not alive for Watergate, but this sure does sound like Nixon when he said, “When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.”

I hope serious, independent investigations start soon. As the rawstory article indicates, inaction itself may be a crime under the Geneva conventions. More importantly however, I believe that America’s national conscience will not be at peace unless we figure out who authorized torture and hold them accountable for it.