Chris Dodd: Got A Second?

[cal04]

Today I want to have a conversation with you about answering a new call to service. Thanks to the technologists at UStream.tv, I get to talk to you in real-time about something I care deeply about: national service.

I'll be coming live via UStream.tv at 5 P.M. Eastern time to give you a preview of my national service plan. Before I roll out the full plan in New Hampshire and Iowa this coming weekend, I want to take the time to talk to the DailyKos community about why service matters. More importantly, I want to hear your thoughts.

Post your questions and comments for me in the thread below. Matt Browner-Hamlin, my campaign's blogger, will relay questions from this diary to me. I'll answer them. And you'll get to keep the conversation going.

You get the first look at my national service plan because you are activists who believe, like me, that anything is possible when we come together to work for peace and prosperity. I heeded the call when John F. Kennedy asked my generation to serve -- I joined the Peace Corps and spent two years working with rural communities in the Dominican Republic.

While serving in the Peace Corps, I saw what the world could achieve when America leads with its highest ideals – justice, opportunity and hope. Now, in these demanding and dangerous times, the world needs America to lead once again and answer the call to service.

So please come take a look inside my campaign through streaming video technology and join me in a discussion about how we can face the challenges of the 21st Century with the boldness and optimism that have always been the hallmark of our nation.

You can learn more at ChrisDodd.com

Let's have a good conversation,

Chris Dodd

PS -- You can get the embed for this video at Ustream.tv

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/20/154322/260


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/20/154322/260
Talking live now

[Warpy]

1. Chris, before you demand us to sacrifice our children

to national service, you had better make a few things clear:

First, are you going to reverse all the attacks on our civil liberties from the Patriot{sic} Act and the drug war?

Second, are you going to enforce the laws on the books against everything from monopolistic practices by various industries to hiring illegal immigrants?

Third, are you going to end the policy of stripping the country's workers bare to fatten the rich through a skewed tax code?

Fourth, are you going to get dirty money out of elections?

Fifth, are you going to end all wars of convenience by redefining the Pentagon's mission as one of national defense, only?

Sixth, are you going to expand Medicare so that we join every other civilized country in this world in allowing sick citizens access to health care?

Chris, these are a few of the things we need to hear from you before we start to hear demands for patriotic service from you, because we don't see a whole lot left out there to be so proud of we're ready to support sacrificing years of our children's young lives.

(save your flames. I always supported the Peace Corps and only wished my health had allowed me to join. However, the country the organization was started in and the one we are left with after 38 years of conservative looting by both parties are radically different and this needs to be addressed before demands for sacrifice are made.)