My Beloved City Is Dying

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Thursday September 01, 2005 · 5:57 PM PDT

2005/09/01 · 17:57

My name is Leigh Carroll Fenner. I am a native of Uptown New Orleans. Currently living in Brooklyn.

I don't have words to describe how I am feeling about what is flashing across my tv. Nearly my whole family is safe. My mom made it out and my brother and father were already away on a trip out of the country. My despair lies with a woman who helped raise me. Alcena Brown. She in fact helped raise my mother from when she was 5 (my mom is now 61). Alcena began doing ironing after school at age 15. My cousin last spoke with Alcena on Sunday when she refused to let my other cousin pick up her and her sisters and take them to a hotel. omWe don't know where she is. As funny as it might sound to some of you but Alcena is practically the matriarch of our family. She is very wise and definitely knows all the family secrets of which I'm sure I know very little. This woman I feel is our glue. Read More

Blogging Smackdown! A Weekend with IndyVoter and MFA

prank monkey

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Monday August 08, 2005 · 9:48 AM PDT

2005/08/08 · 09:48

This has been a big week for "youth" organizing - a terrible term that applies to any sort of organizing specifically aimed at or run by people under 30. As you may know from Woodhouse's postings over at MyDD, the Young Democrats of America have been having their own conference and doing some soul-searching out in the Bay area. Some members are looking to shift the direction of YDA from minor-league resume building towards boots-on-the-ground, direct action - an important step toward reforming the many problems of YDA. I wish them well in their task - and I'll probably put considerable thought and effort into changing YDA myself over the next few years (I've already put in my .02 about it here on MyDD.)

But YDA wasn't the only big gathering of politically active, progressive-liberals under 30, and if you want to talk about direct, local action among the under 30 crowd, San Francisco was the wrong city to be in this week. Another group out there is poised to get the job of local organizing done in the next few years: The League of Independent Voters. Read More

Living Liberally: Reforming Democratic "Youth" Programs

prank monkey

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Friday July 29, 2005 · 11:30 AM PDT

2005/07/29 · 11:30

Leighton Woodhouse of Driving Votes recently noted in a diary on MyDD that the Young Democrats of America are in need of some serious reforming. I couldn't agree more, and I've got a few thoughts on what needs to be done - from a vision and from a strategic standpoint - to accomplish this. With the YDA conference about to go down in San Francisco next week, now is the perfect time to give this topic a full airing.

To let you all know where I'm coming from, my real name is Michael Connery and I'm a founder of Music for America - one of the groups Leighton mentioned in his post. The essay is loosely divided into two parts. The first focuses on why we need to focus more on young voters and where our "Youth Outreach" typically goes wrong. The second part examines some models of what I see as the way forward for young democ-ratic/progressive organizations.

(This is long. Dive in after the jump.)
Read More

SS Questions for Kossacks

prank monkey

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Tuesday February 08, 2005 · 10:49 AM PST

2005/02/08 · 10:49

Apologies if this is a repeat. I did a search and came up blank.

I've got a question for the more economically inclined members of the kos community.

I was reading David Brooks' column today about his own ideas on "saving" social security, and they struck me as making a lot of sense

Needless to say, I'm flabbergasted. Normally I think Brooks is crazier than a a sh*thouse rat with his theories about 'Merica and the good ol', downhome folks from the plains. But today it made some sense, and I'm wondering what, if anything, I'm missing in his analysis.

His idea in a nutshell (and its an old idea) - savings accounts set up at birth to supplement and/or replace SS. Full article here.

Now, leaving aside the whole fact that SS doesn't need saving, and any partisan retorts that we shouldn't even be entertaining new SS ideas, what are the downfalls of this idea? Like I said, I'm not particularly good when it comes to the economics of things, and I'd like some help.

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