Progressive Toastmasters on the web

The domain name ProgressiveVoices was already taken so I got us www.progressivetoastmasters.org. Found us a web host at ipowerweb which costs only $95 a year, including regisration of our domain, so we're up and running.

My intention is to make it a site that will be useful both for our local club, but also to connect with any existing clubs (I found one, in Manhattan - "GreenSpeakers") and help progressive club wannabe's get started.

I've never created a website before so there's a lot I still don't understand about the technology. The free template I'm using is pretty dorky - but free is good. I've just begun to flesh it out some of the pages, which will include lots of useful links.

Don't yet know how to

• post documents I've created in Word or Excel
  
• include photos or graphics on the page where I want them
  
• change the line spacing
• etc etc etc

Bye-bye pink template

Simplicity is best. My original template had too much pink.

Read their Lips: "We're LYING"

Reminiscent of the infamous Healthy Forests Initiative, the Clear Skies Act, and Leave no Child Behing... the Washington Post nailed it today:

ONE RELIABLE TEST for judging legislation these days is to look at the title; more often than not, you can assume that the measure will accomplish almost precisely the opposite of what its name boasts. A fine example of this is the 527 Fairness Act of 2005, a campaign finance bill that is about neither so-called 527s -- the outside groups that played such an influential role during the 2004 campaign -- nor fairness. In fact, the bill -- which has been approved by the House Administration Committee -- is about undermining the 2002 campaign finance law and again allowing megabucks donors to wield dangerous amounts of influence over politicians and political parties.

Read more at the site above. The Bush administration takes snake oil to a whole new level.

Patriot Act PAPERWORK - oy vay!

The treasurer of our new Progressive Toastmasters Club and I went to open an new account at the local bank today. Thought we'd fill out an application form, sign the signature cards and be done with it.

Silly me. That was the good ol' days before the Patriot Act, the bank lady told us. Now they're in fear of an audit at any moment from the feds so they have to have paper paper paper to validate every account.

We have to provide bylaws, meeting minutes, detailed info on every club officer, business license and Tax ID, permission from the club to open an account, thumbprints, two pieces of personal ID, and several other things. All we want to do is practice talking for crying out loud. Every now and then we will collect modest dues and spend it on paper and occasional refreshments.

If we didn't have to pass along some dues to Toastmasters International a couple times a year ($3/month per member - whoopee!) I'd be tempted to let the treasurer stuff our money in his mattress and be done with it.

Energized and HOT at DemFest 205

Every discouraged progressive should go to a Democracy for America conference - local or national. I just got back from three days in Austin at DemFest 2205, sponsored by Democracy for Texas and My Voice is my Vote.

Had a blast, got totallly jazzed. Three days of excellent workshops, cool people from all over - esp. Texas, (interesting to hear their perspective on politics - some GWB stories from his governership days). Really fun Texas-style entertainment at night. Lotsa BBQ, too much TexMex food. BudLite - yechh. They don't know decent beer. Too damn HOT out.

Among the high points:
Molly Ivins... what a storyteller! (some excellent lessons for toastmaster wannabes)

Howard Dean - galvanizing! He has an amazing presence and the crowd (2200 of us Sat. night) went WILD for him.

Jesse Jackson Jr. - who I did not stay to hear but understand that he is extremely impressive. Diff from his dad. Has plans to introduce a Right to Vote Amendment. How can you oppose that without looking bad??? (Our answer to Right to Life).

Jeffrey Feldman of Frameshopisopen. Great speaker, great points. We should get him out here.

Charles Grapski - on the history of progressivism. Fascinating and important information.

Bill Moyer - of the Seattle group Mainstreet Moms Operation Blue - started with voter registration effort aimed at single mothers - simple actions busy moms can do. Now expanding to www.leavemychildalone.org) - my blogging inspiration and Jerome Armstrong (www.mydd.com) - Kos's blogging inspiration. Jerome, when he learned where I lived told me his mother, an avid Democrat, lives in my town and is on the Democratic Central Committee with me.

Many people were interested in our new progressive Toastmasters club - and want us to set up a website so others can do it. A movement starts with a single step.

Most important, it is clear that a vital and inspired progressive movement is springing up all across the country at the grass-roots level. The Democratic party is starting to take notice and so is the mainstream media. Yay us.

More details in later post. Need to unpack.

From an Austin church pew.

Day One of DemocracyFest 2005. 98 degrees outside. We're on the campus of Huston-Tillotson Univ. (college?), which was founded by the Methodists. Most of our meetings today were in the chapel, an airy and blessedly cool space.

Since I'm not a Christian, it's been a long time since I've opened a Christian hymnal, but there in the slot in the pew before me was the "New Century Hymnal." Ho boy. Our Unitarian hymnal is all about love and respect for all living things (doves flutter, rainbows bloom, rivers flow, swords become plowshares, etc.) so I was unprepared for the militancy in the lyrics.

• "Christ Jesus cannot fail to rule both earth and heaven."
• "Attend the savior's sovereign claim."
• "God's realm shall stretch from shore to shore."
  

Interesting to see this hymnal bear witness to one of the main points in Sam Harris's book, The End of Faith, which I started on the flight to Austin. In bold and articulate terms Harris declares that religious faith is turning out to be mankind's most deadly creation and that it is high time we looked it in the eye and called it what it is: irrational, dominionist, and often hateful. The tolerance of religious liberals and moderates only perpetuates the problem, he says, because we refuse to examine faith in a doctrine the way we would ANY other claim of authority.

Harris acknowledges that the issues religion addresses are of the utmost importance: what is the purpose of life? what is our connection to that which is greater than our small self? How can we bear the suffering of this life? How can we bear knowing that we will die and so will everyone we know and love? But he suggests that doctrinal faith does not further our quest for transcendent answers -- it impedes this important exploration. And we end up dissing (at best) or killing (at worst) each other in order to reassure ourselves that we are right.

This is a pathetically simplistic summary of a very complex argument. Harris is no kook; he's highly respected, even among some Christian theologians. As one of those "tolerant" liberal religionists, he sure has me thinking.

Suitcase-free in Austin

Memo to self: Do not travel at the beginning of summer vacation when the entire world wants to fly somewhere. Despite getting up at 5am and hightailing it to the airport for a 6:45 flight, I was thwarted all the way - jammed parking lot, overloaded airport bus, ridiculous lines even for the checkin kiosks - and after elbowing my way (with permission) to the front of the line I was one minute late in punching in and had to be re-booked.  So much for an anticipated evening enjoying Austin's famous music scene.  My new flight got in at 10:30 pm, not 5.  (Oh, and I almost missed that one too, because even at noon PDX was a zoo. If I hadn't been called aside for a patdown I'd never have made it through the inspection line!)

 

Actually - I got in, but my luggage did not. (And I had a feeling it wouldn't show up, for some reason...) American gave me a little kit with hairspray and a toothbrush, but no clean undies. No makeup. I'll be amazed if my bag arrives before I have to go to my meeting in the morning, so I'll just be a rumpled old frump. Have to go on sheer magnetic personality. Grr.

 

 

Toastmasters club name: Progressive Voices

Last night we had our second Toastmasters Demo meeting and we easily exceeded our goal for charter membership -26 signed and paid for so far, and a few more in the wings. Our name is "Progressive Voices". I think higher-ups in TI are astounded we did it so fast with so many. I think it's just a pent-up demand. And the timing is right. Everyone is pissed off by what's going on in this country; this feels like taking a positive step.

So many people are brand new that it's going to take several weeks for us to get up to speed in proper protocols and job roles. I'm writing summary job descriptions so folks have something to refer to.

I smell a smoking rat.

"Pull the other leg - it's got bells on it" - a family saying when someone is trying to pass off a whopper as the truth. Even the government's lawyers are appalled by Bush's Justice Departments demand a reduction of the tobacco companies fine from $130 billion to $10 billion.

The two lawyers said the lower penalty recommendation would weaken the department's position in any possible settlement with the industry and "create an incentive for defendants to engage in future misconduct by making the misconduct profitable."

Last year the two largest tobacco companies Altria (Philip Morris' new sanitized name - doesn't it remind you of "altruistic"?) and Brown and Williamson spent nearly $200,000,000 on their lobbying efforts. Could that have made a difference??

And while we're on the subject of stinky smoke... Bush's Environmental Wrecking Agency just loosened the proposed new emission standards for coal plants.

Save a life: throw the bums out.

It must be in the air... I hope so.

I had only one speech to go towards my ATM-S award (Advanced Toastmaster - Silver, meaning I've completed 30 speeches so far) and at my original club I've managed to lay low politically, slipping progressive notions in with the mashed potatoes, hoping folks would get it by osmosis. Today I decided to come out and deliver what was really on my mind - the mounting evidence that this administration is using all the techniques of the best propagandists, treating the American people like mushrooms (feed 'em shit and keep 'em in the dark).

I was second speaker on the agenda. In my entire TM experience I've never seen or heard of this happening. Nancy, our first speaker, chose to speak about propaganda as well. Fortunately for both of us, she focussed on graphic images from Russia in the Cold War so our speech only overlapped in intent. Mine included the Big Lie quote from Goebbels, some scary quotes from the Republicans' wordsmith, Frank Luntz, when he was on Frontline, and the quote from Bush on "catapaulting the propaganda" cited in an earlier post here. I also noted the White House's whitewashed report on global warming.

Nancy, who shares my dim view of Bush & Co, evidently decided she could no longer ignore the topic either. I hope we're the lead mushrooms of a horde who are also sick of being stuck in the stroganov.

BlueGirl talks to young blacks in No. Dallas

Rose's interviews are so telling. From today's post - a conversation with a young black man about to graduate from SMU. Lessons for the Democrats: are you listening??

How can politicians get more college students to vote?

When I think of politicians, I think of old boring men. Charisma is something they can work on. If they want to get their loyal voters back, the minorities, they should help minorities. That's a huge segment of the population. It seemed like they used to focus more on people. The Democrats need to get back to their roots and talk about things that actually matter.

What does being Democrat mean to you?

It sounds goofy and corny, but to me it means caring about people. It means charity, helping those who are less fortunate and changing America for the better.

What does Republican mean to you?

I think of Republicans like a business. I think of Democrats like a non-profit. The Democrats used to care about people. The whole reason for getting elected was to help people. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. I think Republicans are inflexible and unwilling to listen to logic. I don't understand things like giving tax cuts to the rich so it will create jobs for the poor.

What my local Democratic Party needs

Although I was tempted to visit the local Republicans' meeting this morning to see who and how they nominated their candidate for County Commissioner, I didn't. (They said it was opent to the public and I wanted to see how crisply they run their meetings, what kinds of folks were there, how many, how old, how enthusiastic, etc.)

Instead I attended the monthly meeting of my legislative district (Democratic). As I look around the room at these Dem meetings I see a lot of older folks who have been party faithfuls for eons and who keep doing whatever it is that they've always done. I'm grateful for all they've done, but they seem very tired.

I think the Dems need new blood - young blood especially. Also moneyed blood. I may be "older" but at least I'm fresh to the game. (Moneyed would be good too - where is my sugar daddy??)

To attract the new blood we have to drum up some EXCITEMENT about what we stand for. Vision and enthusiasm attract. Old and tired does not. I think we're tired of being on the defense, trying to beat the Republicans back before we're trampled.

As for me, I'm tired of complaining and doing nothing, which is what I've done far too long because I felt too defeated to begin. Helping folks express themselves more positively and articulately through our new Toastmaster's Club is a start.

President's job is outsourced

I don't know the source of this email, but the idea is too delicious not to share:

Washington DC - Congress today announced that the President of the United States of America will be outsourced to overseas interests as of June 30th, the end of this fiscal year. The move is being made to save not only a significant portion of the President’s $400K yearly salary, but also a record $521 Billion in deficit expenditures and related overhead.

"We believe this is a wise move financially. The cost savings should be significant" stated Congressman Thomas Reynolds (R-Wash).

Reynolds, with the aid of the GAO (the General Accounting Office), has studied outsourcing of American jobs extensively."We cannot expect to remain competitive on the world stage with the current level of cash outlay," Reynolds noted.

Mr. Bush was informed by email this morning of his termination. Preparations for the job move have been underway for some time. Sanji Gurvinder Singh of Indus Teleservices, Mumbai, India will be assuming the Office of President of the United States as of July.

Mr. Singh was born in the United States while his Indian parents were vacationing at Niagara Falls, thus making him eligible for the position. He will receive a salary of $320 (USD) a month but with no health coverage or other benefits. It is believed that Mr. Singh will be able to handle his job responsibilities without support staff. Due to the time difference between the US and India, he will be working primarily at night, when few offices of the US Government will be open.

"Working nights will allow me to keep my day job at the American Express call center," stated Mr. Singh in an exclusive interview. "I am excited about this position. I always hoped I would be President someday."

So maybe Republicans ARE white too

Dean got criticized for saying they were the party of white Christians. Don't know why. They consider themselves the "GOP - God's Own Party. (see yesterday's graphic). And now this from a post on AmericaBlog today - from a book review of The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America.

[Author John Sperling] notes that the 99 percent of all Republican legislators across the country and in Congress are white. The national Republican Party, whose base is in the South, the Plains and the Mountain states, looks to white men as its power base and source of leadership. Even when Republican states have significant minority populations, the elected Republican representatives rarely are drawn from those communities.

Of 3,643 Republicans serving in the state legislatures, only 44 are minorities, or 1.2 percent. In the Congress, with 274 of the 535 elected senators and representatives Republican, only five are minorities - three Cuban Americans from Florida, a Mexican American from Texas and a Native American senator originally elected as a Democrat. [NOTE FROM JOHN: That means the GOP has elected ZERO blacks to Congress.]

'President Bush's home state leads the way. Texas, with a minority population of 47 percent, has 106 Republicans in the state legislature, but there are 0 blacks and 0 Hispanics among them,' Sperling writes. 'No major corporation doing business with the government could be so white without being subject to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) action!'

Great interview questions from Rose

As journalist Rose Aguilar travels around Texas taking the pulse of the red state people she nabs them in parking lots (when it's not insufferably hot) and asks them a bunch of questions. [For the whole journal, click on the link to the right - BlueGirl in RedStates.] Their answers are quite varied and it's clear she occasionally gets the person to THINK. I went through several of her interviews and created a list of her more generic questions. The honesty of the answers she gets is, I believe, a reflection of the skillful nature of her questions. If we want dialogue instead of diatribe, here's a model.

Overall, what is your opinion of the state of the nation?

How do you feel about the war? how do you feel it’s going?

What about the economy? How has it affected your job/family?

Do you identify with a political party?

Do you always vote Republican? Why? What does being Republican mean to you?

What's it like for you living here ( in a predominantly Republican area)?

Why do you think Republicans who are critical of Bush hesitate to speak out?

What message would you send to the Democratic (Republican) party?

Where do you get most of your news?

What makes you a Republican?

Do you think Bush is running a small government? [responding to desire for small govt]

How do you feel about the deficit?

How do you feel about gay marriage?

How do you feel about prevention? (contraception)

How do you feel about the religious right?

Do you worry about global warming?

Do you always vote Republican or are you open to voting for a Democrat?

Are you surprised that more people aren't speaking out about this (issue of concern)?

Do your friends have similar opinions?

[Blah blah blah. ] Can you give me an example?

If you were unhappy with the Republicans why did you vote for Bush again?

Did you watch the debates?

Why didn’t you vote for Kerry?

How do you feel about providing healthcare benefits to the troops? Did you know that a few bills that would have increased coverage were killed in the House?

What's your opinion of Bush? Is he doing a good job?

What do you like about him?

What does freedom mean to you? [bla blah]

Do you think that's what Bush means when he uses the word freedom?

What does the word patriotic mean to you?

Love those edited scientific reports...

Global warming (whoops, I mean climate change) isn't really an issue.

Once again, White House staffers tell Pesident Bush what he wants to hear rather than what is true. That way, when things go wrong, the president can say he was fed wrong information. He has got this strategy down after so much practice finding reasons to attack Iraq.

I'm waiting waiting waiting for the evidence of corruption that continues to mount against this administration to become so overwhelming that impeachment is inevitable. It can't happen soon enough for me. If you enter "impeach bush" in google, you'll find a lot of websites dedicated to this proposition.

GOP - God's Country. So Dean was right...

Dean said the Republicans were turning into a white Christian party. We don't know if this car belongs to a white person or not, but even the Republicans consider themselves God's people. The Texas bumper sticker makes it official.

Progressive Toastmaster signups

About twenty-five folks showed up for our first progressive TM demo meeting. Thirteen signed up on the spot, a bunch of others had to "go home and think about it". To charter a new club you need at least 17 people who are not currently in another club. Since three of those enrolling are in another club we need seven more folks. Several people got the wrong time and showed up after we were done. Sigh.

There is a lot of energy to do this but people are scared of commitment, particularly one that meets weekly. Next meeting we need to move into est guest seminar enrollment mode... "if you were to do this program, what would you hope to get out of it?"

The meeting next week is supposed to be all business, where we discuss the charter, choose officers, decide on a neme. But I think we need to do another, more mini, demo. Patrice and I will each speak on a progressive topic to gie people a sense of the possible.

Spitting nickels over tobacco settlement

This is an administration that clearly cares more about its big donors than the health of the American people. The government was supposed to be protecting us from the nicotine pushers. They had a great case. Suddenly they climb in bed with the crooks. From the Washington Post:

As he concluded closing arguments in the six-year-old lawsuit, Justice Department lawyer Stephen D. Brody shocked tobacco company representatives and anti-tobacco activists by announcing that the government will not seek the $130 billion that a government expert had testified was necessary to fund smoking-cessation programs. Instead, Brody said, the Justice Department will ask tobacco companies to pay $10 billion over five years to help millions of Americans quit smoking.

Before it was cut, the cessation program was the most significant financial penalty still available to the government as part of its litigation, which had been the largest civil racketeering and conspiracy case in U.S. history. The government contended that six tobacco companies engaged in a 50-year conspiracy to defraud and addict smokers and then conceal the dangers of cigarettes. ....

As he concluded closing arguments in the six-year-old lawsuit, Justice Department lawyer Stephen D. Brody shocked tobacco company representatives and anti-tobacco activists by announcing that the government will not seek the $130 billion that a government expert had testified was necessary to fund smoking cessation programs. Instead, Brody said, the Justice Department will ask tobacco companies to pay $10 billion over five years to help millions of Americans quit smoking.

Before it was cut, the cessation program was the most significant financial penalty still available to the government as part of its litigation, which had been the largest civil racketeering and conspiracy case in U.S. history. The government contended that six tobacco companies engaged in a 50-year conspiracy to defraud and addict smokers and then conceal the dangers of cigarettes.

"It feels like a political decision to take into consideration the tobacco companies' financial interest rather than health interests of 45 million addicted smokers," said William V. Corr, director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "The government proved its case, but the levels of funding are a shadow of the cessation treatment program that the government's own expert witness recommended."

That was yesterday. Today...

"According to sources involved in the case, high-level officials at Justice ordered the cut despite objections from career lawyers who have worked on the trial, in some cases for years....

"Judge Gladys Kessler of Federal District Court, who is presiding in the trial against the companies, took note of the sudden change, telling the court on Wednesday, "Perhaps it suggests that additional influences have been brought to bear on what the government's case is," the NY Times reported.

The govt even leaned on some of its own witnesses to ease up on the tobacco companies. This administration is totally bought and paid for.

Framing ain't easy

A friend and I led a discussion of "Don't Think of an Elephant" at an independent book store in Portland this evening. Not surprisingly only half of the 25 the people there had READ the book (am I just a goody-goody student? aren't you supposed to READ the book before you go to a book group?).

We spent the first half hour of the discussion bringing folks up to speed with Lakoff's theories of the strict father and nurturant parent family models and how that played out in current politics. The second half hour was talking about THEM (the Republican framing machine) and how they'd boxed us in a corner. This was the easy stuff.

The last half hour was the HARD part. OK Ms. Smarty Pants, how DO you talk about your progressive agenda? your progressive moral values?

We spoke some about reframing abortion in broader terms: a person's right to privacy and to control over their own bodies. That the government shouldn't decide what goes on in your own body... this would be something a conservative might appreciate.

But there are so many issues, big and small, that need ready frames. A guy in the group mentioned that his co-worker said "We shouldn't fund public transportation." And he was stopped with his jaw hanging because he didn't have a quick comeback.

Me, too. The other night I was getting gas and the guy at the next pump - well-dressed, middle-aged, BMW, definitely not a red-neck - sees my bumper sticker "Defend America, Defeat Bush", and says "I can't believe you have that bumper sticker on your car... must be your idiot teenager put it on there. Why don't you take it off?"

And my response? "Heh. Actually I put it on there. Heh." When I'm caught totally off guard, as I was there, I am tongue-tied, useless. Probably the introvert in me. By the time I got ten miles down the road I had all sorts of responses worked out, but they sure weren't there when I needed them.

After the meeting I confessed my inadequacies to a friend (trial lawyer) who suggested that the best punt is to ask a question back instead of trying to respond. Buys time and puts them on the spot to explain their own point of view. For example, the first response to the guy disssing public transportation might have been, "What do you think funds our public highways?? "

The response to the guy who didn't like my bumper sticker might have been some variation of "In what ways is America stronger since Bush was elected?"

At the least it gets them thinking. Meanwhile, I need to do a whole lot more about coming up with brief "elevator speeches" on the issues that mean most to me.

Shopping heaven (or hell?)

On the way back from a Toastmaster's conference Saturday I stopped at the new shopping center, Bridgeport Village , south of Portland to see what was there.

David Brooks, the conservative NY Times columnist who usually but not always makes me want to spit, and who wrote the mostly excellent and very discomfiting Bobos in Paradise, would have had plenty to say about this place - and I would have agreed with him. A "bobo", if you haven't read the book (and you should), is a person who tries to hold both bohemian and bourgeouis values simultaneously (Brooks coined the term).

The "village" has an American/Tuscan flavor, with charming walkable side streets, flower kiosks, a stone fountain that kids can play in, sidewalk tables for every restaurant. The shops (Chico's, Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel, ColdWater Creek, and many more) bring us - relatively inexpensively - their unique semi-ethnic-flavored products thanks to laborers in Malaysia, China, and the Marianas.

Now I like a wild Chico's necklace or jacket as much as the next Bobo, and I drool over some of the colorful vases in Crate and Barrel, but I found myself embarassed to be in a place so totally devoted to my baser Bobo instincts. There wasn't a single cheesy bead store (ears pierced while you wait!), no place without a carefully orchestrated corporate identity. I bought a chartreuse vase for a friend and high-tailed it out of there, hoping nobody I knew had seen me.

Bridgeport Village is certainly much more attractive than a mall, but it seems so cravenly driven by market research. If this were a REAL village, people would live upstairs from the shops, there would be a dentist, a dry cleaner, and a tax preparer's office. We'd see people of color, kids with dogs, and old people waiting for the bus with their shopping carts.

Toastmasters - ideas to try

Talked to a guy named MJ I met a couple of weeks ago at a Democracy for Oregon workshop. Turns out he's also a Toastmaster interested in training progressives to communicate more effectively (not just to the choir, but to our conservative neighbors and cousins) about what we hold dear.

My plan (see prior post)was to alter the standard TM format only slightly, by adding a round robin discussion of framing to the evaluation of any member's speech that had political content.

MJ was thinking we should go further and practice our elevator speeches with Table Topics. Example: someone calls you a "babykiller" - quick, speak for one minute in a way that reframes the topic positively, personally and progressively. (The three P's: Positive, Personal, Progressive. I just made that up and I like it. Could be a vision for the club.) Great practice for doorbelling!

For sure we can't try the "babykiller" type Table Topic topic until most members have gotten over the terror of speaking off the cuff for one minute on a topic as innocuous as "my summer vacation".

MJ also suggested we could state ahead of time that the next week's meeting will be on a particular theme - say, health care, so anyone with a speaking role must focus on health care. If you are one of the speakers you would need to do some research on some aspect of health care. This would help all members get up to speed, not just the speakers.

Of course, such a program is much more rigorous and demanding than a regular TM club, where most speeches are just good yarns. It would behoove us to avoid too much political haranguing because I believe TM's greatest contribution will be in helping us become more skillful speakers, period. To be able to write a tight speech with a grabber opener, a logically flowing middle and a powerful conclusion - that's a HUGE step forward for most people - including seasoned politicians.

Toastmasters Club for Progressives

Two years ago I joined a Toastmasters Club in the hopes of learning to speak without relying on a script. And now I can (usually). I also wanted to get rid of verbal stalls like: um, uh, so, and, well, like, ya know, like, ya know, um.

Like, not only did I improve, ya know, but I watched other newcomers with far less experience become um comfortable and uh capable in a surprisingly short time.

Problem: I wanted to practice speaking about issues that were more controversial and that had a definite liberal spin, but my particular club had several members who were religious conservatives. My speech about why the government had no place trying to control women's bodies simply wouldn't fly. Nor would my discussion of school prayer.

Solution: A Toastmasters Club specifically for progressives, which would give us an opportunity to practice articulating our liberal moral values. It's a perfect follow-on to the series of workshops we did this spring at our Unitarian church on George Lakoff's reframing ideas. As we got better at putting words to our values, we realized we needed to get out there and TALK.

I put the word out both at church and to the local Democrats and we start Wednesday. People are excited; they say the time is ripe. We will follow the standard TM format, except that evaluations will also include a discussion of how to improve the framing of the particular topic. Stay tuned.

Smell the roses ...

If you need to quiet the whirling brain, this is the ticket.

I had two meetings in Portland today, the second one not far from the spectacular Portland Rose Garden. What to do with ninety free minutes? Smell roses.

The Rose Garden has HUNDREDS of roses, most planted with several per variety. It's a sea of pink, red, coral, lavender, yellow and white. We're approaching peak bloom, just in time for the Rose Festival. Even though many people were visiting, the spaciousness and grandeur of the setting (overlooking the city with Mt. Hood as backdrop!) allowed each of us to be alone with our rose.

In my own former rose garden I planted about 50 different roses, carefully chosen after great deliberation. When you grow roses you get to know each plant intimately because they require daily dead-heading. You notice the unique bloom, fragrance and growth habit of each variety (not to mention their susceptibility to various fungoid plagues).

Despite the installation of hundreds of new roses I've never even heard of, I recognized many of my dear old friends. If you haven't grown roses, all the white ones might look alike, but once you've lived with Iceberg, you see it is as unique as your brother's face. Once you've grown the pink Queen Elizabeth you could pick her tall straight stems out of a sea of pink roses. The multi-colored Jacob's Coat wound up the pillars of the Berkeley Rose Garden for decades, and there it was, my old friend on a pillar in Portland. The gorgeous Just Joey, the color of cantaloupe, still smells like rose distillate. Ahhh.

I feel so much better.


JustJoey 

Addicted !

“Hi my name is ___ and I’m addicted to paper.” That’s how I’d introduce myself at a meeting of Paperaholics Anonymous, if there were such a group.

I am not now and never will be one of those little old ladies who hoards so many newspapers and magazines that you can’t traverse the living room without fear of toppling walls of paper towers.

BUT, I have a serious “affinity” for paper.

Not just any paper, though. Good paper. Useful paper. Paper of VALUE. Like clippings of fascinating articles from the New Yorker that bear more careful reading, articles I downloaded and printed from the online New York Times that are easier to read on paper (but I haven’t read them yet), recipes from the Oregonian that maybe someday I’ll try (if I ever get back to serious cooking), editorials from our local paper that deserve a letter to the editor (or did when they first appeared six months ago). That sort of stuff.

I have the notion that if I can collect enough information on, say, health care reform, I’ll be able to make a difference in the public debate. I’ll be able to convince my neighbors to take appropriate action, testify to my congressperson, or simply write a reasoned and informed opinion piece for the paper (which of course they will want to publish).

All the above is what I tell myself as I print out the latest DailyKos blog. Instead what I get is a major paper hangover as I survey the stack of MUST READs. The paper paralyzes me. At least once a month I spend the day purging, getting down to wood, feeling sheepish then triumphant, vowing NEVER to have to do this again.

I need someone to lock up my printer and my clipping scissors. I need to pick one issue. ONE issue. If it’s health care reform, I need to let somebody else worry about global warming. Someone else needs to slap down the hypocritical religious right. Someone else needs to take care of the sorry state of public education, the war in Iraq, social security.

Who will it be? You? Do you have a pet issue that needs your focused attention? Help me out here!

"Catapaulting the propaganda"

I didn't say that. GW did last week, in one of his infamous taxpayer-funded, open-only-to-Bush-kissups social security "town hall meetings." (The transcript...)

For once he was telling the truth. Here's what he said,

"See, in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapault the propaganda."

He wins by repeating the same bull-pockey over and over and over - the Big
Lie Technique described by Goebbels and used by Hitler:

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

I just peeked at the vitriol coming out of a conservative online newsletter, Human Events Online, and decided that we need to create and repeat some vitriolic phrases of our own. How about:
Republican theocrats
God, Guns and Greed Republicans
Corrosive conservatives
TheoCons
FBI – “faith-based intelligence”

But you can't top Garrison Keillor - here's my favorite part of his anti-Republican rant:

"The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous."

Where's the outrage?

Every day progressive journalists and bloggers turn up some new unspeakable lie, misdeed, or impending assault on our democracy. They describe in gory detail what the Bushies have done or are planning to do and then ask two questions: "Where is the mainstream media on this?" and "Where is the public outrage???"

Even when the story makes it to the mainstream media, and you ARE outraged (or at least I am!), what do you do when you're already overwhelmed?

The biggest problem with becoming informed is becoming paralyzed when you realize how hopelessly out of control this country is. Everything I hold dear is under seige by People of Ideology - both religious and political.

Which way to turn? If you stick your finger in the dike leak over here, another one springs open over there , but if you leave the original leak to plug the new one.... well, you get the idea.

Today it was a story about Indiana's anti-choice Attorney General Steve Carter, whose efforts to seize the private and personal medical records of minors who received birth control and related health care services at Planned Parenthood health centers in Indiana were upheld in Marion County Superior Court.

Yesterday it was news of the "Ohio Restoration Project". The project will target 2,000 pastors throughout the state to become "patriot pastors." These patriot pastors will be briefed on a specific political agenda and asked to submit names of their parishioners in order to increase a database to 300,000 names. These pastors will be asked to place voter guides in their church pews. Ken Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state and a governor hopeful, is named throughout the document. Blackwell will be featured on 30-second radio ads promoting this group's agenda and supporting the "Ohio for Jesus" rally set for the spring of 2006.

The day before that I finally got around to reading the terrifying three-part series on global warming in the New Yorker. And Bush thinks global warming is a liberal fiction.

My bile factor (BF) is too high. I'm going to go out and deadhead some roses.