Hi!
My name is Jim Bryant, I am a Ward Delegate for Ward Seven, from Precinct
Two.
I'm a little late getting into this list, as I've been helping get a few
projects both organized and off the ground, and am at a point where I
have a little bit of time to do this.
To start with, I'm a bit of a rabble-rouser myself, and have been
involved in Democratic politics actively since the 1996 election, and at
this point, barring getting a real day job again is about all I do now.
My professional background involves like going on 18 years of hardcore
experience in the IT field ranging from programming to systems
administrator for organizations ranging from the us navy's pacific
missile test center to internet companies to Sprint, and generally would
bore most of you to tears, so I'll not discuss that here. Needless to
say, I do believe I was part of a purge of liberal DOD contractors that
began in December of 2000, and for some reason haven't had an interview
since.
I have helped out with campaigns since 1996, when I did various
activities to support Clinton, and in 1998 as an active volunteer for
Dennis Moore's successful bid to oust Vince Snowbarger from the US
House, as well as in the same year volunteering for Tom Sawyer for
Governer in Kansas. In Y2K, I was helping Dennis Moore again, as well
as the Gore campaign. In 2002 I wasn't able to physically help out on
campaigns, but did my part online. Last year I basically devoted my
efforts to the Kerry campaign, and was a fixture at State HQ here in St.
Paul. This last summer, I also canvassed with the Grassroots Campaigns
Inc. effort for the DNC, which I found both fun and helpful, since I had
just moved up here in June on a vanished job possibility, and it helped
me get a feel for the area. I will add, that I also did some work for
another campaign to draw the decent Christians out of the GOP via the
campaign run by Thomas Harens [don't yell at me, I fully support what he
was doing, and his reasons were honest].
On the side, I am the original volunteer moderator for
<http://community.democrats.com/>, and have full administrative and
moderation privs both there and at both the old and the new
<http://www.democrats.com/>, am a chat network administrator for
<http://www.bartcop.com>, am a co-founder of the BlogCall weekly press
conferences <http://www.blogcall.org> where last week's press conference
on Tom Delay made that night's top story at CBS Evening News, and today
hosted a Press Conference with Greg Palast on the fact that the Iraq war
was planned from the beginning of the Bush Administration, was fought
entirely for oil, as well as the falling out with the NeoCons. BlogCall
is a new project, and so far, we are very successful after only four
Press Conferences. I was also involved in the investigative
collaboration with Atrios concerning Trent Lott in early 2003. I am
currently furthering the Tom Delay investigation, among other projects.
I also am the submitter for many news items for the now defunct, but
hopefully soon-to-be-revived Democrats.com daily email newsletter, which
I'm sure many of you subscribed to.
I was also one of the first source code reviewers of the Diebold 2002 Source
Code for AccuVote systems, and in particular the ones used in both the State
of Georgia as well as Anoka County, MN. For all of you DU'ers out there, yes,
I'm that Jim Bryant, I'm just one in a long line of people Bev Harris has
slandered, and although I could say a few words about that [rhymes with
"witch"],
I won't, because she has done some good with her self-aggrandizement by drawing
attention to the voting machines issue. On a side note I would like to thank
the people of DU for perm-banning her sorry arse, and also would extend a
non-invitation to more than [not]willingly give a copy of what has an injunction
against it's distribution to some of the brighter coders/crackers in the party
for their own review, they will agree that what I didn't give them is what we
said.
I've done a lot more, but these are just the highlights.
Anyhow, if anyone is interested in Greg Palast's findings, please visit
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/> and look up last Thursday's "Newsnight", or you
can visit <http://www.gregpalast.com/> if you have difficulties viewing
the archived version [he said that for some reason those outside the UK
are having difficulty with the BBC archived video], his work is also in
the issue of Harpers currently on the newsstands. Interesting stuff,
you can find the BlogCall archives at Ben's
<http://www.whiterosesociety.org/>. Wanna know why Jay Garner was
fired? Wanna know why Wolfowitz was fired? etc.. [for those who don't
know who Greg is, he's BBC's top investigative journalist, and is most
famous in the United States for his investigation of ChoicePoint in
2001, and produced the PBS [Frontline?] show on such that was boycotted
byh practically every PBS station in every "Red State"]. I also
moderated an interactive chat with the public that Greg did in 2001 on
the ChoicePoint topic at <http://community.democrats.com/>.
I wanted to kind of keep this brief, so I'll close with the fact that in
the nine months I've lived in Minnesota, I've decided to make it my
home. I love the people, and the climate is a helluva lot better than
Texas. Oh, and I love fishing and hunting! I'll have to get used to
freshwater fishing, which I haven't done since I was a child, as I'm
more used to Pacific fishing off of California, regardless, there are
some huge fish here, with the word "Dinner" written across them :)
As for issues, my two city issues are revitalization of the City, and
Mass-Transit/Light-Rail. I believe these two issues really go hand in
hand. and that many areas of the city can be revitalized especially with
the addition of light rail lines. The Midway corridor on University is
a prime example of this. I think that even that bookstore owner can be
made to agree to such a plan, and that some of his valid concerns can be
addressed. Until we can get a Congress that has the balls to
investigate the oil industry and put some price-gouging SOBs in prison,
that light rail will go a long way to reducing gasoline and deisel
consumption, and will also lower the pollution in the city.
I am currently still undecided on Mayoral Candidate, and feel that both
have strengths. It's a good thing they are both friends, and I hope
that they will find a way to take each other's good ideas and put them
into effect regardless of who gets the Endorsement and regardless of
whomever wins.
Kelly can burn in Hell.
jim
--
"Religious fundamentalism is the biggest threat to international security that
exists today."
United Nations Secretary General B.B.Ghali, 1995
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of
liberty to the individual;
the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom..." --
Benito Mussilini, 1932
http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/patriot2-hi.pdf -- The GOP
agrees
-------------------------------------------------
JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY:
http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/
-------------------------------------------------
POST MESSAGES HERE: [email protected]
To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit:
http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul
Archive Address:
http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
