Pardon Our Dust

I'm slogging through a redesign this weekend, and at any given time the page will be in a particular state of disarray. I apologize if it's difficult to read, but it should be better by Monday.

Rebirth of the Act Blue Link

A blurb from CQ today caught my eye. It turns out that Act Blue, the online donation aggregator, has "Draft Candidate" Accounts. You can donate money to someone who is not running, in an effort to encourage them to run:

Money collected in the draft funds will be held until the prospective candidate forms a presidential campaign committee, at which point the funds will be transferred to the campaign. Should the candidate not enter the race by the time of the Democratic National Convention, funds will be sent to the DNC. ActBlue staffers indicated that they would honor all "serious requests" to set up draft funds for prospective candidates.

They also have an account for "the Presumptive Democratic Nominee," where funds will sit until a candidate has enough delegates to insure the nomination.

So what the heck. I've taken down all the candidates from last cycle, and added three accounts for your donating pleasure:

1. Draft Gore. He's not the perfect candidate, but he'd have my support if he gets in.
   
2. Bill Richardson. I'm still pretty neutral in regards to the announced candidates, but among the second tier candidates, the one I'd most like to see still on stage a year from now is Richardson. The 1st tier doesn't need my help raising funds during primary season.
3. Presumptive Nominee. 1st tier, 2nd tier, whatever. Our candidate will need some cash for the general.

Your donation portal is the "ActBlue" link in the upper right hand corner, but you can use this shortcut if you like.

P.S. to any and all who followed the BlogPac/BSB discussion, I've decided to offer folk a way to "return the money"

Strickland Appoints Catholic Dem Activist to Head Office of Faith-Based Initiatives

Ted Strickland had hinted that he wanted to take the OFBI in a different direction, looking to help the poor more than working to strengthen traditional families. He seems to have done so by naming Eric McFadden to head the office. Mr. McFadden has experience with a number of groups that have worked to broaden the Catholic political perspective to include such issues as health care, jobs, the war, hunger, and poverty.

Some Googling Yields:

PBS's Religion and Ethics:

KIM LAWTON: From the basement of his home in the Columbus, Ohio, suburbs, Eric McFadden is waging a faith-based, grassroots campaign in support of John Kerry. McFadden launched the CatholicsforKerry04.org Web site in July after meeting the senator and, he says, connecting with Kerry as a Catholic.

ERIC MCFADDEN (Member, Knights of Columbus and John Kerry Supporter): I'm trying to give a voice to Catholics so that they can stand up and say, "I am a Catholic Democrat, and I'm proud, and these are the principles that I believe in."



From a Toledo Blade Story on a voting guide produced by Catholics In Alliance For The Common Good called: 'Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guide for Conscientious Catholics':

“Some candidates claim to be pro-life, but never do anything pro-life once elected,” Mr. McFadden said.

And while some politicians do not support bans on abortion, they may seek to reduce abortions by providing health insurance and child care for single mothers or low-income families, or by boosting the minimum wage so parents will be better able to support more children.

Mr. McFadden said the voters’ guide is designed to benefit people of all denominations and faiths, as well as people of no faith — as long as they are seeking to use their vote to improve society.


What is this group (of which Mr. McFadden is a co-founder)? From an earlier Blade article:

“Basically, we came together after conversations in December, 2004, in which people felt that the message of Catholic social teaching really wasn’t being represented in the public conversation or policy,” Mr. McFadden said in an interview this week.

A few days later, he clarified this statement with a comment in a Dispatch piece:

The late Pope John Paul II condemned the Iraq war repeatedly, McFadden pointed out, yet the political debate two years ago focused largely on outlawing abortion and same-sex marriage.

"During the election cycle in 2004, our Catholic values were whittled down to four or five issues that were nonnegotiable," McFadden said. "We want to bring other issues into the discussion."

It appears that this group evolved from a group called Catholics for Faithful Citizenship. Mr McFadden identifies himself as president of this group in a January 2005 presser weighing in on the DNC Chair selection process.

Did they accomplish anything? Well, the National Catholic Reporter called the Democrat's success in the competition for the Catholic vote in '06 "a real thumping,"
allowing Mr. McFadden to chime in thusly:

In Ohio, where Republican Gov. Bob Taft pleaded guilty to corruption charges and former Rep. Bob Ney faces prison for his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, corruption was a key contributor to Republican losses. “Catholics care more about right and wrong than right and left,” said Alexia Kelly, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. The group sponsored 10 voter forums in the Buckeye state and distributed more than 50,000 of its voter guides in Ohio parishes.

Traditional social issues like abortion did not play this year in Ohio, said Eric McFadden, the alliance’s Ohio field director. “I expected [Ohio Republican Sen. Mike] DeWine to roll out his credentials as a Catholic, and he certainly has good ones, but he never made it an issue,” said McFadden. DeWine lost to Democrat Sherrod Brown by more than 10 points, and lost the Catholic vote by 8 percentage points.

I'm a big separation of Church and State guy, so I've never been entirely comfortable with faith-based initiatives in general, but this looks like an excellent choice for the Office.

The State of Columbus in 25 Bullet Points

Snipping the meaty bits out of the full text of Mayor Coleman's speech tonight:

- we will create the 2012 Commission
- I am proposing that our 2012 plan be backed up by a vote of the people, ... in the form of a Bicentennial Bond Package
- authorize a multi-million dollar pool of money, solely dedicated to clean up blighted properties
- we should fund a new generation of family recreation centers
- with 58 miles of biking and walking trails today - we must expand up to 110 miles by 2012
- $50 million dollars in a new initiative of public investment called OPERATION SAFE-WALKS
- build sidewalks, and where necessary add curbs, gutters and in some cases even new roadways
- renovation on the Lincoln Theater will begin this summer
- We are devoting $25 million over the next five years to tackle 1,000 homes and properties, to abate, renovate or demolish
- we must never cease to fight against the perpetrators of poverty, the demons of decay and the captains of crime
- We will begin demolishing Woodland Meadows by this spring
- we will begin to license scrap metal yards, requiring every sellers personal identification and information on every sale
- we have organized the African American Male Empowerment Commission
- the City will step up again to crack down on truancy
- We will continue to hire more Police and Firefighters
- We must use the opening of Skybus as a catalyst for even more development around Port Columbus
- with the Mayors of Gahanna and Whitehall, we are joining forces to create The Port Columbus Growth Partnership
- We must continue to work across the city to bring back jobs and opportunities to neighborhoods
- we've got to keep Getting Green.
- we plan to host a statewide Young Professionals Summit in 2007
- by 2012, we will finish the Scioto Mile
- we must build on the momentum of housing creation downtown
- Our city must encourage the construction of a new full-service, 500 to 750 room, convention hotel downtown
- we need to deal with the biggest challenge on the block - City Center
- we have created a new team, the Columbus Franklin County Community Action Agency, to deal with issues of poverty in Columbus

Happy Freakin' Birthday Mr. Goodman

Now, I was a dj in college and I was playing Butthole Surfers records on the air back when they were still on Touch and Go, but... Who am I kidding? I have said plenty of negative things about David Goodman in the past, and I'm sure I will have occasion to again in the future, but anything I say tonight could justifiably be attributed to jealousy, plain and simple.