Do something nice for a stranger today

Just because:

On Sept. 11, Jacob Sundberg of San Antonio has pledged to make eye contact and smile at everyone he meets. Kaitlin Ulrich will bring goody baskets to the police and fire departments in and around Philadelphia. And 100 volunteers from New York –- 9/11 firefighters and family members among them –- are going to Groesbeck, Texas, to rebuild a house destroyed by a tornado last December.

This is a minute sampling of the hundreds of thousands of people who have pledged to memorialize those killed on 9/11 by doing something good for others.

The heroic acts of all those killed trying to save others that September morning has spawned a growing grass-roots movement. The goal is to ensure that future generations remember not just the horror of the attacks, but also the extraordinary outpouring of humanity during the days, weeks, and months that followed.

"It was the worst possible day imaginable, and in some ways, a remarkable day, too, in the way in which people responded," says David Paine, cofounder of myGoodDeed.org. "We need to rekindle the way we came together in the spirit of 9/11: It would be almost as much a tragedy to lose that lesson.

No more snark today. Must go out and find a Good Samaritan opportunity.

Won't you join me?

Poll dancing

(No Hillary cleavage humor, please.)

John Edwards won Texas. Those results mirror high-profile national online polling among the Democratic netroots. And that's beginning to translate into polling strength offline as well.

Four months before the first votes get cast -- be they in Iowa or New Hampshire or somewhere else -- the front-running Clinton may have already peaked. If Biden and Dodd were to withdraw tomorrow, could she count on their supporters joining her? Maybe. What about Bill Richardson? When he finally concedes (all due respect to mi hermano Stace) he's almost certainly going to endorse her, and not just because he wants to be her running mate.

A more intriguing question is: what if Clinton does get the nod and then Dennis Kucinich -- or better yet, Edwards -- runs as an independent? A Green, perhaps?

With Frederick of Hollywood assuming a lead among the fractured Republicans jostling to bear the elephantine standard, is a challenge from the far right in the offing (Tancreepo or Dunkin' Hunter on a rabid-base issue like immigration)?

Or better yet: what about a challenge from the left of the right -- Ron Paul running as a Libertarian? Remember he has previously been their presidential nominee once before.

What if our choices in November of 2008 were, say, Clinton/Richardson, Edwards/Kucinich, Thompson/Tommy Franks and Ron Paul/Michael Badnarik (the 2004 Lib nominee)?

Could we all get a little excited about an election like that?

Noriega, Ratcliffe, blogs and politics

Geez I hate having to skip a good blogswarm.

RG Ratcliffe wrote this, and several of my blog brethren responded to it (some of us pretty irritated, some of us less so). A couple on our side even shot their pots at us (but one of them apologized for reacting in haste).

Then Rick Noriega got on the phone with us -- not me, again -- and also got online over here and explained the context of the remarks. And apologized for making them.

Oh, and RG responded to our response. All the while -- over the past 36 hours or so -- I was busy with business and preparing for our fall vacation. So all I managed to do was dash off a note to the Noriega campaign Sunday afternoon, to which I received an almost immediate and satisfactory response. So I missed the whole thing, dammit.

But I do have time for a condensed version of the brouhaha, so here's the abridged Ratcliffe:

I allowed my good name and respected reputation to be used like a dishrag by an operative of the Mikal Watts campaign, but if I were to admit that, then I would lose the remaining shredded tatters of my credibility .... therefore, I'll laugh the whole thing off by accusing bloggers of being thin-skinned while reframing my article as a service to the readers of the the Chronic and the Express-Snooze, which are legion compared to those DFHs who blog in their underwear.

Oh yes, and also in dedicated service to the unwashed masses who haven't yet grasped the intricacies of the "Internets" and how it is used for political organizing.

Don't be prickly about the criticism, RG. It's just part of the game.