For my Kerrycrat friends: How to read the best of the best DailyKos has to offer

[beachmom]

It's called the rescued diaries. These are diaries that do not make the Recommended List but are selected by the "Rescue Rangers" (a few hand picked long timers at Kos) as being really good diaries that fell through the cracks. These diaries tend to be less sensationalist, and oftentimes meatier. I urge you to book mark this link, which you can check once a day (they put up Diary Rescue every night) or once a week. It is what I would call "high quality" blogging.

http://www.dailykos.com/user/Diary%20Rescue

I'll give you two diaries, just rescued last night, which show the high quality and poignancy of diaries that aren't "sexy" enough to make it to the top:

"The Wall" And PTSD

R.I.P., Dad

Both are related to Memorial Day and well worth the few minutes to read. But this is indicative of the Diary Rescue, which I will dub Alternative Kos. For many of you who never cared for DailyKos, the Rescue may be something you would really like.

[beachmom]

1. Oh, this is a great charity "Books for Soldiers":

http://booksforsoldiers.com/

A rescued diary written by the founder of the charity, who posts thank you letters from the soldiers:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/26/113128/197/760/523005

This charity is in big, big trouble, and may need to shut down Dec. 31, 2008, if they don't get more donations. This is in part due to the fact that the Iraq War is not in the news anymore. People aren't thinking about the war or the troops nearly enough. How awful if this charity has to shut down.

[ralbertson]

3. True dat. Books For Soldiers was started by the guy who draws 'Town Called Dobson'

...which is one of my favorite liberal-progressive online comic strip slash poliblogs: Town Called Dobson

His name is Storm Williams, aka Storm Bear, and I got a real warm thank-you note from him this morning in response to these two blog posts I put up over the weekend:

Books For Soldiers (on www.johnkerry.com)

Books, boots, and bad Bush budgets (on www.roadblockrepublicans.com)

And if you want to know just what a huge difference Books For Soldiers has meant both for those who give and those who receive, read this first-hand dKos diary account also:

The Story of a Flag

Books For Soldiers truly is teh awesum. As I noted in my intro to the piece on jk.com,

As we head into the Memorial Day weekend, a lot of attention is being focused on ways in which can remember our brave service members who are no longer with us. Less attention is being focused on how we can help take care of the ones who are still with us.

The Bush Administration and its Roadblock Republican cohorts are doing their best to block passage of the new G.I. Bill, which would extend to our current crop of returning veterans the same educational benefits their forebears from the Greatest Generation had. They're still blocking VA and SSI and SSDI benefits for many of our returning veterans.

As Senator Kerry has often and aggressively stated, that is just all kinds of wrong and we can -- we must -- do better by those who have put their lives on the line for all of us here at home. We're doing the best we can to make that happen in Washington, but that's not enough sometimes. That selfish, shameful lack of support for our veterans on the part of those in the White House and their minions on the Hill has left it to private groups and charities to fill in the gaps and take up the slack instead.

There are many such groups today, some of them excellent, some of them not so much, some are somewhere in between. Some are apolitical, some are politicized, but that's not the point -- however and wherever they are doing what they can to support those who serve in uniform, then that is a laudable goal. And as Americans we all can appreciate and support their collective efforts on behalf of our serving troops and our returning veterans.

With that in mind, and without taking anything away from any of the many other groups doing everything they can to support our service members, here's a cross-post of a special request from Storm Williams, artist/activist and author of the online political comic strip Town Called Dobson, in the service of a very worthy cause indeed. (And, by the way, I can vouch for the fact that those who volunteer for BFS are as grassroots as it gets and are everything Storm says they are.)

While for logistical reasons I have never signed up as a direct volunteer for Books For Soldiers myself, I have sent them boxes of books over the years (through an intermediary, a friend who was signed up as a volunteer) and I just made another financial donation to their cause. I heartily encourage y'all to do likewise. This really is the Real Deal, and it's making a very real difference all the way around.

[beachmom]

2. And this diary from last night's rescue proves my point:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/27/42650/0035/1013/515625

Educating John McCain about Iraq. From an Iraqi-American.

On Memorial Day, John McCain made the following comments about the extent of Barack Obama's knowledge of the situation in Iraq:

"He really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time," the Arizona senator added. "If there was any other issue before the American people, and you hadn't had anything to do with it in a couple of years, I think the American people would judge that very harshly." McCain questioned whether Obama has ever been briefed by Petraeus. "I would also seize that opportunity to educate Senator Obama along the way."

Beyond observing the insulting way that McCain politicized the Iraq war on Memorial Day, I feel it is my duty as an Iraqi-American to educate Senator McCain, who has demonstrated time and time again not only his fundamental ignorance about Iraq (ie., not knowing the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite), but his willingness to distort the realities there to suit his own political ambitions.

Go to the link for the rest. I hope that Kerry staffers read this as well, and the comments, too (there aren't that many). His comment on Iran is counterintuitive to what we have been told, but I think 100% true:

This is a complicated question. I think Iran is very invested in making sure it has a maximum amount of political and economic influence in Iraq. It funds, arms and trains different Shiite militias, and maintains close ties with not only the Iraqi government but also Muqtada al Sadr. Its influence in Iraq today cannot be underestimated.

I do not, though, believe the US argument that Iran is intentionally destabilizing Iraq. It doesn't make any sense. Iran wants Iraq to have a strong, religious Shiite government, which is precisely what is there now. If anything, it is in Iran's interest to see the current government in Iraq succeed. So in that sense, the US and Iran are on the same page.

That said, Iran does want US troops to leave so it can exert its control more completely. For Iran, it's a balancing act. Supporting militias that oppose the US, while simultaneously doing nothing that would jeopardize the current Iraqi government.