July 19, 2008

Elizabeth Edwards on the Colbert Report

She does an excellent job!

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July 8, 2008

Change Is On The Way!

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June 3, 2008

Yes He Can!

Yes!!


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May 7, 2008

Current CNN Poll

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May 6, 2008

Is The End Near?

I doubt this is going to end today even if Clinton loses, but we can hope can't we? ;o)

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An interesting observation: the article states that the exit polls suggest that Clinton voters are less likely to vote for Obama in a general election than Obama voters are likely to vote for Clinton. Rather than showing who is more electable (I believe once there actually is a choice between two candidates people will probably rethink these positions) it clearly shows who is the more divisive candidate: Clearly Clinton is way ahead in creating not just division between democrats and republicans but even between democrats themselves. What a shame ....

Posted by: Niels Petiet at May 6, 2008 7:59 PM

To put it simply, it seems like Clinton has cornered the white racist vote. Congratulations!

Posted by: Paul at May 6, 2008 9:05 PM

May 4, 2008

Tom Hanks for Obama

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May 1, 2008

Can we get an amen?

Amen!

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April 29, 2008

Feisty


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April 22, 2008

Time to Vote!

Oh what will happen today?

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April 18, 2008

Colbert (And Edwards and Obama) Rock!

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April 14, 2008

She Should Know Better

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April 12, 2008

In Touch

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April 9, 2008

Obama Everywhere

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March 27, 2008

The Tide Is Turning

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March 8, 2008

A Slight Upgrade

Let's go for smart instead.

Thanks to cmjr for the pointing this out to me.

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March 4, 2008

Oh What Will Today Bring?



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February 29, 2008

We Are The Ones


My America,
Your America,
Our America.

Hope
Change
Vote

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February 25, 2008

Our Friend Rose and her Son Andrew do a VoteVets Commercial

I think it turned out great! :o)

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February 24, 2008

For The Bible Tells Me So

I just finished watching For The Bible Tells Me So. If you haven't seen it yet check it out. It's an excellent documentary.

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February 17, 2008

Our Moment Is Now

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He certainly knows how to give a rousing, makes me feel so positive speech! New issue of Newsweek has a terrific article on Michelle! I only hope we won't elect the wrong Obama.

Posted by: Pat J. at February 22, 2008 9:04 AM

He certainly can give a rousing, makes me feel really go again, speech. There is a very interesting section in the new Newsweek, including a cover picture, on Michelle. Just maybe the wrong Obama is running for the nomination. I have had experience with that situation. lol

PJ

Posted by: Pat J. at February 22, 2008 9:25 AM

I actually have never heard Michelle speak or seen an interview. I'll have to check that out.

Posted by: Dianne at February 22, 2008 10:08 AM

So sorry about double postings. Takes a long time to post, don't know if it my computer or yours. Also I am a most impatient little ole lady. lol

Posted by: Pat J. at February 23, 2008 10:55 AM

That's ok. We are moving to a new server soon and hopefully that will take care of the problem. It runs very slow overall.

Posted by: Dianne at February 24, 2008 2:41 PM

February 13, 2008

I Heart Sam Harris: War on War

Sam is also offering the free download of his new song "War on War" online, so check it out! Good work Sam! Oh and as Sam would say do something wonderful for someone today! :o)

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I heart Sam Harris too and especially this song. Maybe we could make him a write candidate this next election.

Posted by: Pat J. at February 16, 2008 4:32 PM

I'd vote for Sam! He's such an amazing personality and I love his big heart! :o)

Posted by: Dianne at February 17, 2008 11:20 AM

Did you remember he was the first winner of Star Search I don't know how many years ago. I had forgotten all about him, he is a wonderful singer and song writer.

Posted by: Pat J. at February 17, 2008 2:11 PM

I actually just discovered him on YouTube last week, though when I saw him I recognized his face immediately so I have seen him before, I just didn't know his name. I love his Vlogs. He just has such an amazing spirit and seems so personable! Since I came across him I've watched all of his Vlogs.

Posted by: Dianne at February 17, 2008 2:16 PM

February 12, 2008

Chesapeake Tuesday

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Go Barack! :-D

Posted by: alice at February 12, 2008 7:00 PM

It looks like he's won Virginia already! :o) :o) :o)

Posted by: Dianne at February 12, 2008 7:53 PM

A clean sweep! Boy, this sure beats Joementum all to hell! ;-D

Posted by: alice at February 12, 2008 10:40 PM

Very impressive indeed! I was quite thrilled! :o)

Posted by: Dianne at February 13, 2008 12:18 PM

February 5, 2008

God Bless This Mess

A very good thing to remember when voting today or whenever your primary occurs!

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Vote

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If you live in one of the states where voting is occurring today be sure and get out and vote!

Maryland votes next Tuesday and we're actually voting absentee. Though my heart is heavy that Edwards is out of the race after a lot of consideration and studying of their platforms, I can't speak for Jamison, but I have decided to endorse Barack Obama. I simply can not vote for the woman candidate just because she's a woman. If she was a good candidate that would be one thing, but she is anything but and her past actions, along with some of her present actions during her campaign make it impossible for me to endorse Hillary Clinton. Obama has some very good ideas, though I will admit up front he needs to move away from his ideas on nuclear power. Another issue I have with Hillary is that she won't beat McCain. We need a candidate that will do just that!

So with that said, get out and vote for your candidate!


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Happy Super Fat Tuesday!!!!

Posted by: katherine at February 5, 2008 1:46 PM

The problem is I don't think either of the Democratic candidates can beat McCain. Of all of the GOP candidates that are running I can vote for McCain without having nightmares afterwards. If he picks Huckabee for VP then I will just stay home.

Posted by: Pat Johnson at February 6, 2008 12:33 PM

Dianne, I don't think either of the Democrats can win the election. I could vote for McCain without having nightmares but I think the same bunch of fanatics in the GOP hate McCain as much as they hate Hillary and Obama and will find someway to tear him down. As he says "I have seen this movie before". Of course if he appoints Huckabee for VP then I will just have to hope an independent runs. Aint politics grand!

PJ

Posted by: Pat Johnson at February 6, 2008 12:44 PM

I don't understand why you blog won't accept my political comments. Very civil with no bad words or comments

Posted by: Pat Johnson at February 6, 2008 12:48 PM

It appears they posted. There is a severe lag time with the blog though. I just moved my food blog to a new server and we're planning on moving Daffodil Lane soon too. We've been having a lot of issues.

As for voting I can't bring myself to vote for McCain and if Hilary wins I may just have to write in another candidate! I think Obama could beat McCain, but I guess we'll find out in November.

Good to see you around! I wondered what you had been up to. :o)

Posted by: Dianne at February 6, 2008 12:58 PM

I moved to Centreville, Va. in June. I miss AR and my friends but I do liked being around my grandkids. I can't believe the girls will be in kindergarten this fall. I enjoy being around my kids also.lol

Posted by: Pat Johnson at February 6, 2008 11:38 PM

Welcome to the area! I knew you were supposed to move, but I wasn't sure if you had. I thought about dropping you an e-mail, but I figured it had changed when you moved.

Posted by: Dianne at February 7, 2008 1:11 PM

February 4, 2008

Yes We Can

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January 30, 2008

Cause Of His Life

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There Goes the Neighborhood!

Again? Really? No words.

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Edwards to Quit?

I really hate to hear this. He is the best candidate in the race and has consistently brought the dialog up to where it should be.

I guess we're back to voting for the lesser of two evils and I'm damn tired of doing just that! (I'll be completely upfront and honest in saying I would have a VERY hard time voting for Hillary and Obama needs to pick a position and stick with it instead of saying what he thinks whatever group he's speaking to wants to hear, but of course Hillary needs to do that too! I would not however vote for ANY of the Republican candidates, but you probably knew that already.)

He's expected to announce today at 1 in New Orleans. Truly a very sad day.

Via CNN.

On a side note if things continue as they are I don't think Hillary can beat McCain. Lovely.

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I'm surprised he dropped out before Super Tuesday but I'll bet he's going to up and toss his support to Obama.

Posted by: Qusan at January 30, 2008 10:23 AM

Obama is definitely better than Hillary.

Posted by: Dianne at January 30, 2008 12:40 PM

Well this is a sad day, but I may very well write him in in November anyway.

Posted by: Leann at January 30, 2008 1:40 PM

I may just do that myself. We got our absentee ballots for the primary yesterday and I still intend to vote for him (and his delegates) even if he has dropped out!

Posted by: Dianne at January 30, 2008 1:56 PM

January 26, 2008

Which Is The Candidate For You?

Want to find out? Go here. It paired me with the Democrats. Go figure! ;o)

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Just don't vote for the southern Republican white trash party that's messed up this country for the past 8 years or longer........

Posted by: Jelley at April 16, 2008 12:33 PM

We're a no Republican household. :o)

Posted by: Dianne at April 16, 2008 1:16 PM

January 23, 2008

Edwards on Letterman Last Night

Hat tip to 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera for the link.

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January 18, 2008

John Edwards Needs Your Help..Help Him Reach His Goal!

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January 5, 2008

Well Said On Both Parts

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March 14, 2007

Jefferson Appointment May Be on Permanent Hold

I was following this story and then we went to Tennessee and I lost it while I was traveling, so this information is a couple of weeks old. I hate to give the Republican party its due, but it's nice to see for the first time in their culture of corruption cycle someone on that side of the aisle actually did the right thing in spite of themselves. It's disgraceful that the Democrats would allow themselves to be tainted like this because of a subgroup within the party. If there was a shadow of a doubt about his guilt, I might give them a pass, but there is no doubt that he is guilty and should be treated as such until he can prove his innocence. Hell for the good of the party he should have refused to take a position that would put the party in danger. I'm not sure what the hell was going through the CBC's head on this one, personally I suspect that this was just an effort by the Blue Dog coalition to undermine the Democratic party in hopes a reestablishing a Republican majority in the House, which seems to be their only focus in existing.

On the CBC front there is good news that they haven't totally lost grasp of reality and the Jefferson thing may just have been a momentary lapse. Today they announced that they would not be hosting another Presidential Debate on the Republican propaganda outlet FoxNews. You will recall back in 2004 the CBC worked with Fox News, which used the occasion to run continuous attacks on the Democratic Presidential candidates with prepackaged GOP talking points. This year the CBC saw the light of not seeking to destroy Democratic candidates, who seem to have sort of figured out that they need to attack the right wing noise machine because it will be attacking them. You ask most Democrats what has demotivated them about the party as of late and they will tell you the utter surrender to the radical right wing extremists in the corporate media. They are sick and tired of Democrats being cowardly in the face of people who hate America, so it's time for Democrats to stand up and put the GOP on notice that their time is up, it's time for the adults to take over and get this country back on the right track before their stupidity destroys what we hold dear.

Read more over at CQ Politics, Think Progress and Daily Kos.

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Debunking the NYT's sloppy hit piece on Gore

I've been increasingly amused by people in the corporate media over the last few months as they try desperately to keep the Republican party in absolute power and control of the United States. They grasp desperately at straws hoping if they can just tell one more lie or make one more false accusation that they can bail out their buddies on the radical right. Amusingly by the very same token you have the radical right screaming to the heavens that the media is against them on everything. You can't read this hit piece from the New York Times and not come to the conclusion that the corporate media and the Republican party are one continous entity. The notion of a left wing media is nothing more than Republican mythology. From one end of this country to the other there is one massive push by the corporate media to cover-up, or at least rationalize the radical right wing Republican party's actions at every single turn. These kinds of hit pieces are the flavor dejour for the corporate media these days, actually it harkens back to an early time in corporate media when it was referred to as yellow journalism.

Read more over at Grist and Think Progress.

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March 12, 2007

California may mandate ODF for all state offices

It's about time, I'd really like to see something like this start happening in Maryland as well. It's critical to break the proprietary stranglehold on the American people and it starts from the government on down. For those of you that don't know ODF means Open Document Format. If you've ever tried to move a crappy proprietary document from one OS, or hell from one version of a word processor to another, there really isn't guarantee of success. This is because companies are so greedy and short sighted they purposely make it impossible to move documents from machine to machine. The only way to fix this problem is to break the practice once and for all and cutting off the government market to these greedy shortsighted enterprises is the quickest way to give them some religion about playing nicely for their customers. Trust me they won't do it otherwise. On a level playing field the greedy companies will always lose because all they have is their monopoly on the market.

Read more over at Desktop Linux.

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U.S. gas prices up 20 cents over 2 weeks

CAMARILLO, Calif. - Gasoline prices have gone up an average of 20 cents per gallon nationwide in the past two weeks.

The retail price of self-serve regular gas rose to $2.55 cents per gallon, according to the latest Lundberg Survey released Sunday.

As of Friday, a gallon of midgrade gasoline averaged about $2.66, and premium cost nearly $2.76, according to the survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

Nationwide, the highest average price for regular gas was $3.10 per gallon in San Francisco. The lowest, at $2.22 per gallon, was in Anchorage, Alaska.

Ouch!! I know it was painful as we were traveling. The price was traveling upwards every day we were on the road. From hour to hour you couldn't predict what price you'd be able to get gas for. It's just March folks! Can you imagine when the Republican Oil Companies start raising prices for their summer price hike? I suspect that we are going to see new record profit numbers for them yet again. I mean don't you feel bad that they are only pulling in 40 billion a quarter??? I imagine we are going to see another spike in Toyota hybrid sales pretty soon even with the Republicans cutting off their tax break. You have the choice of spending your money on a more expensive car or giving your money to the oil companies and the Republican party. In the next election you should keep in mind their efforts to harm your interests in Washington even more. It's a simple choice really and thousands of people are making it everyday.

Read more over at Yahoo News.

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February 21, 2007

GA-10: Field Taking Shape for Special

With the death of Charlie Norwood (R), my parent's home district is back in play in Georgia. It appears the Sonny Perdue has done some sneaky scheduling to allow the Republicans in the Georgia legislature to get some advantage in the special election. Which is fine I guess, I've long since given up hope of Republicans doing things in a fair sort of way anywhere they are in control.

Terry Holley, who I blogged about last year is going to get back in to the race, but with his 33% performance against Norwood last year there is some question of the likely success he would have against the next Republican. Two other names are being kicked around are state Rep. Alan Powell and lawyer David Bell. I'm not on the ground, but I find it hard to believe that Alan Powell will give up a good seat for a long shot like this one. David Bell performed the best against Norwood in 1996, losing by only 4 points. One of the problems with the GA-10 is that it was redistricted in the middle of the decade by the corrupt Republicans in the legislature and the district is now a lot more Republican than it use to be, so every Democrat starts out with a distinct disadvantage by design.

It's going to be a tough fight that's for sure. I've noticed that a small Netroots has started to form in the district, so we might have a growing presence in the district that could make things a bit more interesting than even last year. A good candidate that could inspire some Netroots support, with low voter turnout among the lazy Republicans that make up the region could definitely give us a chance to move this seat blue, barring that at least it will give the GOP heartburn and make them burn a few million bucks trying to overcome their own history of incompetence.

Read more over at Swing State Project.

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Republicans are screwing up in space

Not a real big surprise to find out given the Republican party's propensity to screw up everything they touch. So no reason to believe after all these years that they would not be making a critical and likely lethal mistake. What's surprising is that John Glenn is saying it out loud. OK, he said it a lot nicer than I did, but it's John Glenn, he's a living legend. Basically he's realized like most of us with more than a passing knowledge of science, that the Republican plan to bleed the space program dry is destroying America's ability to compete in the space races of the future.

I know, the Republican corporate mentality can't imagine anything beyond the next quarter of stealing money for Halliburton in Iraq, but in the next few decades we need to be in space. We need to be getting better at living in space and we need to be prepare to explore space more aggressively, but the urge to take risks and explore the limits of human capacity is a polar opposite of conservative ideology. They dream the world to be static incarnation of the 1950's and if they just believe hard enough China won't be taking our place as the only global super power on the planet.

Our strength comes from space folks, we ignore it at our peril. If we sacrifice that potential to follow the whims of a madman who doesn't understand that there is going to be a future beyond the end of his term in office, we doom our nation for all of time. The next President and Congress is going to have to spend large sums of money to make up for all the horrible mistakes that have been made over the last decade with NASA. I've lectured on the need for a SSTO vehicle before, so I won't rant about that again.

Read more over at CNN.

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February 15, 2007

Concerts To Help Raise Awareness Of Global Warming

Feb. 15, 2007 — Recently nominated for a Nobel Prize and waiting to walk the red carpet at the Academy Awards, former Vice President Al Gore will unveil his next big endeavor today from Los Angeles: a single-day series of concerts to put the issue of climate change before a global audience.

Modeled after 2005's Live 8 concerts highlighting African debt relief, the event is scheduled for July 7 with seven concerts on seven continents.

Gore is expected to make the announcement alongside musicians Jon Bon Jovi, Sting and Pharrell Williams.

This is a brilliant idea! Take the message far and wide. The science is there, sometimes you just have to use other avenues to get the message to people that might normally not understand. Once again Al Gore is ahead of the game.

Now sir if you'd just run for President! ;o) (The article also discusses that little tidbit.)

Found via ABCNews.com.

Posted by Dianne at 1:42 PM

February 8, 2007

Rosie Has A Picture On Her Flickr Page That Speaks Volumes


plans
Originally uploaded by Rosie O'Donnell.
There's nothing else to say about that.

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February 6, 2007

Headline Commentary

I'm going to try something slightly different today. During these off periods of politics, most stories don't warrant a real blog post, because well I can't think of more than a single sentence worth of commentary about them. So I'm going to try to put all the commentary together and see what you think about it.

Nader Considering Another Bid

Nader says that if Hillary wins, he's running. Trust me, he'll run no matter who the Democratic nominee ends up being. Time and again we've seen that the Green party is nothing more than a wholly owned subsidiary of the state GOP. Nader is running, the GOP desperately needs him because of their terrible crop of candidates for President.

In FL-22, Schlesinger Eyes House Seat

Yeah, the Republican candidate from Connecticut is thinking about running for a House seat in Florida. I had to do a double take on it too. Tragically the GOP in Florida could do a lot worse and regularly do.

Huckabee Will Give it Six Months

Honestly there is only one name on the GOP's list that scares me as a Democrat and it's Huckabee. He's the only genuine old school Republican on the slate. Any Democratic candidate we have (even Kucinich) will mop the floor with every other Republican that's running, except for Huckabee. The only Democrat that will be able to stand toe to toe with Huckabee would be Edwards. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the GOP is too radical to realize that they have a genuine candidate on their slate and vote for the crazies instead.

Republican Field Leads in Divorces

See the GOP is already racking up major victories, but the be fair Guliani represents nearly half of the total divorces for the GOP. The religious right is sabre rattling about if Guliani wins, they won't vote this time. Much like the Republicans in the Senate, principled stands aren't these people's strong suit, they'll vote Republican even if it were a candidate whose very existence was their moral opposite like Larry Flint. The only "values" these voters have is that they value what the GOP has done to this country. On a side note, when Kucinich drops out the Democratic divorce rate drops by 2/3rds, so we are golden there.

Specter (R-PA) says his staff was responsible for inserting that US Attorney provision into the Patriot Act.

Isn't it amazing how Republicans do all sorts of bad things, but they are never responsible for anything they do. I can't decide which aspect of this lie scares me more the fact that a Senator is so clueless about what his staff is doing that they are writing legislation without his knowledge or that Republicans are such craven liars that they would impune their staff members to protect themselves from the liability for their misdeeds for this imperial President.

Budget cuts may delay shuttle replacement

I figured with the corporate media breathless discussion of a Astronaut love triangle, there was probably real news going on that we weren't suppose to be paying attention to. Sure enough, not enough money to get the shuttle replacement up and running. Beyond the fact that the shuttle replacement they have is a moronic idea, it's just bad because it's likely to mean half a decade without space faring available to Americans except as passengers on other people's spacecraft. The Chinese seem serious about space, perhaps we can hitch a ride with them. Oh wait, the Republicans pushing for the weaponization of space has caused them to be a more aggressive space power. I sure hope they don't take Republican incompetence as an opening to gain the lead in space technologies, I'm sure they won't think of that.

Haggard Pronounced 'Completely Heterosexual'

Well that's great news for Ted. I have to say I find it odd, that they say he should move because there is an open wound in Colorado at his old church. Where's all that vaunted Christian forgiveness? Seems to me if he's "cured", he should get his old job back.

Posted by Jamison at 4:54 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

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Re: Your comments about Nader

Just in case you missed it in 2006, Nader wasn't the Green Party candidate. Also, I doubt he'll be the Green Party candidate in 2010. The Greens will run a candidate for president however since ballot access laws in some states require a presidential candidate.

Posted by: Robb Black at February 12, 2007 10:32 AM

Well it was a discussion about Presidential politics so since 2006 isn't divisible by 4, of course he wasn't a candidate and he won't be in 2010, also a non-divisible by 4 election year. The Greens will have a candidate because the GOP will pay for their ballot access in as many states as Earthly possible.

Posted by: Jamison at February 12, 2007 1:47 PM

You are correct. I was off a few years in my comment. Nader was a Green Party candidate in 2000. He was NOT the candidate in 2004, and yes we will have a candidate in 2008 (but it probably will not be him) because as I mentioned before, the Greens need to have a presidential candidate in certain states in order to obtain ballot access to run candidates for other offices in that state.

You take one example of PA and then try to extrapolate it to the rest of the Green Parties around the country. The Maryland Green Party has successfully petitioned to be a political party three consecutive times now. Each time it was an all volunteer effort. No one was paid for their time or paid to organize the petition drive for the Green Party to remain a political party in Maryland.

Posted by: Robb Black at February 13, 2007 3:52 PM

So you have 100% confidence that if I go digging into the Green Party ballot drive process, I'm not going to find the Republican party? Even with Kevin Zeese being the spokesman for Nadar in 2004, said there was nothing wrong with right wing groups getting the Green party on the ballot with the express goal of swinging a blue state? The same guy that was the Maryland Senate candidate for the Green party in Maryland in 2006? Do we really want to go down that road? I personally don't think the Greens are fundamentally bad people, I just think they have troubles with realizing that a bad Democrat is better than the best Republicans. I think the Democrats will always be slightly out of step with the Greens, but in the end I think we have enough in common with each other that some sort of compromise can be made for our collective children's sake. Because as much as we disagree, we can all agree that there is no Republican that would represent any of our collective interests.

Posted by: Jamison at February 13, 2007 4:25 PM

You can witch hunt all you want. *rolls eyes* One would hope you would have better things to do with your time than engage in witch hunts however.

Posted by: Robb Black at February 13, 2007 11:03 PM

I do have better things to do. I do stand corrected on the Nader in 2004 being a Green. Dianne proved you were right on that one. I will correct my future rhetoric on the subject accordingly. Except the Pennsylvania case, it appears all other efforts of the Green party working with the Republicans are related to Nader himself. Maybe then you've just got a few bad apples in your ranks giving the entire movement a bad name. I'm personally a fan of the IRV that the Greens support, I think it would help streamline a lot of elections. If we can get past the mistrust that appears to have been fostered by Nader, I think there are a lot of things we can do to make this country a better place to live while working against our common enemy at the GOP.

Posted by: Jamison at February 15, 2007 11:20 AM

Republicans refuse to question Bush

As I had been saying for weeks, no surprise here. When the time came for the Republicans to stand up for their country and their constituents, they instead put Bush above all that. It doesn't matter what happens to the United State, the GOP wants to push forward with their radicalized agenda no matter what is costs the country. And remember all those dramatic speeches and the right wing media's coverage of the "principled" GOP members of Congress that were standing up and going to hold the President accountable, they decided to cave on actually doing their jobs. Ironic that Hagel and Warner, "pillars" of the independent mind GOP, voted against their own freaking resolution to challenge to President, because they couldn't bring themselves in the end to actually question their party's own insanity. Harry Reid says there will be an accounting for this kind of behavior in the long run.

If you're a voter remember it's these very Senators that have betrayed their constitutionally assigned duty to be a check on an out of control Executive branch to protect the rights of the American people. 22 Republican seats are up for replacement folks, remember how spineless the GOP is when you're at the ballot box in 2008.
Actually, send a little money to your favorite GOP replacement candidates via ActBlue right now, even if they haven't declared yet you can put money into their future campaign to defeat some incompetent GOP schmuck that isn't doing their job representing your interests.

Read more over at Daily Kos and donate at ActBlue Senate page.

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February 2, 2007

Gore, Watt-Cloutier Are Nobel Prize Candidates for Climate Work

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Canadian activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier were nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their efforts to raise awareness about the threat of climate change.

``They are both key figures who put climate change on the agenda in global politics,'' said Heidi Soerensen, a Norwegian member of parliament, who made the nominations with fellow MP Boerge Brende. ``The threat to the climate is so important that if it isn't solved, it could lead to huge conflicts as people fight over access to water and land.''

Scientists from institutions including the Norwegian Polar Institute say carbon-dioxide emissions from cars, power plants and other human sources are causing temperatures and sea levels to rise, leading to storms, droughts, heat waves and other climate disruptions. This year is forecast to be the warmest on record globally, with temperatures in 2007 likely to be 0.54 degrees Celsius above the seasonal average, the U.K.'s Met Office said last month.

Gore, 58, last year published the book and documentary film ``An Inconvenient Truth'' as part of a campaign against global warming. Watt-Cloutier, 53, a spokeswoman for the Inuit people in the Arctic, has called for countries such as the U.S. to cut emissions of so-called greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming.

``Gore's `An Inconvenient Truth' helped open the eyes of many people, particularly in the U.S., to the threat of climate change,'' Soerensen said in an interview today. ``Watt-Cloutier has also been successful in putting a human face to climate change, by showing how it affects the Inuit people.''

Congrats Mr. Gore. You work tirelessly to educate the world about global warming and you more than deserve this award! Good luck!

Found via Bloomberg.com.

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January 23, 2007

Report Due On Global Warming

WASHINGTON - Human-caused global warming is here — visible in the air, water and melting ice — and is destined to get much worse in the future, an authoritative global scientific report will warn next week.

"The smoking gun is definitely lying on the table as we speak," said top U.S. climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, who reviewed all 1,600 pages of the first segment of a giant four-part report. "The evidence ... is compelling."

Andrew Weaver, a Canadian climate scientist and study co-author, went even further: "This isn't a smoking gun; climate is a batallion of intergalactic smoking missiles."

The first phase of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is being released in Paris next week. This segment, written by more than 600 scientists and reviewed by another 600 experts and edited by bureaucrats from 154 countries, includes "a significantly expanded discussion of observation on the climate," said co-chair Susan Solomon, a senior scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She and other scientists held a telephone briefing on the report Monday.

That report will feature an "explosion of new data" on observations of current global warming, Solomon said.

Here's the consensus shown yet again that global warming is real and it's worse than first thought. This report has the backing of scientists across the globe. You can't get much more consensus than that!

Global warming is "happening now, it's very obvious," said Mahlman, a former director of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab who lives in Boulder, Colo. "When you look at the temperature of the Earth, it's pretty much a no-brainer."

Look for an "iconic statement" — a simple but strong and unequivocal summary — on how global warming is now occurring, said one of the authors, Kevin Trenberth, director of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, also in Boulder.

The February report will have "much stronger evidence now of human actions on the change in climate that's taken place," Rajendra K. Pachauri told the AP in November. Pachauri, an Indian climatologist, is the head of the international climate change panel.

An early version of the ever-changing draft report said "observations of coherent warming in the global atmosphere, in the ocean, and in snow and ice now provide stronger joint evidence of warming."

And the early draft adds: "An increasing body of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on other aspects of climate including sea ice, heat waves and other extremes, circulation, storm tracks and precipitation."

The world's global average temperature has risen about 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit from 1901 to 2005. The two warmest years on record for the world were 2005 and 1998. Last year was the hottest year on record for the United States.

The report will draw on already published peer-review science. Some recent scientific studies show that temperatures are the hottest in thousands of years, especially during the last 30 years; ice sheets in Greenland in the past couple years have shown a dramatic melting; and sea levels are rising and doing so at a faster rate in the past decade.

Also, the second part of the international climate panel's report — to be released in April — will for the first time feature a blockbuster chapter on how global warming is already changing health, species, engineering and food production, said NASA scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig, author of that chapter.

I will also add that it's good to see some US agencies breaking away from being stifled on global warming as the Bush administration has tried to do over the past few years. 1 degree here or there doesn't sound like a lot, but in reality it's a HUGE leap! It only takes a few degrees here or there to melt the polar ice caps! Let's hope it doesn't take entire cities being flooded out to get people to wake up and realize what is happening here.

Found via Yahoo! News.

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January 22, 2007

Executives Push Bush On Climate Change

WASHINGTON - The chief executives of 10 major corporations and business groups, on the eve of the State of the Union address, urged President Bush on Monday to support mandatory reductions in climate-changing pollution and establish reductions targets.

"We can and must take prompt action to establish a coordinated, economy-wide market-driven approach to climate protection," the executives from a broad range of industries said in a letter to the president.

Bush, who in the past has rejected mandatory controls on carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse" gases, was expected to address climate change in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, but has repeatedly argued that voluntary efforts are the best approach.

Major industry groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers continue to oppose so-called "cap and trade" proposals to cut climate changing pollution, mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

But the 10 executives, representing major utilities, aluminum and chemical companies and financial institutions, said mandatory reductions are needed and that "the cornerstone of this approach" should be a cap-and-trade system.

The officials, expected to elaborate on their plan at a news conference later Monday, include the chief executives Alcoa Inc., PB America Inc., DuPont Co., Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co., and Duke Energy Corp.

In the letter they urged Congress to enact legislation "to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

I must say I'm surprised with some of the companies that are calling for this, but this is definitely a good sign. I'm sure it will be ignored by Bush and Co., but it's still a step in the right direction.

Found via Yahoo! News.

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Answering the Question

I was thinking about Dianne's underlying question...What is it about us that seems to attract the most vile and disgusting people out of the woodwork desperate to challenge us? So I started making a list of the characteristics of the people that end up banned and I ran them through a Google search. And one type of person came up over and over again...A Bully. They have a very predictable targeting criterion:

* bullies are predatory and opportunistic - you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; this is always the main reason - investigation will reveal a string of predecessors, and you will have a string of successors

* being good at your job, often excelling

* being popular with people (colleagues, customers, clients, pupils, parents, patients, etc)

* more than anything else, the bully fears exposure of his/her inadequacy and incompetence; your presence, popularity and competence unknowingly and unwittingly fuel that fear

* being the expert and the person to whom others come for advice, either personal or professional (ie you get more attention than the bully)

* having a well-defined set of values which you are unwilling to compromise

* having a strong sense of integrity (bullies despise integrity, for they have none, and seem compelled to destroy anyone who has integrity)

* having at least one vulnerability that can be exploited

* being too old or too expensive (usually both)

* refusing to join an established clique

* showing independence of thought or deed

* refusing to become a corporate clone and drone

Daffodil Lane is the living embodiment of everything they hate and despise. We are good at what we do. We are not brain dead zombies. We point out the flaws and mistakes of the radical right, so they hate us with a passion. We have thousands of readers from around the country/world. We've gotten involved in politics and we've been successful at it. We don't have the urge to sell out our principals. We are the living polar opposite of everything a Republican is and it infuriates them to no end.

Amusingly in 2004, when we were defeated, we didn't give up. We redoubled our efforts and in 2006 we successful. These people have preached their ideology of hate, fear and greed and they've lost and in their sad deranged minds we are responsible. Because we knew right from wrong and didn't surrender to their radical hate ideology. We will be successful in 2008 and 2010, and it will drive them even more insane. And even if we aren't successful, we are decent people and we will continue to fight on against evil because it's just our nature.

I found this quote particular insightful:

Despite the facade that such people put up, bullies have low self-confidence and low self-esteem, and thus feel insecure. Low self-esteem is a factor highlighted by all studies of bullying. Because such people are inadequate and unable to fulfil the duties and obligations of their position (but have no hesitation in accepting salary), they fear being revealed. This fear of exposure often borders on paranoia.

Bullies are seething with resentment, bitterness, hatred and anger, and often have wide-ranging prejudices as a vehicle for dumping their anger onto others. Bullies are driven by jealousy and envy. Rejection (which cannot be assuaged) is another powerful motivator of bullying.

Since childhood, bullies have learnt that they can avoid the unpleasant consequences of bad behaviour through the instinctive response of denial, blame, and feigning victimhood.

It describes every single person that we've had to ban since we started the blog. So we know their problem, we know why they are here, the question now becomes what do we do about it? The advice with bullies is always the same...Stand up to them, which we do and ignore them which a ban defacto does. They recommend not giving back what they give in return. I'm bad about that, because I have an uncontrollable urge to fight evil, but all it does reinforce their insane notion of victimhood. I'm going to have to debate that approach for a bit. Ultimately I see no way to avoid the problem without crawling into a cave. Since that is not going to happen, they are sort of out of luck.

Read more about bullies.

Posted by Jamison at 11:52 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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That was very interesting. I have had my run-in with a few bullies on my blog, too (as you guys have witnessed :) . I think you hit the nail on the head.

Posted by: Monica at January 22, 2007 2:42 PM

January 18, 2007

It snowed, proof that there is no global warming right?

drudgeglobalwarmingidiot.JPG
Every right winger with a free moment has been repeating this frenzied refrained the last couple of weeks. Drudge is the worst about it with utter crap spewing out of his site. A snow storm in January is definitive proof that there is no global warming. Hello??? I know Republicans are particularly dim witted, but 3 months into winter and it finally starts snowing is not definitive proof that there is no global warming folks. There is no amount of spin you can put on the fact that last year was the warmest year in recorded human history. I mean to hear the right wing nutjobs spin this, you'd think the coming of winter is the beginning of an ice age. The data is clear and obvious, it stretches back hundreds of thousands of years. No amount of wishing it away will change anything for you.

Read more over at Wikipedia.

Posted by Jamison at 4:27 PM | Comments (22)

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Drastic storms are part of global warming. That means bad winter storms, bad spring storms, bad autumn storms and bad summer storms. These people are grasping at straws at best and completely delusional at worst!

Posted by: Dianne at January 18, 2007 6:09 PM

oh my god these people are idiots. ugh.

Posted by: Moni at January 18, 2007 8:21 PM

I know, people who extrapolate the end of the world based on 150 years of vaguely reliale scientific data on a planet that is 5 billion years old sure are crazy.

Can we please all agree that the hysteria created around global warming is just that? There is no scientific consensus that this is happening, despite the efforts of liberals to portray such a consensus.

And by the way; no it was NOT the warmest year in human history...

Posted by: Jason Black at January 18, 2007 10:06 PM

The entire scientific community is in consensus that global warming is real. There is no "hysteria" about global warming. It's real. It's factual and that's that!

And do a Google search on 2006 warment year in history and you'll find plenty of proof that it WAS the warmest year in US history.

Posted by: Dianne at January 18, 2007 10:10 PM

To say that everyone is in consensus is a boldfacec lie. Sorry, that's just the way it is. To say that there is consensus is the kind of Stalinist mindset means we wouldn't have pieces like this one or books like this one. The problem is that instead of real scientific debate, liberal scientists are shouting at everybody. The real problem is the fact that these same people were talking about a man-made ice age during the seventies.

We can agree that there is climate change happening. Because the climate changes all the time regardless of what man does. The problem is, I am not smart enough, and neither is anybody else, to deduce the next 1,000 years of meteorological projections based on 150 years of sketchy data.

Posted by: Jason Black at January 19, 2007 7:26 AM

The scientific community IS in consensus. If someone out there is saying it isn't real they are pseudo scientists or industry shills! Both of your example are clearly pseudoscience from far right wing sources. You can deny it all you want, but that doesn't do anything to change the facts. You're simply in denial.

How about the Union of Concerned Scientists?

New Scientist has plenty of information supporting the reality of global warming.

Or if you need visual proof look at the changes over the recent past.

The New York Times has a wonderful section on global warming as does the BBC, but those may be too "liberal" for you, but again reall facts don't lie!

I highly recommend you also look at this graphic again if what you need is a visual.

Frontline also has an excellent show on the subject and they always do a good breakdown of the topics they discuss.

Or how about Science Daily?

Even businesses are starting to get the fact of global warming!

And The Pew Center even admits that scientists have consensus and that global warming is real if you need a right wing look at things!

Live Science also has a nice break down of what is happening with global warming.

You should also watch an Inconvenient Truth. And before anyone throws the political card that movie is NOT political! Gore mentions he ran for president, which he did and that's as political as it gets! The science section of the ClimateCrisis.net website (the website for An Inconvenient Truth) sums it up nicely!

And lastly YOU DO NOT CALL ME A LIAR Mr. Black! I direct you to the rules of Daffodil Lane. This is your one and ONLY warning. You think you can come in here and puff up your chest and get aggressive and we'll fold, but rest assured we will NOT! This is a very important issue and insisting that it isn't really doesn't make it go away! You need to read more information about the subject and not from people who are purposely trying to discredit real scientists because they want to make a buck or two before everything falls apart!

You are the one that does not know what you are talking about on this subject and I will not debate it with you further. I have a degree in Environmental Management and am now working on a Master's degree in the same subject. The evidence is there and you are choosing to ignore it! You may bury your head under a rock as much as you like, but you will not spread mistruths about global warming on my site!

Posted by: Dianne at January 19, 2007 9:19 AM

Come on Mr. Black there will always be someone that writes something trying to sell books. Normally we call those kind of fringe people "conspiracy" theorists. It's only with the rise of the radical right that such fools have been given any credibility, but because a bunch of you Fox News proselytes believe, doesn't make it any more true than say the "staged" moon landing.

And we have extrapolated temperature measurements back 650 thousand years. The last 150 years are just since we took the measurements directly. And before you go off and start having hysterics the extrapolation process is well within the margin of error for the last 150 years, which is how we know it's accurate back further. It's this crazy thing we call "science". Confirmable and reproducible results not based on faith or what we hear from Fox News. It's wild and new, but it might just be catching on with us non-Luddites.

I definitely have to echo Dianne's sentiment on this one, you are so far out of your league here, it's best you just run away and get back to your people where there are no different ideas in the right wing echo chamber. We've been fighting your kind of years now, you can't scream loud enough to quiet us. We know more than you, we have more evidence than you and we are just more determined and organized than you could ever be. You've already lost and you don't even know it yet.

Posted by: Jamison at January 19, 2007 9:51 AM

You're right. I don't need to spread mistruths about global warming here, because that avenue has already been covered. I'm sorry that you believe that there is a consensus, however that is not so. The only "echo chamber" that is in play here is the one that says people who disagree with global warming should be shouted down as heretics. Especially when you cite liberal propaganda organs like the Union of Concerned Scientists as scientists without an agenda. We can disagree about global warming and its effects. But do not talk about a nonexistent consensus...

Posted by: Jason Black at January 19, 2007 10:45 AM

No Mr. Black, there are no mistruths here about global warming other than the ones you have put forth. There is no propaganda. The truth is the truth, it's as simple as that! Those who do not believe in global warming are the heretics so to speak. The consensus is real, it is not non-existent and stop freaking telling me what to say on my own website!!! You saying that it doesn't exist is just that...You saying something. That doesn't make it real!

You really are an unbelievable individual and you are obviously completely detached from reality! Good bye sir! You have been banned. Adios!

Posted by: Dianne at January 19, 2007 10:51 AM

ugh! I maintain my earlier idiot comment. Dianne, you did a good job backing up your facts. I suggest Mr. Black go read those links.

Posted by: Monica at January 19, 2007 11:26 AM

While I'm not going to call anybody on either side a liar, it did not take me long to find this link to at least one scientist, an AMS certified meteorolgist (who links to others) who talks about man-made hysteria:

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days. I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. Here are the basic facts you need to know:

*Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon. No man-made global warming, the money dries up. This is big money, make no mistake about it. Always follow the money trail and it tells a story. Even the lady at “The Weather Channel” probably gets paid good money for a prime time show on climate change. No man-made global warming, no show, and no salary. Nothing wrong with making money at all, but when money becomes the motivation for a scientific conclusion, then we have a problem. For many, global warming is a big cash grab.

*The climate of this planet has been changing since God put the planet here. It will always change, and the warming in the last 10 years is not much difference than the warming we saw in the 1930s and other decades. And, lets not forget we are at the end of the ice age in which ice covered most of North America and Northern Europe.

If you don’t like to listen to me, find another meteorologist with no tie to grant money for research on the subject. I would not listen to anyone that is a politician, a journalist, or someone in science who is generating revenue from this issue.

Mr. Black is correct in saying that there is not a consensus. To say otherwise is to play politics with our climate.

Incidentally, we are close to the end of a 22,000 year warming cycle, meaning we are actually due for an ice age...

Posted by: Brian Griffiths at January 19, 2007 9:39 PM

No he is not correct and neither are you. The majority of scientists concur that global warming is real. No amount of you digging up one guy here or one guy there is going to change that fact that most of them agree. Those that don't are clearly in the minority or being paid by someone who wants to convince people like you that this isn't real. The majority of the scientific community says that global warming is real. The evidence is quite irrefutable for anyone with even a basic understanding of science.

There's a professor in CA that thinks big foot is real, that does not mean there is scientific consensus on that matter. However, you go to any real scientist that deals in facts and not hype (as pseudo scientists do) and they will tell you global warming is real! That is the very definition of consensus.

The problem here is a lack of understanding and education that abounds throughout our country. The problem here is that you have a bunch of people who do not understand how the global climate system works and they make up things because they know people are gullible enough to fall for anything. The problem here is that politicians are beholden to big business. The problem here is that big business for the most part just wants to make tons of money and can't seem to understand that if you destroy the environment completely it won't be here to make money off of later. It's all interconnected.

And you're right we are in the midst of a natural warming cycle, BUT that warming cycle is being exacerbated by our input of nasty pollution and toxic chemicals into our surroundings. We have NEVER seen anything of this magnitude. You can point to that natural cycle all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that while it is occurring, we are making it much worse!

So yes there is consensus and if you believe there isn't then you need to turn off Fox News, avoid Rush Limbaugh and realize Ann Coulter is a shrill harpy! And yes there is a natural warming cycle, but we're not helping matters by continuing to bury our heads in the sand and making it that much worse.

Posted by: Dianne at January 20, 2007 8:43 AM

My biggest problem with the global warming debate is that the majority of people on the side that believe in man-made global warming completely refuse to acknowledge the fact that there are differing opinions. Just because you say there is a consensus doesn't mean it's so. It's very intolerant and does not add to the conversation. Obviously, I am not going to get you to look beyond your narrow view and realize that pretty much any attempt to broaden this and speak about the issue on reason and logic is lost. Frankly, speaking of people wo do are skeptical on global warming as "heretics" is no more useful than church officials calling those skeptical of a universe with the earth at its c