Here’s how Tim Grieve’s excellent article at Salon starts:

Harry Reid says Democrats have to “swallow their pride” and move toward the middle. Harry Reid says he admires Antonin Scalia’s “brilliance” and could imagine voting to confirm him as chief justice of the United States. Harry Reid says he’d rather “dance” with George W. Bush than “fight” him.

Harry Reid says: “I’m the face of the Democratic Party today.”

Harry Reid may be right. For a party that came within 119,000 Ohio votes of ousting a sitting president in a time of war, the Democrats are sounding awfully defeated these days. There’s talk of making the most of long-term minority status, of compromising on judicial appointments and “moral issues” like the rights of gay couples and women — Reid, the Democrats’ new Senate leader, is anti-choice — and of trying to figure out some way to outflank the Republicans from the red-state right.

And then there’s Howard Dean.

The national Democrat Party incumbents may not like Dean, but they should understand that if the party continues to refuse to stand for Democratic values, then it will alienate so much of its base that the Democrats will lose in ’08.

As for me, well, with Reid as Senate Leader, I’m one rightwing Democrat away from joining a third party.

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I have an article on the political implications of podcasting at Personal Democracy. It’s mainly about what podcasting is, and then it does the predictable political speculation. There’s a terrific article on the same topic at CampaignAudit.org

And while I’m plugging me, over at Worthwhile I just posted a couple of paragraphs about some really interesting work being done by Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps on mapping business hierarchies.

And if it’s ok for me not to talk about myself for one brief instant, I’m enjoying Ayelet Waldman’s Bad Mother blog (thanks to Liz for the link)

Ayelet points to a terrific essay about writer’s envy by Kathryn Chetkovich. Why, just yesterday I muttered a curse about yet another author whose talent turns me crayon-y green. Oh, it’s a long list alright. Chetkovich’s essay is especially interesting to me because she refracts the topic through her position as a woman.

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Ethan Zuckerman is in Egypt. Ok, technically he was in Egypt, but he waited until he left before posting about it. He connects the looseness of cab-ride protocols with the scary human rights environment.

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I ignored the first fax from Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee telling me that I’ve been chosen as Businessman of the Year. But the second fax had a plaintive note that got me to call the 800 number.

Rose answered. “First, Tom Reynolds wants to thank you for your support in our tremendous victory.” In fact, because of my efforts, I have been awarded Businessman of the Year. Not just nominated, but awarded it.

“Why?,” I asked. “There must be some mistake.”

“It’s based on your past support of the Republican Party.”

“I really didn’t do anything.”

“I don’t know the exact selection process.”

I told Rose I hadn’t contributed any money. She said that she knew that, but they valued my role as honorary chairman of the Massachusetts Business Advisory Council.

“I assume there were dozens of those.”

“Yes. There were several.” She then told me what I’d won: An invitation to the inauguration, and participation in a ceremony to be held during the tax summit in DC in March where the award would be given. There are several Businessmen of the Year awards given in each state. Ah, and my name would be listed in an ad in the Wall Street Journal.

“I think there must be a mistake. I didn’t do anything at all to support your electoral efforts.”

“We value your support.”

“I actually didn’t even vote for Bush.”

Rose chuckled. “You didn’t vote for him?”

“I don’t like his economic policy and I sure don’t like his foreign policy.”

“Would you like me to remove your name from consideration?,” she asked pleasantly.

“I think that would be best.”

Too bad! When they start rounding up the enemies of the state, flashing my Republican Businessman of the Year award might have given me a ten-minute head start.

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Jock Gill points to an article from a year ago in which Tom Atlee compiles a fascinating set of links about Citizen Deliberative Councils: “A Citizen Deliberative Council (CDC) is a temporary council of citizens convened to deliberate about public concerns (either about a specific issue or the general state of the community and its future) and to provide guidance for officials and the public.” (Quote from here.) Atlee writes that in British Columbia, Canada, one Citizens Assembly “on electoral reform, been given the power to put a proposal directly to a vote by the people in a regular election.”

He describes it in an email that’s circulating:

This Assembly was formed with 160 randomly selected citizens charged with reviewing existing and innovative voting systems. After ten months of study, reviewing hundreds of written submissions, holding public hearings, hearing from experts, and deliberating together, they finally announced their recommendations in October 2004 (see the newsletter below). It is quite clear these citizens really love the new system they’ve designed. It’s a combination of instant runoff voting and proportional representation (see notes below) which they have customized for their province and named BC-STV, short for British Columbia Single Transferable Vote. 146 of them voted in favor of it. Only 7 voted no.

Before they launched this remarkable democratic exercise, the government pledged to submit their recommendations (whatever they were) as a referendum to the voters in May 2005. Now, if that referendum passes, the government has further pledged to push through legislation that organizes the province’s electoral system to use the new voting method in the 2009 elections.

Fittingly, the Assembly did its work in public, including on the Web.

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I just received a hand-written fax from Congressman Tom Reynolds:

David –

As I was watching the returns on election night…gonig through the roller coaster ride of misinformation before we finally declared victory, I thought of all the Businessmen [sic] whose hard work made our triumph possible. As such, I’ve nominated you to receive the 2004 Businessman of the Year Award. Your official nomination documents are enclosed. Please call my assistant right away at 1-800-810-1894 to accept your nomtination. Your chances look great!

Tom

Woohoo! Republican Businessman of the Year! And it’s practically a lock! Unfortunately, the 800 number was busy, but I’ll keep trying!

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Oliver Willis has an open thread for branding the Democratic Party. There are some kickass ideas there.

(Thanks to Ina Steiner for the link.)

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Found on Craigslist by Kelly Sue (via Joi):

“Straight male seeks Bush supporter for fair, physical fight – m4m”

I would like to fight a Bush supporter to vent my anger. If you are one, have a fiery streek, please contact me so we can meet and physically fight. I would like to beat the shit out of you.

Mark Dionne, who is apparently feeling a tad nervous about post-election America, tremulously wonders in an email whether the Red states or Blue states have more nuclear weapons under their control.

(Yes, he’s joking.)

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I love Zephyr Teachout‘s post over at Personal Democracy about what Net stuff worked in the campaign, what didn’t, and what will work next time. Not to mention that she’s a heck of writer.

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Hmm. John Kerry just wrote me a note — it was so personal it was practically in longhand (and, by the way, “longhand” is a good example of a word with a “gh” in it that is not pronounced as it is in “rough” and “bough”) — pledging to continue fighting, yada yada. Then there was this sentence:

Regardless of the outcome of this election, once all the votes are counted — and they will be counted — we will continue to challenge this administration.

What’s that intended to signal and/or who is it intended to appease?

Meanwhile, here’s an audio message from Kevin Zeese, Nader’s campaign spokesperson:

We’re seeking a recount in wards in New Hampshire where there have been mathematical anomalies…When we look at those numbers it turns out that most of those anomalies occurred in wards where the vote was counted on the Diebold AccuVote Machine, in fact 78% of those unusual votes were on those machines. This is the first audit in a Presidential Election of an electronic voting count system so it’s an historic moment. Either way it turns out it will be good for our democracy.

Of course, to judge the significance of that 78% figure we’d need to know what percentage to the precincts used the Diebold machines, but I’m sure they’ll get that all straightened out…

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