A THREAD FOR GOOD NEWS

[Chichiri]

We can all use some right now, so let's hear the good news you have, whether it be political, or personal, or whatever. Something that we can turn to to cheer us up in this dark time, and get us on the road to facing the fight once again.

I'll start: in North Dakota, about a mile from where I live, Byron Dorgan (the Senator who appeared in F911) and Earl Pomeroy both soundly beated their Republican opponents. Not that anyone was expecting otherwise -- particularly when Dorgan's opponent, Mike Liffrig, was a fundie lunatic whose sole talking point appeared to be, "Dorgan loves gay marriage and human cloning!" -- but it's nice nonetheless. Also, Colin Patterson soundly won MN CD 7, where I live.

[camero]

1. Good news: I'm moving to a blue state, PA

If I don't get stopped at the border and charged with sedition. Wish me luck.

[Eumenides]

2. Great idea

Chim Chim Cheerie...

My wife and I celebrate our three year wedding anniversary today. We will be attending tonights Democracy for America meeting and then following it up with a night of ...ahem...

[UNIXcock]

3. Beautiful clear skies and cool weather in Arizona

... that fresh fall smell is in the air!

[Chichiri]

9. It's also great weather here

And oh my, you should see the leaves right now!

[mountebank]

24. Yes - a beautiful day here in Phoenix.

The world is still a marvelous place. And being alive in it is wonderful.

[wildeyed]

4. Dems swept the County Commissioners at-large race here in Mecklenburg

County, NC. Also, my kids are still beautiful and I love my husband.

[crispini]

5. Dallas county elected ...

an openly lesbian Democratic Hispanic Sheriff. She was by far the most qualified. Oh, and we elected three Democratic judges, and we cut Shrub's lead in Dallas county down to ONE POINT. Yes, ONE POINT, you heard that right. MUCH LESS THAN IN 2000.

Coming to you live from the heart of the evil empire, we actually have a few things we are kind of proud of.

[crispini]

10. Oh, and Chet Edwards beat Arlene Wohelgemuth.

So Shrub himself will CONTINUE TO BE REPRESENTED IN CONGRESS BY A DEMOCRAT!!!!

Bwahahahahahahaha!

[crispini]

21. Texas Dems gained seats in the statehouse.

For the first time in a generation- 32 years- Texas Democrats have gained seats in the legislature.

Gawd, that makes me happy.

[Worst Username Ever]

6. MN Dems gained 13 seats in the state house n/t

[goclark]

7. Obama wins!!!

[Midlodemocrat]

8. I had a great conference call today

...for work. Everyone thought my presentation went really well. That is good news...for me at least.

[Chichiri]

11. Good job! eom

[Midlodemocrat]

14. Thanks! eom

[212demop]

12. Consider the upside of living in a police state...

If no one put a gun to Dostoyevsky's head we wouldn't have Crime and Punishment. If there hadn't been a Vietnam we wouldn't have The Times They are a Changing. And so on... The best art comes out of persecution.

Musicians, painters, writers get to it!

Are there any other upsides to living under tyranny? Just looking for positives.

[cally]

13. Here in liberalville

We increased support from 65 % for Gore to 73 percent for Kerry. We passed a local bond for the Community College, an increase in taxes to support mass transit, and a ban on genetically altered organisms. The truly amazing part of this is that probably 80 percent of residents do not use mass transit or the Community College.

California also increased Dems in the Legislature and most of Arnie's candidates lost. :bounce:

[PopSixSquish]

27. And You Passed the Stem Cell Funding

Rock on from a former resident

[proud patriot]

28. California's results pleased me

[Chichiri]

15. Any more?

Come on, I know we all feel like shit right now, but there's got to be more good news out there! Let's hear it!

[democrat in Tallahassee]

16. I passed my doctoral prelims--written and oral!

what a relief.

[Redleg]

19. Congrats. What is your discipline?

I remember how nice it was to finish my comps back in 1999. It did take me three years to complete my dissertation after that.

[oc2002]

17. Daschle is gone.

I can not stand wishy washy democrats trying to out republican a republican, while pretending to be a progressive.

bah! out with the rubbish, good.

[Chichiri]

18. Speaking of which,

Does anyone else think that Thune is a great name for a villian? I'm a writer, and that's just a random musing I had.

[Dob Bole]

61. Minorities FINALLY get representation in the Senate...

Barack Obama and Ken Salazar win. Ben Nighthorse Campbell is out, but he switched parties, so I don't care.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

20. CO State House and Senate are Dem majority..1st time since 1960 eom

MKJ

[hertopos]

22. I live in the bluest part of blue state.

So, I should feel a bit spoiled. Our community, Bolton Hill Baltimore has its own website, www.boltonhill.org.

Someone just posted that 90% of our precinct voted for Kerry.
I love my community and I love Baltimore.

In fact, if you are looking for not to expensive blue area, move to Baltimore. It's much cheaper than any other blue cities and you can still commute to DC. ( Well, job creation is still a problem. Only good job market is federal related. )

hertopos

[elcondor]

30. I'm looking for a grad school

I'm currently in the first semester of my sophomore year at college. I'd like to get an MA in political/campaign management; but I will settle for an MA in poli sci--how are the grad schools around Baltimore? I currently have stellar grades, so while I'm not Harvard material, grades aren't really an issue

I've always heard good things about the city and it seems like somewhere I would fit it!

[hertopos]

45. Baltimore has a lots of options.

To name a few,

Johns Hopkins
Universty of Maryland, Baltimore County,
Unviersity of Maryland, College Park.

I graduated from UMCP in Math. It is a huge flagship school.
UMBC is the second largest in UM. Many good programs and very close to Baltimore city.

Hertopos

[elcondor]

Thank you!

I'm looking around on some websites now--it's small pick-me-up today!

[5thGenDemocrat]

53. My mother loved Baltimore, too

Of course, my family's from Michigan -- but mom went to Baltimore to marry my dad (stationed at Fort Holabird with the Counterintelligence Corps), then lived there for a while while dad was in Tokyo (1951-53).
She insisted The Sun was the best newspaper anywhere. And she made Baltimore sound like Oz when I was a little kid.
Anyhow, the good news is Kerry carried Michigan (proving, I suppose, that smart people still outnumber brain-dead morans here by about three percent).
Mixed news inside that news: Saginaw County elected Bush, but Kerry ruled in the city (where I live). There are hundreds of Democratic voters to all four sides of me -- mostly UAW types, and we carried our precinct easily.
John
Dem State Rep, Dem congressman, two Dem US senators and a Dem governor. Life will go on.

[ilovenicepeople]

23. I'm a Canadian,I'm single and...

I'm looking for a liberal American girlfriend:hug: :pals: :hug:

[Chichiri]

26. Do you have any other single friends?

In case people want to marry into the country? :)

[msturgis524]

25. MN Stayed blue

[goobergunch]

Summary of good news as I see it

• Proposition 71 (Stem Cell Research) passed in California.


• Initiative 148 (Medical Marijuana) passed in Montana.


• Senators Boxer, Feingold, Murray, Mikulski, Schumer, Leahy, Wyden, Inouye, Reid, Lincoln, Dorgan, Dodd, and Bayh were re-elected.


• Barack Obama and Ken Salazar were both elected to the Senate, replacing retiring Republicans.


• We picked up House seats in CO-3, GA-12, and IL-08.


• We picked up the Governor's mansions in Montana and New Hampshire, and held seats in Delaware, West Virginia, and North Carolina.

[yellowcanine]

38. Zell Miller is not in the Senate after Jan 05.

[sonias]

29. Both Salazars win in Colorado

Both Democrats Ken Salazar for US Senate and his brother
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041103/pl_nm/election_colorado_brothers_dc_5
Two Colorado Brothers Headed for the U.S. Congress
There will be two Salazars going to Washington in January from Colorado -- Sen.-elect Ken Salazar and his brother John, who was elected to the House of Representatives in the state's 3rd Congressional District.

----------------
We can win back the Southwest someday. We shall overcome.

And in Texas we had 3 important wins in the State House over repuke incumbents, two that had taken illegal DeLay PAC money. Mark Strama for Austin and David Liebowitz in San Antonio, and Hubert Vo of Houston are round 1 of taking our state house back.

Also in Travis County (Austin) we elected our first African American Sheriff, Greg Hamilton. Yeah Austin/Travis,TX

Sonia

[Dastard Stepchild]

31. I'll be at a convention in New Orleans in about 2 weeks

Gonna blow off some steam, have a few drinks, and enjoy myself. Never been to the Big Easy, so this should be neat. Plus, I'll be with about 1000 people who support drug reforms and harm reduction, so it'll be great to be among so many like-minded people.

[mahina]

32. Here's some...Hawaii smote the hatemongers, by giant margins.

We increased Dem seats in our state leg so will continue to make it impossible for our R gov to push her agenda.
And we are sending Democratic representation back to congress by huge margins, showing that Hawaii will not be moved by hate or fear. (they were "christian" homophobes, that was one guy's main and only idear. )
And we dragged Hawaii back over the line with a lot of love and work.
So that was good.
It would have really been a drag if the r's took this place, but as it turns out they were squished like bugs.
(ok I'm working on healing division but come on....)

[sonias]

34. I want to move to Hawaii

Thanks for your hard work mahina!

[mahina]

36. :) everyone does what they can

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Two Words: BARAK OBAMA

n/t

[mahina]

37. Obama is good news from Hawaii too you know ;)

[UrbScotty]

35. Goodbye, Phil Crane!

:D

[noiretextatique]

39. good news: votes are still being counted eom

[Tracer]

40. Here in very blue Massachusetts ...

... our repub Gov. Mitt Romney spent millions of $$$ fielding dozens of Repubs against our Congressmen, State Senators and State Reps.

Guess what?

They all lost.

[shawmut]

48. GAY MARRIAGE is alive and well in Massachusetts!!

The local elections here in MA basically killed off any chance to ban gay marriage!


Check out this email sent out this morning from Mass Equality:





Wow! We won big last night in Massachusetts.

Thanks to your support, every pro-equality legislator won reelection (and more often than not, by very large margins).

In addition, pro-equality candidates won six of eight open seats where the opponent was in favor of the constitutional amendment that would bar marriage equality for same-sex couples. Senators-elect Ed Augustus (2nd Worcester) and Karen Spilka (2nd Middlesex and Norfolk) both won tough races against well-funded opponents. Representatives-elect Denis Guyer (2nd Berkshire), John Keenan (7th Essex), Tom Sannicandro (7th Middlesex), and Cleon Turner (1st Barnstable) also won. These victories were achieved, in no small part, with your volunteer and financial support.

In one of the few races where equal marriage rights became a significant issue, openly gay Carl Sciortino beat by a two-to-one margin Representative Vinny Ciampa, who waged a homophobic write-in campaign after losing the primary.

We unleashed an unprecedented effort statewide to re-elect our allies and defeat our opponents. Along with our coalition partners, MassEquality worked strategically in both the primary and general elections. We told incumbents we’d stick with them and we did, from door-knocking, to phone banking, to fund raising. You were critical to this success.

Yesterday's victories position us extremely well for next year's constitutional convention. We deserve to celebrate. Very soon, however, we will let you know about the next steps in our campaign to preserve equal marriage rights in Massachusetts.

Finally, it bears repeating -- last night's victories in Massachusetts were truly historic and have national implications. What we have done together these past few months is incredible. I can't express the deep admiration I have for all of you who have made this possible.

Sincerely,

Marty Rouse
Campaign Director

P.S. As I write this message, we have lost ten of the eleven statewide ballot initiatives related to marriage with Oregon's fate still uncertain. Massachusetts is the one shining light of hope for supporters of equality in our country.

[MadHound]

41. Only piece of good news out of Missouri

Robin Carnahan(Mel's daughter) won Secretary of State, defeating the pig, Catherine Hannaway! Looks like our votes will be safe for now, and if Robin is anything like her father was, we've got a young up and comer here in Missouri.

Other than that, ruin and desolation abounds.

[UrbScotty]

55. Didn't Russ Carnahan win? (nt)

[myrna minx]

42. Minnesota honored Sen. Wellstone's memory

by tirelessly working to get out the vote. We took his message to heart: Stand Up Keep Fighting. Dear Paul and Shelia, we turned our state blue for you.

[yellowcanine]

43. Solid Northeast Democrat; Solid West Coast Democrat,

We will eventually add Ohio and Florida. Lot of EVs to start with there.

[GreenPartyVoter]

44. Our only Green at the legislative level got back in. Hey, it's small

but it's something to smile about. They redestricted around him, so there was some worry for a while.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Clean up the American government from the ground up!
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[maddezmom]

46. personal: my 4 year old daughter can now identify * when she sees him

on TV. And she only says is that the "bad man" mom? She has learned that some words are only for adults. :)

[Sabriel]

47. I get to keep my "FW" stickers on my vehicles

And I'm looking for something even better. Any ideas?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

49. A mixed blessing. Daschle's out as minority leader.

Sorry to lose the seat, but glad the whiney compromiser is gone. Hopefully to be replaced by someone who won't rollover with such alacrity.

[H3Dakota]

50. Hmmm. We might be getting a cold front through this weekend...

Always delightful news down here in FL, especially since we are running something like 10 degrees hotter than normal. That's about it for now.

[DjTj]

51. One African-American and Two Latinos in the Senate

...The face of America is changing...

[dryan]

52. State minimum wage....

passed in Florida. New state minimum wage is $6.15 an hour. I didn't think it would win so that's something to be happy about.

[Sapphocrat]

54. TONS of good news from California...

Senator Boxer CREAMED Bill Jones.

Rep. Eshoo CREAMED whatshisname-the-repuke challenger.

So did our feisty Rep. Pelosi, who remains House Minority Leader.

As a matter of fact, MOST Democratic candidates for the House won their races. (Don't forget just how many districts we have in the Golden State!)

Ditto most of our state senators. Especially pleasing to me: wins for out-and-proud lesbians Carole Migden (whom Jesse Helms hated with a passion) and Sheila Kuehl (you know, "Zelda" from the "Dobie Gillis" show).

And a special shout-out to out-and-proud Assemblyman Mark Leno, who slaughtered both his Repub and Libertarian challengers.

Extra bonus: That repuke creep, Ernie Konnyu, went down hard in District 24.

We also passed several progressive propositions, including state-funded stem cell research, and taxing millionaires to fund mental-health services for the disadvantaged.

Most satisfying local win: In my own District 21, Assemblyman Ira Ruskin beat Republican challenger Steve Poizner. What makes this especially satisfying is the fact that Poizner spent $6 MILLION OF HIS OWN MONEY in a broadcast-and-direct-mail blitz like I've never seen in this state.

Provided Poizner has any money left, it looks like he'll be helping fund mental-health services for the poor, whether he likes it or not. :P

On a personal note, the good news is this:

I live in California. No explanation needed.

More important than anything else, I have a beautiful, loving, supportive life partner, who is as determined as I am not to let yesterday's disaster, or anything else (including an 8,000-mile forced separation) to come between us and our future together.

[foreigncorrespondent]

Yes you do!

More important than anything else, I have a beautiful, loving, supportive life partner, who is as determined as I am not to let yesterday's disaster, or anything else (including an 8,000-mile forced separation) to come between us and our future together.

And you can count on having that every single day. No fucking government is gonna keep me from the love of my life.

[LWolf]

56. Kucinich is still working in the House,

reelected with a comfortable margin.

[archineas]

58. kucinich is my rep

i'm glad to have him back representing me...

regardless of what's happened with the ohio hate amendment, i have my partner as well, and we have each other and our cats. (he's busy on the phone lamenting to his parents about issue 1).

i require no person nor any governmental body to know that my partner and i are a family. they can legislate my marriage rights...they can't legislate my feelings.

i'm excited about obama, and i wish him the greatest of luck. massachusetts and california remain bastions of hope and equality. one day soon ohio will go blue again.

j, tortured cleveland indians and browns fan...if i can wait for them to win, i can wait for ANYONE to win...

[Lindacooks]

57. A real Repuke pig in my area was defeated.

Lynda Boudreau, from the Faribault area, is one of the original authors of the infamous 'conceal and carry' gun nuts and a nemesis to every charitable organization in MN. She lost by a little over 300 votes out of 16,000.

Good riddance.

[Terran]

59. More people voted *against* Bush

than any President in history! Something to trot out when your repuke friends start bragging.

Also, a Democrat was elected Secretary of State in Missouri--Robin Carnahan, Mel's daughter. She's a cool lady and I think she'll be Governor in '08 or '12. She also defeated one of the meanest, most loathesome republican women EVER, Katherine Hanaway, who formerly ran our State House of Representatives like a dungeon for the Inquisition. It would appear her political career is OVAH!

Also, the City of Columbia, MO (home of the University of Missouri), passed two measures--one allowing medical marijuana and the other reducing penalties for non-medical marijuana possession. Passed them *overwhelmingly*.

A few rays of sunshine in an otherwise cold dark rainy day.

[spooky3]

60. DC area: Mikulski, Van Hollen, Moran won easily

[ethereal]

62. A true conservative coworker

who i've had many spirited yet respectful debates with confessed to me that he had voted for Kerry as a result of reading some of the links i've sent him. he feels the repubs have gotten off track and wants to return our country to what it used to be.


he's in his late 50's and a moderate Conservative.


and here i was thinking i was spitting into the wind. i just kept debating him to practice my approaches, never dreaming that i stood a chance of getting him to listen.


this one thing kept me from crying for the rest of the afternoon.

[Moochy]

63. Cynthia McKinney won her seat back!!!

http://www.wsbtv.com/politics/3638126/detail.html

Thats good news!

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

64. Ward Chairman in Cincinnati

I have a huge suburban ward with 49 precincts and only twenty of them have Precinct Executives (aka Precinct Captains). Two of my volunteers from election day GOTV had agreed to become Precinct Executives in their neighborhood, and I'm pretty sure that another half dozen or so will sign up.

We're building a stronger Democratic Party in my Ward, and we're going to help elect a Democratic Governor in 2006!

[ISUGRADIA]

65. Iowa Dem Gains

2003-2004 Iowa House 46 D 54 R

2005-2006 Iowa House 48 or 49 D, 51 or 52 R

2003-2004 Iowa Senate 21 D 29 R

2005-2006 Iowa House 25 D 25 R