DU Valentine's Day Roses for those with no tomorrows (Carol Lam and Molly Ivins)

[cascadiance]

I'd meant to get this out over the weekend, but I've been swamped with various things. I'm also trying to take some time to do some logistics work on this here in San Diego too, but I wanted to get this out to the DU community now so that we can have time to get some action going before Valentine's Day.

We're coming up on it in two weeks from today, and therefore don't have a lot of time. But I think there are two women that really deserve a timely treatment of roses now, and there likely won't be much of an opportunity after the very appropriate Valentine's Day date to do so.

Carol Lam as many know here has been one of the 93 U.S. prosecutors nationwide that heads up the San Diego office here. Though she was appointed as a Republican by Bush, she's certainly not avoided going after corporate criminals as well as one of the most serious tips of the Wahington corruption iceberg with her successful prosecution of Duke Cunningham. Now she's one of 11 of these 93 prosecutors that is mysteriously leaving through Bushco's orders. February 15th is her last day here, and rumor is that she may have an indictment for Brent Wilkes out by that time, who also is the cornerstone for many investigations going on now into other individuals in Washington (Hunter, Doolittle, Lewis, Pombo, Foggo, etc.)

Her last day is the day after Valentine's Day, and I felt that we could show support for the constitution and the rule of law and those that would try to protect and enforce that by showing our appreciation for her efforts then with the growing tradition of "roomful of roses" treatmsnts.

I'm here in San Diego, and I've already lined up the Progressive Post here and a few others who indicated that they want to help with this effort. I will be contacting a florist shortly and setting up a paypal or other contribution mechanism here in the coming day or two). If you're here in the San Diego, please send me a note here and I'll put together a list of folks to meet shortly on planning the details on this.

Also I'm noting that Molly Ivins is VERY sick with cancer now, and I wonder if she'll be here next year for Valentine's Day or not. I'm wondering if we shouldn't also try to get her flowers as well, as she CERTAINLY has been a strong leader for our cause too and deserves our thanks and support. I don't live in Austin, TX, but perhaps others out there who might want to try and help organize an effort could speak up here now on this thread and get that going as well. I don't want these efforts to "compete" with each other, but I do think that both of these women (as well as many of the other prosecutors being asked to leave now, deserve our thanks). With both Carol and Molly, the opportunity is on February 14th, but probably not much later, even though their "no tomorrows" are quite different in their nature.

Rate this up so we can get a good idea how much of the DU community we can mobilize with this! I think an effort like this here in San Diego would do wonders in helping us attract many other Asian Americans into the progressive fold who have a large population near the military bases here and who normally are fairly apolitical, but my understanding are pretty PO'd about how Carol Lam has been treated with this. Another Asian American prosecutor in L.A. has also left earlier too, so, not trying to sound too opportunistic about this, I do think we can appeal to a broader part of the community with some well put forth action here.