All around the country Monday night, Americans will be coming together to discuss the coming changes to our health care system, and how we want to influence the degree and outcome of those changes. Thanks to the work of those who worked on the Obama campaign here, those in and near Oklahoma City will be participating in the national dialog.

The events are being planned and coordinated through the new site change.gov. Obama’s nominee for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, who will oversee health care reform for the administration, has made this video introducing the project.

Here are the details for the local event:

Oklahoma Health Care Community Discussion (Meeting)
A moderated change.gov requested discussion with friends and neighbors about health care reform. We will draft a group submission with your findings and conclusions. This will help the Transition Health Policy Team flesh out key issues around health care and give the Team fresh ideas about the best ways to promote the President-elect and Vice President-elect vision of quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Sneak Peak: http://change.gov/participantguide

Monday the 29th, 5:30-7pm
Mayflower Congregational Church (Oklahoma City, OK)
3901 NW 63rd St. [map]
Oklahoma City, OK 73116

If you plan to attend, check out this participant guide.

It will be interesting to see, after all this “grassroots discussion” if the people really get listened to, and what they say they want comes to fruition, or if the insurance companies again get to call the shots. I suggest showing up, calling, writing and demonstrating to make sure it’s the former and not the latter.

Here’s a story that reveal the real person inside Obama’s new BFF, Rick Warren.

It’s gotta be more than donuts and a soul-less hug, Rick. Reach down and find that Christ-centeredness you claim to promote — if you’ve got it in you. A little humility wouldn’t hurt either.

People for the American Way

… the sad truth is that this decision further elevates someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans.

Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn’t need or deserve this position of honor. There is no shortage of religious leaders who reflect the values on which President-elect Obama campaigned and who are working to advance the common good.

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

President-elect Obama campaigned on a theme of inclusiveness, yet the selection of Rick Warren to give the invocation is a direct affront to that very principle.

Human Rights Campaign

by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table

Right Wing Watch

… (Warren’s) media-driven reputation as some sort of “moderate” evangelical preacher continues to win out …

John Aravosis (guest posting at Huffington Post)

(in Obama’s voice) … devastating my own supporters on what was supposed to be a day of celebration and national rebirth …

Melissa McEwan

… a sharp stick in the eye to progressive women and GBTQ men, and all their allies …

Andrew Sullivan

… More evidence that a civil rights movement needs to realize that no politician can deliver for us what we have to deliver on our own.

John Amato (Crooks and Liars)

… Obama’s decision on this one is highly insulting.

Booman

… Obama will be roundly and loudly criticized for this decision, and rightly so. He should listen to what so many of his supporters will be saying about this. Obama says he values those with the ability to listen. If he hears, he will reverse this decision and apologize for hurting good people for no good reason.

Ann at Feministing

I can’t even handle the irony that Warren’s appearance will be immediately followed by Aretha singing “Respect” and “Someday We’ll All Be Free.”

And, as previously noted, Atrios dubbed Obama Wanker of the Day.

Well, that was a brief hiatus, when I didn’t feel like crying or screaming every time I heard about the latest political news.

The inauguration hasn’t even taken place yet, and already, folks like me have been slapped in the face. At least with Clinton, it came after he was in office a few days.

So here’s my first complaint letter to Obama (yes, I let the selection of Emmanuel go - figuring I’d trust the guy to know what he was doing - Ha!).

Rather than choose one of many religious figures who could have
embodied the “post-partisan” atmosphere that President-elect Obama
says he wants to promote, a divisive and hurtful one has been given a
very meaningful role. It is a grave insult to many, many people who
worked hard to elect Obama.

Rick Warren and his fanatic followers may like to think of themselves
as moderate Christians, but they are no such thing. They would like to
keep gays and lesbians as second class citizens, deny women the right
to control their own bodies, keep torture as an American value(stet — see Update 2 below) promote assassination, and
foster some more illegal wars around the world. These are public
positions that they don’t try to hide. So I can only assume that Obama
now means to embrace them too, in the name of “unity”– while
millions of Americans who believed words about “change” can now feel
used and discarded.

Putting Warren on that stage is no less than a loud “F*** you” to ALL
gay and lesbian Americans and their allies, pro-choice folks, civil
rights and antiwar activists. Obama obviously has no use for them
anymore, and will cast his lot with those who hate, divide and
discriminate. Good luck with that in 2012.

What a huge disappointment.

There are other reactions, and an email address for your own letter, at Pam’s House Blend, Americablog and Daily Kos.

Updated to fix error: Apparently Rick Warren supports assassination, not torture. My bad.

Update 2: Ah, I remembered correctly reading about his willingness to allow torture, so stet on that, just add assassination cheerleading to the original list. What a man of God, eh?

While in Crawford, I was introduced to an amazing musical duo, Pat Humphries and Sandy O, otherwise known as Emma’s Revolution. Their music is totally amazing, a blend of folk, pop, roots rock. The best way I can think to describe them is a mix of Pete Seeger and Sweet Honey and the Rock.

They seem to make it to every meaningful activist event, to offer their political support and musical contribution, which can raise the level of emotion and commitment to untold levels. I could go on, but you can read about them and all the events and projects they’ve been affiliated with, and all the accolades they’ve received, at their web site.

Because of their travels, their newsletter is a compendium of all the latest progressive political insider news. The latest issue is no exception. They just got back from the annual School of the Americas Watch demo at Ft. Benning, GA and here’s some of what they shared about the 19th (and hopefully last) SOA protest and its founder, Father Roy Bourgeois:

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we and 20,000 other folks gathered again outside the gates of Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA for the vigil to shut down the School of the Americas. Or, as activists call it, “The School of the Assassins.”

The SOA is a torture-training school-right here on US soil and funded by our tax dollars-where Latin America soldiers are taught counterinsurgency tactics, psychological warfare and Abu-Ghraib-style torture techniques. The School of the Americas Watch, a grassroots organization dedicated to closing the SOA and changing oppressive US foreign policy, has been holding these vigils for the past 18 years, the first one, with only 10 people. We wrote our song, “One by One” for this demonstration, which features spoken testimony from torture survivors, family members whose loved ones were killed by SOA graduates, the sole survivor of a massacre, elected officials, actors, and activists from around the world, all interspersed with the most music, spoken word and visual arts we’ve ever seen at a demonstration. (Thanks to Al Viola for this photo of the musicians’ collective at the 2007 Vigil!)

Sign the Petition to President- Elect Obama to End Torture and Close the SOA, and come next November!

Now, for the Pope part.

The Friday of this year’s vigil was also the day that SOAW founder, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, was to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Not for standing up to the military or to the US government, for that matter, but for participating in a Mass to ordain a woman priest.

Fr. Roy delivered the homily at that ceremony in August, saying:

“Sexism is a sin. . . The hierarchy will say, ‘It is the tradition of the church not to ordain women.’ I grew up in a small town in Louisiana and often heard, ‘It is the tradition of the South to have segregated schools.’ It was also ‘the tradition’ in our Catholic church to have the Black members seated in the last five pews of the church. No matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always wrong and immoral.”

In October, the church hierarchy sent Fr. Roy a letter demanding he recant his position or be excommunicated. But, Fr. Roy didn’t back down. He wrote a letter in response and he and others have pointed out the disturbing fact that, while it took the Vatican twelve years to begin to respond to the sexual abuse of nearly 5,000 children by US priests (with none of the priests, nor the bishops who remained silent about the abuse, being excommunicated) it took only three months for the Vatican to respond to Fr. Roy’s support of women’s ordination with the threat of excommunication.

(Did you know you can email the Pope? ) and the petitions are having an effect. We think the slogan of the Women’s Ordination Conference’s petition in support of Fr. Roy says it best:

“Break the Silence. Shatter the Stained Glass Ceiling.”

Emma’s Revolution will be playing at the Innaugural Peace Ball in DC on Jan. 20. But don’t plan on attending it unless you are one of the lucky 1000 who got tickets before it sold out in one day!

Their new album is called Roots, Rock, Revolution and you can listen and buy on the site. I’m ordering it and listening to their earlier album One while I wait for it to arrive.

Please be sure to sign the petition asking Obama to close the SOA using the linked image below.

Oh, and I’ll try to find my photos of Pat and Sandy from Crawford to add to this post.

Obama is being inundated with requests, but this one stood out to me: A petition drive, inspired by musician Quincy Jones, for the establishment of a Secretary of the Arts, a cabinet level position to encourage, preserve and maintain our significant artistic and cultural heritage. This is on a par with what most other industrialized countries put in place long ago.

The petition language is a little sparse (especially with such a passionate cause!) but more background and rationale can be found here and here.

h/t to Martha

Candace Richardson was one of the hardest workers for Obama in Oklahoma. Like many of us progressives, she’s a little concerned about what caused Oklahoma to buck the trend and move to the Right instead of the Left in the election.

She’s put out a call for others to join her in making some changes in the base of the Oklahoma Democratic Party.

On December 11, 2008, at 5:30pm, we will have a brief meeting in Oklahoma City at the upstairs conference room of Java Daves, 10 NE 10th (just west of the Broadway Extension on 10th St). It is time to stand up for our Democratic values. It is time to move this party in a new direction.

We invite you to join us and continue to work for change. Channel your hope, because WE KNOW what can be accomplished when people come together united by a common goal! Email me at crich1254 -at- yahoo -dot- com [altered for privacy] for more information and to RSVP for Dec. 11th.

And, yes, I know that if you are a conservative Republican, you are just cool about Oklahoma not voting for Obama and being the regressive joke of an America that is moving on and upward with or without us. We get it, really; you don’t have to explain it to us again here.

I was going to post something about the column Robin Meyers (of Mainstream Baptist minister at Mayflower UCC Church in OKC) has in the latest issue of the Oklahoma Gazette, entitled “Dead Wrong and Proud of It.”

The world wept for joy; Oklahoma spat defiantly. The glory train of history pulled out of the station; Oklahoma waved goodbye and said “good riddance.” Dr. King’s dream came true; Oklahoma slumbered on, curled up on the hearth of racism and addicted to the mind-numbing power of the word “conservative.”

[...] We are on the wrong side of history again, and we’re damn proud of it.

As you might expect, the comments are pouring in at the Gazette’s site, and more than a few folks are telling him, basically, that if he doesn’t love Oklahoma (the way it is, i.e. reactionary conservative and intellectually impoverished), then he should leave it. Others give their own testimony to Oklahoma’s perpetual brain drain which the conservatives wish to push even faster.

But now, John Aravosis, a prominent lefty blogger, has put an excerpt up at his Americablog — without comment, except for the title: How Oklahoma missed the Obama revolution.

Here are some comments from self-identified Oklahomans in response to the Americablog post.

enpassant

I wish I could understand what’s going on with Oklahoma. A reflection of our education?

The media here is very one-sided and talk radio here makes the Pravda seem fair and balanced, it’s 24/7 one wing nut after the other. Is that it?

tbhull

The problem with Oklahoma is the state has one newspaper owned by a wealthy but completely fucked up nazi cracker KKK republican family know as the Gaylords. Until this family either loses their money or dies one way or another, they control the press in this backward ass state and nothing will change that much.

NiNi

I too am proud to be an Oklahoman that voted for Obama. It was a brutal campaign, and I argued with many of my friends on behalf of Obama… lost a lot of respect for them too, as I realized they INTENTIONALLY kept themselves ignorant… watching the McCain-Palin smears work because these peoeple seemed to WANT those smears to work. Very disheartening and disappointing.

With that said, I was also very surprised at the number of adamantly Republican friends that voted for Obama and not McCain. I’d say at LEAST five of my formerly Republican friends wound up supporting Obama, and that’s actually an amazing number for “these here parts.”

I still drive around town with my Obama-Biden magnet on my car, and feel prouder than ever to be the kind of Oklahoman that the majority of these shit-kickers don’t understand. It was also very, VERY fun gloating after having spent two elections in a row being teased and laughed at when “their guy” won *cough* stole the election.

I am also proud to say that I’m leaving this state in the spring, and heading for greener pastures [Portland, Oregon]. This is a tough, tough place in which to live when you’re not a Jesus freak. But at least while I was here, I remained a very proud, educated, liberal, open-minded “outsider.”

bumpkis

BARTCOP is from Oklahoma…very astute and funny pol blogger…blue all the way.

cheesesauce

I am proud to be an Okie who voted for Obama. I had bet a military person a dollar that Obama would win. He was so seduced by all of the tripe eaters and bullshitters on TV / AM radio that he would giggle every time he saw me so confident was he of a McCain/Palin victory. That being said, he showed himself to be an honorable person and paid up on the bet. I haven’t spent the dollar yet. I’m trying to decide what to do with that kind of prosperity. : )

Well, as suspected, the capitulation continues unabated. The Netroots is sick about it, but not really surprised. Hunter at Daily Kos pretty much sums it up in Why it Matters.

As Jane Hamsher states, the real message of today’s vote, from the 32 Democratic Senators who gave Lieberman a pass, and, yes, President-elect Obama, who whipped the vote:

This is about telling you that you mean nothing. That democracy is a nice word, but it should never threaten the entitlement of the most exclusive club in the world.

No matter what Joe Lieberman does, the people who are protecting him hate you much more than they hate him.

We just continue to fight for accountability and progressive values to make their way to the top.