Julie Hamos spoke before Northside DFA at their October meeting, speaking about why she's running for Congress in Illinois's 10th Congressional District.

Hamos had previously spoken before the group, but this time as a candidate for Congress in the Democratic primary.  Questions were again pointed, but handled with aplomb.

Dan Seals spoke before Northside DFA at their October meeting, talking about why he's running for Congress in Illinois's 10th Congressional District.  

Seals spoke before a friendly audience, answering questions and giving his take on the Democratic primary.  Questions were pointed, but deftly handled.

this message is making the rounds:

If anyone is on Twitter, go to Settings, set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut Iranians' access to the internet down. Cut & paste & pass it on.

probably not suitable for a diary, but...

No New Taxes.  Smaller Government.  Severe Cuts in the Social Safety Net.  These are key staples of the Republican Agenda.

They also happen to be the central tenets of the state budget pushed through by Speaker Michael Madigan.  Just because.

This isn't simply a profound failure of political leadership, but also a sharp rebuke to core Democratic values.  Note that the political Machine that Madigan heads isn't affected.  It's the poor, the children, the elderly, those at risk in our society that will bear the brunt of Madigan's power play.  COMEX Democrats and the Machine retain their jobs, their perks and their place of power.

Barack Obama, black.  Sonia Sotomayor, hispanic.  Neither one of them card-carrying members of the status quo, the Trilateral Commission, or any other famous conspiracy group designed to perpetuate the power of the eastern establishment (made up of powerful, rich white guys).

Clearly, we live in a racist society.  How dare we -- HOW DARE WE! -- abandon the powerful, rich white guys who have the experience and influence to know better.  It's no wonder the economy has derailed and our influence in the world rapidly dropped since the inauguration of a non-white, non-powerful, not-nearly-as-rich man.  A man who's nominated a racist to the Supreme Court.

This cannot stand.  Powerful, rich white guys have long fed off the federal trough -- and their addiction to federal monies may be threatened by this preference for non-white, non-powerful, not-rich Americans.  It is simply unacceptable to allow others to partake of the federal government.  What was America thinking?

On May 12, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle came down to the South Suburbs to talk to "Team Obama" at the Flossmoor Station as part of her outreach to the suburbs as she gathers momentum in her race for the Cook County Board President.  She mentions near the end that the previous evening she had been in Glenview (in the north suburbs).

She started off talking about what the Cook County Board does and her approach to County government.  But she quickly turned to answering the questions of the 50-odd people who showed up for our May meeting.

The United States of America elects Barack Obama and the first thing Texas wants to do is secede.  Let 'em.

I'm sure that -- sometime, somewhere -- Texas Governor Rick Perry will claim that this isn't about the president's race, but why take the risk?  What does Texas bring to the table that America should be blackmailed into their particular version of patriotism.  If Texas doesn't want to be in the union, let them go.  F*ck 'em.  We don't need 'em.

I admit it.  I could say the devil made me do it, but I just couldn't help myself.  I had to go down (up) to the 222 Riverside building so I passed Federal Plaza on Adams just as organizers were passing out signs.  So I thought I'd blend in.

Except the fact that I had on my Obama fleece, which I didn't exactly realize.

Still, no one seemed to mind.  I walked around Federal Plaza -- it wasn't exactly crowded, and estimates of a couple hundred sounds about right -- talking to people and asking why they came and where they were from.  More than a few admitted that they worked at the Merc.  Only one person admitted that they made their sign.  "Where's my bailout?" it said.  I wondered if that was (sorta) off message.