10 reasons to get out of Iraq .......NOW..................jc is first..............

http://www.populistamerica.com/top_ten_reasons_to_get_out_of_iraq_now

dean is first

DFA is in front calling for the incompetent Gonzales to be removed,  The notion that his having "done nothing wrong" is sufficient to qualify him to continue in office is outrageous. 

Our pathetic front-runners. A diary over at Daily Kos.

click

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5...

Yes, Gonzalez should be impeached. Impeach the whole lot of them.

Are you sure we didn't read this on the blog yesterday?

Gore Notes:

Tom Bearse
Tue, 05/22/07
9:14 am
__________________________________________________________________________

Now, WHY do you say its ridiculous when I tell you that Detroits payroll in 2002 was the leagues highest or close to it...........an All star lineup?  Hall of famers? Do you DENY this? Brett Hull?  Brendan Shanahan? Yzerman? Chelios? Hasek? Federov?

Its Ok Tom................its the same sorta stuff we hear from Yankees fans..thats why we enjoy watching them lose.........................

mary vb
Tue, 05/22/07
9:13 am
__________________________________________________________________________

Tell your son I wear my Duke lacrosse shirt alot these days.........................always gets a conversation going...............hey!  They are in the Final 4!!!!!!!!!  Would be worth a giggle or two if they win it all next weekend................

cheers

DFA at Take Back America Conference. June 18-20  by linda b Published Monday, 05/21/07 @ 03:41 pm Edit Post

Many of you hear me tout the TBA Conference. It is a Progressive's dream conference.

www.ourfuture.org

The speakers are world class, the plenaries are outstanding and informative. One leaves the conference with so much valuable information to take back to their communities.

Speakers this year include John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Jim Webb, Dennis Kucinich, Jason Alexander, Randi Rhodes and so many more.

I have often wondered why Democracy for America isn't involved and even set up an information table.

This year it may happen.. I have been talking to HQ and they are willing to pay one half of the cost of the table - the total is $750. They are going to pay $375 and we need to pay the rest - $375. I am willing to put in $50 so we need help with the rest ($325)

Can you help?

Also we need wireless laptops and people to man them throughout the convference.

HQ will supply literature.

I am willing to do my part, can you help? If so email me via dfa link message and I will give you the info on how you can donate.

http://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=20387

Thanks in advance. Hope you can help make this happen for DFA

Linda Brooks

Newport News, VA

Al Gore and his new book, "Assault on Reason," which hits the markets today are also first today!

Gore 2008

2.

Monica Smith
Tue, 05/22/07
9:06 am


...incompetent Gonzales to be removed...
----------

Monica, those AREN'T simple "Texas cowboys".

The very fact of what this administration (and any of its members) managed to accomplish in such a short time says ALL.

The talk about this administration's "incompetence" says even more about REAL incompetence of those who is talking.

Good morning core of dreamers -- here's another commentary on the Gore book:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/050...

The user's guide to Gore fever
By: Ben Smith
May 21, 2007 01:39 PM EST

It's been a good week for the Al Gore un-campaign, beginning with a Time magazine cover that implicitly compares him with Jesus: "The Last Temptation of Al Gore."

...

There is also a core of dreamers who believe that justice and history alike hurtled off-track in the disputed 2000 election and are yearning for a Gore comeback to set things right in 2008.

...

Mike wrote "Now, WHY do you say its ridiculous when I tell you that Detroits payroll in 2002 was the leagues highest or close to it...........an All star lineup? Hall of famers? Do you DENY this? Brett Hull? Brendan Shanahan? Yzerman? Chelios? Hasek? Federov?

Its Ok Tom................its the same sorta stuff we hear from Yankees fans..thats why we enjoy watching them lose........................."

This is a little harder than I anticipated, but I’ll soldier on. We are discussing two things: 1) the dynasty teams of the pre-salary cap era & 2) the closely guarded travel and schedule advantage of the Eastern Conference teams.

There’s no need to remind Tiger fans that everyone, with the exception of Yankee fans, enjoys watching the Yankees lose. Why is that? Because they’re so good. The Yankees, like the Red Sox, are interesting to watch because they’re a super team and it’s a feat to beat them. Now apply this to the pre-lockout NHL. What were the great teams, the dynasties, the teams people remember, write about, and talk about? The Wings in the 50's, the Canadiens in the 70's, the Oilers and Islanders in the 80's, the Wings and the Devils more recently. The reasons are exactly the same. Those were great teams and great teams to beat. They generated excitement. Stakes were high when you faced them. Pride was on the line. They were the measuring sticks.

But it became an expensive proposition to stay competitive in the modern era, so the cheap, broke-ass teams banded together to create enough leverage to 1) save money and 2) level the playing field. That’s why I wrote the Eastern Conference cabal has an interest in lining their pockets, not preserving the quality of the league. It’s just a lottery now. You may have good luck, go on a run, or somehow manage to assemble a good team for a year that beats the competition. Championship teams are a flash in the pan, as you know.

The reason I wrote that everything else you said was ridiculous was because I said that now that the Eastern Conference mafia had ruined the sport by eliminating the super teams, they ensured that any further improvements to the sport would get bottled up in committee, and for the most obvious reasons. Having done away with the advantage for teams who actually invested in their product, they aborted any effort to do away with the built in travel and schedule advantage they enjoy as Eastern teams in geographical proximity to each other. After your Hall of Fame critique of the Wings, you called me a whiner for calling out these frauds for what they are: rapacious owners who value their money (because distant travel is both expensive and costs games in the long run) more than the integrity of the sport (because true competition should favor the better, harder working and more motivated teams, not the teams who have it easier than others in the league.) That’s what’s ridiculous about what you wrote.

I hope this helps clear that up, because this is one long, boring post.

I hope this helps clear that up, because this is one long, boring post.

___________________________________________________________________________

Yes Tom................only smart thing in it...............OK, so whats your beef with the East and where teams are located and schedule?  What would you propose? Relocate the entire city of Detroit to, say................Charlotte, NC maybe?  Actually, taking into consideration Detroits dwindling population, crime, stagnant economy, etc................that might  not be such a bad idea.....dont let word get around on this one.......................cheers and jolly good luck tonite...............

Back from China...

It was terrible to hear about jc. I still have some of her campaign sites in my bookmarks and look back with fondness to the days of the Dean campaign and her contributions.  Mortality is a pain, and it faces us all.  Unexpected reminders shock us all, and remind us all.

rich glad to see you back safe from china, the only time I was there in the 80's it was quite a place. in turmoil.

rich^kolker
Tue, 05/22/07
10:10 am

__________________________________________________________________________

Great picture of the wall Rich.

Mike wrote "so whats your beef with the East and where teams are located and schedule? What would you propose? cheers and jolly good luck tonite.."

Thanks. This may be too esoteric for other readers. If so, and the subject genuinely interests you, we can take off the blog, but my solution is reconfiguring the league into North and South Conferences (or geographically mixed conferences, similar to baseball’s American and National Leagues.)

In the North would be Boston; Buffalo; Calgary; Chicago; Detroit; Edmonton; Minnesota; Montreal; New Jersey; the New York Rangers; the New York Islanders; Ottawa; Philadelphia; Toronto and Vancouver. In the South would be Anaheim; Atlanta; Carolina; Colorado; Columbus; Dallas; Florida; Los Angeles; Nashville; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; San Jose; St. Louis; Tampa Bay and Washington.

The new conferences would spread out games among teams more and, importantly, spread travel miles more evenly among teams, because teams in the eastern population centers will be making more frequent trips west, the way current Western teams do, to play other teams in their conference. The distance traveled between games during the regular season would tend to average out among teams more evenly than it did formerly.

Not long ago this separation between more traditional and more expansion teams might have made the interconference rivalry seem one-sided. But a cursory review of the current league-wide standings tends to show that with the parity introduced by the last CBA, and the recent success of teams in non-traditional markets like Tampa Bay and Carolina, the distribution of decent and dog teams has become relatively even.

3.

mary,

The piece on Daily Kos you linked to is right-wing stuff.

It's written by one of the many elephants trying to pass themselves off as donkeys by throwing in an obvious but trivial negative item about Repug candidates, then manage to negate ALL the Dems for everything they do. Silly and ridiculous child's play. I'm surprised it's on Daily Kos at all.

In the North would be Boston; Buffalo; Calgary; Chicago; Detroit; Edmonton; Minnesota; Montreal; New Jersey; the New York Rangers; the New York Islanders; Ottawa; Philadelphia; Toronto and Vancouver. In the South would be Anaheim; Atlanta; Carolina; Colorado; Columbus; Dallas; Florida; Los Angeles; Nashville; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; San Jose; St. Louis; Tampa Bay and Washington.

__________________________________________________________________________

Tom,

Now THATS a good solution...............you guys get the likes of Buffalo, NY, Philly .............Ill hold my nose for TB, Atl, and Pittsburgh....................granted we only played Anaheim and SJ once, but we took em out early....................

Prediction for tonite...............Detroit 3- 2

China is an interesting place - trying to do capitalism without democracy and so far having quite a bit of success with it.  Shanghai (the new part) looks like something out of a science fiction movie and the national bird of China is the construction crane.  Still, per capita income is way below ours and the transition from a guaranteed to an "at risk" society is leaving quite a few behind.  Still, if they pull it off, I can see a lot of other dictators seeing China as a model to permit them to keep their power while keeping the people mollified by letting them increase their standard of living, if not their freedom.

It is time for a True  Liberal Party !

The Democratic Party is acting like the Left wing of the Republican Party.

America doesn't need TWO Republican Parties.

Wardell wrote "America doesn't need TWO Republican Parties."

I'm not certain in needs one.

The old saying is true: The rich are different.

But not only do their values and habits set them apart from the hoi polloi, they're different from their wealthy predecessors of a generation ago. For those interested in joining their ranks, it helps to understand why.

To enter the nation's top 1%, you need more than $5 million. And if you get there, you'll have plenty of newly arrived company: The number of U.S. "pentamillionaires" has quadrupled in the past 10 years, to more than 930,000.

Indeed, 70% of the nation's big family fortunes are less than 13 years old, according to The Harrison Group, a research and marketing firm. And the people who amassed those fortunes are primarily entrepreneurs -- risk takers for whom wealth is a byproduct of pursuing their passion.

What got them to the highest level? It isn't necessarily stock market savvy: On average, folks who recently hit the $5 million mark report that only 10% of their money came through passive investments. And only 10% of pentamillionaires inherited their wealth.

One might think that good fortune would play a role, but even luck is largely a matter of one's own making. Psychologist Richard Wiseman has found that people who describe themselves as lucky share common habits that account for their success: They're friendly and fond of new experiences, traits that put them on a collision course with new opportunities. In addition, "lucky" folks simply have higher expectations of success -- they're too pigheadedly optimistic to heed the long odds and call it quits.

Not to say that getting rich is simply a matter of having a swell attitude. The path to riches usually involves the kind of risk that would make most people feel a little queasy.

Harrison Group head Jim Taylor recently persuaded more than 3,000 pentamillionaires to discuss their paths to success. Perhaps not surprisingly, none of them had a cushy union job down at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The vast majority -- 80% -- either started their own businesses or worked for small companies that saw explosive growth. Almost all of them made their fortunes in big lump sums after many years of effort.

Surprisingly, today's very rich say that money itself wasn't much of a motivator. Once you've got food in your belly and a big-screen TV, the mere prospect of more Benjamins isn't enough to get you leaping out of bed at 5 a.m. Rather, rich folks often make their fortunes after they make up their minds to solve a problem or do something better than it's been done before.

When Frank Darras graduated from law school, all he wanted in terms of material wealth was a middle-class life for his wife and kids. But while working as a doctor's assistant to put himself through school, he developed a burning desire to help the folks he saw struggling with unpaid insurance claims.

"It was the David-and-Goliath aspect that attracted me more than anything," says the Ontario, Calif., attorney. Once he had his degree, Darras was like a cruise missile aimed at the insurance industry. By 1990, Darras had his first million-dollar year, and today he oversees one of the nation's largest disability- and long-term-care practices. "I never thought I'd make $5 million in two lifetimes," he says. "I just loved the work."

Getting rich also requires a certain amount of stubbornness and clarity of purpose. Consultant Joel Kurtzman, who evaluated 350 startups for his book "

," found that successful outlets usually have a team of two or three founders who share a common vision; the success rate for this model was a remarkable 50%.

Jarvinen is now the majority shareholder in two dot-coms, and he claims an eight-figure net worth. But what really excites him is his freedom to explore and support new ideas; his current passion is mentoring younger entrepreneurs.

"I'm interested in doing whatever I want, whenever I want," he says.

Chances are you feel similarly. When people dream of getting rich, it's about more than nice clothes and fancy vacations. Being rich means freedom: to spend your time as you please, to pursue your real interests and to take chances without courting utter ruin. Paradoxically, the road to riches often means acting as if you already have that freedom.

Al Gore's book "Assualt on Reason", it's first day on sale, is now FOURTH on Amazon's bestselling list!!!

Go Al!

As for the TBA conference. things are moving nicely. update soon. thank you, you know who.

25. Joan - Did you purchase Gore's book? I think I'm going to head down the mountain and get my copy today.

7. -- Mike - Yes, we'll be cheering Duke on in the playoffs. My son has had his best lacrosse season. They moved him from attack to midi. He loves it. Scrappy little guy.

Fox Mulder wrote "To enter the nation's top 1%, you need more than $5 million."

In 2002, the uppermost .1 percent, (the top one-thousandth percent) of U.S. earners, about 145,000 taxpayers, had incomes, not fortunes, of at least $1.6 million. The average income was $3 million. The share of income in the U.S. earned by this .1 percent doubled since 1980 to 7.4 percent while the share earned by the bottom 90 percent fell.

In 2001, 338,4000 households had a net worth of over $10 million. That figure grew more than 400 percent from 1980, even though the total number of all households grew only 27 percent during the same period.

Those top 145,000 taxpayers, the .1 percent of the population, received 15 percent of the Bush tax cuts. Fifty-three percent of the tax cuts went to the top 10 percent of income earners.

Now for the money shot: the 400 top income earners earn a minimum of $87 million in 2000. Yes, that’s correct. The poorest of these 400 families earned $87 million that year.

Five million dollars is nice but let’s face it. These boobs are nobody. About 14,000 households, the top .01 percent, earned a minimum of $5.5 million in 2005 alone. The imbalance in wealth distribution between the hyper rich and everyone else, even these pikers with $5 million to their name, is nothing short of staggering. I guess we know which ones have Bush’s ear on tax and energy policy.

Speaking about energy policy...Here is the real reason for going to Iraq...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0518/p01s0...
[snip]
"Fueling new resistance to the oil benchmark are reports that the draft law in fact says little about sharing oil revenues among Iraqi groups and a lot about setting up a framework for investment that may be disadvantageous to Iraqis over the long term. On the flip side: Iraq's oil industry badly needs new investment, and oil companies are reluctant to go into Iraq without a legal framework that ensures that the contracts they sign will be respected by future Iraqi governments."

24.

Tom Bearse
Tue, 05/22/07
11:10 am

Wardell wrote "America doesn't need TWO Republican Parties."

I'm not certain in needs one.
-----------
I'm certain it needs none.

"none" above means neither Reps nor Demos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7d_e9lrcZ8 ron paul this guy is not a repug or a dem  hes  the real deal!!!

Welcome back from China Rich. nice photo.

NOTE:  Please when you nominate consider that there will be more than one winner, at least there will be a 2nd place winner, maybe a third place too :-) So please nominate several people with this in mind.

J.C. and I in 2004  started the BlogBookClub.com  together.  It did a lot for each of our lives. We haven't done one since July last summer with Greg Palast, because off-line life got in the way.

Dog Soldier 29

interesting article. 

Daniel 33  don't have spreakers on my computer :-(

O.K. I signed the impeach Gonzalez.

This sentence "In 2002, the uppermost .1 percent, (the top one-thousandth percent) of U.S. earners, . . . " should properly read "In 2002, the uppermost .1 percent, (the top one-thousandth) of U.S. earners, . . ."  to make sense.

33.

Daniel

Your "real deal" is a Repug of the worst kind. No sale here!

27.

Yes, I pre-ordered Gore's book a week ago from Amazon. You will probably get the best price there and if you have another book in mind to buy, you might want to do it as at this time as the shipping is free with  a $25.00 sale.

http://www.amazon.com/Assault-Reason-Al-Gore/dp/1594201226

35.

Chris,

I also signed. Any chance of having a summer book club this year?

rich^kolker
Tue, 05/22/07
10:10 am
Rich, I have some friends leaving for China on Friday.  Hope you left a trail of breadcrumbs along the wall.

I signed the petition too.

I may have mentioned this already, but the salt mine let me pick any book I wanted for my 5th anniversary.  There will be a sticker in the front cover dedicating it to me.  I picked The Assault on Reason.

Gore/Obama is my dream ticket.  A girl can dream, can't she?

New thead.

A few folks have a clue about Iran.

http://thinkprogress.org/iran-military-o...