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Sunday, December 17, 2006
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The Boston Globe is reporting that Bill Richardson has called for a firm withdrawal date from Iraq. From the article, "New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Saturday that the administration should set a date to withdraw American troops from Iraq in 2007 and criticized Sen. John McCain's call for boosting troop levels there. 'It makes no sense,' the potential Democratic presidential candidate said at St. Anselm College. 'There is no military solution. There's got to be a political solution.' Richardson said McCain, seen as a front-runner among potential Republican presidential hopefuls, would only foment sectarian violence with his call for an additional 30,000 troops.
"America must reinvigorate its diplomacy in the Middle East by starting with Iraq, Richardson said in an address at the New Hampshire Democratic Party's winter meeting.
'This is not cut and run,' he said. 'What I'm proposing is something that I believe will work. A fixed withdrawal date. You redeploy those troops.' A withdrawal should be coupled with a political solution and a reconciliation conference with ethnic groups in Iraq, he said. He said it would allow the Pentagon to redeploy forces to Afghanistan and bolster efforts to combat international terrorism."
Thanks to the Daily Kos for the link.
"2008 pres"
6:56:45 AM 
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Time Magazine has named their Person of the year. It turns out to be the great unwashed netizens of Web 2.0. From the article, "But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.
"The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.
"And we are so ready for it. We're ready to balance our diet of predigested news with raw feeds from Baghdad and Boston and Beijing. You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos - those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms - than you could from 1,000 hours of network television.
"And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software.'[...]
"Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?
"The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you."
Coyote Gulch humbly accepts the recognition. 
6:52:31 AM
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Say hello to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. They're, "Guaranteeing you a place to hunt and fish."
Thanks to the New West for the link. They write, "More than anything else, TRCP says it is devoted to the idea of smart advocacy for wildlife habitat and it refuses to accept the arguments that hook and bullet enthusiasts are blindly captive to one political party or another; or that they pledge allegiance only to the issue of gun rights; or that they believe significant despoliation of the the environment must occur in order to have jobs; or that hunters and anglers are some sort of fringe component of the modern conservation movement and of lesser relevance to society than PETA...
"Some of TRCP's priorities include improving the farm bill, guaranteeing access for hunting and fishing to suitable public lands, creating refuges against overfishing in our oceans, protecting roadless lands, and promoting alternative energy development because it's good for habitat protection, the overall environment and national security. TRCP also has extended a hand of friendship to trade and union groups. The founders of TRCP refuse to accept the premise that positions like these are radical. With the clout it is rapidly mobilizing in Washington and across the country, it is bringing common sense, in the old Theodore Roosevelt way, back to thinking about the importance of sustainable healthy ecosystems. Americans, Range says, are tired of division - hunters and anglers especially. For him, the power of this new old movement will be defined by what outdoorspeople are in favor of, not what they are against."
"2008 pres"
6:43:21 AM
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Say hello to Tom Vilsack. He's running for president in 2008. We like his website so far. Easy to navigate, easy to sign up for email and donate. We really like the use of video and his video blog has an RSS feed. Thanks for posting the video in QuickTime so that users of Macintosh, Linux and Windows computers all feel included.
Welcome to the race, Coyote Gulch will be watching. Thanks to Left in the West for the link.
"2008 pres"
6:27:56 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 12:19:09 PM.
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