Progressive Democrats stage revolution at NH Democratic Party convention!

[Tesha]

Today was the biennial convention of the New Hampshire state
Democratic Party, so Mr. Tesha and I did our patriotic duty and
attended as delegates.

We couldn't stay through the whole thing, but we stayed through
the "Resolutions" phase of the convention where Mr. Tesha was
at the front end of a wave of adoptions of very progressive resolutions
that the State Party's "Resolutions Committee" had deemed to be
just too much like taking an actual stand on any issues and therefore
was not supporting.

When all was said and done, *ALL* the progressive resolutions
had passed, save the one calling for the immediate repeal of
NAFTA, CAFTA, and our WTO obligations, And even that would
passed if the sponsors hadn't over-reached a bit by calling for
immediate abrogation of the treaties.

So the NH Democratic Party is now on record calling for:

o The end of torture by the US
o The immediate closure of Gitmo
o The end of the war *NOW*
o The Feingold censure-Bush resolution
o The impeachment of Bush
o The nullification of Judd Gregg's U.S. Senate election in 2004 due to the Republican phone-busying scandal

As resoultion after resolution didn't go the way that had been planned,
the chair of the Resolutions Committee looked increasingly discomfitted;
by the end of that part of the session, her body language was looking
so strained that we thought she'd pull something. At one point, she
slipped and called for a vote "on the revolution" (rather than "resolution")
and the entire audience laughed, recognizing it as the Freudian slip it
obviously was.

Unfortunately, the Resolution process ran quite long so we couldn't stay
for the Platform Amendments.

But both Russ Feingold and Paul Hodes (NH CD-2 candidate) called
for Democrats to show some backbone and I think it's fair to say
that we just may have caused the NH Democratic Party to actually
*HAVE* a little backbone; we'll see what comes of it.

As Hodes said in his stem-winder of a speech: "A spine is a terrible
thing to waste!"

Tesha

[w8liftinglady]

1. Good for you!!!!Our convention(Tx) is next week-I hope we have the same

courage and committment as NH did!Wesley Clark is giving our keynote address.I am really excited!

[derby378]

15. I'll be there, too

Hopefull we DUers can do some good!

[Vincardog]

17. I will see you in Fort Worth. Let's take back our party. The only things

in the middle of the road ar paint stripes and dead armadillos.

[w8liftinglady]

24. I'll be liveblogging on the floor...see you there!!!

[Critters2]

2. Yay New Hampshire!!

Live free or die!!! You go, New Hampshire!

:bounce: :kick: :applause: :woohoo:

[xchrom]

3. i wanna give you all a little of this

:woohoo:

[BayCityProgressive]

6. The State

Dem Parties seem to be moving further Left. Good!

[xchrom]

11. And It's All Good, Baby!

[Xipe Totec]

4. ...

:dem:

[mdmc]

5. live free or die

:yourock:

DLC, get behind thee

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Yeah

From another NH progressive - thanks for being there!

[YankeyMCC]

8. Well done NH!

[Mr_Spock]

9. NH is making progress

Getting tired of the same old boring Republican politics as usual up here - lets go Dems!

[Catamount]

10. Bearing good news---how lovely and unusual! Thank you!

K&R

[me b zola]

12. Hoot!

Way to go, NH! :yourock:

[Cha]

13. Mega Props to New Hampshire

Progressives. Too bad the majority in our Nation aren't as smart as you!

[IndyOp]

14. One if by land. Two if by sea. The People Are Coming! They Are Coming!

A ways back Randi Rhodes talked about meeting Maxine Waters at a political event -- the place was packed to way overflowing and the PEOPLE were energized -- Maxine Waters was pleasantly overwhelmed at the response. When Randi finally got through the crowd to talk with her they embraced and agreed, "The People Are Coming!"

GO NEW HAMPSHIRE!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

And congratulations for carrying on with grace and a sense of humor ->

"A spine is a terrible thing to waste!" :rofl:

"Vote on the revolution" :rofl:

[Cha]

16. "The People Are Coming!"!!

"People Powered!"

[IdaBriggs]

18. Three cheers for you, Tesha!

Let me just tell you, the NH Dems were completely USELESS when we were trying to ferret out the election fraud that occurred there in 2004 -- I'm still completely ticked off at them! Its great to hear that REAL Democrats are standing up to them!

:woohoo: :)

[justinaforjustice]

19. Hawaii Dem Convention Joins with New Hampshire.

Like the NH Dems, the Hawaii Dems, meeting in their state convention May 26-28, 2006, voted for many progressive measures: Our 2006 platform calls for the impeachment of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Gonzalez and their prosecution for war crimes. We call for the "humanization" of the federal budget by means of a fifty percent reduction in the military budget, with the savings being applied to education (to be free to the university level), nutrition, affordable housing, health care, the arts and other human services. Our platform designates access to quality health care as a basic human right, calling for universal access through a single payer system. Our convention theme was "No Ka Pono Nui" (For the Good of All). Let's hope that the Dems can take control of Congress in 2006, and implement such progressive resolutions and platforms "For the Good of All".

[Robbien]

20. Good news! Great job Hawaii

It is hard to work for a party which has such wishy washy platforms as the National Democratic Party has.

For the Good of All is an inspiring motto.

:thumbsup:

[Tesha]

26. I forgot to mention...

> Our platform designates access to quality health care as a basic human
> right, calling for universal access through a single payer system.

That's what I get for writing my post without referring to my notes!
Yeah, we did that too! ;-)

Tesha

[Peace Patriot]

21. "The time of the people has come." --Evo Morales

Evo Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, recently elected, after a popular uprising against Bechtel Corporation, which had privatized the water in one Bolivian City, then jacked up the prices to the poorest of the poor, even trying to charge poor peasants for collecting rainwater; the Bolivians threw Bechtel out of their country and elected Morales. This amazing, peaceful, democratic, leftist revolution in South America now includes Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela and Bolivia, virtually the entire continent, with a strong leftist indigenous Indian in a close race in Peru, and a leftist voter uprising even in Columbia. Elsewhere south of the border, Mexico has a strong leftist--the mayor of Mexico City--in the presidential race, and the Sandinistas are making an electoral comeback in Nicaragua (Daniel Ortega is running--probably won't win though--ticket is split, and there are signs of Bush junta interference.)

The OAS, the Carter Center, EU election monitoring groups and local civic groups have been do amazing work in Latin America on TRANSPARENT elections. Result: Representative mainstream (i.e., leftist) governments arising everywhere you look.

Events like this New Hampshire Democratic party convention--so well described above (thank you for the post!)--are the real work of revolution; a vigilant, active citizenry will not put up with non-transparent elections for long. Go, New Hampshire!

"The time of the people has come."!!!

[Joe Chi Minh]

23. "even trying to charge poor peasants for collecting rainwater"!!!!

I mean you have to laugh, it's so surreally extreme, even for the Dark Side. A Labour MP joked about Thatcher privatising the air, but you really couldn't put it past Bechtel, it seems. How much more evil can even American far-right capitalism get? It reads like a joke, or a script for a kids' film such as Star Wars. Darth Vader, CEO of Bechtel.

[rucky]

22. Youz New Hampshirites are always leading the charge...

:yourock:

[originalpckelly]

25. NH is soooo cooool I wish I lived there now...

I am glad y'all might grow backbones. Democrats all across the country need to grow backbones and stand up to the Bush meister.