One thing that makes Senator Kerry different from a lot of other politicians is that he doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk. When he says he supports something, he don’t just stop talking when the cameras stop rolling. He shows his support by putting his boots on the ground and going out to make things happen where action matters most.

A timely example of JK’s ongoing commitment to hands-on activism is his stumping for Niki Tsongas in Massachusetts’ 5th District special election race this weekend. As he wrote in a previous blog post here, the Senator considers this race to be one of the first salvos of the 2008 election campaign season.

While JK has personal reasons for paying special attention to this special election in the 5th District — it’s where he first ran for Congress in 1972, with his headquarters in Lowell where Niki Tsongas’ campaign is based — he also points to it as a bellwether race in terms of turning back the tide of Republican obstructionism and the classic GOP campaign tactics of fear, smear, and distortion.

JK wrote eloquently about the extra importance of this particular race in an email he sent out to his Massachusetts supporters this weekend:

If you think that this is an example of unusual politics in action — then you’re right.

This is unusual politics in action.

But these are unusual times.

And in unusual times like these — when a lot of very critical policies and principles are at stake, and when a small cadre of belligerent, recalcitrant, retro-obstructionist politicians keeps taking advantage of razor-thin voting margins in the Senate to block any attempt to correct the myriad missteps of the Bush administration and the failed dreams of its neocon minions — then the old politics-as-usual approach just won’t get the job done anymore.

So it’s time for all of us to take the gloves off, put the workboots on, and kick the roadblocks out of the way so we can get this country moving forward again.

We here at johnkerry.com are pleased to join with Senator John Kerry, Teresa Heinz Kerry, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, concerned citizens of the world, and endangered polar bears everywhere in congratulating former Senator and Vice President Albert Arnold (Al) Gore, Jr. on his being awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo today.

Mr. Gore shares this year’s honor with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The latter’s extensive research into the symptoms and causes of global climate change resulted in its release of a series of reports that provide conclusive scientific evidence of the dangers of unchecked manmade changes in the Earth’s biosphere. It’s Mr. Gore’s many years of groundbreaking work in publicizing and popularizing awareness of the complex issues involved that has made the IPCC’s research accessible to the average inhabitants of the planet we all share, however.

So it is altogether appropriate that Mr. Gore be given equal credit with the IPCC for what the Nobel Prize committee called “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.” As the committee went on to explain in its official press release about this award:

This is also a local race and local blogs have been covering this race in great detail. Massachusetts bloggers were at the debate in May in Chelmsford that discussed the Iraq war and veterans health care concerns. MA blogs covered the health care debate in Hudson and have attended and written about more than 20 other candidate debates that occurred during the primary election. Local bloggers know the candidates, know the issues in the race and are providing some of the best coverage of what is going on in this bellwether election.

David, from BlueMassGroup has a great post up with a roundup of news on the MA-05 race. The post talks about this morning’s Boston Globe endorsement of Niki Tsongas and what it’s impact will be. There is also some great in-depth coverage of Republican Jim Oganowski’s views on immigration and how that became a signature issue for Oganowski only after he completed Republican ‘campaign school’ in Washington, DC this past July.

Last week I posted here to hear your views on how to expand Internet access for everyone, including America’s small businesses.

Our country lacks a clear national broadband strategy, which is inexcusable in an area so critical for our economic competitiveness. The President promised nationwide broadband deployment by 2007 but hasn’t even delivered a strategy to get there, let alone any actual accomplishments toward the goal.

Your Activism Has Already Made a Difference

So, in advance of our Senate Small Business Committee hearing on the issue last Wednesday, I wanted to get your views. Your activism on every issue — from Net Neutrality to the 700 MHz auction to media consolidation — has already contributed greatly to the national conversation.

We need to look no further than Verizon Wireless’s ill-fated attempt to block NARAL’s communications with their members. This was a scary but very real reminder of the importance of Net Neutrality. Many of you voiced your concern, and your diligence caused Verizon Wireless to do a 180 from its censorship policy.

We need the same activism now from the Net community in speaking out against AT&T’s Orwellian scheme, where criticizing them could terminate your service. As power consolidates in fewer and fewer hands, we need to make sure that the gatekeepers don’t block dissent or progressive values.

So, first, I’d just like to personally thank each of you for your insightful comments on how to ensure affordable Internet access for everyone. Our hearing last week was very successful, and I shared many of your thoughts with the FCC.

The Internet Should Flow Like Water

I read through the replies, and while I can’t respond to every comment specifically, I noticed some major themes. One suggestion I saw throughout was the call to treat the Internet like any other essential utility, and I couldn’t agree with you more. We don’t let profits dictate who has running water and whose lights are on in America. The same must hold true for Internet access. All Americans, all schools and all businesses should have access to high-speed Internet connections just like these other basic services.

I don’t have to tell you the difference special elections can make in setting the tone for national politics — the netroots has been there and done that in special elections over the years, from helping push Stephanie Herseth across the finish line in South Dakota a few years back to pushing the Iraq debate forward by making a powerful statement for change in a so-called rock-ribbed Republican district with Paul Hackett’s campaign.

Well, we’ve got another special election on our hands — only this time it’s the Republicans who are pushing to sneak one under the radar screen in Massachusetts the week after next, on October 16.

The Republicans are desperate to make the case — any way they can — that they’re not in for a very long 2008. (And believe me, when I say “any way they can” I know what I’m talking about. But with those scars come lessons learned.)

A little personal history here: I first ran for Congress in the Merrimack Valley in Massachusetts in 1972, with my headquarters in Lowell. I’d won a hard-fought, crowded Democratic primary, and the pundits thought that was the tough part.

They didn’t know the district, and they didn’t know the focus Richard Nixon would put on defeating me because I was such a prominent opponent of his disastrous war policy. The Republicans swept in with a smear campaign that probably would’ve made young Karl Rove’s heart go pitter-patter. Richard Nixon himself stayed up all night waiting to hear the outcome of my race. I lost — and I learned an important lesson.

Flash forward thirty five years later to Lowell — today.

The headline for this blog entry may be a play on words, but the subject is anything but playful.

In 1975, when another Republican president refused to sign legislation that would have helped New York City avoid collapsing into bankruptcy, that city's Daily News flagged the story with the best-known tabloid headline ever printed — "Ford to City: Drop Dead."

This morning, when the current Republican president refused to sign legislation that would have provided health care to millions of lower-income kids, he was essentially telling them the same thing that Ford told New York.

This is the same Republican president, remember, who has already thrown away more than 700 billion dollars over the last five years on an unnecessary, unwinnable war in Iraq.

But he refused this morning to commit less than one-twentieth of that amount over the next five years to protect the health of more than 10 million children here at home.

No wonder Senator Ted Kennedy had this to say about Mr. Bush's S-CHIP veto this morning:

How could the President of the United States possibly veto this legislation? How could the president be so uninformed about the needs of these children? I think that this is probably the most inexplicable veto in the history of the country. It is incomprehensible. It is intolerable. It's unacceptable."

This is the same Republican president, remember, who ran for the office on a platform of "compassionate conservatism" and fiscal responsibility.

But he has presided over the largest explosion of unfunded government debt in history while systematically dismantling an existing network of social, legal, and fiscal protections for all but the richest half-percent of Americans.

No wonder Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey had this to say about Mr. Bush's S-CHIP veto this morning:

Once again, President Bush has missed an opportunity to display compassionate leadership. Instead, he has resorted to political and ideological gamesmanship rather than seek a bipartisan solution that would protect this nation’s most vulnerable children.

This is the same Republican president, remember, who loves to go on television and expound about how he puts principles before politics and how proud he is of standing up for everyday Americans.

But he stealthily signed his veto order behind closed doors in the White House, and then left Washington immediately afterwards to avoid having to answer questions about it in public.

No wonder Senator Chuck Schumer had this to say about Mr. Bush's S-CHIP veto this morning:

Yesterday, in Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall, Senator Kerry gave a powerful speech in which he laid out his vision of a 21st Century economic strategy for America.

His speech addressed the many challenges and opportunities facing our nation's middle class in an increasingly globalized world -- including universal health care, tax reform, green jobs, home ownership, equal access to information technology, the international labor movement — and the need for today's Americans to join together, as their ancestors did, in standing up against the right-wing agenda of elitist economic favoritism, regressive social policies, and divisive partisan politics.

The speech was rich in imagery and covered lots of ground, and the Senator spoke skillfully and with passion. The full text of the speech as written is posted here on johnkerry.com, but the written word doesn't really do it full justice — there's just no substitute for watching and hearing Senator Kerry deliver such a powerful message for yourselves.

Our cameras were rolling, though, and a full video of the entire speech is posted here in the Multimedia section of our site as well. Be sure to watch the video if you want to get the full experience of Senator Kerry delivering this special speech in historic Faneuil Hall. In the meanwhile, here are some choice excerpts from the text itself:

Faneuil Hall is more than an historic building. This birthplace of American freedom has also been a keeper of the American conscience. Here, where we assemble today, abolitionists dreamed of and demanded a nation that would live out its founding ideal that all are created equal. From the fight for women’s suffrage to the fight against Fascism, from McCarthyism to civil rights to Vietnam, these walls have rung with words of honor, dissent, courage, and principle.

[ ...]

Today we return to Faneuil Hall — this time in keeping with this building’s first and founding contribution to the American nation. This is where America’s first middle class gathered — Boston merchants, mechanics, printers and craftsmen — they came here because they were fed up with a leader named “King George.” Fed up with rule from an ocean away, that seemed as remote then as Dick Cheney’s undisclosed locations do today.

They believed that rather than the rules working for them, improving their lives, they were working for the rulers — and that a distant government was doing the bidding of the powerful few — not the people who paid the taxes and played by the rules.

Sound familiar? Well I think so, too. And just as it did then, it’s going to take more than a tea party to put this country and our economy back on course.

The news came in a brief email sent to Senator Kerry’s staff list last week:

Hello Kerry family,

I wanted to share some news with you all. I have been mobilized as a Naval reservist to go to Iraq and serve our country for one year. It is with a heavy heart that I tell you all this because I will miss all of you! I leave October 26. You all should know that I am very proud and honored to take this on. We’ll be in touch and I look to seeing you when I return!

Best,
Setti

Setti Warren has been part of the extended Kerry family for quite a while now. (And, yes, it really does feel like you’re part of an extended family when you work for JK— he’s very loyal to the people who work for him, and they return the favor in spades.) Setti joined the Senator’s staff in 2003, serving as Trip Director for JK as he criss-crossed the country campaigning for the presidency. He’s the Deputy Director for our Massachusetts office now, having served a stint as press secretary along the way.

But what the heck is a Trip Director, you may ask? Here’s how Setti described it in a typically light-hearted piece he penned for the Washington Post’s ‘First Person Singular’ feature in August of 2004:

I’m responsible for the senator’s schedule on the road, managing his time, knowing where he has to be at every minute and who he’s supposed to see along the way. I contact the contacts at each stop, make sure everyone knows he’s coming. Is he an easy person to keep on schedule? Let’s just say he’s a guy who loves to stay in a room as long as possible. My job is to make him leave the room. So I got to be the bad guy. I have to give him the time-to-go look when he’s swapping war stories or about to hug someone. But if we get off schedule, that’s worse.

Later in that same piece, Setti explained how he came to meet JK for the first time:

I met Senator Kerry when I was 14, in Massachusetts. At Boston College, I ran Students for Kerry in 1990 and one time spent at least four days working on a speech before he came to campus. Big moment came, and I introduced him as John F. Kennedy. Everyone fell silent. [But] Kerry came up and gave me an enormous hug. I think I’ve been committed to him ever since.

Like I said, loyalty and camaraderie go hand in hand around here. So does a sense of duty, honor and commitment to service. As Peter Gelzinis explained in his Boston Herald column over the weekend,