Response to Punx for Dean founder by Howard Dean.

[madfloridian]

This group is growing quite large and is continuing. Kimmy has been interviewed on several channels. I find Dean's response to her just fascinating, and it tells a lot about him. Yes, he blogs too fast and has run-on sentences, but this is great.

Meet Kimmy Cash of Punx for Dean
http://www.brntwdmagazine.com/media-3/Mar-Apr-04/politics.shtml

Read the section called:
"How Aching heartbreak, asylum style lunacy & 24 hours in the progressive
community just changed me."
http://dleaders.blogdrive.com/

Read Dean's response to her.
http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/004091.html

I believe he has agreed to speak to the group as well. No matter your opinion of him, this is keeping a large segment active as voters. I find this heartwarming.

[wryter2000]

1. He's the real deal

In many ways, I'm happier to have him working from the outside where he can say what he means instead of having people AT him because of his "gaffes."

Howard Dean :yourock:

[LynzM]

2. Awesome

Glad that he's going to push the point about taking democracy back and voters making the difference! Because after all, we have to be involved to make change happen, and we're not electing a King, after all :)

[madfloridian]

3. "A blow against the establishment is a blow against those we want to help"

SNIP..."Sometimes a blow against the establishment is a blow against all the people we say we want to help. There is a big difference between a vote for John Kerry and a vote for George Bush, and no vote at all. The last two stand for keeping things the way they are. The first may not be as much change as you want, but it will be a step in the right direction and it will be a start, and most importantly more people will have health care etc. I guarantee you if you vote for Kerry you will be disappointed, and I also guarantee you if you had voted for me and I had won you would have been disappointed too at some point. But governing in the real world means you can really make things better, dropping out means hope is dead. So thanks for hanging in there! Get all those punx back on board. This isn't about electing Kerry, and it wasn't about electing me, it's about taking the country back for people like you, no matter how long it takes! Thanks again, Howard Dean "

[rumguy]

4. excellent

[pezcore64]

5. hah

and to think when I told people on this board they should get a anti-bush punk band to play at the convention i was immidiatly shot down and told 'nobody who votes will like that music!'

its starting to impress me how wrong alot of you are on the political and social environment of our country. no wonder i still feel dis-infranciased.

I didnt even realise there were a group of 'punks' for howard dean. all this time i was made to believe i was a loner ;)

[Bill Todd]

6. Thanks for posting this

I'd heard that Howard had responded, but hadn't yet found it to read.

It's also great that Kimmy has started to find a way to keep the group active, since last I knew she was pretty discouraged about its rate of evaporation.

- bill

[madfloridian]

7. She fascinates me a lot.

I am way too old and way too moderate for her, but I am a fan, just from her posts and her website.

I find her fascinating, and I am pleased that Dean appears to respect her as well. This bunch of folks never ceases to amaze me.

She is drawing together people with passion and getting them organized.

[madfloridian]

8. Found a delightful article about Kimmy from NZ. Older but still good.

http://tinyurl.com/2opex

SNIP..."She became not just a convert, converts being part and parcel of any half-decent campaign for high political office. She became not just a volunteer, because the word suggests someone who licks envelopes or makes phone calls at the candidate's behest. Rather, she has turned into the queen of her own pet enterprise, which is to politicise America's two million punks and get them interested in electoral politics.

Another presidential campaign might have insisted that she subject her ideas to committee approval. Another might have been nervous about having a punk fan club at all. But the Dean people, with their radical new approach to grassroots organising, told her to go right ahead, no questions asked, and the results are extraordinary.

Her website, punx for Dean, receives thousands of hits each day. In less than three months she has signed up 13,000 volunteers to hand out literature at punk clubs and concert venues across all 50 states.

She is organising a nationwide series of concerts, the first rule of which is that every attendee must be registered to vote....."

And another site that refers to her in connection with the Club for Growth ads. She is a good sport! Bless her heart.
http://www.peterhansen.com/it1.htm