If you're interested...
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http://www.pdamerica.org/articles/events/Pitt-CA-2005-06-05.phpThe Road Diary, Part 163By William Rivers Pitt
Progressive Democrats of America
Wednesday 08 June 2005
The only screw-up during the whole journey turned out to be mine. I thought I was being so clever.
It was Friday morning and I was tired; I never sleep well before big trips. I was walking through Logan Airport waiting for my flight to Oakland, contemplating the weekend ahead of me: speech in Berkeley on Friday night, and then to Sacramento on Saturday morning for another speech and a panel discussion, then a flight down to Los Angeles on Saturday night for yet another speech, wake Sunday morning and fly to Santa Rosa for another speech and panel discussion, and then Oakland again for the flight home.
I knew I would need the rest, so I asked the airline people to put me in the exit row, thinking the extra leg-room would be key. The leg-room was nice, but I had forgotten that exit-row seats do not recline back at all. The flight to California saw me bolt upright for several hours, chin banging into chest as I tried to sleep. Lesson learned, I guess.
That was the only glitch, though. The intricate logistical ballet that carried myself, PDA National Field Director Sherry Bohlen, and PDA Political Director Kevin Spidel to four events in three cities in three days across the length of California and back again, plus airport pick-ups, drop-offs, and sleeping arrangements, was arranged and handled flawlessly by California PDA organizers Mervis Reissig, Anna Givens and their crew. Anyone who thinks putting together and holding together a schedule like that is easy should try it sometime.
The PDA trip to California this past weekend was a resounding success from beginning to end. Sherry, Kevin, and I met PDA activists and organizers from one side of the state to the other, and saw to our great joy that the PDA folks in California are well-organized, inspired, and running together at speed. We saw a group of people working hard to build the PDA base, to get our message out. We saw our California activists coming together around a variety of vital issues and pushing them as hard as they can be pushed.
(snip)
On Sunday morning, Gary and I were in the plane again and headed for Santa Rosa for the last event of the trip. It was on this leg that the only real bump of the weekend was crossed, and hard. Gary and I were at about 9,500 feet just above the San Francisco Bay area. The city was glittering below and to our left. We were talking over the headset microphones, when WHAM! The plane jolted hard, slamming Gary and me into the ceiling of the cockpit.
Imagine driving over a large speed bump at 200 miles per hour. The earpiece of my headphones was over my face and Gary's whole headset was in his lap. As it turns out, we either crashed into the Spirit In The Sky, or crossed a belt of wake turbulence left behind by the passage of a larger plane. The jolt was better than a hot cup of coffee, and the autopilot corrected for it immediately so there wasn't even any time to get scared. We landed safely a few minutes later, and I had a nice lump on the top of my head to commemorate the journey.
(snip)
At one point, Rep. Woolsey spoke of the five Republicans who voted for the amendment she added to a Defense Appropriations bill a couple of weeks ago. The amendment, like Resolution 35, demanded the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Those five Republicans, who joined with 122 Democrats to support the amendment, have since come under intense pressure from GOP leadership to get back in line. Woolsey described this pressure and the utterly shameless nature of it; any GOP Representative who considers deviating from the party line is threatened with a variety of punishments, including loss of chairmanships and access to campaign fundraising. "That's blackmail!" shouted a member of the audience. "No," replied Woolsey, "that's fascism."
The occupation of Iraq, the need for withdrawal from that country, the Downing Street Minutes, the PDA demand for a Resolution of Inquiry into that scandal, our addiction to petroleum, environmental concerns, labor issues, media activism, and the need for PDA activists to take over the Democratic Party from the bottom up in order to affect real change both within the party and the nation entire - these were the meat and mead of our journey through California this past weekend.
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