The Progressive Democrat Newsletter grew out of the frustration of the 2004 election. So I have bene doing this almost exactly three years. And boy are my arms tired! (sorry!) Having organized protests against the Republican Convention, I found I had a core of activists who needed some encouragement after Bush "won" re-"election". My carefully thought out suggestions as to where we could go from that defeat led to this more-or-less weekly newsletter.

This week I discuss Global Warming (mainly with references to Daily Kos diaries) and a neat little way you can help feed people while building vocabulary. I also do a roundup of local progressive events for places where I have the most readers over the last couple of weeks. Don't forget to visit an advertiser or two and if you want more, please visit Culture Kitchen.

Originally posted on The Daily Kos

Please show your support for a Democrat who is running as a first-time candidate in Maryland, and who has just been targeted by a bigot protestor because of his private religious beliefs. The bigot is betting that by making this candidate's Muslim faith an issue in this campaign, voters will be turned off and interfaith animosity will be incited. I'm betting that when you read this story, you'll show your support for a good Democratic candidate and take a stand for freedom of religion and religious pluralism.

(I saw this diary up at dKos and got permission from the author to post it here. Sheesh.)

It appears that the Washington Times newspaper is helping the Maryland GOP perpetuate a hoax about Senate candidate Michael Steele, in an attempt to garner sympathy for him. Reporter S.A. Miller has posted two stories in three days claiming that, in 2002, liberals assaulted Steele with Oreo cookies.

Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.

(UPDATE: In case it's not clear, the part about the minstrel picture is true. That was from the blog of Steve Gilliard, a black New Yorker.) This reference to a "campaign appearence" is deliberately vague - but of course, it's been good enough for the Times and good enough for the Drudge Report to link to the stories with salacious headlines like today's "Update: Black Dems Claim Pelting Black Republican With Oreo Cookies Simply 'Pointing Out The Obvious'..."

There's one problem. Based on my quick scan of Maryland newspaper archives, I don't think this incident ever happened. Instead, it was contrived by a Republican operative and hyped by the Times.