The happiest of happy birthdays to the Chair of the DNC. Thank you for all of your hard work and persistence in implementing the 50-state, strategy, and for always remembering to thank the rest of us for all we do.

And thank you for setting an example of graciousness and maintaining an "eyes on the prize" mentality, in refusing to be sidetracked by the "inside the beltway silliness" of folks like James Carville.

Have some cake. :)

Update: If you'd like to celebrate Howard Dean's birthday with a donation to the DNC in his honor, you can do so here.

The first of four scheduled debates between Ohio gubernatorial candidates Ted Strickland and Ken Blackwell took place at noon today, airing on the Ohio News Network and streaming live on WFMJ. It will air again on ONN tonight at 11 p.m.. I have posted the full text of both candidates closing remarks here, but I think an interchange that took place after the official closing remarks was the most telling...

I was saddened to learn that Rev. William Sloane Coffin died the other night. I know that he had been gravely ill for a number of years, and his death is not unexpected. But I'm still sad that I never had a chance to meet him. Many people my age and younger, who were not around (or were very young) during the civil rights era have never heard of him, and he stands in such stark contrast to some of the better-known religious voices today. So, since the media has not seen fit  (for the most part, from what I've seen) to pay tribute to this prophetic voice by giving the news of his passing front page attention, I felt this was worth another post.

I'm posting today to share a message to the grassroots from Subodh Chandra, one of the Democratic candidates for Attorney General in the state of Ohio.

But before I post what  Subodh has to say, I think it's important to give a little background. I was only vaguely aware of Subodh's name, and the fact that a number of people seemed to have good things to say about him after hearing him speak, until the day after Paul Hackett dropped out of the race for Senate. That day, Hackett did an in-depth interview with Ohio 2nd blog, in which one of the things discussed was the fact that other candidates perceived as "outsiders" were not being supported by the Ohio Democratic Party, and he gave Subodh Chandra as an example.

Crossposted at Howard-Empowered People (guest blog)

The National Nurse Team is delighted to announce that the bill to establish an Office of the National Nurse has been introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives on March 8th, 2006. The bill is HR 4903 and can be viewed in its entirety later today or tomorrow here.  We all thank Representative Lois Capps (D-CA)and her dedicated staff for introducing this bill during the second session of the 109th session of Congress.

HR 4903 establishes an Office of the National Nurse that will:

Last night, in the Sunday Night Mixed Bag thread at Howard-Empowered People, I noted:

By the way, I was reminded, when I went to visit the "About the Chairman" page, that a week from today will be Howard Dean's one year anniversary as Chair of the DNC. We should do something nice for him.

Some people have offered suggestions  here, the most obvious choice being that a lot of us buy Democracy Bonds on that day.

Crossposted at the very new Faithful Ohio blog.

About three years ago, troubled that the public face of Christianity often seemed to be  pro-war and anti-compassion, I started a web site called The Religious Left. Now that the voices of groups like Ohio Restoration Project and Reformation Ohio are growing louder and more strident, and seeking to use their numbers and influence to promote an agenda that is harmful to "the least of these", it is vital that other voices of faith speak out.

As you can see from the posts here, some have already begun to do so. Another group has started to meet, focusing not on fighting Rod Parsley and Russell Johnson, but by offering an alternative message.

Crossposted at Howard-Empowered People

Now that I've transcribed the speeches, it's time to finally write something about our experience at the events with Howard Dean in Columbus last week.

Unlike the blogger at Ohio 2nd, who wrote before the event "It will be nice to finally meet the person that inspired me to get back into politics.", this was not my first time meeting Howard Dean. I met him briefly at the first DemocracyFest in July 2004 and saw him again when he came to speak in Columbus in September of 2004. If you read my post the morning of Janurary 18, you saw that I was something other than cool, calm, and collected as I prepared to leave the house.