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Thursday, March 1, 2007
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Andrew Sullivan: "Jake Tapper interviews Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, a wounded soldier who lost a finger and a leg for his country. Hearing him brings the injustice home. Alva, who told many of his peers that he was gay in the Iraq war and got along fine with his fellow soldiers, is regarded by the president as a threat to the military's effectiveness. He's not. He's a hero. And it's appalling that a man who has done so much for his country continues to be treated like a second-class citizen."
"2008 pres"
6:39:35 PM 
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Political Wire: "Michigan Democratic leaders said 'they'll hold their presidential caucus no later than Saturday, Feb. 9, and may go earlier if other states don't abide by national party rules,' according to the AP."
"2008 pres"
6:32:25 PM
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BusinessPortal24.com: "Obama, for his part, gave the Republican a pass when asked about McCain's comments at a Senate news conference on an unrelated matter.
"'As somebody who had the same phrase in a speech, I think nobody would question Senator McCain's dedication to our veterans,' said Obama, the Illinois Democrat. 'We have a duty to make sure that we are honoring their sacrifice by giving them missions in which they can succeed ... I'm positive that was the intent in which he meant it. It was the same intent I had when I made my statement.'"
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link.
The Right's Field asks, "Will draft dodging be an issue for the GOP field in 2008?."
Coyote Gulch wonders if the Vietnam War will be part of the 2008 election?
Caucus Cooler: "Rudy Giuliani hit some speedbumps in his outreach to social conservatives this week both in Iowa and nationally. First, according to friends of the Cooler who attended the Iowa Christian Alliance's annual spring event last night in Dallas County, Rudy Giuliani's campaign was missing in action. Many of the 2008 candidates had tables in the foyer including: Huckabee, Brownback, McCain, Romney, even Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo. Rudy Giuliani's campaign on the otherhand was absent."
Political Wire: "According to a new Time magazine poll, Rudy Giuliani now leads Sen. John McCain by 14 points (38% to 24%) for the Republican presidential nomination among registered Republicans and leaners. 'The core of Giuliani's strength is in the Northeast, where he has a 50% to 23% advantage over McCain. But even in the West, he leads McCain by 5 points.'
"On the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead has eroded since the last poll. Sen. Barack Obama 'has closed to within 12 points (36% to 24%), gaining seven points in the last month. 'The African-American component of the Democrats polled appears to be evenly split between the two senators. Former Vice President Al Gore, who has not declared his candidacy, was in third place, at 13%, while former North Carolina Senator John Edwards kept a firm hold of fourth place with 11%.'"
"2008 pres"
6:18:35 PM
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beSpacific: "Press release: 'U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Doolittle (R-CA), today introduced the Freedom And Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007 (FAIR USE Act) to protect the fair use rights of users of copyrighted material and thereby enable consumers of digital media to use it in ways that enhance their personal convenience. The legislation contains several improvements to the Digital Media Consumer's Rights Act, similar legislation which the lawmakers introduced in the 108th and 109th Congresses. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) is an original cosponsor of the legislation.'"
"2008 pres"
7:15:40 AM
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The Borowitz Report: "Just days after former Vice President Al Gore received an Academy Award for his global warming documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth,' the United States Supreme Court handed Mr. Gore a stunning reversal, stripping him of his Oscar and awarding it to President George W. Bush instead. For Mr. Gore, who basked in the adulation of his Hollywood audience Sunday night, the high court's decision to give his Oscar to President Bush was a cruel twist of fate, to say the least. But in a 5-4 decision handed down Tuesday morning, the justices made it clear that they had taken the unprecedented step of stripping Mr. Gore of his Oscar because President Bush deserved it more."
Thanks to the (recently re-unretired) NewMexiKen for the link who is still whining about the parts of southern Colorado that he thinks should be part of New Mexico.
"2008 pres"
7:13:55 AM
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5280: "In the mid-20th century, a Democratic majority relied on a union between the Northeast and South. Today, that union is dead. 'Since [1968], Republican presidential candidates have enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the South's electoral votes,' writes Thomas Schaller, a political science professor at University of Maryland-Baltimore County, in Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South. 'In the nine presidential elections between 1972 and 2004, Democrats have sent one lamb after another to their southern slaughter...Of the 1,260 total electoral votes cast by the eleven southern states between 1972 and 2004, Republicans won 1,039 of them -- almost 83 percent.' A slaughter indeed...
"And so it is that the politicians and analysts are making noise about a new 'Western strategy' for the Democratic Party. The idea? Taking a centrist approach to such troubling Western issues as the environment, public land use, and water conservation and rights, as well as broader issues like renewable energy, health care, immigration, and national security. The target? The traditionally right-leaning states that comprise the Interior West: New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona."
Read the whole article.
"2008 pres"
7:05:37 AM
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New West: "Montanans by nature are not the type to rush into an untested activity or fad. However, when it comes to energy, the whole country is in a frenzied search for alternative fuel sources. While this nation absolutely requires alternatives to fossil fuels, we first need to learn to conserve fuel; and second, thoroughly evaluate the sustainability of any proposed alternatives."
"2008 pres"
6:57:51 AM
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Captain's Quarters: "The Taliban have a new commander and a new public face for their terrorism. Mullah Dadullah has become the new rock star of the jihad in Waziristan, and his emergence could portend an especially tough spring for Afghanistan and its NATO defenders."
Josh Marshall: "You have to be relatively deep into the minutiae of North Korea policy for this story. But it's a big one. The Bush administration is now saying they're really not even sure the North Koreans have a uranium enrichment program for the production of nuclear weapons."
Andrew Sullivan: "Two things worth noting: the national oil law, critical to any stable future, has indeed been passed, with the Kurds key winners; the U.S. is now talking to Iran and Syria about Iraq's future. If you're an optimist, and we all want to be, that makes the chances of a soft partition in the future more likely. Civil war on a large scale is still more likely, but we shouldn't miss the slivers of hope as they pass us by."
"2008 pres"
6:47:02 AM
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Talking Points Memo: "McCain makes it official: He's in the race for President."
eyeon08.com: "The Club for Growth continued its evaluation of 2008 candidates with Sam Brownback, with a mostly positive result. This is important for Brownback because it differentiates him from Mike Huckabee, who the Club has savaged.
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Political Wire: "Rudy Giuliani 'has hired his first caucus campaign staffer and is planning a trip to Iowa in the coming weeks,' the Des Moines Register reports."
"2008 pres"
6:45:06 AM
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Center for Biological Diversity: "In a 21-page letter sent today to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, conservation groups Living Rivers/Colorado Riverkeeper and the Center for Biological Diversity demanded that the Secretary revise his plan to support a failing Colorado River restoration project in Grand Canyon National Park. A 12-year-old program that was established to mitigate the impacts of Glen Canyon Dam, upstream of Grand Canyon National Park, is undergoing environmental review for a new set of experiments. The groups charge that continuing activities under the current framework would be a death sentence for the remaining native species trying to survive the extensive ecological changes the dam's operations have brought to Grand Canyon."
"colorado water"
6:25:09 AM
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New West: "Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, joined by former Montana Congressman Pat Williams, brought his relentlessly upbeat message of energy and economic development to the U.S. House of Representatives' Natural Resources Committee Wednesday, testifying at a hearing on the 'Evolving West.' Some of the panel Republicans expressed skepticism; some asked questions designed to expose hypocrisy. But in the end, even the Republicans showed love...
"When Rob Bishop, Republican of Utah, asked Schweitzer about coal-to-liquid technology, it gave the governor a chance to point out that Montana has 32 percent of the nation's coal reserves, and 8 percent of the world's -- and that we need to find new ways to use coal. And that the nation needs to invest more money in coal technologies and carbon sequestration. And he might have kept going if Bishop didn't interrupt...
"And they heard, several times, how coal cannot save the world without effective carbon sequestration technologies to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gasses. After several Republicans had mentioned environmental extremists gumming up the works, Schweitzer said that 10 percent on either side of an issue won't even get into the room to negotiate and well, they can stay out, the governor would rather deal with the other 80 percent."
"2008 pres"
6:18:54 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 12:39:21 PM.
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