Yes, We Have Our Credential

Great news! Thanks, Deb.

So glad this is resolved. Congrats, Al. And thanks to DK and the rest at RV for doing the right thing.

This is terrific news! 

Let us know if there's anything else we can do.  Without sounding too parental, are you sure you have enough money to cover your trip?

Can't wait to read your reports Al. And where is your Obama pic from, I love it!!!

We need you in Denver.....

Best news I've had all day! I can hardly wait to read your reports from Denver.

Wahey!

This is great news. Just for today Deb has earned the title of Super again, I think :)

Great news!

Al, hope your smile is as bright as BHO's!

Sorry it took so much effort on so many people's part to get to this goal, but we've learned a lot in the process - and the next time we hit a 'brick wall' we'll have much better tools to take it down!!!!!

YES WE CAN.

Brings tears of joy and gratitude to m' eyes! I love us!

All is Al-luminated.

Congratutations Al !  Is there a tent or a hotel or bar or someplace where the bloggers might be hanging out with each other?  I imagine that would be a lively place, and I'd love to be there.   On the other hand, it might be good if you guys spent time with the establishment media people and let some progressive energy rub off on them....

Fabulous. Onward, onward!

Basil: I believe that Kos (among others) are arranging for a big tent for the netroots crowd; Al's alluded to this before.

Made my day. 

Congratulations! Al, I will be on a plane to India next week hopefully wearing my Obama shirt (if it finally arrives) and hope to keep track of you and the Field Hands whenever I can until I get back in August. I can't wait to read your reporting from Denver. (I am late but I did make a small contribution to the fund. I will be able to do more later on.)

This is great news, I am so glad the right thing was done, and we get to reap the benefit of some authentic journalism!

Congrats Al!

It is great to know Al is going with  the credential from Rural Votes.  What a pleasant, positive solution.

Great news for everybody, including Deb and Rural Votes. In my opinion the petition, raising the money and individuals requesting refunds definitely helped. I increasingly view power politics from the standoint of forces set in motion and pay less attention to specific battles. I was a speck among 30 million people worldwide that demonstrated mid February 2003 trying to prevent the Iraq War. I've never agreed with the common wisdom that it was a waste of time because the U.S. media downplayed it, etc. I think the demonstrations emboldened the Turkish Parliament to reverse it earlier approval to allow the U.S. to stage the invasion from Turkey, leaving the U.S. with a much more difficult 600 mile supply line up from Kuwait through Shiite territory.

I love Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes beautiful essay, "We were Made for these times." http://www.iwwg.com/index.php?page=834

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach...It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing.

I am honored to have added my little bit toward getting the credential.

Oh Happy Day!!!

WE are the ones we have been waiting for!

Dare we say that SD "saw the writing on the wall" and the "picture" of us going straight to Dean and Pelosi?!?!?!?!?!?

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

The true winners are the many thousands that will get to read Al's insights from the floor of the convention.  Netroots blowhards take note.  This is what successful activism looks like.

Yay everyone!! What a community :)

Go get 'em Al!

nancy

thank you for that link - I LOVED reading the entire essay.  What an interesting place IWWG.

Yes, this is the right thing.  And it is better late than never. But it is still late. The right thing would have been to make a clean break immediately without engaging in the silliness that RV felt was necessary to "appear" not to be pushed. The end result is thrilling but Deb's means to that end is a big ho-hum for me. You don't get credit for just showing up. Now we can focus though on the things that really matter instead of internecine foolishness. Ad astra, Al.

Awesome, props to RuralVotes.

I think someone at RV believes in community organizing now!

Now, That's some Change you can believe in! ;-)

"I hate quotations."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wow, thank you for that link Nancy and that quote -- how beautiful!

hey al, great news! of course there was no way they could keep you away, but it's good to see it happen now and be done.

PS i told you a week ago or so that i'd report back on the questionnaire that The Sanctuary Group put together for the candidates.

and here's my post announcing it.

Way to go Fieldhands!

Looking forward to your reports Al.

Congrats! Thanks to all who organized and acted. Yea!

we will sooooooooo need your voice of sanity.

i'm willing to let bygones be bygones as well... just as soon as i can get my refund!

give credit where credit is due and send a personal note of thanks of Deb.  This, at least, was stand up and I believe in positive reinforcement.

Congrats Al and all the Fieldhands who kept up the heat on and got this done.

Barry

Short and sweet

Congrats, Al!!!

 This is such great news. Al, Pam, Suzy, Susan, Amy, Jess, Allan,me and so many others we should congratulate ourselves for this great victory. Oh, I am so glad I do not have to work on this anymore, now I can focus (again) on getting Barack elected. I am working on going to Denver as we speak. I think I might make it for a couple of days. This is so great!!! I want to thank Deb K too, I appreciate her doing the right thing.

Hey Al, I hope you can get your money back on those stickers and buttons. If not, oh well it was worth it to have them ready to go. On to the next issue...

But thanks anyways, Deb...sorta, kinda...

you know what I mean?

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

Al,

I'm logging on from a business/vacation trip and can't remember my password so this is Catherine Anonymous Cain saying,  "CONGRATULATIONS!" - that's great news!!

Congratulations, Al.

What a great news!

PS. I haven't been able to donate yet but it's on my list...

and onward to more victories!

Yahooooo! Read it on Ben's blog!

Wow, this was kind of unexpected.  Or, maybe not.

However, given that it was your analysis that bumped up the traffic to the site to levels that made it a contender for accedidation, I see this as only fair.

Despite the hard-feelings, that Deb had the fortitude to give you the credentials that you earned bodes well.

And I am sure that Deb will sleep easier too--there is too much riding on getting Obama elected to get caught up in lingering animosities among folks that share the same immediate goal.  My hunch is that Deb realizes that her being overly nervous about big donors freaking out over organizing was simply silly.  She made decisions that caused unnecessary anguish.  But, hey, we all make mistakes--and when we amend our behavior we all deserve the grace of forgiveness and healing.

Nice, you've got travelling, hotel, beer, and food money---Austin we have lift-off!

Thanks, Al. I look forward to following the convention through your eyes.

Great news!

Go Al !

:)

from the periphery....what a relief to know that you will be guiding us throughout the season and into the election.

Congrats to Pam, Suzy, Christi, Allan, et. al. and of course Al.

Al, should I be dropping a line to Deb ? (you know the history).

amk

This is great news! So glad I signed at least ONE petition that came through...

Congratulations Al!  A pat on the back to all Field Hands who assisted with your signatures, emails and $$.  Now that this battle is won, onward we march.  Looking forward to you work in Denver Al.

1. Al gets his deserved credential today.
2. I finally obtain an Obama yard sign today.
3. My Republican neighbor sees me displaying the yard sign today and says she is voting for Obama too.
 

Can someone provide me with the e-mail for Deb again?  I never got my money back after e-mailing someone else that I originally was told to e-mail.

Thanks!

Nice to hear that this has been resolved! I'm looking forward to your reporting from Denver!

 The email address you requested debbyskoz@cs.com

I am really sort of past the stage where I could really thank Deb - so instead special thanks should go to Amy, Suzy, Jess and Pam!

And I'll just be happy not to have to watch the selfdestruction of Dem and RV anymore.

Wonderful news! Thank you to everyone who made this possible, including Deb and the folks at RV who did the right thing.

I look forward to reading your reports from Denver Al!

Jess

Yeah - I LOVED your comment!  3 cheers for you AND your neighbor!!!

Congratulations Al - great news.  I wish I could be there in person but having you there will be the next best thing.

Now, OT, but has anyone else heard the new Obama radio ad?  Another great example of the counterpunch.  And they're calling McCain "McSame" in an official ad.  Let's hope that nickname catches on.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0708/Obama_radio_McCain_makin_stuff_up.html#comments

The economy - and McCain's cluelessness about it - is going to be the way to win this thing.  I would love to see Obama speak to the food crisis - I can't believe how much my groceries are costing me these days and I'm sure most other folks are feeling the same thing (and I bet McCain hasn't shopped for groceries for decades - let some enterprising reporter how much a gallon of milk costs).

Oh - and did anyone catch how McCain plans to pay for his economic proposals (i.e., tax cuts) and reduce the deficit - from "Victory savings":

"The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit"

Hilzoy has a great post on this (Al - you should add her to your blog roll - she's terrific)

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/07/lie-to-me-baby.html

KD

I am so pleased. Yes, let's leave the past and move on to working for Barack. Such a relief, Al, that you'll be posting from Denver. How else to know what's really going on? Congratulations and enjoy every minute.

But pace yourself.  Being a mile high can take its toll...

 Yes, Anonymous, being in that altitude really takes a toll on us smokers. You do not need as much alcohol either. I lived down the road from Denver for a while in the foothills of the Rockies, I had to quit smoking, but then I moved back to sea level and started again, yea I know, :-)

Karen-The radio ad is great, thanks.

Christi - Just like when the Olympics were in Mexico City, the US athletes trained in Denver to get accustomed to the altitude, I plan on visiting Mexico City, pre-convention, to do my power-smoking workouts so I'll be in top form for Denver!

And a great vicarious grin from BO himself.

Lurked along during the primary, and am so pleased you'll be there, all credentialed & proper!

Chriss

 But proper?  I'll let Al answer that one.

Al-Mile and a half party training should get one in good shape. Run a couple of laps for me.

I know there is bad blood, but the classy thing to do is to send along our thanks to Deb...I know...I know...

I am a regular lurker on your blog.  So happy to hear this.  We need your voice and analysis at the convention.

I've been gone for a couple days, and I return to find the credential has been returned to its rightful owner!

I hope you've been out celebrating; this is a great display of your talent and integrity. I'll toast the rest of this South American merlot I have sitting next to me in your honor!

I've waited to shout YEA until after the snail mail ran today. After the 5th request for the return of my first contribution [the second one came two weeks ago] Deb says "it is done and in the mail."

YEA for Al, YEA for everyone who signed, and YEA for Deb.

Mazeltov, re: "But pace yourself.  Being a mile high can take its toll..."

That ain't nuthin': http://preview.tinyurl.com/hi-miles

For the superb job you did of informing us of the political lanscape during the Democratic primary. I look forward to reading your blog from the convention.

Now I know we will get the best reporting!

And BTW thank you Al for the recent blog on chicken-littleism and FISA! I have been pushing your blog everywhere I go.

Finally, you got what was yours to begin with. Great news!

I was wondering where you'd gone.  I've been a lurker for ages and just found out your new location.  Glad you are going to Denver. You help keep my head straight.