Sir Edward and Dr. Dean

Once again it has been some time since I've written. I'm seriously going to work on that.

But today there are a few stories about American Heroes that simply could not be overlooked

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That's SIR Ted

Today, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown addressed a joint session of Congress (a rare honor afforded only to our closest friends... though he's the 5th UK PM to do so). In his speech, he announced that American hero, and long-time Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy would be granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, saying:

"I hope that you will allow me to single out for special mention today one of your most distinguished senators, known in every continent and a great friend.

"Northern Ireland is today at peace, more Americans have health care, more children around the world are going to school and for all those things we owe a great debt to the life and courage of Senator Edward Kennedy.

"And so today, having talked to him last night, I want to announce that Her Majesty the Queen has awarded an honorary knighthood for Sir Edward Kennedy."

Specifically, Kennedy is being made an honorary Knight Commander in the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to U.S.-U.K. relations and for his work on the peace process in Northern Ireland. Because a non-honorary appointment requires an oath to the Queen, all those who are not citizens in a realm where the Queen is head of state are made honorary Knights. As such, technically Kennedy will not be able to use the "Sir" as a title before his name, but may use the post-nominal "KBE".

I say, if Gordon Brown can call him Sir Edward, the same goes for everyone. I look forward to him being addressed as such upon his return to the Senate.

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Speaking of Sir Edward

Have I ranted yet about the Serve America Act? It's a major piece of legislation that is jointly sponsored by Senator Sir Edward Kennedy (or is it Sir Senator?) and Republican Orrin Hatch. The bill has almost 2-dozen sponsors and has gained momentum in recent weeks. It is notable that while it wasn't passed in the last session, Senators Obama, McCain, Clinton, and Majority Leader Reid were all among the major cosponsors.

The bill has been reintroduced and President Obama mentioned it in his speech to Congress last week as a national priority. The bill would create and expand national service projects like AmeriCorps, Vista, Teach For America, and other programs, while also creating/funding innovative new metrics for the impact of these projects. Specifically, it would nationalize America's Civic Health Index (a topic I've written about before) and provide a more clear year-by-year snapshot of civic engagement by making it part of the annual census. The National Conference on Citizenship has produced the CHI for the last several years, but this funding would allow for a greatly expanded version.

You can find more information on the Serve America Act here, at the Voices for National Service website, or here with ServiceNation.

Get involved, join the cause, pressure your elected officials. Sir Edward needs you!

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DEAN

Sir Edward aside, Howard Dean is clearly one of my greatest political influences. As a young turk in high school I eagerly joined the Deaniacs' 2003 Endless Summer Tour and I've been part of the movement to take my country back ever since.

In all seriousness, Howard Dean led a generational shift in American politics. He by no means did it alone, and he certainly is receiving little credit for his efforts, but I firmly believe in years to come his influence will begin to be fully appreciated. In 2002/2003, at a time when Democrats were cowering to Republicans on all issues in the wake of 9/11 and the bully-boy tactics being employed by Bush & Co, Dean was an unapologetic anti-war Democrat. He was ridiculed as a fringe element at first, until his campaign made unprecedented use of the internet and surged in the pre-primary hooplah. While his campaign eventually fizzled out (that scream...), his message of 'taking the country back', saying that he was representing the "Democratic wing of the Democratic party", revolutionizing the use of internet fundraising and social networking in campaigns -- all laid the groundwork for the Democratic resurgance we're enjoying now.

This is all even before his very successful stint as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (a position he won controversially and without the tradiational backing of the party stalwarts). He used his 50 state strategy to lay the organizational groundwork for the party in coming elections -- a very controversial move at the time, especially with then-Congressman Rahm Emanuel. But no one can argue that those investments didn't pay off when looking at the vast gains in Congressional races or the unexpected states that turned Blue in the 2008 Presidential Election. Certainly Obama had a lot to do with it, but you can't give him sole credit for winning redder than red states like North Carolina.

I'm not the first person to gush for Dean, and I hope I'm not that last. In fact, there's a great must-read piece you can find here about Howard Dean being a latter-day Democratic Barry Goldwater; setting the stage for a resurchange in their party. But the point of this all is: Give Dean his due. He's not politically loved in insider Democratic circles, but the guy has done a heck of a job. And that's not even counting his stellar record as governor of Vermont...

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I've got some more coming up later, but tis all for now. Feel free to comment or discuss any of the above named Heroes of the Republic.

Rants and Revels

Alright, so once again I've failed to post for a little while. However, here are a few important things on my mind that I'd like to share with you. I apologize ahead of time if this heads in the stream-of-consciousnss direction.


First of all -- and I know that it's Wednesday and this post is overdue -- last Friday I went to the Ben Folds/Jason Mraz concert at GW's Smith Center. It was great! I'm not normally one for concerts (especially ones where you don't get a plush seat), but I was thoroughly impressed. Both performers were last at GW my freshman year there (that was almost 6 years ago for those of you without an abiccus) and while I saw Mraz (with Guster) I sadly missed Ben Folds. Thus, I was inspired to make it out this time.

I went into the night with a thoroughly pro-Ben Folds outlook, thinking of Mraz as icing. Folds was great to watch and did a few of my favorites, but Mraz was electricfying. His stage presence and overall charisma was just much more fun, regardless of whether you've ever heard anything he's done.

Bottom line: if you have the chance, see Mraz. But Ben Folds is still good too...

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Little known fact: Southern Delaware is not unlike rural Alabama. I have family in northern Delaware and visited many times in my childhood. However, it wasn't until this past weekened that I spent any time in the far southern reaches of the state. Let me say that my eyes are now open.

Sheam, Skank, and a few others journeyed to our dear friend Chad's family estate in lovely Seaford, DE to celebrate President's Day. Among all the festivities, we had the opportunity to do some sight-seeing and visit with the locals. Everywhere we went (most notably a thoroughly enjoyable tour of the manor once owned by Governor William Ross) we interacted with people with a very pronounced accent. If I hadn't known any better I would have gussed we'd landed somewhere in Mississippi. It turns out Delaware, as a slave state, was a little divided on the secession issue leading up to the the Civil War. While most of DE wanted to stay with the Union, the people of Seaford and other southern DE regions sympathized with the south.

Pure conjecture: but it seems to me they're still passive-aggressively rejecting their northern neighbors and putting on those phony southern accents.

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Voting Rights!!

The Senate has moved the latest incarnation of DC voting rights legislation out of committee (even some Republicans voted for it, though not John'Curmudgeon' McCain). This bill, like one passed by the House but filibustered in the Senate last session, would give DC a full voting House member and give Utah an additional member (they're next on the list to receive one by population). Majority Leader Reid plans to bring it up for debate soon (next week?) and anticipates that they will have more than enough votes to overcome a filibuster, thanks to the November election.

The House has yet to really act on the bill, but it passed last session by an overwhelming majority and we can only expect those numbers to go up.

Exciting news!! While it's far from a solution, leaving DC unrepresented in the Senate for instance, it's a great step forward!

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Also -- I'm officially endorsing Howard Dean for HHS Secretary! I've actually been ranting to my friends/twitter following/facebook for a few days on this matter. He's quite the ideal candidate in my book. Dean is a doctor, was a very successful Governor (who reformed and greatly expanded healthcare), very successful DNC Chairman, and he's shown that he's a skillful manager (ala DNC, Vermont, etc).

All that said we're not likely to see Dean at all active with this White House. The new President's enforcer / chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has a notoriously bad relationship with Dean going back to Dean's DNC Chairmanship and Emanuel's time running the DCCC. Emanuel scoffed at Dean's '50 State Strategy' of investing in Democrats nationwide, instead of targeted spending that would have helped Emanuel's colleagues in Congressional races.

Apparently Obama, though the obvious benefactor of the 50SS success, seems to agree with Emanuel. Last month when the new DNC Chair Tim Kaine took over and Obama held an event to celebrate, they failed to even invite the outgoing Chairman Dean. Talk about arrogance.

I honestly fail to realize how at a time like this, facing innumerable national crises, our leaders can still afford to not put skilled and experienced people like Dean in key positions like this. I realize that there are going to be personality conflicts, and Dean's presidential campaign didn't end on a particularly high note (well, actually maybe the note he hit was a bit too shrill...), but at some point let's realize that ability to do the job and do it well should be paramount.

In any case: Dean for HHS!!

That's all for now. Feel free to share thoughts, idea, disagreements, etc below.