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Thursday, February 1, 2007
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Russ Feingold (via Daily Kos): "When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took up the Biden-Hagel resolution opposing the President's troop escalation proposal last week, I supported it as a first step toward ending our involvement in this war. That resolution didn't go nearly far enough -- it was nonbinding and just focused on the escalation -- but putting the Senate on record against the 'surge' was a small step in the right direction.
"Unfortunately, the new Warner-Levin resolution that many Democrats are pushing is flawed and unacceptable. It rejects the surge, but it also misunderstands the situation in Iraq and endorses the President's underlying approach. It's basically a back-door authorization of the President's misguided policies, and passing it would be a big mistake. Under the guise of constructive criticism, the Warner-Levin resolution signs off on the President continuing indefinite military operations in Iraq that will not address the fundamental political challenges in Iraq, and that continue to distract us from developing a comprehensive and global approach to the threats that face our nation."
Read the whole article.
"2008 pres"
6:11:36 PM 
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We think it's important to point out wise use of Internet technologies as applied to politics. Both John Edwards and Wesley Clark are speaking at the Democratic National Committee winter shindig. You can catch them both online.
"2008 pres"
5:59:56 PM
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Political Wire: "Earlier this week, we noted how Mitt Romney bypassed campaign finance rules limiting donations by setting up finance committees in state's that don't limit donations. The Politico's Ken Vogel notes Romney isn't the only one who used the loophole. 'Seven governors who are either officially in the presidential race or have contemplated it have raised $22 million since the 2004 presidential election through 18 committees in nine states.' In addition to Romney, the others included George Pataki, Mike Huckabee, Jim Gilmore, Bill Richardson, Tom Vilsack and Mark Warner."
"2008 pres"
7:23:24 AM
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From today's Rocky Mountain News: "Sen. Barack Obama has friends in Colorado if he needs them. Democratic activists have launched a state chapter of DraftObama.org, hoping the junior senator from Illinois will follow through with a run for president in 2008."
"2008 pres"
7:17:43 AM
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Earth Times: "U.S. scientists have created the first historic temperature record of the North American Great Plains -- an area stretching from Canada to north Texas. Baylor University geology Professor Lee Nordt, along with Professor Joseph von Fisher of Colorado State University and Larry Tieszen of the U.S. Geological Survey, produced the 12,000-year temperature record by studying the stable isotopic composition of buried soils.
"The results really surprised us, especially between 12,000 and 7,000 years ago, Nordt said. Earth temperatures should have been getting warmer during that time, but they weren't. We concluded it was caused by negative feedback from the melting glaciers. The ocean water temperature was colder because the glaciers were melting. That, in turn, caused temperatures to drop.Nordt said the sun's intensity on the Earth is the main reason why temperatures generally increased during the last 12,000 years. That intensity is decreasing but temperatures are not."
"colorado water"
7:10:48 AM
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on global warming is due out tomorrow, according to the Christian Science Monitor. They write, "By 2100, retired snowbirds will be joined by 'sun birds' -- who flee north to escape oppressively hot, humid summers not just in Miami, but Milwaukee as well. In the US West, deep mountain snows -- currently a key natural reservoir for fresh water -- will virtually vanish. And while the growing season will expand by about a month, urban gardeners will spend more time indoors as higher temperatures help boost smog at ground level. Welcome to a world where the climate is, on average, 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than today. That projection -- more specific than any previous one -- is just one element expected to emerge this week as some 500 scientists from around the world gather to put the finishing touches on a major report on the Earth's climate and what the future may hold for it as humans continue to pump heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It's the first of three volumes set for release this year by the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Details in the document, which focuses on climate change, remain closely held until its release Friday morning. Leaks to the press based on earlier drafts, however, suggest that the researchers are projecting temperature increases of between 2 and 4.5 degrees C (3.6 and 8.1 degrees F.) by century's end if carbon-dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere reach twice their preindustrial levels. Their 'most likely' increase is expected to be about 3 degrees C...
"For the US, global warming will squeeze more moisture out of the already dry Southwest. "But the consensus among models is not as high," he explains. One reason: Models are still having a hard time capturing the wind patterns that bring seasonal monsoons to the region. Mountains in the US West will still get precipitation in winter, but it's more likely to be rain than snow. Throughout the country, when it rains, it will pour, as extreme-weather events become more common -- raising the likelihood of floods and giving fits to Western water managers. In one study published last year, researchers from the US and Australia compared projections from several models and found that climate extremes -- ranging from more frequent and intense heat waves and fewer frost days to longer dry spells and heavier rainfall -- appear around the globe, although consensus among the models begins to evaporate when they tried to look at regional patterns. One broad area that may receive more scrutiny: the portions of Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado that host vast expanses of sand dunes. A recent study by researchers at the University of Nebraska and the University of Wisconsin notes that many of these dune systems are on the knife's edge of mobilization, and could begin to wander across the landscape if moisture becomes much more scarce."
"2008 pres"
6:45:47 AM
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American Chronicle: "When it was leaked out that U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex) was forming an exploratory committee to run for the GOP nomination for President, the excitement and electricity on the internet was enough to give full power to Baghdad. Paul has long been a favorite among many on the information super-highway for his paleolibertarian views on foreign and domestic policy and his opposition to the war in Iraq. Many were enthusiastic about the possibility of Paul gaining a broad coalition of support among libertarians, 'real' conservatives and maybe even a few leftists as well to form a new electoral coalition."
Read the whole article. The author, Sean Scallon, who has a lot to say about past presidential campaigns writes, "Ron Paul wants to make a serious bid for the White House (meaning no non-major party runs if he doesn't win) by running for the GOP nomination.Not only does he support decentralization policies such voters can agree with (or at least on most issues anyway), his candidacy, if successful, could represent the beginning of a new movement and or voting coalition of such aforementioned groups who's primary interest it is to dismantle the empire that/s led us into a bloody and disastrous war, that tries to enforce its values on people who don't want such values imposed upon them (right or left depending on the community in question), that steals our money for its own vainglorious and unconstitutional pursuits and tries to steal our legitimate freedoms bit by bit. A successful Paul candidacy will destroy the cancer of centralism. This goes way beyond being a protest candidate or running just to 'educate' voters in a shell. So much potential can come from Paul's candidacy that can benefit so many. Paleos of all stripes can join hands with regular Republicans, libertarians, so-called 'crunchy conservatives' and liberals for such a movement and members of non-major parties like the LP or CP and maybe even the Greens could leave their enclaves in their respective states and join with a man who doesn't have to recant his support for this illegal war because he's opposed it from the beginning. Much this sounds like dreaming I know, but I also know that by the fall of 2007, Ron Paul will be the only Republican candidate (assuming Chuck Hagel doesn't run) having opposed an unpopular war that will be unpopular with a majority of Republicans. That's a powerful position to be in with campaign that's going to be dominated by the war whether the politicians like it or not. Considering the other options out there and considering what could become of a successful Paul campaign, it's time to support someone standing proudly on shore rather than wallowing in the mud with the other also-rans."
"2008 pres"
6:36:21 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 12:32:21 PM.
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