elizabeth dole

Cross-posted from Bloviations.

Today, the U.S. Senate blocked the McCain-backed military education program.

The McCain/Graham plan calls for would give only $2,000 a month for service members that have more than 12 years of military service and was offered as an alternative to the much more effective Webb plan which would give service members 36 months of tuition, book costs, and a stipend.

You have to hand it to Dick and Dole, they are shameless hypocrites of the highest order. And whiners to boot. After joining their Republican colleagues in obstructing almost every decent piece of legislation to cross their paths in the Senate, now they're complaining because the mean old Democrats won't give a reactionary corporate judge a cushy job for life.

Plus they're threatening to shut down the Senate if they don't get their way. That would be fine by me - because there are few things more important than keeping extremists like Robert Conrad off the bench.

In this last year, President Bush has nominated several persons who are extremely controversial when it comes to civil and consumer rights. For the Fourth Circuit—already the most conservative court in the country—Bush has nominated Robert Conrad, who has never ruled for a plaintiff in an employment discrimination case ...

And by email from NARAL:

Robert Conrad has called Planned Parenthood a "radical, pro-abortion fringe group" that "promotes a radical abortion agenda." What's more, from 1983 to 1986, Conrad served on the board of directors for a so-called "crisis pregnancy center" that provided medically inaccurate information about pregnancy, contraception and abortion.

Just in case you had any confusion about supporting Kay Hagan in November, this should put that to rest. We need Kay to take Dole out.

[Update: We're up to $335! You've responded amazingly. Can we get to $500? Just another $165. We can do it! If you can swing it, send Hagan $25 right now via the Expand the Map! ActBlue page.]

[Originally posted at Senate Guru.]

Rasmussen Reports
North Carolina Senate Election
Survey of 500 Likely Voters
May 8, 2008

Dole
47%

Hagan
48%

Discuss.

PAC Donations according to the FEC...

Kay Hagan... $146,000
Jim Neal.... ZERO

So which one is the people's candidate and which one is the special interest candidate?

So does the clock at left stop? I didn't receive a response from Sen. Dole's pitiful Constituent Services Letter Generator^TM. No autopen-signed missive to help me pretend that I heard from my senator.

What I did receive this afternoon was a fax from Communications Director Hogan Gidley of the Elizabeth Dole campaign regarding the petition that I delivered last Friday on behalf of 1265 readers of Firedoglake, Pam's House Blend, and BlueNC who signed the petition. The petition requested that the North Carolina senator ask Linda Daves of the NC Republican party to stop running the color-aroused anti-Obama ad called "Extreme," which tries to draw some sort of connection between Dem gubernatorial candidates Bev Perdue and Richard Moore (both endorsed Obama) and Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

What was Dole's response? I have no idea, since the response is from Mr. Gidley, there's no way for me to know whether my senator actually read the petition. The letter I received is an exercise in predictable spin; it doesn't address the NCGOP's ad or her party's involvement and endorsement of playing to people's biases.

This morning I delivered a petition to Senator Elizabeth Dole's Raleigh office. It was signed by 1,265 concerned citizens -- including more than 300 North Carolinians -- all requesting that Senator Elizabeth Dole use her considerable clout in her party to tell the North Carolina Republican Party's Linda Daves to stop running the race-baiting anti-Obama ad called "Extreme."

The bottom-feeding ad is currently running on four TV stations in the state (New Bern, Asheville, Winston-Salem and Wilmington). It attempts to draw a tenuous-at-best connection between Dem gubernatorial candidates Bev Perdue and Richard Moore (both endorsed Obama) and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. It's crude and reflects the pathetic state of the GOP here, a party in embarrassing decline, longing for the days where everyone knew their place.

The reason Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, the crew at BlueNC and I wanted to do this is because John McCain doesn't have the cojones to go toe-to-toe with the apparently omnipotent Linda Daves. He denounced the ad from afar but couldn't even pick up the phone to express his dismay directly.

We figured that perhaps Elizabeth Dole, with all her party connections here, would have the gravitas necessary to take on the likes of Linda Daves. Surely she must care that fossilized Republican party in North Carolina is running racist dog whistle ads is not what he approves of. Unfortunately, her initial response wasn't very encouraging.

"I am concentrating on getting my work done here in the Senate, and I'm just not going to get into refereeing a third party political ad that has nothing to do with my race," she said.

So that's where the petition effort came in.

Pam and BlueNC members are delivering petitions requesting that Elizabeth Dole tell the NCGOP's Linda Daves to stop running the race-baiting anti-Obama ad.

Date: Friday, May 2

Time: 10:30 AM

Location: Dole's Raleigh Office: 310 New Bern Avenue,
Suite 122, Raleigh, NC 27601

See the The Blend and BlueNC for more.

On Friday morning I'm heading to Senator Elizabeth Dole's Raleigh office with a delegation of NC bloggers and concerned citizens to deliver a petition requesting that the U.S. Senator put a stop to the color arousal/racist ad floated by the NC GOP and its head Linda Daves. John McCain has already said he can do nothing about it. Dole doesn't even give a damn:

Dole said in an interview she didn't want to get involved.

"I am concentrating on getting my work done here in the Senate, and I'm just not going to get into refereeing a third party political ad that has nothing to do with my race," she said.

I support Barack Obama and Jim Neal.

Both Barack Obama and Jim Neal are inspiring progressive Democrats. Both Obama and Jim Neal wish to change America for the better, and are willing to fight for those who are unable to fight for themselves. Both Obama and Jim Neal have had uphill battles to climb to fight the Washington establishment, and both have been discounted at some point.

If you are inspired by Obama, I think you will also be inspired by Jim Neal. If you support Obama, I urge you to support Jim Neal as well.