There may be even more hope coming.

A week ago, after the Democratic Senate surrendered to Republicans on Iraq and condemned Moveon, we decided it was time for Democrats in Congress to hear from the people who elected them - us.
So we compiled a list of upcoming votes in Congress, assembled them into a Democrats.com Weekly Agenda, and asked you to send it to your Representatives.
http://democrats.com/agenda
Guess what - it worked!
12,591 of you participated, producing 37,773 emails to the Senate and House. And Congress slowly started to change.
Our biggest victory was delaying Dick Cheney's planned invasion of Iran, by helping Senator Jim Webb convince Senator Harry Reid to remove the two ...

There may be even more hope coming.

A week ago, after the Democratic Senate surrendered to Republicans on Iraq and condemned Moveon, we decided it was time for Democrats in Congress to hear from the people who elected them - us.
So we compiled a list of upcoming votes in Congress, assembled them into a Democrats.com Weekly Agenda, and asked you to send it to your Representatives.
http://democrats.com/agenda
Guess what - it worked!
12,591 of you participated, producing 37,773 emails to the Senate and House. And Congress slowly started to change.
Our biggest victory was delaying Dick Cheney's planned invasion of Iran, by helping Senator Jim Webb convince Senator Harry Reid to remove the two worst paragraphs in the Lieberman-Kyl Resolution. Our anger is being felt in Washington - see the actual changes and read about our temporary victory here:
http://www.democrats.com/Lieberman-Kyl-defanged
Democrats also passed a $35B increase the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover 4 million more children despite Bush's veto threat. The Senate vote was 67-29, enough to override a veto. The House vote was 265-159, so Dems need to switch at least 19 votes to override, and they are putting maximum pressure on vulnerable Republicans. The issue of children's health resonates strongly with the women in the GOP's core evangelical base, and Bush's veto threat is pushing his polls down to new lows.

Last week Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid postponed votes on Bush's $190 Billion demand until January. They snuck through a Continuing Resolution with at least $14 billion for Iraq and $70 billion more in a Pentagon "bridge fund" if Iraq appropriations are delayed. This gives us more time to tell Congress: Cut all Iraq funds except to bring our troops home.

We were horrified to hear the three presidential frontrunners - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards - all say they would keep U.S. troops in Iraq until 2013 and beyond. Tell them to produce an out-of-Iraq plan for 2009:
http://www.democrats.com/out-of-iraq-2009

We persuaded 4 more Democrats to support the "Peace Pledge" to oppos...

Last week Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid postponed votes on Bush's $190 Billion demand until January. They snuck through a Continuing Resolution with at least $14 billion for Iraq and $70 billion more in a Pentagon "bridge fund" if Iraq appropriations are delayed. This gives us more time to tell Congress: Cut all Iraq funds except to bring our troops home.

We were horrified to hear the three presidential frontrunners - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards - all say they would keep U.S. troops in Iraq until 2013 and beyond. Tell them to produce an out-of-Iraq plan for 2009:
http://www.democrats.com/out-of-iraq-2009

We persuaded 4 more Democrats to support the "Peace Pledge" to oppose all Iraq funds except to bring our troops safely home: Henry Waxman (CA), Mike Thompson (CA), John Tierney (MA), and Lloyd Doggett (TX). That makes 85 signers but we want a majority of 218, so keep writing/calling your Representative:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/115

Finland is launching a peace process for Iraqi Sunnis and Shia combatants, led by veterans of sectarian wars in Northern Ireland and South Africa. The U.S. is prohibited from participating.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/27268

This week the House will vote on several bills to "reform" our disastrous occupation but not end it. We want Congress to ban Iraq war profiteering and contractor crimes with harsh penalties and strict enforcement; repeal the 2002 Authorization of Use of Military Force in Iraq; and oppose the meaningless Abercrombie-Tanner reporting bill.
Democrats will also introduce a resolution to condemn Rush Limbaugh for calling troops who criticize U.S. policy "phony soldiers." We want every Member who condemned Moveon's truthful ad to condemn Rush's outrageous smear. And we want Rush fired from Armed Forces Radio for attacking our troops.
To stop Cheney's insane plan to attack Iran, Rep. Dennis Kucinic...

This week the House will vote on several bills to "reform" our disastrous occupation but not end it. We want Congress to ban Iraq war profiteering and contractor crimes with harsh penalties and strict enforcement; repeal the 2002 Authorization of Use of Military Force in Iraq; and oppose the meaningless Abercrombie-Tanner reporting bill.
Democrats will also introduce a resolution to condemn Rush Limbaugh for calling troops who criticize U.S. policy "phony soldiers." We want every Member who condemned Moveon's truthful ad to condemn Rush's outrageous smear. And we want Rush fired from Armed Forces Radio for attacking our troops.
To stop Cheney's insane plan to attack Iran, Rep. Dennis Kucinich told Ed Schultz: "We're preparing for another war, and they're going to destroy America. We have a government in place right now that has to be challenged. I'm seriously thinking about calling a privileged resolution on impeachment of the vice president and forcing a vote on the floor of the House." Go Dennis!
The first (of many) Republican schemes to steal the 2008 Presidential election was defeated in California, where the GOP was promoting a referendum to allocate CA's 55 electors by Congressional District, which would have switched 20 electors from D to R and made a Democratic Presidential victory nearly impossible. Congratulations to CourageCampaign.org for stopping this outrageous GOP scheme!
The 4 GOP presidential frontrunners showed their contempt for minority voters by refusing to participate in a debate hosted by Tavis Smiley on PBS, which Sam Brownback called a "disgrace." They previously refused to debate on Latino and gay issues. Why? As Digby says, "The Republicans are the party of racists."

Larry Craig didn't resign as of 9/30 like he promised, so Republicans are still the party of anonymous airport bathroom gay sex.
Newt Gingrich won't run for President, so Republicans will have to choose one of the Pygmies - hopefully not Rudy Mussolini, who mild-mannered John Dean thinks is even more dictatorial than Bush.
Jena 6's Mychael Bell was released on bond and will be tried in juvenile court thanks to tremendous grassroots organizing by ColorOfChange.org and civil rights activists and pressure on D.A. Reed Walters by Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D-LA).
Verizon reversed its outrageous policy of censoring NARAL's pro-choice text messages after massive netroots outrage led by NARAL.org.
U.S. ...

Larry Craig didn't resign as of 9/30 like he promised, so Republicans are still the party of anonymous airport bathroom gay sex.
Newt Gingrich won't run for President, so Republicans will have to choose one of the Pygmies - hopefully not Rudy Mussolini, who mild-mannered John Dean thinks is even more dictatorial than Bush.
Jena 6's Mychael Bell was released on bond and will be tried in juvenile court thanks to tremendous grassroots organizing by ColorOfChange.org and civil rights activists and pressure on D.A. Reed Walters by Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D-LA).
Verizon reversed its outrageous policy of censoring NARAL's pro-choice text messages after massive netroots outrage led by NARAL.org.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken declared two provisions of the USA Patriot Act unconstitutional, as we all knew they were.
Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS could finally prove that George Bush deserted the Texas Air National Guard in 1972 and conspired with senior officers to defraud the U.S. government by getting credit and pay for drills he never attended.

I clipped a story about the approval of $150 billion war spending by the Senate. In Congress the Democrats are determined to have a more co-ordinated attack, with increasing public support.
A section I missed in the clip, details of the Abercrombie-Tanner bill, which the Democrats want debated or status reports on spending, but the Administration does not believe it has to explain it's self.
In the House, Democrats are pushing for a bill that would require the administration to report to Congress in 60 days and every 90 days thereafter on the status of its redeployment plans in Iraq.
The bill, sponsored by Democrats John Tanner of Tennessee and Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, was initially cast...

I clipped a story about the approval of $150 billion war spending by the Senate. In Congress the Democrats are determined to have a more co-ordinated attack, with increasing public support.
A section I missed in the clip, details of the Abercrombie-Tanner bill, which the Democrats want debated or status reports on spending, but the Administration does not believe it has to explain it's self.
In the House, Democrats are pushing for a bill that would require the administration to report to Congress in 60 days and every 90 days thereafter on the status of its redeployment plans in Iraq.
The bill, sponsored by Democrats John Tanner of Tennessee and Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, was initially cast aside as too mild by Democratic leaders focused on tougher proposals ordering troops home this fall.
But after Democrats were unable to peel off Republican support, the Iraq debate stalled and some four dozen rank-and-file Democrats demanded a vote on the Abercrombie-Tanner bill.
"This will be the first time since the war in Iraq began that we are working together as a Congress instead of one party or another to be a constructive voice in the civilian management of operations in Iraq," Tanner said in a statement e-mailed to the Associated Press.
How do you get an Elephant out of a tar pit ?