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Yes, Mr. Gore Must Seek The White House To Solve These Crisis' We Face
John Nichols states the case for Al Gore to seek the Presidency better than ever.
Gore Wins the Norwegian Primary
By John Nichols, The Nation 10-12-07
Having now won the Norwegian Primary, it is reasonable to ask why Al Gore would want to slog his way through the snows of New Hampshire.
But the inconvenient truth is that never has the man who might yet be president needed to more seriously consider his personal legacy--not to mention the small matter of his potential to make the world anew--than now.
There is, after all, the matter of the open space at the end of what is now the most remarkable resume of anyone seeking – or considering seeking – the presidency.
Let's review.
This is how Al Gore's resumé reads as of this morning:
Son of a great senator.
Harvard graduate, with honors.
Vietnam veteran.
Award-winning investigative journalist.
Congressman.
Senator.
Vice President.
Winner of the popular vote for President of the United States.
Best-selling author.
Environmental activist.
Academy Award winner.
And, now, Nobel Peace Prize winner--he shares the prize with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--for "their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about manmade climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
As resumés go, that is one for the top of the pile.
But it begs the question: Shouldn't a man who has gotten this far be thinking about how to finish the journey?
And isn't the last stop the Oval Office?
To think that Gore is not pondering these questions today would be absurd.
Of course, the former vice president says,
No doubt about that.
But Gore cannot feign ignorance of his own "political issue." When he appeared in San Francisco on the eve of Friday morning's announcement, at a fundraising event for California Senator Barbara Boxer ☼, the man of the hour tried to deliver an earnest address about climate change. But when he concluded his remarks, the crowd burst into chants of "Run Al Run!"
That message echoed the full-page ad that was placed by the burgeoning "Draft Gore for President" movement in the front section of Wednesday's New York Times. The advertisement bluntly suggested that the announced contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination lack Gore's ``vision, standing in the world, and political courage" -- not just with regard to climate change, but in his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq, his defenses of civil liberties and his advocacy for a renewed commitment to science and reason.
"There are times for politicians and times for heroes. America and the Earth need a hero right now," read the Draft Gore movement's open letter to the soon-to-be Nobel man. "Please rise to this challenge, or you and millions of us will live forever wondering what might have been."
Now, that's pressure. But it is a velvet grip in which the peace prize winner finds himself.
Al Gore has arrived at the point that most politicians can only imagine in their wildest dreams. The entire world is asking him to be not merely a candidate but an ecological--not to mention, ideological --savior. And there is simply no question that he is viable. In fact, he is more viable than he has ever been.
Can Gore resist? Probably.
Should he resist? Probably not.
Sure, it will be said that Gore can do more to address climate change as a private citizen. But no one who as been so close to the presidency as he will miss the point that the most powerful official on the planet has some sway in matters involving the planet.
The last serious presidential prospect to win a Nobel Peace Prize was Teddy Roosevelt, who got the award when he was serving as president in 1906. (The Norwegians were impressed that he had convinced Japanese and Russian representatives to come to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and that he had then gotten them to negotiate an end to a nasty little war they had been waging.)
Roosevelt exited the presidency in 1908 and almost immediately began to regret the decision. The peace prize was not enough to get Republicans to ditch his successor, the hapless William Howard Taft, and put Roosevelt at the head of their 1912 ticket. But TR did run the most successful third-party presidential campaign of the 20th century that year – as a "Bull Moose" Progressive.
Roosevelt never got over his belief that, had he just won the Republican nomination in 1912, he would again have been president. And, eight years later, at a point after the horrors of World War I when people were taking peace prizes rather more seriously, he was widely encouraged to make a run for the Republican nomination that probably would have secured him not just the party line but the presidency.
Roosevelt did not need much encouragement. Barely 60 -- the age Gore will turn next March -- the Rough Rider was ready for one more charge; indeed, family members and friends reported that he was raring to go.
Only the coronary embolism that did him in on January 6, 1919, was powerful enough to cure TR's case of presidency lust. And there is no reason to believe that Al Gore, a man who bid first for the presidency in 1988, considered running in 1992, spent eight years as an understudy, then bid again in 2000 – winning the Democratic nomination and the popular vote, but losing the job on a 5-4 technical call by the Supreme Court -- is any less inclined that Roosevelt was to give it another try.
There will be a lot of "fire-in-the-belly" talk over the next few days.
But Al Gore should not be worrying about checking his gut.
He should be thinking about the resume he has spent a lifetime preparing.
It is more impressive than ever.
Unfortunately, the suddenly more impressive character of Gore's resume only serves to emphasize that it remains incomplete.
A Nobel Prize for Peace is a fine honor. But take it from a man who won the presidency and the prize but could not leave the political arena.
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better," Teddy Roosevelt said as he prepared another run for the White House. "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=242088
308.
Monica Smith
Sat, 10/13/07
3:01 pm
296.
Sorry to disagree, but we lived in Florida for fifteen years without "pest control."...
===================
Lucky you ... I'm a web acquaintance of a woman in San Luis Obispo, CA, she and her son who have a life-threatening form of MCS. They often lose consciousness from triggers.
She got it when living in Florida. Somebody pump 300 pounds of Dursban, a termite killer, into the ground under her house before they built it. It has since been banned, and may have come back under Bush and the Bugman. Not sure.
cC, you might ask her if it is psycho-somatic. (just kidding, couldn't resist):-)
http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/22555...
last thread (shortcut)
only 800 signatures away from the 200 Thousand mark! woohoo, should break it today, because it's jumped by leaps and bounds since Wednesday.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/algor...
When you guys quit eating meat I will give up pest control :~) Altho I understand about the chemicals. Just not willing to make the trade. I remember many years ago living in student housing at UF even WITH pest control you had to wash out your coke bottles, keep things like rice and spaghetti in the fridge, and you still had to stomp your feet or turn on the light before you entered a room. Gross! Yuk!
Hey, Annilow, hubby resorted to eating bugs when in college after giving up meat. So I can see how giving up meat can cut down on bugs. (ucckkk) :)
5. Annilow
even WITH pest control you had to wash out your coke bottles,
==============
"even WITH"? After a while the insects become resistant to chemical poisons and some even thrive on the petro-chemical base. The birds that eat them die and the competing insect die, and the next generation of infestation is often even worse.
Chemicals poisons are no panacea, or even permanent control.
You should read "Silent Spring." It is 47 years old but has timeless lessons and written in layman's language.
5.Annilow
... you still had to stomp your feet or turn on the light before you entered a room. Gross! Yuk!
=================
Tell me about it.
I lived in an infested neighborhood in New Jersey, and Lower East Side of Manhattan. Very familiar with cockroaches.
My sister lived in a building for over ten years. They fumigated all the apartments, including hers once/month. She got ovarian c. at 41. She died 8 years later. You have to look at it from both sides.
correction - 6 years later - I don't really like to talk about it. Of course, there's no scientific proof of cause and effect, but nobody in government or industry was looking for it either. They were too busy making $500,000 on her chemo before she died.
Yeah I hear ya Fred. Am sorry about your Sis. I know NYC has a lot of the little buggers tho.
Once the roaches get into the cinder blocks to nest, spraying the interior doesn't do any good.
10. Annilow
=============
She lived on 4th Street, in Greenwich village (as in Bob Dylan, "Positively 4th Street) worked as a advertising aand freelance writer. She did pretty well.
What is interesting is that at the time in my life, I was becoming a bit more conservative, and she was always on the Left, and always a Democrat. However, I was always more environmental aware and started eating organic since the early seventies.
The only thing organic available was Peanut Butter and Rice. A lot different than today when you can even get organic beef and pork.
I was a vegetarian for 15 years because I had read "Diet for a Small Planet" where she explains how pesticides accumulate in carnivores over their lifetime.
I started eating meat again, as part of diet and other therapy to get rid of a 20-year yeast overgrowth problem I had, that was killing me. It took me 4 years but finally got rid of it, but I still have to be careful... it is almost like being an alcoholic, it can always come back more easily, once you've had it.
I used insecticides a couple of times, nonetheless. In fact, I can trace the first hint of MCS all the way back to 1985 when I sprayed my mom's house bedrooms too, for roaches, without a respirator and gloves.
the MCS really started rapidly progressing in 1998, not sure why. It may have had something to do with the campground in Maine where we were living when we were homeless.
Part of my leaning towards conservativism in the early 1980s had to do with the high-rise low-income housing projects in our very Democratic city. They infested our whole city with roaches. When they knocked them down, people moved out of them and brought the roaches with them to the nicers parts of town where I lived.
I blamed that housing blunder and the ruining of my town on Democrats because they were behind the projects. They always ran the town too. It was short-sightedness, and Republicans didn't seem that bad at the time, and they weren't, Nixon supported the environmentalists. Kean was a great liberal governor, and fiscally responsible. But the people backing the conservatives were right wing corporatists, the Neocons were waiting in the wings, and there was very little evidence of it at that time.
I was not very active in politics at the time. When I supported Democrats, I was always an activist.
Annilow, no I don't have roaches here, but had lots of them in my bungalow on Moorea. The Tahitians told me that if I started killing them, word would get out and all the relatives would come for revenge! And that seemed to be true, so I started throwing food outside for them (works here in the states for ants too) and had few problems after that. That said, an infestation would be very annoying.
14.seashell :-)
The Tahitians told me that if I started killing them, word would get out and all the relatives would come for revenge!
==============
Sounds like my old beatnik mentors in the Lower East Side in the 1960s. They used to tell me, if you kill one, about 200 come back to have a "funeral."
14. LOL -- that is prolly true -- the relatives come for revenge. See you folks after supper and a movie -- I rented an old TV movie - The Far Pavilions. I read the book a couple of summers ago - must have been bored - it took forever -- but I made it through it -- now I'm wading through the movie -- it's 2 CD's worth. So bbl.
Fred -- interesting story about your switch from conservatism and living in the woods in Maine -- sounds like between all of us we've seen a lot and done a lot. bbl
We have had odd winds this fall that scattered Asian Soybean Rust all over the midwest. So be prepared next summer while driving through to get sprayed by a low flying plane soaking you in fungicide.
Corn on corn had problems this year so the shift back to soybeans would have pressured prices but no end user of soybeans will sleep easy til a real cold spell pushes back against the rust. (kind of like those other southern pests I guess)
don't know what kind of food to throw out for that one but patches of squash draw away rootworms from corn
don't tempt me to plant a strip of kudzu
18. Phil Specht
===============
Sorry to hear that. I get organically grown cotton from the north Texas panhandle, and some years, when the State forces all cotton farmers to fumigate, they don't even have a crop. They just don't plant, or I guess maybe they destroy their crop, if it mean they'll have to spray or dust.
Be careful what you wish for.
The fact that Al's Nobel is being trashed by right wingnuts and associated media comes as no surprise. What did surprise (and appall) me is that so many on the left are criticising the award, and in the vilest of terms:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn10132007.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/hoffman10132007.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/oberg10122007.html
Cant find a link, but apparently Sirota is also making nasty.
sigh..............................
So, people are jealous of Gore. What else is new?
Besides, losers are supposed to stay lost, you know. Sort of like Dean. LOL
How 'bout that Fred Thompson?
He's tall, ey?
~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~
Fred Thompson: The Next Ronald Reagan?Fred Thompson made his first major appearance in the CNBC/MSNBC debate earlier this week. It’s difficult to say why, but Chris Matthews thought Thompson deserved more time than any of the other candidates. So how did the 18-year veteran lobbyist do?
(click for site page with youtube video)
Of the 15 minutes and 20 seconds Thompson was given, he spent over 2 minutes (14%) stuttering, confused, and stumbling over his own words. Personally, I want those 2 minutes of my life back.
—————————————–
UPDATE!!
It has been suggested on other blogs that I used several snippets more than once and that the total time wasted was closer to 30 seconds instead of 2 minutes. I’m not sure where they are getting that idea from, but I assure you, I was plugging away at this from 7:30pm to almost 2:30am. If anything, I might have left a few out because I was tired and wanted to get to bed. These are also in chronological order from the first question to the last question.
Sirota has been hard on Gore ???
ha!
you call this 'hard' ?
http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/10...
or is this where Sirota is supposedly 'hard' on Gore ???
http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/10...
c'mon folks, do a little diggin' before you spread tall tales....
I'm putting together some of the pics from last night for our website...I'll
link it when I'm done. Here is who was a surprise to see at last night's rally...
I had another huge surprise that I didn't mention last night...
a former selectboard member's son hit a deer in front of our house,
it ran up our driveway and died where I park my car.
This happened while I was traveling home and it was removed before
I arrived... my wife said it was an eight pointer...too bad.
For those that don't know that smiling face, it's Liane from DemFest
several times a week i google news "al gore." there is no more volume of negative articles today than any other day. its usually about 1 factual to 1 negative as an average. i think if you do the same search for any one who'd be on our side you'd find like results. i've never done the same for, say, "rush limbaugh." might have similar results? maybe i/you should try???
I heard a snippet today that the Burmese military is going to take off its uniforms, pretend to change, put on suits and ties, and continue the reign of terror.
After the Riots, Burma Returns to an Unspoken Terror
By Kevin Doyle
The Guardian UK
Saturday 13 October 2007
It's 9.30pm and the buses in downtown Rangoon have stopped running. People scuttle home across the city's potholed roads and broken pavements and the few taxis still operating will only make short trips. With only 30 minutes to curfew, no one takes chances with the Burmese military these days.
Carrying shotguns and assault rifles, teenagers in military and police uniforms cluster at street corners until curfew, then retreat to fenced-off government buildings as darkness settles.
When the residents of this sprawling city of five million people withdraw to their homes, only pick-up trucks carrying troops ply the downtown area, scattering the dogs that take over the empty streets until the curfew ends at 4am.
With the killing of an unknowable number of peaceful protesters and the imprisonment of thousands more during the pro-democracy demonstrations last month, many people fear reprisals by the military. At the Shwedagon pagoda, the nucleus of the protests, the military is still in force. Wearing steel helmets, flak jackets and carrying extra ammunition, the number of troops far exceeds the few old monks who potter among the golden spires of what is the spiritual centre of Burmese life.
At the pagoda's eastern gate, from which the monks began their days of peaceful marches around Rangoon, six fire trucks - the type used to water cannon crowds, not put out blazes - are stationed. Dozens of monastic houses lining the route to the gate remain locked and empty, despite reports in Burma's state-controlled media that most of the monks have been released from jail.
Sources said that around 1,000 monks had lived and studied at these small monasteries, but where they have gone is not a question that anyone ponders aloud. One man simply put his wrists together in the sign of locked handcuffs when asked where they are.
"We cannot speak. We cannot defend. We have no weapons. They have all the weapons," said another 30-year-old man, who cannot be identified for his own safety.
He, like many thousands of others, joined the monks in the early part of the protests, before the killing. What most people know is that when the military and police moved to crush the demonstrations they went after the monks under the cover of darkness - kicking in doors and bundling monks, young and old, into trucks. Buddhist nuns were also taken away. The military were too powerful to be beaten by peaceful protests but some feel that the attacks and the disappearance of the Buddhist clergy will be the undoing of General Than Shwe, the Burmese junta's leader.
"We are a Buddhist country. We believe that if you do good, you receive good. If you do bad things you receive bad things. This will be the same for the military," said the 30-year-old.
The military announced, in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, that monks and nuns taken in the raids were defrocked before interrogation and those found to not have participated in the demonstrations were reordained and sent back to their monasteries.
"The handling of the situation during the violent protests and measures taken by officials for purification of the Sasana [religion] amounts to serving the interest of the Sasana," the paper added. "Officials are to make continued efforts for perpetuation, purification and propagation of the Sasana."
Barricades remain stacked beside pavements, in the centre of wider roads and in alleys ready for use, though after the crushing of the recent protests none of those spoken to in Rangoon seem to have the stomach for more - just yet.
Many of those who took part in the protests, even as onlookers, have fled to the countryside fearing the ongoing night-time sweeps by the intelligence services who video-taped demonstrators and are now putting names to faces.
In the aftermath of the protests the military has cut the country's internet connection to stem the flood of protest images to the outside world. Cable TV, however, remains connected and residents in Rangoon watched the brutal crackdown in their city on TV sets tuned to CNN and the BBC.
In shops and hotel lobbies, Burmese staff whisper: "Have you seen CNN? Have you seen what happened?" Many said that the world had now seen the true face of their leaders thanks to images smuggled out of the country.
They hope that the international media attention will make a difference, though none believe the generals are anywhere near allowing democracy or handing over control of the country.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101307Y.shtml
my group's playing this streaming festival tomorrow 8 pm pst. you have to go to the faq to find how to listen:
http://leplacard.org/2007/%5B:%5D%20p%20l%20u%20g%20%203%20%5B:%5D%20part%202/
link didn't work? hm...
try...
http://leplacard.org/
Just about game time...Go Sox
Reed are you getting the Niki Tsongas Democrat for Congress TV Ads before the game?
^video^
34. yep, completely live...a very cool event. started in amsterdam, i think.
Can't find it, but I thought I saw A Niki Tsongas Ad tonight which went after her Rethug oponoent and the Worst Administration for their position on SCHIP. Sure would like to link it for the blog.
Whoever wins POTUS for the Dems, it will be the Congress which shapes legislation.
For me, it is ...
POTUS/Congress(Senate/House)'08
started in amsterdam, i think.
> What I would give to plug my headphones in at the Milkweg and tune in.
http://www.frameshopisopen.com/
Frameshop: Well-Crafted PhoninessAl Gore won the most famous award on the planet, but it is New York Times columnist Bob Herbert who summed up in a brilliant Op-Ed piece the significance of this year's Nobel Peace Prize for America.
The fate of Al Gore offers a window into our condition as a country and the future we are doomed to repeat--soon--if we do not wake up to this problem and fix it.
Gore, whom Herbert calls "one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, talented men in America and remarkably well-equipped to lead the nation," is the exact opposite kind of leader that America has chosen for the past decade. Herbert blames journalists for what history will mark as one of the monumental failures of all time in that profession:
In the race for the highest office in the land, we showed the collective maturity of 3-year-olds. Mr. Gore was taken to task for his taste in clothing and for such grievous offenses as sighing or, allegedly, rolling his eyes. It was a given that at a barbecue everyone would rush to be with his opponent. We’ve paid a heavy price. The president who got such high marks as a barbecue companion doesn’t seem to know up from down. He’s hurled the nation into a ruinous war that has cost countless lives and spawned a whole new generation of terrorists. He continues to sit idly by as a historic American city, New Orleans, remains wounded and on its knees. He’s blithely steered the nation into a bottomless pit of debt. I could go on.
(full text here)
Every journalist working in America should print out that passage in extra-large font and tape it next to the bathroom mirror. Better yet, they should put the passage on a chain and wear it around their necks.
[...]
John wrote "What did surprise (and appall) me is that so many on the left are criticising the award, and in the vilest of terms . . ."
Gore's just a Democrat, anyway. Don't shoot the messenger.
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/24813
Night.
paine...didn't see the ads you mentioned. Going back next door the watch the game with my wife...yep, she's a Sox fan.
bbl
Reed -- sorry about the deer -- for the deer's sake and yours. Did our party give up the ghost. Oh well...
327.
NO Fred: no point, my phone line won't handle it. I get about 17 to 19 kbs on a good day, can run at 11 or 12, and have been known to get a line speed as low as 4.
chilimac,
This is the example of Sirota bashing Gore. I found most folks at Kos expect this, but I was surprised of Palast, but folks on Kos weren't.
So todays entry on his blog was to try to do some damage control only.
Showing Us You Don't Have To Be The Opposing Party To Be The Opposition
View Edit
Posted October 13th, 2007 by LindainSFNM in Al Gore, Democrat
Last night I was listening to Air America's off hour show, Clout, and Greg Palast was guest host again. They have been bringing on the various candidates to talk about why they want be President. They are given a time slot and they bring on whomever they wish will represent them well. This week was the Edwards team.
But that was not Friday night. Last night Greg Palast was hosting and brought on David Sirota. David Sirota who is a political journalist and reports in different magazines and blogs, will also work on political campaigns. He previously spent years in DC also working as a Press Secretary for a House Representative. When he works on campaigns, he becomes an attack dog and a Hack. He has taken up with the Edwards campaign on this cycle. In what capacity, I don't know. I know he had an official title from the Lamont campaign. But he was hired late in the game there. I became more familiar with Sirota's attack tactics on the Hackett for Senate Campaign, where the Marine Major that just returned from a tour in Iraq ran a Special Election for Congress and lost by a few percent (the closest a Democrat came in decades) took the challenge asked by Democratic Leadership to now run against Mike DeWine for the Senate. With returning from Iraq, running a special US House race and jumping to a Senate run when called upon, I find a most admirable quality. All the other Ohio state elected officials turned it down. Sherrod Brown, holding the seat now, included, which is who David Sirota worked for. He displayed his tactics and worked them to the max, because after Rep Brown turned down the Senate run in August of 05, Paul Hackett accepted the challenge and and they conducted the first poll with this relatively unknown candidate, showing how close the race was to the incumbent Republican DeWine. Rep Sherrod Brown decided to change his mind a couple months later.
"If they didn't hate each other so much, David Sirota and Dan Gerstein might be friends. They certainly have a lot in common. Both are in their thirties. Both are Jewish. And both are Democratic operatives. But their greatest similarity is their shared love of vicious political combat. Sirota, a lanky 30-year-old who has worked on campaigns for Philadelphia mayor and Montana governor, once branded a political opponent a "No Talent Ass Clown.""
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20061002&...
Well, together Sirota and Palast showed that regardless of whom it is, they will go after them if they aren't paying their salaries. I think I'm most surprised at Greg Palast. Showing a side I hadn't seen before. Buying his books, driving 2 hours to go hear him, and a friend of Democracy for America, this type of attacking was new to me. For Sirota, that is his norm. With the Edwards campaign bringing on Trippi as well, makes you really guess the attack mode will be the tactic they use. But worse, fellow (supposed) Progressive (and Palast sure sold enough books on the Florida case) taking to their lying attacks on the day that Al Gore won his Nobel Peace Prize, shows they will stoop as low as possible.
You would think they are educated enough to know that NAFTA was the policy of the President, which was Bill Clinton. A Vice President doesn't make policy, but does serve at the pleasure of the President. And as his duty, he went to get the votes Clinton asked for. OK, yes, we know the attackers (Sirota and Palast) know this, they just totally misrepresented it to try to tear down Al Gore. What's that saying? - With friends like these, who needs enemies? But then, Palast went further. In a sophomoric manner, Palast whined "Oh Al, if you're out there, call me". And then the assault continued to totally misrepresent Al Gore. Palast going so far to try to tear down Al's Global warming work, by saying NAFTA and Mexico (again in that sophomoric whine) "added to Global Warming". This behavior is totally unacceptable. Palast saying hey, I don't know, where is Al Gore on this? Then proceeding to further misrepresent Al Gore, with Sirota chiming in and agreeing. It was disgusting.
for rest and full post, go here:
http://www.algore.org/blog/lindainsfnm/s...
299. puddle
This thread now takes a full five minutes to load
===============
Even a dial up shouldn't take that long. Do you have modem that has v.92 standard with v.44 compression? If not, that might be the problem.
They say the old fashioned 9-pin serial is the still the best way to go, although Intel hyperthreading CPUs may need a software patch on the driver for the serial connection, to avoid problems, so I've read. Any major brand of modem should have it by now
btw folks, the petition:
Signatures | Total: 201,326
wOOT!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/algor...
53. puddle
=============
Interesting....however the v.44 compression should help you with downloads, if the source is using it, regardless of the speed. They say up to 50%.
Do you know why your line is so slow?
39. i'd like to play there, or anywhere in amsterdam for that matter...
Just got back from Barnes & Noble - picked up a book - BLOOD AND RELIGION, The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State -
by Jonathan Cook.
With the weak dollar, it cost 24.95 for just 182 pages, because it is "printed and bound in the European Union."
Looks like it may be worth it though. It picks up in 2000 to the present. My last book, "The Iron Wall" was a history book that ended in 1999. That was a deal about 600 pages of text for 17.95.
Introduction: THE GLASS WALL A preference for deceptive borders - Iron Wall vs The Glass Wall....
-------
Back Cover:
Jonathan Cook, a former Staff Journalist of the Guardian and Observer newspapers, has also written for The Times, Le Monde diplomatique, International Herald Tribune, Al-Ahram Weekly and Aljazeera.net He is based in Nazareth, Israel.
Not sure of the date of this book, haven't read it yet, but published in 2006
another interesting band from iceland. annilow, you might like these guys...
http://www.efterklang.net/
free tracks--click downloads...
Do you know why your line is so slow?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ya. I'm about the very end of the line.
I don't know if this is real, but look at this signature
200043 Bruce Springsteen NJ Al Gore, you were Born To Run
phil, that poem last night was by me, not joni...but you're welcome to it...all to the ether....yes....only words without harm...
"daze" was the best use of language in that poem mprov
"the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls" Sounds of Silence
LSU lost in triple overtime. How goes the Tribe in their Fenway quest, extra innings?
little noticed in the ice melt
the breeze turned to gale
and when dust burned the eyes, the prophet
came to memory
the widow who nourished his crossing
provided the moisture
for the crop with her tears
but it was many years after they planted
the trees
til they rested in shade
Virginia GOP rebuffs Senate primary
RICHMOND, VA. -- Virginia Republicans will hold a convention instead of a primary to choose their candidate to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, upsetting critics who say it makes the party appear closed off.
The state party's central committee voted 47 to 37 on Saturday in favor of a convention. No date or location was decided.
Former Gov. Jim Gilmore and U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III have expressed interest in seeking the GOP nomination. Supporters of Gilmore wanted a convention, and Davis backers had argued for a primary.
Warner, 80, said in August that he would not seek a sixth consecutive Senate term next year. Two weeks later, Democrat Mark R. Warner, a former governor, who is not related to the senator, announced his candidacy for the seat.
Supporters of a convention argued that it's more economical and that the party would avoid a divisive public squabble between GOP rivals in a primary.
"Mark Warner's already got a 60% approval rating. We have to go up against that. We cannot have that and air our dirty laundry, so we have to keep it in-house," Bruce Meyer, chairman for the GOP's 2nd Congressional District, told the committee.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...
phil, go for it. your words are always taken to heart...
trying
to burst out
smiling faces past
tree lined streets
shadows follow
i can't wait
where's the other
in the closet
is there any more.
waiting.
signals crossed...
mprov
our "Alice" threads surely do need to be official, hence my offering to the Queen
your poem read like lyrics, which is why I thought it might be joni's after your next post
62.
puddle
Sat, 10/13/07
11:55 pm
Reply to this
Do you know why your line is so slow?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ya. I'm about the very end of the line
======================================
Sounds logical. Resistance is proportional to distance in wire, but you'd think the telephone company would have a booster of some kind.
if there be trumpet calls
let them be in the Great Hall
not battle line
for the fine distinction necessary
is ever lost in war
and hands clasped in purpose
cannot hold a sword
old words
springed forth
(not the newer sprung)
as the new leaves for next warming turn
of spinning orb
are too, old
very old
but the color
goes to dust anew
today in wind gust
as words to blog
one finger on the trigger
a young man steps forward
king of kings
death in the streets
a call to arms
yell to the heavens
where do i begin...
a card is tossed
one to one
where do i begin
a child remembers
hoops and hoops
step forward
proclaim allegence
a badge is awarded
where's the point
death buys religion
Jumping through hoops
left with the buffoon
holding court
our global leader must labor
outside the inner Council
why not?
the most graceful man of sport
sells underwear
as the boy runs his hoop
down streets turned dirt
deft jam
surely not of form
but entering the e-ther
of blog play
keyboard flies ball in hand
while dissed spute settled
by the king of mprov kings
on street side of chain link
glok pops
pop pop pop
three points
if only i could see
there would be regions
that get it
if only i could feel
there would be areas
that completely get it
if only could
grasp this thing
this democracy thing
this freeedom thing
maybe we'd all
benefit
or at least
remember
freedom that needs prompt has been forgotten
let me hold the cue card
this rehersal has not ended
for if performance leads to memory
rekindled we can walk from stage to street
and meet not as actors
though act we will
mprov
I got up to do a barn check since jJem is in the maternity pen, though it might be days yet, but night walks are my habit,
since paine hasn't come back with a score, I take it the Tribe won
I always enjoy the give and take of a poetry jam. and since I have grown fond of the dud dvd am looking foward to your lyrics on the next
take care, bbl
Good morning, blog. Thanks to all the BFA'ers who left url breadcrumbs in the last thread to lead me over here.
That party for Tom must have been quite a celebration!
*************
How nice to see a Phil & mprov poetry fest on the blog this am. I am not nearly so talented so my prose will have to do ... LOL.
*************
sea (262 on the last thread). I also caught the Christiane Amanaour report on *God's Jewish Warriors* and literally sat there fascinated ... not so much by the topic and the facts that were revealed ... anyone outside the US knows them well ... but by the mere fact that Christiane had the courage to present them. Like you, I wonder whether the version is being shown in its entirety in the US.
Many Israeli friends have told me that, from their perspective, the greatest I-P problems stem from American Jews' involvement and manipulation in the situation, particularly those rabid RW American Jews who go to Israel and deliberately settle in the Occupied Territories, and who then come back to the States to fundraise to purchase territory from Palestinians. It's very similar to the days of the Old West when the settlers from the East kept encroaching on Indian lands to the West and then had to be defended. The purchase of Palestinian territory is also very similar to the coercive techniques used by the large ranchers to squeeze out the small homesteaders. Make their lives hell so that they cannot make a living at all, destroy their homes (in this case, bulldoze them), and then buy them out at fire sale prices.
And to have the former Wall Street lawyer turned rabid Zionist zealot shilling for money and acting as tourist guide to the most rabid of Christian Zionist fundamentalists was really sickening. They certainly deserve each other.
But the rest of the world does not deserve them.
I wondered just how long it would take for the Zionists to get Christiane in their sights for the same kind of smear treatment that Congressman Ryan and Jimmy Carter received. It didn't take long. This from Huffington ... hope that there are some more sane responses from that quarter in particular. This is they typical AIPAC smear.
None criticized her so long as she reported about God's Warriors who were Muslim. And yes, Mr. Eisenman, whatever you believe, "Occupied Territories" is indeed the proper term, at least for the UN.
What a shame that instead of dilaogue, we get the smearmongers yet again.
======================
Robert Eisenman
Christiane Amanpour's God's Warriors, "the Jews," and "the Occupied Territories": Is this for Real?
Posted August 27, 2007 | 06:58 PM (EST)
Christiane Amanpour in her "God's Warriors: The Jews" broadcast on CNN this weekend - aside from giving voice to as many anti-Israel and anti-"settlement" critics as one might imagine and almost no "Jewish" (really?) God's Warriors, except to portray them in the most trivialized manner - must have used the term "Occupied Territories" an endless number of times at every juncture in her narrative from start to finish, so much so that one could be left in no doubt that this was a critique of Israel's or "the Jews"' pre-sence in them (whatever one might mean by "them") and not about supposedly "Jewish" "Warriors for God" at all.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-eis...
Sorry for my typos in that last ... I get so tired of the *same-old same-old.* Interestingly enough, it is not generally the actual survivors of the Holocaust. many of whom I have had the privilege of knowing, who have the most rabid attitudes. Yes, amazingly, some are still alive. They remember only too well how it felt when they were the targets and, because of that, are among the most humanitarian and liberal-minded people that I know.
So many of these most rabid American Zionists never experienced the Holocaust.
None that I know here are happy about these latest developments in this particular corner of the world.
But then again, I live in the much more liberal western part of the country. And here it is a parliatmentary system. At a maximum, the RW supporters have less than one-third.
Still, that they have so much support is disturbing.
======================
Hard right's hero shakes up cosy world of Swiss politics
Christoph Blocher's party is the largest in Switzerland but its noisy broadsides against immigrants and crime have caused deep divisions ahead of next week's elections. Peter Beaumont reports from Bern
Audio: Mathias Muller, an official from the Swiss People's Party (the UDC) talks to Peter Beaumont about accusations of a swing to the right
Peter Beaumont
Sunday October 14, 2007
Observer
'It's not like we're England,' said the old woman sharing a flask of coffee with her middle-aged daughter on the train from Geneva to Zurich. 'They had the colonies, and we didn't,' she adds, to explain the nature of Britain's racial mix and why Switzerland does not need one. Her daughter considers this for a moment. 'I worry,' she says, 'there will be a putsch against him.'
The him in question is Christoph Blocher, the populist and right-wing leader of the Swiss People's party (the UDC): lawyer, industrialist, admirer of Winston Churchill, collector of mawkish Swiss art and, if his opponents and critics are to be believed, a man with leanings towards the fascist fringe of the right.
And a week today, if Swiss pollster GfS has done its work correctly, the Swiss electorate will return his party again as the largest, with 27 per cent of the vote.
Blocher is the man that one newspaper columnist for 24 Heures - with some irony - dubbed last week the 'Lider Maximo' after Fidel Castro, and whom a cabinet colleague once labelled Il Duce. Everywhere Blocher goes, he polarises Swiss society. His posters appear to have been the only ones vandalised during the campaign. In Bern, where anti-Blocher marchers caused a riot last weekend by stopping the UDC marching through the city, his face has been scrawled out or covered with a drawing showing a black sheep urinating into his grinning mouth.
[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...
Da** typos still slipping by ... sorry about that.
*************
Just how much *restraint* would the US show in the same situation?
That was a rhetorical question.
=============
US tries to halt Turkey attack
Diplomats fly to Ankara to stop military move against Iraqi Kurds after 'genocide' resolution
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday October 14, 2007
Observer
Senior US officials were engaged last night in last-ditch efforts to persuade Turkey not to launch a major military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan to target armed separatists.
A team was diverted from a mission to Russia to make an unscheduled stop in Ankara yesterday. Against the background of the escalating diplomatic row between Turkey and the US over a congressional resolution that branded as 'genocide' massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, revealed she had personally urged Turkey to refrain from any major military operation in northern Iraq. The row between the two Nato allies comes against the dangerous background of a threat by the Turkish parliament to approve this week a 'hot pursuit' of the Kurdish separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, across the border into northern Iraq.
The threat of military action came after last Sunday's killing by the PKK of 13 Turkish soldiers in an ambush in Sirnak province, close to the Iraqi border.
'I urged restraint,' said Rice, on a visit to Moscow, acknowledging 'a difficult time' between the two countries as she described her telephone conversations with Turkey's President Abdullah Gul, its Prime Minister and foreign minister.
'It's a difficult time for the relationship,' Rice said. 'We just thought it was a very good idea for two senior officials to go and talk to the Turks and have reassurance to the Turks that we really value this relationship.' Rice said that in her conversation with the Turks 'they were dismayed' by the congressional resolution. 'The Turkish government, I think, is trying to react responsibly. They recognise how hard we worked to prevent that vote from taking place.'
[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...
Ah, I see that the Taliban are in their own *last throes.*
putzCo have been so colossally wrong on everything that they have attempted and asserted that this comes as no surprise.
***************
The new Taliban
In a swath of territory across Afghanistan and Pakistan, a wild and lawless new state is being born. As warlords struggle for control and Islamic militants pour in, Jason Burke travels deep into the region to reveal hidden forces fuelling a growing conflict in the front line of the 'War on Terror'
Jason Burke
Sunday October 14, 2007
Observer
The bomb was far from the biggest seen on the North-West Frontier but it did its job well. Placed in a water cooler, it ripped through the Nishtar Abad music market, sending shards of glass and splintered CDs in all directions. 'Miraculously, no one was killed,' said Mohammed Azam, who was shopping for presents for the Muslim holiday of Eid this weekend. Twenty people were injured, three seriously, and a dozen shops gutted.
For the police chief of Peshawar, the dusty Pakistan city 40 miles from the Afghan border, it was clear who planted last Tuesday's bomb. 'We suspect the involvement of those people who in recent months had sent letters to the CD and video shops, warning them to shut their businesses, saying it is against Islam,' Abdul Majid Marwat said.
The 'Pakistan Taliban' - or one of the various groups claiming the name - had struck again. Within hours the debris was being cleared away and the blood wiped off the walls. 'This is the life we lead,' said Azam.' We have no choice but to continue.'
The Pakistan Taliban's campaigns go way beyond bombing music shops. Fifty miles south of Peshawar last week, a full-scale pitched battle, complete with air strikes and artillery barrages, raged between the Pakistani army and local and international militants dug into fortified positions in remote tribal villages. By the time a fragile calm had settled on the rocky hills, scattered palm trees and desiccated fields of Mir Ali, 50 soldiers, a 100 or so militants and around 100 civilians had died. Given the inaccessibility of the battlefield and the conflicting claims of the military and their opponents, accurate casualty figures are simply not available.
What is not in doubt is the scale of the fighting. It was a bloody week for everyone as half a dozen ragged conflicts raged across a stretch of land the size of Britain, from the Indus river to the central highlands of Pakistan.
[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...
Cecilia has been spotted out and about here. She has apparently finally had it. It will be unfortunate for France generally if she goes because she has long curbed Sarko's most RW tendencies.
Which is one reason that the RW would LOVE to see her go.
She earned special kudos in my books when she had a conveniently short-lived illness last summer to avoid eating with putz & Laura. Nice one, Cecilia ... I'd have liked to be a fly on the wall that day.
=================
Sarkozy's wife in 'exile' as divorce rumours grow
Couple are expected to announce the start of court proceedings in the next few days
Peter Beaumont in Geneva and Graham Tearse in Paris
Sunday October 14, 2007
Observer
It is a place of luxurious exile or quiet tryst. Perhaps the place to contemplate a broken marriage to the President of France. Never has so much meaning been invested in a visit to a Lake Geneva spa.
The exclusive La Reserve Hotel is under the spotlight of French reporters after at least two visits by Cecilia Sarkozy, whose increasingly separate existence from her husband, Nicolas, has become the centre of intense speculation - reaching fever pitch in Paris this weekend amid rumours about an imminent divorce announcement.
Her stays at La Reserve have come under scrutiny after staff confirmed that Mme Sarkozy - barely seen at her husband's side since the summer - has been quietly slipping in and out of the lakeside hotel.
An official announcement that the Sarkozys are to separate may come tomorrow. 'It is an open secret,' said Christophe Barbier, editor of weekly news magazine L'Express
'They are living through what millions of French people experience. There was a false end [to their relationship] in 2005. It seems that this time it is the true end," he added. Rival magazine Le Nouvel Observateur yesterday quoted unnamed sources as indicating the announcement would be made tomorrow.
The 52-year-old French president sidestepped the press this weekend, excluding reporters from a visit to Normandy, while Cecilia, 49, shopped in the chic boutiques of the Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Daily L'Est Republicain yesterday stuck by its report on Friday quoting unnamed Elysee palace sources that a separation was imminent. The daily, which last month obtained an exclusive interview with Cecilia, reported she had already completed an interview and picture shoot for 'a magazine' - widely speculated to be next Wednesday's edition of Paris-Match.
[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...
I wonder just what the results in these polls would be if Al were added to the equation.
I'll not speculate as to whether Al will run. I hope that he does, but only he can make that decision. If he does, he will receive my whole-hearted support. Gladly and joyfully.
If he doesn't ... well, I still haven't decided. But I doubt whether it will ever be so glad or joyful.
========================
Poll: Clinton Has Large Lead in N.H.
Sunday October 14, 2007 9:01 AM
By The Associated Press
Hillary Rodham Clinton holds a commanding lead over Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in New Hampshire, a poll released Sunday found.
Clinton had the support of 40 percent of those surveyed compared to 20 percent for Obama, Marist College Institute for Public Opinion said.
John Edwards was third (12 percent) and Bill Richardson fourth (7 percent).
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story...
We lost one grandson to SIDS (aka *cot death* when he was three months old. It was the first baby for that son and daughter-in-law and we were all devastated, but as you can imagine, the parents were most of all.
After some years and lots of support through the local SIDS group, they tried again and had two more sons. One will graduate from high school this year. I know that our daughter-in-law was a smoker, but can't remember whether she smoked during any one of the pregnancies.
But it is a terrible tragedy for anyone who ever experiences it.
=====================
Unlocking the secrets of cot death
Exclusive: A major new report seen by the IoS has revealed that smoking holds the key to a mystery that has baffled doctors and brought heartache to thousands. By Roger Dobson and Senay Boztas
Published: 14 October 2007
Nine out of 10 mothers whose babies suffered cot death smoked during pregnancy, according to a scientific study to be published this week. The study, thought to be one of the most authoritative to date on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), says women who smoke during pregnancy are four times more likely than non-smokers to see their child fall victim to cot death.
The comprehensive report will make a strong case for the Government to increase the scope of anti-smoking legislation. It even suggests a possible move to try to ban pregnant women from getting tobacco altogether.
The study, produced by Bristol University's Institute of Child Life and Health, is based on analysis of the evidence of 21 international studies on smoking and cot death. The report, co-authored by Peter Fleming, professor of infant health and developmental physiology, and Dr Peter Blair, senior research fellow, will be published this week in the medical journal Early Human Development.
[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/health/art...
Hmmm ... an old and heart-breaking tragedy is again revived.
Lies again, anyone?
====================
Robert Fisk: Do you know the truth about Lockerbie?
I urge anyone who is aware of government lies over Flight 103 to come forward
Published: 13 October 2007
After writing about the "ravers" who regularly turn up at lectures to claim that President Bush/the CIA/the Pentagon/Mossad etc perpetrated the crimes against humanity of 11 September, I received a letter this week from Marion Irvine, who feared that members of her family run the risk of being just such "ravers" and "voices heard in the wilderness". Far from it.
For Mrs Irvine was writing about Lockerbie, and, like her, I believe there are many dark and sinister corners to this atrocity. I'm not at all certain that the CIA did not have a scam drugs heist on board and I am not at all sure that the diminutive Libyan agent Megrahi – ultimately convicted on the evidence of the memory of a Maltese tailor – really arranged to plant the bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988.
But I take Mrs Irvine's letter doubly seriously because her brother, Bill Cadman, was on board 103 and died in the night over Lockerbie 19 years ago. He was a sound engineer in London and Paris, travelling with his girlfriend Sophie – who, of course, was also killed – to spend Christmas with Sophie's aunt in the United States. Nothing, therefore, could be more eloquent than Mrs Irvine's own letter, which I must quote to you. She strongly doubts, she says, Libya's involvement in the bombing.
"We have felt since the first days in December 1988," she writes, "that something was being hidden from us ... the discrediting of the Helsinki (US embassy) warning, the presence of the CIA on Scottish soil before the work of identifying bodies was properly undertaken, the Teflon behaviour of ministers and government all contributed to a deep feeling of unease.
"This reached a peak when my father was told by a member of the American Presidential Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism that our government knew what had happened but that the truth would not come out. In the truth vacuum, the worst-case scenario – that lives were sacrificed in expiation for the Iranian lives lost in June 1988 – takes on a certain degree of credibility. The plane was brought down in the last dangerous moments of the Reagan presidency."
[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/artic...
Hollywood in many ways is a weathervane for US political sentiment.
=====================
Hollywood in all-out assault on America's 'war on terror'
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 14 October 2007
A generation ago, Hollywood movies doubting the goodwill and sincerity of the American government were invariably shot through with a sense of paranoia – nervy, unsettling films such as The Conversation, or All the President's Men.
Now, though, with the Iraq war dragging on, the bad faith of the US government seems to be almost a given in the movie business. A slew of new features, looking either at Iraq or the "war on terror", or both, is about to hit the screens, and almost all dwell on the dark side of the American experience.
This week sees the release of Rendition, about an Egyptian-American mistaken for a terrorist and shipped off to north Africa to be tortured under US supervision. Later in the autumn comes Redacted, a shocking, cinéma-vérité style look at the true nature of combat in Iraq from Brian De Palma.
Already out in the United States are In the Valley of Elah, the story of a soldier killed by his unit so he wouldn't spill the beans on atrocities they committed in Iraq, and The Kingdom, a Jamie Foxx action vehicle that uses an attack on a US army base in Saudi Arabia as its backdrop.
Also coming are Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert Redford, about two friends who go to Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, Grace Is Gone, in which John Cusack plays the husband of a soldier killed in Iraq, and Stop Loss, in which Ryan Phillippe is a soldier who defies an order to return to combat.
[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/amer...
Now, must get cracking ... boxes, boxes still everywhere ... but the piles are getting smaller.
**************
Nice to see that our military is doing some real soul-searching even though *the Decider* is secure in his own mind, deluded mind, IMHO.
Have good ones, all!
=================
October 14, 2007
At an Army School for Officers, Blunt Talk About Iraq
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — Here at the intellectual center of the United States Army, two elite officers were deep in debate at lunch on a recent day over who bore more responsibility for mistakes in Iraq — the former defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, or the generals who acquiesced to him.
“The secretary of defense is an easy target,” argued one of the officers, Maj. Kareem P. Montague, 34, a Harvard graduate and a commander in the Third Infantry Division, which was the first to reach Baghdad in the 2003 invasion. “It’s easy to pick on the political appointee.”
“But he’s the one that’s responsible,” retorted Maj. Michael J. Zinno, 40, a military planner who worked at the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the former American civilian administration in Iraq.
No, Major Montague shot back, it was more complicated: the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the top commanders were part of the decision to send in a small invasion force and not enough troops for the occupation. Only Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the Army chief of staff who was sidelined after he told Congress that it would take several hundred thousand troops in Iraq, spoke up in public.
“You didn’t hear any of them at the time, other than General Shinseki, screaming, saying that this was untenable,” Major Montague said.
As the war grinds through its fifth year, Fort Leavenworth has become a front line in the military’s tension and soul-searching over Iraq. Here at the base on the bluffs above the Missouri River, once a frontier outpost that was a starting point for the Oregon Trail, rising young officers are on a different journey — an outspoken re-examination of their role in Iraq.
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/us/14a...
Good morning, everybody
Haven't checked to see if there's a new official thread. This one is behaving nicely in plain text.
I noticed the other day, btw, that the same message in plain text and html takes double the kilobites in the latter. Interesting.
Anyway, I'm going to write this morning what I planned yesterday and never got around to. Too many distractions. LOL
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest...
October 13th, 2007 7:06 pm
Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm
Qwest Feared NSA Plan Was Illegal, Filing Says
By Ellen Nakashima and Dan Eggen / Washington Post
A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal.
------
Apparently, the United States government was spying on the American people before September 11. This was before we started throwing BILLIONS of dollars down the toilet in Iraq.....one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
BFA has just crashed my Opera browser trying to load the old thread.
Need to shower in preparation for an Edwards event.
bbl.
George Will just slammed Al Gore on ABC News This Week, stating that a NYT Times article, after Gore winning Nobel Peace Prize, titled "Gore Vindicated", could easily be applied to say an Yassar Arafat being vindicated.
Will said he's against the Nobel Peace Prize system, against Al Gore and against the concept that global warming is really a problem.
I just want to know, how can such a seeming smart guy like Will be so dumb and blindsighted when it comes to Gore ?
how can such a seeming smart guy like Will be so dumb
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Republican numbers remain in the 30%, he isn't alone
95. No doubt he's against it. Or at least now. My point has been proven. Republicants make EVERYTHING political. They try to make Global Warming political, which is why these many crisis won't be solved unless we get the person in who cares to fix them.
Maybe the Republicants are just saying they're nothing but a Brick Wall - hoping to block the country and people from mvoing forward on everything important to humanity.
Phil...Good morning.....thank you for the treat of you and mprov playing night time Poetry Jam. :)
How talented the two of you are. I appreciated the smiles on my face and heart this morning before my first cup of coffee.
Finally got the rally pics on our website...
http://www.windhamdem.org/photopage5.html
Now lots of other work to do with the changing of the guards...
Tough loss for the Sox but their bullpen hasn't the depth it needed last night.
Hope this better...
http://www.windhamdem.org/photopage5.htm...
Hope this better...
http://www.windhamdem.org/photopage5.htm...
tis better but seeing double again...honest, I'm not having Irish coffee this morning.
Reed! Great pics! Thank you for sharing. And I didn't have to do anything, it scrolled through all the pics for me.
You looked great with Senator Leahy. Everytime I see photos of Vermont, it just makes me dream. Nice work.
It seems the court case trying to block Mr. Gore's An Inconvenient Truth from being shown, was......POLITICAL.....NO-you say! Yes! A new political group, much like the ones the GOP (Gas Oil Petroleum) and King CONG (Coal Oil Nuke Gas) does here with AEI (American Enterpise Institute) TCPR, News Buster...and SOOOOO many more. Making it their first case of attack.
REVEALED.Fuel & Mining Man Behind Gore Film Attack In UK
British Government released the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, to be shown in schools.
One man, Mr. Dimmock, a school Governor, challenged that in court, making of course, outrageous claims of the movie.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/14...
Unusually great picture show Reed, thanks so much.
If everyone here would just print the links to You Tube instead of putting the live link on here, it would speed things up tremendously. I have a very fast 'puter and DSL so I can only imagine the trouble dial-uppers are having.
Great job Linda also for writing the blog piece about Al! I doubt Al will run himself, but he will be veeeeery slow to give up the limelight to say absolutely NO. After all, he is using this attention to promote global warming info. The same for endorsing a candidate, he will take his time while the country remains all ears for Al. Smart and clever guy.
Tom is gone. We BFA stepchildren of DFA are left to fend for ourselves.
Continued global warming will cause the demise of maple trees in Vermont...they say in this century.
http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_read.asp?id=628573252007
Beautiful country Reed.
We just came back from the Blue Ridge Parkway way up at Skyland in VA. The colors were changing there quite fast, perhaps a little faster than VT. A wonderful time of year everywhere.
Many people don't know we have some decidous trees here in north-central Fla too, along with sub-tropicals and pines which of course stay green all year.
105.
Linda,
Kinda reminds me of the "monkey trial" movie Inherit the Wind. I believe the state play may be making a comeback. That ought to wake up the radical rights.
My thoughts on the Florida primary and the Florida delegation to the convention:
I wonder if it is possible that Dean may allow the Florida delegation to be seated at the convention IF: Someone other than Hillary wins the nomination.
Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part, maybe not.
Oh, Reed. B EAUtiful. Auuhhhh. Perfect.
________________
Joan, thank you.
Judy, I saw the Amanpour version in the States. It was cleaned up so that only radical Jews were covered. I thought I'd gone crazy yesterday when I re-watched it. We have huge problems with not only the Zionists, but with AIPAC and buddies.
Joan,
I've never been down to Florida...wife calls me a woodchuck...LOL...don't like to stray far from Vermont I guess.
Global warming has messed up much here in Vermont. It use to be pretty much like clockwork that we'd get a frost around the second week of Sept. Haven't had one yet but was close...about 33* this morning. Peak foliage used to be around mid-Oct. with the brightest colors on some of the trees in late Sept. Trees are just starting to change and not real bright colors : ( We did have a pretty severe drought late this summer which I'm sure didn't help. As far as winter weather, we are getting more and more ice storms, fewer snowstorms which when the cold does come means the ground isn't insulated... rain runs off rather than soaking in and less snowpack to melt and replenish the water table in the spring. I know the water table all too well, I have a surface spring in my cellar and until this week of rain, it was low...low....low.
With the cooler temps, I guess I better clean the stove and chimney...been putting it off as we had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year and my wife used the old cookstove as her base of operation for ripening them until putting them up. I put in 40 tomato plants this year and the freezer can't fit another container : ) I like Italian cooking.
Leadership Void
By Cindy Sheehan
“They are advocates. We are leaders.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in regards to “Anti-war activists.”
People of America, this is truly the problem with what was once a Representative Republic and now is a country run by “elected” officials who believe that they, individually and collectively, are above any accountability and are not answerable to their constituents. Our public servants erroneously believe that they are the leaders!
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=nod...
133.
Reed:
It's pretty much across the board in the world from what I gather. Florida may have had it's hottest summer on record.
Skyland on the BRP is over 3,000 feet high and usually has colors earlier than "down below."
Those tomatoes sounds good enough to eat:)) My hubby always raised tomatoes until this summer. He took the garden out last winter in prep to sell the house and move on. Our tomatoes here are not the best and don't compare with anything up north or in Calif.
For anyone who hasn't heard this yet:
Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney are reported to be in early talks about teaming up for a movie, which The Hollywood Reporter is calling a “political thriller,” loosely based on Howard Dean’s innovative but ultimately unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.
Mr. DiCaprio is expected to play the young, idealistic communications director who guides an unconventional candidate but is ultimately derailed by dirty politics as usual. So, that means the heartthrob is playing the screen version of Joe Trippi. (Kind of like Robert Redford playing Bob Woodward in “All the President’s Men.”)
The movie, named “Farragut North” (a metro station on K Street in Washington and just across the park from The Times’s D.C. bureau), is based on a forthcoming Broadway production by Beau Willimon, a playwright who worked on Mr. Dean’s campaign. Jake Gyllenhaal interprets Mr. Trippi in that version.
As far as 2008 goes, Mr. Trippi is working for John Edwards, who benefited from Mr. Dean’s collapse in Iowa in 2004. Mr. Clooney, who is expected to direct, has lined up behind Senator Barack Obama.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/clooney-dicaprio-to-make-howard-dean-movie/
Reed, 40 tomato plants? Woof. Be still my heart.
The house my sister just bought back that was my Grandma's house in Pitt, has a long back yard that I can still visualize. They made the most of their back yard.
With a walk way running down the middle and garden on both sides. The very front had a small patio, enough for 2 chairs and a table...some standing room...of course to get to the cellar where Gram use to have tables to roll out her Ravioli and the walls covered with shelves filled with top to floor, wall to wall, jars of Tomatoes.
The garden started with a trellis of Roses, followed by Grapes, then the garden...from tomatoes to Fig tree. Gram even used to use the flowers from her zuchini to make fritters.
...one day.
Good morning Borgie! What a great thread this has been - I've spent about an hour and a half reading and following links. Judy outdid herself on the overnight, and the poetry jam with Phil and mprov was downright sublime. I enjoyed the pix of Vermont and all the nature descriptions reminding me of the vastness and diversity of our country. I especially enjoyed the pix of Reed and Sen Leahy.
mprov - Thanks for the link to efterklang. I watched the little video and listened to a few download snippets -- it is pretty music -- is that an example of 'electronica'? Barry M has become hooked on electronica - he is a geek w/ his own sound mixing studio, etc. Anyway, efterklang reminded me a little of the so called minimalist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalist_...
Philip Glass
http://www.philipglass.com/
who has done a lot of classical/movie music
and I was also reminded of another Scandinavian group I discovered listening to Prairie Home -- the group called FRIGG -- reminds me of bluegrass -- you cannot be unhappy listening to FRIGG
http://www.myspace.com/friggtheband
kinda folky rocky
Thanks all for a wonderful thread.
OH! my only political contribution -- the 'four' on Chris Matthews predict Al Gore will not run and 2 said he would endorse Obama and 2 said he would not endorse.
119. OK so it's not morning -- time flies when you're having blog fun.
It's a nice colorful day in NH. Went to hear John Edwards accepting the endorsement of the Friends of the Earth. I hate Friends of the Earth. It may just be the group we had in Florida, but they were more into intimidating people rather than doing anything for the earth--or not doing the things middle class people like to do (like spreading chemical fertilizer over their laws to "feed the grass")
Other than the global warming (the topic du jour) there wasn't all that much new in his presentation. I wrote down the questions people asked. Will get to it later.
Monica,
Was that where he was on the common in Keene? I watched some of it on C-Span and called my daughter as I knew she was in Keene yesterday to see if she went, she didn't because she had her dog with her. She likes politics and even shook Al Gore's hand when he campaigned on campus in Keene when she was still in school. She was really upset because someone took her picture with Al and it didn't come out : (
I thought the guy questioning about the JFK cover-up made Edwards a little uneasy.
Back to cleaning the stovepipe...what a messy job.
95.
how can such a seeming smart guy like Will be so dumb and blindsighted when it comes to Gore ?
~~~~~
Sour grapes, outraged jealousy and complete lack of integrity and credibility from George Will who has often been described as non-partisan but now discredited description. he even knocks the messenger -- very distinguished the Nobel Prize group.
119,
OH! my only political contribution -- the 'four' on Chris Matthews predict Al Gore will not run and 2 said he would endorse Obama and 2 said he would not endorse.
~
Thanks for that annilow.
My prediction is that very soon Al Gore will give Chris Dodd the push he very much needs to stay alive -- a solid endorsement to add to his NY firefighters endorsement. Dodd is a solid candidate with few flaws through the years, from a good Dem heritage, and would make a great prez!
the African American woman vote in the South:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/14/america/14carolina.php?WT.mc_id=rssfrontpage
Clinton-Obama quandary for many black women
By Katharine Q. Seelye
Published: October 14, 2007
LORIS, South Carolina: In the beauty parlors that are among the social hubs for black women in the Carolinas, loyalties are being tested as voters here contemplate the first Democratic primary in the South.
Clara Vereen, who has been working here in rural eastern South Carolina as a hairstylist for more than 40 of her 61 years, reflects the ambivalence of many black women as she considers both Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
"I've got enough black in me to want somebody black to be our president," she said in her tiny beauty shop, an extension of her home, after a visit from an Obama organizer. "I would love that, but I want to be real, too."
Part of being real, said Vereen, whom everyone calls Miss Clara, is worrying that a black president would not be safe.
"I fear that they just would kill him, that he wouldn't even have a chance," she said as she styled a customer's hair with a curling iron. One way to protect him, she suggested, would be not to vote for him.
Clinton?
"We always love Hillary because we love her husband," Vereen said. Then she paused. Much of the chitchat in her shop is about whether a woman could or should be president.
"A man is supposed to be the head," she said. "I feel like the Lord has put man first, and I believe in the Bible."
Black women are a crucial constituency in South Carolina, which may hold its voting as early as Jan. 19. In 2004, about half of the state's Democratic primary voters were black (in Iowa and New Hampshire, black voters made up about 1 percent or less of Democrats). And 29 percent of all Democratic primary voters here were black women, according to exit polls, giving them a pivotal role.
"It's a key voting segment," said Carey Crantford, a Democratic pollster based in Columbia.
...
Still, Obama appears to have a big lead over Clinton among black men, said Adolphus Belk Jr., a political scientist at Winthrop University who co-directed a recent study of black voters. Black women, Belk said, are divided equally between Obama and Clinton, and significantly, perhaps a third are undecided.
...
122.
No, Reed, this was in Dover on the edge of the Bellamy River. It was advertised as a house-party, but we weren't invited into the house, only to the very large asphalted area at the end of a long drive through the woods--i.e. not an earth friendly use of the land. LOL
Joan, I hope you're right on Dodd.
I had prepared these questions for Edwards but didn't ask and will forward it to his aide who promised to get me a personal response:
________________________________
When you were a member of the United States Senate and served on the Select Committee on Intelligence, did you receive information from the Pentagon about the plan to establish as many as fourteen "enduring" bases in Iraq from which the region could be monitored with radar installations and communications intercept facilities?
If so, did you approve of these plans and their funding as well as the effort to get basing rights from Saddam Hussein by diplomatic or other means?
Do you still think that deployment of over a hundred thousand non-combat forces on the bases that have been built (some as large in area as the island of Manhattan) is a good idea and is that why you anticipate leaving a significant number of these troops behind after the combat forces are removed?
Don't you think that these matters should be truthfully discussed with the American people? Don't you think that the intelligence agencies of other nations in the region have a good idea of what's going on on these bases where our troops are virtual sitting ducks for missiles from Iran or Syria?
Select a candidate questionaire: I took this thing and Dennis Kucinich came up first for me, Chris Dodd second. That is pretty much the way I see things as well so I have to give this "Select a Candidate" quiz an A+++.
ok, show of hands, how many own an American vehicle ? how many a foreign vehicle ? which have less recalls ? which have longer life-spans ?:
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=82262
Is Obama giving Michigan brush-off?BY TODD SPANGLER and KATHLEEN GRAY, FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERSCreated: 10/14/2007 11:18:41 AMUpdated: 10/14/2007 11:20:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Maybe it's a confluence of events, or maybe it's campaign strategy.
But Barack Obama has made several moves that suggest he's writing off Michigan.
Last week, Obama pulled his name off the ballot for the state's Jan. 15 primary in deference to Iowa and New Hampshire Democrats. But he also aired a new television ad in New Hampshire describing himself as the candidate who has taken on Detroit, telling automakers in their backyard how they need to build cars that squeeze more miles from a gallon of gas.
The ad - referring to his speech in May before the Detroit Economic Club - may appeal to the environmental sensibilities of New Hampshire voters, but it will be remembered in Michigan if he becomes the nominee, political analysts said.
"If he becomes the nominee, running against the auto industry now will hurt him in Michigan in November," said Craig Ruff of the Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants. "That could make for a negative ad that would be part of the Republican nominee's arsenal."
Obama's actions raise two other critical questions about his campaign:
• Is he willing to take big political risks? As polls show New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton pulling away, Obama desperately needs to win an early primary or caucus to rebuild confidence in his campaign.
• Will he try to use his tough stance on fuel standards - along with Clinton's decision to keep her name on the Michigan ballot - as a wedge with voters in other states?
Mark Blumenthal of pollster.com, which tracks and analyzes polling data from across the country, said:...said he thinks the point of Obama's ad is "not so much to bash Detroit as to make the point about integrity.
"It says that Obama is willing to tell the inconvenient truth (pun intended) while unnamed others are not," he wrote in an e-mail, adding that poll numbers indicating Clinton's strength show "a clear weakness in Clinton's profile on measures of honesty and integrity."
...
Dennis Kucinich is still numero uno for me. Of course he'll get no where withthe power structure types in Iowa. Little tiny bit more support in N.H. just because they have an actual democratic form of vote - not an intimidating circus event that a caucus is, IMHO.
I'm actually getting a laugh out of all these pundits.
They actually start believing their own lies they put out there. Their rhetoric is based on their own talking points of their influencing.
Latest poll conducted to who "Gore pulls most from"...done by Newt Gingrich's Chief of Staff.
That says it all.
He is the ONE.
Have you lost it rd? or are we not supposed to remember past yesterday?
"he (Obama) wrote in an e-mail, adding that poll numbers indicating Clinton's strength show "a clear weakness in Clinton's profile on measures of honesty and integrity"
Obama lied to the whole nation, and especially IL citizens, that he would serve his whole six years in the Senate (his rookie term, and hopefully his last - that's just me).
Him lecturing on honesty and integrity is the depths of hypocracy.
... tho Hillary would be probably worse than Romney.
sadly... :~(
Deaniac he isn't campaigning in Iowa, don't blame Iowans for that. He came in first for me too, followed by Richardson, evidently based on my view on Iraq as being the only very important one.
Excuse me, it was Newt Gingrich's Pollster Matt Towery. Trying to claim that if Gore entered "he may help Clinton". LOL
Joan* In*Florida
Sun, 10/14/07
2:36 pm
Interesting isn't it!?! Most all that i know taking the various quizzes come up as closest to Dennis, Gravel, or Ron Paul.
Sadly, (and i've been round and round with my bestest bestest political, who happens to be female, friend on this) i'd have to vote Ron Paul over Hillary (or other warmongering corporist Dem).
... again, very sadly.
* rdorgan
Sun, 10/14/07
2:50 pm
Is that the best you can come up with? That's a pretty chicken$h!t approach to defending your candidate. There is virtually nothing i can do about the R vote dominance over this state - that the R politicians haven't heaped upon themselves. In fact they have made complete idiots of themselves.
Explain to me why Obama gets a pass on being a liar but not Bush?
http://www.theweekly.com/news/2007/October/01/Allen_Buckley.html
Allen Buckley announces run for U.S. Senate
Atlanta, (October 1, 2007) – Allen Buckley will seek the nomination of the Libertarian Party of Georgia for the 2008 U.S. Senate seat currently held by Saxby Chambliss.
Buckley is a fiscal conservative who ran as the Libertarian Party’s Candidate against Johnny Isakson for Zell Miller’s U.S. Senate seat in 2004. He received between 2 and 3 percent of the votes. In 2006, he ran for Lieutenant Governor, and received between 3 and 4 percent of the votes.
...
Report: Israeli airstrike targeted Syrian nuclear reactor
OH good. Lets bring on that end of the world and we sont have to worry about much else.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/10/1...
* rdorgan
Sun, 10/14/07
2:57 pm
I can do this all day.
Now how does that excuse barrack Obama from lying to the public?
Quick Vote
Should Congress pass a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians genocide? Yes 34% 1544
No 66% 3057
Total Votes: 4601
www.cnn.com
Go Buckley !
(oops, I'm not from Georgia, so my say will have nothing to do with helping to unseat the neo-conservatiive Chambliss, who's virtually voted in lockset step with Bush, that's for the work of Georgians to do, a lot of time and effort will be needed to do that unseating)
Keep googleing GA + politics... there isn't one to make the lies better.
Come up with something else, fast
Ya know it's funny, with the majority in both houses of Congress, that the GA dems who sent the previously much loved Zell Miller(didn't he give the speach at Bill Clinton's convention?) packing, for being a turn-coat, against all their best interests.
Now if democratic Georgians were really a power hungry bunch of knuckle-draggers whoultn't they have stuck it out with good ole Zell?
Well how about Obama loyalists? Shouldn't they be expected to be at least somewhat dedicated to principles rather than person and power?
when Atlanta runs out of drinking water next summer Al Gore will even carry Georgia
Deaniac can you give me a source for Obama's promise to stay in the Senate? If it was off the cuff it might be one thing or oft repeated another.
Let me try that again...
Ya know it's funny, with the majority in both houses of Congress, that the GA dems who sent the previously much loved Zell Miller(didn't he give the speach at Bill Clinton's convention?) packing, for being a turn-coat, against all their best interests - should be accosted by others for having residual R politicians still in Congress.
I think it is great that these fellows are now as toothless as a slug. BUt why do bluedog (or bushdogs) make them count? Is that the fault of GA Dems? i don't think so...
In fact you would not want to be on the staff of any R congressmen from my area - and me on the other end of the phone line, OR in a town hall meeting.
Hey maybe that is why i'm not always always here... duh.
136.
Deaniac,
Hillary actually came in third behind Kucinich, then Dodd which surprised me. Way down the list, Ron Paul beat out several Dems.
The thing that must be weighed here is that these "quizes" weigh answers against what a candidate claims they will do. So a great part of deciding who your candidate is by knowing how much of what they claim one actually believes. Also, where their funding is coming from and how much.
All candidates lie, distort, misstate, mislead, take corporate money, whatever, it's just a matter of how much, how often and how important the statements made and the amount are.
I don't believe much of what either Hillary or Paul says (especially Paul), so I disregarded those two.
I'd leave the party if it was made up of Zell Millers (or Joe Liebermans) Obama. Hillary, Edwards, and Dodd all tied in my poll a close third, with two disagreements each Biden was below Ron Paul
that was a good site Joan
Phil Specht
Sun, 10/14/07
3:09 pm
All the Sunday talk shows, in pre-arranged interveiws. Rd doesn't deny that, just excuses it... or actually just attacks GA dems to deflect it.
A Mock Columnist, Amok
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 14, 2007
I was in my office, writing a column on the injustice of relative marginal tax rates for hedge fund managers, when I saw Stephen Colbert on TV.
I called Colbert with a dare: if he thought it was so easy to be a Times Op-Ed pundit, he should try it. He came right over. In a moment of weakness, I had staged a coup d’moi. I just hope he leaves at some point. He’s typing and drinking and threatening to “shave Paul Krugman with a broken bottle.”
I Am an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!)
By STEPHEN COLBERT
Surprised to see my byline here, aren’t you? I would be too, if I read The New York Times. But I don’t. So I’ll just have to take your word that this was published. Frankly, I prefer emoticons to the written word, and if you disagree :(
Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/opinio...
145.
LOL Phil.
Would be even funnier to me if my four granddaugthters didn't live a few miles north of Atlanta with their father (my son) going to follow soon.
But, will Atlanta be first to run dry or will it be most of Florida?? Might be a close call.
Joan* In*Florida
Sun, 10/14/07
3:14 pm
... pretty firm ground to base your decisions on. I can't argue your points.
It is mostly with me that IF they do half what they promise is that on the way to more peace, liberty and fiscal soundness.
I agreed with Huckabee and Brownback and Hunter on one and none with McCain I think they weight the importance you place on an issue pretty high. I'd be happy with Kucinich if he would show up enough here to keep the single payer lobby together. Gore will do better in the caucuses than Dennis most likely.
151.
I helped get my own (MA) house (and I didn't take the defeatest attitude "virtually nothing i can do about the R vote dominance over this state" even though repubs had been in the governors's seat here in MA for 16 years, we dems and indys here fought hard to get dem Deval Patrick elected as governor in 2006) in order before trying to question the look or appearance of any one else's house, including IL's. Most people in IL are happy that Obama is running for President.
Seems like you're stuck in a name-calling "liar" groove ?
Well, off to get ready to watch the Patriots take on the Cowboys in Dallas. Both 5-0 teams. Should be a great game.
Phil Specht
Sun, 10/14/07
3:07 pm
lol... Interestingly, i have been challenging the GA governors(along with my state senate R) 10 million dollar study of the maglev proposal between Atlanta and the Chattanooga airport.
It is portrayed as relief for the airport in Atlanta but it is actually a disguise for a pipeline to the Tennessee River (and just another way to reward consultant's campaign donations - since the same study was done 7 years ago. And i challenged the fake effort then)
Yep, i wanted my electronics professor to get in on the big cash to do the study - and to see if it is indeed just a ruse. He thinks the whole thing is way tooo funny, as in sad.
rdorgan wrote "Most people in IL are happy that Obama is running for President."
Dave hasn't gleaned this yet. By his logic, you can support a Republican for president and make the statement that "you would not want to be on the staff of any R congressmen from my area - and me on the other end of the phone line." He apparently thinks they would freak out hearing that he opposes a woman's right to choose to terminate her own pregancy.
most droughts in the Midwest start in Georgia and expand in year three back to SE Iowa or so, and we had a 1 in 4 chance anyway from the solunar 17 year cycle.
I'll classify a drought as an event that causes some mature trees to die from lack of moisture and widespread crop failure, so the Southeast is in one.
It will be a national calamity if Atlanta runs out of water, and it is possible.
Who else but Al Gore would people think of? (well maybe Bush to tar and feather him)
OK, the questions from citizens to Edwards:
Does it take more than a gallon of gas to produce a gallon of ethanol? Didn't answer the question--said we have to make ethanol from something else.
Will you pledge to extend national service? Said he'd read the pledge form.
What is your position on the Biden plan for Iraq? Says it makes some sense, but it will depend on revenue sharing, a national security force and what Iraqis decide.
How are you going to make college affordable? Every qualified high school grad will get tuition and books if he/she works ten hours a week.
Are you in favor of ending corporate personhood? Says we need to end corporate campaign finance and lobbying. (neither is possible IMHO, nor even desirable)
How do we get health care as a right? Universal coverage by mandating universal participation (insurers can't exclude) and telling Congress that if they don't pass legislation, he'll work to strip them of their health care. (another impossibility, IMHO; somehow the numbers don't add up either. Edwards talks of coverage costing 128 Billion, but the total annual health care expenditure is now over $1.5 trillion)
How do we promote renewable energy development? Make polluters pay permit fees (i.e. issue permits to pollute) and use that money. (IMHO, that's not going to be Constitutional. Permit fees are supposed to cover the cost of issuing the permit; that's all) Fines would be more appropriate but are traditionally hard to collect.
What would you do about NCLB? Major change, fund fully, taylor to needs of schools and teachers, start kids in school earlier.
What would you do about the effect of potential litigation on the delivery of cancer treatments? Says they're a small part of the cost problem and can be addressed by outside expert review to validate claims of negligence. Questioner suggested that doctors are not experimenting because of an obligation to follow an established regimen. (More likely it's because the regimen brings in a predictable stream of revenue, IMHO).
* rdorgan
Sun, 10/14/07
3:22 pm
It has always amazed me that otherwise Dem states elect R governors, and some R states elect dem governors. Maybe they are preventing total corruption that way - and good for them!!
That still does excuse lying. My criticism is nothing compared to what the press will do, or the RW machine, much less the gang who killed the Kennedys.
Compared to Hillary i absolutely love Barrack, maybe he should take clear positions i can support, explain to me he lied to save the nation from the warmongering corporists - and name them. He was brave enough to lie, let's see the rest of the bravery in trump suite.
s/b That still does not excuse lying.
The city of Atlanta developed as a transportation center around the railroads, unlike many large cities which began as ports at the mouths of large rivers. As the railroads were generally built on ridges, Atlanta grew at the intersection of several ridges on the drainage divide between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Consequently, most streams in the Atlanta area are small and many are severely affected by prolonged droughts. The only sizable stream which flows through the metropolitan area is the Chattahoochee River, the headwaters of which are in the mountains of north Georgia. The Chattahoochee River is of marginal size to supply a metropolitan area the size of Atlanta's, and ground-water resources in the area are comparatively limited.
Metropolitan Atlanta, which encompasses many governmental jurisdictions, has a complex network of interconnected water systems. Large water systems utilize surface water, primarily the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries. As Atlanta expanded physically and in its demand for water, water systems began to withdraw from Lake Allatoona in the Coosa River basin, and from the Flint and Altamaha River basins.
128.
Joan* In*Florida
Sun, 10/14/07
2:36 pm
thanks Joan - Kucinich, Dodd, Obama here.
Lake Superior is twelve trillion gallons low so pipeline plans from there to the Southwest have been set aside.
American's lifestyles are so unsustainable it isn't funny. lawns that need water because they are growing so fast because they were fertilized, so they need repeated cutting using machines that emmit carbon
many African nations would double agricultural production if they just had the fertilizer Americans use for cosmetic reasons on their lawns
they had best be shutting off the sprinklers in Atlanta
Tom Bearse
Sun, 10/14/07
3:30 pm
My friend is as pro-choice as there is, i have this conversation with her all the time. You are a mere knat to my thinking on the subject - her opinion is valuable, infinitely, above the ever resing price of gold.
This is the best you can do too, as usual. The president, besides the SCOTUS appointment, does not make the call there. My belief is that given the facts, (those that show that the maternal death rate AND the abortion rate are LOWER with abortion legal) a doctor would not put a freak on the bench.
In that arena, i am truly grateful for the states that are blue, safe, sane and legal.
Hillary will continue the corpwars, the MIC and the corporate welfare bankrupting of my country. I guess that is o.k. with Tom.
If no Democratic candidate wins enough delegates to secure the nomination by the time the party meets in Denver this summer, we could actually see it go to the convention.A winner will need 2,182 Dem delegates to claim the nomination of which some of are "unpledged" delegates who are not required to commit their votes to a particular candidate.In this case, if Gore wins any delegates from any state, I believe he could actually become the winner at the convention when all votes go up for grabs after the first round of voting. I'm not sure of just sequence here and how that would play out. Anyone?
Phil Specht
Sun, 10/14/07
3:40 pm
Northern GA under strict watering ban, includes Atlanta. Lake Altoona is way way low. Most docks are 50 yards from the current lake's edge. It is truly pitiful.
Hey maybe Congress can send Atlatan's a big ole emergency disaster check!
Just kiddin' there...
Didn't I tell you?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/8/...
Tom -
Thanks for the open mind about Obama.
If anyone s/b PO'd at Obama more than anyone else here, IMO it's you because of what Obama said about the Detroit Auto industry and about his (and the other 3 -- Edwards, Biden and Richardson) taking his name off the dem ballot in Michigan.
Funny that sometimes, that the people most affected by someone can see above that and see the bigger picture. Whereas other people not so directly affected, get into a stuck needle in the same groove.
Well, now that chips and dips are in order, it's 15 minutes to kickoff.
ciao
my compromise on Michigan and Florida is to with-hold Credentials until after the first ballot Joan (and I have passed that suggestion upward)
some state rules lock delegates in, and some don't; so your answer is very complicated since it would depend on which states made up the near majority, true divided conventions often take many votes
* rdorgan
Sun, 10/14/07
3:52 pm
... sooo sports events take front seat to our children's future - or truth.
169. So, whatever happened to all those California reservoirs that were way-way down a couple of years ago?
Humans just have this thing that they don't like change they haven't caused.
We never water our lawns. If you don't water, the grass roots grow deeper and are better at preventing erosion.
I wish somebody would do something about erosion in the upper reaches of the Altamaha. That would cut down on the amount of clay and silt that washes down and fouls our beaches on the Georgia coast.
none of the super delegates are bound and would be the deciding factor in a close two way race with a significant third
Howard could have stayed in and teamed with Edwards to deny Kerry last time by sticking in, and been the VP to Edwards as an example, or Edwards to Obama this time (or vice versa)
Dave wrote "My belief is that given the facts, (those that show that the maternal death rate AND the abortion rate are LOWER with abortion legal) a doctor would not put a freak on the bench."
I think he would. Read from Steven White in The American Prospect:
"In 1981 a Republican congressman declared:
Abortion on demand is the ultimate State tyranny; the State simply declares that certain classes of human beings are not persons, and therefore not entitled to the protection of the law. The State protects the "right" of some people to kill others, just as the courts protected the "property rights" of slave masters in their slaves. Moreover, by this method the State achieves a goal common to all totalitarian regimes: it sets us against each other, so that our energies are spent in the struggle between State-created classes, rather than in freeing all individuals from the State. Unlike Nazi Germany, which forcibly sent millions to the gas chambers (as well as forcing abortion and sterilization upon many more), the new regime has enlisted the assistance of millions of people to act as its agents in carrying out a program of mass murder.
" . . . .
" Lest you think it's just a minor issue for him, consider the obscure fact that Paul has written not one but two books arguing for the necessity of a pro-life libertarianism: 1983's Abortion and Liberty and 1990's Challenge to Liberty: Coming to Grips with the Abortion Issue. And lest you think he has since changed his views on abortion, ponder what he's saying now. On June 4, 2003, speaking in the House of Representatives, Paul described 'the rights of unborn peopleas 'the greatest moral issue of our time.'
" . . . .
"Ron Paul's staunch opposition to the Iraq War has won him surprising accolades from parts of the left frustrated with the Democratic party's resistance to removing the U.S. presence from Iraq. But even Paul's anti-war views aren't liberal. They're just old-fashioned isolationism. And when it comes to reproductive rights, sometimes it's hard to distinguish him from the broader Republican party he claims to fight so hard against. He may want to let states decide morality, but what happens when states decide to tell women they can't make their own decisions with their doctors? Just last year, South Dakota started down that path. Liberals were rightfully outraged, because they understand certain rights are too important to be subject to popular vote. But for Paul, if anti-choice conservatives in South Dakota had succeeded, it would have been considered a victory: one step toward creating a pro-life nation, not from the top down, but one community at a time."
sooo sports events take front seat to our children's future - or truth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
absolutely
bbl
Phil wrote "my compromise on Michigan and Florida is to with-hold Credentials until after the first ballot Joan (and I have passed that suggestion upward)"
Throw in New Hampshire and I think we've got an equitable solution.
A fluctuating shoreline is actually beneficial from an environmental perspective. Being exposed to sunlight kills pathogens in the muck, releases dormant seed and increases diversity. Moreover, critters like toads and frogs thrive in "new" water bodies--i.e. water in places that had dried out.
People who are worried about a lack of diversity should look at the human propensity to "regularize" the environment and limit change to what they like.
rdorgan wrote "If anyone s/b PO'd at Obama more than anyone else here, IMO it's you because of what Obama said about the Detroit Auto industry and about his (and the other 3 -- Edwards, Biden and Richardson) taking his name off the dem ballot in Michigan.'
I categorically endorse both his statement and his action.
178. New Hampshire hasn't changed it's date yet. Michigan is not significant to its decision because it's not a real primary anyway--just a popularity contest.
It's really all academic. You can't change that we've been vetting the Dem candidates for ten months and they've been honing their platforms.
Tom Bearse
Sun, 10/14/07
3:58 pm
South Dakotans had/have the final say there, not the POTUS. The POTUS who takes on the MIC and the corporate domination of national policy will have to be fearless, almost to the point of insanity. Just ask the Kennedys.
I fully support my daughters' right to choose, and will see to it their wishes, and health, are best cared for regardless of any policy, law, or opinion.
When our nation goes the way of the USSR from being broke, corrupt, and divided i don't believe walking into a clinic will be safe from the wingnut snipers. So that is that. Think you pompous windbag!!
... oh well, there i went again lol
FRONTLINE'S SEASON PREMIERE INVESTIGATES CHENEY'S EFFORTS TO EXPAND THE POWER OF THE PRESIDENCY
FRONTLINE presents
CHENEY'S LAW
Tuesday, October 16, 2007, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS
www.pbs.org/frontline/cheney
For three decades Vice President Dick Cheney conducted a secretive, behind-closed-doors campaign to give the president virtually unlimited wartime power. Finally, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Justice Department and the White House made a number of controversial legal decisions. Orchestrated by Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, the department interpreted executive power in an expansive and extraordinary way, granting President George W. Bush the power to detain, interrogate, torture, wiretap and spy -- without congressional approval or judicial review.
Now, as the White House appears ready to ignore subpoenas in the wiretapping and U.S. attorneys' cases, FRONTLINE's season premiere, Cheney's Law, airing Oct. 16, 2007, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), examines the battle over the power of the presidency and Cheney's way of looking at the Constitution.
"The vice president believes that Congress has very few powers to actually constrain the president and the executive branch," former Justice Department attorney Marty Lederman tells FRONTLINE. "He believes the president should have the final word, indeed the only word on all matters within the executive branch."
After Sept. 11, Cheney and Addington were determined to implement their vision -- in secret. The vice president and his counsel found an ally in John Yoo, a lawyer at the Justice Department's extraordinarily powerful Office of Legal Counsel. In concert with Addington, Yoo wrote memoranda authorizing the president to act with unparalleled authority.
"Through interviews with key administration figures, Cheney's Law documents the bruising bureaucratic battles between a group of conservative Justice Department lawyers and the Office of the Vice President over the legal foundation for the most closely guarded programs in the war on terror," says FRONTLINE producer/director/writer Michael Kirk. This is Kirk's tenth documentary about the Bush administration's policies since 9/11 (Rumsfeld's War, The Torture Question, The Dark Side, The Lost Year in Iraq, Endgame).
In his most extensive television interview since leaving the Justice Department, former Assistant Attorney General Jack L. Goldsmith describes his initial days at the Department of Justice in the fall of 2003 as he learned about the government's most secret and controversial covert operations. Goldsmith was shocked by the administration's secret assertion of unlimited power.
"There were extravagant and unnecessary claims of presidential power that were wildly overbroad to the tasks at hand," Goldsmith says. "I had a whole flurry of emotions. My first one was disbelief that programs of this importance could be supported by legal opinions that were this flawed. My second was the realization that I would have a very, very hard time standing by these opinions if pressed. My third was the sinking feeling -- what was I going to do if I was pressed about reaffirming these opinions?"
As Goldsmith began to question his colleagues' claims that the administration could ignore domestic laws and international treaties, he began to clash with Cheney's office. According to Goldsmith, Addington warned him, "If you rule that way, the blood of the 100,000 people who die in the next attack will be on your hands."
Goldsmith's battles with Cheney culminated in a now-famous hospital-room confrontation at Attorney General John Ashcroft's bedside. Goldsmith watched as White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andy Card pleaded with Ashcroft to overrule the department's finding that a domestic surveillance program was illegal. Ashcroft rebuffed the White House, and as many as 30 department lawyers threatened to resign. The president relented.
But Goldsmith's victory was temporary, and Cheney's Law continues the story after the famous hospital-room standoff. At the Justice Department, White House Counsel Gonzales was named attorney general and tasked with reasserting White House control. On Capitol Hill, Cheney lobbied Congress for broad authorizations for the eavesdropping program and for approval of the administration's system for trying suspected terrorists by military tribunals.
As the White House and Congress continue to face off over executive privilege, the Terrorist Surveillance Program, and the firing of U.S. attorneys, FRONTLINE tells the story of the man behind what some view as the most ambitious project to reshape the power of the president in American history.
Following the broadcast, Cheney's Law will be available to view on FRONTLINE's Web site, www.pbs.org/frontline/cheney.
Cheney's Law is a FRONTLINE co-production with Kirk Documentary Group, Ltd. The writer, producer and director is Michael Kirk. The co-producer and reporter is Jim Gilmore. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. The FRONTLINE executive producer for special projects is Michael Sullivan. The executive producer for FRONTLINE is David Fanning.
pbs.org/pressroom
Promotional photography can be downloaded from the PBS pressroom.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/...
Dave wrote "I fully support my daughters' right to choose, and will see to it their wishes, and health, are best cared for regardless of any policy, law, or opinion."
That's big of you. Since she's hopefully not in a state where President Paul has granted the local legislature the authority to decide who gets the right and who doesn't, she's fully equipped. For the others, tough.
P.S. i don't see where Hillary will prevent the above bankruptcy scenerio from happening.
P.S.S. nor will Hillary, or Ron Paul, change any current state law on the subject.
One could do this all day. lol
Monica wrote "New Hampshire hasn't changed it's date yet. Michigan is not significant to its decision because it's not a real primary anyway--just a popularity contest."
Its date is changed. Under the terms of the state's Constituion, it will take place on a date prior to January 22, 2008. We just don't know if it will occur in January or December.
Dave wrote "nor will Hillary, or Ron Paul, change any current state law on the subject."
Thanks for the civics lesson. Which one, in your opinion, will nominate the Supreme Court Justice who will help reverse Roe v. Wade?
Some of those who post here have very poor understanding of the Constitutional powers of the POTUS, the plurals of the English language, or the current law in the states - or how what i've said relates to all the above.
Then again some may not have been state debate contestants.
Dave wrote "Some of those who post here have very poor understanding of the Constitutional powers of the POTUS, . . ."
It's noticeable.
... or when a question has already been answered.
rookie
Kucinich/Feingold '08!!
Love ya'll, mean it!!
Dave wrote "... or when a question has already been answered. rookie."
As between the two, I think "Buzz off, loser," had a little more intellectual heft, but your rejoinder is logically compelling nevertheless.
Thanks for the Frontline info Monica. We shall be watching.
there are 2 threads above this one if this one's getting too big.
its cool that some of you liked phil's and my poems last night. phil, frankly, wore me out and i had to go to bed...so, phil's the reining poetry king of bfa-land!
Just got a phone call from John Edwards. He thanked me for attending his event and expressed regret that he didn't get to shake my hand. I told him that I had reported on the event to you all and that I'd forwarded a question I hoped he'd be able to answer. LOL
I get this general sense that I have some sort of reputation, but I haven't a clue as to what it is. It's a funny feeling.
The spouse says that I have a reputation for putting out ....stuff.
Just passing through on the way to PillowLand ... why did I ever think that retirement would actually be restful?
How on earth did I ever used to fit work in? And my former boss is already making noises about my return. But it will not happen until my papers come through, so I am enjoying the comparative lull. I got caught in a bureaucratic inter-cantonal chasm because they were just on the verge of granting my permit when I changed residence ... I had hoped that they would be finished before the move ... and that meant that the whole file had to go to a new set of bureaucrats. Argh!
**************
Bygosh and bygolly ... a scientist at the University of MT also gets to share in Al's Nobel. Good for him!
We may not have a lot of people in the state, but we have a good proportion of good'uns.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
========================
Oct 12, 6:58 PM EDT
Univ. of Montana prof. is Nobel co-recipient
By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press Writer
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- A University of Montana climate change scientist who was on a panel awarded the Nobel Peace Prize said Friday he hoped the recognition would put to rest any remaining doubts about global warming.
Ecology professor Steve Running, 57, was lead author of the North American chapter in a climate change report issued this year by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Nobel administrators announced Friday that this year's prize would be shared by the panel and former Vice President Al Gore, who has been outspoken on the need to confront global warming.
"What I hope this award does is finally finish off the really disingenuous climate change deniers who over the last number of years have very consciously tried to deceive the public about the reality of this issue," Running said. "We've got a lot of work to do and we can't waste more time arguing if this is real."
[...]
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/M...
Well, we do need a new thread. So, let's try this:
http://blogforamerica.com/view/22578
monica christened this one
http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/22578...
Steve Lytte
October 14, 2007
ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".
Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.
His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.
"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."
At his first appearance since the award was announced in Oslo, Mr Gore said: "We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing."
Mr Gore shared the Nobel prize with the United Nations climate panel for their work in helping to galvanise international action against global warming.
But Dr Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicised, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures - related to the amount of salt in ocean water - was responsible for the global warming that he acknowledges has taken place.
However, he said, that same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years.
"We'll look back on all of this in 10 or 15 years and realise how foolish it was," Dr Gray said.
During his speech to a crowd of about 300 that included meteorology students and a host of professional meteorologists, Dr Gray also said those who had linked global warming to the increased number of hurricanes in recent years were in error.
He cited statistics showing there were 101 hurricanes from 1900 to 1949, in a period of cooler global temperatures, compared to 83 from 1957 to 2006 when the earth warmed.
"The human impact on the atmosphere is simply too small to have a major effect on global temperatures," Dr Gray said.
He said his beliefs had made him an outsider in popular science.
"It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong," he said. "But they also know that they'd never get any grants if they spoke out. I don't care about grants."
A quick drive by - best issue site of all is issuedictionary.com easy to use and succinct.
Ok, off to bake some cakes for fundraisers.
Ok, I went back and read the post immediately prior to mine and I have two words for Dr. Gray.
http://blogforamerica.com/view/22578
Nota bene--we have moved
Last Update: 3:27 AM ET Oct 15, 2007
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- December gold was last up $6.10 at $759.90 an ounce in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after reaching a high of $760.80. It's trading at the highest level a front-month contract has seen in nearly 28 years
Promoting a thread that began one week ago. This is a new wrinkle. Dean is first!
And Al Gore is first in the DFA pulse poll. Yippee!!
Al Gore is at 30.35% as of Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:35:01 -0400
Run Al run!
----
from the previous thread.
50.
Suzanne Harris
Sat, 10/20/07
4:07 pm
Oh, go ahead, turn up the volume.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Nnph3zkHNw
Announcing ForGore.com - You Have the Power: http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/22549...
South Africa ended England's reign as world champions as they claimed the World Cup for the second time.
___________________________________________________________________________
Congrats Springbots on a well deserved win..........now go out and down a bunch of pints in your victory celebration............
Chris Dodd puts a hold on the FISA bill that gives immunity to telecoms. Not the first time he's taken a solid stand while Hillary, Obama and Biden have done nothing.
For those "Cargo-Culters" still thinking that Gore will run, once more from Bob Herbert:
Al Gore is a serious man confronted by a political system that is not open to a serious exploration of important, complex issues. He knows it. “What politics has become,” he said, with a laugh and a tinge of regret, “requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I have found in short supply.”
DEMOCRATS ARE ON A LOSING TRACK
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/bush-and-the-democrats-w_b_69035.html
Democrats need more of their leaders calling the president out on his delusions. Unfortunately, they have convinced themselves that if they just keep their heads down they will back into a landslide win in 2008. It's why they refuse to use the most potent weapon the Constitution has given them: the power to stop funding the war. They have that power, but not the will or the courage to use it. Instead they are adopting the same timid approach that cost them in 2002 and 2004 -- and, in doing so, are playing right into the Republicans' hands.
It's no surprise that Congress has an even lower approval rating than Bush, who himself has dropped to all-time-low Nixonian levels. The American people don't like that Bush is continuing to do what he's always done (whatever he damn well pleases); but they hate the fact that Democrats have an opportunity to aggressively push for an end to the war but refuse to take full advantage.
So Bush is still relevant. And unless the Democrats make it crystal clear -- in actions as well as words -- that there is no common ground, they risk finding themselves increasingly irrelevant.
Funny thing about this pulse poll. You can vote as many times as you have time for.
Definitely not a scientific or useful poll, a waste of time and "misleading."
is it true? is al gore first? whoooooooot!!!
appropo gore, here are some interesting facts about the health effects of global warming gleaned from the summit at ucla sch of public health:
*if the arctic tundra is left bare of ice, the release of methane on climate change will be worse than that of carbon dioxide
*in aug 2003, 70,000 died of heat-related effects in the 11-day heat wave in europe [revised upward from 35,000]; ozone spiked phenomenally high during that heat wave; policy suggestion--ban driving during heat waves or alternate even-odd numbered license plates
*ethanol production is correlated with deforestation; be careful of what you wish for
*calif's 1100 miles of levees are at risk [2 out of 3] of catastrophic breaks in the next 50 years
*ragweed effects, including asthma, correlate with ozone
from Human Ecology, dec 2007 [to be released]....40% of deaths on our planet are linked to pollution--air, water, and soil--which is expected to increase with global warming [and FUBAR bush's policies]. 80% of infectious disease cases are attributable to polluted water [an epidemic of cholera is occurring in northern iraq].
*********
i miss national nurse......
folks, get your flu shot. i'll go out on a limb and predict that it will not be the mild seasons of the past years, especially on the west coast. australia is coming out of an extraordinary flu season, and hawaii's season is off to an early start. it's the first state to set up school-based flu shots. the cdc is hoping that if the country is hit with the australian strain[s], the current vaccine package, which does not have those strains, will offer crossover protection. check cdc's website or with your doc.
in the battle over expanding SCHIP, this announcement becomes more unsettling: the american academy of pediatrics warned that the bird flu's likely target is children. >45% of the bird flu cases worldwide have been children up to age 19.
**********
ok, last warning......EFFECT MEASURE posts new warnings about the sudden loss of sight and hearing in some men using ED meds. bumping around with a hard-on is not a lot of fun. the revere provides an explanation about the biological mechanism affecting all three side effects.
In 1258, the Mongols took Baghdad, murdered its inhabitants, burned its libraries, and ravished its lands. The Bush administration has done the same, but hidden it behind a smoke screen of lies.
215.
Joan, you can vote as many times as you want but previous votes are thrown out...only your latest one counts. Al Gore is in the lead because most people who voted in this poll voted for Al.
218.
Phil for chair of the Gore/Boxer '08 campaign!
Me for media liaison!
Top post is GRRRRREAT! But he forgot Al's Emmy and his Grammy, LOL!
-- volney
(waiting impatiently for a Gore-Boxer '08 bumper sticker)
I assume there might be an influx of brand new members who are Gore supporters reading here.
Consider the example of the successful draft movement to secure the presidential nomination for Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower steadfastly maintained he wasn't interested in running for a political office. Henry Cabot Lodge worked to get his name on the primary ballot in New Hampshire without Eisenhower's blessing.
Ike went on to win the primary -- without campaigning -- 50-38 over Robert Taft, who had been campaigning for months.
Someone needs to follow this template for Gore. And Boxer.
-- volney
(leading the Boxer Rebellion, w00t!)
Funny thing about this pulse poll. You can vote as many times as you have time for.
Definitely not a scientific or useful poll, a waste of time and "misleading."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joan, my reading is that you can vote once for each email addy you have registered with BFA, where do you get the above?
Oh, and, yeah... if you voted Gore as your second or third choice in the poll because of his present non-candidacy, but if under ideal circumstances he would be your first choice, then please re-vote to help him achieve 66% and the endorsement of DFA.
Re-voting replaces your first vote with a new one.
TYVM!
-- volney
FORGET A GORE CANDIDACY
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,511104,00.html
The news that Al Gore has won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize has added fuel to speculations that the political superstar and climate change icon will run again for the White House. But Gore is too big for the grubby intrigues of electioneering -- now more so than ever.
Alas, hopes for a Gore presidency will remain unfulfilled -- and no less so now because of the fact that Gore is being awarded for having done the "most or the best work for fraternity between nations," as dictated in Alfred Nobel's will. It is the ultimate comeback from his humiliating defeat in 2000. Still, regardless of how artfully he has issued his non-denial denials of his desire to run, entering into the trench warfare of a new presidential campaign would be a step back for him.
Hollywood jumped on the climate bandwagon. The celebrity media fêted him as a pinup. Thousands of globally connected Facebook kids linked to him as a "friend." Then he released an unofficial election manifesto -- his latest book, "The Assault on Reason," in which he delivers his verdict on the system that brought about his failure, US President George W. Bush and his own weak party and its lack of ideas.
No wonder that in this insipid election campaign there is a yearning for a voice like his, unspoiled by loyalties, obligations to lobbyists and spin-doctoring. "Run, Al, Run," demanded a headline in Rolling Stone, the bible of the MTV generation. Over 136,000 people signed an online petition for his candidacy. His spokeswoman Kalee Kreider had to constantly wave aside these calls: "He has no plans or intention to run for president."No plans, no desire -- and neither the money nor the necessary logistics to dislodge archrival Hillary Clinton from her position as frontrunner for the nomination, just three months before the first primaries. In internal party polls Gore is only running fourth behind Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. But he has long had too great a standing to try to play the role of the underdog.
So he will leave it at the Nobel Peace Prize. But there's nothing shabby about that. After all, he's the only Nobel laureate who has an Oscar and an Emmy. Jimmy Carter has a Grammy (for his audio book "Our Endangered Values"), and Santana named a song after Nelson Mandela. Gore has a fan base that covers all ages, genders and countries. He is a global crossover hit.
He's also the ideal candidate -- but for what?
One vote per email address, re-voting will override previous choices
Nice to see this thread at front. But you truly gotta question the wisdom of fronting a thread that already has 207 comments on it. May the maker of the decision be blessed with dialup for a year.
The pieces of cake are fitting together and....
it wasn't YELLOW CAKE they were serving us.
It was nukes for Iran. Plame's job was to keep Iran from getting them. According to the story, Cheney and Pnac wanted nukes in Iran as justification to the Ameerican people to allow the next stage of their plan.
This will be aired on 60 MINUTES. Looks like this one is a must see!
Hm, the beltway pundits have long agreed that Gore would have to make maybe 5 phone calls to have an immediate generous budget for a campaign. People are just waiting to throw money at him and I assume the various drafting groups, which seem very well orgainzed, would provide a huge influx of volunteers.
Of course, these are the same beltway pundits who last Sunday agreed without debate that "Democrats are happy with the candidates they already have."
-- volney
Hey puddle but it is an ol official thread with mprov and my poetry slam
Sox to take it to seven with near bat around first.
|: Ein Prosit, ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit :|
A toast, a toast to happiness
http://ingeb.org/Lieder/einprosi.html
Melodie -
Prolly not good for dial up, but
since the Red Sox started an old battling practice pitcher it ain't over til it's over
had an interesting conversation with Joe Biden's sister this afternoon, after a caucus training session, and a District Central Committee meeting, so I'm Democrazy enough for one day
I'm going to catch the game on a big screen
bbl
paine looks like I'll see you at game seven
my son e-mails me from Death Valley just before the LSU Tigers take the field so I can know where to watch to catch him on TV and they don't have telephoto lens that will reach that high, he needs oxygen at tonight's altitude. must have got there late
the student section is first come first serve and the rest of the stadium is near empty and he is in the upper deck, must all be tailgating outside
still remembering Judy Lynne Cadoret everytime I think of Louisiana, wonder what they serve up out in the parkinglot, crayfish?
someone needs to post jc's Gore link
More in Business >> UAW Locals Reject Chrysler Pact
>
And I would not be surprised if the Teamsters rank and file reject the handshake agreement between the IBT and UPS.
puddle
I was kind of proud we could fill up a clubhouse thread after we were abandoned last weekend I feel your dialup pain though
see y'all later
someone call my moniker?
i went to our ca dem region 6 meeting today. we have one of these within 30 days of any e-board meeting. mary hayashi (18th ad rep) and jerry mcnerney came to speak. mary's one of our biggest health care reps, so that was her main topic. jerry spoke to a number of issues current in congress. the good thing about these meetings is that its usually less than 50 people, so the interaction is pretty good. people were really holding these 2 office holders to task for votes, issues, procedures, tactics, etc. despite their individual personal failings, and to some extent, their citing the system as the main problem, i still consider them both good progressive politicians. i just wish that we could hire a legislative body that would spend the first year of their term "fixing the system" before moving on to issues/bills.
the second topic was beginning the work to create and adopt (at our coming april convention) the platform for the next 2 years. the e-bopard meeting in anaheim next month will formally kick off this process. there were many suggestions for planks and language to beef up the document. our platform currently runs about 25 pages. 2 of our locals sit on the platform committee, so they refereed the session and took notes to take back to the committee.
i brought up the fact that we spend an enormous amount of man hours creating this document, have a convention 50% dedicated to its passage, there's a couple of local news articles, and then the thing flies into the circular file carried by the lack of its own weight. i proposed creating a sub-committee dedicated to PR, dissemination, coordinating with the legislative committee, making sure that all of our electeds have a copy, and then feet and fire. others offered posting it in full with links on all of our club, county, and state party web sites. further, making a "button" at these web sites called "what is a dem/progressive/etc" that would take you directly to this document. we all agreed that this is our collective expression of what we believe and that ought to mean something on a practical level.
pretty good meeting for a saturday in dublin, ca.
mprov said, "a sub-committee dedicated to PR, dissemination, coordinating with the legislative committee..."
>
OMG, we may just rival the ability of the dark side. Sounds like a good move. Into the light/power to the people.
Wall ball-one run score! Runner caught between 1st and 2nd is safe - one run scores!
paine, i just hope i'm not the only one to have thought of it...
radio head's new one, in rainbows, is pretty good. i did the download thing and gave them $10, which translated to $11.15 with the international exchange rate and bank fee for a "foreign" purchase. recommended by mprov...listening again now...
Phil ~~ here's jc's cafe press shop for Gore
http://www.cafepress.com/electionblues/4...
His Meteoric Days Gone, Quiet Dean Leads Party
>
Which reminds me of this quote from
213.
Huron John
Sat, 10/20/07
6:23 pm
“What politics has become,” he said, with a laugh and a tinge of regret, “requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I have found in short supply.”
>
To which it might be said:
Just govern! damn it!
mprov
>
I think it is you and a partial product of the grassroots. It is an idea with real potential. Seems brilliant to me. I hope others comment on it.
Remind us, please.
Wow, a whole lotta subtext in that article. Interesting!
Baseball blowout, gonna hit the hay soon.
-- volney
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/19/movies/20071021_WARHOL_SLIDESHOW_index.html
and
+
When It Takes Three People to Make a Duet By JON PARELESRobert Plant’s worldly hard rock, Alison Krauss’s limpid update of rural traditions and T Bone Burnett’s rangy Texas twang, all on one album.
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By Linda on Oct 13, 2007 2:57 PM EDTHoward Dean Congratulates Former Vice President Al Gore on Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize
Sat, 10/13/2007 - 10:02 — admin
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2007 -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement congratulating former Vice President Al Gore for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize today for his work concerning global warming:
"I want to congratulate our former Vice President Al Gore for winning the Nobel Peace Prize today. No other person has worked harder or done more to draw much needed attention to the crisis of global climate change, one of the most critical issues facing our planet. Future generations will thank him for his work to save our way of life. But the fight is far from over. His example should motivate each one of us to commit ourselves to doing everything we can in our own lives to save our precious planet."