A Message from Paul Wellstone (D-MN) to the Democratic Congressional Majority...

[WilliamPitt]

"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them." - a Democrat from Minnesota who died five years ago today

End.

Fucking.

Transmission.

:banghead:

(RIP, Senator :hug: )

[rurallib]

1. He nailed them didn't he?

[Done]

2. Exactly nt

[Done]

3. K&R nt

[lateo]

4. The Green Bus was calling us.

Sure do miss him.

[helderheid]

5. K&R

[Done]

6. Kicking again

The death of Paul Wellstone was HUGH!11!!! I’M SERIES!!11!!

Wellstone was brilliant, quick witted, and courageous. If he had lived, he might be president now. He would at least be someone who would stand up to the administration without apology.

I often wonder if he was murdered.

On the fifth anniversary of his death...rest in peace to a true leader.

What might have been.

:cry:

[Baby Snooks]

31. Without apology

Emphasis on "without apology." Paul Wellstone would have told Nancy Pelosi to go fuck herself and told George W Bush to go fuck himself.

Sorry to be so impolite. But they both can, really, go fuck themselves along with everyone who supports either and/or both of them. There are, it seems, some Democrats who support both of them.

[wizstars]

37. I have no doubt the KGWB assassinated him. n/t

[tom_paine]

7. And that is why the Bushies (90% likely IMHO) had him killed

I know I am going to suffer flames for saying it, but why shouldn't I?

Big fucking coincidence that our greatest leaders were all murdered (JFK, MLK, RFK) at a time when their ideals were becoming dangerously close to being accepted.

Big fucking coindicence that, on the rare occasions that the stars align and a single "powerful" individual with moral clarity, a strong voice, and the access to microphones to speak to millions, has the ability to oppose the Bushies, they wind up with three American bullets in the forehead, their armor and journal burned, like Pat Tillman.

Big fucking coincidence that, on rare occasions that someone can give us eyewitness testimony to Bushie Felonies, they commit suicide after conveniently choosing untracable ratshot to do the job, like old Cliff Baxter.

Go ahead and flame away. Things are far too far along (even IF in the years 2009-12 we are "given a rest between bouts of Bush Totalitarian Vampirism, which will pick up right where it left off...but I don't think they are going to release control of the Imperial Throne to anyone but a designated successor, probably NineElevenani) to give a shit about quibbling over what is becoming quite obviously a pattern humanity has seen time and again before...

[TheUniverse]

14. I wont flame...

But I most certainly notice the timing of it. We may never know the truth.

[Baby Snooks]

38. Cliff Baxter

The suicide that wasn't. When someone mentioned the blood and broken glass on the outside of the car, the explanation was that the paramedics removed Cliff Baxter from the car in an attempt to revive him and then when they realized he was dead they put him back in the car.

And the media reported that and then went on its merry little way. No doubt a number of reporters worried about ending up a suicide themselves. So they decided not to pursue it.

There were over 2,000 partnerships involved with the fraud, some would call it money-laundering, at Enron. The only partnerships the Justice Department investigated were the ones Andy Fastow set up. He was, in the end, the perfect scapegoat. He of course never really said much. He probably worried about ending up a suicide as well.

There was far more to Enron than met the eye. Or hit the press.

[OwnedByFerrets]

40. I would RECOMMEND your post if i could. Well said, mf. nt

[freestyle]

8. Thanks for the reminder about real leadership.

I had never cried for the death of a political figure before Wellstone died. His funeral made me truly proud to be a liberal. When I remember Paul Wellstone, I am reminded of Bob Marley's Redemption Song. How long will they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?

[307 MMS]

22. Marley

Amen on Redemption Song. How long....HOW FUCKIN'LONG!?!?!?

[wizstars]

39. "...but tell me why the peacemakers fall?..."

"White doves in flight, peace to all,
But tell me why the peacemakers fall?
Must we bury any more?"
--Molly Hatchet, "Fall of the Peacemakers"

[robinlynne]

9. Thank-you. clear, succinct, and true.

[ljm2002]

10. That about sums it up.

RIP, Senator Wellstone. We miss ya!

[KitchenWitch]

11. RIP Paul, you were one of a kind.

:cry:

[Forkboy]

12. And there it is.So simple and yet too hard for too damn many to grasp.

[WilliamPitt]

13. Paul Wellstone

[WilliamPitt]

15. .

[Coexist]

16. "Paul Wellstone was not Santa Claus. He was a real leader who challenged power"

http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/10/paul_wellstone_rip.html
Sirotablog

Today is the 5-year anniversary of the death of U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), one of my personal heroes. I had the privilege of working closely with Paul when I worked for then-Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Paul was the only U.S. Senator in the Congressional Progressive Caucus and, not surprisingly, was the only reliable Senate ally we had on all of the major economic populist campaigns we were running at the time - from the campaign to allow drug reimportation to the campaign to stop Corporate America's pension rip-off schemes. These remain the issues that get disproportionately less attention in our political debate, in our culture, and often right here in the Netroots.

Paul and his wife were truly great people, and it was an honor to get to know both of them. In an age of cynical politics, he was one of the few in Congress who wasn't a cynic.

Cornel West has explored how American political culture deliberately "santa claus-ifies" history's most famous and most effective leaders who challenge the economic status quo. The process happens through our education system, which downplays economic class, and in our pop culture. We are never supposed to think that the status quo is anything other than terrific, and we are never supposed to see the courageous heroes who challenged economic power as anything other than mere jolly cartoons.

I'm sure there will be some speeches in Washington today about Paul - and I hope the millionaires in the Senate club can refrain from trying to Santa Claus-ify Paul Wellstone by only recalling him as a nice, friendly, happy man. He was all of those things, of course, and that is typically how he is remembered in a media and political debate designed to paper over any discussion of real issues in favor of things like personality and style. But anyone who knew Paul knew his life's work was all about challenging power.

Paul Wellstone was not Santa Claus. He was a real leader who challenged power, shined a bright spotlight on the corruption of Washington and made economic class issues his cause. That is the true legacy of Paul Wellstone.

[RiverStone]

17. Paul stood for something alright!

No doubt - no enabling - no complicity.

If only most Dems on The Hill had 1/2 the guts he had.

Sure miss him!


K&R!

[WilliamPitt]

18. One last

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

19. that says it all

and judging from what the '08 casmpign is shaping up to be, I'm afraid the establishment still isn't listening.

[TahitiNut]

20. When they sit still for everything, they stand for nothing.

It's that simple. :shrug:

[OzarkDem]

21. Some more

“A politics that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstances of people's lives, a politics that does not speak to and include people, is an intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail.”

“The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

“Commercial ties and trying to sort of make all the profit that we can make has trumped all concern for human rights. And that's not what our country is about.”

“The American polity is infected with a serious imbalance of power between elites and masses, a power which is the principal threat to our democracy.”

“I don't think politics has anything to do with left, right, or center. It has to do with trying to do right by people.”

“I'm from the Democratic party-wing of the Democratic Party”


“Never separate the life you live from the words you speak.”

[unc70]

23. Proud of another great Tar Hell.

I also teared when I heard the news. I was acquainted with him from UNC.

The University produces a lot of exceptional liberals.

[OzarkDem]

24. kick

[me b zola]

25. k&r

[BornagainDUer]

26. And he and his family paid the ultimate price. RIP Senator.

[sazemisery]

27. Rest in Peace, Dear Patriot. n/t

[spanone]

28. K&R

[ms liberty]

29. K&R for one of our Greatest Americans. Thanks Will. And Thank You Senator Wellstone. n/t

[mzmolly]

30. A

men.

RIP to Paul and those who left this earth with him.

[UpInArms]

32. in 2001 - before everything went to shit

and before that computer crash took away my email messages - Paul Wellstone responded personally to a query - it was like 2 lines of a response to someone who wasn't even a constituent - but he seemed to geniunely care that I was disturbed by what was going on - everything being what it was in my pre-911 view of reality.

5 years ago today, I was among 80,000 others that were gathering in San Francisco to protest the war that was to be - that war that now is projected to cost $2.4 trillion and was waged on lies and falsehoods with the grand plan put out there in plain sight by the Project New American Century in 1998 and spelled out so clearly in their manifesto on Rebuilding America's Defenses. I was there when the news of Wellstone's plane crash.

A true voice of the American people was silenced that day.

:cry:

[proud patriot]

33. Plain as Day

[crickets]

34. K&R

You are missed, Senator.

[Senator]

35. K&R&Impeach

[0007]

36. This was the biggest loss of the decade. To lose a fieriest

fighter in time of need.

Thanks WP

[redqueen]

41. Heh... this reminded me of your thread asking "why?"

It's good to be able to see both sides. :)

Such a complicated situation.

[robbob]

42. and who can forget the media feeding frenzy

following the moving memorial service Pauls family put together? It was at that point I realized just how completely vile and disgusting the press had become, and it was probably that sickening display of faked outrage that helped keep the rethugs in power that year.

[f the letter]

43. Great quote

Man's got a point

[deutsey]

44. RIP, indeed

I like Bernie Sanders a lot and am glad he's in the Senate, but I always felt like Wellstone more loudly spoke for me and what I believe in. I'm from Maryland, so he wasn't "my" senator, but I nonetheless contributed to his campaign.

RIP. :evilfrown: