Speakers and trainers include Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Mike Gravel, Gov. Madeleine Kunin, Mayor Bob Kiss, Sen. Doug Racine, Sen. Hinda Miller, Rep. David Zuckerman, Rep. Sandy Haas, Rep. Michael Fisher and Dr. Deb Richter. Plus there will be entertainment by musicians Rebecca Padula, Emma's Revolution, Bobby Kendes and Axiomatic, comedy by Rep. Jason Lorber, film screenings, book signings, many tabling organizations and vendors, silent auction, children's' activities area, and much more!

Discussing the ramifications of investigating CIA torture, Rove told Reuters:

Karl Rove, who was a top aide to former President George W. Bush, accused Obama of seeking to conduct "show trials" a day after the president left open the possibility of prosecuting officials who provided legal analysis of interrogation procedures.

Rove told Reuters: "If the Obama administration insists on criminalizing policy disagreements, how can they place any limits on who they prosecute?"

"Everyone in the interrogation process would have to be treated the same," he said, including the CIA agents, the physicians who monitored interrogation sessions, and the lawyers who researched and wrote the memos.

The chain could reach "to the leadership of the intelligence community to the legislators in both parties and the Bush administration officials who were briefed on these memos and agreed to them," he said. [Emphasis added. - Ed.]

"It is now clear that the Obama White House didn't think before it tried to appease the hard left of the Democratic Party," Rove said.

So be it, says I! Throw them all out and start fresh is rapidly becoming my new mantra.

Mike Farrell, who played BJ Hunicutt on MASH, has taped 5 videos in which he advocates Medicare For All. The videos have clickable links in them so that the viewer can immediately send a fax to the White House and Congress with very little effort. Please disseminate these widely.

By Steve Strahs, Election Reform Network -

Last week’s Board of Commissioners meeting was the scene of some bizarre political twists and turns as the three commissioners continued their jockeying over what could be a new and improved ethics ordinance authored by Democrat Joe Hoeffel.  While the proposal itself is pretty straightforward, like just about everything in county politics, the story behind it and what it means is not.

During the Fumo trial, Republican Comr. Bruce Castor, former Montco District Attorney, noted during the course of his testimony that he had had some conversations and used email at the DA’s office related to his bid for state attorney general back in 2003.  This was the springboard for Hoeffel’s proposal; he asserted that Castor’s casual admissions reflected a focus on politics at the courthouse (including county government), or the potential for it, at the expense of the people’s business. Hence the need for ethics reform.

This is actually old political ground merely undergoing some new cultivation techniques.  A somewhat comparable ethics ordinance was passed back in 1998, during Hoeffel’s first tenure as part of the Montco governing majority (while also being the lone Democrat on the three-seat board).  The ordinance at that time banned all political activity – running for office, fundraising, speech making, serving on a political committee, etc., for about ten key department heads and top staffers, while Hoeffel’s version last week prohibited only running for office and fundraising, but for a much larger group of officals.  Not covered were existing political office holders, including the county commissioners and row office holders, and all staff of the row offices, including Assistant DAs.

But when the current chairman, James Matthews, took over in 2000, his Republican majority got the ordinance dropped, and there things stood.

WASHINGTON, DC- Following a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing today on Rebuilding Economic Security: Empowering Workers to Restore the Middle Class, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) released the following statement:  

“In my judgment, it is appropriate at this hearing to discuss the Employee Free Choice Act, but also the trauma that the American family is living through in this recession.  We need to talk about helping to provide economic security for families who don’t have it.  One of the best ways to ensure economic security for workers and their families is for that worker to be a member of a union.

I can walk down the street with my head held high knowing I'm not affiliated with a party whose public position is that my president and country should fail just to make their point.

Frank Schaeffer Author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back visits D.L. Hughley to talk about What's Left of the GOP :

I've been a bit of a left-wing rabble-rouser for a few years now, and I can attest that no one in that movement ever prayed for George W. Bush to fail. (Drop dead, maybe.) We did not want him to fail in Iraq. We prayed that he would find the wisdom to choose a different course, but when that didn't work out, that he would spare the lives of countless Iraqis and US soldiers and cease hostilities as soon as possible. We would have all sat down and shut-up if our troops had, in fact, been greeted as liberators and not as occupiers, and the caches of WMD that President Reagan had sold to Saddam Hussein had been found. No one would have been happier to be wrong than I. Anyone that tells you otherwise is prevaricating, to be polite.

We didn't have to do anything, it turns out, to ensure Bush's failure. He saw to that himself.

Mr. Schaeffer's letter to Republicans as published on The Huffington Post:

Dear Republican Leaders: The Republican Party has become the party dedicated to sabotaging the American future. Check out the sermon I just delivered about the Republican Party on CNN when being interviewed by D.L. Hughley -- and/or read on.

Bev held a great fundraiser for Patrick Murphy this past weekend. Patrick was tied up in DC and with the economic rescue bill and could not attend, unfortunately.

That remark was made to me by MontcoDFA member and Allyson Schwartz campaign manager Neil Deegan. If you missed our fundraiser for Rick Taylor this weekend, you missed a good time and some great picnic fare.

The forty or so folks that attended were treated to Nathan's hot dogs, Jersey white corn, my mother's potato salad and a cake decorated with a photo of Rick and his family. The jam session kind of fell through, though, due to the fact that everyone seemed to be engaged in spirited conversations. We did manage to get a few folks to belt out "Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer" and "I'll Fly Away" so it wasn't a complete washout.

Thanks to everyone that attended and contributed to Rick's campaign. Together we raised over $1200. Not bad for a grassroots group where most contributions were at the $35 or $50 level.

It's certainly not too late to make a contribution to support Rick's campaign. Visit his page on ActBlue and please be generous. Or, mail your check payable to "Committee to Elect Rick Taylor" to P.O. Box 866, Ambler, PA 19002