Take Back America 2007 Blog Posts

Politico Straw Poll Results

Isaiah Poole — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:44:00 GMT

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won a presidential straw poll on Wednesday sponsored by Politico.com and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner at Take Back America.

Former Sen. John Edwards came in a close second. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton came in third.

What the poll established is that Obama, Edwards and Clinton form a clear first tier of presidential candidates among progressives, pollster Stan Greenberg said. But unlike many national polls that show Clinton in the lead, people polled at the Take Back America conference showed a strong and interchangeable preference for Obama and Edwards.

The poll allowed participants to make a first and a second choice for who they would vote. Obama was the first choice of 29 percent of the poll participants; 26 percent chose Edwards. As a second choice, Obama won the support of 30 percent of the poll participants, and Edwards won 28 percent.

The poll is obviously good news for Obama, who appeared at Take Back America conferences for two years in a row and gave rousing, well-received speeches both times. Obama polled particularly well among young adults, 40 percent of whom made him their first choice.

It is just as obviously not so good news for Clinton, who also appeared at the conference for the second consecutive year and saw her speeches both times overshadowed by catcalls from antiwar protesters.

Not only were people who were most concerned about Iraq less inclined to support Clinton than they were Obama or Edwards, but she did particularly poorly among men; only 12 percent supported her over the other candidates.

The war in Iraq was either the first or second most important issue of 50 percent of the 727 people who took the poll, followed by health care, energy and global warming, and the economy and jobs.

Politico.com is the website of The Politico, a new newspaper that covers inside-the-Beltway politics. John Harris, the editor of the publication, said that the poll and the Take Back America conference heralded a sea change in liberal politics from when he began covering politics two decades ago, when Democrats and progressives were politically battered and adrift.

Now, he said, “some of the most interesting conversations are taking place in the Democatic party and in this particular wing of the Democratic party.”

What The Boos Were About

Bill Scher — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:08:40 GMT

Sen. Hillary Clinton being booed during her remarks is likely to be the big story coming out of Day 3 of Take Back America. What the boos were actually about is likely to be misreported.

Byron York at the National Review writes that the boos began after Clinton said, “The American military has done its job.” A fellow attendee told me he heard Fox News’ Carl Cameron report that she was booed because she said she supports the troops (though I have not been able to confirm Cameron’s remarks.)

That's flat wrong. The Politics on the Hudson blog gets it right: “They jeered the Democratic presidential hopeful when she blamed the Iraqi government for the continued violence that has bogged down U.S. troops.”

See the video for yourself, go to 23 minutes and 38 seconds into her remarks.

Why get booed for that?

Because a lot of people are sick and tired of what’s become a stand-by cop-out bipartisan talking point: that the Iraqis are solely to blame for the chaos and de-stablization.

As if the Iraqis invaded and occupied themselves.

The debacle cannot be turned around until blame is properly placed. Not on all the Iraqi people. Not on the propped-up Iraqi “government.” Not on America. Not on Americans. Not on the troops.

But on the individuals in Washington who planned the occupation, voted for the occupation, fund the occupation, and continue the occupation.

The Washington media are likely to miss the true nature of the boos, because this grassroots frustration at the constant blame-shifting has rarely been given the media megaphone. That it’s the Iraqis fault has become accepted fact.

I highly doubt Sen. Clinton thought repeating conventional wisdom would have resulted in such a visceral reaction. But that’s what happens when mainstream media only reflects Beltway groupthink and ignores what’s simmering on the ground across America.

What is the actual news?

That the progressive grassroots, being serious about foreign policy and national security, wanting a fundamental change in our foreign policy away from blundering occupation and towards steely multilateral diplomacy, viscerally reacted to a blatant mischaracterization of what’s happening abroad.

Obviously, those Iraqi individuals and foreign fighters who commit unspeakable violence deserve blame for their horrific actions.

But politicians that don’t also recognize the occupation’s massive contribution to the region-wide de-stabilization, and in turn, articulate how ending the occupation can help begin to repair the damage, can expect more booing.

UPDATE: Taylor Marsh and Seeing The Forest have more.

Also, this happened last year. Mahablog, Suburban Guerrilla and Taylor Marsh called out conservative attempts to distort the reasons why some Take Back America 2006 attendees booed Sen. Clinton.

UPDATE 2: Still more from Bob Geiger, Digby, Newscat, FireDogLake, The Left Coaster, Eschaton and The Carpetbagger Report.

The TBA Interview: Digby

Isaiah Poole — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:45:03 GMT

A short, unassuming woman blended into the large audience that sat through a panel discussion I moderated on Tuesday, “The Blogosphere: From Ideas to Action.” It was not until the panel ended and I was rushing out of the room that I happened to notice the name on her tag: “Digby.”

Digby had amassed a large following and deep respect in the progressive blogosphere for insightful, passionate writing on political issues, but before Tuesday no one knew the person behind Digby. That night, Digby revealed herself to the world and gave a rousing speech about what progressive bloggers have contributed to the movement as she accepted, on behalf of progressive bloggers, the Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award. Earlier in the day, I was able to spend a few moments chatting with Digby. Here are excerpts.

So what got you into this?

It was a reaction to the things that we were talking about in the panel, watching the events of the 90s and feeling impotent to do anything about it. And then there was a serendipitous moment when there was a new technology coming along that enabled people like me and other people who were interested and politically active. And I took to the Internet and I found that attractive.

So what were you doing before?

I was working in Hollywood. I worked in distribution for a number of years and had always been political.

And you created this anonymous personality.

Early on in the very early Usenet days when we're all writing online no one quite knew what to make of the Internet and we all used pseudonyms because we weren't sure what that meant to be yourself on the Internet. I found it a great challenge to write in sort of a genderless entity as a writer. I couldn't argue from authority, I couldn't even argue from my own experience, really. So I developed a way of writing and a way of thinking that was actually quite modern in the sense that on the Internet people were creating personalities that in a way I was kind of deconstructing.

Why the name Digby?

It was just a big name that my husband gave me. And I picked that in an instant. If I thought about it for a second I would've picked one of those grand Greek or Roman names that others have chosen.

What would you say is the most important thing that you accomplished?

I am very different from the bloggers who are very actively involved in organization and very actively involved in fundraising and other things. I operate in a traditional pundit role and I think my strength is in honing arguments and in connecting the dots that perhaps others don't. And some of that comes from my perspective of being outside Washington so I come at it with a slightly different perspective than many people. I think my accomplishment is probably helping develop a new form of opinion blogging.

We've been talking a lot at this conference about the progressive movement gaining momentum and gaining power. We're at the point where the conservative movement seems to be in disarray. But given where we are now, with a public that is very anxious about the war in Iraq and wants to get out, and as you saw in the polls just recently the Democratic Congress having a public opinion rating it is even lower than President Bush's right now, is there a danger that we have a moment that we could lose?

I actually feel very confident about it because there is this new political debate going on that is allowing us to make arguments that have not been made in a very long time. I don't think people have heard the progressive argument explicitly in a long time, not filtered through the right wing and the conventions of their media and interpreted by the mainstream media. I think as a lot of people are going directly into the blogosphere people are going to be hearing our arguments again. Now, whether we make them all and whether they are effective you never know; I don't think there are any guarantees there. But I think there is a new political debate that has opened up at a very propitious time for us as a result of the unfortunate failure of the conservative project under George W. Bush, and let's just say there will never be another time like this one.

Edwards: 'No More Triangulating'

Isaiah Poole — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:41:32 GMT

For an audience that was eager to hear a presidential candidate say that they would not compromise progressive principles for political expediency, former Sen. John Edwards knew what to say.

When it comes to ending the war in Iraq or issues such as universal health care, “No more pontificating, no more vacillating, no more triangulating, no more broken promises, no more pats on the head, no more ‘we’ll get around to it next time,’ no more taking half a loaf, no more ‘tomorrow,’” Edwards said.

People who are diagnosed with breast cancer or other serious health conditions, like his wife Elizabeth, don’t have time to wait for universal health care. “We need to do these things now,” he said.

Edwards spoke immediately after Illinois Sen. Barack Obama electrified the crowd with a stirring speech that stressed broad principles and policies but steered away from specifics. Edwards was often less reticent about specifics. He offered some details of his energy plan, which he said would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. He called the nation’s affordable housing policy a disaster and called for one million additional housing vouchers that would allow families to move out of pockets of poverty. He proposed a “college for everyone” plan in which students would have the cost of their tuition and books covered in exchange for 10 hours of work per week.

As the first presidential candidate in either party to release a detailed health care proposal, Edwards said he has one “threshold test” for a health care proposal: “whether it is truly universal.” If it is not, he said, “someone is going to have to explain to me what child has to go without health care.”

Edwards went beyond his opposition to the war in Iraq—his position is now the same as Obama’s, although when he was in the Senate he voted for the use of force authorization that allowed it—to talking about the damage the Bush administration’s foreign policy done to America’s stature in the world. He asked the audience to consider that the Bush administration declared that the Bush administration declared that genocide was taking place in the Darfur region of the Sudan, but then the rest of the world saw the administration step back and watch the genocide continue. If you were living in another country, Edwards asked, “what would you think of us?”

When he ended his speech with a progressive call to arms, it was evident that Edwards’ message still resonates on the left, even though recent polls show that he appears to be losing ground to frontrunner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. One Take Back America participant, having heard both Obama and Edwards, said, “I don’t know which one to support. They’re both good.”

Obama, An Unabashed 'Hope-Mongerer'

Isaiah Poole — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:44:03 GMT

The pundits have been saying that Sen. Barack Obama lost his stride at the most recent presidential debates, but there was no evidence of that Tuesday when he made a passionate, forceful speech at the Take Back America conference.

What a standing-room-only-crowd heard in the International Ballroom of the Washington Hilton was the kind of sweeping, inspiring embrace of progressive principles that has been his trademark. It included a firm denunciation of the conservative philosophy that had dominated Washington politics before Democrats took control of the Congress in 2006, which he described as “a philosophy of trickle-down and you're on your own that says that government has no role in the challenges that we face.”

The adherents to that governing philosophy “think they own this government, but we are here to say that our government is not for sale and we are taking it back, right here, right now.”

People who have lost their jobs because of globalization shouldn’t be told by their government that they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, Obama said. “When we see veterans here in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, foraging through dumpsters because they're homeless” because the federal government will not adequately fund social service programs to help them, “that diminishes all of our patriotism.”

"We believe that a better America is possible," he continued. "The time for a can't-do, won't-do, won't-even-try politics is over. The time for selfish politics is over. The time for a politicis of fear is over. The time for a politics of division is over."

He also said that he has no apologies for hammering the theme of home, saying that some members of the media have called him “a hope-mongerer.” Hope, he said, is what will fuel the strength and patience needed for us to change the nation’s politics. Evoking his rapid rise as an Illinois state senator to the United States Senate, “The only reason I am standing here today is because of hope,” he said. “On paper, it is impossible that I am here as a United States senator.”

Obama repeated his position that troops should be brought home from Iraq “not a year from now, not a month from now, but now.” He said that Democrats and progressives should keep the pressure on Republicans who have yet to vote for measures that would end the war. “We will call them, we will knock on their doors,” he said. We will bring the troops home.”

He also touted his recently released health care plan, and while he did not go into details, he promised that it would end the era of private insurers and pharmaceutical companies dictating access to care. He said he would tell the insurance and drug companies that “while they get a seat at the table, they don’t get to buy every chair.”

Who Is Digby?

Bill Scher — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:52:37 GMT

Is Chris Bowers Digby?

Is Oliver Willis Digby?

Is Candy Crowley Digby?

Is Gina Cooper Digby?

Is Jonathan Singer Digby?

Is Siun Digby?

Is Matt Browner-Hamlin Digby?

Is Kagro X Digby?

Is Prometheus 6 Digby?

Is NYBri Digby?

Is Amanda Terkel Digby?

Is Nico Digby?

Is Nathan Newman Digby?

Is Marcy Wheeler Digby?

Is lipris Digby?

Is Lanya Shapiro Digby?

Is Jerome Armstrong Digby?

Is Bob Geiger Digby?

Is Addie Stan Digby?

Is Jeffrey Feldman Digby?

Is Dave Johnson Digby?

Richardson Names Names

Bill Scher — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:02:59 GMT

Presidential hopeful Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., addressed Take Back America earlier this hour, and as far as I know, this was the first time he criticized Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards by name for not supporting his position on Iraq: "I would leave zero troops behind, not a single one."

Calling for a "New Realism For Foreign Policy," Richardson proposed replacing US troops with an "all-Muslim peacekeeping force," then convening a "national reconciliation conference" and a conference with Iraq's neighbors including Iran and Syria. "That's how we avoid a regional war," said Richardson.

He lambasted the original Iraq supplemental bill, the one that President Bush vetoed, for being ridden with "loopholes" that would allow some troops to remain indefinitely. He needled Clinton and Obama for voting for it, and Edwards for wanting that bill to be returned to the president's desk again and again.

The other half of Richardson's address laid out his strategy to combat global warming, which was released a few weeks ago.

He called for a new automobile fuel-efficiency standard of 50 miles per gallon, calling the proposal on the Senate floor of 35 mpg "weak." He pledged to sign the Kyoto treaty to slash greenhouse gas emissions, and boasted that his state already adheres to its provisions.

Freshman Class Message: Don't Back Down

Isaiah Poole — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 02:07:23 GMT

The three freshman progressive senators who participated in the "kitchen table" discussion at Take Back America Monday night all said they would support a strategy of not backing down from efforts to end the war in Iraq in the face of veto threats and political retaliation from President Bush.

What Democrats ought to do in the Senate is "keep pushing those votes," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., even though antiwar forces in the Senate might not have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster.

With Democrats holding a 51-49 majority, including two independents who caucus with the Democrats, at least nine Republican votes are needed to limit debate on a measure and bring it to a vote. Klobuchar predicted that if the Senate votes repatedly on measures to end funding for the war, Republicans will gradually feel the pressure and begin supporting them. "One of these days, we will have enough votes," she said.

Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, one of the two independents, agreed. "I think you've got a whole lot of nervous Republicans over there, and I think you've got to make them even more nervous," he said.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, likewise argued for a sustained push on antiwar legislative measures. He said the Republican Party operates like a top-down-managed corporation. "They have trouble breaking off from their CEO, and that is why we've got to push and push and push," he said.

None of the three, however, made it clar whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, R-Nev., would pursue that strategy. While harsh in his rhetoric against the war and more willing to support tough antiwar measures than many of his Senate colleagues, Reid has sometimes shied away from extended stare-downs with Senate Republicans and the White House that would threaten the possibility of getting other Senate business done.

The three also strongly disagreed with a questioner who asked why the Democratic majority was, as he put it, neglecting their duty by not launching impeachment proceedings aginst President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Sanders said the one person who would want the Democrats to focus on impeachment more than anyone else would be White House political advisor Karl Rove, who would twist the impeachment proceedings into an effort to cast the Democrats as extremists squandering the mandate they received from the voters to get legislation moved through the Congress. The time is better spent, Sanders said, in exposing the wrongdoing of the administration and addressing the problems created by its policies.

Brown agreed that impeachment proceedings would be a distraction from sorely needed work, including ending the war in Iraq. "The country deserves to have these problems solved, and this is where our energy needs to be," he said.

The senators--half of the gang of six that put the Senate into Democratic hands in 2006--came off as smart, thoughtful and independent thinkers, a striking contast to a conservative movement that is dispirited, intellectually brankrupt and morally adrift.

Borosage Plays Hardball On Iraq

Isaiah Poole — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:55:00 GMT

Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert L. Borosage debated staunch Iraq war defender Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., on the MSNBC news talk show "Hardball with Chris Matthews."

Borosage offered a realistic assessment of the reality of the war and the truth about how the majority of the public wants their elected representatives to respond. Gingrey, more articulate than President Bush in presenting the White House talking points but equally mindless, presented an argument that amounted to the United States continuing to slam its head against a brick wall.

Matthews asked both Borosage and Gingrey about whether the Bush administration should be held to statements made at the beginning of the so-called troop surge that it would be clear by September whether the injection of additional troops into the civil war would quell the violence. Administration officials have backed away from that timeline, and Gen. David Petraeus, the chief U.S. commander in Iraq, has said that the U.S. is now looking at a years-long commitment of U.S. troops, not unlike the commitment of U.S. troops in South Korea.

Gingrey, endorsing the strategy of endless war, took the opportunity to put a twist on the old "defeatocrat" label Republicans love to brandish. "I will listen to Mr. Petraeus before listening to Mr. Betray-us, those Democratic politicians who are more interested in in making political hay out of this than solving the problem."

"This isn't political hay," Borosage said. "You can't keep American troops in the middle of an endless civil war. Petraeus is just telling us the truth. The truth is this thing is going to go on for 10 years, maybe 20 years. This is a civil war that we've got our troops enmeshed in and there is no way out."

Democrats are right, Borosage went one to say: Congress and the White House "have got to bring the troops home and this is the best thing that they can do for American security."

Gingrey said that 58,000 lives were lost in Vietnam before "the civilians list the war" by withdrawing U.S. troops. Borosage asked, "Do you want to lose another 58,000 in Iraq? You can stay there another 10 years and you will."

Gingrey wrapped up by bringing up the unpopularity of the immigration bill in his district, a reach for the Karl Rovian bumber sticker slogan for 2008: "Secure the borders and win the war in Iraq." But there was no refuting Borosage's point that as far as the American people are concerned, after more than 3,500 American deaths in Iraq since 2003, a possible "victory" 10 yars from now "is not good enough."

From Conservative Failure To Progressive Action

Bill Scher — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:56:19 GMT

The session was titled "How Conservatism Has Failed," but with the strong desire for positive change, discussion quickly moved to how to turn that failure into progressive action.

Our own Rick Perlstein succinctly summed up why conservatism failed, because "the conservative movement is about nothing." Civil rights attorney Connie Rice furthered the point, that because conservatives are about "deconstructing" and not "creating," then "every single policy becomes part of the problem."

But Rice also challenged progressives not to get "stuck on stupid," and flog ideas that haven't worked to lift up the underclass. And American Prospect's Harold Meyerson observed that it's a "challenge for those in the Democratic orbit" how to reconcile progressive ideals with the forces of globalization.

Center for American Progress' Melody Barnes ended on a hopeful note, putting forth her organization's comprehensive strategy to cut poverty in half by 2020, showing how a progressive vision can actually do something, where conservatism has done nothing.

Lift The Ban

Bill Scher — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:12:58 GMT

Rick Perlstein flags this interview by AmericaBlog's John Aravosis of Antonio Agnone, a Marine expert at locating and defusing IED's in Iraq, driven out of the military by "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Agnone is one of the subjects of "Lift the Ban," a new short film by Robert Greenwald. Take Back America attendees can see the world premiere showing of Lift the Ban, tonight at 9:30 PM. Watch a preview below.

Don't Fall Out Over Iraq

Isaiah Poole — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:41:58 GMT

Freshman congressman Keith Ellison took on one of the movement’s most serious problems when he told progressives not to allow their frustrations with Congress’ inability to stop the war in Iraq to divide them.

“You might be mad at the Congress because they didn’t and the war in six months but I’m here to ask you for us to not fall out over tactics and strategies,” Ellison, D-Minn., the state’s first African-American congressman and the nation’s first Muslim congressman.

Ellison said that it is right that we should be impatient with the pace of change, particularly when it comes to Iraq, “but don’t turn your dissatisfaction into a cannibalistic enterprise.”

We have not been in charge for very long and we are anxious for real change, and sometimes when you’re in that frame of mind you turn on the people who you think did not deliver for you fast enough. This is not the time to do that. This is the time for us to stick together and build into our movement a way to resolve conflict.”

Consider how progressives built their political infrastructure from the low point that they hit after the 1964 election, when Barry Goldwater lost in a landslide election. Even though they were dispirited, “they organized. They were patient. They understood that to project a vision that would only benefit about 1 percent of the people but to get half of the people in the country to vote for it would take a lot of work.”

Ellison got some nodded heads when he said that a powerful independent movement is necessary to keep the pressure on Congress to end the war in Iraq and pursue other progressive policies. Important social movements, he added, don’t start with politicians in Washington. “Don’t look for Congress for inspiration,” he said. “Politicians see the light when they feel the heat.”

Conservative Failure: The Movie!

Bill Scher — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:40:54 GMT

I'm currently attending "The War of Ideas: How Conservatism Has Failed", where the crowd was just treated to Max Blumenthal's video, "CPAC 2007: The Unauthorized Documentary" -- a journey through Take Back America's alter ego, the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Check out the doc for yourself.

This Is Our Time

Bill Scher — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:28:38 GMT

Take Back America 2007 kicked off with a roar this morning, as Campaign for America's Future Co-Director Robert Borosage addressed the conference announcing "This Is Our Time." The following are his opening remarks.

Five years ago, when we started this venture, Washington was occupied territory.

Tom DeLay in the House. Bill Frist in the Senate. Bush in the White House. Karl Rove in the cat-bird seat. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby at command central. Dick Cheney in an undisclosed location.

We warned then that they would weaken America. And they did.

We pledged then that we would build an independent progressive movement to take back our country. And we did.

And now DeLay is gone. Frist is gone. Rove’s lost his genius. Libby lost his case. He won’t apologize, except to say, “Pardon me.” Bush is still here, but so lame a duck that Republican presidential candidates avoid mentioning his name. And Cheney is so clearly divorced from reality that it may turn out that undisclosed location is simply the proverbial attic where they lock up the crazy relatives.

They are done. This is our time.

We meet at what I believe historians will mark as an historic turn. The conservative era that defined our politics for the last quarter century is at its end. The struggle for what comes next has now begun. That will be a fierce contest. This is our time—but only if we make it so.

Let me restate this. The right has failed. Their policies are bankrupt. Their political project has collapsed. They still dominate the Republican Party, but are well on their way to turning it into a minority, regional party of white exclusion.

Americans are looking for a new way forward. Progressives now must step up and champion a bold agenda for reform that meets the challenges that we face. Build an independent movement of increasing sophistication and capacity. Consolidate a new and enduring majority for change.

Let’s look at each of these propositions in turn.

The right got it wrong. Over the past six years, conservatives have largely had their way—with catastrophic effect.

Iraq, Katrina, Enron, Terri Schaivo and stem cells, the assault on Social Security, growing inequality – each of the signature failures and follies of the Bush administration can be traced back directly to conservative ideas, and the ideologues and think tanks that championed them.

This is what educators call a teachable moment. But you have to teach it because you won’t hear this from the right. They are too busy cutting and running from the Bush debacle. “Conservatives didn’t lose in 2006,” Newt Gringrich argues, “Republicans did.” And they lost because they weren’t conservative enough.

Ducking responsibility, Gingrich, in a sort of Winn Dixie takeoff of chairman Mao, offers the four “c”’s of conservative failure. A dearth of competence and candor. A surplus of corruption and consultants.

He’s got a point. But characteristically, he has left out the biggest “c” of all: conception—or, rather, misconception.

Conservatives failed not simply because they are corrupt and incompetent – although they surely are. They failed because they get the world wrong.

With the wrong diagnosis, the medicine they prescribe is dangerous to our health. What we have here is a problem of false labeling — which is probably why they starve the FDA.

Here is a decent summary of the dial-tested, focus-grouped, message-massaged mantra of conservatives. Small government, lower taxes, strong military—you know the drill.

Sounds good in theory. But in actually existing conservatism – from Reagan through Bush – these attractive labels turn into a poisonous brew. Crippled government. Trickle-down economics. Growing individual risk and insecurity. Crony capitalism. A politics of division. Military adventure under an imperial president. And the results can be catastrophic.

Take Katrina. Conservatives famously scorn government. Here’s Grover Marquis, the right-wing activist, hoping to drown it in the bathtub.

Before Bush even came into office, Heritage and other think tanks were railing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a bloated entitlement program. People who live in areas at risk should self-insure, they said. So they cut the budget, booted it out of the Cabinet, stocked it with cronies – you remember “great job, Brownie” – and stood by as the pros departed in dismay.

And when Katrina hit, the saints didn’t come marching in. Only it wasn’t government that drowned in the bathtub.

The right has failed not simply because they are corrupt and incompetent. They have failed because they get the world wrong.

Americans have had enough. Here are Bush’s approval ratings. About where Nixon was when he resigned his office to avoid impeachment.

More than half the country says they’ve simply given up on the Bush presidency. Even more probably wish that Bush would give up on his presidency.

People get it. They know the wheels are coming off the trolley, as Reagan’s speechwriter Peggy Noonan put it, and the trolley is careening off the track. A stunning and record three out of four people say we are headed in the wrong direction. The right-direction people just won the lottery.

Americans are looking for a way forward – but they aren’t simply neutral. They are moving our way.

On issue after issue, from the war in Iraq, to the need to address catastrophic climate change, to support for health care and education, to fair taxes – a majority of Americans stand with us.

This week, Media Matters for America joined with the Campaign for America’s Future to publish a study – entitled “The Real America” – that challenges the convention wisdom that this a conservative country, using the most respected nonpartisan surveys to detail how progressive the views of most Americans really are.

And in 2006, these attitudes took political expression. The elections were a stunning repudiation of the right.

Democrats won up and down the ticket. They won majorities in the House and Senate, with a mandate to end the war, to clean out the corruption and challenge the failed economic policies.

And the new Congress has heard the message and started to repair the damage.

They passed the first legislation calling for withdrawing the troops on a date certain – which the president promptly vetoed. They passed the first raise of the minimum wage in a decade. They’ve added money for children’s health care. They’ve made the first halting steps for lobby reform.

They’re headed into battle over priorities, with Bush threatening to veto any increased investment in homeland security, children’s health, education, affordable college, or renewable energy.

But repair is not enough. We need a broader lens, a larger vision and a greater willingness to fight. And to do that, we will need to break the conservative shackles on our imagination—and gird ourselves for far more fierce battles to come.

We have to put forth a bold agenda—a governing agenda—for America’s future. This has many parts, but let me focus on just three.

We need a real security strategy that will defend our people, reflect our values and fit our pocketbook.

A first step must be to end the catastrophic occupation of Iraq. That won’t be easy. America is only beginning to come to grips with a failed occupation. This next election will feature a fierce argument about Iraq.

But ending Iraq is not enough. The U.S. now polices the world, spending 45 percent of the world’s military budget, with nearly 800 bases in over 100 countries.

As the new policy document released by the Institute for Policy Studies today argues, none of our emerging real security challenges—al-Qaida and stateless terror, catastrophic climate change, nuclear proliferation, global pandemics, failed states and mass desperation – has a military answer. Yet every major candidate in both parties for the presidency is committed to increasing spending on the military and expanding its ability to be places and do things. We must challenge the limits of this debate.

Second, we need a new agenda to insure that the global economy works for the many and not just the few.

We’ve passed the minimum wage. We’re gearing up fights on paid sick days. Tomorrow we go to rally for the Employee Free Choice Act—essential if workers are to regain the right to organize and bargain collectively. This is the only mechanism that we’ve developed to insure that workers gain a fair share of the profits and productivity that they help to create. It is a critical reform if we are to sustain the broad middle class that is America’s triumph.

But even this is not enough. We need a new strategy for this nation in the global economy. We’re running up the largest trade deficits in the annals of time. We have an economy that is dependent on the kindness of strangers – primarily Chinese and Japanese central bankers. We’ve got a high-tech trade deficit with China, while our leading export to them is trash paper. This cannot be sustained.

Over the next months we must push for a central part of any new strategy – a concerted drive for energy independence, like that called for by the Apollo Alliance.

The transition to clean energy can be the largest jobs and growth program since the move to the suburbs after World War II.

Invest in conservation and alternative clean energy. Mobilize our science and technology, revitalize our industry, capture the growing green industries of the future, and unleash the imagination of the young. We will end our dependence on Persian Gulf oil, address catastrophic climate change, cut over 100 billion a year from our trade deficit, create some 3 million new jobs over 10 years and clean our air to boot.

Apollo will lay out its agenda at lunch today, and don’t miss Van Jones on the potential for urban jobs on Wednesday. This is a future that we must capture.

Third, we must revive the American dream.

Corporations are now shredding the social contract that was the linchpin of the American dream—secure jobs that provided a family wage, health care, paid vacations, and pensions.

Soon one-quarter of all jobs will be contingent. Right now, fewer than 30 percent of young workers get any help for retirement from their employers. Older workers are stunned by broken promises on pensions; younger ones don’t even get the promise.

Conservatives have a response. Education for your children? Here’s a voucher to pay part of it. Health care? Here’s an individual savings plan. Retirement? Another individual savings plan. You take the risk. You’re on your own. Lots of luck.

We must sustain the American dream. We will begin with what will be a Titanic struggle to fix our broken health care system.

Already in this election, we have pushed candidates to lay out plans for affordable health care for all. But even that is not enough. In education, in pensions, in paid vacations, we must create a common-good agenda to supplant the broken private promises.

There is much more. A revitalized democracy. A transformed justice system. Revitalizing our cities. Investing in children. Revitalizing science. Strengthening worker, consumer and environmental protections.

None of this will be easy. The entrenched interests of the status quo are powerful and they know how to operate. Already, the price of Democratic lobbyists is on the rise.

You can’t get to affordable health care without taking on the insurance and drug companies. You can’t get to clean energy without facing off against big oil. You can’t transform our economic strategy for Main Street without confronting Wall Street.

So we must build a movement that can transform the country.

What is exciting about this moment is that we are moving on up. Labor is here – with an expanded and aggressive education program that reaches into the households that constitute nearly 25 percent of all voters.

MoveOn is here – with over 3 million members, with increasing sophistication and resources.

Americans United is here, anchored in USAction, ACORN, AFSME, SEIU and the Campaign for America’s Future—and driving issues across the country.

Progressive bloggers are here—helping progressives capture the lead in the new media and confronting the right.

Progressive majority is here, electing progressive candidates from state and local offices across the country – the next generation of Paul Wellstones.

We’re building a progressive infrastructure—still not as well funded as the right—but increasingly able to compete in the battle of ideas. The Center for American Progress is here, the Institute for Policy Studies, the Economic Policy Institute. Drinking Liberally is here, with more than 100 chapters across the country, a modern-day version of the tavern politics of our Founding Fathers.

And a new, enduring majority for progressive reform is within reach.

We can find economic common aground across racial battlegrounds. We can build a progressive coalition for change.

Labor households represent 25 of the electorate and vote 64-34 Democratic. Hispanics are the fastest rising part of the electorate and voted 69-20 Democratic. African Americans voted 89-10 Democratic. The young, 18 to 29, voted 60-38 Democratic and hope for the future. Single women – when they vote – are 66-32 Democratic. Independents in the last election voted 57-39 Democratic.

Now you and I know that voting for a Democrat is not necessarily the same as voting for a progressive. Joe Lieberman proved that. But increasingly progressives are driving the Democratic debate. We are setting the agenda. We are recruiting and identifying new candidates. We, to quote the Yankee philosopher Reggie Jackson, are “the stick that stirs the drink.”

We can build a new majority coalition for progressive change. But we are not there yet. And we won’t get there unless we stay on the move.

This is the time to unfurl our sails and ride with the current which is headed our way. This is not the time for timidity, for tacking to the elusive center, for trimming our sails or lowering our heads. This is a time to claim the future, to challenge the failures of the right, to chart a new direction.

Americans are ready. We have the opportunity. You have the power. We must feel, as Dr. Martin Luther King said, the fierce urgency of now.

We have done this against great odds before. Our forefathers built a new nation in revolt against the British crown. We fought a civil war to rid ourselves of slavery.

At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, populist and progressive movements challenged the great corporations and the barons of wealth – and passed antitrust, the minimum wage, the 40-hour week, workplace safety, national parks, the income tax and more – to guarantee that prosperity would be broadly shared.

And our own generation fought to let others sit at that table – civil rights, women’s rights environmental movements – the civilizing movements of our time that transformed this nation.

Now we must act again. To reclaim our country. To shape our future. To make the new global economy work for the many and not the few. Together we have the power. It is our time—time to take back America.

Using Your Take Back America Website

Bill Scher — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 02:28:55 GMT

How can you get the most out of the Take Back America experience? Through this very website! Beyond providing up to date information about our speakers and agenda, this interactive site gives you the ability to connect with fellow attendees and supporters, and share your Take Back America experiences with the world.

To access all the features of the site, click here to login to the OurFuture CyberCafe. (If you need to create an account, or lost your password, follow the directions at that link.)

Once you're logged in, you can add your comments to this official Take Back America Blog, where we'll be posting regular reporting and commentary throughout the conference.

You can head over to the Community page, find out who else is in the TBA Community attending in person or participating remotely, and get in touch with them.

And you can click the LiveChat logo, and chat with Community members in real time. In this virtual living room, you'll also be able to watch live video of Monday's Progressive Senators Town Hall, and all the presidential candidate addresses.

Finally, you can contribute your photos, videos and blog dispatches to the Take Back America site. When you upload items to Flickr and YouTube, or post dispatches on your own blogs, be sure to include the tag, "tba2007". Then, your experiences will be automatically included in the Your Media section, and everyone will see and hear and feel all the Take Back America action.

This is your Take Back America conference and your Take Back America website. So let's get to work!

The TBA Interview: Oliver Willis

Bill Scher — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:13:00 GMT

The progressive blogosphere community will be honored with Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award at the Take Back America Gala Awards Dinner. And no progressive blogger has been blogging longer than Oliver Willis. The blog pioneer, known by tagline "Like Kryptonite To Stupid," offered characteristically blunt thoughts on the state of the blogosphere.

Q: What do you plan to contribute to the panel you're serving on, "The Blogosphere: From Ideas to Action"?

OW: I'm really interested in having progressive blogs move from being "activist" blogs and into opinion/idea. Our side is saturated with activists, which is great, but in non-election years opinion mongering and non-wonky ideas talk is of high importance.

Q: The progressive blogosphere community will be honored at Take Back America's Gala Awards Dinner with the Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award. What does that say about how far blogs have come since you started blogging in 2000?

OW: It means bloggers have to iron their clothes. It also probably means we have, in record time, gone from screaming that we matter to now being over hyped.

Q: What would you say to Take Back America participants that have yet to become part of the blogosphere?

OW: The idea that someone can't "break in" to blogging is ludicrous, and you shouldn't believe anyone that says it. The internet is all about the low cost (none) of switching where you get your information from and the top bloggers are no indication of where the ceiling is. Go to blogger.com or wordpress.com and start writing what comes into your head. The people will come.

The TBA Interview: Marisa Treviño

Bill Scher — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:06:20 GMT

Marisa Treviño as the founder of a leading blog on Latina issues, Latina Lista and as an accomplished opinion journalist, will bring considerable perspective to her panel, "The Mainstream Media: Fair and Balanced?" She gives us a little preview.

Q: What do you plan to contribute to your panel?

MT: I plan to contribute a perspective from a demographic that has experienced a surge in media coverage but cannot still claim positions of covering the news.

For example, these days Latinos are "making" the news but we still lack representation in leadership roles in the newsrooms and media organizations across the country.

This lack of representation in newsrooms affects just how fair and balanced mainstream media covers those issues that pertain to certain ethnicities, since every ethnicity brings their own prejudices and biases when reporting on events and issues.

Q: You've covered immigration reform closely. How has media coverage of immigration impacted the debate?

MT: On the whole, I think mainstream media coverage of the immigration debate has been sympathetic to undocumented immigrants.

The problem lies with the big networks like CNN or Fox News, or other special interest news organizations, who allow their network personalities, who have an agenda against immigration reform, to use their platforms to present their commentary.

The trouble is they misrepresent their opinion as "factual news." This distortion of the debate, under the banner of a well-recognized news organization, does a disservice to journalism as a whole.

What can Take Back America participants do, during the conference and after, to improve the quality of our media?

MT: Because newspapers are cutting back so much in their newsrooms, they don't have the manpower to cover the issues as they should be covered, nor the time.

Take Back America participants can help by holding media accountable for their coverage and when it is lacking or not balanced, call them on it. Just as the media's purpose has always been to be the government watchdog for the public, the time has come to assume some of that responsibility for ourselves.

The TBA Interview: Andrea Batista Schlesinger

Bill Scher — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:56:25 GMT

Take Back America will kick off with the panel titled "Our Time Has Come," recognizing that conservatism has definitively failed America and it's time for progressives to lead. Serving on that panel will be Andrea Batista Schlesinger, executive director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, which promotes "progressive public policy for social and economic fairness." She offers her insight on what we need to do to seize this moment.

Q: Why is this moment in American politics ripe for progressives to seize?

ABS: The Democratic victory in the 2006 elections, both in Congress and in states across the country provides a clear opportunity for progressives.

Voters voted for "change." But that change can't just be a change in party. For Democrats to win long-term, they will need to communicate that the difference between Democrats and Republicans is more than a stance on the war, but an ideological clash over whose interests should drive politics and policy, and what the role of government should be in our lives.

Electoral victories are short-lived unless they lead to a fundamental rethinking in the consciousness of people about what kind of government they want. That's where progressives come in.

Hurricane Katrina, the quality of our schools, stagnant wages, an energy crisis that we will surely see again, the skyrocketing cost of higher education, a nation in which 47 million are uninsured, including an increasing number of middle-income earners -- all of these issues are connected. Republicans have failed to address them, resulting in electoral backlash, because their very philosophy of governing prohibits them from addressing them.

This is primarily because they hate the notion of government, and because they have chosen to align their interests with big business.

Their excuse? The benefits will trickle down.

The result? Thriving big business leading to an overall expansion of the economy but no benefits for the average American, whose wages are stagnating, whose future is insecure, and who is being overwhelmed by the increased prices of everything from gas to tuition, and who otherwise hasn't been adequately compensated for his contribution to the increased bottom lines of multi-national corporations.

Progressives have the answers here. The response of Democrats shouldn't be to pick a Chinese/Greek diner (pick your cuisine) menu of public policies to advance. We did that during the Clinton years. The result was that people loved Clinton himself, but didn't understand that the improvement in their living standards was the result of a philosophy: government is a good thing, a positive thing, not the enemy, not something that should shrink until it's small enough for Grover Norquist to drown in a bathtub.

We've all heard the milquetoast DLC approach, which refuses to acknowledge Americans' broad dissatisfaction with the economy, increased economic insecurity and anxiety, and the middle-class squeeze.

That approach denies that there's a problem because corporate interests have driven our politics and driven our middle-class to the breaking point, without a government to respond because it doesn't believe in responding.

That approach denies any wholesale connection of our failures in education, economic, and health care policy and instead offer some piecemeal proposals that could get broad support.

Such an approach will not lead to a fundamental victory in the war of ideas. President Clinton was successful at staying in office, but because the consciousness of people wasn't changed the governing philosophy of Grover Norquist -- that corporations need help and direct intervention but people don't -- won out.

That's why Republicans took over Congress and have won up until yesterday. This is the right moment for the progressive movement to succeed by leveraging electoral victories into a shift in public consciousness that reasserts that we need government. Not big government. But, as Governor Mario Cuomo put it to me, "just the government we need."

Q: What will you be contributing to your panel discussion that will help Take Back America participants advance a progressive vision in their communities?

ABS: I will be speaking at the opening plenary on many of the issues described above. It comes down to policies that have made it increasingly difficult for working Americans to achieve, and hold onto a middle-class standard of living.

The middle-class framework - that nearly all Americans are united by economic anxiety, and that our nation is rapidly becoming one of the wealthy and everyone else, and that the best evidence is the disappearance of our middle class – resonates with people.

It resonates when you frame policy from the perspective of people's aspirations, and restoration of the American Dream, and not by their fears.

We need to transcend the single-issue paradigm – we can't just talk about health care, just talk about education, just talk about labor policy – we must talk about all of these policies as examples of a larger failure to create policy that actually improves people's lives.

But at the same time, we can only create the momentum and will to address these issues - health care, higher education - if we understand them explicitly as middle-class issues – this is issues for both the current squeezed middle class and people struggling to work their way into the middle class – and not solely issues impacting the poorest Americans.

Q: Beyond your own panel, what event at Take Back America are you most excited about?

ABS: There's a lot of be excited about at this conference. I think the session on building a youth movement is very important. We need to be bringing the voices of young people into the policy debate. I turned 30 this year, so that's no longer a self-interested thing to say.

I believe that one of the most critical challenges facing the progressive movement is creating a pipeline dedicated to supporting and guiding talented young people into the field of public policy.

DMI is trying to tackle part of that challenge through our new DMI Scholars program. We need to build on that and work with the broader youth movement(s) organizing.

I also think the session on "Katrina's Clarion Call" will be very compelling. The disastrous human response to the natural disaster gets at the heart of the role government can and should play in people's lives and in supporting our communities.

It's deeply upsetting that it takes something like Hurricane Katrina to force us to confront the desperate, entrenched poverty that exists in America today – but it would be downright tragic if we still failed to address these pressing issues in spite of what we see on the Gulf Coast.

Plus, my good friend and colleague Rinku Sen is on that panel and she always has something valuable and insightful to say.

You're In The Majority! Now What?

Bill Scher — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:44:18 GMT

Today, Campaign for America's Future and Media Matters for America released a new report, "The Progressive Majority: Why a Conservative America is a Myth."

Co-author Eric Lotke laid out the findings in this TomPaine.com piece, and over on the Campaign for America's Future blog, Isaiah J. Poole writes:

The report is a tool that progressives can use to make their case that leaders in Congress can pursue bold policies with the knowledge that if they do so smartly and unapologetically, they have the wind at their backs. The question is how do we take this knowledge and translate it into legislative victories?

That's exactly the mission for all of us attending Take Back America next week: turning last year's historic election wins into concrete change.

What do you think needs to be done to make that happen?

The TBA Interview: Tracy Van Slyke

Bill Scher — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:40:01 GMT

Tracy Van Slyke has been doing the heavy lifting to take back our media, as Program Coordinator of the Media Consortium -- the network of leading progressive independent journalism organizations, and as the former publisher of In These Times magazine. She shares what the rest of us can do to fix our broken media infrastructure.

Q: What do you plan to contribute to the panel you're serving on, "Media Reform on the Rise: Building a Bigger Tent"?

TVS: In the past few years, a growing number of organizations, grassroots activists and media professionals have dedicated themselves to reforming the current corporate media system.

But to truly challenge the power of the corporate media and to change the media landscape, a multi-pronged approach must be pursued. Independent, progressive media is one of the few places that defies corporate media models, consolidation tactics and continues to produce the journalism that builds and informs a strong democracy.

It is important for Take Back America participants to learn that building the independent media is an integral component of the media reform movement. I will discuss the role of the independent media within the larger media landscape and the groundbreaking projects developed by The Media Consortium.

Through innovative new projects, The Media Consortium supports passionate journalism that changes the terms of the American political and cultural debate, advances media outlets to reach a 21st century audience and, last but not least, helps the independent media infrastructure to flourish.

Q: How does the failings of our media impact our ability to advance a progressive agenda?

TVS: The embedded corporate media has routinely abandoned its critical role as watchdog--with no better example then the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. (I echo Studs Terkel who has said that he often confuses "embedded," with "in bed with.")

That's why more and more people are turning to the pages, airwaves, and Web sites of the independent, progressive media to find alternative viewpoints and in-depth investigative reporting.

This country needs an independent media system system that reports on and reflects its constituencies, featuring a diversity of opinions, voices and cultures. We also need a system that acknowledges grassroots activists and community leaders as political and cultural experts, not just the think tanks, academics, politicians and our oh-so-helpful political pundits.

And most of all, we need media that challenges, investigates and questions our government as well as corporations.

With this type of media system, a truly progressive political and social agenda will thrive.

Q: What can Take Back America participants do to strengthen the media in their communities and nationwide?

TVS: More than ever, citizens have the technological ability to provide feedback, critique and story ideas to their local and national media.

Citizens need to be the media's watchdog. But at the same time, we must break up this corporate media monopoly that so greatly influences our political and cultural agenda.

This is why the combination of the media reform movement and building an sustainable and progressive independent media infrastructure is so important. It may seem simple, but supporting independent media, whether through subscriptions, donations, and advertising is so important.

And spread the knowledge! Send your friends, colleagues, coworkers and neighbors links to articles, radio and television highlights or your favorite blogs. Pass them around at your local community gatherings and rallies.

Send the stories to your hometown reporters. Form an "independent media" club at your school or in your neighborhood to discuss the latest in independent local and national reporting and the impact that news has on you.

And most of all, let media outlets know how you are using their reporting in your life. That is essential to bolstering our editorial spirits and supports everyone in building a strong independent media.

Presidential Straw Poll!

Bill Scher — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:43:52 GMT

Politico.com just announced today that it will be conducting a presidential straw poll, the first ever held at a Take Back America conference. And, it's also the first straw poll of Democratic presidential candidates taken in the 2008 campaign.

This will give conference participants -- who will hear from Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, former Sens. John Edwards and Mike Gravel, Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich -- the chance to formally register which candidate the progressive grassroots believes is best suited to carry the progressive torch all the way to the White House.

Just another reason you don't want to miss out on the premier progressive event of the year! Registration is still open until Tuesday, June 12, 11:59 PM ET.

The TBA Interview: Diane Archer

Bill Scher — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:22:26 GMT

Take Back America speaker Diane Archer is at the center of the national health care debate. The founder of the Medicare Rights Center shares how Take Back America participants can do their part to shape the discourse and bring about quality, affordable health care coverage for everybody.

Q: What do you plan to contribute to the panel you're serving on, "Health Care For All"?

DA: I'll be talking about what's wrong with private insurance, even when heavily regulated--how for-profit insurers steer clear of people with the costliest conditions, do not compete, punish the sick and drive up costs.

And, what's right about public insurance, even under poor leadership, in making health care a social responsibility, guaranteeing working families affordable health care and health security.

I'll also be discussing what focus groups and the polls are telling us about moving the public on health care.

Q: What should participants of Take Back America do at the conference to better understand the state of the health care debate?

DA: To better understand the state of the health care debate, use the TBA conference to talk to friends and colleagues, listen to what people are saying about health care reform, attend the Health Care For All workshop.

And ask the hard questions: how are we going to rein in costs, is this proposal going to promote quality, what systems will ensure that people with the most complex and costly conditions get the care they need, will this proposal punish the sick or treat everyone fairly?

Q: After the conference, what can participants do to advance the debate and bring us closer to universal health care?

DA: After the conference, engage your friends, neighbors and colleagues in the debate about the future of health care in America. Organize forums and town hall meetings to stir up discussion and debate.

And sign up for the Health Care for All Information Project weekly listserve to stay on top of the latest developments in health care reform and help us build a broad progressive coalition around a good solution to our health care crisis.

The TBA Interview: David Sirota

Bill Scher — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:50:58 GMT

In the run-up to Take Back America 2007 (just 11 days away!), we're going to be interviewing some of the great speakers on tap, and getting a taste of what's to come.

First up, the tireless political journalist David Sirota.

Q: What do you plan to contribute to the panel you're serving on, New Strategies for the Global Economy?

DS: Globalization and international trade are two issues that are only going to become bigger in American politics, and it's time for progressives to start taking the lead.

Right now, we have policies in place that seek to use globalization and trade to enrich the already rich. If we are going to make trade and globalization work for everyone, we have to change the rules that govern globalization and trade so that human priorities get the same treatment as corporate priorities.

Q: The recent elections show voters are increasingly concerned about a global economy that doesn't work for everyone, but it doesn't seem that Washington is listening. What should people do at Take Back America to help them affect the economic debate?

DS: People need to let their lawmakers know that supporting the same "free" trade nonsense that is crushing our country's middle class is unacceptable, and that there will be electoral consequences for politicians who try to ram the proposed package of new Nafta-style trade agreements down America's throat.

Folks need to deliver that message very crisply and clearly, and not muddle it in the slightest. A vote for Nafta-style trade deals and presidential fast track authority is a vote to continue the war on the middle class.

Q: Beyond your own panel, what you are most excited to see at Take Back America?

DS: I'm happy that bloggers and the Netroots are getting accolades at the event. The traditional media has tried to paint the Netroots as some sort of evil force, when in fact it could end up being the most democratizing force in contemporary American politics.

Wanna Speak at Take Back America?

Bill Scher — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 17:59:13 GMT

It's less than two weeks until Take Back America 2007 shakes up Washington, DC. Our star-studded speaker line-up is nearly complete -- and now includes Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John Edwards, Gov. Bill Richardson, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Jane Hamsher, Duncan Black, Howard Dean, Eli Pariser, Van Jones, David Sirota and more.

To make sure our agenda is the best it can be, we need one more thing: You.

Starting today, if you're registered to attend Take Back America 2007, you can organize your own speaking session at the conference. We'll promote it alongside all the other Take Back America speeches, panels, and workshops on our official online agenda, and provide you with a forum to convene fellow activists and address the issues that you choose.

How? After you register for Take Back America, just click "Self-Organize" at the top of any page on our conference website. Follow the steps, and you'll have a speaking spot at Take Back America 2007!

Is there a pressing issue that you're drawn to help address personally? Do you feel the need to drill deeper into the details of any particular policy proposal? Is there an intriguing idea that you want to share and help build with like-minded progressive activists? Would you find it valuable simply to get folks together to brainstorm and build alliances?

Whatever you feel needs to get done to turn last year's historic victories into lasting change for our progressive movement, you can organize. We'll provide the basics -- rooms, tables, chairs, white-boards, projectors and other essentials. You bring the energy and the ideas.

While Take Back America is loaded with terrific speakers, the speeches aren't the only thing that makes our conference such a great event. It's the connections that are built between progressives from across the country. It's the ideas that are shared. It's the plans that are forged for action. It's how we come together to strengthen our movement.

In the past, these bonds were forged mainly in the hallways, in the lobby and over meals at Take Back America. All of this will still take place. In addition, though, we're giving more power to you to shape this part of the conference.

So, if you want to host your own self-organizing session, don't delay! Sign up now while slots are still available. If you're not yet registered for Take Back America 2007, then register. Once you're registered, just click "Self-Organize" to add your voice, your ideas and your energy to this year's conference agenda.

In less than two weeks, thousands of progressives will convene -- in this historic year -- to chart the future course of our country. Please join us, stand up, speak out and help us chart this course together.

We can't wait to see you in Washington!

Get The Party Started...A Day Early

Bill Scher — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:33:37 GMT

Why come to Washington for Take Back America 2007 on Monday June 18, when you can get the party started a day earlier?

On Sunday June 17, our friends at the YearlyKos Convention are throwing a fundraiser right near the Take Back America site, so TBA participants can meet up with area bloggers, activists and political luminaries.

The second annual YearlyKos Convention, set for August 2-5 in Chicago, is the biggest Netroots event of the year, and in its short history has immeasurably strengthened the Progressive Blogosphere, which will be honored at the Take Back America Gala Awards Dinner. Support for YearlyKos goes a long way toward building the progressive infrastructure our movement needs to get our message out and counter the misinformation from the conservative machine.

Here are the details for the fundraising event:

Sunday, June 17
5-7 PM
Local 16
1602 U Street, NW
Washington, DC
Minimum contribution: $35

*Live Blues
*Hors D'oeuvres
*Featured Guests including:

Jim Dean, Chair, Democracy for America
Dr. Jeffrey Feldman of Frameshop and author of Framing The Debate
Terry Lierman, Chief of Staff to the House Majority Leader

Can't wait to see you there!

Cast Your Vote for an Unsung Progressive Hero

Bill Scher — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:21:40 GMT

The finalists for the first annual Maria Leavey Tribute Award have been announced, and the honoree will be selected by your votes. Below is the email announcement we just sent to our list of supporters.

***

A few weeks ago, we asked you to help honor an unsung progressive hero by nominating someone amazing for the first annual Maria Leavey Tribute Award. You can now vote for the winner -- who will be honored next month at Take Back America 2007. Please vote for the finalist whose behind-the-scenes work and selfless service you feel made the greatest contribution to social justice.

The response to our call for nominations was overwhelming and inspiring. We received story after story about passionate and giving Americans who have done so much with so little recognition to fight for a bright progressive future. It reaffirms our belief in the prospect of our vibrant and increasingly influential movement.

Working together with Maria Leavey's family and colleagues, we've completed the difficult task of selecting 8 progressive champions to be the award finalists. Now it's up to you! Click here and vote for the finalist you believe should be honored with the inaugural Maria Leavey Tribute Award.

Just reviewing the candidate profiles will stir you to action. Consider ...

The twenty-something fighting entrenched machine politics in Chicago.
The interfaith organizer who mobilized Massachusetts for universal health care.
The woman who went from battling inequality in South Africa to oil dependency in Los Angeles.
The Minnesota activist who kept organizing back home while serving in Honduras for the Peace Corps.
The editor of a Chicago community newspaper that actually covers -- and gives voice to -- all Chicago communities.
The founder of a web-based activist group empowering and teaching others to take democracy into their own hands.
The lawyer fighting for the dispossessed with no concern for payment.
The strategist connecting low-income and people of color activists with philanthropists.

Every one of these finalists embodies the legacy of Maria Leavey, a tireless and brilliant organizer who didn't need the spotlight to make a difference, and who was taken from us way too soon.

By recognizing selfless heroes -- like Maria -- we hope to inspire more to follow in her footsteps and add more bright stars to fuel to our growing progressive movement. Please take a moment to cast your vote (before 11:59 pm ET Sunday May 27th) and recognize an unsung progressive hero.

And don't forget to register for Take Back America 2007, where you will not only find out the winner of the Maria Leavey Tribute Award, but you can help strengthen the movement to which Maria dedicated her life.

P.S. After voting, please further support your chosen finalist and Maria Leavey's enduring legacy, by forwarding this email to your friends and family, and encouraging them to vote as well! Thanks so much.

Wolfowitz and America's Global Role

Bill Scher — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:47:26 GMT

Over at our blog The Big Con, Rick Perlstein lays into scandal-plagued World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, noting that the pay raise he steered to his girlfriend, is thousands of times bigger than what citizens earn in countries, like The Congo, that Wolfowitz refuses to help.

Just another way in which conservative foreign policy has diminished America's moral authority and weakened our influence abroad.

At Take Back America 2007, one of our panels will be "America's Global Role." Beyond ending the occupation in Iraq and junking neoconservative foreign policy that Wolfowitz helped assemble, what do you think panelists should focus on, to help articulate how our country can contribute to liberty, stability and prosperity across the globe?

Grappling With Big Pharma

Bill Scher — Tue, 08 May 2007 16:17:39 GMT

Despite the progressive gains that were made last November, the special interests are still alive and kicking.

In particular, the pharmaceutical lobby has scored two big wins the Senate this year -- a successful filibuster of a bill to empower Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices, and the scuttling of a provision allowing cheaper drugs to be imported from Canada.

These are issues where the drug lobby managed to get its way, even though the vast majority of the public wants our government to take action to make prescription drugs affordable.

Yet at the time of these votes, the public was not nearly as engaged as Big Pharma.

Why do you think that is? Is it the media's fault? The drug lobby's fault? Did we activists fall down on the job? Is it too hard to grab people's attention when there is so much bloodshed and scandal happening all at once?

What can we all do at Take Back America so, going forward, we'll be better able to galvanize the public when it counts? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Memories of Maria

Bill Scher — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:17:45 GMT

I'm sure others at Campaign for America's Future had richer experiences with Maria Leavey, the tireless and brilliant organizer who is being commemorated in the new Maria Leavey Tribute Award, than me.

But perhaps my experience was typical.

I never met her personally, never was really quite sure who she was.

But last year, she caught wind of a book I wrote. Without being asked, and before my own publisher did any publicity, she had notified radio shows across the country, encouraging them to contact me for interviews.

That's what she did. Reached out. Made connections. Gave others a voice. Amplified our overall message. Strengthened our community, our media and our movement.

Watch the video tribute of Maria below, think about who you know that emulates her legacy, and submit your nominations for the Maria Leavey Tribute Award by May 6.

Failure of Conservatism Conference

Bill Scher — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:25:13 GMT

If you're looking for a tasty appetizer before the main course of Take Back America 2007, you'll want to come to our Failure of Conservatism Conference on May 3 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

At the one day event, we'll be analyzing the underlying cause of what's ailed America in the Bush Era: not incompetence or arrogance as conventional wisdom would have it, but conservative ideology.

And with a better understanding of what has been the problem these past six years, we'll be poised to articulate a superior vision the following month at Take Back America.

Check out the list of invited speakers, and click here to RSVP. The Failure of Conservatism Conference is free, but space is limited, so RSVP as soon as you can.