Next week, something pretty unusual is going to take place in Washington, DC. Over forty veterans - all Democrats, all running for the House - will join forces to kick off the 2006 campaign season. There hasn't been a gathering like this since just after World War II. And here's what they'll be doing:

* Showing their unqualified support for their brother, Rep. John Murtha, in the face of despicable swift boat attacks.

* Developing a positive message to unite the Band of Brothers as a political force.

* Raising much-needed awareness on issues of importance to both veterans and troops.

Here's the key part for anyone reading this: We want you there, too. If you're anywhere in the DC area, and you're as outraged as I am about the attacks on Col. Murtha, the lack of body armor for our troops, cuts in veterans benefits, and the simple fact that the Bush presidency has made us less safe, less strong, and less secure, then join us on the steps of the US Capitol (west lawn) at 10am on Wednesday, February 8th.

On Tuesday, California will hold another special election - this time, to fill the vacant House seat in CA's 48th CD. Our candidate is Steve Young. Here's how you can help him for the final weekend push:

• Virtual phone banking. This can be done by anyone, anywhere. The campaign sends you a list of names and numbers of district residents, and you call them to help get out the vote. Fun and easy, and if you have a cell phone with free nights and weekends, it only costs you your time. To join in this effort, send an e-mail to ca48@easyco.com.

• Volunteer. If you leave in or near the district, contact the campaign and help pound the pavement. You can sign up on this page, but your best bet at this point is to call the campaign directly at (949) 640-4400. You can also send an e-mail to marion@steveyoungforcongress.com with your availability. The district is in Orange County - the HQ is in Irvine. In other words, not too far for those of you in LA or San Diego to come up for a day. The weekend weather looks quite pleasant.

• E-mail your California friends. Tell them about this race. Even if you aren't sure if they live in CA-48, they probably know someone who does. Word of mouth is key.

• Keep an eye on BigDog04's diaries. He's our source for info straight from the campaign.

Let's do this thing!

Plus, House race guru Superribbie details why he thinks we might have a shot in this district.

Sorry for the temporary outage at the Swing State Project. We went to bed last night with just 3 days left in the month but 13% of our bandwidth quota remaining. Shoulda been fine, right? Well, 24,000 visitors in one day can change that equation right quick. Thanks for bearing with us!

Also, if you come visit the SSP, you'll notice we've made a bit of a change to our site design. We've replaced our long column of category and date archive links (which used to be on the left, below our main ad strip) with drop-down menus that are now accessible at the top of the screen. Things may look a little wonky as we work out the kinks, so please let us know if you spot a problem.

Speaking of which, Bob & Tim have been on fire of late, and what you see on the front page is only a small sampling of what they've been pouring out. Some good places to start would be the "July 2005" archive, and if you're here looking for news about the Ohio special election, try, well, the "Ohio" category.

If you're a devotee of the Swing State Project, you may have noticed that the site was inaccessible this morning. Turns out we had exceeded our bandwidth allotment - looks like we're getting kinda popular. Anyhow, this is a good kind of problem to have, and we're back online, up and running.

If you're not already aware, the SSP is keeping close track of all the key races in 2005 & 2006 (and, sometimes, beyond), including Senate, House and gubernatorial campaigns. One which is near and dear to my heart, as you might expect, is the race for the governor's mansion in New York.

It's always interesting to watch a prominent politician's career slowly, slowly circle the drain. It's like a toilet bowl inside a centrifuge: There's already a morbid coriolis effect before someone reaches out to finally flush it. George Pataki is most definitely jiggling the handle:

Alrighty, I know this isn't very diary-worthy, but I've seen a lot of comments around here wondering if DailyKos is down. It is, and it isn't.

Markos has been having DNS issues with his registrar:

You can still get to the site by going directly to the IP address, which is http://69.9.161.200/. Hopefully all the problems will be fixed soon.

Update [2005-3-16 0:9:45 by DavidNYC]: Peeder has a helpful diary offering a semi-permanent workaround for the DNS problem. You can access it here.

Apologies if this has already been posted. (The main-page post on this topic a few days ago didn't have the full 411, it seems.) If this is a re-post, I'll delete it.

Click to the flip for info on the remaining three (Midwestern, Western, and Eastern) regional caucuses for the DNC. (The Southern Caucus has already taken place.)