REUNITED...and it feels so good!

The dog has been reunited with his owner Turns out, his name was Satchel...and he was very much loved. Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas and leadsm especially the folks at Hope Vet (an anonymous client there figured out the mystery). So, Satchel's back home after a great little adventure!


My wife Jen and I found this very sweet, very skinny dog tonight when we were eating dinner Friday night on DeKalb in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. He seems to be about 4-6 years old and has been on his own at least a week, probably more. But he still has a collar on and knows "sit," "paw" and "down," so he was somebody's pet not that long ago.

If you think you know whose dog this is, please call Dan at 510-418-1208 or email me at djlavoie77_at_hotmail.com.

We're keeping him safe and sound, but want him to find his parents.

Listening to the Opposition -- and Moving Ahead

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with Michael Yon, the former Special Forces soldier and embedded war blogger beloved by conservatives. I wrote a story about him a couple years back for my newspaper and had written an email congratulating him on winning Best Military Blog this week. He called me later that afternoon.

Though I don't always agree with his politics, Yon is a good and brave reporter, trying to shine a light on what he sees as insufficient attention to the heroism and challenges of members of the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He told me he wasn't sure about Obama before the election, but has been impressed with him since. "It seems like he's getting some of the best briefings he can. And he is definitely incredibly intelligent," Yon told me. Obama hasn't changed his foreign policy positions particularly -- he still wants to close Gitmo, withdraw from Iraq quickly and deliberately and boost troop levels in Afghanistan -- but Yon still feels better about Obama than he did two months ago.

I say this because I think Yon's reaction speaks to the greatest potential of the Obama presidency -- his capacity to get people to feel listened to and engaged, to make everyone feel they got a fair shake. That is absolutely key to making REAL CHANGE, not some ephemeral symbolism or bull-headed progressive box-checking.

I've been in a state of suspended animation for much of the past two months politically. In my day job, I've been working behind the scenes helping get smart, forward-thinking, innovative progressive policy ideas in front of the transition team.
So, I've been hanging back, watching the transition team work and trying to figure out if the Obama Team would come close to living up to their hype.

My verdict thus far: The hype is well-deserved.

There have been a lot of progressives who have questioned why Obama was giving airtime to conservative views, meeting with folks like George Will and Bill Kristol and aiming for 80 Senate votes for his recovery package (I've been particularly guilty of the last transgression). But, at the end of the day, the outlines of the stimulus package -- his first major policy initiative -- are pretty encouraging. A ton of money for food stamps and unemployment benefits. green energy and scientific innovation, public transit and school retrofitting. These are some of the best and most effective progressive policies on the table. Conservatives feel listened to, but progressives get their ideas made into law.

I'm not living in a fantasy world. A lot of the success thus far is just a political honeymoon -- like a first date with a decent person after getting out of an abusive marriage. But there is more here than just that. The political skills of Obama and his team are considerable. It'll be exciting to see them putting them to use for real come Tuesday.

Obama, Turkeys and Me

Sitting in the dark basement of a South Side Chicago church four years ago today, I learned Barack Obama should be president. I didn't know if he would be president, but he sure earned my respect and admiration.

I was a relatively green reporter sent to cover a stupid photo-op: recently elected US Sen. Barack Obama was going to church in a rough part of Chicago to hand out turkeys to the homeless and struggling families there. It was supposed to be a quick piece, with a couple photos of the Senator-to-be.

I waited in the cold church parking lot with some families, some who were eager to meet Obama, others who couldn't care less.

Finally, Obama's SUV pulled into the lot. He got out, shook a few hands and made his way up to the folding table where an assembly line of turkey deliveries was already in place. He slid in seamlessly and scooped heavy turkeys off the table and plopped them in the parka-ed hands or rusty shopping carts of people waiting for them.

Like any good politician, he smiled for my photog, shook a few hands and backed out of the turkey line after about 15 minutes. He had done his part. He could go home to his family or off to another photo-op now.

But then something happened.

Instead of heading back to his SUV, he ducked inside the church, flanked only by a staffer or two. I followed him in at a distance, but he didn't notice me. He walked into a cramped basement room where many of the families were trying to warm up before their walk home. Again, I followed him unnoticed and slid into a quiet corner of the room.

Obama went around and shook a few hands. Then he pulled up a chair and sat down in the middle of these families. "What can I do to help you guys when I go to DC?" he asked. The room grew quiet for a second. Then a young mother piped up. "Can you do something about the cost of rent? I can barely afford to stay in my apartment." More requests poured from the crowd. "My heating bill is killing me." "I can't find a job anywhere around here." "Can you stop all these kids from getting shot and killed every day?"

Obama sat and listened for about a half-hour. He asked these folks questions about their lives and asked their advice on what his priorities should be. He not only gave them the dignity of hearing their stories, but also the respect of hearing their ideas.

These were not big-money bundlers. They were not Ward Bosses or union leaders. Many probably weren't even registered to vote. But he listened to them. He engaged with them. He valued them as he would want to be valued.

During my time volunteering for the campaign, I got asked a lot, "Why Barack?" Why? Because four years and 63 million votes later, President-elect Barack Obama today headed back to another cold South Side church parking lot to hand out turkeys to needy families. I just hope he remembers that dark church basement four years ago as well as I do.

The Blue Tide

The National Journal -- which has been really killing it with cool Web widgets recently -- has an awesome new breakdown of the composition of the House of Representatives since the 2002 nationwide redistricting. The results are absolutely stunning.

Basically, Dems have been massacring the GOP in every part of the country. We have picked up 20 seats in the Northeast, 15 in the Midwest and 11 in the West. We've even picked up 6 in the South!



(click here to see the full widget...they didn't make it embeddable for some reason)

But my favorite part was to skim through and realize Dems have lost seats in a grand total of TWO states -- Louisiana (minus 1) and Texas (minus 6) -- while picking up seats in 27 states! Without Tom Delay's nefarious and extralegal 2004 redistricting push, a majority of the paltry seven total seats the GOP have picked up would be at risk.

When pundits reflexively dub this a center-right country, I really bristle. The House of Representatives is the electoral barometer nearest to public sentiment. The momentum toward a proactive, protective and progressive government has clearly been gaining in recent years. The Obama victory is just another sign of this growing constituency.

Now it's time to actually DO something with this momentum.

Ex-Felons and The Vote

It's easy to vilify ex-felons around election-time. Even though these folks have served their time and paid their societal debt (often for non-violent drug convictions), they are too often denied the most basic right in our Constitution -- the right to self-determination via the voting booth.

With the help of some inside sources, I've been following the NYCLU's videos about Maria Perez, an ex-felon who had been wrongly kept from voting in 2004 despite NY law that allows ex-felons off probation to vote. All she wanted to do was express her political opinion at the ballot box...to be one of 7 million New Yorkers to have their voices heard.

With the help of the NYCLU, she finally got to cast her vote on Nov. 4. No matter who you supported -- or who Maria supported -- this is a magical video. I saw a lot of tears in my Bed-Stuy precinct after folks voted, but few as poignant as this. In Maria's own words: "It's important to me to feel that my vote counts....that I'm out here with everyone else."

A Straight Line to the White House

I was in DC for the first time in about six years today. The air was crisp and brilliant yellow and red leaves were scattered across every sidewalk. During college, I always remember October and November in DC being glorious -- with a special air of anticipation and energy. The time leading into and out of elections really got that city's juices flowing.

So, of course, I had to swing by the Obamas' soon-to-be home...and was greeted with this wonderful, wonderful sign:


Needless to say, I was on a bit of a progressive high on my train ride back to NYC. So, being a loser, I flicked on my iPod to listen to a post-election hip-hop mixtape I downloaded last week but hadn't yet listened to. The mixtape starts with a long excerpt of an Obama speech. It was strong and powerful, but I couldn't quite place when he gave it. It hit on all the key themes of his campaign -- unity, hope, decency, progressivism. But where was it from?

The Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa? No. His acceptance speech in Denver? No. His victory speech in Grant Park? No.

After about five minutes of very solid exposition, he launches into the familiar, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the United States of America." A-HAAAA!!! It was his 2004 DNC keynote, the one that launched him onto the national stage.

It was remarkable to hear his constancy and his clarity of thought. His entire campaign was laid out in the text of that single speech. Over the ensuing four-plus years, he made minor tweaks and added some policy meat...but his themes and his core principles remained shockingly consistent. Just watch the first few minutes of his speech...he could have given it at any point during the campaign and it would have fit perfectly. That is image control. (skip to the 1:00 mark...the first 60 seconds are just applause):



Also, I'm still making my way through this 3-hour mixtape, but it's pretty good so far. And it's worth checking out if only for the sweet cover art (also, try to download this cool track that Minneapolis MC Brother Ali recorded the night of the election and released the day after. It is a great historical artifact to remind us all of what that night felt like...he released it for free, so don't feel like you're stealing)

Poetry in Prose

As a former ink-stained wretch, I have a particular soft-spot for well-done newspaper pieces clearly completed under deadline pressures.

This piece from today's Washington Post is just phenomenal in that regard. The WaPo reporter was clearly given an assignment in advance of a possible Obama presidency -- write about the history of blacks in the White House, from the kitchens to the executive offices. What he did with this assignment was truly extraordinary. In a week featuring some pretty amazing journalism, this stands out.

Just make sure you read all the way to the end...

What DIDN'T Happen Last Night

Every morning, I take my dog for a walk around Public School 3 directly across from my house. Every morning, I watch the second- and third-graders -- about 95 percent black, with the rest Latino or South Asian, all from the surrounding blocks of Bed-Stuy -- play in the school yard.

In some vital and transcendent ways, the election results last night changed their lives forever. A whole range of hopes and possibilities opened up to them in one single, breathtaking moment. There are no heights they can be told they can't reach. There is no ceiling on their potential.

But in many more ways, their lives have not changed at all. They still live in a community beset by above-average levels of violence, drug addiction and unemployment. They still breathe some of the worst air in the nation. They still have parents who anguish over rapidly rising rents and rapidly diminishing paychecks. They still attend a well-meaning but substandard school...and the majority of them still won't even make it through high school, let alone to college.

Barack Obama's victory last night was a monumental and phenomenal moment in American history. But it will mean nothing if it doesn't translate into real, honest-to-god improvements in the lives of kids like those at PS 3.

I supported and worked for Barack Obama not only because I knew he could inspire Americans and shatter barriers -- but, more importantly, because I thought he had the best plans for lifting up all Americans. He built the most powerful and engaged campaign network the world has ever seen. It is up to him to keep that machine running...to keep those folks working hard every day to do the small but essential work of making their communities just a tiny bit better.

The true promise of Barack Obama was never his symbolism (though important that may be). It was always his potential to get past the flourishes and the klieg lights of the eternal campaign to truly engage in the biggest problems facing Americans. To make last night mean anything, America must stay in the fight...we must not allow ourselves to be comforted by symbolism. The kids at PS3 deserve nothing less than our best effort...today, tomorrow and beyond.

The students of PS3 circa 1923:



The students of PS3 in 2008:

The View from Bed-Stuy

It was the kids on the school bus who really got to me.

I had just voted in P.S. 3 a block from my house. Jen and I arrived the moment polls opened --in the still darkness of 6 am -- and still had to wait in line an hour to cast my ballot. By the time we got out of the cramped gymnasium where our precinct votes, the line stretched down two city blocks and was threatening to engulf a third.


We live in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn -- the historic home of African-American luminaries like Shirley Chisholm and Jay-Z. For much of the 1980s and 90s, the black residents of this neighborhood were ignored and left to deal alone with the scourge of the crack epidemic. These are the folks who most felt left behind in America -- and who are feeling the most pride in the Obama juggernaut.

A taste of the conversations in line:

"It was like the night before Christmas last night. I couldn't sleep. I was just up watching CNN all night." -- young, African American woman in a high-end purple hoodie

"I've been up since 4 am. I'm 60 years old and I've never been so hyped up. I'd vote for King Kong or Godzilla right now." --older, African American woman in a heavy parka

"We ain't going nowhere. We'll stay here all day, if we have to." -- elderly African American man, after the election officials temporarily closed the voting site because it was so crowded it had become a "fire hazard."

As I walked up and down the line handing out Obama Campaign phonebanking fliers, people were downright giddy, despite the cold. The sense of history was palpable.

But it was those school kids who got me. As their bus rolled by the long line of waiting voters, more than a dozen 2nd or 3rd graders leaned out their windows and chanted, "O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma!"

Everyone glanced around at each other and smiled...and kept waiting for their turn at history.

Obama's running so we can all fly...Bed-Stuy's own:

I Don't Want to Write This Again

I just came across the email I sent out to friends the day after the 2004 election. Putting aside the pomposity of the 25-y-o Dan (and the bit about thousands of women dying in back-alley abortions), I think it's an interesting read. I especially like the sign-off:

Folks,

The American people made a sad and fearful decision last night. This proud country's lust for revenge and its suddenly warped morality (domestically and internationally) were laid out for the whole world to see. I love the ideals of this country and believe in its profound potential to lead the world. But where once conservatives and liberals alike saw the US as a shining beacon of hope and optimism, the American people showed last night we are, in fact, afraid and petty and vicious. I, too, believe in the transformative power of democracy, Mr. Bush. I do not, however, believe in the transformative power of the bayonet, except to destroy and inflame.

This will be a difficult four years, my friends. A Bush administration unrestrained by a coming election and buoyed by a substantial popular vote win will be more dangerous and less accountable than ever.

As you say hello to a second Bush term, just remember to:
1 Say goodbye to two centuries of American political thought aimed at leading the world to freedom, not choking it with bombs.
1. Say goodbye to a foreign policy rooted in respect for basic human rights, achieved through the hard work of avoiding war, not starting it.
2. Say goodbye to an economic policy that seeks to protect the nation's most vulnerable, not enrich its most comfortable.
3. Say goodbye to any semblence of minority protections, ranging from sensible affirmative action to gay rights to equal pay in the workplace.
4. Say goodbye to the thousands of young women who will undoubtedly die in the coming flood of backalley abortions.
5. Say goodbye to the untold thousands of men and women who will be sacrificed on current and future foreign battlefields by a man who insists the "toughest job" of the presidency is deciding to send other people's children to war without realizing that choosing war is often the easiest and most cowardly thing a president can do.

Take care and take heart...Edwards-Obama '08,
Dan