I really can't even put it any better than Josh Marshall:
It's lucky for McCain that Barack Obama is the one with a hubris problem. Otherwise, this McCain poster in support of his campaign to be elected God might raise some eyebrows ...
Al Gore at his worst? On the campaign trail, trying to appeal to the reasonable middle slice of the nation's population.
Al Gore at his best? Chasing his passion as a warning bell doubling as a policy wonk, and doubling up on the charisma in the process.
The smartest politician in America has rehabilitated himself, and he's coming for your electric grid. His plans for turning global warming around aren't perfect, but by dodging the American sacred cow (the almighty automobile) and chasing electricity production, Gore is able to generate a financially reasonable, politically embraceable path.
Reed Hundt offers a summary of Gore's plan at Talking Points Memo:
His stated goal is replacing electricity generation by carbon-emitting techniques with zero carbon footprint sources.
By contrast, others have called for the replacement of the hydrocarbon automobile and trucking industries by electric vehicles. Such proposals would have a very large tail wag a very big dog. We would have to junk nearly 300 million operating cars in the United States that of course use gas and diesel. (Even the few that do use some ethanol always use mostly gasoline, since ethanol cannot amount to more than a fraction of fuel in today's engines.) By making this move, we would place a very large new burden on the electricity-generating utilities and also need a revamping of the electricity distribution grid. And so indirectly and in a roundabout way those who call for changes in transportation end up where Gore has started -- focussing on the grid.
It is in any case certain that in order to maintain and increase economic growth, Americans need an increasing amount of energy. The more efficient the energy -- that is, the cheaper it costs to create and deliver it -- the greater our economic growth is likely to be. The goal, then, is efficiency, with two conditions. We don't want to be dependent on foreign-controlled oil, because we want to escape the costly and dangerous foreign entanglements that are entailed and also because we don't want to be subjected to the upward-trending and apparently unpredictable pricing of oil in global markets. In addition, we want to abate carbon emissions, because we don't want to run the staggering risks that stem from global warming. The most direct way to achieve efficiency without carbon emissions or foreign dependency is a total overhaul of the nation's electricity generation and distribution industry.
WorldChanging says the environmental movement has finally found a leader worth his weight in carbon emissions:
Not only are his messages bold in their very nature, but Gore is connecting the dots in a way the greater environmental movement has often failed to do. The three major problems facing Americans - economic decline, national security, and environmental degradation - are interrelated, he said. "We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change."
At last week's decidedly liberal Netroots Nation bloggers conference, Gore made it clear he was in the environmental game for the long haul:
Mr. Gore, later answering questions from the audience, said he would not accept a role in the next administration. The best use of his talent and experience, he said, is “to focus on trying to enlarge the political space” within which politicians can address the climate crisis.
“I have seen firsthand how important it is to have a base of support out in the country for the truly bold changes that have to be made now,” he said, noting that is why he intends to devote his life to bringing about “a sea change in public opinion.”
He repeated the challenge he issued to the country on Thursday to produce 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy and clean, carbon-free sources within 10 years.
Since Senator McCain's office is calling it "a tremendous waste of money," the opening of 20 offices across Virginia by Senator Barack Obama's campaign must be a sign that Virginia is a bluer shade of purple. The Washington Post reports:
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign announced Wednesday that it is adding 20 offices across Virginia, an unprecedented effort by a presidential candidate and another sign that he plans to compete vigorously in a state that has been on the sidelines during past presidential contests.
The offices, which will open Saturday, will be in nearly every medium-size city in the state, along with a few locations often overlooked by statewide candidates, much less a presidential campaign.
In the Richmond area, you can find Obama's tremendous waste of money at Richmond Obama for President, 1208 West Marshall Street, or at Petersburg Obama for President at 23 West Old Street. For a list of all of the Virginia offices, click here.
And while we're on the subject, I'm totally enamoured by the creative campaign to develop 50 individual bumperstickers -- one for each state -- for Barack Obama. Boing Boing has more:
I wanted to do something to graphically illustrate the way Obama is a new kind of candidate, so I've launched the "50 Ways To Vote Obama" project, where I'm designing a different Barack Bumper Sticker for each state in the Union.
I've got stickers for 18 States so published so far (with 10-or-so more on the drawing board) And I'm actively seeking suggestions from the intertoobs to complete the series by the end of July.
Go check them all out at Bumperactive. I really dig the Texas sticker.
Financial crisis? Reform blocked by conservatism? Prison as a symbol of royal tyranny? Head on down to Guantanamo Bay, and enjoy your Bastille Day picnic.
Leave it to Dana Milbank, the second-funniest columnist at the Washington Post, to put the threat of a war with Iran into political perspective:
Well, let's game this out:
1. Israel attacks Iran.
2. Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz.
3. United States attacks Iran.
4. World War III.Possibly this would have an effect on the election.
Apparently, he skipped a few steps and after a request from a reader, Milbank expanded his analysis:
1. Israel attacks Iran.
2. Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz.
3. United States attacks Iran.
3a. Hezbollah cells go wild everywhere.
3b. Everybody attacks Israel.
3c. Israel nukes somebody.
3d. Pakistan, feeling left out, nukes somebody.
4. World War III.How's that?
For a wordier look at the sabre-rattling taking place in Washington, check out Milbank's recent column, "Not So Quiet on the Third Front."
No one, I mean no one, can take a House Commerce subcommittee discussion about tainted vegetables interesting, right? Wrong. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank takes the mundane to a new level -- a new, brilliant level. F-ing brilliant.
Without doubt, the man feeling most strained by tomatoes yesterday was David Acheson , the food safety chief at the Food and Drug Administration . And Acheson, whose British accent makes him sound aloof to begin with, made the mistake of quarreling with his questioners.
"Fresh produce, like spinach -- how many outbreaks have we had with that?" demanded the subcommittee's chairman, Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).
"Two," Acheson replied.
"Man," the chairman continued, "the last 10 years, I think there's been like eight."
"No," Acheson informed him. "Two with spinach. There's been eight or nine with other leafy greens."
"There has been at least 20 in 10 years," Stupak insisted.
"Excuse me," Acheson lectured. "I think you're confusing spinach with other leafy greens, like lettuce."
Acheson was in no position to argue with the lawmakers. His department has been plagued by poor oversight, coordination and planning, the Government Accountability Office found. FDA's own Science Board concluded that the agency "does not have the capacity to ensure the safety of food." The Bush administration, stewing over the tomatoes, this week dramatically increased its budget request for food safety.
The timing of the hearing, scheduled before word of the tomato attack went public, was also problematic for Acheson. "This outbreak is particularly frustrating, given the fact that today marks the one-year anniversary of the FDA's Tomato Safety Initiative," Stupak noted.
Acheson was destined to be sliced and diced.
Washington Post humorist/science writer/politico Joel Achenbach shakes the primary dust from his creaky knuckles to remind readers of his weblog that Barack Obama ain't got a thing if he can't get the swing. It's the voters in the middle who will make this election for him.
And, by the way, John McCain is not particularly relevant. This race is essentially about whether voters like Barack Obama or not -- the November election is, as Achenbach says, "an up-or-down vote on Obama, with McCain almost irrelevant."
Via the Tom Edsall piece at HuffPo (via Memeorandum) I see the same thing is being said on the Far Right:
"In reality there is only one candidate. Barack Obama. In November he will win or he will lose. John McCain is relevant only in so far as he is not Barack Obama. The Senator from Arizona is incapable of energizing his party, brings no new people to the polls, and has a personality that is best kept under wraps."
And from the Left: 'Tuesday was a very real, live in your living room display of John "Bob Dole without the charisma" McCain, and if that's how he campaigns for the rest of the election, he's doomed.'
In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
Forty years ago today, a bullet took the life of Robert F. Kennedy. A breath of compassion and new energy faded from the world, and the world was the worse for the loss.
I continue to be enamored and moved by Kennedy's impromptu remarks on the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. which included the above quotation from the Greek poet Aeschylus. Here's the footage of Kennedy speaking:
I cracked up when I read this post at Daily Kos:
A friend emailed me an observation of a friend about the fact that Obama is delivering this speech at the GOP convention center: "im in ur base killin ur d00dz"
For all my older readers, the above is a reference to LOLcats -- usually a picture (of a cat) with a short, humorous and slightly off-kilter caption written in kitty pidgin. It's all the rage, and the fact that it is sort of stupid is sort of the point.
For my younger readers, the above is a reference to Barack Obama raising the roof in Minnesota, which is part of the Republican Party's base. Obama may not win Appalachia in a landslide, but John McCain should take his hearing aid out so he doesn't have to hear so many Republicans apologize to him as they help make history.
From Fox News' commentary last night, this contrast between Obama and McCain:
Oratorical gap between this speech and John McCain's was vast. John McCain sounded old. This sounded fresh and new and exciting and visionary.
It would probably be easy to develop a few hundred bullet checklist of reasons that Democrat Mark Warner is set to trounce Republican Jim Gilmore in this November's election to fill the Senate seat vacated by retiring Senator John Warner.
Let's go with two simple reasons -- Warner can play to the middle. Gilmore must play to the right.
Warner's first campaign ad, which launches today, demonstrates his strategy clearly. It features one of Virginia's senior Republican statesmen, state Senator John Chichester, touting Mark Warner's fiscal prowess. It is a clear indication that Warner isn't looking for a three point win. He's looking to crush Jim Warner by double digits. And he'll do it by luring Virginia's Republican traditionalists -- the ones Gilmore pissed off when he left Virginia's finances such a mess as governor, and the same ones who found themselves impressed with Mark Warner's prudent approach to governance. He'll add that 15% to his solid base of Democrats and moderates.
Gimore, on the other hand, received a strong signal from Virginia's Republicans when he was nominated to run by a squeaker today. From the Associated Press: Gilmore got only 50.3 percent of the delegate votes Saturday over conservative Bob Marshall, the Virginia General Assembly's most ardent foe of abortion and gay marriage. Guess who Gilmore has to curry favor from if he wants to even nudge the 50% line this fall? In his quest to keep the social conservatives in his corner, Gilmore will quickly lose what support he has in the middle.
Good luck, Gilmore. You're going to need it.
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