k / o

I posted the following in a thread at Calitics : Jonathan Weisman is not a reporter who wins awards for doing Democrats any favors. Weisman's basic position is that if he perceives divisions behind the scenes in the Democratic Party, especially in the leadership of our Congressional delegation, then he's going to write a story that reflects that. With Steny Hoyer's leadership/stewardship being what it is...Weisman will ALWAYS have material to work with. Second, Congressman McNerney wants to bring our troops home from Iraq. He's voted against permanent bases and FOR withdrawal with a date certain. In this, he is more or less in much the same position as other folks in the class of '06: Chris Murphy, Tim Walz, Joe Sestak, Jim Webb, Jon Tester and Claire McCaskill. These folks were elected to end the US occupation of Iraq and they all know it. We helped elect them. The current battle over the particulars of what Jerry has said/been quoted by Weisman is a tempest i

Brooke Astor died today at 105. Through the Vincent Astor Foundation she contributed to my education at Columbia University: Columbia University has received a $1 million gift from the Vincent Astor Foundation of New York. The fund will provide financial assistance to 40 needy undergraduate students a year. The foundation's director, Lillian Gillies, said her organization did not generally support higher education, but in this case the scholarship money was donated because of the Reagan Administration's reductions of Federal funds for student aid. Mrs. Gillies said the only condition was that the money be made available to Columbia College students in any area of study. The gift will be known as the Astor Presidential Scholars Fund and be part of the Presidential Fellows program that was established earlier this year to encourage outstanding scholars to pursue degrees. The first such fellow was Barry Rosen, the former hostage in Iran. I expressed my gratitude to Mrs. Astor i

I wanted to share with readers here some of the thoughts and reflections of participants in the Chicago Voices project written in their own words on their own blogs. (I'll be featuring more on each of the grant participants, but, for now, I thought I'd just share some of the blogging that's been done. It's awesome.) Atlanta, Georgia BlogforDemocracy blogger Bernita Smith did a complete run down of the Ykos experience: Bernita Smith YKos Day 1 Bernita Smith YKos Day 2 Bernita Smith YKos Day 3 Bernita Smith YKos Day 4 Blogger Susie Madrak had this follow up to one of the hot stories of the convention, ideas for a Blogger's Union: Susie Madrak: Suburban Guerrilla Unions Susie Madrak: Suburban Guerrilla YK Trivia Brandon Q. White of the SuperSpade had these reflections, and was joined by Chicago Voices grant participant Amber McZeal in the comments section: Brandon White on going to Chicago Brandon White and Amber McZeal on Save Our Girls (Amber's response here .)