A Thank You To Those Who Stood Up.

[20score]

During the Bush years, especially from 2001 through 2005 there were many people who stood up and told the truth about what was happening in our country. These people risked public scorn, career set backs and sometimes even their own safety to help the country the best way they knew how, and we own them a debt of gratitude. After 2005 it was mainstream to oppose Bush and his polices, so no courage was needed; but during the few years after 9/11/2001, courage is exactly what it took. Please feel free to add your own people to the list, as I will inevitably forget some who deserve recognition. It’s not much, but I do want these people to know there were people who appreciated what they did. In no particular order:

Scott Ritter, Arianna Huffington
Richard Clark, Michael Moore
Paul O’Neal, Barbara Boxer
Cindy Sheehan, Al Franken
Eric Alterman, Noam Chomsky
Chalmers Johnson, Seymour Hersh
Jon Stewart, Bill Maher
Natalie Maines, Amy Goodman
Robert Byrd, Robert Kennedy Jr.
Mark Green, Robert Greenwald
Robert Scheer, Ann Wright
Phil Donahue, George Carlin
Garry Trudeau, Keith Olbermann
Jim McDermott, Dennis Kucinich
Russ Feingold, Sean Penn
Tin Robbins, Susan Sarandon
Maxine Waters, Gore Vidal

To the creators of progressive websites like Democratic Underground and Daily Kos; to the millions who stood up to friends, family and coworkers – who wrote letters or attended protests. Thanks. Here’s to an end of an error.

(Sorry for those I forgot – please add to the list.)

[20score]

1. For whatever reason, it will not format correctly. There were two

separate columns.

[Arctic Dave]

2. What a coincidence, I was cleaning out my garage today.

I was putting our bush protest signs in the recycle bin. When I was doing it I felt like I was doing some kind of cleansing ritual to remove the stain of the last eight years.

I did keep some of the more creative/artistic ones. I hung them in my "man" room.

I forget the name of the Lady who was an FBI translator. She definitely needs to be on this list.
Also the Air Force Intelligence Officer, I forget her name too.

[20score]

4. Sibel Edmonds! Yes, she needs to be on this list.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. Oh hell yeah!

Secret Society deserves a huge hand, as does lukery.

[Arctic Dave]

12. Yes, thank you.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

3. John Cusack

K & R

[20score]

26. Yes, plus Henry Rollins, Ani DiFranco and of course John Conyers.

[grantcart]

5. Thank you for putting Scott Ridder on the top

[Hissyspit]

7. William Rivers Pitt and Larisa Alexandrovna

and, for those googling, it is Scott Ritter.

[20score]

9. God, and I've read two of his books and met him!

Damn!

[xenussister]

49. God wrote two books?

Damn, I missed them! What were they called? Cool that you met him. Was it at a book signing?

O8)

[navarth]

8. Oh my. You didn't mention

Thom Hartmann, Keith Olbermann, Cenk Uygur, Rachel Maddow, Bill Maher, Peter Werbe, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes, Guy James, The Dixie Chicks......I know there's more...help me out here, somebody

[20score]

11. Well, Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks are

on the list, but thanks for the others. (I knew I'd forget some important people, so I'm glad for the help.)

[PassingFair]

17. Patrick Fitzgerald. n/t

[PassingFair]

18. Ack! Dennis Kucinich! n/t

[lpbk2713]

10. Willie Nelson, David Letterman

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[roody]

13. The senator is spelled Robert Byrd, I believe.

[NanceGreggs]

14. WOW!!!

GREAT post!!!

:kick: & REC'D!!!

[20score]

16. Thank you!!!

Coming from my favorite writer on DU, that's great to hear. (Or read, as the case may be.)

[PassingFair]

15. HOWARD DEAN...

Bobby Muller
Barack Obama
Daniel Ellsberg
Stephen Colbert
Dan Rather
James Comey......

countless others.

[20score]

19. I forgot Studs Terkel and Hunter S. Thompson.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

21. Well, then we MUST toss in Frank Zappa.

[FailureToCommunicate]

101. Pete Seeger (and many other activist musicians). He's almost ninety and

still fighting the good fight. "Strugglin' on, strugglin' on" he replies when you ask him how he's doing. Pete could write the user guide to personal courage in the face of public scorn, career setbacks and blacklisting. Does the name 'McCarthy hearings' ring a bell?
'Bush years' ? Ha! He's seen so many Republican Bush types come and go he could decorate his Christmas tree with them little tyrants!

[Muttocracy]

20. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY-22)

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

40. Hinchey is an unsung hero. There was a thread yesterday speculating

on who would replace Clinton if she was selected and accepted being SOS. Someone named my Congressman, John Hall, and I said no. John was for the bailout, Maurice Hinchey would be my choice over John.

[Muttocracy]

22. Wes Clark. nt

[Suich]

23. Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson!

:hi:

[20score]

24. Oops, that was a big miss on my part. Thanks for picking up the slack.

And, Hola Suich!

[Skittles]

25. THE BLACK CAUCUS

IF PEOPLE HAD STOOD WITH THEM IN 2000 NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Black-Protest-Bush-Victory.htm

[annabanana]

27. I'll second that ... There be heroes among us . . . . . n/t

[TankLV]

31. YES! YES! YES! We must NEVER EVER FORGET!

we did forget too easily...

[Skittles]

50. DAMN STRAIGHT, TANKLV

it will forever steam me how their courage was nullified - THEY WERE RIGHT

[defendandprotect]

72. Maxine Waters -- etal --!!!

[20score]

28. Wanted to thank them for years, so I hope this makes the main page.

(Finally thought of a way to do it.)

[norepubsin08]

29. ADD

Democratic Underground, the ACLU, MICAH Project, America in Solidarity

Grete Cammermeyer, Karen Dahmann

[20score]

30. DU is on there, but thanks for the rest. (And I'm a member of the ACLU,

how could I forget?)

[Hotler]

32. Molly Ivinns, Jim Hightower

[punkin87]

33. Great post! K & R. Hope it goes front page.

[20score]

37. Me too! Thanks!

[20score]

38. At first I did think it was going to the front page. There were about 12 or fourteen recs the first

hour.

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. David Swanson, Ray McGovern, Daniel Ellsberg, Media Benjamin

[cascadiance]

35. A few more from me...

Sibel Edmonds - she was mentioned further up in this thread, but her name bears repeating!
Russell Tice - helped expose the NSA wiretapping
Maher Arar - Stood up for his rights after being falsely detained by this administration.
Brad Friedman - Has done SO much for helping to protect our voting rights!
George Clooney - has given us some great movies (Good Night and Good Luck, Syriana performance) and has helped a lot with Darfur!
Laura Flanders - her new Free Speech TV show (GRITtv) has been a great forum for many progressives!
Mark Thompson - His "Make it Plain" show on Sirius Left has also been a great addition and helps serve the unification cause that Obama has spearheaded...
Medea Benjamin - and the other ladies of Code Pink for continuing to be "annoying" to those who deserve to be annoyed in as many places as possible!
Charlie Sheen - for his courageous stands and appropriate framing of the *real* conspiracy theorists on 9/11
Tom Morello - and the rest of "Rage Against the Machine" for using their voices to speak up where needed!
Michael Franti - for putting together "Power to the Peaceful" festival and going to Iraq and documenting his activism with "I Know I'm Not Alone" DVD.
Karen Kwiatkowski - for exposing the "take over" of the Pentagon by those trying to market the Iraq war.
Ray McGovern - former CIA analyst, for his tireless efforts in protesting and advocating for cleanup of our intelligence services.
Don Siegleman - former Alabama governor for having to put up with being falsely imprisoned, and advocating for exposing the political takeover of our U.S. prosecutors.
Carol Lam - for getting fired for prosecuting and indicting the likes of Randy Duke Cunningham, Brent Wilkes, Thomas Kontogiannis, and Dusty Foggo for the criminals they were.
David Iglesias - for standing up to Bushco and his congressional delegation in New Mexico for their pressure on him to do political prosecutions (aka persecutions).
Katrina Vanden Heuval - for continuing to speak out against this administration both with personal appearances and as editor of "The Nation".
Greg Palast - for his tireless efforts in ensuring our election systems were uncorrupted as well as speaking up for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Robert Wexler - for his leadership in helping get Obama in power, as well as leading efforts to hold this president accountable and trying to bring forth impeachment.
Spike Lee - for putting together "When the Levees Broke" to document the horrifying Katrina experience.
Peter Coyote - for his constant efforts to work with Link TV on alternative energy and also on shows to expose the corruption.
Danny Glover - speaking out on Link TV and in other forums
Harry Belafonte - for his leadership with Link TV to provide an alternative outlet for news that's sorely missing now.
Howard Zinn - for continuing his long record of dissent.
Colleen Rowley - a great whistleblower for her continued vocal criticism on how the FBI handled investigations from 9/11 onward.
Janeane Garafalo - for her taking time out from her acting career for her Air America efforts amongst other things.
Matt Damon - speaking out in very intelligent ways agsinst this administration.
Mimi Kennedy - for her leadership of PDA, and her great efforts to combat election fraud and other messes that have happened the last few years.
David Kelley - British weapons investigator who paid the ultimate price (he DIDN'T commit suicide in my book) for trying to expose WMD trafficking, etc.
Indira Singh - for blowing the whistle on Ptech.
Clint Curtis - for taking on Tom Feeney in Florida, and ultimately helping take him down, and exposing the election fraudstering that was going on there that likely even involved a murder.

Damn! I could spend all day on this and get two to three times this many people we need to thank! I gotta get back to unpacking boxes (just moved)...

[20score]

36. Fantastic list!

[navarth]

39. the list has grown. it's an honor roll. it should be a dedicated web site.

these people ALL need to be thanked over and over again

[20score]

41. This is all I have. A DU Journal. But, if I knew how, I'd do it.

[navarth]

42. I just started a new domain for my small business. I'm tempted.

It's all about the time and effort....I've got effort, but not a whole buttload of time.

And something like this would work better with it's own domain, something like Freedom Honor Roll or something like that...

Who knows? I'll give it some thought. It could be done simply, or it could get into some real depth.

[20score]

43. Please do! It should be done.

If you do, does 20score get a mention for the original? I tried to set up a website some time ago, but I don't have the knowledge.

[navarth]

48. yes 20score would get a mention, of course.

but I can't promise I'll find the time and energy to do it....

let's see how this next month goes. holidays coming....have to survive them first..

[20score]

46. If you do make a website for this, please write me a note.

Thanks!

[Condem]

44. I don't know if he's been mentioned, yet. Bruce Springsteen.

He risked alienating a helluva lot of his audience for the last eight years. For the BIGGER purpose. "a thousand George Bushes and a thousand Dick Cheneys". Some of the best words of the past campaign.

[Life Long Dem]

45. I thank all who have stood up to elect Obama into our representative role.

:hi:

[Rhiannon12866]

47. John Conyers (a member of this board), the brilliant Rachel Maddow & my personal hero, Jimmy Carter.

:patriot:

K&R. Great thread...:toast:

[20score]

53. Thank you!!

[Rhiannon12866]

55. You're more than welcome. This is such a great feel-good thread...

Which gives all of us a chance to thank our heroes, both sung and unsung... Thank you!:D

I keep thinking of just one more... BTW, both John Conyers and Elizabeth Edwards have posted on DU and I had the honor to reply to both of them, though I was only one among a couple of hundred... ;)

Rhiannon:hi::yourock:

[20score]

56. Thank you, Rhiannon!

I picked a really cool DU friend!

[Rhiannon12866]

62. You're welcome, my friend, but the attention this thread is getting is well-deserved.

And I don't know how cool I am, LOL. It's just that I've been here pretty consistently for going on six years and I have a good memory. But I do remember very well what it was like to be new here. I was nervous, having never posted on a message board before, but I was welcomed to DU on my very first post, which made all the difference, so I try to pay it forward whenever I can. DU is my home, and I'm so glad that you found us, too.:-)

Rhiannon:hi:

[Rhiannon12866]

51. And though you didn't know him, the courageous and irreplaceable Andy Stephenson.

We may have lost him, but his work lives on, fighting the good fight against voter fraud. I was honored to know him, one of my first friends on DU.;( :toast: :patriot:

AUDITING YOUR ELECTION 101 By Andy Stephenson
http://blackboxvoting.com/s9/index.php?/archives/248-AUDITING-YOUR-ELECTION-101-By-Andy-Stephenson.html

[Captain Hilts]

52. Wes Clark. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

54. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio)

Who had the courage to stand alone on countless issues and led the House floor fight against certification of Bush*'s "re-election," after obvious voting irregularities in her home state. Unfortunately, this remarkable woman died before she could witness this historic election. :patriot:

On edit: Stephanie Tubbs Jones (1949-2008), who died unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm in August... ;(

[calimary]

58. Awww... that's a good one. She didn't live to see it in this earthly world.

But you KNOW she was savoring it Upstairs!

Every suggestion I had has been listed here, from Howard Dean to Colleen Rowley to Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson. And I'm glad to see the great unsung, underappreciated Washington State hero, Jim McDermott get credit. And the bastards have had him under seige for far too long.

[Dystopian]

57. John Bonifaz

Also so many in the military...
Lt. Ehren Watada and all the resisters.

peace~

[Agony]

59. Jeremy Scahill for going after Blackwater... nt

[Muttocracy]

60. good one. nt

[nugzie]

61. Conor Oberst, of Bright Eyes... n/t

[Fire1]

63. The following:

Lewis Black
Whoopi Goldberg
Senator John Conyers
Senator Carl Levin
Senator Gary Peters
Mayor Ray Nagon
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Rev. Al Sharpton
Democratic Black Caucus
Joy Behar
Maya Angelou
Tom Joyner
Kanya West

[mudesi]

64. Dixie Chicks (nm)

[mudesi]

65. Rosie O'Donnell (nm)

[bluescribbler]

66. Ted Kennedy and Jim Jeffords

n/t

[20score]

68. Good ones. I had forgotten how good Jeffords was in the summer of 2001.

[The Wizard]

67. Jim Webb

And everyone who ran for office in the face of daunting odds. They caused entrenched republicans to spend money on their own campaigns instead of helping other Republicans in tight races.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

69. Our own Larisa Alexandrovna

And hundreds of other great voices here on DU.

[frankowen7]

70. Katrina vanden Heuvel

[defendandprotect]

71. Dennis Kucinich -- Randi Rhodes -- Richard Clarke --

and bless the idiot, Charlie Sheen --

[defendandprotect]

73. Mark Crispin Miller ...one of the first to address r-w propaganda ...

and currently he's leading the way in a close look at Repug religious fanatics

as the election steal-pullers ....


Long term ... Many caused us to take honest appraisal of our nation and its wars,

its cruelties before this latest round of torture -- pushed us to look at imperialist

America, permanent war for profit --


John Lennon, Howard Zinn, Wm. Greider who wrote for decades to wake up America,

Noam Chomsky, Rolling Stone, Bobby Kennedy, Jr., Paul Wellstone --

[defendandprotect]

74. Gore Vidal...worked at waking us up all his life ...

And Ralph Nader, of course --

And we might ponder ... why did America sleep so long --??

The lies of voting machines distorting our concept of our fellow Americans ---????

[defendandprotect]

88. Also want to mention the old Ted Turner CNN which broke the

Catholic Church pedophile scandals -- and kept them current --

Turner was also r-w enemy --

[PM Martin]

75. K & R!

[Bozita]

76. The UAW for creating IE America streaming radio. They hired Werbe, Malloy, and Hartmann.

Liberal, progressive radio came to our desktops when not a lot of us understood the meaning of streaming.

The UAW saw its membership declining rapidly and soon found the financial burden to be a bit much.

RIP www.ieamerica.com

Thank you, UAW.

[defendandprotect]

84. Liberal orgs that tackled r-w media -- Media Matters etc --- MOVE ON--!

[G_j]

77. Sibel Edmonds

[noamnety]

78. VFP and IVAW folks

Dave Cline (RIP)
Stan Goff
Camilo Mejia
Lt. Watada
Jimmy Massey
Perry O’Brien
Michael Blake

All the members of the IVAW who spoke at the Winter Soldier testimony

[YvonneCa]

79. Helen Thomas. n/t

[YvonneCa]

80. Molly Ivins. n/t

[cascadiance]

81. Steve Earle and Pink...

for some great anti-Bush tunes...

[cascadiance]

82. The Jersey Girls, for pushing for accountability for 9/11!

[cascadiance]

83. Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio for putting global warming on our radar!

[20score]

85. Everyone added in the replies were great recommendations!

Thanks all!

[bertman]

86. Great Idea, 20Score. Let's not forget Bruce Fein, a Republican, for his relentless pursuit of

impeachment of George W. Bush for violation of the U.S. Constitution.

[20score]

97. Thank you, Bertman!

[PassingFair]

87. KICK

:kick:

[Hardrada]

89. Kurt Vonnegut.

James Gandolfini, Edie Falco.

[Sophree]

90. Cynthia McKinney, Mike Ruppert, Paul Krugman. n/t

:kick:

[rasputin1952]

91. Kurt Vonnegut...He called bush a "sparrow fart in a tornado"...

:D

[cascadiance]

92. Vince Bugliosi for putting on pressure for getting a trial started that REALLY needs to happen!

[DinahMoeHum]

93. The organization September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

www.peacefultomorrows.org

[reflection]

94. Jeanene Garaffolo (sp)

She took a LOT of heat for opposing the Iraq war, as I recall.

[Number9Dream]

95. Stephanie Miller, Jim Ward, and Chris Lavoie

For making us laugh through the Bush nightmare.

[EverHopeful]

96. "The End of America:

Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot" wasn't published until 2007 so is somewhat outside your suggested time frame but I nominate Naomi Wolf for at least honorable mention. The book reached so many of us who thought we were going crazy & that what we saw happening somehow couldn't really be happening here, now, to our great republic.

RE: the Honor Roll website, I could kick in a (regrettably very) few dollars if that would help make it happen.

Edited to add:

...and since now is the time to roll up our sleeves and get to work repairing and diligently protecting our democracy, how about a weekly or monthly induction of Honorees for those new voices speaking out even when it's difficult or dangerous--we've had our velvet revolution but our founding fathers didn't just sit back and say, "We have created a free republic, our work here is done." We must resurrect then preserve protect and defend our Constitution and if the recent past has taught us anything, it's that a slumbering electorate rings the death knell for democracy (sort of the anti-Liberty Bell)

[madfloridian]

98. Howard Dean's speech March 15, 2003....video parts 1 and 2

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=239621&mesg_id=239621

[20score]

99. Thanks for reminding me why I supported Dean four years ago.

[lpbk2713]

100. One more time ....

:kick:



:thumbsup: :hi: :thumbsup: