Expats4Dean

For those of you that missed yesterday's Talk of The Nation here is the NPR archive for Dean's interview.
Go here to listen to the show

Here's an interesting development. Dean for America now has a group of advisors focusing on the use of technology in a Dean Administration. Click the link below for a complete explanation and details on how to get involved in this project:

Dean for America: Net Advisory Net

I love this campaign...

Exciting things happening today in the Dean Campaign...

• National House Call breaks the record


• Americans for Dean total just hundreds away from reaching goal of 450,000


• Third bat certain to crack by midnight

Stay tuned to the official blog as events unfold!

Expats4Dean is the #1 result for the following search on google: expats in tokyo.

I just saw this on drudge report

President Bush's senior advisers describe the Democratic field as unusually weak heading in to the coming election year, Monday's NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report in a Page One splash.

'Each of them has relative strengths and weaknesses, but happily for us, in each case the relative weaknesses outweigh the relative strengths,' Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, tells the TIMES.

'They're all Howard Dean now. They have adopted harsh, bitter, personal attacks as their approach. They are a party of protest and pessimism and offer no positive agenda of their own.'

Team Bush has delayed the start of running any advertising until a single Democrat is selected.

'We expect it to be a hard-fought, close election in a country narrowly divided,' Karl Rove tells the TIMES. 'When a Democratic nominee is finally selected, our expectation is that it could be a close and hard-fought race.'

Like the Democrats, the Bush campaign is convinced that the election of 2004 could once again turn on a relative handful of votes in key states."

Americans overseas are that handful of votes. I believe this is the first time the Bush camp is mentioning Dean by name. You know Rove is watching the bat right now and sweating. The numbers of contributors are scaring them more than the money being raised. This is a whole new ball game and guess who has the better bat?

I just discovered something really cool called Wayback Machine. They have been archiving the net since 1996 and now have a searchable database of info no longer online. Just for fun I did a Dean search and found some great stuff.

"Whatever it is that Howard Dean knows, or whatever it is that he eats for breakfast every morning, if I could give it to every other Democratic office holder and would-be office holder, we would immediately become the majority in the Congress and we would have about 35 governors. I have to tell you, I think a big part of it is just producing for people, actually doing what you say you're going to do at election time."

President Clinton said that in a speech to the governors association back in '97. Reading this just makes me all the more confident that we are fighting the good fight here.

Back in July Dean released his "16 Questions for the President." Question 4 asks the following, "Mr. President, we urgently need an explanation about the very serious charge that senior officials in your Administration may have retaliated against Ambassador Joseph Wilson by illegally disclosing that his wife is an undercover CIA officer."

Wilson claims Karl Rove was the source that named his wife as undercover CIA and wants him held accountable. Looks like 'Bush's Brain' may end up behind bars. This is nothing less than an act of treason. Did Rove Blow a Spook's Cover? - The White House won't say.

I am so excited to see more people using Get Local to organize internationally! There are two events currently scheduled: one in Tokyo (surprise, surprise) and one in Canada! Wow, that makes my day.

Click here to view the event invitations and consider planning your own!

Dean supporters seem to be getting more diverse by the day, a development I am extremely relieved and excited to see. Click here to read about a recent fundraiser in front of an ethnically mixed union crowd.

I was not able to see the debate in NY- CNBC Asia did not carry it and we don't have MSNBC. Thanks to the DFA A/V Archive I am going to download and watch it now.

I just came across this message from Michael Moore, director/producer of such controversial films as "Roger and Me" and "Bowling for Columbine". He organized an effort last week to urge Wesley Clark to run, although he has been impressed by Howard Dean as well.

It turns out Moore is not endorsing anyone. He just wanted Clark's voice in the race. Moore goes on to say that he thinks progressive should be working with all the candidates to make their platforms represent the left.

Here is what he says about Howard Dean:

I sat in a room with Howard Dean a couple of months ago and heard him say he supports the death penalty "in certain cases." He probably believes he needs to say this to get elected. What he needs to hear from us are the facts about how many innocent people have been released from death row, people who were about to be executed. We need to show Gov. Dean the right way to address this issue -- by calling for a moratorium on the death penalty until, if ever, this problem of potentially executing the innocent can be solved...

...What I'm saying is, let's cut him some slack. He clearly has been against the war, even if he did fail to mention it (the #1 issue of the day) in his speech. We cannot be so quick to want to dismiss him or sink back into our cynicism of believing that all politicians suck. And when Dean says he wouldn't cut the Pentagon budget, he just needs to be educated. So the best way to support Dean right now is to let him know how you feel about these issues and that, if he wants your vote, he has to state clearly that he will cut the Pentagon budget and use that money for the things this country really needs.

Click here to read the complete message.

Opinion: Editorial: Does Bush hate himself? (captimes.com)
Now that the Iraq invasion has "quagmire" written all over it, the president is making some tentative steps in the direction the Democrats have encouraged for months.

Llamasonic and I have created a BBS for Dean-supporting expats the world over to use. Stay in touch with Dean supporters in your part of the world at one easy site. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Lest you think I forgot the big speech yesterday, here is the link to Dean's appearance in Boston, where he brought out a new and improved stump speech. I stayed up late last night to watch the live feed on Soapbox. It was a great show of his personality, conviction, and intelligence.

Criticism is coming in from other candidates -- specifically Kerry's team -- who wanted Dean to speak specifically about his policy plans (so that they could tear him apart). Dean supporters wanted the same thing (so that they could build him up). Instead, Dean gave the crowd in Boston a taste, and if they want to know more they are going to have to do their own research.

Good idea or bad idea? You decide.

Here is the report from The Boston Channel:
Politics - Dean Speaks At Boston Rally

I haven't seen any backlash about this article yet, so I'm daring to post it. Although I admit it seems too good to be true. This could be great news for the Democratic Party, and bad news for the current administration. Very bad news indeed.

Journo claims proof of WMD lies

Apparently someone at the Washington Post is paying attention to what is behind the Democratic party's fierce desire to get Bush out of the White House. (He also has a fairly accurate understanding of what Dean stands for.)

Anti-Bush Moderates

I was just over at DeanCore and saw this article - "Why Isn't Joe Trippi Sweating Wesley Clark?" In my opinion Clark's entry and surge in the polls is serving a very valuable purpose -changing the mindset of Americans that Bush is unbeatable. Clark's numbers will come back to Earth once the love affair is over and he actually takes a position on issues. The dent in Bush's armor will stay.

Pilly4Dean's Jennifer Powers featured in Wahington Post article on us, The Grass Roots.
Dean, Driven by the Grass Roots (washingtonpost.com)

Or rather, the BATS are back!

As you can see at the top of our right sidebar, Dean for America now has five million-dollar bats to fill before September 30th. Can we do it? Yes we can!! The Republican party has been thriving on small contributions (plus their usual fatcats) for years; don't you think it's about time we did the same?

From the official FAQ:

Can I contribute from outside the US?

If you are an American citizen, you may contribute to the Dean campaign. To contribute from outside the US you will need to send in a completed contribution form (located online at the contribute page in PDF form) with your current address, a signed note saying that you are an American citizen, along with the address of the last place you lived in the USA. You can send all this in to:

Dean For America
P.O. Box 1228
Burlington, VT 05402
USA

If you need to use the contribution form, I strongly encourage you to send it via registered mail, which will help your donation to arrive before the quarterly deadline.

Check this out, the official Dean campaign web team spotlighted Tokyo's visibility event!

Blog for America : Dean Visibility Day! | September 20, 2003

Those of us in Tokyo are just about jumping out of our seats with excitement about this.... If your country did anything for Dean Visibility Day, be sure to tell the campaign about it, you never know! (And tell us, too!)

The great economist and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, was interviewed by UK publication, The Guardian. He seems to have a special place in his heart for Howard Dean's campaign:

"Still, there's an important sense in which his views remain essentially moderate: unlike the growing numbers of America-bashers in Europe, Krugman doesn't make the nebulous argument that there is something inherently objectionable about the US and its role in the world. He claims only that a fundamentally benign system has been taken over by a bunch of extremists - and so his alarming analysis leaves room for optimism, because they can be removed. "One of the Democratic candidates - who I'm not endorsing, because I'm not allowed to endorse - has as his slogan, 'I want my country back'," Krugman says, referring to the campaigning motto of Howard Dean. "I think that's about right."

Click here to read the complete article.

Call me a miser.. but this war is just costing us too much! I remember the good old days when you could get a war for just a few hundred million. $87b Is Enough To Give Every Man, Woman And Child In America $300 & enough To Pay The 3.3 Million People Who Have Lost Jobs $26,363 each.
-What Can $87 Billion Buy?

I found this link courtesy a supporter on the official blog. I don't read French very well -- it's been 10 years since my last French class -- but I was excited to hear that he is making headlines. If anyone can translate it, please leave a comment here.

France reports on Howard Dean

UPDATE 11pm: Thank you, llamasonic, for pointing out the online translation! Google is a wonderful thing.

Who gave clearance for 140 Saudi VIPs and members of Bin Laden's family to charter flights on September 13th, 2001? Every other non military flight was grounded following 9/11. Who authorized this and at what level? Did this really happen?

One thing I love to hear Dean talk about is the fact that Bush's link to the Saudis has been a conflict of interest & a threat to our security. Dean is a brave man to be talking about this. He has stuck his neck out where no one else will & I thank him for it.
Phantom Flight From Florida: From The Tampa Tribune

Update FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept 16, 2003 Representatives Robert Wexler (FL-19) and Peter Deutsch (FL-20) Call For Federal Investigation Into Administration's Efforts to Evacuate Saudi Nationals in The Wake of 9/11.

This is off topic, but I like this software so much I had to post it! Skype is the 1st p2p application for making calls over the net. There are hundreds of apps like this & I have tried many of them in my attempt to stay in touch with family without breaking the bank. This blows everything else I have tried away..

Skype sounds fantastic, as good as if not better than the phone. Zero delay.. Call home and tell someone about Dean today :) for free!
Get it here
Once you have it installed you can even call me and say "howdy llamasonic!"

It works!! I had to use a US phone number in the contact information section, but it did work. I have contacted the campaign for suggestions on this, but for now I recommend that you use the Dean toll free number: 866-DEAN-4-US.

Check out the Tokyo Dean Visibility Day event to see how you might organize something in your community.

And of course, if you are in Japan, I hope you can join us this Saturday!

If you would like Americans Abroad to have a greater presence and more access to resources on the Dean for America official website, I welcome your help.

Here's your action for today: Please suggest that "Americans Abroad" be included on their Coalition Groups menu, with a link to this weblog.

I will continue to post occasional action items of this nature, and encourage you to email me any suggestions you might have.

Thanks for your help and for supporting Howard Dean!

Can Dean Corps go international? I don't see why not. It's a matter of coming up with an idea that serves the community you live in, planning it, showing up, doing it, and then writing to the campaign and your local press about it.

Sounds newsworthy to me.

Check out this story in the Des Moines Register for how the Dean Corps has affected Howard Dean's campaign so far.

Imagine how thrilling it would be to read a story about how Dean Corps is impacting the world! What a stark contrast to the Bush administration that would be!

Thank you Gray Brooks at headquarters for giving Americans Abroad a way to use Get Local! While the tool is not programmed to list international events by country, they have developed a work-around which allows us to organize our events there anyway (and DFA can include them in their overall total, a win-win situation if you ask me).

Here is how to plan an event:

1. Go to Get Local at Dean for America. Click "Plan an event".

2. Whenever it asks for "state", use CA; when it asks for a zip code, use 90210. That is what all foreign get local events will be registered in.

3. For all the rest of the info fields (not state or zip), try to post as correctly and truthfully as you can. For the address fields, put all that would be required to receive mail from the states (including any zip code information used in your country).

4. Others can search for international events using the 90210 zip code, distance 1 mile.

Now that we have the tool, I urge everyone to plan a September 20th Dean Visibility Day event in your local community. It doesn't matter if only a few people can make it; every site will count and likely get mentioned in DFA press as "Dean events scheduled not only around the country, but also the globe". Or something like that. :-)

Michael Moore is urging Clark to run because, in his words, " I know you are the kind of candidate that the average American will vote for." Moore goes on to say "This is not an endorsement. For me, it's too early for that. I have liked Howard Dean (in spite of his flawed positions in support of some capital punishment, his grade "A" rating from the NRA, and his opposition to cutting the Pentagon budget)."

I'm a big fan of MM and am looking forward to his next movie - although one problem I see for Clark is the perception of indecision regarding getting into the race. Looks like this week we will know if he is in or out. Thoughts? Michael Moore to Wesley Clark: Run! Update Clark is going to run - Expect formal announcement in the morning. This is going to be an interesting race folks!

Thanks to everyone at blogforamerica for providing a running commentary on Dean's performance on HBO's new series, "K Street". The comments so far are great. I wish we could see it on HBO here in Malaysia. Looks like I'll just have to download it.
You can almost hear Kerry saying "Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean" all over again.
*Update - The Sydney Morning Herald story on the show & here is some background on the series.

If there is one thing the press agrees on, it is that if Dean wins the nomination, it is going to be an incredibly exciting year. And if he doesn't, it probably doesn't matter who the Democrats choose; it'll be politics as usual and another four years of Bush.

Richard Blow of TomPaine.com writes, "But the Dean campaign has brought such unexpected energy into the Democratic primary that the Dems now have an entirely different problem: If Dean loses, the party will probably lose in November 2004."

Click here to read more.

The New Republic, normally one of Dean's biggest critics, has given him an "A" rating for his recently released plan to improve mental health care:

The New Republic Online: Primary

Check the official blog for more details on Dean's plan.

Goodness, goodness, what a fine mess we make with official letters when we could have called the governor directly and asked for clarification.

Dean, Pelosi Find Agreement on Israel

Being an honest broker is good. Following in Clinton's footsteps is good. When Dean said that we shouldn't take sides, he meant that we shouldn't go trying to achieve the purposes of Israel without listening to the plight of Palestine. Oh, says Pelosi, that's what we think, too...

And now back to our regularly scheduled smear program...

I love this article. I love, love, love, love it.

Zogby Sound Bites!

Did I mention I love this?

For those of you who are interested (as I am, obviously), here is a brief article about the Democratic members of the House publicly objecting to his statements on the conflict in the Middle East:

Some House Democrats Fault Dean on Mideast

For the record, I think Dean is the only one speaking reason about this issue.

Some of you may follow the research being conducted by Dean Defense Forces, an unofficial group of volunteers who watch for negative press and respond to it. (From time to time they also send letters to editors who get it right.)

One of my favorite pages on their website is the FAQ, where Dean's stances on a wide range of issues are clearly described, quoting a variety of speeches that he has made over the past year. Mostly informative, but one of the few areas that I've found unclear is whether he is pro-Israel.

I am now greatly relieved that he has further explained his position on the Middle East Crisis, in response to harsh criticism from Joe Lieberman and the DCC. You may not agree with him, but at least give him credit for this important clarification:

Dean defends Middle East remarks

Covers Bush's Vietnam record, his rise in Texas, how they really stole the vote in Florida, Enron & Osama/Saudi connections to the Bush family.. The Bush Family Fortunes The BBC and Greg Palast, Investigate the Bush family scandals. -1 hour , requires real video

An online survey in Syracuse, New York asked the LGBT community, "If the 2004 presidential elections were held today, for whom would you vote?". Dean received 37% support!

Dean: Leading Choice of Gay Voters

I have no idea what Dean did to prepare for this one that he didn't do last time, but it seems to have done wonders for his performance (in the eyes of supporters, anyway... still haven't heard much from the media).

Click the link below to read the transcript.

Elections 2004

Looks like we will know who big labor is backing pretty soon here. Things are looking good for Dean according to the response he got from AFL-CIO members yesterday.
"Although Andy Stern, president of the 1.6-million-member Service Employees International Union, named those three as likely to capture the union's backing at this week's political conference, Dean was the clear crowd favorite yesterday. The former Vermont governor was greeted with earsplitting cheers and numerous, lengthy standing ovations from the nearly 1,500 rank-and-file members. The audience several times clapped and chanted in unison."
Boston.com / News / Nation / Dean wows union rank-and-file at convention

The Appeal of Howard Dean: "Republicans are said to be salivating over the prospect of a Bush-Dean match-up. They shouldn't get carried away. Howard Dean, warns John McClaughry, has been 'underestimated throughout his political career. He has an uncanny knack for finding where the political capital is stored and walking off with it.' The trick for Dean is to ensure that the ultra-liberal positions he has taken in the primaries, which contradict his sometimes centrist record, don't cripple his ability to reach out to Middle American voters in a general election--should he make it that far. If he does, and then finds a way to zig-zag back toward the center, Howard Dean could be George W. Bush's worst nightmare. "

I love seeing (reading?) Dean at his best: talking to the people who matter, aka the voters. He may have trouble on television, but today's visit to California is just one more notch on the neverending wall of things Dean can do better than any other candidate. Click on the link below to read more.

Howard Dean in S.F. (9/7/03)

President George W. Bush’s job performance ratings have reached the lowest point since his pre-Inauguration days, continuing a steady decline since a post-9/11 peak, according to a new Zogby America poll of 1,013 likely voters conducted September 3-5.
A majority (52%) said it’s time for someone new in the White House, while just two in five (40%) said the president deserves to be re-elected.
In the same poll, likely Democratic primary voters give a plurality of their support to former Vermont Governor Dr. Howard Dean

Comparing supporters' comments on the official campaign weblog and the reviews coming from the press is a bit surreal; you have to wonder if they were watching the same event.

Contrary to what you'd expect, the supporters are extremely critical of his performance and consider this to be a "learning experience", saying in effect, "Better luck next time" and "Too bad you don't do well on TV".

Measure this against the more public analysis being printed in newspapers around the world:

CNN News: "Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who achieved front-runner status after a summer surge in the polls and in fund raising, had expected to be a primary target of his rivals. But the contenders spent most of their time assailing the president's policies rather than each other."

BBC News: "Many of the hopefuls aimed to wear down the lead of the current favourite Howard Dean, former governor of the US state of Vermont, who has been comfortably leading the race since late summer...Dr Dean attacked Mr Bush's record, saying that - in seeking support for a new UN resolution - the president was having to go back to the very people he had humiliated by ignoring their opposition to the war."

Fox News: "The event featuring eight of the nine presidential hopefuls took place on the tail end of candidate Dean's summer surge, which many of his rivals were hoping to quash. But their focus on Bush, and not on each other, could mean that Dean will remain the front-runner."

My personal take on the matter is that Dean did an average job, which is exactly what this debate required of him. Many commentators are reportedly stating that he seemed "presidential"; he neither lost his temper nor became defensive when attacked by Joe Lieberman. This is exactly what the campaign was hoping he would do, and exactly what the pundits declared he needed to do.

Go Dean!!!

Okay, this one is going in my signature file. What a great way to make the primary vote easier for people.

You may have seen this mentioned before, as I have, but just haven't gotten around to filling out the form. I have to say that it is well-worth it. By answering a few questions and doing minimal priority ranking, this website shows you how closely you align to the views expressed by all the Presidential candidates (including Independents, Greens, Socialists, Libertarians, and Republicans!).

SelectSmart.com 2004 AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SELECTOR

As an outreach tool, you can ask people to complete this survey and see how the candidates stack up. (There is also a link next to each one showing you the policy statements that were used by the website to generate their data.) They then have the option of looking up the candidates that rank near the top and deciding which of those they think has the best chance of defeating Bush in 2004.

By the way, my results put Howard Dean at the top, with a score of 100%!

I couldn't attend this month's meetup -- woe is me!! -- but reading the comments on the official blog is almost as good as being there! Feel free to share your experiences here and on the official thread.

Has everyone seen DeanLink by now? This is a new system, still in the testing, bug-fixing stage, which will hopefully allow the Dean grassroots to communicate with one another and continue the tremendous momentum this campaign has seen throughout the summer.

I love this tool, but I also hate it.

I love it because it solves a lot of the problems of Meetup without creating too many new ones. It is managed by the campaign staff, so they can tailor it specifically to the needs of the political grassroots, which Meetup does not. You can leave messages for people without invading privacy, which Meetup hasn't figured out how to do. It provides all the links you need to be actively involved in the campaign, which Meetup does not. It's excellent.

So why hate it? Because it's for US residents only!!! You can't put in an international address, so you can't search for anyone else who happens to be living overseas. Yet another case of overlooking what, to us, seems quite obvious. (Although I give the campaign credit for making "Americans Abroad" posters and talking about the Tokyo and UK meetups last month.)

If you are as passionate as I am about globalizing the Dean campaign's efforts, please send a message to Clay and ask him to internationalize DeanLink.

This poll asks for a ranking of all the Democratic candidates, and then presents an interesting analysis of the data. Check it out, and be sure to click through all the "rounds" when you're done:

POTUSpoll

(Thanks to the dean04worldwide Yahoo! group for sharing the link!)

Those of you who have been following Dean for awhile know that he wants a campaign of hope, because he believes a campaign of hope will beat a campaign of fear every time.

His words are ringing through my head right now after reading the following article from The Reformer:

Dean brings message of hope to Walpole

Just to Walpole? I beg to differ.

This is an article from a Delaware publication, but I think it represents quite well what a lot of expats I know (including myself) feel about Howard Dean's opposition to the war in Iraq:

Dean is smart, not liberal - delmarvanow.com