Tuesday, July 22, 2008

THE GREATEST GIFT

McCAIN FLUNKS PRESIDENTIAL TEST

What McCain's Rove-designed campaign doesn't understand is that Obama is not a superstar, he is a symbol of America's hunger for hope and change. He is not an ego-driven celebrity, but a selfless public servant. The shameful shock-jocks of right-wing radio — whom I believe are responsible for the shootings of liberals in the Unitarian Church in Tennessee this past week — are full of ego and desperation. They have no interest in the common good or in helping people, only furthering their own corrupt agenda. Obama is attracting crowds because of his principles and his selfless message, not his personality.

OBAMA IN BERLIN!! His speech blew me away. Open thread, please comment.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE... in the words of the Beatles. Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival — to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated. When you listen with empathy to another person, you give that person "psychological air." And after that vital need is met, you can then focus on problem solving.

Imagine waking up each day with fresh eyes — without any of the baggage of your lousy opinions and judgements of yesterday. Imagine looking at your spouse, boss, friend or enemy with new eyes each day — expecting the best from them.

'Seek first to understand.' If you really seek to understand (rather than be understood), without hypocrisy or guile, you will be literally stunned with the pure knowledge and understanding that will flow to you from another human being.

Much of the above (except for the "new eyes part") is from the most brilliant business book I've ever read, Stephen R. Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He has transformed bankrupt companies into Fortune 500 Companies based on his spiritual paradigm of "Win-Win", the Golden Rule, empathetic listening, really caring about others and realizing we are all ONE. Go deep within and find your true calling. Be proactive, not reactive. And see every problem through the eyes of the other guy. "Seek first to understand, than to be understood" - The St. Francis Prayer

The open door to helpful answers is communication based on love. Such communication depends on awareness of and respect for each other's well-being and willingness to accept in another what may not measure up to our own standards and expectations."
- The Dilemma of the Alcoholic Marriage

Lately my favorite quote is from Einstein: "No problem can be solved on the same level that it was created on." Suddenly I am seeing this quote everywhere of course. There is an underlying principle in the universe called harmony. It is the invisible structure of all things. Music and mathematics are evidence of one aspect of this principle. Write down the number "3" on a piece of paper. Now burn the paper. Have you destroyed the number "3?" Of course not. You cannot break the laws of truth, goodness, harmony, or right action. One unequivocal truth: you reap what you sow. When you plant seeds of kindness and generosity, you get back the same tenfold. When you go against the basic laws of treating others with dignity, kindness and honesty — you create havoc. The sub-prime mortgage business goes against these basic laws. In every major religion, usury (charging interest for borrowed money) is a sin.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears.

"I will keep an open mind toward each person I encounter today. If I am ready to learn, anyone can be my teacher."


My stepson is at scuba camp on a sailboat in St. Bart's - a gift from his grandad and several friends who love him. This is the perfect sport for him as he has to have surgery on his leg in September. God Bless him.. and God Bless my other son Jack for all this trials and tribulations with his friends. You'll get through this Jack and be a better person for it. My heart goes out to you.

We will be going down to St. Bart's to pick Kevin up and be back in a week. Keep your spirits up — our world is on the verge of an amazing transformation!
Love,
Lydia

BELIZE, Yucatan
Last summer we went to Belize. Here are a few photos of our amazing trip. By the way, you can get great deals on travel. We always have frequent flyer miles which result in free airline tickets and hotels. You just have to know how to find these gems. That's Kevin at the top of a Mayan temple. Look how tiny his dad is down below. That's me looking like a dork wearing a hard hat in the jungle getting ready to zip-line. There's my father-in-law zipping through the trees like Tarzan with his drop leg. We had lunch at a bar in the middle of the jungle that was surreal — straight out of The African Queen or some other Humphrey Bogart movie. See the skeleton having a Martini? He's been there since the early cannibals got him. Always the optimist, his motto is: "So the barn burned down — now I can see the moon." There's a photo of the kids cave-tubing with bats above their heads. The water was so crystal clean and pure it was unbelievable.


AN IMPORTANT NOTE AND NEW MISSION

I am so sick of politics, this should be refreshing. All of us need to stop reacting to all the bad news and insanity - and instead see how we can alter our own Circle of Influence in profound ways. If each of us were to go out in the world and help one of our fellow human beings -- spread happiness to one other person, lighten someone's load -- and really give from out hearts - we'd see a better world immediately.

There are so many depressed lonely people, shut-ins, homeless children, abused children, rape camps, hungry people -- there is really only one way to solve all the worlds' problems.

And the way is? To raise your own consciousness. To help whomever you can. To do all you can in the time you have in the place that you are... in the words of Nicosi Jones: all these things mean the same thing: to find God. God is simply LOVE IN ACTION.

There is no religion attached to God, and in fact, religion gets in the way of "god's" simple purpose: to love one another.

Thanks for listening. I am sick of being too scared to tell my own truth which is this: I AM NOT IN FEAR. I don't buy into the "bad stuff." As an optimist, it has made all the difference in my life. I constantly strive to turn around any negative thoughts about others — even my worst enemies — and miracles never cease. Everything continually changes for the better because I choose my thoughts carefully.

This is the essence of prayer: not buying into the human race belief of sickness, terror, fear or disease. I don't even believe in aging. I don't believe in any of the garbage they keep trying to sell us. There is no opposing force to good. There is no power in "evil." When I choose to see the good even in a jerk, his behavior changes. I can't stay on a lower level and continue to bitch and moan and groan anymore. It's not productive and I think many of us are ready to step into the light.

Nevertheless, we need to ARREST KARL ROVE!

BEAUTIFUL MUSIC... to listen to while we're gone.

This first one is David Gray "Please Forgive Me" which we played at my wedding. Close your eyes and listen to the song:


I'm not gay, but I think Kristin Kreuk is the most beautiful woman in the world. Here is Coldplay "Green Eyes" from Smallville:




See You Soon

200 comments:

  1. Beautiful pictures Lydia. I am sure you know how lucky you all are. All those principles and riles of life I apply and think of every day and it is only natural! I brought my sons up to enjoy the natural world and to engage brain before opening mouth. If everyone did that we would not be in this predicament today.
    I always say if the entire world would apply one word before saying or doing anything there would be no problems period. That word is consideration!

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  2. Really beautiful post....it has it all, LOVE, and family and WATER and the Earth and what is needed to heal....and that you recognize what we all need....all good mama it is Love that is needed by all of us...I am so glad that your son is able to go on this trip..and what a healing soothing thing...( please do scroll down at Watergate Summer and do read my post about Lessons Learned from our Children...you will see how in synch we are in appreciating gifts from our children....)

    Lydia- I just sent you an email- and there is even another amazing piece of Wisdom from Albert that is very much in line with your quote.....

    Humanity is returning....there is a shift that is occurring....and it is happening...

    Many hugs....

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  3. ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL:
    A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair. [New York Journal-American, April 5, 1963]


    ALBERT EINSTEIN:
    A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.


    ALBERT SCHWEITZER:
    The fundamental rights of [humanity] are, first: the right of habitation; second, the right to move freely; third, the right to the soil and subsoil, and to the use of it; fourth, the right of freedom of labor and of exchange; fifth, the right to justice; sixth, the right to live within a natural national organization; and seventh, the right to education.

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  4. Average Patriot - thank you so much. Yes "consideration" is the word.

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  5. Enigma -- What a gift! I am so thrilled that you left those comments. The fact that you and AP left those comments is a wonderful coincidence that shows me how receptive we are to truth. We are all so in tune with each other. I love the Albert Einstein quote as I've used it in my book.

    I'll visit both your blogs today.

    xo

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  6. Larry - thank you for being there when I need it most. You made my day too.

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  7. Enjoy

    Hint hint, this time it AIN’T satire.

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  8. Hey somebody needs to tell Dana Perino to bone up on the Cuban missile crisis ........

    US general warns Russia on nuclear bombers in Cuba

    It might help her explain how Bush got the cold war started again, and why Russian nu-kle-ar bombers in Cuba are a really really bad thingy.

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  9. really beautiful music...incredible...

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  10. Great pictures Lydia..............how about throwing some of those frequent Fliers my way, i'm all tapped Out.......:D

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  11. Awesome looking vacation, i spent the last 1 1/2 weeks in Buffalo........its not Belize, but boating and jetsking on Lake Erie and the Niagara River were beautiful and it was great speding time with family and friends riding motorcycles and other various toys.

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  12. Happy Birthday Lydia!

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  13. Mike - thank you! Lake Erie and the Niagara River sound incredible too.

    Happy weeeeekend!

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  14. I was looking at your pictures again Beautiful. I hope your son is well! that girl is hot and all three of those songs are great. Thanks!

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  15. Thanks AP!

    And Jolly Roger thank you for your blog.

    Hey everyone please feel free to discuss politics and the impeachment resolutions.

    We still have to uncover so much stuff.
    What is Kucinich up to?

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  16. Middle class: 'On the edge'

    Adjusted for inflation, median household income dropped by $1,175 between 2000 and 2007, said Elizabeth Warren, professor at Harvard Law School, in written testimony before the Joint Economic Committee.

    At the same time, the average family is spending $4,655 more on basic expenses, such as gas, housing, food and health insurance. Gas alone costs $2,195 more for a family making the same commute in May 2008 as it did eight years earlier.

    Families with children saw their child care costs soar. Those with children under age 5 spent an additional $1,508 a month, while after-school costs for older children rose $622.

    To cover these soaring expenses, many people have had to turn to credit cards. Nearly 10% of total disposable income in the United States goes to paying off such debt, Warren said.

    "There have never been since the Depression so many families standing right on the edge," Warren said. "Families have tightened their belts. They have cut down in every discretionary spending area they possibly can."

    "These costs are tearing a hole in the family they simply can't make up," she added. "You can't cut out enough lattes to pay for health insurance in America."


    Compliments of George W Boosh, Richard Cheney, the right wing republican congressmen and the inane right wingers who helped him get there, and tried their best getting their snout in the pig trough with his cronies.

    Their War on the American middle class, that Ronald Reagan began, has almost destroyed the middle class and brought back the Gilded Age the right wing longs for.

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  17. Barack Obama in Berlin

    Now I know why St Johnny decided that Schmidt’s Restaurant and Sausage Haus in Columbus, Ohio was as close as he wanted to be.

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  18. The reichwingers who enabled torture better stay worried the rest of their sorry assed lives;

    Life for Argentine ex-army chief

    An Argentine ex-army officer is sentenced to life in prison for the 1977 kidnapping, torture and killing of four left-wing activists.

    .....if it can happen there,

    .....it can happen here;

    Accountability for crimes against humanity;

    what a concept.

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  19. Remember the voting hijinks in Ohio in the 2004 elections by republican officials like Ken Blackwell, among other right wing operatives, which SOLE that state for Boosh?

    Well it looks like KKKarl is tryin' to act like a repubie mafia don, his taxpayer funded job in Boosh's Administration, in threatenin' one of the actors to be the Ohio scandals version of a scooter libby

    Rove Threatened GOP IT Guru If He Does Not 'Take the Fall' for Election Fraud in Ohio, Says Attorney

    Man not only are there right wingers such crooks, but when caught they also turn into back stabbers and whiny cry babies real quick.

    The 2008 election year is turning out even better then the 2006 election year and it isn't even November yet.

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  20. I wonder what freedum fraud thinks NOW that the chicanery in the 2004 Ohio election is so well known that KKKarl is trying to push a sacrificial GOPer like Boosh ET Al pushed Libby in the outing of CIA undercover agent Valire Plame.

    Does he STILL think diebold can't be jacked?

    Does he still think the GOPers didn't cheat as usual?

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  21. Damn Rove, damn McCain, damn Bush damn the mobsters running the republican party.

    Damn them all

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  22. Mccain is running around saying he won the war in iraq while more soldiers got killed including my nephew.

    Damn Mccain

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  23. Why doesn't Mccain brag about how he told the enemy secrets in his so called prison camp. Mccain is the traitor. Damn Mccain

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  24. We have discussed numerous times the crux of this but Have you guys discussed this secret meeting on Declaring Martial Law?
    As you know, I am very concerned this election too will be stolen from us too in any number of a growing myriad of ways. This Government manufactured "perfect" storm is going to get much worse but its affect is coming to a head. This morning I was listening to more bail outs coming up for financial Institutions, the shocking price to heat my house, drive my car, eat, foreclosures up nation wide 121% since this time last year and here in Massachusetts up 330%. I thought I would check into what Polishifter said about the secret meeting many of us heard Congress held last March on declaring Martial Law if things continue to get much worse and sure enough!

    A secret meeting of Congress discusses immanent martial law? B A Brooks The United American Freedom Foundation March 13, 2008 On March 13th 2008 there was a secret closed door meeting of The United States House Of Representatives in Washington. In the history of The United States this is only the fourth time a secret meeting was held by the house. Even though Representatives are sworn to secrecy by House Rules XVII, some of the members were so shocked, horrified, furious, and concerned about the future of America by what was revealed to them inside the secret meeting, that they have started to leak this secret information to independent news agencies around the world. The mass media said almost nothing about the secret meeting of the House, mentioning only one of the items being discussed. (The new surveillance techniques that are going to be used by the US Government to watch all American citizens).

    * The story was first released in a newspaper out of Brisbane, Australia revealing the contents of the secret US Government meeting and plans for America including all of it’s citizens. Shortly there after, David J Meyer from Last Trumpet Ministries found it and made it more available for the world to see... Here is what was revealed: The imminent collapse of the US Economy to occur sometime in late 2008 The imminent collapse of the US Government finances sometime in mid 2009 The possibility of Civil War inside the United States as a result of the collapse The advance round-ups of “insurgent US Citizens” likely to move against the government The detention of those rounded up at The REX 84 Camps constructed throughout the United States The possibility of public retaliation against members of Congress for the collapses The location of safe facilities for members of Congress and their families to reside during massive civil unrest The necessary and unavoidable merger of The US with Canada and Mexico establishing The North American Union The issuance of a new currency called the AMERO for all three nations as an economic solution. Except for a few hundred thousand US Patriots, most Americans have no clue what has really been going on within The United States over the past 100 years, and the sad thing is that most do not want to know the truth.

    The further you look into the rabbit hole, the deeper it gets. Go to any currency conversion site and convert US dollars to Euros so you can see for yourself the massive decline of the dollar. Look at how much money is and has been spent on the Iraq War to date, ($12 billion per month)... Look at our currency and when it stopped being backed by gold... The Federal Reserve is not federal but a private bank who does not have Americans best interests at heart. We no longer have any manufacturing really based out of America and there is no way that our economy can survive this incredible strain very much longer... The IRS strong arms every American yearly with income taxes, yet there are no laws saying an income tax is to be paid... The CIA is involved in everything from global drug trafficking and covert military missions, to assassinations around the world and including US Soil. Look at JFK for instance. It did not take long after JFK announced that he was going disband the CIA that he was shot in Texas... America’s new Stasi The Department Of Homeland Security is and has been slowly eradicating our rights for a few years now based organization called House Bill H.R. 1955/S-1959 was read by the senate and then sent to DHS for some reason, but is now back and sure to pass. Once passed, this bill introduced by Jane Harman (D/CA), will be the proverbial last nail hammered into every American patriots coffin. H.R. 4279 or the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 which was recently passed by the US House of Representatives, will give the government draconian powers to do just this...

    This legislation gives the government the power to seize property that facilitates the violation of intellectual property laws The legislation also mandates the formation of a formal Intellectual Property Enforcement Division within the office of the Deputy Attorney General to enforce this insanity... It has been revealed that F.E.M.A. has been building internment camps all over America granting Halliburton a massive $385 million dollar construction contract to make this happen. Most of these sites only need refurbished because they are mostly closed prisons, old WW2 internment camps still intact and other facilities taken over by the government. Some people have referred to them as FEMA Death Camps where the infamous Red list/Blue Lists will be used to decide who goes where... please read, you need to know the rest

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  25. I'm sick of the traitor Mccain is claiming everyone else are traitors because they do not agree with war

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  26. The number of households facing the foreclosure process more than doubled in the second quarter compared to a year ago, according to data released Friday.

    What a splendid job Bush has done.

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  27. In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

    Meanwhile, the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years. The group's share of the tax burden has risen, though not as quickly as its share of income.

    What a splendid job for the rich you have done Bush.

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  28. Registered lobbyists have donated large amounts of money to Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, even as he denounces their profession. But Democratic candidates for Congress have also raised prodigious sums from lobbyists, outdoing the Republicans, according to reports filed for the first time under a new ethics law.

    So far $181,000 donations by lobbyists have been reported by the McCain campaign.

    John McCain: A Liar and a Lobbyist Lover.

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  29. Customers of two banks closed by federal regulators were assured that every penny of their money was protected, preventing lines of angry accountholders from forming Saturday.

    The calm response was a stark contrast to the hundreds of angry customers who waited for hours earlier this month in Southern California to demand their money after IndyMac Bank's assets were seized.

    The 28 branches of the 1st National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank N.A. _ owned by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based First National Bank Holding Co. _ were closed Friday by the FDIC.

    Another fine mess you've gotten us into Bush.

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  30. Federal regulators formally approved the merger of the nation's only two satellite radio operators Friday, ending a 16-month-long drama closely watched by Washington and Wall Street.

    Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s $3.3 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. will mean 18 million-plus subscribers will be able to receive programming from both services.

    Another monopoly formed destroying another facet of the American media.

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  31. Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak was cited by police after he hit a pedestrian with his black Corvette in downtown Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning.

    Another example of what a Deranged Old man can do if given the wheel.

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  32. Actress, author, and political activist Heather Thomas gave an ' interview to Retroality this month, and revealed that she believes there's more to September 11th, 2001 than people think.

    "There was no fuselage at the Pentagon," Thomas said. "There was none that you could check out. They said it vaporized, and yet they produced bodies saying they didn't vaporize. You can vaporize a two-ton engine? I don't think so."

    She continued on to say that security wouldn't let people into the Twin Towers on the weekends before 9/11 happened, "because they were setting it up for demolition."

    No airplane could have done that damage, she said, and she believes it was a bomb.

    "This was all staged in order to take the oil leases...It's all about the oil companies. It always has been. The war on drugs was about oil companies...In this administration, everybody at every agency is a lobbyist. Anybody in a regulatory position, or safeguarding something from the public, is actually a lobbyist for people who want to hurt the public in order to make a profit...I don't know if America exists anymore."

    But Heather said she doesn't feel hopeless about the country, as long as people take charge, question the news, question authority, learn how to change laws and pressure government, and vote.

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  33. How can a government that maintains more than 800 military facilities in more than 140 different foreign countries be anything other than an imperial power? The hundreds of thousands of troops who operate those bases and conduct operations from them, not to mention the approximately 125,000 sailors and Marines aboard the U.S. warships that cruise the oceans, are not going door to door selling Girl Scout cookies. United States of America is the name; intimidation is the game.

    Of course, the kingpins who control this massive machinery of coercion never describe it in such terms. In their lexis, American motives and actions are invariably noble. Listening to these bigwigs describe what the U.S. forces abroad are doing, you would never suspect that they seek anything but “regional stability,” “security,” “deterrence of potential regional aggressors,” and “economic development and cooperation among nations.” Inasmuch as hardly anybody favors instability, insecurity, international aggression, economic retrogression, and mutual strife among nations, the U.S. objectives, and hence the actions taken in their furtherance, would appear to be indisputably laudable.

    It's Coming: The New World Order

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  34. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the two biggest U.S. automakers, have about a 46 percent chance of default within five years, according to Edward Altman, a finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.

    Both are in very serious shape and the markets reflect that,'' Altman, the creator of the Z-score mathematical formula that measures bankruptcy risk, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The model shows that these companies are ``on the verge of bankruptcy,'' he said.

    Another fine mess you've gotten us into Bush.

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  35. With the economic news of the week of July 14—the continuing crisis among mortgage lenders, the onset of bank failures, the announced downsizing of General Motors, the slide of the Dow-Jones below 11,000—we are seeing the ongoing collapse of the U.S. economy.

    What is really taking place, however, is that the producing economy of working men and women is being crushed by the overall debt burden on households, businesses, and governments that could reach $70 trillion by 2010. The financial system, including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is bankrupt, as the debts it is based on cannot be repaid.

    This is because the producing economy of people who work for a living simply can no longer generate enough purchasing power for people either to pay their debts or allow them to purchase what is being sold in the marketplace. In turn it is the debt burden and the loss of societal purchasing power that are crashing the stock market. Thus the collapse of the financial economy has started to destroy the producing economy as well.

    It’s a “perfect storm,” the result of a 200-year-old financial system where money is largely created by bank lending and where since 1980 our industry and jobs have been increasingly outsourced abroad to cheap labor markets. Thus domestic incomes have stagnated while the nation’s GDP has not been able to keep up with the exponential growth of debt.

    While the mainstream media are blind, deaf, and dumb as to the causes, the victims within the middle and working classes are seeing their livelihoods ruined, jobs taken away, pensions eroded, homes foreclosed on, and are being saddled with ever-increasing debt and forced to work under more and more stress due to rising burdens of taxation, gas and food price inflation, and bureaucratic rules and regulations. The only places a more-or-less normal life may still be possible will be the wealthiest imperial centers like Washington, New York, Houston, Chicago, or San Francisco.

    Another fine mess the Drunken Cowboy has gotten us into.

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  36. We are in St. Barth where everyone speaks French and the Euro is king. It is $160 for two hamburgers if you have American dollars! So we went to the Supermarche and bought peanut butter and jelly...

    But the beaches are topless and the sea is such a deep turquoise... The beaches
    and almost completely empty.

    It is one of the most gorgeous places on earth.

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  37. All GOPers and one supposed moderate read and weep;

    THE MYTH OF A TOSS-UP ELECTION

    By Alan Abramowitz, Thomas E. Mann, and Larry J. Sabato

    "Too close to call." "Within the margin of error." "A statistical dead heat." If you've been following news coverage of the 2008 presidential election, you're probably familiar with these phrases. Media commentary on the presidential horserace, reflecting the results of a series of new national polls, has strained to make a case for a hotly contested election that is essentially up for grabs.

    Signs of Barack Obama's weaknesses allegedly abound. The huge generic Democratic Party advantage is not reflected in the McCain-Obama pairings in national polls. Why, according to the constant refrain, hasn't Obama put this election away? A large number of Clinton supporters in the primaries refuse to commit to Obama. White working class and senior voters tilt decidedly to McCain. Racial resentment limits Obama's support among these two critical voting blocs. Enthusiasm among young voters and African-Americans, two groups strongly attracted to Obama, is waning. Blah, blah, blah.

    While no election outcome is guaranteed and McCain's prospects could improve over the next three and a half months, virtually all of the evidence that we have reviewed--historical patterns, structural features of this election cycle, and national and state polls conducted over the last several months--point to a comfortable Obama/Democratic party victory in November. Trumpeting this race as a toss-up, almost certain to produce another nail-biter finish, distorts the evidence and does a disservice to readers and viewers who rely upon such punditry. Again, maybe conditions will change in McCain's favor, and if they do, they should also be accurately described by the media. But current data do not justify calling this election a toss-up.

    Consider the following.

    Except for a few days when the Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls showed a tie, Barack Obama has led John McCain in every national poll in the past two months. Obama's average margin has consistently been in the 4-6 point range during this time. By contrast, the polls in 2000 and 2004 showed much more variation over time. State polling results have also consistently given Obama the advantage. According to realclearpolitics.com, Obama is currently leading in 26 states and the District of Columbia with a total of 322 electoral votes; McCain is currently leading in 24 states with a total of 216 electoral votes. Obama is leading in every state carried by John Kerry in 2004 along with six states carried by George Bush: Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio, Indiana, Nevada and Colorado. A seventh Bush state, Virginia, is tied.

    Obama is leading in 11 of the 12 swing states that were decided by a margin of five points or less in 2004 including five of the six that were carried by George Bush. And while Obama has a comfortable lead in every state that John Kerry won by a margin of more than five points in 2004, McCain is in a difficult battle in a number of states that Bush carried by a margin of more than five points including such solidly red states as Indiana, Montana, North Dakota, Virginia, and North Carolina.

    And remember these June and July polls may well understate Obama's eventual margin. Ronald Reagan did not capitalize on the huge structural advantage Republicans enjoyed in 1980 until after the party conventions and presidential debate. It took a while and a sufficient level of comfort with the challenger for anti-Carter votes to translate into support for Reagan. If Obama's performance over the last eighteen months is any guide, a similar pattern could unfold in 2008.

    Aside from the horserace results, there is evidence of a growing Democratic party advantage in the electorate. A recent analysis by Rhodes Cook of voter registration data in 29 states and the District of Columbia that permit registration by party shows that since November of 2004, Democratic registration has increased by almost 700,000 while Republican registration has declined by almost one million.

    Democrats now enjoy a substantial lead over Republicans in voter identification. According to the Gallup Poll, the two parties have gone from near parity four years ago to a 12 point Democratic advantage in the first half of 2008. And polling data continue to show that Democrats are more satisfied with their party's nominee than Republicans voters and more highly motivated to vote. While Republicans normally benefit from higher turnout among their supporters, that may not be the case this year.

    In order to defeat Barack Obama, John McCain will have to convince a lot of currently disgruntled Republicans to turn out and vote for him. Yet mobilizing the Republican base, a strategy employed successfully by Karl Rove in 2002 and 2004, won't be enough for McCain to win in 2008. He'll also have to convince a majority of independents and a substantial number of Democrats to vote for him. That's a task that proved too difficult even for Rove in the 2006 midterm election and it may be still more difficult in 2008. That's because since 2006 the political environment has gone from bad to worse for Republicans.

    It is no exaggeration to say that the political environment this year is one of the worst for a party in the White House in the past sixty years. You have to go all the way back to 1952 to find an election involving the combination of an unpopular president, an unpopular war, and an economy teetering on the brink of recession. 1952 was also the last time the party in power wasn't represented by either the incumbent president or the incumbent vice-president. But the fact that Democrat Harry Truman wasn't on the ballot didn't stop Republican Dwight Eisenhower from inflicting a crushing defeat on Truman's would-be successor, Adlai Stevenson.

    Barack Obama is not a national hero like Dwight Eisenhower, and George Bush is no Harry Truman. But if history is any guide, and absent a dramatic change in election fundamentals or an utter collapse of the Obama candidacy, John McCain is likely to suffer the same fate as Adlai Stevenson.

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  38. Lydia Cornell said...

    But the beaches are topless


    So did you observe the custom?

    :D

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  39. Mccain crying that Obama didnt visit the troops when he had visited all but the last group that the damn pentagon refused to let him.

    Damn the pentagon Damn Mccain

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  40. Mccains damn son just quit 2 banking executive jobs in nevada because they were going under and he is to blame

    Damn Mccain Damn Mccains son

    ReplyDelete
  41. Bart - topless beaches... I think I will keep that one a secret...

    I do admire the way the French and Europeans in general do not make such a big deal out of boobs -- it is quite natural to go topless, but we here in America are obsessed with flesh -- and the more taboo or forbidden the more prurient, which of course feeds the magazine and TV industries.

    We are so primitive and place our value on style over substance. Here, everyone is into great conversation, intellectual stimulation, family gatherings, babies, children, education, community.. they do not obsess over "stuff" or perfect breasts. In fact I have not seen a single fake one.

    There are so many stars here. A big festival in Flamands held by the locals today, with a futbol game and bonfire on the beach. We swam in the ocean all day.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Lydia Cornell said...
    Bart - topless beaches... I think I will keep that one a secret...



    :D

    ReplyDelete
  43. I'm just kidding around, lol. So you're there now? You're in a hotel room with internet or something?

    How cool.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Lydia said...

    they do not obsess over "stuff" or perfect breasts. In fact I have not seen a single fake one.


    Sounds like heaven.

    ReplyDelete
  45. The Mad Dog Follies

    Or how to lose a campaign with out even trying.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Do you think the wingnuts heads will explode?

    In study, evidence of liberal-bias bias

    Cable talking heads accuse broadcast networks of liberal bias -- but a think tank finds that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Barack Obama than on John McCain in recent weeks.

    Haters of the mainstream media reheated a bit of conventional wisdom last week.

    Barack Obama, they said, was getting a free ride from those insufferable liberals.

    Such pronouncements, sorry to say, tend to be wrong since they describe a monolithic media that no longer exists. Information today cascades from countless outlets and channels, from the Huffington Post to Politico.com to CBS News and beyond.

    But now there's additional evidence that casts doubt on the bias claims aimed -- with particular venom -- at three broadcast networks.

    The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

    You read it right: tougher on the Democrat.

    During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.

    Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically, with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the Washington-based media center.

    Conservatives have been snarling about the grotesque disparity revealed by another study, the online Tyndall Report, which showed Obama receiving more than twice as much network air time as McCain in the last month and a half. Obama got 166 minutes of coverage in the seven weeks after the end of the primary season, compared with 67 minutes for McCain, according to longtime network-news observer Andrew Tyndall.

    I wrote last week that the networks should do more to better balance the air time. But I also suggested that much of the attention to Obama was far from glowing.

    That earned a spasm of e-mails that described me as irrational, unpatriotic and . . . somehow . . . French.

    But the center's director, RobertLichter, who has won conservative hearts with several of his previous studies, told me the facts were the facts.

    "This information should blow away this silly assumption that more coverage is always better coverage," he said.

    Here's a bit more on the research, so you'll understand how the communications professor and his researchers arrived at their conclusions.

    The center reviews and "codes" statements on the evening news as positive or negative toward the candidates. For example, when NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell said in June that Obama "has problems" with white men and suburban women, the media center deemed that a negative.

    The positive and negative remarks about each candidate are then totaled to calculate the percentages that cut for and against them.

    Visual images and other more subjective cues are not assessed. But the tracking applies a measure of analytical rigor to a field rife with seat-of-the-pants fulminations.

    The media center's most recent batch of data covers nightly newscasts beginning June 8, the day after Hillary Rodham Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination, ushering in the start of the general-election campaign. The data ran through Monday, as Obama began his overseas trip.

    Most on-air statements during that time could not be classified as positive or negative, Lichter said. The study found, on average, less than two opinion statements per night on the candidates on all three networks combined -- not exactly embracing or pummeling Obama or McCain. But when a point of view did emerge, it tended to tilt against Obama.

    That was a reversal of the trend during the primaries, when the same researchers found that 64% of statements about Obama -- new to the political spotlight -- were positive, but just 43% of statements about McCain were positive.

    In 2006, conservative cable showmen Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly had Lichter, a onetime Fox News contributor, on their programs. They heralded his findings in the congressional midterm election: that the networks were giving far more positive coverage to the Democrats.

    More proof of the liberal domination of the media, Beck and O'Reilly declared.

    Now the same researchers have found something less palatable to those conspiracy theorists.

    But don't expect cable talking heads to end their trashing of the networks.


    Repeated assertions that the networks are in the tank for Democrats represent not only an article of faith on Fox, but a crucial piece of branding. On Thursday night, O'Reilly and his trusty lieutenant Bernard Goldberg worked themselves into righteous indignation -- again -- about the liberal bias they knew was lurking.

    Goldberg seemed gleeful beyond measure in saying that "they're fiddling while their ratings are burning."

    O'Reilly assured viewers that "the folks" -- whom he claims to treasure far more than effete network executives do -- "understand what's happening."

    By the way, Lichter's group also surveys the first half-hour of "Special Report With Brit Hume," Fox News' answer to the network evening news shows.

    The review found that, since the start of the general-election campaign, "Special Report" offered more opinions on the two candidates than all three networks combined.

    No surprise there. Previous research has shown Fox News to be opinion-heavy.

    "Special Report" was tougher than the networks on Obama -- with 79% of the statements about the Democrat negative, compared with 61% negative on McCain.

    There's plenty of room for questioning the networks' performance and watching closely for symptoms of Obamamania.

    But could we at least remain focused on what ABC, NBC and CBS actually put on the air, rather than illusions that their critics create to puff themselves up?


    OUCH;

    There goes another right wing lie,

    Disposed with the facts.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Not so fast Cliffy,

    I bet you thought no one would check out your story on how there's no media bias...

    Center for Media and Public Affairs

    The Study (careful it's a pdf)

    Granted I didn't read all the way through it, but it doesn't seem to say at all what you posted....

    Who's the liar now?

    ReplyDelete
  48. Lydia Cornell said...
    Bart - topless beaches... I think I will keep that one a secret...

    I do admire the way the French and Europeans in general do not make such a big deal out of boobs -- it is quite natural to go topless, but we here in America are obsessed with flesh -- and the more taboo or forbidden the more prurient, which of course feeds the magazine and TV industries.

    We are so primitive and place our value on style over substance. Here, everyone is into great conversation, intellectual stimulation, family gatherings, babies, children, education, community.. they do not obsess over "stuff" or perfect breasts. In fact I have not seen a single fake one. "


    Ahh Europe is my kinda place, topless beaches, 10-12 weeks vacation, the working class and poor are treated fairly, more of a focus on alternatare energy, particularly clean burning and renewables.........and retirees can actually afford to retire and lead a decent life.

    ReplyDelete
  49. I just heard Obama is ahead of McSame by like 9 points in the polls.........almost double digits and the REAL election hasnt even heated up yet........wait till after the convention when McSame actually has to debate Obama........Obama should be up by like 15 points once mcTeleprompter has to go toe to toe with him.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Looks like a Reich wing loon just gunned down a bunch of people at a CHILDREN"S performance because he hates liberrals.

    Just shows how dangerous these unbalanced maladjusted repugs are and how their fringe views and hatred of liberals is a dangerous thing for our country.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Sorry doltron BUT you are posting about a study done in March and April,

    READ the TITLE and you will see that.

    Volume XXII Number 1: March/April 2008 (from the header of the PDF yopu posted Dolt)

    which means PRIMARIES.

    The one I reference is from the general election cycle;

    to wit;

    but a think tank finds that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Barack Obama than on John McCain in recent weeks.

    and THE KEY quote;

    The media center's most recent batch of data covers nightly newscasts beginning June 8, the day after Hillary Rodham Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination, ushering in the start of the general-election campaign. The data ran through Monday, as Obama began his overseas trip.

    Sorta DESTROYS any chance it is the study from March-April time frame YOU reference don't it dolty boy?

    or this quote;

    That was a reversal of the trend during the primaries, when the same researchers found that 64% of statements about Obama -- new to the political spotlight -- were positive, but just 43% of statements about McCain were positive.

    The study you reference is from the primaries which I never spoke about, and this shows there is TWO studies;

    Even Faux noise gets their place and they were tougher on Obama to NO ones surprise;

    The review found that, since the start of the general-election campaign, "Special Report" offered more opinions on the two candidates than all three networks combined.


    The way I see it for ya about now son is; either say your dumb as a box of rocks and have NO reading comprehension skills, which is why YOU referenced a study THAT the article I posted is NOT talking about, like DIDN'T you read but searched for disinformation to derail what the study shows;

    OR

    Your just another gutless chicken hawk lying right wing troll doing what YOU always do;

    LIE

    I posted it here in case widdle willie deletes my posts again, seems HE can't stand the truth about himself.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Poll Results
    Do you think the Bush administration has acted much differently than past White Houses in this case?
    Yes, for the worse
    70% 5,679
    No, it's acted the same
    24% 1,947
    Yes, for the better
    6% 462
    Note on Poll Results
    Total Votes: 8,088

    ReplyDelete
  53. Do you think the Bush administration has acted much differently than past White Houses in this case?
    Yes, for the worse
    71%
    No, it's acted the same
    23%
    Yes, for the better
    6%


    Total Votes: 8,620

    ReplyDelete
  54. Gonzalez aides broke the law by politicizing the Justice Department............anyone think these criminals will actually see jail time?

    ReplyDelete
  55. How concerned are you about politicization at the Justice Department?
    Very 78%
    Not at all 14%
    Somewhat 8%
    Total Votes: 8,112

    ReplyDelete
  56. Interesting polls, 78% of America says they are VERY CONCERNED with the politicization of the Justice Department and 71% of America says the Bush Administration has acted FAR WORSE that previous White Houses.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Comrade Chimpy and his Klanservative Kadre demand political reliability above all. The young apparatchiks, of course, put the lipstick on and pucker up. As we all know, it does not matter if they know how to do their jobs or not. Has that stopped Chimpy?

    ReplyDelete
  58. Here is what Col(ret) Patrick Lang USA thinks of the latest ad by John McCain;

    "Have you left no sense of decency?"

    "On Saturday, though, McCain released a new television advertisement in which the announcer says that on his trip, Obama “made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras.”

    "John McCain is always there for our troops," adds the announcer, before concluding with the campaign’s new slogan: “McCain, country first.”

    The slogan’s inverse implication for his opponent was made clear earlier in the week, when McCain accused Obama of placing the his political ambitions before the national interest.

    "It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign," McCain said Tuesday in New Hampshire, a line he’s been using regularly since.

    While Republican presidential candidates have long sought to paint their Democrat foes as insufficiently devoted to the country, the military or both, McCain’s suggestion that Obama preferred to hit the gym than to visit wounded soldiers is considerably more personal than, say, President Bush’s 2004 attack on Sen. John F. Kerry for voting against bills to fund troops in Iraq. In some ways, it bears more of a resemblance to the third-party Swift Boat campaign that denigrated Kerry’s service in Vietnam. " Yahoo News

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Is winning all? Has John McCain become a modern man, a man for whom winning is all and a prize to be sought above honor, above truth, above all?

    Are we to believe that McCain thinks that Obama cares nothing for American soldiers? I do not believe McCain thinks that, but he should consider that, in implying it, he risks the disdain of those who should regret his defeat in the coming election whether they support his candidacy or not.

    Hagel was not a prisoner of war in Vietnam. No, he and his brother were in the same rifle platoon in the infantry. Senator Hagel was a buck sergeant, a fire team leader. He was a 11B, a light weapons infantryman. For those who understand, that says a lot, a whole lot.


    [if you don't read this]

    What will Senator Hagel think of his old friend McCain after this?

    Since I do not believe McCain really believes the rubbish that his consultants are telling him to say, I can only think that he is cynically and untruthfully seeking to manipulate public opinion.

    I have never been a fan of John Kerry, but the people who slandered him are the same kind of scumbags who are advising McCain now.

    It's not worth it, John. Nothing is worth it. pl

    ReplyDelete
  59. "...none of the countries demanding that Iran scraps the weapons it doesn't yet possess are demanding that Israel destroys the weapons it does possess."

    UNLIKE Iran, Israel has a history of attacking it's neighbors for dubious claims of self defense.

    Or bombing a country when it claims it needs to.

    Or attacking a supposed sovereign country it holds in a sort of apartheid relationship.

    but Iran is the ONLY dangerous one in the middle east(after Bush43 toppled Reagan's friend Saddam).

    ReplyDelete
  60. ABC admits that without White House accounting tricks, the budget deficit will be $600 billion this year. The official figure does not count the cost of the Iraq War! One Reddit headline suggested that the Bush administration has not only moved our country toward fascism but bequeathed it a Weimar economy.

    heck of a job georgie

    ReplyDelete
  61. A Weimar economy is almost a certainty. But a Weimar outcome is far from certain.

    The old Confederacy will no doubt gravitate towards a Fascist dictatorship, but I don't believe the coastal areas, or the Great Lakes region, will.

    This country will split up. Whether it follows the Czechoslovak or the Yugoslav method remains to be seen.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Calling all wingnuts,

    he is talking about YOU.

    When Extremists Attack

    by Joe Klein

    I have now been called antisemitic and intellectually unstable and a whole bunch of other silly things by the folks over at the Commentary blog. They want Time Magazine to fire or silence me. This is happening because I said something that is palpably true, but unspoken in polite society: There is a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who unsuccessfully tried to get Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, and then successfully helped provide the intellectual rationale for George Bush to do it in 2003. Their motivations involve a confused conflation of what they think are Israel's best interests with those of the United States. They are now leading the charge for war with Iran.

    Happily, these people represent a very small sliver of the Jewish population in this country. Unhappily, their views have had an impact in the highest reaches of the Bush Administration--and seem to have an influence on John McCain's campaign as well. Happily, the Bush Administration seems more interested in talking to the Iranians than in launching on them--and, according to my Israeli friends, the Israelis are not going to do anything foolish, either. I remain proud of my Jewish heritage, a strong supporter of Israel and a realist about the slim chance of finding some common ground with the Iranians. But I am not willing to grant these ideologues the anonymity they seek.

    In early 2003, during my first weeks as a Time Magazine columnist, I wrote a handful of skeptical columns about the coming war in Iraq, including this one about Israel's security as a hidden casus belli. Then, with the troops in place and the war about to begin, I said something stupid on Tim Russert's cable TV show--reluctantly saying ok, we should proceed with the attack. It was the only statement I made in favor of the war and I quickly came to my senses--but that's no excuse. We have lost more than 4000 Americans, tens of thousands have come home grievously injured, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and wounded, and we are weaker, palpably and morally, as a result.

    I am not going to make the same mistake twice. I don't think a war with Iran is coming, thank God, but this time I am not going to pull any punches. My voice isn't very important in the grand scheme of things, but I'm going to do my job--and that means letting you know exactly where I stand and what I believe. I believe there are a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who are pushing for war with Iran because they believe it is in America's long-term interests and because they believe Israel's existence is at stake. They are wrong and recent history tells us they are dangerous. They are also bullies and I'm not going to be intimidated by them.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Low-Road Express

    Well, that certainly didn’t take long. On July 3, news reports said Senator John McCain, worried that he might lose the election before it truly started, opened his doors to disciples of Karl Rove from the 2004 campaign and the Bush White House. Less than a month later, the results are on full display. The candidate who started out talking about high-minded, civil debate has wholeheartedly adopted Mr. Rove’s low-minded and uncivil playbook.

    In recent weeks, Mr. McCain has been waving the flag of fear (Senator Barack Obama wants to “lose” in Iraq), and issuing attacks that are sophomoric (suggesting that Mr. Obama is a socialist) and false (the presumptive Democratic nominee turned his back on wounded soldiers).

    Mr. McCain used to pride himself on being above this ugly brand of politics, which killed his own 2000 presidential bid. But he clearly tossed his inhibitions aside earlier this month when he put day-to-day management of his campaign in the hands of one acolyte of Mr. Rove and gave top positions to two others. The résumés of the new team’s members included stints in Mr. Bush’s White House and in his 2004 re-election campaign, one of the most negative and divisive in memory.

    Almost immediately, the McCain campaign was using Mr. Rove’s well-honed tactics, starting with an attempt to widen this nation’s damaging ideological divide by painting Mr. Obama as a far-left kook. On July 18, Mr. McCain even suggested that Mr. Obama is a socialist to the left of the Senate’s only avowed socialist: Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

    Mr. Obama’s politics are hardly far-left, and anyone who has spent time in a socialist country knows how ridiculous that label is for any member of Congress. It would be bad enough if Mr. McCain honestly believed what he said, but we find that hard to imagine.

    Mr. Obama has distorted Mr. McCain’s record at times, but Mr. McCain’s false charges have been more frequent: that Mr. Obama opposes “innovation” on energy policy; that he voted 94 times for “higher taxes”; and that Mr. Obama is personally responsible for rising gasoline prices.

    And Mr. McCain has not stopped there. Taking a page straight from Mr. Bush and Mr. Rove, Mr. McCain has been trying to distract voters from his support for an unending war in Iraq by portraying Mr. Obama as unpatriotic and weak. This line of attack reached a crescendo last week when Mr. McCain fumed and fussed and went to places with European-sounding names while Mr. Obama traveled abroad.

    Mr. McCain repeatedly said Mr. Obama “would rather lose a war to win a political campaign” and that he “does not understand” what is at stake in Iraq. He also accused Mr. Obama of canceling a visit to wounded American troops in a German military hospital because news cameras were not allowed. That’s a false account of what occurred — and Mr. McCain ignored Mr. Obama’s unheralded visit to a combat hospital in Baghdad.

    Like Mr. Bush, Mr. McCain confuses opposition to an unnecessary war with a lack of spine and an unwillingness to use force when the nation is truly in danger. Obviously, Mr. Obama is untested as a commander in chief and his trip was intended to reassure voters. But Mr. McCain is as untested in this area as Mr. Obama, and it is hard to imagine a worse role model than the one Mr. McCain seems to be adopting: President Bush.

    Many voters are wondering whether a McCain presidency would be an extension of Mr. Bush’s two disastrous terms. If the way Mr. McCain is running his campaign these days is an indication, Americans don’t have to wait until next January for the answer to that one.


    The eight year transformation from strait talk express to McBush is now complete.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Remember several years ago when the Rumsfeld lead Army had to start accepting recruits which previously wouldn't have been allowed to join?

    Now they have been force to promote some of those recruits to the rank of sergeant;

    Strained by war, U.S. Army promotes unqualified soldiers

    The destruction of the us military will be one of the legacy's of George W Bush which we all will be saddled with for a long time.

    If you do NOT have good NCO's you do not have a good unit. NCO's are the backbone of any military unit.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Why doesn't Tom Colburn want Us military disabled veterans to get help?

    Senate Republicans block effort to aid paralyzed vets

    I guess his support of the troops STOPS when they get wounded and need REAL support, instead of the GOP yellow ribbon type of faux support.

    ReplyDelete
  66. We were in a small inn on the beach called Baie des Anges (Bay of Angels) in St. Barts in Flamands. This is where the James Bond film Dr. No was filmed. They had wireless in the cafe, which also had a swimming pool overlooking the beach.

    I'll post photos soon.

    Because hardly any Americans are traveling anymore, the innkeeper (a French woman named Annie) upgraded us from a small cheaper room to the beachfront suite. I've never seen a more beautiful beach, totally private - with only a few houses on it.

    Annie has owned this property since childhood as she inherited it from her mother. The chef in the restaurant is one of the best on the island. We ran into a couple who were staying at Eden Rock, who are from L.A. and work at CBS.

    We rented a Samari jeep and drove all over the island, which has tons of hills and only one main road. There are so many hidden beaches and bays - and lots of jellyfish. We went to Shell beach which is covered with pink seashells instead of sand.

    ReplyDelete
  67. We used two plane tickets from Frequent flier miles (free) if you use your credit card enough. These add up over a year's time so you can get amazing airline ticket deals. They don't serve food on airlines anymore.

    The worst thing of course is going through so many security machines and long lines, having to take off all your clothes and shoes to get through the metal detectors.

    It's actually an art form - trying to figure out how to pack lotions and shampoos in luggage.

    Aside from the Euro in St. Barth, the highest prices were in San Juan, Puerto Rico - coming back -- where we bought a couple of cold sandwiches at Cinnabon for $42.00!!

    ReplyDelete
  68. Things could get much more interesting, because Israel's prime minister Olmert has decided to step down in Sept because of the investigations into his questionable behavior.

    If his party, the Kadima Party chooses a successor who can not form a coalition government, then elections would result, which could force Israel to hold elections while the US holds an election and transition of it's own.

    Might forestall any Iranian gambit, because if Olmert is stepping down that probably means HE is not going to attack Iran.

    If Obama wins that might make his successor think twice. (McSame will do it for Israel).

    ReplyDelete
  69. BTW the house voted Rove in contempt of congress, not that it means anything with GOPer covering for Bush ET Al in the AG's position at the department which supposedly provides justice for all and NOT cover ups for the GOP.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Here we go again! Now that mccain is using Rove he is getting dirtier, more ignorant, and lying to turn people on Obama.
    I'm sorry I just heard McCain mocking and comparing Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. I am so sick of that scum!
    I will guarantee you many will be swayed again by this idiots yying childish crap. Republicans are aven saying he has gone to far but they don't matter. Divide and conquer will work again. AAARRRGGGHHH!

    ReplyDelete
  71. I'm not sure McSame will get through the general campaign without topping Gerald Ford's Poland Comment;

    Ford incorrectly stated that Poland was "independent and autonomous" from the Soviet Union, though at the time the Soviet Union dominated Poland and much of Eastern Europe.

    Remember McSame thinks Czechoslovakia is still one country ....

    The USSD still exists .....

    Said “President Putin of Germany.” doesn't he know Hitler LOST WW2

    Said it was "Common Knowledge" That Iran Is Training Al-Qaida

    wanna bet Osama bin Forgotten was really surprised?

    Thinks Iraq/Pakistan share a border,

    they do if you consider Iran as the border

    McCain has also mistaken "Somalia" for "Sudan," and even football’s Green Bay Packers for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

    I doubt CBS, CNN or even faux noise will have enough time in the LIVE debates to cover up his gaffes ........

    ReplyDelete
  72. Lydia said...

    The worst thing of course is going through so many security machines and long lines, having to take off all your clothes


    I wasn't aware they were making you take off "all" your clothes these days.

    I'm gonna have to start hanging out at the security gates at the local airport once and a while.

    :|

    Take a picnic basket.... make a day out of it.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Now they ask him;

    Rice Adviser: Iraq Invasion Was 'F*cking Stupid'

    Over at the Washington Independent, Spencer Ackerman continues his enlightening "Rise of the Counterinsurgents" series with "A Counterinsurgency Guide for Politicos." The Indy has obtained a copy of a forthcoming manual on counterinsurgency strategy written by David Kilcullen, a "former Australian Army officer who is now an adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."

    The handbook seeks to provide a framework for considering whether Washington should intervene in foreign countries' counterinsurgency operations, raising difficult questions about whether such nations deserve U.S. support; under what conditions that support should occur, and whether success is possible at acceptable cost. No systematic approach to strategic-level questions in counterinsurgency currently exists for senior U.S. government officials.

    And how difficult are the questions being raised? Well, in what's sure to be the pull-quote of the piece for those media outlets who still consider anything other than Surge Logic (TM) important, Kilcullen provides a little color:

    More bluntly, Kilcullen, who helped Petraeus design his 2007 counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, called the decision to invade Iraq "stupid" -- in fact, he said "fucking stupid" -- and suggested that if policy-makers apply the manual's lessons, similar wars can be avoided in the future.


    "The biggest stupid idea," Kilcullen said, "was to invade Iraq in the first place."

    Wow. What an appeaser!


    Looks like state is getting told the same thing that trolls like freedum fraud and Doltron , among others, called us traitors for saying.

    Six years late but at least history will admit ONE person inside the Bush admin told the truth.

    It was f*cking paste eating stoopid.

    and criminal to boot.

    Other stupid ideas have been: Illegal wiretaps, torture of prisoners, try to suppress political dissent, faith-based initiatives, abstinence-only sex education, violation of international laws…

    In fact, it could be argued that, if this administration excelled at anything, it was stupid ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Justice takes a little longer then we want, but it does come;

    Court Rules on Miers/Bolten Subpoenas

    Just in: A federal district court in DC has overruled the White House-backed motion to dismiss the House lawsuit to enforce contempt of Congress proceedings against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten.

    The court also granted the House Judiciary Committee's motion for partial summary judgment in part.

    In doing so the U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled:

    Harriet Miers is not immune from compelled congressional process; she is legally required to testify pursuant to a duly issued congressional subpoena from plaintiff; and Ms. Miers may invoke executive privilege in response to specific questions as appropriate

    and that:

    Joshua Bolten and Ms. Miers shall produce all non-privileged documents requested by the applicable subpoenas and shall provide to plaintiff a specific description of any documents withheld from production on the basis of executive privilege consistent with the terms of the Memorandum Opinion issued on this date

    Just a reminder: The Judiciary Committee is seeking testimony and documents from the White House relating to the U.S. attorneys firings. Bolten is a party because he is the custodian of White House records, but it's really the White House on the line here.


    Four years late ..........

    ReplyDelete
  75. I wonder if this is why he suddenly had to resign from the US senate last year?

    Former Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) is accused of urging a witness to lie during a Hurricane Katrina lawsuit as to not implicate Zach and Dickie Scruggs. The accusation was made in a sworn disposition by an attorney for an insurance company. Zach Scruggs is the nephew of the former senator, and Dickie is Lott's brother-in-law.

    The trial of Dickie Scruggs was already underway when Trent Lott suddenly decided he had to resign.

    It now makes people wonder why?

    ReplyDelete
  76. Maybe Alaska senior senator Ted Stevens should have taken the Trent Lott route also?

    Got to hand it to GOPers, they are workin' hard keepin' the culture of corruption alive.

    ReplyDelete
  77. I put that video up because I had suggested someone do that a while back, and I thought it was funny that someone did it, and so well.

    Anyway just make sure Obama's the new taskmaster you all want. I hope he is. He might be. But look at his positions on things, and make sure you know that his plans include stepping up military operations in Afghanistan and maybe Pakistan, he supports warrantless wiretapping and is talking about handing out "1000 dollar" tax breaks (like Bush does).

    Just make sure you know who it is that you are selling your allegiance to now. I know how badly you all want change, God knows I do, but I'm not sure how much change Obama really intends on bringing. I hope he does, but I worry.

    One things for sure, unless the republicans introduce a new candidate, he's got it won in November.

    Lets just hope our new taskmaster is who we think he is.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Because once he's in office we won't be able to cry about it anymore.

    Because we'll have put him there.

    ReplyDelete
  79. On another note, it appears Mr Cheney's utter, criminal (on a global scale) corruption knows no bounds.

    It seems Mr Cheney held meetings recently with intelligence officials in his office, to discuss ways to PROVOKE Iran into war.

    Thats right. He actually held a meeting on our tax dollars, to figure out a way to TRICK Iran into providing the White House with "casas belli" (case for war) to authorize offensive operations against Iran without needing congressional consent.

    One of the methods discussed to provide the administration with a case for war with Iran, was to dress up Navy Patrol boats to look like Iranian PT Boats, then put Navy SEALS on them, dressed as Iranians, and stage a confrontation.

    They actually intended on SHOOTING at the Navy SEALS. They even discussed the likelyhood that some of the Navy SEALS would be killed by gunfire from our ships, as it would have to be covert and the ship crews would have to believe the attack was real.

    This is beyond criminal folks.

    This is what the Constitution means by "High Crimes".

    And wheres Nancy Pelosi? Speaker of the House in whose hands rests the decision for impeachment?

    Off selling her book, and apologizing for the Bush administration.

    Thats where Pelosi is.

    ReplyDelete
  80. Worf that is the EXACT false flag style event Hitler used as a pretense to attack Poland,

    The Gleiwitz incident was a staged attack on 31 August 1939 against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany (since 1945: Gliwice, Republic of Poland) on the eve of World War II in Europe.

    This provocation was one of several actions in Operation Himmler, a Nazi Germany SS project to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany, which would be used to justify the subsequent invasion of Poland.


    On the night of August 31, 1939 a small group of German operatives, dressed in Polish uniforms and led by Naujocks seized the Gleiwitz station and broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish (sources vary on the content on the message). The Germans' goal was to make the attack and the broadcast look like the work of anti-German Polish saboteurs.

    In order to make the attack seem more convincing, the Germans brought in Franciszek Honiok, a German Silesian known for sympathizing with the Poles, who had been arrested the previous day by the Gestapo. Honiok was dressed to look like a saboteur; then killed by lethal injection, given gunshot wounds, and left dead at the scene, so that he appeared to have been killed while attacking the station. His corpse was subsequently presented as proof of the attack to the police and press.



    Why would Dick Cheney want to follow in the foot steps of Adolph Hitler and Joeseph Goebbles?

    ReplyDelete
  81. Clif - thanks for the info on Miers, Bolten, Pelosi and Trent Lott!!!

    So Trent Lott had to resign!!

    ReplyDelete
  82. clif said...
    Worf that is the EXACT false flag style event Hitler used as a pretense to attack Poland,



    Worf died remember? But his ghost is floating around somewhere I hear.

    Yes, that is what Hitler tried to do to encourage support for his illegal invasion into Poland. In fact I've often compaired Baghdad to the Warsaw Ghetto. The similarities are striking.

    As for "why" they'd want to follow in Hitlers steps?

    I'd say they already have.

    ReplyDelete
  83. Well,..except for one step.

    :|

    We'll have to wait and see on that one.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Knowing them they'd chicken out, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  85. What step?

    Committing suicide when it all falls apart?

    ReplyDelete
  86. Please read my update on McCain flunking presidential test, and on the Rove-driven campaign strategy vs. Obama's crowds.

    Obama's wave is based on principles not personality.

    ReplyDelete
  87. That Test is priceless Lydia!

    ReplyDelete
  88. clif said...
    What step?

    Committing suicide when it all falls apart?"

    Nah, thats too easy...........they need to be tried in the hague and hung as war criminals.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Lydia in defense of John McCain, Joe Lie-berman wasn't taking the same test so he could help poor John.

    When he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958 (894 of 899) in his class, none of those were questions on any test and he hasn't spent much time studyin' ever since

    He is a party guy with a lifestyle to keep up, just ask Vickie Iseman.

    ReplyDelete
  90. clif said...
    What step?

    Committing suicide when it all falls apart?



    lol, well, if they want to complete the picture.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Lydia Cornell said...
    Please read my update on McCain flunking presidential test, and on the Rove-driven campaign strategy vs. Obama's crowds.

    Obama's wave is based on principles not personality



    Well I don't know. You mean the prinicple of mass warrantless spying on Americans?

    He voted for that.

    Or Faith Based Initiatives merging church and state?

    Or talking about taking the troops from Iraq and sending them to Pakistan and Afghanistan?

    I like some of what he says, but now that he's laid these cards on the table, I'm going to have to see something pretty amazing to make me think we're not just swapping one Tyrant, for another, albeit a friendlier one.

    ReplyDelete
  92. What I see in Obama, is a guy willing to be shifted with the tides. I want to believe in him. I really want to.

    How badly you cannot possibly know.

    But so far he hasn't made me believe he's anything other than another version of Bush albeit more neatly wrapped.

    ReplyDelete
  93. And I am NOT trying to usurp your blog, sow discontent, or shake anyones faith.

    I'm just telling you what "I" see as for his "principles".

    And what I see is him changing those principles based on the moment, like he did with the flag pin, like he did with Public Financing.

    If someone can show me why he's different I'd love to hear it. I'd love to believe it.

    ReplyDelete
  94. bart, relax just a hair. What you're feeling isn't a wrong instinct; anyone who would subject themselves and/or their families to the deep gutters of Presidential campaigning is feeding some ego. He/she might have wonderful ideas/impulses, or he/she might suck, but you can bet that any Presidential candidate is there in part to stroke his or her ego. Politics, in general, is a Narcissistic profession. When I say that, I mean professional politicians; the kind of people that were our Founders were anything BUT ego strokers, for the most part.

    ReplyDelete
  95. JR.

    A. I am relaxed. Where did I provide the impression I was not?

    B. I don't know what you're talking about.

    You're discussing his ego.

    I said nothing about his eqo.

    I am talking about what he is saying compaired to how he is voting.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Why is it anyone questioning Obama immediately draws calls to "relax" from the left?

    Here, let me see if I got it right.

    1. Clasp hands firmly to sides.

    2. Walk straight ahead.

    3 Smile cheerfully without showing a hint of discontent.

    4. When the candidate says one thing, then votes another way, act as if the candidate voted the way he promised.

    I've noticed regardless of the blog I go into on the left, I am welcome as long as I say nice things about Obama. But if I dare to voice discontent with Obama's actual votes as compared to his promises then I am suddenly no longer welcome.

    It seems we're so hungry for a change from Bush, that we're ready to accept whatever our candidate does, even if what he does is pretty much what Bush does.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Has anyone ever heard the expression, "don't look for love on the rebound"..?

    The idea is, when you get out of a bad relationship, often people are so anxious to heal the pain from that relationship, that they take the first thing that comes along, and invariably end up in a bad relationship again.

    I worry that the democratic party, and its supporters, are allowing their rebound mentality to paint their candidate in a better light than he really is in.

    Think long, and think hard, about HR 6034.

    In that vote, Barak Obama not only gave Bush and company an essential pardon by making domestic spying legal, he also made it legal so that from now on, they can do it with impunity.

    HR 6034, took one of the biggest issues everyone of you had with the Bush administration, and LEGALIZED it.

    He took that which was illegal, and made it legal, so Bush is now free on that one, never to be challenged again, all the federal cases that we were winning now are overturned because suddenly its legal, and you can't sue or try someone for that which is legal, hell they even made it "retroactively" legal, so Bush gets a free pass.

    HR 6034 took away what was left of your 4th Amendment protections from unlawful search, and made it legal for the government to spy on you, enmasse, anytime, anywhere, for any reason.

    Barack Obama said "YAY" to this.

    Hilary Clinton said "NAY".

    :|

    Who's got our backs again?

    ReplyDelete
  98. I'm indicted here along with everyone else if this is correct.

    I mean, I wrote an entire blog telling Hilary to concede the race. But it was a very close race, and I'm wondering, if for all his appeal we didn't ignore the better candidate, and shun her, to our own chagrin.

    ReplyDelete
  99. And this just out tonight, to add to the list of right turns by our new Wunderkind.


    Obama Opens the Door to Offshore Drilling

    By Jonathan Weisman
    ORLANDO, Fla. --

    Sen. Barack Obama suggested he could accept an expansion of offshore oil drilling today if it is in a broader package of energy measures that would free the logjam on energy bills in Congress



    WashingtonPost Blog

    ReplyDelete
  100. These "little" stories goe unnoticed by most of his supporters, and largely undiscussed. You won't find deep debates in ThinkProgress, DailyKos. Sometimes in Huffpost Arrianna hits on it, but usually these get drowned out in the drumbeat.

    I'm not saying don't vote for him.

    Just know what you're voting for.

    ReplyDelete
  101. Obama Shifts, Says He May Back Offshore Drilling

    MIKE GLOVER | August 1, 2008 08:39 PM EST | ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. —

    Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.


    HuffingtonPost.com

    ReplyDelete
  102. BARTLEBEE said...
    Obama Shifts, Says He May Back Offshore Drilling

    MIKE GLOVER | August 1, 2008 08:39 PM EST | ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. —

    Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources."


    Well Bart, I've said this here on your blog, and many other blogs on MANY occasions Obama should have been saying this from the beginning.........He should have said he is for drilling ONLY if we take other steps to reduce our dependency on oil, like wind, soar, nuclear, increased MPG standards and standards for appliances, LNG, hybrid cars etc....THAT would have forced McSame to either react and dance to Obama's tune or be the out of touch obstructionist who is working for the corporate elite rather than the best interests of the people.

    Now let me be Clear I have ALSO criticized Obama harshly for his flip flops and untenable positions on FISA, the lapel pin, faith based inits etc.....I was extremely angry and disapointed in his positions so much so that he has not received a cent from me since March.

    While I agree with you on the totality of some of his flip flops which look cowardly and unprincipled i agree strongly with the position he has taken on drilling..........Why give the repugs an albatross to hang around his neck and allow them to tar and feather him when he can make McSame react to what he says if he says he is for it if we focus on renewables and cleaner alternatives to oil.

    Sure his initial position was wrong but we cant fault the guy for seeing the light and revisiting his position after objectively revaluating it..............like you said about McClellan you need to welcome him when he admits a mistake and comes over from the darkside............we've lived for 8 years with a president who thinks he is omnipotent and everything he says and does is righht and NEVER revisits his positions unless its in Orwellian fashion.

    I jut wish he would have done the same on FISA and other issues............i dont blindly support Obama or anyone........in fact i cant say i think Obama will be the answer to our prayers or a great president..........BUT i can say with certainty McSame will be a terrible President.

    ReplyDelete
  103. Mike, do you have nice beaches in Texas? Lots of marine life?

    If so, then I suggest visiting them frequently for the rest of the summer.

    Because offshore drilling is going to be the end of those nice beaches. When your kids are grown, they're going to be walking along those beaches, and saying, "yea, these used to be nice.... when my dad was young..."

    Maybe that was your position, I don't know. I cannot recall reading about it specifically but you're a man of your word so I accept that you said it.

    I'm sad that you said it, but I accept that you did.

    ReplyDelete
  104. Mike said...

    Why give the repugs an albatross to hang around his neck and allow them to tar and feather him


    It's not me giving the republicans an albatross to hang around his neck Mike.

    He's got that covered all by himself.

    ReplyDelete
  105. During Hurricane Katrina alone, more than 150 offshore wells were damaged, pumping millions of gallons of oil into the oceans.

    That oil has, and yet still will cause untold loss to marine life.

    And our hurricanes are getting more frequent and more severe thanks to global warming.

    The global warming caused by our burning fossil fuels.

    The fossil fuels we want to now start drilling for off our own coastlines.

    :|

    Drilling for more oil to get off oil, is not any sort of answer at all. All opening up oil drilling off US Coastlines will do is ensure that Big Oil digs in deeper, making it impossible to rid ourselves of them.

    Its smoke and mirrors Mike.

    A cheap parlor trick.

    "hey, look at the pretty alternative fuel funding..."


    Trust me, if Big Oil is allowed to set up shop off our nations coastlines, they're not going away anytime soon.

    Not in our lifetimes anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Congress will throw a few billion at Alternative Energy research, and when promising technologies are introduced Big Oil will use its vast wealth to bury them, just like they always do.

    ReplyDelete
  107. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  108. They'll push for "hybrids".

    Big Oil likes hybrids because it still uses gasoline. And if they use "less gas", then Big Oil will just charge more for that less gas.

    Notice hybrids use about "half" as much gasoline as do regular automobiles.

    Well, gasoline has "doubled" in price, right?

    Because Big Oil needs to charge more to prepare for the reduced US consumption, so they weaned us over the last few years off the cheap gas, and brought our fuel prices in line with European standards, where they also pay 5 dollars a gallon and use small fuel efficent cars.

    Its a market correction, to ensure Big Oil reaps profits, even as Americans use more fuel efficient vehicles.

    Americans want to use half the gas?

    No problem.

    Just charge twice as much.

    This is whats called a "crime hiding in plain sight", that no one wants to see.

    ReplyDelete
  109. Look Bart, what i said was allow them deep sea drilling............NOT drilling in ANWR or prime beaches or coastal areas and nature preserves.................now in order for it to be profitable to drill in deep waters the price of oil NEEDS to be high around 100 or so...........if we adopt a multi fasceted plan that embraces all i said oil prices would likely be below that threshold of profitability and drilling would likely be a moot point.

    ReplyDelete
  110. Another thing when i am saying "hybrid cars" bart, i'm not refering to conventional gasoline hybrids i'm refering to natural gas hybrids where the cars run on a combination of electricy and clean burning natural gas.

    Natural gas can be had for the gasoline equivalent of less than $2 a gallon, in some cases even as low as $1 a gallon and in some cases the exhaust is as clean or cleaner that the air being taken in by the cars.

    ReplyDelete
  111. I know i'm going to get attacked on this one, in fact i did by Voltron on his blog.........BUT I support T Boone Pickens energy plan...........he basically states we need to build wind and solar to power a sizeable amount of our electricy then use natural gas to power our cars along with electricy of course.

    Of course we have had natural gas vehicles for decades but the oil companies have never let them become mainstream........with rebates they are compatible in price to regular gasoline cars.

    Now of course I believe we need to do MORE than what pickens states like 75% of our energy for electricity from wind and solar the rest from water,nuclear and clean coal.........that would free up natural gas to be used along with electricity to make hybriod cars until we can invent a better cleaner, renewable more readily available technology.........but doing that would free us from our oil dependency and address global warming and polution in a big way.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Do some research on natural gas powered cars they are currently out there, and when combined with electricity in a hybrid it would be a great transition technology.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Look at it this way..........the oil companies have a ton of leases in the ocean they are not currently drilling on, some of the reasons are if they drill too much the price of oil might come down enough to make the drilling unprofitable.........the OTHER reason is if they KEEP demand ahead of supply then they KNOW they can get more money by producing that oil next year or 5 years from now than they can by drilling like crazy and producing it all today.

    See what i'm saying here bart is its all tactical maneuvering giving them the right to drill in the deep sea..........because they arent actually going to use that right very much because its not in their interests.

    So why let the repugs tar and feather Obama over a boondogle that isnt going to matter unless he opposes it and and GIVES the repugs ammunition to use against him by deceiving the uneducated who arent smart enough to read between the lines.

    He can take away McSame's argument that Obama opposes drilling and force Mcsame to either support wind, solar, and other renewables or admit he is against them and doesnt care about helping the Ameican people and ending our dependency on imported oil from countrys that hate us or global warming.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Its a chess game and in order to win you gotta not only implement your own tactics but stop the oppositions tactics..........in order to win and be able to implement his plans Obama has to neutralize what McSame is trying to do to smear him and discredit him.

    Once Obama wins and we control both houses of Congress firmly he can then implement his agenda more on his own terms.........lets hope its the agenda we all want but i'm pretty sure its better than any agenda Bush and mcsame would implement.

    obama's not perfect he has disapointed and upset me on MANY issues.......but i just dont see him as a Pelosi...........i think he wants to make a difference and i think he has some good ideas...........i just think he's playing the I need to say and do certain things to GET elected first game.

    ReplyDelete
  115. Mike, I wasn't referring about you when I said Hybrids, I was talking about what would happen if we permit offshore drilling.

    Second I wasn't talking about what "you" support period. Not in the least. Read what I said, I was talking about "Obama".

    Obama isn't talking about some "deep water" drilling he's talking about offshore oil rigs.

    I'd be more concerned with your platform if you were running for president, lol, but since you're not I am only focusing on actual candidates platforms at this time.

    I am talking about Obama here Mike, and nothing you just said addresses any of that.

    I am talking about Obama.

    And he's not talking about what you're talking about. He's talking about giving the green light to offshore drilling.

    ReplyDelete
  116. And none of what you said even comes close to addressing what I am trying to say about the gas price increase and the new hybrid technologies.

    Big Oil knows more fuel efficent cars are coming. Its happened across Europe and half the planet, and it will come here.

    Read what I said about gas prices and fuel reduction standards.

    ReplyDelete
  117. Notice hybrids use about "half" as much gasoline as do regular automobiles.

    Well, gasoline has "doubled" in price, right?

    ReplyDelete
  118. If we let Big Oil dig in deep on our coastal waters then they're not going anywhere soon.

    They'll just push for hybrid technology and bury the rest in red tape and other parlor tricks.

    They've already doubled the price of gas. So if Americans start using half the gas, they've covered themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Anyway what I think doesn't matter anyway.

    It looks as if the die is cast.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Your a smart guy Bart, think about this one, the REAL part of the general election is about to start THATS when 85% of the country will start to tune into what these guys are saying............It looks like Obama is gearing up to turn this around on McSame and back him into a corner.

    Like i said saying your for giving the oil companies the right to drill or even giving them a right they wont even use and that can be revoked later once Obama controls both houses of Congress is tactical manuevering right before things start to heat up.

    Giving them the right to drill or saying you are for giving them that right doesnt mean they WILL drill or that right cant be revoked at a later time..............what it is is neutralizing their argument and turning the issue around and putting the pressure on McSame to either support wind and solar initiatives.

    If Obama comes out with a comprehensive and agressive plan to implement wind and solar on a big scale and McSame opposes it then it becomes an albatross around McSame's neck.

    I'm not blindly defending Obama here..........he could be a bad guy that will say or do anything to get elected............all i'm saying is in this country at least before Bush came to power people were innocent until PROVEN guilty.........now sure Obama's done some questionable things i dont and cant support.........but i think he deserves the benefit of the doubt on some issues till proven otherwise.

    I think his positions on Iraq and drilling are clearly tactical positions (he is a politician after all and NEEDS to actually get elected) he deserves the benefit of the doubt on until proven otherwise.............FISA and the lapel pin are clearly different those are just cowardly flip flops that i can never justify or give him the benefit of the doubt on.

    ReplyDelete
  121. "Like i said saying your for giving the oil companies the right to drill or even giving them a right they wont even use and that can be revoked later once Obama controls both houses of Congress is tactical manuevering right before things start to heat up."

    So you're basically saying that it's OK to deceive the American people into voting for you?

    ReplyDelete
  122. You might want to think about how that's going to sit with people Mike.

    If he does that, he better get everything that you want done in one term. (or less)

    ReplyDelete
  123. First off, 60 to 70% are now supporting drilling.

    IF the oil companies are given permission, they're going to be forced by public demand to use it.

    For Obama to then "revoke" that....

    Well, you remember the scene in Frankenstein where the villagers storm the castle with torches and pitchforks?

    ReplyDelete
  124. Well doltron with 80% of the acreage which has oil fields on it, already approved for drilling, and NO oil corp is drillin' on it yet, might lead one to believe the public can't really force the oil corps to do anything, so your NUMBNUTS senario is just that son.

    If they aren't even trying at this time what makesw you think the sheeple the GOP lies and decieves every year can collase together enough to force some of the richest largest corps to bend over for them?

    Damn your even more delusional them freedum fraud was.

    ReplyDelete
  125. When the middle class has voted AGAINST their interests how in the hell are they going to find cohesion to force the oil corps and their wall street bankers to do the opposite they have done the last decade, squeeze the American people dry for obscene profits and decry anyone who questions their pure motives?

    ReplyDelete
  126. Admit it dolt your just another stupid troll who NEVER thinks about what ever crap you post.

    ReplyDelete
  127. He doesnt have to revoke it slim all he has to do is pass a law saying they have to raise production by a certain amount and produce a certain percentage of wind and solar power to use those leases.


    He can also mandate that oil be sold to American refineries and consumers so we dont have to depend on unstable regions.

    I never said i was against drilling as long as we we do other better innintiatives.

    No one NEEDS to be lied to Volty its just plasying wordsmith like you and your ilk love to do.......see saying you WILL give the oil companies the "right" to drill isnt a lie its just not saying what conditions will need to be met to EARN those rights and those conditions need to benefit the majority of Americans not the opil companies.

    ReplyDelete
  128. Remember genius over 70% want the troops OUT and the war ended and they can even get that done, how are they gonna force the richest greedy a$$hole in the country to do something good for them when it means less profits?

    Go back to spreading Inhoff lies son, at least you can claim HE said it first.

    ReplyDelete
  129. The oil robber barons may see it as revoking that right but as long as they work to benefit the American citizens that right should not be revoked..........dont like it when someone plasys wordsmith with you aye Volty?

    ReplyDelete
  130. Mike dolt is continuing his spread dumb comments in support of the greedy right wing neo-cons and their oil corps masters.

    ReplyDelete
  131. Voltron said...
    First off, 60 to 70% are now supporting drilling.

    IF the oil companies are given permission, they're going to be forced by public demand to use it.

    For Obama to then "revoke" that...."

    Are they gonna be "forced" by public demand to use it domestically?

    I KNEW using the word revoke would draw you out.........like i said i'm not advocating outright revokation..........what i'm saying is oif they dont adopt innitiatives that benefit the American people that that right would be revoked or forfeit.

    Are YOU saying the oil companies should be given the right to sit on those leases and manipulate the price of oil to maintain their profitability against the interests of American citizens and national security?

    ReplyDelete
  132. Mike said...

    Like i said saying your for giving the oil companies the right to drill or even giving them a right they wont even use and that can be revoked later once Obama controls both houses of Congress is tactical manuevering


    We gave the republicans power to wage war they weren't going to use too, and how'd that work out?

    ReplyDelete
  133. No matter what Mike, the only one voting for McCain is Voltron and Diebold.

    Obama's clearly got it won, unless something weird happens.

    Holding your candidates feet to the fire isn't giving the enemy ammunition.

    They have the ammunition.

    HE'S giving it to them.

    :|

    I'm just trying to convince him to stop.

    ReplyDelete
  134. And you're right about T Boone Pickens Mike, and his wind power plans. The guys a visionary.

    ReplyDelete
  135. Wind power. Solar power. All we need is battery storage technogly.

    Thats it. Battery storage improvements and enhancements and we could run the whole country on wind and sunlight.

    Imagine that.

    And from an Oil man no less.

    ReplyDelete
  136. There is one constant in all American industry. Once we figure out how to make it, we figure out how to mass produce it, cheaply.

    Once we get this down, new homes won't even need to be on the national power grid. Everyone will go solar.

    ReplyDelete
  137. Mike said...

    now sure Obama's done some questionable things i dont and cant support.........but i think he deserves the benefit of the doubt on some issues till proven otherwise.


    Questionable?

    Voting "YAY" on HR 6034 Mike is hardly "questionable".

    Its an out and out treason to all we've been condemning for the past 6 years.

    How many articles, how many debates, did we slam anyone even hinting at giving Bush a pass on domestic spying? How many trolls did we bash for suggesting mass unwarrantless domestic spying should be made legal?

    Huh? How many?

    Should we search through the threads?

    This is hardly "questionable" Mike.

    Its treasonable.

    ReplyDelete
  138. And as for giving him the benefit of the doubt, he's failed me everytime.

    The flag pin. Voting to Expand Bush's Faith Based Initiatives.

    Public campaign financing. Voting yea on HR 6034.

    And now, talking about offshore drilling?

    These are all important issues but HR 6034 was more than important. It was paramount. And he failed.

    ReplyDelete
  139. Boy did it get quiet in here.

    I think you guys are still misconstruing what I am saying.

    I am not saying don't vote for him.

    Clearly we're down to the lesser of two evils, so to speak, and Obama, compared to McCain, is like Jesus compared to Kubla Kahn.

    Its a no brainer.

    And like I said before, he's already won. There's no way he loses in November to McCain. No way. Forget the bs polls you're seeing now. They're using phrased questions to try and make the playing field seem more level but the fact is you don't see too many McCain posters in front yards, right?

    And you don't see McCain bumper stickers on too many cars, right?

    Now, contrast that to the number of Obama stickers and yard signs you see.

    Obama's got this won in November, unless he does something really, really stupid. He's got the win.

    So I don't see how holding him accountable, and addressing serious issues is going to hurt him. On the contrary it's going to help him stay on course.

    Anyway, don't everyone shut up just because they think I'm anti Obama. I'm not.

    I like Obama.

    I just want to make sure he likes me.

    ReplyDelete
  140. :|


    On a lighter note, I noticed Lydia decided to visit one of my fabulous resorts.... "St Bart's".

    :D

    Just don't be stealing the towels.

    ReplyDelete
  141. BARTLEBEE said...
    No matter what Mike, the only one voting for McCain is Voltron and Diebold.

    Obama's clearly got it won, unless something weird happens.

    Holding your candidates feet to the fire isn't giving the enemy ammunition.

    They have the ammunition.

    HE'S giving it to them.

    :|

    I'm just trying to convince him to stop."



    I couldnt agree more with what you just said. theres nothing wrong with holding his feet to the fire, i've done the same thing, i've beenn contacted by the Obama campaign numerous times after his FISA vote and i've told them why i wont give another financial contribution..........but i agree i think Obama's got it won and thats a good thing because we KNOW McSame would be a disaster.......there'
    s still hope for Obama.

    ReplyDelete
  142. BARTLEBEE said...
    And you're right about T Boone Pickens Mike, and his wind power plans. The guys a visionary."

    Your right, Pickens is a visionary and a very smart man i'm surprised to hear you say that though i figured most liberals would oppose his plan because he funded the swiftboaters that attacked Kerry and most repugs would oppose it because it exposes their drill drilll drillBS as empty rhetoric and propaganda.

    ReplyDelete
  143. BARTLEBEE said...
    Wind power. Solar power. All we need is battery storage technogly.

    Thats it. Battery storage improvements and enhancements and we could run the whole country on wind and sunlight.

    Imagine that.

    And from an Oil man no less."



    Your right, all we do need is both battery storage improvements as well as electric grid improvements so that power can be stored and transported................Super cooled silver wire and water based technologies have shown some promise but we need stuff that can be mass produced economically.

    ReplyDelete
  144. Mike said...

    now sure Obama's done some questionable things i dont and cant support.........but i think he deserves the benefit of the doubt on some issues till proven otherwise.


    Questionable?

    Voting "YAY" on HR 6034 Mike is hardly "questionable".

    Its an out and out treason to all we've been condemning for the past 6 years.

    How many articles, how many debates, did we slam anyone even hinting at giving Bush a pass on domestic spying? How many trolls did we bash for suggesting mass unwarrantless domestic spying should be made legal?

    Huh? How many?

    Should we search through the threads?

    This is hardly "questionable" Mike.

    Its treasonable."



    Well like i've said numerous times i agree with you voting for FISA is indefensible, i cant support it it makes me sick..........but bottom line we KNOW McSame supports EVERYTHING we oppose at least with Obama theres still hope he will do the right thing once he;s president and repealing FISA and dismantling the police state should be his FIRST inniatives.

    ReplyDelete
  145. BARTLEBEE said...
    Boy did it get quiet in here.

    I think you guys are still misconstruing what I am saying.

    I am not saying don't vote for him.

    Clearly we're down to the lesser of two evils, so to speak, and Obama, compared to McCain, is like Jesus compared to Kubla Kahn.

    Its a no brainer."



    Well that clarifies it......and your right it is a no brainer.............lets just hope Obama is that strong smart FDR like president we need, sure after Bush anyone would look halfway decent but we need a GREAT President to put our country on the right path now.

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  146. Wind power. Solar power. All we need is battery storage technogly.

    bart, actually there are several new techs that can store solar power in different forms with out a battery, and they are under study and experimentation in numerous countries.

    For example storing the infra-red heat from the sun then creating electrictiy from it even after sun down;

    Solar Thermal Power Coming to a Boil

    Or this possibility;

    1. The heat can be stored before generating electricity. Currently the most viable option seems to be melted salts at about 400ºC. Research is being carried out on high temperature melted salts (up to 580°C) and concrete (up to 500°C).
    2. The energy can be stored after electricity generation. In this case, various types of storage technologies are available: batteries (redox flow or sodium-sulphur), hydrogen (combining hydrolyse to produce hydrogen with fuel cells to convert it back to electricity), and pumped storage.


    Which point out ways of making solar and wind power more reliable.

    ReplyDelete
  147. Mike said...

    Your right, Pickens is a visionary and a very smart man i'm surprised to hear you say that though i figured most liberals would oppose his plan because he funded the swiftboaters that attacked Kerry and most repugs would oppose it because it exposes their drill drilll drillBS as empty rhetoric and propaganda.


    And that points to the heart of our problem right now.

    We on both sides have said and done things that are difficult to forgive, yet there are many of us on both sides with good ideas and shared goals. T Boone Pickens shows that even a crusty old muckracking Oil Man can be part of the solution and not the problem.

    We need to start looking and talking about what we have in common, and not always on the differences. There are of course things that are impossible to accept, but if we're going to get along as a people then we need to start looking for that common ground, and turn away a little from the constant character assaults we do on each other.

    And at the risk of getting my head bit off, we in here need to think about that when guys like Voltron come in, who are reasonably polite and cordial, and we bite their heads off with constant character assaults and very harsh insults. We're never going to get anywhere if we keep fueling the hate. And I hate to say that, cause Lydia's always saying it, (and Lydia knows how I hate to agree with her on anything, lol) but its true. We need to start thinking about ourselves as countrymen again, and see if we can find some common ground.

    Obama's run directly to the middle, and I see that. But maybe he thinks its the only way to bring the country back together.

    And maybe he's right. I don't know. I really don't anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  148. Hey Clif, those storage ideas sound promising. Good stuff.

    I know if this economy ever stabilizes I'm going to go solar on my house.

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  149. Looks like st Johnny ain't gonna get any more money from the Hilton family;

    Paris Hilton's mom takes offense at McCain's humor

    "Celebutante" Paris Hilton's mother blasted John McCain's presidential campaign Sunday for an ad that likened Democrat Barack Obama to Hilton, saying the ad was a waste of of public money and time.

    Reacting to the television spot released Wednesday that compared Obama's popularity to the vapid celebrity of US tabloid queens Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, Kathy Hilton said the ad represented "a completely frivolous way to choose the next president of the united States."

    Kathy Hilton, who with her husband, Beverly Hills real estate magnate and Hilton Hotels heir Richard Hilton, have donated 4,600 dollars to the McCain campaign, said in a statement published on the Huffington Post website that the ad was "a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign."

    "It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs."

    Earlier her daughter's representative issued a statement, published in US media, that said "Miss Hilton was not asked, nor did she give permission for the use of her likeness in the ad and has no further comment."

    The ad, entitled "Celeb," flashes pictures of Paris Hilton and Spears, along with images of the 200,000 people who flocked to Berlin to see Obama the previous week.

    "He's the biggest celebrity in the world. But is he ready to lead?" the narrator asks.

    "It's beyond dispute that he's become the biggest celebrity in the world," Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain, said in defense.

    Obama dismissed the ad. "I don't pay attention to John McCain's ads, although I do notice that he doesn't seem to have anything very positive to say about himself, does he?" Obama told reporters in Missouri Wednesday.


    I wonder if they asked for their money back?

    I wonder if they are gonna turn their favorite attack dog .... Grover Norquist, loose on McInsane?

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  150. I wonder if Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears are gonna take McInsane and his campaign to court for unauthorized use of their images, upon which they earn a sizable amount of their income?

    ReplyDelete
  151. Bart add a non battery storage system, and like heating water, and it could double as a hot water system.

    Personally I'm looking into a pumped energy system, where you use solar power to pump the system up, and draw from the system as a turbine generates electricity.

    The same can be done with wind power.

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  152. The only issue I have with windmills Clif is that they kill lots of birds. Lots. They just need a way to make birds stay away from the windmill fields.

    I'm looking at solar panels with generator back up. Right now most people on solar actually generate enough power to sell back some of it to the utility company.

    ReplyDelete
  153. Bart said "And at the risk of getting my head bit off, we in here need to think about that when guys like Voltron come in, who are reasonably polite and cordial, and we bite their heads off with constant character assaults and very harsh insults. We're never going to get anywhere if we keep fueling the hate. And I hate to say that, cause Lydia's always saying it, (and Lydia knows how I hate to agree with her on anything, lol) but its true. We need to start thinking about ourselves as countrymen again, and see if we can find some common ground."


    And I ALWAYS do treat Voltron decently when he's being honest and respectful...........when he is posting lies, dishonest Reich Wing talking points and propaganda like he is preaching to a demagraphic he hopes to ensnare or assigning me dishonest strawman positions then i rip him up.

    But when he is being genuine and respectful, i consider him a fairly decent guy.

    ReplyDelete
  154. The words like "reich wing".

    Thats what I'm talking about, you know? Those kinds of characterizations I'm starting to think might preclude any further reconciliation.

    Just my observation.

    ReplyDelete
  155. Look Bart, I have friends and relatives that are repugs, i like them and always treat them with respect.............When i say Reich Winger i'm refering to evil Neo Cons who behave very much like the Reich Wing.......in fact the Bush admin has used the exact same plan for seizing power and destroying freedom, liberties, privacy and other Constitutional protections as Hitler and his thugs did. I have stated the similarities on MANY occasions and backed them up with facts.......in fact my very first few posts in here addressed this very topic.

    Like i said i'm not generalizing and calling normal repugs and conservatives Reich wingers just the extremists that hijascked our country and are acting like the Reich Wing trying to start WW3 by attacking Iran now..........I speak my mind and and usually back it up with facts or else i apologize or admit i was wrong.......the vast majority of trolls that would claim offense at those words being used against a narrow and limited group of people are most likely paid operatives whose objective is to defend the treasonous crimes and war crimes against humanity of these thugs..........and they wont get any help from me whitewashing their torture, treasonm, and crimes against both the US Constitition and war crimes against humanity.

    ReplyDelete
  156. See Bart in my mind theres a big distinction between showing respect for regular conservatives who are decent people who simply hold a different opinion and whitewashing, enabling, and appeasing murderers, torturers and treasonous war criminals..........I KNOW you know that and are well aware of the distinction.

    But like you said before those sinnners cant be forgiven and treated with respect till they stop sinning and trying to start wars, torture, murder, imprison, spy on etc........in our name.

    ReplyDelete
  157. Mike said...

    See Bart in my mind theres a big distinction between showing respect for regular conservatives who are decent people who simply hold a different opinion and whitewashing, enabling, and appeasing murderers, torturers and treasonous war criminals..........I KNOW you know that and are well aware of the distinction.



    I do. And thats the problem. See its that "enabling" thing in your list there that is the conundrum for me.

    Due to recent developments with Mr Obama, along with a closer look I've been taking at just how the left wing blogs deal with opposing views, and I'm, lets just say, disillusioned.

    Obama himself is easily one of the biggest "enablers" now of certain right wing philosophies that are so far to the right as to be intolerable, like his vote for domestic spying, or offshore drilling to name two.

    Clearly he's going to the center, and if we're going to follow him then to some degree we'll have to move to the center too. Not perhaps on principles, but on tolerance of opposing principles.

    There are limits of course, but what I'm saying is it seems to me that these words, like reich wing, and such, and the constant insults of guys like Voltron, (and i'm not point fingers here Mike, so stop taking everything I say as if it were meant solely for you) when they are not doing the same thing, is I think a problem.

    I've found I get accepted just about as well in a right wing blog if I have an opposing position, as I do in a left wing one. (I've been blog hopping). That made me look at things a little different, and honestly, some of what Lydia says about getting along, is starting to make sense.

    And who knows? After all, as it says in the bible "out of the mouths of babes".

    :D

    ReplyDelete
  158. Get it? "Babes"?

    :D

    ya gotta admit thats a good one.

    ReplyDelete
  159. Bart, remember the post about solar storage systems?

    Well I just found this;

    'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution


    Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system

    Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

    Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."

    Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.

    The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.

    Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.

    The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said.


    Sounds good and this could hand us a new renewable energy source, based on the sun.

    People like Volt might not like it because he said;

    .... that electric will be a hard sell for auto enthusiasts who love the music that flows from the tailpipe of a big v8.

    He is probably a descendant of the person who didn't like th car because it didn't have a saddle.

    But when it catches on even old 20th century volt will eventually have to accept the new tech of the new century.

    ReplyDelete
  160. Juan Cole puts it this way;

    Solar is the only energy source that can hope to resolve the energy and climate crises, so this is big.

    In many ways he is right because in energy terms Oil and other fossil fuels are just different forms of storage for ancient sunlight.

    Coal plant matter which fell on ancient ground, oil from micro organisms which fell to the bottom of ancient seas.

    The only energy source we have which didn't have it's origins in the SUN in this solar system if uranium and the nuclear power it entails.

    But if this can be made to work, and corporate greed doesn't derail the whole thing, energy could be accessible for the entire planet.

    However those honkin' V-8's are as much a dinosaur in this scenario as the battleships were post WW2 ... and Volt the US Navy learned to live with air power (both winged and missile) as the main extension of their fleet.

    ReplyDelete
  161. Clif said...

    Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum

    Hopefully they'll find something a little less pricy than Platinum.

    I would hate to have to fill up with platinum.

    :|

    Course given what they charge at the pumps these days it probably wouldn't be much different, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  162. Barack Obama shifts on tapping national oil reserves

    By Michael Muskal and Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
    9:46 AM PDT, August 4, 2008
    LANSING, Mich.

    Democrat Barack Obama called today for tapping the nation's strategic oil reserves to help drive down gasoline prices, a shift from his previous position on the issue.

    The reversal is the second refinement in Obama's energy policy. Rival John McCain has been able to score political points on energy issues in recent weeks, particularly in swing states such as Michigan.

    ReplyDelete
  163. He's running so fast to the center I hope we can all keep up.

    ReplyDelete
  164. Wow, thanks Bart for agreeing with me! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  165. I know its pretty freakin rare, huh?

    lol

    ReplyDelete
  166. You'd better not turn me into a peacenik though, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  167. I was pondering on Joel Osteen yesterday, and his message he delivers every Sunday. I wondered why he doesn't ever speak about war, and the corruption of our govt, and then it hit me.

    If those hearing his sermons followed his advice about little things then they'll never have a question when it comes to the big ones. If someone "loves their neighbor as themselves", then they'd never consider invading another country and killing their people. It would be a no brainer.

    If we follow the small things, then the big ones will be a given.

    ReplyDelete
  168. Sorry I've been out of the loop guys -- my wife and I were doing a sabbatical away from the internet and television for a while (ie - we were broke)

    Wanted to comment on the Obama's shifting of positions on the drilling and the telecom thing. As for telecom -- I think he knew that nothing was going to keep that from happening. He decided to lose the scrimmage so he could focus on the bigger plays. Also remember -- just because something is done doesnt mean it cant be un-done when somebody new is in charge.

    As for drilling -- Im glad to see it. Personally I hate the idea of drilling in new places and I certainly hate what it would mean for the environment. However, it showed me that Obama is willing to do some compromising. You remember compromise, dont you? Thats what politicians USED to do before Gingrich got in there with his "win at all costs and screw the losers" attitude.

    Please dont get too discouraged if Obama does something you dont agree with -- he's by far the better of the two choices and besides, if you want a candidate who'll agree with you on every level then get your name on the ballot.

    Now I'm going to go back to YouTube to see if maybe -- just maybe -- a certain tv scene of Lydia's that Ive been looking for for a long time has suddenly popped up.

    ReplyDelete
  169. Bush ET Al say the economy is sound, and if this list makes you doubt it remember Bush ET Al say the economy is sound.

    The Real State of the US Economy

    Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide.

    Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide

    Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men’s stores plus another 22 underperforming stores.

    Gap Inc. closing 85 stores

    Foot Locker to close 140 stores

    Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. The 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

    Levitz - the furniture retailer, announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910.

    Home Depot store closings 15 of them amid a slumping US economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world’s largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store.

    Movie Gallery – video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall as part of bankruptcy.

    Sprint Nextel - 125 retail locations to close with 4,000 employees following 5,000 layoffs last year.

    Pep Boys - 33 stores of auto parts supplier closing

    Wilsons the Leather Experts – closing 158 stores

    Bombay Company: to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores.

    KB Toys closing 356 stores around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

    CompUSA (CLOSED).


    Who you gonna believe Bush or your lyin' eyes?

    ReplyDelete
  170. Mike you got your wish,

    On Energy, Barack Obama and T. Boone Pickens Converge

    the Illinois senator said, “We can’t simply pretend, as Sen, McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this problem,” Obama said. “T. Boone Pickens is right. We need a much bolder and much bigger set of solutions.”

    BTW, T Boone has nice things to say about Barack Obama;

    “I’m strongly encouraged by Senator Obama’s speech on America’s energy future. Foreign oil is killing our economy and putting our nation at risk," wrote Pickens, a billionaire oil man, who proposes ending America's dependence on oil by promoting renewable enegies like wind power and natural gas. Pickens was one of the principal financiers of the Swift Boat ads against John Kerry. “When I started this campaign my goal was to make this the biggest issue in the coming election and the top priority to be addressed in the first hundred days of the next administration. This issue is clearly moving up in the priority of political debate; Senator Obama’s statement is an indication that is what is indeed happening. I will continue to push this as a priority for the rest of the year.”

    Hopefully John McCain will stick to the Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton energy policies.

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  171. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  172. MCH said...

    if you want a candidate who'll agree with you on every level then get your name on the ballot

    Nice strawman. I never suggested that he must agree with me on "every level".

    I'd assume not voting against our 4th Amendment protections away would be something worth considering in a presidential candidate.

    Perhaps not so much to some.

    But to this American its a real issue. And your theory on him "undoing" the power he just voted for himself to have once he's in office, as history has proven time and time again, is a fallacy. As the well known, well respected Constitutional Scholar and Law Professor Jonathan Turley repeatedly points out, history shows us that once a President has a certain power, he's not likely to give it back, nor is the govt likely to return freedoms to the people that it manages to finagle away from them.

    The 4th Amendment was crucified. Obama didn't order it, but he helped drive in the nails.

    I can't forgive him for that, and the day he did it I decided to not vote for him. At this point I don't know what I am doing. I may not even vote. I just don't know.

    I believe he is the lesser of two evils, and putting him in office will likely return us to international favor, something that will help us on all fronts.

    I also am aware he does not need "my" vote. He's got this thing won, unless he turns out to be a transvestite or something. He's got it won.

    So what I do this November, we'll, its my vote, and if I can give it to him I will. But its my vote, and I'll do with it what MY head and my heart tells me is r

    ReplyDelete
  173. clif said...
    Mike you got your wish,

    On Energy, Barack Obama and T. Boone Pickens Converge

    the Illinois senator said, “We can’t simply pretend, as Sen, McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this problem,” Obama said. “T. Boone Pickens is right. We need a much bolder and much bigger set of solutions.”

    BTW, T Boone has nice things to say about Barack Obama;"


    Yeah I saw that, he's on Larry King tonight...........lrts just hope i keep on getting my wishes LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  174. I am surprised T Boone likes Obama, considering what he did to Kerry.

    Not sure if thats a good thing, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  175. Hey mike,

    If these guys are right, get ready for another deluge ..... in about a week that is.

    enjoy

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  176. Paris Hilton has responded to the McCain ad ... http://www.funnyordie.com/

    ReplyDelete
  177. MCH do you think McInsane will rue the day he used Paris Hilton's image with out her permission?

    wrinkled white haired guy

    classic

    ReplyDelete
  178. Actually, I do because it was a stupid thing for him to do. Brittany has been on the record for supporting McCain. Paris's parents have contributed to his campaign ... and his ad pissed her mom off. You dont want to alienate potential supporters that are high-profile and have huge bank accounts

    ReplyDelete
  179. Well the wrinkled white haired guy had to respond to Paris Hilton's ad, how pathetic can his campaign get?

    ReplyDelete
  180. After McInsane offered up his wife for a half naked biker beauty pageant TALKING off prepared notes,

    I just wanna know,

    Does he even have a clue?

    Paris is starting to look like a better option then the wrinkled white haired guy.

    That is scary considering the GOPers collectively thought he was the best they had ............

    ReplyDelete
  181. Poll Results
    Do you think the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence to build support for the Iraq war?
    Yes
    74% 9,378
    No
    23% 2,931
    I don't know
    3% 424
    Note on Poll Results
    Tota

    ReplyDelete
  182. looks kike 75% of our population think Bush and his treasonous Neo Con thugs lied, misrepresented and cherry picked intelligence to justify an unneccessary war.

    ReplyDelete
  183. Please tell me again how it's a liberal media?

    19% OF SENIOR MARKETERS - OR ONE IN FIVE - SAY THEIR ORGANIZATIONS HAVE BOUGHT ADVERTISING IN RETURN FOR A NEWS STORY

    According to a survey of 252 U.S. chief marketing officers, nearly one in five "say their organizations have bought advertising in return for a news story." The survey was conducted on behalf of the public relations firm Manning, Selvage & Lee (MSL) and the trade publication PR Week (which doesn't appear to have reported on the results). "The survey also found that 10 percent of senior marketers said their organizations have had an implicit / non-verbal agreement with a reporter or editor that anticipated favorable coverage of their company or products in exchange for advertising," states an MSL press release. MSL's Mark Hass called the widespread use of pay for play "troubling," as "without full disclosure and transparency, media lose credibility and their value as an unbiased source of information." More than half of survey respondents also disagreed with the statement that marketers are "following ethical guidelines in new media more than they did a year ago."

    Corporate owned, corporate controlled, spewing the corporate message, how is THAT liberal?

    ReplyDelete
  184. Col Pat Lang's take on Ron Suskind's new book;

    The Suskind book and a possible bill of impeachment.

    "A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

    Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery – adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

    The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official “that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.”

    The letter’s existence has been reported before, and it had been written about as if it were genuine. It was passed in Baghdad to a reporter for The (London) Sunday Telegraph who wrote about it on the front page of Dec. 14, 2003, under the headline, “Terrorist behind September 11 strike ‘was trained by Saddam.’” Politico

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Suskind argues that this charge, if proven, would constitute a "High Crime." I agree. "Reasons of State" may be an excuse for such behavior in some polities, but, it is clear that it is not in the United States.

    President Bush is called a liar and a law-breaker in this book. The charge is that he, personally, ordered some documents forged and others ignored in order to lure the American people into support of a foreign war. These are charges that make Bll Clinton's difficulties with his libido look rather trivial.

    The charge is so serious that Bush deserves an opportunity to clear his name of the accusation. Therefore, the House Judiciary Committee should meet to consider a bill of impeachment. Anything less will leave a stain on Bush that will follow his family name down through the ages. pl

    Note: I know Ron Suskind fairly well and respect both him and what I have read of his work in the past. I have not discussed this book with him although we have talked about the general direction of his work.


    An interesting argument for impeachment hearings.

    Impeach the SOB and see if he then can clear his family's name ......

    But then again his grandfather didn't care he was caught doing business with the Nazis during WW2.

    All he was worried about was the millions the US government took when he got caught.

    Well at least when the Dulles brothers got into Power under Eisenhower, he got his money back .....

    I wonder if that had anything to do with Alan Dulles being one of the Thyssen's family lawyers in Europe post WW2?

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  185. BTW seven years ago today, George w bush IGNORED a PDB titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”

    We all know how that turned out,

    Well at least today we convicted bin Laden's DRIVER of something ........

    happy anniversary or somethin' ....

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  186. Hey Lydia and Bart, i was thinking last night the repugs and the Neo Con Reich Wingers who hijacked their party seem to absolutely LOVE the bravado of declaring phony false wars and making pompous arrogant statements full of false bravado they NEVER can actually back up.

    I mean Nixon declared war on Cancer, the repugs declared war on drugs, Bush declared war on terror, Nixon pompously claimed in 1970 that in 10 years we would NO LONGER be importing oil..........ALL these failed neverending wars that never seem to benefit society, and in fact seem to do far more harm than good.

    If they spent half as much time looking for ways to to actually benefit society and make peoples(the majority of people ie the working class and poor;s) standard of living and quality of life better instead of looking for inanimate objects to declare war on the world would be a much better place.

    Interesting though isnt it they NEVER seem to win any of the wars they crave and all the wars they declare seem to be never ending quagmires that are more to further their self serving agenda and talking points than to benefit society or actually even to accomplish what they CLAIM to want or that the wars were for in the first place.

    Like I said the world would be a MUCH better place if these people cared even half as much about helping people and improving the standard of living and quality of life of the many as opposed to the few, or basically stuff that benefits socirty as a whole rather than starting wars that benefit the few wealthy elites that profit from their corrupt practices.

    ReplyDelete
  187. Anyone see that shot on Countdown this evening of the McCain campaign bus with the "Obama 08" bumper sticker on it?

    It was hilarious.

    I would love to see the guy or girl who snuck up and put that on the bus. Man that took some guts.

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  188. Can you imagine if they'd been caught? Those McCain people would have piled on them like linebackers. That person whoever it got my vote for funniest prank of the year.

    Obama 08 on the McCain bus.

    :D

    Too damn funny.

    ReplyDelete
  189. Check out the new blog thread and video. Also, I went to Fall Guy Heather Thomas' house yesterday - for a Progressive Salon breakfast. My friend Brad of Brad Blog spoke about e-voting fraud!!!

    I hope to have Heather on the radio show soon.

    ReplyDelete
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