Late in the evening of October 23, 2004, I coined the term Blogosphere Day. At the time, I was directing the online campaign in PA-08 for Ginny Schrader (D-Blogosphere) and was trying to do anything possible to hype her campaign. Little did I know what would become of a two minute entry on dkosopedia.

To be perfectly honest, I’d forgotten about it until it showed up in the National Journal just as Tim Tagaris and I were plotting on when to kick of the online fundraising for Paul Hackett. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, there has already been $16,395 raised online for ActBlue. Yet if every US Senator who has applauded the event were to max out, that number would triple.

A couple of other thoughts on the tradition and on teamwork…

First, residual effect:

2004 – PA-08
Ginny Schrader raised $89,765 across all ActBlue pages
2006 – PA-08
Patrick Murphy raised $165,931 across all ActBlue pages (and won!!!)
Now, even the Bucks County Democratic Club (heart of PA-08) is on ActBlue having already raised $1,630 from 77 people.

In 2005, Hackett coming so close was major news with even Newt Gingrich scared of the blogosphere while the netroots were winning awards. Yet in 2006, in the same district, Vic Wulsin did even better than Hackett and we’re going to win the seat this year.

I think that ActBlue is the most critical piece of infrastructure in recent years. While it helps bloggers to do things like Blogosphere Day and raise a $100K for Dean upon him winning the DNC Chair race, it also provides the infrastructure necessary for US Senators to raise money like they did for Tim Johnson last quarter.

So tonight, reflect back on all we’ve done, Act Blue, and appreciate what we can do when we work together.

…who just signed on to a letter to the President vowing not to appropriate any more money to the Iraq debacle for anything other than a fully funded withdrawal.  Kudos to these 12:

Lynn Woolsey
Barbara Lee
Maxine Waters
Ellen Tauscher
Diane Watson
Bob Filner
Hilda Solis
Grace Napolitano
Linda Sanchez
Mike Honda
Pete Stark
Lois Capps

Reward good behavior.  Letter on the flip.

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to inform you that we will only support appropriating additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during Fiscal Year 2008 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of all our troops out of Iraq before you leave office.

More than 3,600 of our brave soldiers have died in Iraq. More than 26,000 have been seriously wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or injured in the hostilities and more than 4 million have been displaced from their homes. Furthermore, this conflict has degenerated into a sectarian civil war and U.S. taxpayers have paid more than $500 billion, despite assurances that you and your key advisors gave our nation at the time you ordered the invasion in March, 2003 that this military intervention would cost far less and be paid from Iraqi oil revenues.

We agree with a clear and growing majority of the American people who are opposed to continued, open-ended U.S. military operations in Iraq, and believe it is unwise and unacceptable for you to continue to unilaterally impose these staggering costs and the soaring debt on Americans currently and for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (CA); Rep. Barbara Lee (CA); Rep. Maxine Waters (CA); Rep. Ellen Tauscher (CA); Rep. Rush Holt (NJ); Rep. Maurice Hinchey (NY); Rep. Diane Watson (CA); Rep. Ed Pastor (AZ); Rep. Barney Frank (MA); Rep. Danny Davis (IL); Rep. John Conyers (MI); Rep. John Hall (NY); Rep. Bob Filner (CA); Rep. Nydia Velazquez (NY); Rep. Bobby Rush (IL); Rep. Charles Rangel (NY); Rep. Ed Towns (NY); Rep. Paul Hodes (NH); Rep. William Lacy Clay (MO); Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR); Rep. Albert Wynn (MD); Rep. Bill Delahunt (MA); Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC); Rep. G. K. Butterfield (NC); Rep. Hilda Solis (CA); Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY); Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY); Rep. Michael Honda (CA); Rep. Steve Cohen (TN); Rep. Phil Hare (IL); Rep. Grace Flores Napolitano (CA); Rep. Alcee Hastings (FL); Rep. James McGovern (MA); Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH); Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL); Rep. Julia Carson (IN); Rep. Linda Sanchez (CA); Rep. Raul Grijalva (AZ); Rep. John Olver (MA); Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX); Rep. Jim McDermott (WA); Rep. Ed Markey (MA); Rep. Chaka Fattah (PA); Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (NJ); Rep. Rubin Hinojosa (TX); Rep. Pete Stark (CA); Rep. Bobby Scott (VA); Rep. Jim Moran (VA); Rep. Betty McCollum (MN); Rep. Jim Oberstar (MN); Rep. Diana DeGette (CO); Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA); Rep. Artur Davis (AL); Rep. Hank Johnson (GA); Rep. Donald Payne (NJ); Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (MO); Rep. John Lewis (GA); Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY); Rep. Neil Abercrombie (HI); Rep. Gwen Moore (WI); Rep. Keith Ellison (MN); Rep. Tammy Baldwin (WI); Rep. Donna Christensen (USVI); Rep. David Scott (GA); Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL); Lois Capps (CA); Steve Rothman (NJ); Elijah Cummings (MD); and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).

First, I think it is obvious that we allow anonymous, well, actually pseudonymous, blogging here. There are a number of bloggers at varying levels of anonymity here.  For my own part, I began this site as sfbriancl, a derivative of my name (The C standing for Charles, the SF for…uh…SF). And jsw, well, those are Jeremy’s initials. Juls seems pretty easy to link to Julia Rosen, same with dday. Lucas was Lucas from the get-go.  And we also gave you most of that information in the About Page. But, I guess there was still enough to attack on the basis of anonymity.

Flip it over, please…

Most, if not all, of the “A-list” Bloggers (I don’t want to get into that, but just read this Republic of T post for more on that) are in fact open about their identity at this point. Heck, even Digby came out of the closet. And here at Calitics, that is now the case as well, as we have had a big shift in the past week towards using real names.  I think that’s cool. You see, it’s not that there isn’t value in using the pseudonym, it just gives people a bit more trust if they see that real name.

That being said, there is a very real place for pseudonymous blogging. Heck, even Jon Fleischman understands that there is a place for non-attributed blogging.  It could be because a paying job doesn’t want you taking political stances, or it could be shielding grassroots friends. Whatever, if you have a reason, and you can still get your point of view across to an audience, I wish you the best.  But one thing that should not be tolerated is the “outing” of a pseudonymous blogger by somebody who was supposed to be on the same team.

I won’t get into the details, other than the fact that here in California, a really cool person was outed by somebody that had no business doing so.  That incident hurt both sides, and little was gained, other than showing that old school politics aren’t dead.  Leaders should know who their friends are, but it’s painfully clear that some demand perfect loyalty and drones to the cause (ie themselves).  Folks, it’s not going to happen. You will sooner tame a zebra (look it up…you can’t do it) than you will the blogosphere.  You have friends, but sometimes those friends will *gasp* disagree with you.  Get over it and move on.

So, I guess what I’m saying is that if you can be out front about who you are, you should do so. But if you can’t, well, your “friends” should respect that.  And hey, if anybody wants to change their username, shoot me an email.

John Doolittle is so corrupt, people in other countries are flipping on him:

The governor of the Northern Mariana Islands said Thursday he’s cooperating with the Justice Department’s corruption investigation around jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, which is focused in part on GOP Rep. John Doolittle of Rocklin, Calif. […]

The Justice Department’s interest in Doolittle appears to focus on payments Doolittle’s wife, Julie, received from Abramoff for fundraising work unrelated to the Marianas. But Doolittle was also heavily involved in Abramoff’s advocacy for the Marianas, endorsing Fitial for governor and pushing federal funding on his behalf.

Doolittle was lobbied on the issue by his own former legislative director, Kevin Ring, who went on to work with Abramoff and now is himself under investigation.

“Doolittle, he’s also a friend,” said Fitial.

Well, at least he called Doolittle a friend before knifing him.  Seems like Fitial wants the CNMI to get its money back from Abramoff’s lobbying shops, and if that means turning in Doolittle to do it, then that’s what has to be done.

The venue for this admission is interesting.

Fitial spoke to reporters after testifying against a Senate bill that would impose U.S. immigration laws on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a chain of 14 islands just north of Guam in the Pacific. A similar bill passed the Senate in 2000 but Abramoff helped block it from advancing in the House.

The pressing need for this legislation comes directly from Abramoff’s and Doolittle’s help in keeping the CNMI an island of indentured servitude, where workers are routinely imprisoned at their place of employ, threatened, forced into the sex tourism industry, given abortions against their will, and more.

This bill was stopped in the House in 2000 thanks to the work of Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, and John Doolittle.  That devil’s bargain appears to be catching up with Doolittle now.

Dover Bitch has more on how you can help pass this bill and restore rights to those on the CNMI.  In addition, you can contribute to Charlie Brown  as part of Blogosphere Day and make sure John Doolittle is held fully accountable for what he has done.