I have gone to Sen. Clinton's website and sent an email from the entry page, and would just like to encourage others in this community to follow suit.  The email follows after the jump.

The groundwork is in place.  Democrats Abroad has made a (sometimes tough) transition to Web 2.0. Emails will be rolling into in-boxes around the world this week, inviting members to sign up for the Democrats Abroad Global Primary.

Americans who live outside the US, no matter where, have an historic opportunity to vote in the Feb. 5-12 Global Primary, which will shape our delegation to the Democratic National Convention.  While we have gone high-tech, offering secure internet voting and options for snail mail or faxed ballots, we also offer traditional balloting at voting centers in nearly 100 sites around the world.  The response has been terrific; not only are young members, like Nickin New Delhi, jazzed, we're attracting new members at quite a clip.

Update:  Server issues at the Democrats Abroad site appear now resolved.  Regrets for any inconvenience.

In response to an earlier diary, swissffun said "if you think expat votes count--great.  I just don't"  

This is a common enough assertion, both in the US and abroad, that we ought to look at some numbers which demonstrate otherwise.  The naysayers don't vote, they discourage others from voting, and the result in 2006 was that of the 3-6 million Americans living abroad, perhaps 1 million tried to vote, and the votes of only one in three of those were counted.

That reasoning leads us on a downward spiral--but there's evidence that suggests that even given the low levels of 2006 overseas voting, we did have an impact.  To strengthen that impact, register, vote, and let your voice be heard!

OK, Democrats in DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands or American Samoa may argue they are the real 51st state.  But it's estimated there are between 3 and 6 million of us Americans living outside the borders of the US, from South Africa to the Ukraine, from Australia to Denmark (our newest country committee) to Argentina, Singapore and Viet Nam (new committees in the works).

And we're geared up and ready to go!  Democrats Abroad is in the process of finalizing the list of locations of voting centers around the globe, where Americans can cast ballots in the Global Democratic Primary. Updated to add a bit about why Democrats Abroad is important.

Hillary Clinton indicated in the Drexel U debate that she did not know how you pursue al-Queda without engaging them in combat, as a rationale for keeping troops in Iraq longer.

I will not focus on whether we are in fact engaging al-Queda in Iraq in combat, but on the underlying premise that troops and fixed battles are the way to deal with a terrorist organization.  I am not a specialist in this area, but from the moment I watched the 9/11 tragedy unfold on TV, I thought "al-Queda".  (In the 1990s, many of us who worked in or flew to and from Asia knew of Philippine warnings to the US tha al-Queda planned to bomb airplanes over the Pacific, so this thought is perhaps not as far-fetched as it might seem.)

At least seven bombs went off at venues around Bangkok starting around 6:30 p.m. Dec. 31 (12 hours ahead of EST).  New Year's partygoers were asked to disperse from the Central World Plaza and Sanam Luang, two of the city's top places for seeing out the old year.

Although an initial police press conference tried to pin the blame on Southern Muslim separatists, Government House sources suggested that followers of ousted Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra was behind the attacks http://www.nationmultimedia.com/...

Online as well as dipping into the Pacific Ocean?  Obama is said to be weighing his options, and looking at the level of support that comes in http://www.barackobama.com/... and here http://www.draftobama.org/...

I take no position either way on Obama as a presidential candidate, but feel that he brings something new to the debate--not just the possibility of breaking the race barrier to the White House.  He is articulate, frames issues well--but uses his great skill with language to hedge his bets at times?

Greg Palast granted an interview to Democrats Abroad International Communications Director Sharon Manitta, in which he shared his views on election 2006, saying  "The election won't be a referendum on Iraq, it will be about boys kissing boys and resurrecting the brain dead."

There's more

As we celebrate the 230th anniversary of America's independence, the global Kos community voices concerns about actions of the Bush administration which undermine the basis of our independence through repeated violations of the Constitution.  For Americans living abroad, these developments create an acute sense of concern:  many of us live in states where the struggle for democracy is yet incomplete, and where America has in years past been a shining example for their aspirations.  The repeated invocation of liberty and freedom by the Bush administration stands in sharp contrast to the reality, both at home and abroad.  

Democrats Abroad has developed a terrific tool to assist voters living outside the US to register and request absentee ballots, available at www.VoteFromAbroad.org, now in a Spanish-language version as well as English.  Since my May diary about the launch of this voter registration wizard, thousands of voters across every continent have registered to vote absentee, representing every American state.  

(From the diaries, DarkSyde)

Some 3 plus million Americans living overseas are believed to be eligible to vote--but fewer than 60% of civilian Americans are believed to have done so in '04.

Democrats Abroad this weekend are launching a terrific voter registration tool for US citizens living outside the US: VoteFromAbroad. Share the word with anyone in your contacts list who lives abroad.

You know why this election is important.  Please help us spread the word and get your friends, relatives, and colleagues registered to vote Democratic!

Update [2005-8-24 12:50:12 by redstaterabroad]: Changed the title to get at the hear of this. Truthout has a Marjorie Cohn interview with General Janis Karpinski which deserves to see the light of day in newspapers across the country.  See http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082405Z.shtml

I had been hesitant to speak out before because this Administration is so vindictive. But now I will ... Anybody who confronts this Administration or Rumsfeld or the Pentagon with a true assessment, they find themselves either out of a job, out of their positions, fired, relieved or chastised. Their career comes to an end.
-- Janis Karpinski, interview with Marjorie Cohn, August 3, 2005

Donkeys in the Desert represent Democrats
Abroad in Iraq; they were referenced in this piece in the Yew Yorker:  http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?040614ta_talk_mcgrath and here:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6257852/

The author of the following letter, Kael Weston, was interviewed at the Democratic Convention:  http://www.pacificviews.org/weblog/archives/000337.html

Weston's letter, circulated to Democrats Abroad with explicit urging to pass it on, is below the jump.

Two weeks ago, I wrote CO Sen. Wayne Allard about the nuclear option, suggesting that he consider how the Repubs might view the situation if the shoe were on the other foot--Democrats in control of the White House, Senate, and House.

His lengthy response (more below the fold) invokes terrorism as a justification for eliminating the filibuster, and argues that a Circuit Court "vacancy crisis" exists.

"In light our Nation's ongoing fight with terrorism, it is readily
apparent that we face a new age of global unrest, a world in which terror has replaced formal declarations of war as the major threat against freedom and democracy.  A necessary component of providing justice to those who would do harm to our nation is to maintain an efficient court system - a court equipped with the personnel and resources that enable it to fulfill its role as a pillar of our constitutional system of governance."

Full letter below the fold; apologies for my inadequacies in formatting.

One thing badly needed is a place where relatives and friends of those who were vacationing in the tsunami-affected areas can post photos and contact information.  A google search didn't find much, but for those who had loved ones in Thailand, the Phuket Gazette is providing such a facility: