After a 2-year battle with breast cancer, Rep. Jo Ann Davis of Virginia's 1st Congressional District, died this morning, according to an alert from Roll Call.  She was 57.

Shawn O'Donnell, Davis' Democratic challenger in 2006, released the following statement of sympathy:

I wish to extend my sympathy to Representative Jo Ann Davis’ family in their time of sorrow.

Ms. Davis’ passing is sad and a tragic reminder that work is still needed in finding a cure for cancer and other diseases that continue to unnecessarily cost human lives. Unfortunately, earlier this year President Bush proposed cutting funding for cancer research by $40 million and cutting government funds for other major health programs and services by hundreds of millions of dollars hurting countless Americans.

In this time of sadness, let us all recall the words of the ancient hymn and prayer of comfort and support, "May the angels lead you to paradise, and may the martyrs greet you on your arrival ..."

UPDATE: AP story here.

This time last year, all eyes at DailyKos were on CT, and we Nutmeggers were grateful that our progressive allies all over the country supported our little state when we backed Ned Lamont in his courageous stand against Joe Lieberman.  And we picked up two CT House seats (Murphy, Courtney) in the process!

In 2008, we're going to work even harder to win the very last Congressional seat held by Republicans in New England, CT-04, and I'm happy to introduce the DailyKos community to Jim Himes, an affordable housing nonprofit executive and Rhodes Scholar who is going to beat Chris Shays.  Jim started the quarter by live-blogging at My Left Nutmeg, and he's liveblogging here with us today to end the quarter.  Jim's goal is 500 founding members of the campaign by midnight.  Please read Jim's statement below the jump and join us in comments for the next hour!

A few weeks after having dinner with local party chairs and less than a week after being introduced to the Democratic Congressional caucus in DC, former New York Rangers goalie Mike Richter has made calls to key players in the the district today to say he has decided not to challenge Chris Shays.

While I'm sad to have lost the opportunity to play with hockey/politics metaphors for the next 18 months, the good news is that a great local candidate has emerged:  Jim Himes, Director of Enterprise New York, a non-profit provider of affordable housing.  A fluent Spanish speaker who lived in Peru and Columbia for 10 years, Himes is a Rhodes Scholar who studied Latin American policy at Oxford University.  Himes is the Chair of the Democratic Town Committee in Greenwich and knows what it is going to take to beat Chris Shays here in CT-04.  More below the jump.

I had tears in my eyes today as I watched footage of the swearing in of Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful woman in American electoral history. And as I think about the crew of grassroots activists who showed up last night at a DFA meeting in Norwalk CT, eager to strategize and get right back to work on our next projects together, I couldn't help but conclude that these historic victories, powered by growing grassroots and netroots activism and small donations, are a credit to Howard Dean's visionary campaign in 2003, his leadership in 2004 of Democracy for America, and his election in 2005 as Chairman of the Democratic Party.

Which is why Paul Begala's comment to scottforamerica today is so striking:

"Anyway," Begala continued... "I don't need some a**hole from Vermont telling me what to do."

Yeah, Mr. Begala, actually, you do.

Hi, DailyKos friends!  I haven't posted since before Labor Day since I took the position of 4th Congressional District Coordinator for Ned Lamont, but I'm jumping in with just 4 days left to encourage all of you within driving/train distance from CT to join us on Saturday to participate in one of the most important and FUN ways you can help Ned Lamont reach victory - a Knock and Rock With Black 47 in Stamford on Saturday!

A Knock and Rock is a fun grassroots campaign event -- a giant door-to-door canvass followed by a party and live performance by Irish-American anti-war rockers Black 47.  Larry Kirwan, Black 47's lead singer, will join us in canvassing, and Ned Lamont will join us for our party and rally in the afternoon.  Stamford is an easy train ride from New York City -- let's turn this into a great DailyKos reunion!  More info below the jump.

The Lieberman camp has just released info on a "lottery" they will be holding to distribute tickets to their event on Monday with Bill Clinton in Waterbury.

I have no doubt that plants like me would be disqualified from such a "lottery", but I'm sure there are hundreds of other loyal Connecticut Democrats here on DailyKos who would love to see our former President in Waterbury on Monday.

Of course, the real question will be whether Connecticut Democrats could be excluded from the event based on what they wear on their T-shirts or whether they suspect attendees of being rabid blogger jihadists.  Only one way to find out!  Details after the jump.

Wow.  I knew from reporters who asked me about telling Joe Lieberman he is a fair-weather Democrat that some of his staffers were saying I was a Lamont campaign plant.  According to the New York Observer, though, Lieberman himself was pissed enough to call me a plant himself:

Joe Lieberman was incensed.

He'd just been confronted at a campaign event for Irish supporters in his hometown of Stamford, Conn., by a woman who lectured him about his lack of commitment to the Democratic Party.

"She was a plant," said Mr. Lieberman, complaining to two campaign staffers in the parking lot behind the Irish Tigín Pub. "It was a set-up."

This, writ small, is what has become of Mr. Lieberman's political career.

More after the jump including a roundup of news from the event.

VIDEO UPDATE 2: Spazeboy has BOTH videos of local local TV news coverage - notice the VAST diffference! When I initially heard that Joe Lieberman and Joe Biden would be appearing together in my hometown of Stamford, CT, I had no interest in attending.  A friend of mine tried to RSVP for the event, though, and was told that it was open only to "Stamford Irish Democrats".

Since I'm an Irish-American Democrat from Stamford, I decided to stop by the event to learn more about this organization.  Given that Joe Biden is the only high-profile Senate Democrat to be willing to campaign with Joe, I thought it would be a bonus to see what he would say to reporters about Joe threatening to run as an independent if he loses the primary.

I planned just to be a fly on the wall at the event, figuring it would be a huge crowd.  But when Joe Lieberman repeated the lie that Ned Lamont is running a "one issue" campaign and then said that Lamont lacked "courage and integrity", it really got my Irish up.  The fact that it was a very small crowd meant that, unexpectedly, my question got quite a bit of press attention.

Want a shot of inspiration?  Watch for yourself and share in the joyful shock as Ned Lamont and the Lamont grassroots/netroots "crashed the gate" at the CT Democratic convention last Friday.  Lamont's inspiring and couragous campaign stunned the Democratic establishment in CT and shattered everyone's expectations to receive more than double the required number of votes to earn a place on the ballot against Joe Lieberman.

Watch at YouTube here!  

The amazing Spazeboy at La Resistance has painstakingly edited and spliced together each and every one of the 505 delegate votes at roll call at the convention last week.  It's a short video, but as each vote or group of votes for Lamont comes in, you can feel the excitement build.

Watch at YouTube here!  

And don't forget to join the official Ned Lamont for Senate blog for a related discussion.  Also, in honor of breaking yet another fundraising bat at Democracy for America, Ned Lamont will be liveblogging at Blog for America on Thursday at noon eastern time.

From ABC's Web site, it looks like the story on the Lamont/Lieberman race will be on World News Tonight's national broadcast tonight.  My Left Nutmeg is mentioned prominently.

This is a great opportunity for a national audience to be introduced to Ned Lamont.  Unfortunately, if the article posted online is a rough transcript of the narration of the piece, it looks like the segment is just going to be a recycling of the "angry left" meme:

Lieberman is still strongly favored to win the primary and the general election, but the angry left is making itself heard.

Want to be heard tonight, even if you can't be shouting for Ned Lamont on the floor of the Connecticut Democratic Party convention?  Donate to Ned tonight!  More below on what might be in the broadcast... UPDATE The story on didn't make the broadcast. Still available online, though, at link above.

Yesterday was the most hopeful day I've ever had as a Catholic Democrat.  The Catholic diocese of Arlington, Virginia, reputed to be the most conservative diocese in the country, decided this week to finally allow girls to become altar servers, lifting a decade-long prohibition that excluded girls from sharing in this expresssion of their faith.  When he finally changed the rule last week, Our Lady Queen of Peace church in Arlington was one of two churches in the diocese to sieze this opportunity and have girls serve at yesterday's Masses.  

For years, I've felt increasingly disconnected from the religion of my youth as I became a more staunch Christian progressive Democrat. But just as I'd come close to giving up on "being a Catholic" entirely, one little parish kept me coming back -- one renegade, ragtag, humble little parish right outside of our nation's capital, in Arlington, Virginia.  

Yesterday's joyful celebration of inclusion at Our Lady Queen of Peace made me feel hope again in the intersection of my faith, my religion, and my politics for the first time in a long time.

Things are bleak here tonight, for good reason. What intensifies all these negative emotions is a sense of powerlessness underlying all of them.

And yet we're not powerless.  So here's a diary dedicated to positive things that are in our power to do - now, tomorrow, this weekend, etc.  What are you doing?  Please share with us in comments!

Here in Virginia, Democracy for Virginia and DC for Democracy are hosting DFA for a 2-day campaign training program for grassroots activists this weekend in Falls Church.  We've got critical elections here in VA this year, and over 150 people are signed up to gain campaign leadership skills this weekend.  We'll then mobilize across Virginia to help pick up seats for Democrats in our House and to help elect Tim Kaine.  (You can join us, too!)  So tomorrow, I'll be doing last minute recruiting, finishing organizing for a candidates' forum, and getting ready for a great weekend with fellow progressives.    How about you -- we need some inspiration around here!

By now you may have noticed the new blogad that is appearing at DailyKos about the Virginia Governor's race.  It Stops in Virginia highlights how Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine is aggressively fighting back against dishonest attack ads created by the same consultants who ran despicable ads against Tom Daschle and Max Cleland.

If you, like me, watched with impotent rage as the Kerry campaign failed to fight back effectively against the Swift Boat ads, you'll be proud of Virginia's Democratic candidate for Governor.  Here's an excerpt from Tim Kaine's video message about fighting back:

On Monday night, I wrote a diary encouraging dKos readers to contribute to Bruce Roemmelt, an educator and retired firefighter who is running a great grassroots campaign against one of the most radical right-wing religious zealots in the Virginia House of Delegates, Robert Marshall.

My diary on Monday featured information on Marshall's extreme anti-abortion zealotry.  He's the former Executive Director of the American Life League, which opposes abortion in cases of rape, incest, and even to save the life of the pregnant woman.

In today's diary (below the jump), I discuss the growing mainstream acceptance of right-wing radicals like Marshall.

In Monday's diary comments, 13 new donors joined Bruce's campaign - Virginians who learned more about this race and Kossacks around the country who know that taking back America in 2006 starts with taking back VA in 2005!  Thank you to everyone who joined the campaign!

Bruce is now just over $1,000 away from his fundraising goal for his first financial reporting period in the campaign.  My goal is to inspire 10 more donors to contribute to Bruce tonight!

Many of you have read my diaries this year about right-wing extremism in the Virginia House of Delegates.  This year, we VA Kossacks have fought against bills this year that proposed:

• a ban on adoptions by gay and lesbian Virginians
  
• bills in support of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage
  
• a bill that would make it a felony to give contraceptives to teenage rape victims
  
• a bill to take money away from school systems with overcrowded schools
  
• three bills to restrict access to abortion

With all the other horrible bills that were introduced in the VA House this year, what do these bills have in common?  They were all introduced by Delegate Robert Marshall, an extreme right-wing zealot representing VA's 13th district (Manassas/Prince William).

This year, Marshall faces a great Democratic opponent - a great guy, Bruce Roemmelt, an educator and retired firefighter.  Bruce is currently trying to raise $30,000 before the end of this month.

My goal is to inspire 10 Kossacks to donate to this race tonight - read more about the race below, or ask me any questions about it in the comments!

I was hoping to hear from the good doctor Dean on this, and he did not disappoint.  As quoted in the Knoxville News Sentinel (reg.) Gov. Dean, talking to Tennessee reporters in advance of his first trip to TN as Chair of the DNC, rebuked Sen. Bill Frist for his video diagnosis quackery involving Terry Schiavo (emphasis mine):

Sen. Frist inexplicably then accuses Dean of trying to "stir the political pot" over the Schiavo case.  Details after the jump.

In January, DailyKos was part of a major success: influencing a Virginia legislator to withdraw a bill that would have required women to report miscarriages to the police within 12 hours, or face up to a year in jail.

After I wrote this diary (cross-post from Democracy for Virginia) about HB1677 in Virginia, hundreds of blogs linked to the story, most notably infertility and miscarriage blogs like Chez Miscarriage.  VA Delegate John Cosgrove received hundreds of  emails critical of the bill.   In just a few days, the story hit VA newspapers and TV stations, and we celebrated here when Delegate Cosgrove announced he was withdrawing the bill on the very first day of the VA General Assembly session.

ABC's Nightline is airing a segment on blogging tonight which includes coverage of the blog-inspired firestorm against HB1677 in VA.  I was interviewed for the piece, as was Delegate Cosgrove.  Based on the questions that I was asked during the interview it appears that the segment will include, if not entirely focus on, the ethics of blogging.

Here's a disappointing update on my diary earlier today on SB456, the Birth Control Protection Act, in Virginia.

The anti-medical science Devolites-Davis Amendment passed in the Virginia Senate today, removing Senator Mary Margaret Whipple's scientific terminology which defined how a contraceptive prevents pregnancy.

Since the bill as amended today by Devolites-Davis is now useless as a means to protect access to at-risk birth control methods such as the oral contraceptive pill, Senator Whipple (D-Arlington) will move to withdraw the entire bill tomorrow rather than have it pass in its new science-free form.

More on this major defeat for reproductive freedom in Virginia (coming soon to a state near you!) and 10 Handy Dandy Ideas for What You Can Do Now below the fold.