I've got about 20 minutes before I have to shuffle off to work, but I wanted to write in support of "This Diary Should Never Be Written," a diary by Black Leather Rain that's on the Rec list but deserves even more views and more support.

I've sent $25.09 for this cause, which benefits homeless US military veterans here in my state of North Carolina.  Would you consider matching my donation?

Send donations via PayPal to lauraconners(at)earthlink.net
Or send donations directly to the VFW at:
VFW Post 2087, 2605 S. Elm-Eugene St., Greensboro, NC 27406-3622

Netroots Nation '08 provided an awesome panel discussion on creating political community around film, featuring some megawatt all-stars who've done exactly that: Wendy Cohen of Participant Media, Jim Gilliam of Brave New Films, Jacob Soboroff of "Why Tuesday?", and Tracy Fleischman of Live from Main Street.  

If you're in the Triangle area of North Carolina tomorrow (August 9), you have the opportunity to see me put my Netroots Nation money where my mouth is as Galaxy Cinema in Cary hosts a screening of the documentary "Senator Obama Goes to Africa," a postfilm discussion with Obama campaign staffers, and a big voter-registration drive based out of the theater lobby.

This morning I received an email reminder about something great the DailyKos community did for itself last year: we bought ourselves the sordid keyboarded soul of Bill in Portland Maine and a full year of Cheers and Jeers.

It's time to renew the warranty on lasting quality in our C&J goodness. We have only a few weeks left on our current warranty.

Who would like to ensure continuity with our infusions of frivolity and fun?

(Cross-posted at nc.barackobama.com.)

Susan, Lynn, and I had a great time registering voters yesterday outside the REI store in Cary, North Carolina. The REI folks were awesome to let us pitch a table outside and offered us cold water, and the customers coming in and out were friendly, many of them thanking us for being there to register voters in the nearly 100-degree heat.

The Screening Series at Netroots Nation was awesome.  Listening to the filmmakers and folks promoting new venues for participatory film watching was energizing, to say the least.

In the spirit of conference activism, I used a few moments in Austin to contact our local Obama for America office and set up a campaign event at Galaxy Cinema in Cary, North Carolina, where I'm marketing director.

"Senator Obama Goes to Africa"
Film, postfilm discussion, voter registration canvassing, and volunteer sign-up
Saturday, August 9, at noon
Galaxy Cinema in Cary

Well, the time is almost upon us.  We need to start thinking about C&J for 2008-09, which begins in October.  It's a crucial conversation.  How can the Obama administration expect to accomplish anything if plans aren't in place to provide the moral discontinuity of C&J?

I have an idea.  (Now's your time to escape.)

Netroots Nation is teh awesome.  It's such a joy and privilege to talk with and work with the people who are contributing their bright minds and willing hands to the cause of progressive political reform.

Yesterday I had the chance to talk with nyceve, a dynamo from Manhattan who has been a catalyst in literally saving lives via her efforts in health-care reform.  After getting charged up with a conversation with Eve, bleeding heart, and teacherken about the possibilities and challenges that face us, whom did I meet next?  Donna Smith, the "American SiCKO" who was featured in Michael Moore's documentary and now dedicates herself to health-care reform.

Most of us have received 'em -- those scurrilous viral Jack Chick-ish tracts of Sure-as-Hellfire Obama Doom that appear in our inbox from friends, relatives, coworkers, and passing acquaintances warning us of the dire consequences of an Obama presidency.  They provide outlandish accusations in textually breathless tones: Obama's TEH MUSLIM!! OMG!! 1!!, he's a socialist, he tricycled with terrorists, woe, pestilence and famine are sure to follow, etc.

I, too, have received the multi-exclamatory e-missives from friends and relatives whom I believe are truly kind and otherwise smart people but who, for a variety of reasons, pass along ridiculous rumors.  Sometimes it's beknighted belief that they have been privileged with "inside information" that gives them power -- their "brush with fame" that lends them authority for a bit and flexes the power of their email contact list. Sometimes it's a consciously sneaky and disingenuous way to prop up their own candidate preference in a way that doesn't make them seem self-serving.  And, true, sometimes it's just plain meanness.  

There aren't enough thanks in the world for everyone who responded to my Monday diary about my brother Alan.  The past 45 hours have changed a lot of landscape because of your comments, suggestions, resource links, and contributions to the ChipIn account that betson08 (of Pretty Bird Woman House fame!) suggested.

E-mails have come from literally all over the world with information and offers of assistance.  In just 45 hours, we've raised more than $2,500 via the ChipIn site and other contributions.  A friend is helping me send the money via a Visa gift card and payment on account at my brother's pharmacy and the local grocery store.  Others are sending him birthday cards (he turns 47 on June 30).

Alan just spent two weeks in the woods to consider his options.  He didn't use the gun.  He says he probably won't.  But it's an option.

Because of the tumor growing around his spine, Alan can't use his right hand much anymore, so he duct tapes a paintbrush to his hand in order to paint and stain the cabinets and furniture he makes.  He has to sell as much as he can; his medications alone cost $700 a month.  The pain makes it impossible for him to ride his motorcycle, but he still walks a couple of miles every day, and the local police make it a point to drive past and check on his progress, as Alan's gait isn't very steady anymore and they're a little worried about him out there.

He turns 47 two weeks from today.  

Hi.  My name is Scott McClellan, and I'm a Bushaholic.

Hi, Scott.

It's been two years since my last public press conference, in which I hit bottom in defending and collaborating with the Bush administration.

And thus Scott McClellan earns his first-day chip from Bushaholics Eponymous.  

My "Economic Stimulus Payment" is scheduled to arrive from the IRS in the next few days.  I'm sending the entire thing to Human Rights Watch.

I could use the money.  I work two full-time jobs to help care for myself (almost $1,000 a month in medical bills, just 15 weeks out of a very successful heart surgery!) and my granddaughter (whose dad is in the US Navy and whose mom was wounded in the Persian Gulf more than two years ago).  But this is blood money, and I'm not going to keep it.

Cary-van for Change
9 a.m. - Noon, Saturday, April 26
Parking lot of Galaxy Cinema in Cary
music, breakfastalicious snackage, fun and VOTING!

North Carolina's one-stop early primary voting is under way, and we're fired up and ready in Cary!

To celebrate, North Carolina's Obama for America campaign headquarters is hosting the Cary-van for Change on Saturday starting at 9 a.m. in the parking lot of Galaxy Cinema.

Come join us for music, camaraderie, and breakfastalicious snackage as we decorate our cars, truck, vans, go-carts, Segways, and bicycles and Cary-van ourselves to the Herbert C. Young Community Center to cast our votes for Sen. Barack Obama, the next president of the United States.

It was really just a matter of time.  Among the many reasons torture is just plain wrong, defending torture tactics as mere frat-house hijinks minimizes the effects of using "harsh methods" and condones their uses outside of the military and intelligence processes.

Case in point:

"So they held me down," Hudgens said, "and the next thing I know, Josh has a gallon jug of water and he's pouring it on my face. I can't scream because the water's going down my throat.  And halfway through he stopped for a second. I tried to mumble the words, 'Stop, knock it off.' I tried to get that out and he continued to pour.

"I'm not getting any air," Hudgens said. "Toward the end, I'm starting to black out. I'm getting very dizzy, light-headed. The sensation that's going through my head is, 'I'm going to drown.' "

Is Chad Hudgens a suspected terrorist?  An insurgent in Iraq?  An al Qaeda sleeper agent on the lam from the CIA?

No.  He sells corporate training packages in Utah.

11 a.m.-1 p.m.: Voter Awareness Rally
1-3 p.m.: Voter Registration Drive
Saturday, April 5
Galaxy Cinema in Cary, North Carolina
my.barackobama.com

If you're going to be 18 by November 4, you're eligible to vote.  But even if you're not going to be 18 this year, you can get involved in this historic campaign to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.

Make your first vote and your future votes count! Meet up with other young voters at Galaxy Cinema in Cary to learn about the Obama campaign and give your ideas on how first-time voters can forge real change in this election.

The official Wake County (North Carolina) for Obama Organizational Meeting took place at Bogart's American Grill in Raleigh tonight.  An estimated crowd of more then 300 packed the Glenwood Avenue location to sign up for getting out the vote.  Many more, daunted by the standing-room-only crowd, networked energetically on the sidewalk outside.

North Carolina's May 6 primaries come with an April 11 deadline for registering voters, so time is of the essence -- and meeting attendees heard the call to work!  A 10-foot-long sign-up sheet spread across two large tables offered opportunities to register new voters all across Wake County in the next few days.  The sheet was filled with volunteers' names an hour into the gathering.

More than 50 hyper-energy Obama supporters descended upon Metro Cafe and Lounge in downtown Raleigh's Moore Square -- making it the hot spot of the night tonight.  

Metro owner Maurowas the crucially hip host for a fundraising dinner to welcome the North Carolina Obama Campaign Headquarters staff to Raleigh.  Nothing could be finah than to be in Carolina at the Metro, with its Obamatinis accompanying delicious baked ziti, fresh breads and bruscetta, and salads.  Yum!

And with your donation to the Obama campaign in North Carolina, YOU can provide dessert!  

We can't go on like this any longer.  You've been lying about where you're going at night on those secret rendition flights.  You cheated on me in those sleazy Syrian torture chambers and with those cheap interrogation floozies in Europe.  You borrowed money from China without even telling me so that you can maintain that elaborate check-kiting scheme to fund your sketchy venture-capital projects in Afghanistan and Iraq with your poker buddies -- all the while telling me you were involved in volunteer activities for humanitarian causes.

On the flimsy accusation that I can't be trusted, you've been snooping through my sock drawer and pawing through my luggage, and you listen in when I call my Aunt Miriam.  But then you don't pay the bills for the extra line usage and you dump the whole sordid mess in my lap for me to pay for.