WHERE DO THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES STAND ON THE GLOBAL WARMING ISSUE?
I conducted a round table discussion on a message board with regard to global warming. Although there was not enough discourse about presidential candidates' standpoints on the critical issue, I found many points quite illuminating. Here are some summarizations of and links to the discussion. This was very enlightening!
Perspective 1:
Every once in a while, Al Gore and his buddies will say something like "support renewable energy!" "quit burning oil!" and "ride a bike/drive a prius!". Well, it turns out that we do need to do all of those things, but it's not because of global warming.
It's because of peak oil.
The issue is not one of oil "running out"; it's an issue of there not having enough to keep our economy running. This is because all oil production follows a bell curve. That's true whether we're talking about an individual field, a country, or on the planet as a whole.
Oil is increasingly plentiful on the upslope of the bell curve, increasingly scarce and expensive on the down slope. The peak of the curve coincides with the point at which the endowment of oil has been 50 percent depleted. Once the peak is passed, oil production begins to go down while cost begins to go up.
In practical terms, this means that if 2005 was the year of global Peak Oil, worldwide oil production in the 2030 will be the same as it was in 1980. However, the world’s population in 2030 will be both much larger and much more industrialized (oil-dependent) than it was in 1980. Consequently, worldwide demand for oil will outpace worldwide production of oil by a significant margin. As a result, the price will skyrocket, oil dependent economies will crumble, and resource wars will explode.
That's what we need to be worried about.
Perspective 2:
Once again, the issue is not running out of oil, it's that the declining production is not having enough to keep up with increasing demand.
FYI, American oil production peaked at 9.6 million barrels/day in 1970. Our oil production today is a little over half that amount today, and even drilling in ANWR won't get production back above 1970 levels:
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mcrfpus2a.htm
Perspective 3:
Civilization's last chance
The planet is nearing a tipping point on climate change, and it gets much worse, fast.
By Bill McKibben
May 11, 2008 New York Times.
Even for Americans -- who are constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start -- even for us, the world looks a little terminal right now.
It's not just the economy: We've gone through swoons before. It's that gas at $4 a gallon means we're running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It's that when we try to turn corn into gas, it helps send the price of a loaf of bread shooting upward and helps ignite food riots on three continents. It's that everything is so tied together. It's that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the "limits to growth" suddenly seem ... how best to put it, right.
All of a sudden it isn't morning in America, it's dusk on planet Earth.
There's a number -- a new number -- that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
A few weeks ago, NASA's chief climatologist, James Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several coauthors. The abstract attached to it argued -- and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper -- that "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."
Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points -- massive sea level rise and huge changes in rainfall patterns, among them -- that we'll pass if we don't get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them, judging by last summer's insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be behind us.
So it's a tough diagnosis. It's like the doctor telling you that your cholesterol is way too high and, if you don't bring it down right away, you're going to have a stroke. So you take the pill, you swear off the cheese, and, if you're lucky, you get back into the safety zone before the coronary. It's like watching the tachometer edge into the red zone and knowing that you need to take your foot off the gas before you hear that clunk up front.
In this case, though, it's worse than that because we're not taking the pill and we are stomping on the gas -- hard. Instead of slowing down, we're pouring on the coal, quite literally. Two weeks ago came the news that atmospheric carbon dioxide had jumped 2.4 parts per million last year -- two decades ago, it was going up barely half that fast.
And suddenly the news arrives that the amount of methane, another potent greenhouse gas accumulating in the atmosphere, has unexpectedly begun to soar as well. It appears that we've managed to warm the far north enough to start melting huge patches of permafrost, and massive quantities of methane trapped beneath it have begun to bubble forth.
And don't forget: China is building more power plants; India is pioneering the $2,500 car; and Americans are buying TVs the size of windshields, which suck juice ever faster.
Here's the thing. Hansen didn't just say that if we didn't act, there was trouble coming. He didn't just say that if we didn't yet know what was best for us, we'd certainly be better off below 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
His phrase was: "if we wish to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed." A planet with billions of people living near those oh-so-floodable coastlines. A planet with ever-more vulnerable forests. (A beetle, encouraged by warmer temperatures, has already managed to kill 10 times more trees than in any previous infestation across the northern reaches of Canada this year. This means far more carbon heading for the atmosphere and apparently dooms Canada's efforts to comply with the Kyoto protocol, which was already in doubt because of its decision to start producing oil for the U.S. from Alberta's tar sands.)
We're the ones who kicked the warming off; now the planet is starting to take over the job. Melt all that Arctic ice, for instance, and suddenly the nice white shield that reflected 80% of incoming solar radiation back into space has turned to blue water that absorbs 80% of the sun's heat. Such feedbacks are beyond history, though not in the sense that Francis Fukuyama had in mind.
And we have, at best, a few years to short-circuit them -- to reverse course. Here's the Indian scientist and economist Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year (and, by the way, got his job when the Bush administration, at the behest of Exxon Mobil, forced out his predecessor): "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."
In the next two or three years, the nations of the world are supposed to be negotiating a successor treaty to the Kyoto accord (which, for the record, has never been approved by the United States -- the only industrial nation that has failed to do so). When December 2009 rolls around, heads of state are supposed to converge on Copenhagen to sign a treaty -- a treaty that would go into effect at the last plausible moment to heed the most basic and crucial of limits on atmospheric CO2.
If we did everything right, Hansen says, we could see carbon emissions start to fall fairly rapidly and the oceans begin to pull some of that CO2 out of the atmosphere. Before the century was out, we might even be on track back to 350. We might stop just short of some of those tipping points, like the Road Runner screeching to a halt at the very edge of the cliff.
More likely, though, we're the coyote -- because "doing everything right" means that political systems around the world would have to take enormous and painful steps right away. It means no more new coal-fired power plants anywhere, and plans to quickly close the ones already in operation. (Coal-fired power plants operating the way they're supposed to are, in global warming terms, as dangerous as nuclear plants melting down.) It means making car factories turn out efficient hybrids next year, just the way U.S. automakers made them turn out tanks in six months at the start of World War II. It means making trains an absolute priority and planes a taboo.
It means making every decision wisely because we have so little time and so little money, at least relative to the task at hand. And hardest of all, it means the rich countries of the world sharing resources and technology freely with the poorest ones so that they can develop dignified lives without burning their cheap coal.
It's possible. The United States launched a Marshall Plan once, and could do it again, this time in relation to carbon. But at a time when the president has, once more, urged drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it seems unlikely. At a time when the alluring phrase "gas tax holiday" -- which would actually encourage more driving and more energy consumption -- has danced into our vocabulary, it's hard to see. And if it's hard to imagine sacrifice here, imagine China, where people produce a quarter as much carbon apiece as Americans do.
Still, as long as it's not impossible, we've got a duty to try to push those post-Kyoto negotiations in the direction of reality. In fact, it's about the most obvious duty humans have ever faced.
After all, those talks are our last chance; you just can't do this one lightbulb at a time.
We do have one thing going for us -- the Web -- which at least allows you to imagine something like a grass-roots global effort. If the Internet was built for anything, it was built for sharing this number, for making people understand that "350" stands for a kind of safety, a kind of possibility, a kind of future.
Hansen's words were well-chosen: "a planet similar to that on which civilization developed." People will doubtless survive on a non-350 planet, but those who do will be so preoccupied, coping with the endless unintended consequences of an overheated planet, that civilization may not.
Civilization is what grows up in the margins of leisure and security provided by a workable relationship with the natural world. That margin won't exist, at least not for long, as long as we remain on the wrong side of 350. That's the limit we face.
Bill McKibben, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and the author, most recently, of "The Bill McKibben Reader," is the co-founder of Project 350 ( www.350.org ), devoted to reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million. A longer version of this article appears at Tomdispatch.com .
Perspective 4:
Stop being a follower and do some research.
Read about solar cycles and solar cycle 24 and sunspots.
We just exited a
Ice coverage went from record lows in 2007 to near average during the winter of 2008. All directly correlated with reduced sunspot activity.
From NOAA:
For the contiguous United States, the average temperature for March was 42°F (6°C), which was 0.4°F (0.2°C) below the 20th century mean.
March temperatures contrasted sharply with those in March 2007, when record breaking temperatures covered large parts of the nation during the last two weeks of the month.
The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during December 2007-February 2008 (climatological boreal winter) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
Record Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent in January was followed by above average snow cover for the month of February.
* For the contiguous United States, the average temperature for April was 51.0°F (10.6°C), which was 1.0°F (0.6°C) below the 20th century mean and ranked as the 29th coolest April on record, based on preliminary data.
* On the Regional level, much of the U.S. experienced cooler than normal temperatures during April.
Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado received 418 inches (1061 cm) during the 2007-08 winter, breaking the previous record of 415 inches (1054 cm) from 1979-1980. Even Spokane, Washington was the second-snowiest on record with 89.5 inches (227 cm), four inches (10 cm) short of the previous record from 1949-1950.
Several cities and ski resorts across the country set new seasonal snowfall records during April. Madison, Wisconsin set a new seasonal record snow total of 101.4 inches (257.6 cm) on April 8, breaking the previous record of 76.1 inches (193.3 cm) from the 1978-79 season. Numerous ski resorts in the West reported record breaking snowfall this year, as did parts of northern Maine. Caribou, Maine received 197.8 inches (502 cm) of snowfall this winter, shattering the previous record of 181.1 inches (460 cm).
The February 2008 Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent was much above the 1979-2000 mean. This was the second largest sea ice extent in February (27% above the 1979-2000 mean) over the 30-year historical period, behind 2003. Sea ice extent for February has increased at a rate of 3.4%/decade.
Perspective 5:
Dalton Solar Minimum (1790 - 1820) global temperatures are lower than average.
Maunder Solar Minimum (1645 - 1715) coincident with the 'Little Ice Age'.
Sporer Solar Minimum (1420-1530) discovered by the analysis of radioactive carbon in tree rings that correlate with solar activity colder weather. Greenland settlements abandoned.
Wolf Solar Minimum (1280 - 1340) climate deterioration begins. Life gets harder in Greenland.
Medieval Solar Maximum (1075 - 1240) coincides with Medieval Warm Period. Vikings from Norway and Iceland found settlements in Greenland and North America.
Oort Solar Minimum (1010 - 1050) temperature on Earth is colder than average.
Perspective 6:
You are right - we will never run out of oil. But, it used to be that ole Jed would be shootin at some squirrels and texas tea came bubblin out of the ground. The best find in recent years was in the gulf of mexico, Jack 2. They found enough oil for two years worth of US consumption under 7,000 feet of water and 20,000 feet of rock.
Oil shale, oil sands, and coal are supposed to be our new saviors. They are all closer to the ground and we have mass quantities of the stuff - but refining it to a liquid we can put in our gas tanks is nasty and expensive. The only western country to ever use coal liquefication was Germany during WWII with slave labor.
Oil used to be cheap and plentiful - that's no longer true. The energy returned on energy invested (EROEI) on oil used to be 50-1. That is, you got 50 units of energy for every 1 unit you invested. It's now around 10-1 - and all other processes for putting gas in our tanks is far worse. Hydrogen is a net energy loser and corn ethanol is draws almost dead even.
So, the question is - how can we keep the same standard of living if the energy we use is both more expensive and less plentiful?
Perspective 7:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/
http://www.climatehotmap.org/
http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/Default.asp
This is from NOAA too.
Introduction
One of the most vigorously debated topics on Earth is the issue of climate change, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) data centers are central to answering some of the most pressing global change questions that remain unresolved. The National Climatic Data Center contains the instrumental and paleoclimatic records that can precisely define the nature of climatic fluctuations at time scales of a century and longer. Among the diverse kinds of data platforms whose data contribute to NCDC's resources are: Ships, buoys, weather stations, weather balloons, satellites, radar and many climate proxy records such as tree rings and ice cores. The National Oceanographic Data Center contains the subsurface ocean data which reveal the ways that heat is distributed and redistributed over the planet. Knowing how these systems are changing and how they have changed in the past is crucial to understanding how they will change in the future. And, for climate information that extends from hundreds to thousands of years, paleoclimatology data, also available from the National Climatic Data Center, helps to provide longer term perspectives.
Internationally, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), is the most senior and authoritative body providing scientific advice to global policy makers. The IPCC met in full session in 1990, 1995, 2001 and in 2007. They address issues such as the buildup of greenhouse gases, evidence, attribution, and prediction of climate change, impacts of climate change, and policy options.
Listed below are a number of questions commonly addressed to climate scientists, and brief replies (based on IPCC reports and other research) in common, understandable language. This list will be periodically updated, as new scientific evidence comes to light.
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1. What is the greenhouse effect, and is it affecting our climate?
The greenhouse effect is unquestionably real and helps to regulate the temperature of our planet. It is essential for life on Earth and is one of Earth's natural processes. It is the result of heat absorption by certain gases in the atmosphere (called greenhouse gases because they effectively 'trap' heat in the lower atmosphere) and re-radiation downward of some of that heat. Water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas, followed by carbon dioxide and other trace gases. Without a natural greenhouse effect, the temperature of the Earth would be about zero degrees F (-18°C) instead of its present 57°F (14°C). So, the concern is not with the fact that we have a greenhouse effect, but whether human activities are leading to an enhancement of the greenhouse effect by the emission of greenhouse gases through fossil fuel combustion and deforestation.
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2. Are greenhouse gases increasing?
Human activity has been increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (mostly carbon dioxide from combustion of coal, oil, and gas; plus a few other trace gases). There is no scientific debate on this point. Pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide (prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution) were about 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv), and current levels are greater than 380 ppmv and increasing at a rate of 1.9 ppm yr-1 since 2000. The global concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere today far exceeds the natural range over the last 650,000 years of 180 to 300 ppmv. According to the IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES), by the end of the 21st century, we could expect to see carbon dioxide concentrations of anywhere from 490 to 1260 ppm (75-350% above the pre-industrial concentration).
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3. Is the climate warming?
Global surface temperatures have increased about 0.74°C (plus or minus 0.18°C) since the late-19th century, and the linear trend for the past 50 years of 0.13°C (plus or minus 0.03°C) per decade is nearly twice that for the past 100 years. The warming has not been globally uniform. Some areas (including parts of the southeastern U.S. and parts of the North Atlantic) have, in fact, cooled slightly over the last century. The recent warmth has been greatest over North America and Eurasia between 40 and 70°N. Lastly, seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1995.
Recent analyses of temperature trends in the lower and mid- troposphere (between about 2,500 and 26,000 ft.) using both satellite and radiosonde (weather balloon) data show warming rates that are similar to those observed for surface air temperatures. These warming rates are consistent with their uncertainties and these analyses reconcile a discrepancy between warming rates noted on the IPCC Third Assessment Report (U.S. Climate Change Science Plan Synthesis and Assessment Report 1.1).
An enhanced greenhouse effect is expected to cause cooling in higher parts of the atmosphere because the increased "blanketing" effect in the lower atmosphere holds in more heat, allowing less to reach the upper atmosphere. Cooling of the lower stratosphere (about 49,000-79,500 ft.) since 1979 is shown by both satellite Microwave Sounding Unit and radiosonde data (see previous figure), but is larger in the radiosonde data likely due to uncorrected errors in the radiosonde data.
Relatively cool surface and tropospheric temperatures, and a relatively warmer lower stratosphere, were observed in 1992 and 1993, following the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. The warming reappeared in 1994. A dramatic global warming, at least partly associated with the record El Niño, took place in 1998. This warming episode is reflected from the surface to the top of the troposphere.
There has been a general, but not global, tendency toward reduced diurnal temperature range (DTR: the difference between daily high or maximum and daily low or minimum temperatures) over about 70% of the global land mass since the middle of the 20th century. However, for the period 1979-2005 the DTR shows no trend since the trend in both maximum and minimum temperatures for the same period are virtually identical; both showing a strong warming signal. A variety of factors likely contribute to this change in DTR, particularly on a regional and local basis, including changes in cloud cover, atmospheric water vapor, land use and urban effects.
Indirect indicators of warming such as borehole temperatures, snow cover, and glacier recession data, are in substantial agreement with the more direct indicators of recent warmth. Evidence such as changes in glacial mass balance (the amount of snow and ice contained in a glacier) is useful since it not only provides qualitative support for existing meteorological data, but glaciers often exist in places too remote to support meteorological stations. The records of glacial advance and retreat often extend back further than weather station records, and glaciers are usually at much higher altitudes than weather stations, allowing scientists more insight into temperature changes higher in the atmosphere.
Large-scale measurements of sea-ice have only been possible since the satellite era, but through looking at a number of different satellite estimates, it has been determined that September Arctic sea ice has decreased between 1973 and 2007 at a rate of about -10% +/- 0.3% per decade. Sea ice extent for September for 2007 was by far the lowest on record at 4.28 million square kilometers, eclipsing the previous record low sea ice extent by 23%. Sea ice in the Antarctic has shown very little trend over the same period, or even a slight increase since 1979. Though extending the Antarctic sea-ice record back in time is more difficult due to the lack of direct observations in this part of the world.
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4. Are El Niños related to Global Warming?
El Niños are not caused by global warming. Clear evidence exists from a variety of sources (including archaeological studies) that El Niños have been present for thousands, and some indicators suggest maybe millions, of years. However, it has been hypothesized that warmer global sea surface temperatures can enhance the El Niño phenomenon, and it is also true that El Niños have been more frequent and intense in recent decades. Whether El Niño occurrence changes with climate change is a major research question.
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5. Is the hydrological cycle (evaporation and precipitation) changing?
Globally-averaged land-based precipitation shows a statistically insignificant upward trend with most of the increase occurring in the first half of the 20th century. Further, precipitation changes have been spatially variable over the last century. On a regional basis increases in annual precipitation have occurred in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere and southern South America and northern Australia. Decreases have occurred in the tropical region of Africa, and southern Asia. Due to the difficulty in measuring precipitation, it has been important to constrain these observations by analyzing other related variables. The measured changes in precipitation are consistent with observed changes in stream flow, lake levels, and soil moisture (where data are available and have been analyzed).
Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent has consistently remained below average since 1987, and has decreased by about 10% since 1966. This is mostly due to a decrease in spring and summer snow extent over both the Eurasian and North American continents since the mid-1980s. Winter and autumn snow cover extent have shown no significant trend for the northern hemisphere over the same period.
Clouds are also an important indicator of climate change. Surface-based observations of cloud cover suggest increases in total cloud cover over many continental regions. This increase since 1950 is consistent with regional increases in precipitation for the same period. However, global analyses of cloud cover over land for the 1976-2003 period show little change.
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6. Is the atmospheric/oceanic circulation changing?
A rather abrupt change in the El Niño - Southern Oscillation behavior occurred around 1976/77. Often called the climatic shift of 1976/77, this new regime has persisted. There have been relatively more frequent and persistent El Niño episodes rather than the cool episode La Niñas. This behavior is highly unusual in the last 130 years (the period of instrumental record). Changes in precipitation over the tropical Pacific are related to this change in the El Niño - Southern Oscillation, which has also affected the pattern and magnitude of surface temperatures. However, it is unclear as to whether this apparent change in the ENSO cycle is related to global warming.
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7. Is the climate becoming more variable or extreme?
Examination of changes in climate extremes requires long-term daily or even hourly data sets which until recently have been scarce for many parts of the globe. However these data sets have become more widely available allowing research into changes in temperature and precipitation extremes on global and regional scales. Global changes in temperature extremes include decreases in the number of unusually cold days and nights and increases in the number of unusually warm days and nights. Other observed changes include lengthening of the growing season, and decreases in the number of frost days.
Global temperature extremes have been found to exhibit no significant trend in interannual variability, but several studies suggest a significant decrease in intra-annual variability. There has been a clear trend to fewer extremely low minimum temperatures in several widely-separated areas in recent decades. Widespread significant changes in extreme high temperature events have not been observed. There is some indication of a decrease in day-to-day temperature variability in recent decades.
In areas where a drought or excessive wetness usually accompanies an El Niño or La Niña, these dry or wet spells have been more intense in recent years. Further, there is some evidence for increasing drought worldwide, however in the U.S. there is no evidence for increasing drought.In some areas where overall precipitation has increased (ie. the mid-high northern latitudes), there is evidence of increases in the heavy and extreme precipitation events. Even in areas such as eastern Asia, it has been found that extreme precipitation events have increased despite total precipitation remaining constant or even decreasing somewhat. This is related to a decrease in the frequency of precipitation in this region.
Many individual studies of various regions show that extra-tropical cyclone activity seems to have generally increased over the last half of the 20th century in the northern hemisphere, but decreased in the southern hemisphere. Furthermore, hurricane activity in the Atlantic has shown an increase in number since 1970 with a peak in 2005. It is not clear whether these trends are multi-decadal fluctuations or part of a longer-term trend.
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8. How important are these changes in a longer-term context?
Paleoclimatic data are critical for enabling us to extend our knowledge of climatic variability beyond what is measured by modern instruments. Many natural phenomena are climate dependent (such as the growth rate of a tree for example), and as such, provide natural 'archives' of climate information. Some useful paleoclimate data can be found in sources as diverse as tree rings, ice cores, corals, lake sediments (including fossil insects and pollen data), speleothems (stalactites etc), and ocean sediments. Some of these, including ice cores and tree rings provide us also with a chronology due to the nature of how they are formed, and so high resolution climate reconstruction is possible in these cases. However, there is not a comprehensive 'network' of paleoclimate data as there is with instrumental coverage, so global climate reconstructions are often difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, combining different types of paleoclimate records enables us to gain a near-global picture of climate changes in the distant past.
For Northern Hemisphere temperature, recent decades appear to be the warmest since at least about 1000AD, and the warming since the late 19th century is unprecedented over the last 1000 years. Older data are insufficient to provide reliable hemispheric temperature estimates. Ice core data suggest that the 20th century has been warm in many parts of the globe, but also that the significance of the warming varies geographically, when viewed in the context of climate variations of the last millennium.
Large and rapid climatic changes affecting the atmospheric and oceanic circulation and temperature, and the hydrological cycle, occurred during the last ice age and during the transition towards the present Holocene period (which began about 10,000 years ago). Based on the incomplete evidence available, the projected change of 3 to 7°F (1.5 - 4°C) over the next century would be unprecedented in comparison with the best available records from the last several thousand years.
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9. Is sea level rising?
Global mean sea level has been rising at an average rate of 1.7 mm/year (plus or minus 0.5mm) over the past 100 years, which is significantly larger than the rate averaged over the last several thousand years. Depending on which greenhouse gas increase scenario is used (high or low) projected sea-level rise is projected to be anywhere from 0.18 (low greenhouse gas increase) to 0.59 meters for the highest greenhouse gas increase scenario. However, this increase is due mainly to thermal expansion and contributions from melting alpine glaciers, and does not include any potential contributions from melting ice sheets in Greenland or Antarctica. Larger increases cannot be excluded but our current understanding of ice sheet dynamics renders uncertainties too large to be able to assess the likelihood of large-scale melting of these ice sheets.
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10. Can the observed changes be explained by natural variability, including changes in solar output?
Since our entire climate system is fundamentally driven by energy from the sun, it stands to reason that if the sun's energy output were to change, then so would the climate. Since the advent of space-borne measurements in the late 1970s, solar output has indeed been shown to vary. With now 28 years of reliable satellite observations there is confirmation of earlier suggestions of an 11 (and 22) year cycle of irradiance related to sunspots but no longer term trend in these data. Based on paleoclimatic (proxy) reconstructions of solar irradiance there is suggestion of a trend of about +0.12 W/m2 since 1750 which is about half of the estimate given in the last IPCC report in 2001. There is though, a great deal of uncertainty in estimates of solar irradiance beyond what can be measured by satellites, and still the contribution of direct solar irradiance forcing is small compared to the greenhouse gas component. However, our understanding of the indirect effects of changes in solar output and feedbacks in the climate system is minimal. There is much need to refine our understanding of key natural forcing mechanisms of the climate, including solar irradiance changes, in order to reduce uncertainty in our projections of future climate change.
In addition to changes in energy from the sun itself, the Earth's position and orientation relative to the sun (our orbit) also varies slightly, thereby bringing us closer and further away from the sun in predictable cycles (called Milankovitch cycles). Variations in these cycles are believed to be the cause of Earth's ice-ages (glacials). Particularly important for the development of glacials is the radiation receipt at high northern latitudes. Diminishing radiation at these latitudes during the summer months would have enabled winter snow and ice cover to persist throughout the year, eventually leading to a permanent snow- or icepack. While Milankovitch cycles have tremendous value as a theory to explain ice-ages and long-term changes in the climate, they are unlikely to have very much impact on the decade-century timescale. Over several centuries, it may be possible to observe the effect of these orbital parameters, however for the prediction of climate change in the 21st century, these changes will be far less important than radiative forcing from greenhouse gases.
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11. What about the future?
Due to the enormous complexity of the atmosphere, the most useful tools for gauging future changes are 'climate models'. These are computer-based mathematical models which simulate, in three dimensions, the climate's behavior, its components and their interactions. Climate models are constantly improving based on both our understanding and the increase in computer power, though by definition, a computer model is a simplification and simulation of reality, meaning that it is an approximation of the climate system. The first step in any modeled projection of climate change is to first simulate the present climate and compare it to observations. If the model is considered to do a good job at representing modern climate, then certain parameters can be changed, such as the concentration of greenhouse gases, which helps us understand how the climate would change in response. Projections of future climate change therefore depend on how well the computer climate model simulates the climate and on our understanding of how forcing functions will change in the future.
The IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios determines the range of future possible greenhouse gas concentrations (and other forcings) based on considerations such as population growth, economic growth, energy efficiency and a host of other factors. This leads a wide range of possible forcing scenarios, and consequently a wide range of possible future climates.
According to the range of possible forcing scenarios, and taking into account uncertainty in climate model performance, the IPCC projects a best estimate of global temperature increase of 1.8 - 4.0°C with a possible range of 1.1 - 6.4°C by 2100, depending on which emissions scenario is used. However, this global average will integrate widely varying regional responses, such as the likelihood that land areas will warm much faster than ocean temperatures, particularly those land areas in northern high latitudes (and mostly in the cold season). Additionally, it is very likely that heat waves and other hot extremes will increase.
Precipitation is also expected to increase over the 21st century, particularly at northern mid-high latitudes, though the trends may be more variable in the tropics, with much of the increase coming in more frequent heavy rainfall events. However, over mid-continental areas summer-drying is expected due to increased evaporation with increased temperatures, resulting in an increased tendency for drought in those regions.
Snow extent and sea-ice are also projected to decrease further in the northern hemisphere, and glaciers and ice-caps are expected to continue to retreat.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Edward N. Luttwak Smokes A BIG MUSLIM BONG - Obama Article Full Of Crap
That's what I think of Edward N. Luttwak's waste of time example of a total Big Bong of an op-ed in the New York Times. Give me a break. Edward N. Luttwak's just trying to say that Obama's something he's not. If his father is not Muslim, and he's not, then he's not. Period.
AP: Ex-State officials allege corruption cover up
Arthur Brennan & James Mattil talk to Senate Democrats
The State Department's policies "not only contradicted the anti-corruption mission but indirectly contributed to and has allowed corruption to fester at the highest levels of the Iraqi government," Arthur Brennan told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.
The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees. Brennan, who briefly served in Baghdad as head of the department's Office of Accountability and Transparency last year, alleges the State Department prevented a congressional staffer visiting Baghdad from talking with staffers by insisting they were too busy. In reality, Brennan said, the staffers were watching movies at the embassy and on their computers.The staffers' workload had been cut dramatically because of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "evisceration" of Iraq's top anti-corruption office, he said. Brennan charges the State Department never responded to his team's report, which was retroactively classified because agency officials said it could hurt bilateral relations with Iraq. Other recommendations by the group also were kept secret, including a negative assessment of Iraq's Joint Anti-Corruption Committee, Brennan said.
Mattil, who worked with Brennan, made similar allegations. Specifically, he said the U.S. "remained silent in the face of an unrelenting campaign" by senior Iraqi officials to subvert Baghdad's Commission on Public Integrity, which had been led by al-Radhi. Then, the U.S. turned its back on Iraqis who fled to the United States after being threatened for pursuing anti-corruption cases, he said.
"Since we have done so little (to undercut corruption), it's easy to see why the government of Iraq has not done more," said Mattil, who left the accountability office last October after having served for a year as its Chief of Staff. "We have demanded no better."
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United we stand? Divided we fall?
Has Clinton insulted less-educated voters?
Senator Clinton has recently suggested, for example, that other journalists refer to an Associated Press story including, “how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.” Most of those ‘uneducated’ white voters are capable of hearing the underlying text, and being insulted at the implication that their support is linked to their educational level in a sort of class-based oppression that’s familiar to them, but not welcome.
Visit any Union hall, or construction site, and you will find that most know who among their “peers” is conversant with the subtleties of any major issue, that there are on-site pundits without college degrees who garner more respect than most of the talking heads and media experts. No, not everybody agrees with these "not college educated" backroom philosophers and professors, the differences are present, but that’s just the point: differences ARE present, and Senator Clinton arrogantly lumped all of these people together as though individually they don't matter - as though none will notice.There could hardly be a more fundamental difference between the presidential candidates, as demonstrated by campaign strategies: The Rove tactical toolset and playbook, targeting specific groups to shave a few points in carefully selected spots vs. the Obama vision of "strength through unity" trusting savvy voters to act for the common good.
Barack Obama’s vision of a country increasingly united can be likened to the recognition that while copper is a soft metal which can become brittle, and zinc is also brittle, mixing them yields: brass -- which is stronger than either separately. He trusts the voters to think, to act for the good of the whole, to resist divisive assaults on our freedoms, to respond in ways that resonate with patriotism that once rallied the nation to put a man on the moon.
Getting down to brass tacks on the Hope front
Getting down to brass tacks on the Hope front
I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about relationships. She is a white woman married to a white man. I am a white woman married to a half Philippino man who looks more, say, Samoan. I have never considered myself to part of a "mixed race" marriage, though I suppose that, technically, I am. I can tell you flat out that we have never seen any discrimination and our children, who both look plain ol' white, have never faced any, either.
I have been in relationships, however, where this wasn't the case. I have, in my lifetime, had relationships with two black men. In the first, he was much more open about the relationship than I. I come from a Southern family and we were living in Virginia and while I wasn't embarassed to be with him, per se, I was fearful of people's reactions. I was afraid to hold hands in public. He would laugh at me, but was patient.
In the second relationship, about five years later, I was the one who was more confident. Granted, we were living in the nineties instead of the eighties and I had worked this ground before. But we were still in Virginia and let me assure you that it was not universally OK.
My friend and I started talking about these relationships because she had come across an article from The Dallas Morning News talking about Barack Obama as the "symbol of acceptance" for some mixed-race couples. It's old news by now that Sen. Obama is, himself, the product of a white mother and a Kenyan father. If I thought that my relationships faced discrimination in the eighties and nineties, that was child's play compared to what Obama's parents must have faced in the early sixties.
To be sure, that discrimination has not passed entirely. And interractial couples are keenly aware of that. They are also keenly aware of the issues that their children, who grow up with the same identity issues Obama discussed in his books, face and the discrimination they can face from both races.
When my husband, the product of a white father and a Philippina mother, was a child, he found himself first not white enough for his classmates in Wilmington, DE, and then not black enough for his classmates in urban Pittsburgh. When Obama used this same language in his speech on race on March 18 of this year, he was speaking directly to my husband and the millions like him in this country who have been straddling the racial divide their whole lives.
In the midst of the policy talk and the endorsements and the super delegate count, some of the more powerful and simpler messages of Obama's candidacy can get lost. And some of them aren't even about what he has to say. Some of them are simply about who he is. He is a singular candidate, symbolizing, with his person, a message of Hope to millions in this country about what is possible for their lives. This isn't high brow talk about economic policy that, let's be honest, leaves most people glassy eyed. This is the Hope that tells millions of Americans that it's OK to be who they are. And it tells millions of others that it's OK to let those people be who they are.
Discrimination, in this country or any other, won't go away. We can never be so polyanna to think that human beings will ever lose the capacity for hate. But we've come a long way and Obama is helping us go farther faster than we might have thought possible.
I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about relationships. She is a white woman married to a white man. I am a white woman married to a half Philippino man who looks more, say, Samoan. I have never considered myself to part of a "mixed race" marriage, though I suppose that, technically, I am. I can tell you flat out that we have never seen any discrimination and our children, who both look plain ol' white, have never faced any, either.
I have been in relationships, however, where this wasn't the case. I have, in my lifetime, had relationships with two black men. In the first, he was much more open about the relationship than I. I come from a Southern family and we were living in Virginia and while I wasn't embarassed to be with him, per se, I was fearful of people's reactions. I was afraid to hold hands in public. He would laugh at me, but was patient.
In the second relationship, about five years later, I was the one who was more confident. Granted, we were living in the nineties instead of the eighties and I had worked this ground before. But we were still in Virginia and let me assure you that it was not universally OK.
My friend and I started talking about these relationships because she had come across an article from The Dallas Morning News talking about Barack Obama as the "symbol of acceptance" for some mixed-race couples. It's old news by now that Sen. Obama is, himself, the product of a white mother and a Kenyan father. If I thought that my relationships faced discrimination in the eighties and nineties, that was child's play compared to what Obama's parents must have faced in the early sixties.
To be sure, that discrimination has not passed entirely. And interractial couples are keenly aware of that. They are also keenly aware of the issues that their children, who grow up with the same identity issues Obama discussed in his books, face and the discrimination they can face from both races.
When my husband, the product of a white father and a Philippina mother, was a child, he found himself first not white enough for his classmates in Wilmington, DE, and then not black enough for his classmates in urban Pittsburgh. When Obama used this same language in his speech on race on March 18 of this year, he was speaking directly to my husband and the millions like him in this country who have been straddling the racial divide their whole lives.
In the midst of the policy talk and the endorsements and the super delegate count, some of the more powerful and simpler messages of Obama's candidacy can get lost. And some of them aren't even about what he has to say. Some of them are simply about who he is. He is a singular candidate, symbolizing, with his person, a message of Hope to millions in this country about what is possible for their lives. This isn't high brow talk about economic policy that, let's be honest, leaves most people glassy eyed. This is the Hope that tells millions of Americans that it's OK to be who they are. And it tells millions of others that it's OK to let those people be who they are.
Discrimination, in this country or any other, won't go away. We can never be so polyanna to think that human beings will ever lose the capacity for hate. But we've come a long way and Obama is helping us go farther faster than we might have thought possible.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
SF 49ers Stadium Endorsed By SF Chron; Niners Punt On Santa Clara Stadium
The San Francisco Chronicle endorsed Proposition G, which if it passes, will -- in the words of the Chron
The endorsement came along with the news that the SF 49ers are abandoning the Santa Clara stadium project.
offer a nonbinding but nevertheless critical public expression of support for a proposal by Miami's Lennar Corp. to develop up to 10,000 homes, about 700,000 square feet of retail space as well as artist studios, green-tech-research facilities and more than 300 acres of parks and open space in and around the old shipyard. As part of the project, Lennar also would rebuild the Alice Griffith public housing project.
The endorsement came along with the news that the SF 49ers are abandoning the Santa Clara stadium project.
SF STADIUM GETS BOOST WITH SF CHRON ENDORSEMENT
The San Francisco Chronicle endorsed Proposition G, which if it passes, will -- in the words of the Chron
The endorsement came along with the news that the SF 49ers are abandoning the Santa Clara stadium project.
offer a nonbinding but nevertheless critical public expression of support for a proposal by Miami's Lennar Corp. to develop up to 10,000 homes, about 700,000 square feet of retail space as well as artist studios, green-tech-research facilities and more than 300 acres of parks and open space in and around the old shipyard. As part of the project, Lennar also would rebuild the Alice Griffith public housing project.
The endorsement came along with the news that the SF 49ers are abandoning the Santa Clara stadium project.
Religious intolerance is alive and well in the USA
"Muslim!" Now Available In Insult Form:
In a 2004 survey by Cornell university, almost half of the national respondents favored curtailing the civil liberties of Muslims. 40 percent of Republicans wanted American Muslims to register their whereabouts. There are some Americans who recognize the demonization for what it is... but we all need to look fairly at religious discrimination.As
Ali Eteraz's article points out, even Mitt Romney, a Presidential candidate who comes from a marginalized religious background, cannot accept the idea of a Muslim in the cabinet. Why? There is resistance among many Americans to the obvious truth that Muslims are a diverse group: 1.2 billion humans, living in virtually every nation on the planet cannot possibly be less diverse than, say, the registered Republicans in the USA. When all Republicans can agree on an issue then we can ask the question again.Meanwhile, Congressman Keith Ellison's faith raises eyebrows (except in his Minnesota district, that is, where he is highly regarded,) and the suggestion that Illinois Senator Barack Obama who has attended a Christian church for decades might be a Muslim is circulated as a smear - the very fact that this can be seen as a potential way to undermine his bid for the Democrats nomination to run for the Presidency of the U.S.A. speaks volumes about the mindset of those who repeat it (never mind those who generated the emails.) Who is the real Barack Obama - and why in a country founded in part to insure religious freedom for its citizens should it even matter what faith he - or anyone else - practices?
"First they came for the Communists,Those words are attributed to Reverend Martin Niemoeller, who had been a German U-boat commander in the first World War. They were his explanation of why he spoke out against the Nazis. He spent eight years in concentration camps for leading Protestant church opposition to Adolph Hitler. The Nazis imprisoned him at Sachsenhausen in 1937 for criticizing the Third Reich. He was freed from Dachau in 1945 by US troops. He died at the age of 92 on March 6, 1984.
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me."
The very first amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbade, expressly, government interference in matters religious:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.Can we, the people of the United States of America, now hold ourselves to a lower standard? Can we accept religious intolerance? If we let them come for the Muslims, if we let it happen here, now, as it did in Germany decades ago, who will be there to protect our rights when they come, at last, for us?
SNL Hillary Clinton Opening: "My Supporters Are Racist"
This is the most biting Saturday Night Live sketch since the Chris Rock / Obama one of a year ago, and is rooted in some truths. But also it sends a message to Senator Clinton that she can't influnce the SNL comedians. It also shows how they feel about her.
Check out this video: Saturday Night Live - Chris Rock Open
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Like a good comedy work about politics should do, it's got some people upset. Of course, Clinton supporters, who are branded --- perhaps forever -- as racist.
Let's see how the Clinton camp responds.
Add to My Profile | More Videos
Like a good comedy work about politics should do, it's got some people upset. Of course, Clinton supporters, who are branded --- perhaps forever -- as racist.
Let's see how the Clinton camp responds.
New World Order Video Against World Government
This video going around repeats the phrase "New World Order" as if it's a bad idea. The feat is that a "World Government" will take freedoms away from people.
Personally I object to this point of view. I'm not sold on the idea that our current World order, which promotes racism and separatism and nationalism, is the best way for us.
At any rate, it's a great video. Here it is:
Personally I object to this point of view. I'm not sold on the idea that our current World order, which promotes racism and separatism and nationalism, is the best way for us.
At any rate, it's a great video. Here it is:
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Obama Passes Clinton In Superdelegate Lead
The one authentic claim that Hillary Clinton has voiced for months now is that she has a significant lead over rival Barack Obama in the superdelegate count, thus indicating that her colleagues and Democratic allies overwhelmingly support her quest for the nomination and would echo that sentiment come convention time.
Well, that argument, like many others she's made has now been eliminated. For the very first time in this hotly contested and sometimes combative Democratic race, Barack Obama has gained the upper edge after generating increased support and approval this week from many superdelegtes. As presently constituted, Obama holds a 5.5 lead over the self-destructive junior Senator from New York, 276 to 271.5.
Well, that argument, like many others she's made has now been eliminated. For the very first time in this hotly contested and sometimes combative Democratic race, Barack Obama has gained the upper edge after generating increased support and approval this week from many superdelegtes. As presently constituted, Obama holds a 5.5 lead over the self-destructive junior Senator from New York, 276 to 271.5.
Coordinator of GOP St. Paul Nominating Convention quits
Trouble for the RNC's St. Paul convention!
According to an AP story published by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Doug Goodyear, the man picked by the John McCain campaign to run the 2008 RNC resigned Saturday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent the military regime in Myanmar. Goodyear, chief executive of DCI Group resigned and issued a two sentence statement, after Newsweek reported online was he paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Myanmar's junta. According to Newsweek, Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with the regime and led a public relations campaign to improve the junta's image.
Newsweek said the firm drafted news releases praising Myanmar's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing claims by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.
The Newsweek article also reported that some of Goodyear's allies worry that worry the choice of Goodyear could fuel perceptions that McCain is surrounded by lobbyists. DCI Group earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients, the report said.
Newsweek further reported DCI has been a pioneer in running "independent" expenditure campaigns by so-called 527 groups, the kind of operations that McCain has denounced in his battle for campaign finance reform.
read more | digg story
Chevron Ecuador Scandal - Claims That Chevron Polluted Ecuador Not True
There's a little war going on regarding Internet-based claims that Chevron was responsible for oil spills in Ecuador.
If one types "Chevron Ecuador" there's a littany of results that point the finger at the oil giant but without solid evidence. Moreover, it seem the people on the anti-Chevron side have launched an effort to block information that would protect Chevron from false claims.
But the fact is that Chevron did not spill oil in Ecuador. The State-Owned oil company Petroecuador did. But Ecuador itself, not a rich country, and influnced by Venezualan President Chavez, has launched a full-scale legal and PR assault on Chevron mainly because Texaco, which Chevron now owns, was partnered with Petroecuador.
Texaco had long ago taken steps to clean up it's matters in this issue, but Ecuador has not.
Look, I'm not a fan of big companies just because they're large, or small firms for the opposite reasons. But I do support telling the truth, and Petroecuador has not been forthcoming in this at all.
More soon.
If one types "Chevron Ecuador" there's a littany of results that point the finger at the oil giant but without solid evidence. Moreover, it seem the people on the anti-Chevron side have launched an effort to block information that would protect Chevron from false claims.
But the fact is that Chevron did not spill oil in Ecuador. The State-Owned oil company Petroecuador did. But Ecuador itself, not a rich country, and influnced by Venezualan President Chavez, has launched a full-scale legal and PR assault on Chevron mainly because Texaco, which Chevron now owns, was partnered with Petroecuador.
Texaco had long ago taken steps to clean up it's matters in this issue, but Ecuador has not.
Look, I'm not a fan of big companies just because they're large, or small firms for the opposite reasons. But I do support telling the truth, and Petroecuador has not been forthcoming in this at all.
More soon.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Obama Camp: Problematic if or how to help w/ Hillary's debt
Will Obama pay Hillary's debt?
Many of Obama's grassroots and netroots backers appear to be somewhere between concerned and irate at the thought that the Obama for America campaign might step in to lend a hand to get Clinton out of a financial hole -- and out of the race...And further outraged that skunk Mark Penn would be standing in line with his hand out, as Clinton reportedly owes Penn a very large sum.From the FEC:
According to an associate of mine who decided to call the FEC for the straight scoop asked their opinion of the situation. Here are the relevant facts, quote from the email I got earlier today:
"I just called the FEC to get some clarification. (Nothing like going to the source.)Now I'll be the first to admit it's not carved in stone since it was a verbal exchange, but it seems to suggest there are some real limits to just how magnanimous Obama can be financially regardless of his willingness to make gestures in the pursuit of party unity.If Obama wants to help Hillary with her debts, he has to do it with a separate funding program."
- Obama can only donate $2300 to Hillary's campaign. [Ed: Michelle Obama could, also, bringing the total to $4600 obviously]
- He can donate money to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and they can donate money; that is limited to $5000.
- The DNC can pay for a variety of things, such as commercials, out of hand expenses, but that is limited to the general election.
Bill Clinton Argues With West Virginian Voter Over Health Care - Video
Well, here's Bill Clinton fighting again and this time with a West Virginia voter who turned out to be an Obama supporter and who dared take on the former President at a rally yesterday. Clinton always seems like he's itching for a fight in situations where his speech is interrupted by a heckler, and where Senator Obama just goes right on talking, Bill stops his entire speech to enter a confrontation.
I used to think this was part of some weird strategy but now I think it's just Bill being a meany. See, President Clinton's done a lot for a lot of people and so he has to -- to a degree -- run on his Presidency all over again and almost as if he's running for a third term. In his mind we should remember all that he has done and we should think of Senator Clinton as by extension to his administration. And more to the point, we all should be grateful.
But all are not. Well, it's not so much that as people do remember that Bill and Hillary didn't succeed in passing health care reform and then did kind of give up on it. But Bill's having none of that. Coupled with the face of losing to Senator Obama for the Presidential Race and a drying well of donors -- or more to the point, seeing his wife lose the race and money -- Bill had to lash out at someone. And so he did:
But it's not what they need at this time. Of course, as an Obama supporter myself I watch with glee, but also with some sadness because I thought Senator Clinton would make a great VP choice, but now I'm reconsidering. Not sold on Jim Webb - yet.
I used to think this was part of some weird strategy but now I think it's just Bill being a meany. See, President Clinton's done a lot for a lot of people and so he has to -- to a degree -- run on his Presidency all over again and almost as if he's running for a third term. In his mind we should remember all that he has done and we should think of Senator Clinton as by extension to his administration. And more to the point, we all should be grateful.
But all are not. Well, it's not so much that as people do remember that Bill and Hillary didn't succeed in passing health care reform and then did kind of give up on it. But Bill's having none of that. Coupled with the face of losing to Senator Obama for the Presidential Race and a drying well of donors -- or more to the point, seeing his wife lose the race and money -- Bill had to lash out at someone. And so he did:
But it's not what they need at this time. Of course, as an Obama supporter myself I watch with glee, but also with some sadness because I thought Senator Clinton would make a great VP choice, but now I'm reconsidering. Not sold on Jim Webb - yet.
The End Is Approaching In The Democratic Race
The transformative and relentless race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton appears to be precipitously narrowing down as the Illinois Senator can finally see the goal he worked tirelessly to achieve turning into reality. Yes, the distinction of becoming the Democratic nominee will undoubtedly be Obama's as the waning weeks of this contentious fight between two highly qualified candidates is quickly ending
As superdelegates continue to flock to Obama and the prospect of winning for Clinton seems bleaker day after day, a firm resolution and closure can be peacefully brought to the Democratic race.
Voters from over forty states have thunderously asserted over the past five months that they are desperately seeking change and unity, and that their candidate to lead them into the future is Barack Obama. It's evident that he's about to be propelled from the goal line to the finish line, while Mrs. Clinton will have to wait and wonder how she butchered up her campaign and quite possibly her future political aspirations.
As superdelegates continue to flock to Obama and the prospect of winning for Clinton seems bleaker day after day, a firm resolution and closure can be peacefully brought to the Democratic race.
Voters from over forty states have thunderously asserted over the past five months that they are desperately seeking change and unity, and that their candidate to lead them into the future is Barack Obama. It's evident that he's about to be propelled from the goal line to the finish line, while Mrs. Clinton will have to wait and wonder how she butchered up her campaign and quite possibly her future political aspirations.
The Past V. The Future In The Democratic Party
From dangerously failed policies and brutal incompetence, to an immunity to tell the truth and work in the best interest of their constituents, members of Congress have eliminated the hopes and dreams that so many Americans tirelessly worked for.
Unfortunately, the junior Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, has been encapsulated in the failed policies of Washington as an individual who consistently touts her thirty years of experience (marginal at best), and unquestionably deserves to be labeled as the candidate of the past who's overwhelmingly out of touch with the values, opinions, and interests of everyday people.
How can she expect to run a White House when she can't even run her campaign? It's as if a baseball player in Triple AAA continuously batted below .200, but expected to perform exceedingly well once he was promoted to the major leagues. That's not how it works.
As the weeks before Mr. Obama is officially nominated, one component is evident. He's the future of the Democratic Party and the glistening ray of hope that will catapult to victory in the fall against Republican John McCain.
Unfortunately, the junior Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, has been encapsulated in the failed policies of Washington as an individual who consistently touts her thirty years of experience (marginal at best), and unquestionably deserves to be labeled as the candidate of the past who's overwhelmingly out of touch with the values, opinions, and interests of everyday people.
How can she expect to run a White House when she can't even run her campaign? It's as if a baseball player in Triple AAA continuously batted below .200, but expected to perform exceedingly well once he was promoted to the major leagues. That's not how it works.
As the weeks before Mr. Obama is officially nominated, one component is evident. He's the future of the Democratic Party and the glistening ray of hope that will catapult to victory in the fall against Republican John McCain.
Obama: Proud to be an American
From the lakes of Minnesota
to the hills of Tennessee:
Obama is clearly a patriot who is putting the good of the country ahead of his own personal goals, an inspiring and visionary leader. His impact on our national dialog will last for years regardless of what office he holds. Set to music by Lee Greenwood, this is a stirring portrait of the Senator from Illinois.Thursday, May 08, 2008
Barack Obama On Capital Hill To Meet and Greet House :Leaders
Fresh from his win over Senator Hillary Clinton in North Carolina and his near-tie with her in Indiana, thus increasing his delegate lead over her and with the addition of more Superdelegates has only seven fewer lined up for him than Clinton as of this writing and stands at 173 delegates away from the needed 2025 to clinch the Democratic Presidential Nomination.
Obama was doing a meet-and-greet, much as Clinton herself had done a day before. This video was made during that event.
Obama was doing a meet-and-greet, much as Clinton herself had done a day before. This video was made during that event.
VentureBeat's Matt Marshall @ Startup Camp San Francisco
Matt Marshall was formerly a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and who started the company VentureBeat.com in 2006. We first met when I attended his party at the Amsterdam in San Francisco, and then ran into each other at Startup Camp San Francisco, where he took time to talk with me while we were in the chow line there.
As for Startup Camp itself, it was great for networking, but I didn't get out of it what I was looking for, which was focused, specific discussion of problems and issues that all startups face. For the most part, the discussion groups had general conversations and were too large in some cases to be effective on a personal level.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Myth of Invincibility: Obama, Hillary, and us
Combat soldiers are famous for and know about something called the "myth of invincibility". It is the completely mythological notion that disaster will strike all around you and harm others, but you will survive. Senator Obama certainly did not start out as inevitable in the race, even in his own estimation - but many thought Senator Clinton was.
The untold story is about us, the citizens of the United States. We have shown that we too believe in the Myth of Invincibility. We have stood by Obama through the early stages of Hillary's silly attacks when she investigated Obama's kindergarten essays. We have stood by Obama when the media proclaimed that his campaign was over, twice, once with the bitter comment, and then with the Wright issue.
We investigate the issues, we blog and comment, we campaign and phone bank, and we fund his campaign. Charles Kriete was a clergyman, and a chaplain in the army, and unlike any other clergy, he also taught strategy at the Army War College. He authored the first critical in-house analysis of military strategy in Vietnam. He was also the only clergyman in or out of uniform who was assigned to the Strategic Studies Institute, and awarded the Military Occupational Status (MOS) of Strategic Analyst. After 15 years in retirement, he has been selected to join the Distinguished Fellows Society of the War College - his words and thoughts form the core of this article.
read more | digg story
The untold story is about us, the citizens of the United States. We have shown that we too believe in the Myth of Invincibility. We have stood by Obama through the early stages of Hillary's silly attacks when she investigated Obama's kindergarten essays. We have stood by Obama when the media proclaimed that his campaign was over, twice, once with the bitter comment, and then with the Wright issue.
We investigate the issues, we blog and comment, we campaign and phone bank, and we fund his campaign. Charles Kriete was a clergyman, and a chaplain in the army, and unlike any other clergy, he also taught strategy at the Army War College. He authored the first critical in-house analysis of military strategy in Vietnam. He was also the only clergyman in or out of uniform who was assigned to the Strategic Studies Institute, and awarded the Military Occupational Status (MOS) of Strategic Analyst. After 15 years in retirement, he has been selected to join the Distinguished Fellows Society of the War College - his words and thoughts form the core of this article.
read more | digg story
Clinton Lost Black Democratic Base - Can't Win Without It
In launching what many feel has been a loser strategy Senator Clinton too a number of actions that have served to virtually eliminate her Black support. For the first time in Democratic Party history since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, a presidential candidate close to the nomination can't count on Blacks for support.
Now -- according to CNN's American Morning -- her African American support is down to "single digits". That means over 90 percent of Blacks don't back her -- or more to the point support Senator Barack Obama. Thus, one can make the argument that Clinton would have a harder time wining a race against John McCain, because Blacks don't support her and may even jump over to the Republican Party to help Senartor John McCain.
Ouch.
Now -- according to CNN's American Morning -- her African American support is down to "single digits". That means over 90 percent of Blacks don't back her -- or more to the point support Senator Barack Obama. Thus, one can make the argument that Clinton would have a harder time wining a race against John McCain, because Blacks don't support her and may even jump over to the Republican Party to help Senartor John McCain.
Ouch.
New Dodge Challenger Like The Old Dodge Challenger.
Dodge came out with a new Challenger, which reminds me of the old Challenger of the 70s, but I guess that's the point.
Obama Wins North Carolina; Almost Indiana; Clinton Should Drop Out
After weeks of being bombed with constant Rev. Wright stories and attempts to define Obama as a "Black candidate" we have the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, where Clinton was supposed to win by 10 percent -- she didn't -- and was to come close to Obama in North Carolina by coming within single digits -- she didn't do that either.
Instead, Barack Obama won North Carolina by 14 points, and narrowly lost Indiana by less than 2 point, and vote counting is still not done.
Senator Obama is now about 200 delegates or less from being the Democratic Presidential Nominee and there's nothing Senator Clinton can do to halt his march. Nothing.
Clinton -- with a looming campaign debt -- is finished. MSNBC's Tim Russert gave the monologue that said it all, and it's here in this video:
We do now know who the Democratic Presidential nominee will be and it's Senator Barack Obama.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Native American Superdelegate Endorses Barack Obama
Kalyn Free...
is a superdelegate and at-large member of the Democratic National Committee. Free, who has endorsed Senator Barack Obama's bid for the nomination of the Democratic party today, is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and the founder and President of Indigenous Democratic Network's (INDN) List, an organization dedicated to training and recruiting Native American political candidates. Obama has shown considerable sensitivity to the issues of First/Native Americans, and appears to be the only candidate with a Tribal Leaders Steering Committee actively participating on the campaign.read more | digg story
Mildred Loving, Who's Interracial Marriage Was Protected In Court, Passes On
Mildred Loving just wanted to marry her husband in 1967, but for reasons that are totally weird, they were blocked. Challenging Virginia's bigotted laws, they won, opening the door to the destruction of anti-interracial marriage laws that should never have been in place.
Mildred passed on to Heaven this week at 68.
Mildred passed on to Heaven this week at 68.
Republican Senator Doing the Troops Wrong
Senator Webb, a VA Democrat, has been the guiding force behind this legislation, which has been dubbed the new G.I. bill. The measure is decidedly bipartisan. Mr. Webb’s principal co-sponsors include Republican Senators Chuck Hagel of NE and John Warner of VA, and Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of NJ. Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are on board, but you just might be surprised at who is not supporting the effort to pay for college for G.I.’s who have willingly put their lives on the line. Read Bob Herbert's piece in today's N.Y.Times and discover it's John McCain.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, May 05, 2008
May Day / Cinco de Mayo celebration in Minneapolis a hit
Perfect Weather as Minneapolis celebrates May Day and Cinco de Mayo
The annual parade to Powderhorn Park was a big hit this year, the weather was perfect, the floats and marchers were festive and lively, and several prominent Democrats
walked the route including U.S. Senate candidate Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak who led a "Minnesota for Obama" contingent prior to the Heart of the Beast puppet theater's magical season-welcoming festival.It seems Minnesota may be more culturally and ethnically open-minded than some folks on the coast give it credit for. They elected Keith Ellison to U.S. Congress, the first Muslim ever to be so honored, and even at the local level they've elected Satveer Chaudhary, and they surprised pollsters and pundits on Super Tuesday by showing overwhelming support for Barack Obama's candidacy - and lately their female U.S. Senator has announced she's in Obama's corner, too. Maybe they're not as loony as the country thought they might be after putting Jesse Ventura in the Governor's mansion? Well, they know how to do a community festival and a parade right.
Not 10, not 20, not even 50! 200 Economists Denounce Clinton/McCain Gas Tax Plan!
That Clinton or McCain would engage in this type of pure political pandering is not surprising. It’s exemplifies the old Washington gamesmanship that we need to change. This may not be the single most irresponsible policy idea of the year, but it must've been formulated by somebody thinking only about votes, not reality. Let's drive up demand and keep sending money to big oil and middle eastern zillionaires. Obama's honesty makes them both look like old-school politicians more beholden to corporate interests than worried about what's good for the U.S.A. Oh. Right.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Hillary Clinton To "Stick It" To Black Voters With "Nuclear Option"
Well, it's not like she's got the Black vote, so Senator Hillary Clinton - in a desparate attempt to gain delegates over Senator Barack Obama, is going to use what she calls "a nuclear option" which would certainly detroy the Democratic Party. Clinton wants Florida and Michigan delegates to be counted. Which is fine -- but Clinton herself signed a contract not to count or campaign in those states because they broke the DNC rules.
Even Clinton said a few months ago, that Florida and Michigan don't count. But now here's this nuclear option -- it's all about Clinton and to hell with the party.
These are the scenarios to watch for according to the Huffington Post:
Using the Rules and Bylaws Committee to force the seating of two pro-Hillary delegations would provoke a massive outcry from Obama forces. Such a strategy would, additionally, face at least two other major hurdles, and could only be attempted, according to sources in the Clinton camp, under specific circumstances:
First, this coming Tuesday, Clinton would have to win Indiana and lose North Carolina by a very small margin - or better yet, win the Tar Heel state. She would also have to demonstrate continued strength in the contests before May 31.
Second, and equally important, her argument that she is a better general election candidate than Obama -- that he has major weaknesses which have only been recently revealed -- would have to rapidly gain traction, not only within the media, where she has experienced some success, but within the broad activist ranks of the Democratic Party.
Under that optimistic scenario, some Clinton operatives believe she could overcome several massive stumbling blocks:
-- Clinton loyalists on the Rules Committee would have to be persuaded to put their political futures on the line by defying major party constituencies, especially black leaders backing Barack Obama. Committee members are unlikely to take such a step unless they are convinced that Clinton has a strong chance of winning the nomination.
Former DNC and South Carolina Democratic Party chair Donald Fowler -- a Hillary loyalist -- would, for example, face an outpouring of anger from South Carolina Democrats if he were to go along with such a strategy.
-- A controversial decision to seat the two delegations, as currently constituted, would be appealed by the Obama campaign to the Democratic National Convention's Credentials Committee.
The full make-up of the Credentials Committee will not be determined until all the primaries are completed, but the pattern of Clinton and Obama victories so far clearly suggests that Obama delegates on that committee will outnumber Clinton delegates. Obama will not, however, have a majority, according to most estimates, and the balance of power will be held by delegates appointed by DNC chair Howard Dean.
Regardess, it's clear the DNC Chairman Howard Dean's in danger of losing control of the party. He'd better think of a "nuclear option" of his own.
Even Clinton said a few months ago, that Florida and Michigan don't count. But now here's this nuclear option -- it's all about Clinton and to hell with the party.
These are the scenarios to watch for according to the Huffington Post:
Using the Rules and Bylaws Committee to force the seating of two pro-Hillary delegations would provoke a massive outcry from Obama forces. Such a strategy would, additionally, face at least two other major hurdles, and could only be attempted, according to sources in the Clinton camp, under specific circumstances:
First, this coming Tuesday, Clinton would have to win Indiana and lose North Carolina by a very small margin - or better yet, win the Tar Heel state. She would also have to demonstrate continued strength in the contests before May 31.
Second, and equally important, her argument that she is a better general election candidate than Obama -- that he has major weaknesses which have only been recently revealed -- would have to rapidly gain traction, not only within the media, where she has experienced some success, but within the broad activist ranks of the Democratic Party.
Under that optimistic scenario, some Clinton operatives believe she could overcome several massive stumbling blocks:
-- Clinton loyalists on the Rules Committee would have to be persuaded to put their political futures on the line by defying major party constituencies, especially black leaders backing Barack Obama. Committee members are unlikely to take such a step unless they are convinced that Clinton has a strong chance of winning the nomination.
Former DNC and South Carolina Democratic Party chair Donald Fowler -- a Hillary loyalist -- would, for example, face an outpouring of anger from South Carolina Democrats if he were to go along with such a strategy.
-- A controversial decision to seat the two delegations, as currently constituted, would be appealed by the Obama campaign to the Democratic National Convention's Credentials Committee.
The full make-up of the Credentials Committee will not be determined until all the primaries are completed, but the pattern of Clinton and Obama victories so far clearly suggests that Obama delegates on that committee will outnumber Clinton delegates. Obama will not, however, have a majority, according to most estimates, and the balance of power will be held by delegates appointed by DNC chair Howard Dean.
Regardess, it's clear the DNC Chairman Howard Dean's in danger of losing control of the party. He'd better think of a "nuclear option" of his own.
Indiana's Incredible Shrinking Voter List - Email From Black Box Voting
I posted this as is. It's scary to know that Indiana does not have it's voting records intact. It's even scarier to learn that people don't seem to care. Why? Read below to learn the details of the problem, as to the lack of concern, your guess is as good as mine. This kind of voter records / recording problem hurt Senator Obama before in New Hampshire, with it's screwed up voting machines.
From: Black Box Voting [mailto:blackboxvoting@worldnet.att.net]
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 4:41 AM
To: lpease@gte.net
Subject: BBV report: Exclusive - Indiana's Incredible Shrinking Voter
List
In April 2008 when Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced the
release of "record high" voter registration rolls, with 4.3 million
voters set to vote in the Tuesday May 6 primary, he didn't mention that
a whopping 1,134,427 voter registrations have been cancelled.
Now, the voter rolls are supposed to be tidied up prior to each
election. Indiana's last general election was in Nov. 2006, and they
have had a slew of special and general elections since then. So how have
1.1 million voters -- 26 percent of the current statewide list --
escaped the voter registration cleanup squad? Who are these million
voters and where do they come from?
One quarter-million of them come from just two northwestern Indiana
counties: Lake and Porter. Lake County reports purging 137,164 voters
and neighboring Porter County cancelled out 124,958 voters.
Lake County, the home of Gary, Indiana, has spawned the Jackson Five and
a great old musical (The Music Man) and has been referred to as "the
second most liberal county in America." Lake County also has one of the
heaviest concentrations of African-American voters that you'll find
anywhere in the USA.
Nearby Porter County, the home of Valparaiso, is 95% white and went
solidly for Bush in the 2004 election. It's also got a lot of college
students.
For whatever reason, these two counties had ... what ... massive data
entry problems? Exceptionally messy records? Lots of dead people who
climbed back into their graves? I truly hope we aren't going to see a
lot of disappointed voters on Tuesday, when they perhaps learn that they
were among the lucky million people who got purged.
HERE'S WHERE THE HEAVIEST INDIANA PURGES ARE:
Lake 137,164 48% (Gary)
Porter 124,958 115% (Valparaiso)
Marion 68,120 10% (Indianapolis)
Monroe 66,009 85% (Bloomington)
Tippecanoe 53,456 58%
Madison 42,952 47% (Anderson)
Hamilton 42,325 26%
Here's a picture map with the numbers and percentages for the whole
state:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/cancelled-from-indiana-voter-rolls.png
The percentage represents the ratio of the number of purges to the
current voter list. Example: If a location currently has 100,000 voters
on its rolls, and purged 53,000 along the way, we assign a ratio of 53%
to the purge vs. current list.
It would be nice to have the original quantities, it would make for a
cleaner number, but this is not available on the Secretary of State's
Web site, so I haven't got a tidier statistic for you, wish I did. I
also wish the time period for these purges was clearly indicated, but it
is not indicated -- nor can it be derived -- from available information
at Indiana's official election Web site.
TOOLS YOU CAN USE
It's always interesting to look for impossible numbers on election
night, like the "more votes than voters" situation that sometimes crops
up. It speeds things up to have a place to plug the information in. Here
is a spreadsheet -- quick and not too fancy, I'm sure you can improve on
it. It has every Indiana county, along with their official registered
voter statistics for the 2008 primary, and some historical data from
1992 to the present, along with links for the source documents from the
secretary of state:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/IN/state/quickrank-INDIANAreg.xls
(Excel file, 71 KB)
Here are links that may be very good to provide additional statistical
information which you can plug in:
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/elections/index.html
And here is a link to the source document containing the cancelled
registration information used for this article:
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/pdfs/Statewide_Voter_Count_by_County5.1.
08.pdf
Here's a quick spreadsheet with the Indiana voting machines by county --
you can get that on the Sec. State's Web site too, but it's not in a
database format. You can cut and paste these into your analysis sheets
if you'd like to get comparisons of results by county.
AND NOW ABOUT THOSE VOTING MACHINES
Another press release on the Indiana Secretary of State's Web site deals
with the $360,000 penalty he's hitting Microvote with for failing to
follow the law. Oh yes, and the Microvote Infinity voting machine, which
will be very widely used in the Tuesday May 6 primary, has been
DECERTIFIED!
That's not going to stop anyone in Indiana from using it, however. The
decision was that anyone who already bought these things gets to use
them -- despite the fact that these machines have been embroiled in
lawsuits in at least three places, one in Pennsylvania for machines that
just didn't work, and two in Tennessee where candidates have asked to
redo elections due to bizarre anomalies -- like vote totals that
wandered away in the wee hours of the night.
Microvote's insurance company declined to cover the firm, according to
yet another lawsuit, because the insurance company alleged that
Microvote was selling defective products. The judge ruled against the
insurance company, saying the product wasn't defective, it just didn't
work.
I haven't plugged this in yet, but those of you who are comfortable with
spreadsheets can quickly add the voting machines by county to your voter
registration spreadsheet, using that voting machine spreadsheet I linked
above, to see how many votes all together will be subjected to
Microvote.
Ah, but we aren't done with Indiana voting machines yet. Indiana is also
fond of the ES&S paperless iVotronic touch-screens, the ones that lost
18,000 votes in Sarasota County Florida and were the subject of a
blistering report by Dan Rather. In Rather's report, he showed shocking
footage of the touch-screens being manufactured in a sweat shop in the
Philippines. Their quality control test was to shake the machine and if
it didn't rattle, it passed the test.
THINGS YOU CAN DO ABOUT INDIANA
1. Do some public records requests to either the state or the counties,
and ask for their VRG-5 form, which is the NVRA tracking form on which
the number of voters purged must be reported.
For tips on how to do the records requests, here's our tool kit, scroll
down to the section on public records:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.html
Post the documents and ask for any advice you need here, and report your
front-lines information for both Indiana and North Carolina here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/73/73.html
I'm pushing hard right now to get TOOL KIT 2008 done -- it's a
stripped-down model with emergency measures for the fall election.
Unless you tell me not to, I'll let you know as soon as it's ready for
download.
2. Another useful form you can request: The CEB-9 form, which is the
Indiana County Election Report that must be turned in after the
election. Here's one, take a look at the information it contains:
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/pdfs/CEB-9.pdf
3. If you are a number-cruncher, grab the spreadsheets here and wail on
'em during Election night. You can get additional historical information
from this site:
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/index.html
(Choose the drop-down menu "general by state" and select Indiana, then
choose the year you want. Confusion factor -- this site color-codes
Republican as blue and Democrat as Red. Has lots of good stuff).
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: People usually catch things like "more votes
than voters" weeks after the election. The dang Indiana information
doesn't break voter registrations out by party which makes crunching the
primary numbers a little harder. But you may still get the jump on some
red flags if you track this stuff as it's coming in on spreadsheets that
tell you what the stats are going in.
A WORD ABOUT THE TV PROJECTIONS
You'll notice that those projections often change -- sometimes
dramatically -- just an hour or so later. That's because we have learned
that they are paying elections officials (through their associations or
otherwise) to call and fax them the results off the voting machine poll
tape.
In fact, the National Election Pool (used to be Voter News Service) is
getting this stuff BEFORE the election officials and way before the
secretary of state.
The first number they quote is the adjusted exit poll number, and it
comes from asking people about who they voted for. The point here is,
when what you thought was "exit polls" suddenly changes, that is the
impact of those called-in poll tape results. Yep. That's the voting
machines talking, and when they say something different than the people
answering the exit pollers' questions, we should be looking at the
programming on the machine, not the exit pollers, for answers.
I expect to see early projections altered significantly as soon as those
poll tape numbers are called in to NEP.
So to recap, good things to do Tuesday:
1. Public records
2. Number crunching
3. Pray
Good luck to us, all,
Bev Harris
Founder - Black Box Voting
Please help us protect 2008, muster up the "Dream Teams" for field work,
print the Tool Kits...
We are supported ENTIRELY through small citizen donations.
TO DONATE: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
to mail:
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057
From: Black Box Voting [mailto:blackboxvoting@worldnet.att.net]
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 4:41 AM
To: lpease@gte.net
Subject: BBV report: Exclusive - Indiana's Incredible Shrinking Voter
List
In April 2008 when Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced the
release of "record high" voter registration rolls, with 4.3 million
voters set to vote in the Tuesday May 6 primary, he didn't mention that
a whopping 1,134,427 voter registrations have been cancelled.
Now, the voter rolls are supposed to be tidied up prior to each
election. Indiana's last general election was in Nov. 2006, and they
have had a slew of special and general elections since then. So how have
1.1 million voters -- 26 percent of the current statewide list --
escaped the voter registration cleanup squad? Who are these million
voters and where do they come from?
One quarter-million of them come from just two northwestern Indiana
counties: Lake and Porter. Lake County reports purging 137,164 voters
and neighboring Porter County cancelled out 124,958 voters.
Lake County, the home of Gary, Indiana, has spawned the Jackson Five and
a great old musical (The Music Man) and has been referred to as "the
second most liberal county in America." Lake County also has one of the
heaviest concentrations of African-American voters that you'll find
anywhere in the USA.
Nearby Porter County, the home of Valparaiso, is 95% white and went
solidly for Bush in the 2004 election. It's also got a lot of college
students.
For whatever reason, these two counties had ... what ... massive data
entry problems? Exceptionally messy records? Lots of dead people who
climbed back into their graves? I truly hope we aren't going to see a
lot of disappointed voters on Tuesday, when they perhaps learn that they
were among the lucky million people who got purged.
HERE'S WHERE THE HEAVIEST INDIANA PURGES ARE:
Lake 137,164 48% (Gary)
Porter 124,958 115% (Valparaiso)
Marion 68,120 10% (Indianapolis)
Monroe 66,009 85% (Bloomington)
Tippecanoe 53,456 58%
Madison 42,952 47% (Anderson)
Hamilton 42,325 26%
Here's a picture map with the numbers and percentages for the whole
state:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/cancelled-from-indiana-voter-rolls.png
The percentage represents the ratio of the number of purges to the
current voter list. Example: If a location currently has 100,000 voters
on its rolls, and purged 53,000 along the way, we assign a ratio of 53%
to the purge vs. current list.
It would be nice to have the original quantities, it would make for a
cleaner number, but this is not available on the Secretary of State's
Web site, so I haven't got a tidier statistic for you, wish I did. I
also wish the time period for these purges was clearly indicated, but it
is not indicated -- nor can it be derived -- from available information
at Indiana's official election Web site.
TOOLS YOU CAN USE
It's always interesting to look for impossible numbers on election
night, like the "more votes than voters" situation that sometimes crops
up. It speeds things up to have a place to plug the information in. Here
is a spreadsheet -- quick and not too fancy, I'm sure you can improve on
it. It has every Indiana county, along with their official registered
voter statistics for the 2008 primary, and some historical data from
1992 to the present, along with links for the source documents from the
secretary of state:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/IN/state/quickrank-INDIANAreg.xls
(Excel file, 71 KB)
Here are links that may be very good to provide additional statistical
information which you can plug in:
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/elections/index.html
And here is a link to the source document containing the cancelled
registration information used for this article:
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/pdfs/Statewide_Voter_Count_by_County5.1.
08.pdf
Here's a quick spreadsheet with the Indiana voting machines by county --
you can get that on the Sec. State's Web site too, but it's not in a
database format. You can cut and paste these into your analysis sheets
if you'd like to get comparisons of results by county.
AND NOW ABOUT THOSE VOTING MACHINES
Another press release on the Indiana Secretary of State's Web site deals
with the $360,000 penalty he's hitting Microvote with for failing to
follow the law. Oh yes, and the Microvote Infinity voting machine, which
will be very widely used in the Tuesday May 6 primary, has been
DECERTIFIED!
That's not going to stop anyone in Indiana from using it, however. The
decision was that anyone who already bought these things gets to use
them -- despite the fact that these machines have been embroiled in
lawsuits in at least three places, one in Pennsylvania for machines that
just didn't work, and two in Tennessee where candidates have asked to
redo elections due to bizarre anomalies -- like vote totals that
wandered away in the wee hours of the night.
Microvote's insurance company declined to cover the firm, according to
yet another lawsuit, because the insurance company alleged that
Microvote was selling defective products. The judge ruled against the
insurance company, saying the product wasn't defective, it just didn't
work.
I haven't plugged this in yet, but those of you who are comfortable with
spreadsheets can quickly add the voting machines by county to your voter
registration spreadsheet, using that voting machine spreadsheet I linked
above, to see how many votes all together will be subjected to
Microvote.
Ah, but we aren't done with Indiana voting machines yet. Indiana is also
fond of the ES&S paperless iVotronic touch-screens, the ones that lost
18,000 votes in Sarasota County Florida and were the subject of a
blistering report by Dan Rather. In Rather's report, he showed shocking
footage of the touch-screens being manufactured in a sweat shop in the
Philippines. Their quality control test was to shake the machine and if
it didn't rattle, it passed the test.
THINGS YOU CAN DO ABOUT INDIANA
1. Do some public records requests to either the state or the counties,
and ask for their VRG-5 form, which is the NVRA tracking form on which
the number of voters purged must be reported.
For tips on how to do the records requests, here's our tool kit, scroll
down to the section on public records:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.html
Post the documents and ask for any advice you need here, and report your
front-lines information for both Indiana and North Carolina here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/73/73.html
I'm pushing hard right now to get TOOL KIT 2008 done -- it's a
stripped-down model with emergency measures for the fall election.
Unless you tell me not to, I'll let you know as soon as it's ready for
download.
2. Another useful form you can request: The CEB-9 form, which is the
Indiana County Election Report that must be turned in after the
election. Here's one, take a look at the information it contains:
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/pdfs/CEB-9.pdf
3. If you are a number-cruncher, grab the spreadsheets here and wail on
'em during Election night. You can get additional historical information
from this site:
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/index.html
(Choose the drop-down menu "general by state" and select Indiana, then
choose the year you want. Confusion factor -- this site color-codes
Republican as blue and Democrat as Red. Has lots of good stuff).
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: People usually catch things like "more votes
than voters" weeks after the election. The dang Indiana information
doesn't break voter registrations out by party which makes crunching the
primary numbers a little harder. But you may still get the jump on some
red flags if you track this stuff as it's coming in on spreadsheets that
tell you what the stats are going in.
A WORD ABOUT THE TV PROJECTIONS
You'll notice that those projections often change -- sometimes
dramatically -- just an hour or so later. That's because we have learned
that they are paying elections officials (through their associations or
otherwise) to call and fax them the results off the voting machine poll
tape.
In fact, the National Election Pool (used to be Voter News Service) is
getting this stuff BEFORE the election officials and way before the
secretary of state.
The first number they quote is the adjusted exit poll number, and it
comes from asking people about who they voted for. The point here is,
when what you thought was "exit polls" suddenly changes, that is the
impact of those called-in poll tape results. Yep. That's the voting
machines talking, and when they say something different than the people
answering the exit pollers' questions, we should be looking at the
programming on the machine, not the exit pollers, for answers.
I expect to see early projections altered significantly as soon as those
poll tape numbers are called in to NEP.
So to recap, good things to do Tuesday:
1. Public records
2. Number crunching
3. Pray
Good luck to us, all,
Bev Harris
Founder - Black Box Voting
Please help us protect 2008, muster up the "Dream Teams" for field work,
print the Tool Kits...
We are supported ENTIRELY through small citizen donations.
TO DONATE: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
to mail:
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Startup Camp - Meetings On Blogs and Social Networks
I'll post videos from this event soon, but now I'm listening to a panel that features Matt Marshall of VentureBeat, noted Social Media expert Brian Solis, and others talking about social networks. Social networks -- er, the conversation about them -- have dominated this conference.
The conference is great for networking and I've met -- already -- a number of people I've either seen at other tech events like VentureBeat's great party last Thursday, to people I will be doing business with.
The conference is great for networking and I've met -- already -- a number of people I've either seen at other tech events like VentureBeat's great party last Thursday, to people I will be doing business with.
Sun's Jon Schwartz Getting Hit On Lack Of Java Support For Mac
This is still part of the live blog of the Startup Camp and at this point in the Q and A, and Sun CEO Jon Schwartz is getting hit on the perceived lack of support that Sun provides for Java for the Mac. At first he was combative, but settled down and listened.
It's over now. Yeah!
It's over now. Yeah!
Sun's Jon Schwartz Presents Startup Camp On Sunday Morning - Live Blog
Ok, I decided to not sleep late or go to Church, which is what I should do, and come to this something that's called "Startup Camp" in San Francisco. I'm late so I missed the breakfast, but I came to meet other entrepreneurs and find out better how to raise money for Sports Business Simulations.
Right now, I'm listening to Sun Microsystems CEO Jon Schwartz talk about why Sun's interested in startups and he's going through a Q andA about Microsoft's failure to aquire Yahoo. Generally, he's happy because it means that there's still competition in the marketplace; acquisition of companies like Yahoo by Microsoft hurt that, which hurts Sun's market for new customers.
On Cloud Computing
Jon says that Sun introduced a way to buy time on high performance supercomputers, but that didn't go well. It's time-sharing. But after conversations with the lawyers of big companies it was found that they -- the companies -- didn't want to share clouds with other firms.
Sun is an infrastructure provider. He says that Facebook is a cloud service -- but not for computing, for social networking.
This interview is more about Sun and really not about startups at all at this point. It would be nice to get back to the conversation about the Startup market. Just because Sun's the sponsor doesn't mean that we have to hear about Sun and not startups, or only about startups in the context of Sun.
Yes, the conference is free, but that's no excuse.
Maybe when the questions are opened to the audience that will change.
Jon just kind of busted out the interviewer over a question regarding reducing the workforce. When Jon turned the quesrtion back to him, the interviewer said "I'm a capitalist" -- Jon said "Well, 'm not. That sounds like a sweatshop to me." That got a lot of applause. Good for Jon.
Right now, I'm listening to Sun Microsystems CEO Jon Schwartz talk about why Sun's interested in startups and he's going through a Q andA about Microsoft's failure to aquire Yahoo. Generally, he's happy because it means that there's still competition in the marketplace; acquisition of companies like Yahoo by Microsoft hurt that, which hurts Sun's market for new customers.
On Cloud Computing
Jon says that Sun introduced a way to buy time on high performance supercomputers, but that didn't go well. It's time-sharing. But after conversations with the lawyers of big companies it was found that they -- the companies -- didn't want to share clouds with other firms.
Sun is an infrastructure provider. He says that Facebook is a cloud service -- but not for computing, for social networking.
This interview is more about Sun and really not about startups at all at this point. It would be nice to get back to the conversation about the Startup market. Just because Sun's the sponsor doesn't mean that we have to hear about Sun and not startups, or only about startups in the context of Sun.
Yes, the conference is free, but that's no excuse.
Maybe when the questions are opened to the audience that will change.
Jon just kind of busted out the interviewer over a question regarding reducing the workforce. When Jon turned the quesrtion back to him, the interviewer said "I'm a capitalist" -- Jon said "Well, 'm not. That sounds like a sweatshop to me." That got a lot of applause. Good for Jon.
Barack Obama , Rev Wright and My Iron Man Suit
I thank the SF Chronicle's Editorial Page editor John Diaz for the chance to write the essay below that appears in the Sunday May 4th edition of "Sunday Insight" and is below this video:
I've been a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama for president for 17 months, and one large reason is that he's like me. We share the same Aug. 4 birthday, and have walked similar paths of racial discovery.
Both of us have carved out our niche as individuals able to walk in different circles and still be ourselves. That's not easy; it comes as those around you tell you what they think your "place" in life should be. It's no wonder that I felt violated by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's National Press Club speech, as much as Obama did.
Wright made me put on my Iron Man suit again.
My Iron Man suit is a carefully constructed armor I created when I was a 6-year-old boy on the predominantly black South Side of Chicago to protect me from the other kids in the neighborhood. See, to them, I was not "black" - I talked "white" and was "smart." I didn't fight or play basketball - and didn't want to - but those were the prerequisites for popularity at the time.
The suit was my knowledge of everything from politics to Chicago architecture to airplanes and cars and "Star Trek." My suit allowed me to tune out those who said "you need to act black to be black."
The Iron Man suit was also used to protect me from anyone white who thought I should fit a common black stereotype. My Iron Man suit has "Repulsor Rays" I use to shoot "protons" of knowledge to prove I was smarter than anyone else in the room. I used the suit to judge anyone as being less intelligent than me if they didn't have a diverse base of friends - if all they had were, for example, white friends.
But a funny thing happened as I grew up. American culture changed such that I needed my suit less and less. More people accepted me as an individual. American pop culture became more diverse. There were more interracial relationships, and no one seemed to care. The guy who runs American Express was black - still is.
But the best thing was that no one was telling me my place; I'd successfully defined it and society - through generational change - kind of "caught up" to me. Or so I thought.
One problem remains, and Barack's dealing with it. In being the first African American who's one step closer to the Most Powerful Job in The World than any black person before him, Obama is faced not just with doing something "blacks don't do" but with upsetting people who wish he would know "his place."
This "placeism" that Barack and I have had to battle with has come back in the face of Wright and yes, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who worked to remind us that whatever we do, we're still just black.
Both represent the old generation. Hey, so does my mom, and I love her to death. She has struggled for years to get me to take off the suit, and finally gave up.
Mom totally understood Wright's anger, but knows why I have the suit, too.
I don't think Wright's outcry came from a desire to show up Barack, but to scream "Hey. I'm black and proud! You're not going to define me!"
What I didn't like - and got into an argument with my mom about - was that Wright didn't think about success for African Americans of the younger generation like Barack or myself; Wright was consumed with his anger.
And in expressing his anger - in his choice to show his "blackness" and insult Barack's integrity - he made me put my suit on. I think mom realized where I was coming from before I went into full suit mode. She's on my side now.
I resent anyone telling me what kind of black person I should be. I will turn away if one says that I'm the only black person in the room. I don't like it when someone works to wreck the success of a black person just because that person's not "stereotypically black." In my view, that's what Wright did and he owes Obama, and me, an apology.
I've been a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama for president for 17 months, and one large reason is that he's like me. We share the same Aug. 4 birthday, and have walked similar paths of racial discovery.
Both of us have carved out our niche as individuals able to walk in different circles and still be ourselves. That's not easy; it comes as those around you tell you what they think your "place" in life should be. It's no wonder that I felt violated by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's National Press Club speech, as much as Obama did.
Wright made me put on my Iron Man suit again.
My Iron Man suit is a carefully constructed armor I created when I was a 6-year-old boy on the predominantly black South Side of Chicago to protect me from the other kids in the neighborhood. See, to them, I was not "black" - I talked "white" and was "smart." I didn't fight or play basketball - and didn't want to - but those were the prerequisites for popularity at the time.
The suit was my knowledge of everything from politics to Chicago architecture to airplanes and cars and "Star Trek." My suit allowed me to tune out those who said "you need to act black to be black."
The Iron Man suit was also used to protect me from anyone white who thought I should fit a common black stereotype. My Iron Man suit has "Repulsor Rays" I use to shoot "protons" of knowledge to prove I was smarter than anyone else in the room. I used the suit to judge anyone as being less intelligent than me if they didn't have a diverse base of friends - if all they had were, for example, white friends.
But a funny thing happened as I grew up. American culture changed such that I needed my suit less and less. More people accepted me as an individual. American pop culture became more diverse. There were more interracial relationships, and no one seemed to care. The guy who runs American Express was black - still is.
But the best thing was that no one was telling me my place; I'd successfully defined it and society - through generational change - kind of "caught up" to me. Or so I thought.
One problem remains, and Barack's dealing with it. In being the first African American who's one step closer to the Most Powerful Job in The World than any black person before him, Obama is faced not just with doing something "blacks don't do" but with upsetting people who wish he would know "his place."
This "placeism" that Barack and I have had to battle with has come back in the face of Wright and yes, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who worked to remind us that whatever we do, we're still just black.
Both represent the old generation. Hey, so does my mom, and I love her to death. She has struggled for years to get me to take off the suit, and finally gave up.
Mom totally understood Wright's anger, but knows why I have the suit, too.
I don't think Wright's outcry came from a desire to show up Barack, but to scream "Hey. I'm black and proud! You're not going to define me!"
What I didn't like - and got into an argument with my mom about - was that Wright didn't think about success for African Americans of the younger generation like Barack or myself; Wright was consumed with his anger.
And in expressing his anger - in his choice to show his "blackness" and insult Barack's integrity - he made me put my suit on. I think mom realized where I was coming from before I went into full suit mode. She's on my side now.
I resent anyone telling me what kind of black person I should be. I will turn away if one says that I'm the only black person in the room. I don't like it when someone works to wreck the success of a black person just because that person's not "stereotypically black." In my view, that's what Wright did and he owes Obama, and me, an apology.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
INDIANA INSULTED BY KANTOR - HE DID SAY THEY ARE "SHIT"
Ok, I've went back and forth on this one, but the official word on the street is, yes, Clinton campaign advisor and then (1993) campaign head Mickey Kantor did insult the people of Indiana in the movie "The War Room", and while we can't -- I certainly can't -- make out the whisper, it's clear that he did call them "shit."
This was revealed in the Washington Post today and before that the story spread like wildfire in the brush of the Internet and then finally hit the mainstream media, though for some irresponsible reason CNN's not mentioned the matter, which just goes to show what lengths they'll go to to protect Senator Clinton.
This was revealed in the Washington Post today and before that the story spread like wildfire in the brush of the Internet and then finally hit the mainstream media, though for some irresponsible reason CNN's not mentioned the matter, which just goes to show what lengths they'll go to to protect Senator Clinton.
YOUTUBE UP AT 7:31 AM SATURDAY, MAY 3RD
After being down for hours, YouTube's finally came up at 7:31 AM, or that's when I rechecked its status. More on this later, if any news comes in.
YOUTUBE DOWN AT 6:16 AM SATURDAY, MAY 3RD
I do not know how this happened, but YouTube is down and so is my 230 video channel. Centernetworks reports that -- yikes -- the DNS for YouTube has been hacked. Man Chad (Hurley, the co-founder of YouTube) must be going nuts.
Subject: route fully down
Pinging the Youtube DNS shows the route is down at the datacenter:
traceroute to 208.65.152.137 (208.65.152.137), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
...
3 xe-0-1-0-19.lon10.ip.tiscali.net (77.67.64.193) 1.094 ms 10.260 ms 1.101 ms
4 ge6-2-1000M.ar4.LON3.gblx.net (64.212.107.89) 1.392 ms 213.200.77.234 (213.200.77.234) 1.607 ms 1.708 ms
5 YOUTUBE-LLC.tengigabitethernet8-2.ar3.DCA3.gblx.net (208.48.1.186) 80.579 ms 80.300 ms 80.451 ms
6 * * *
Subject: route fully down
Pinging the Youtube DNS shows the route is down at the datacenter:
traceroute to 208.65.152.137 (208.65.152.137), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
...
3 xe-0-1-0-19.lon10.ip.tiscali.net (77.67.64.193) 1.094 ms 10.260 ms 1.101 ms
4 ge6-2-1000M.ar4.LON3.gblx.net (64.212.107.89) 1.392 ms 213.200.77.234 (213.200.77.234) 1.607 ms 1.708 ms
5 YOUTUBE-LLC.tengigabitethernet8-2.ar3.DCA3.gblx.net (208.48.1.186) 80.579 ms 80.300 ms 80.451 ms
6 * * *
IRON MAN | Iron Man Is Excellent; Robert Downey Jr.'s Cool Performance
I just returned from seeing "Iron Man" at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, and I must say that it did indeed meet my expectations; in fact, it surpassed them. The movie, Directed by Jon Favreau, is tight, with little wasted scene or motion, and it manages to pull a lot of ideas in for you to grasp but it doesn't hit you over the head with it's overall anti-war theme.
The images of the idea of de-militarization are all around us in the film and the biggest one is of Stark as Iron Man destroying the very weapons he made for use by the U.S. Defense Department, which have fallen into terrorist hands. But that's only part of a great movie. There's the love between Stark / Downey and Pepper Potts, expertly played -- really well played -- by Gweneth Paltrow. There's also the family feeling between Stark, Johnson, and General James Rhoades, performed with ease by Terrance Howard, who also gives us the idea that he will be in that Iron Man suit in one of the future films.
I could go on and on about this movie. Yes, it really is as good as the first Spiderman. Yes, the special effects are terrifically real, and the sky scene featuring Iron Man being chased by two F-18s is a classic in movie making. It's better -- far better -- than the Space Shuttle crash-save scene in Superman Returns of two years ago. And the best effects are when Stark is testing the parts and engines that make up the Iron Man suit.
The villian. Well, there are two really, but Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane is simply so good you hate him. He's really the heavy. Indeed, there's much about this movie that's heavy and light all at the same time. A good flick. See it.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Obama on Native Tribal Sovereignty, the Freedmen, & NAHASDA
Obama vs. CBC on the passage of NAHASDA "as is"
In a March 13, 2008 Letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, members of the Congressional Black Caucus stated that “members of the CBC will not support, and will actively oppose passage of NAHASDA” unless the bill contains a “provision that would prevent the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma from receiving any benefits or funding” until they extended tribal membership to the Freedmen. The letter contained the signatures of 35 CBC members, but not the signature of White House hopeful Senator Barack Obama. The Native American community began raising questions about an Obama Presidency that could potentially support CBC efforts to undermine the rights of tribal governments to determine their own membership.
Asked to clearly state his position on H.R. 2824, Obama’s campaign issued the following statement:
"Tribal sovereignty must mean that the place to resolve inter-tribal disputes is the tribe itself. Our nation has learned with tragic results that federal intervention in internal matters of Indian tribes is rarely productive; failed policies such as Allotment and Termination grew out of efforts to second-guess Native communities."Clinton and McCain websites have no specific links or information for Native American peoples or issues, while Senator Obama’s campaign has a main page link directly to his website for “First Americans.” Further, a look at all three candidates’ campaign teams reveal that Senator Obama has a Native American Community Outreach Coordinator and a 30-member Tribal Steering Committee. If Clinton and McCain have a Native American presence on their campaign teams, it is well hidden.
"Discrimination anywhere is intolerable, but the Cherokee are dealing with this issue in both tribal and federal courts. As it stands, the rights of the Cherokee Freedmen are not being abrogated because there is an injunction in place that ensures the Freedman's rights to programs during the pendency of the litigation. I do not support efforts to undermine these legal processes and impose a congressional solution. Tribes have a right to be self governing and we need to respect that, even if we disagree, which I do in this case. We must have restraint in asserting federal power in such circumstances."
CNN Paints "Blue Collar Whites" As Racist, So Why Did They Vote For Obama?
I've got CNN on in the background and it's funny how they seem to paint people into categories. For example, CNN's "The Situation Room" had a segment which claimed that "Blue Collar Whites" like Hillary Clinton but will not get behind Barack Obama.
That's silly as hell. How did he win 30 states without the support of Blue Collar Whites? And I wonder if this will cause a Blue Collar White backlash? And so Blue Collar Whites know they're Blue Collar Whites?
Geez, this is sick stuff.
That's silly as hell. How did he win 30 states without the support of Blue Collar Whites? And I wonder if this will cause a Blue Collar White backlash? And so Blue Collar Whites know they're Blue Collar Whites?
Geez, this is sick stuff.
Ecuador Blames Chevron For Oil Spill While Petroecuador Gets No Blame At All
In a continuation of what's turning out to be a big fraud, Ecuador's pushing a lawsuit against Chevron that is $16 billion. That's right, $16 Billion. The Minority Report's Steven Foley explains:
Ecuadorean indigenous groups have filed one of the largest environmental class action suits in history against an oil company to the tune of $16 billion and if successful could set a dangerous president.
Ripping off the facade and digging under the surface of what at first glance looks to be nothing more than deserved retribution by indigenous groups who've suffered at the hands of Evil Big Oil one begins to see more clearly the forces behind this fraud are non other than Ecuador's own state run oil company Petroecuador, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, and the powers-that-be who are working feverishly to re-identify and usher in a new socialist South America.
You see, the fact is, Chevron, through its Texaco subsidiary (which Chevron aquired in 2001) , operated an oilfield joint venture with Petroecuador as a minority partner between 1964 and 1992.
From 2002 to 2007, Petroecuador was responsible for more than 1,000 oil spills, of which 168 took place last year alone. In fact, Petroecuador (through its oil and gas exploration and production subsidiary Petroproducción) accounted for 90 percent of all oil spills in Ecuador last year, according to official government data quoted by local newspaper El Universo. The remaining 10 percent were contaminated by six different private companies. In other words, Petroecuador is clearly a major and serial contaminator.
You can read more here: Steven Foley.
Ecuadorean indigenous groups have filed one of the largest environmental class action suits in history against an oil company to the tune of $16 billion and if successful could set a dangerous president.
Ripping off the facade and digging under the surface of what at first glance looks to be nothing more than deserved retribution by indigenous groups who've suffered at the hands of Evil Big Oil one begins to see more clearly the forces behind this fraud are non other than Ecuador's own state run oil company Petroecuador, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, and the powers-that-be who are working feverishly to re-identify and usher in a new socialist South America.
You see, the fact is, Chevron, through its Texaco subsidiary (which Chevron aquired in 2001) , operated an oilfield joint venture with Petroecuador as a minority partner between 1964 and 1992.
From 2002 to 2007, Petroecuador was responsible for more than 1,000 oil spills, of which 168 took place last year alone. In fact, Petroecuador (through its oil and gas exploration and production subsidiary Petroproducción) accounted for 90 percent of all oil spills in Ecuador last year, according to official government data quoted by local newspaper El Universo. The remaining 10 percent were contaminated by six different private companies. In other words, Petroecuador is clearly a major and serial contaminator.
You can read more here: Steven Foley.
Clinton Aide Kantor Video Was Doctored - Kantor Did Not Make Statement
I just listened to the video that was the source of the first video out and around the Internet which said that Mickey Kantor called Indiana people "White Niggers".
After further review, he did not say it.
Here's the actual video from the movie "The War Room":
Mickey is saying that "they're shitty," and it seems he's referring to pollsters, and not people in Indiana. Then he does say "How would you like to be, but then the rest is not even audible. It would have to be doctored to have one be able to hear him say the words "White Nigger."
As far as I'm concerned, Mickey is owed an apology by bloggers like me. Sorry Mickey.
After further review, he did not say it.
Here's the actual video from the movie "The War Room":
Mickey is saying that "they're shitty," and it seems he's referring to pollsters, and not people in Indiana. Then he does say "How would you like to be, but then the rest is not even audible. It would have to be doctored to have one be able to hear him say the words "White Nigger."
As far as I'm concerned, Mickey is owed an apology by bloggers like me. Sorry Mickey.
Clinton Advisor Mickey Kantor Called Indiana Folks "Worthless White Niggers"
In a video I uncovered on YouTube and here, Mickey Kantor, a long time friend and current advisor to the Hillary Clinton for President campaign and Bill Clinton's campaign chairman, is seen high-fiving Clinton advisors James Carville and George Stephanapoulos, and saying "Look at Indiana...it doesn't matter if we win. Those people are shit. How would you like to be a worthless white nigger?"
I don't know where the video came from, but it's an explosive look at how the Clinton camp really feels about people in Indiana, and even though this was 1992, it features the same people who are Clinton supporters and advisors today: Mickey Kantor George Stephanapoulos and James Carville.
UPDATE - Kantor claims that the video is libel and he will take legal action, but someone forgot to tell him that the evidence is here and no one is calling him names and he's a public figure, so good luck fighting this news. If someone diggs up the movie War Room -- from which this came -- and this is confirmed, he can forget any legal remedy.
I don't know where the video came from, but it's an explosive look at how the Clinton camp really feels about people in Indiana, and even though this was 1992, it features the same people who are Clinton supporters and advisors today: Mickey Kantor George Stephanapoulos and James Carville.
UPDATE - Kantor claims that the video is libel and he will take legal action, but someone forgot to tell him that the evidence is here and no one is calling him names and he's a public figure, so good luck fighting this news. If someone diggs up the movie War Room -- from which this came -- and this is confirmed, he can forget any legal remedy.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Obama and small donors: $5 on Cinco de Mayo
Follow the money
Going into the NC and IN primaries the Obama campaign is once again relying on the legion of small donors - and asking for a simple $5 donation. Spread across the nearly 1.5 million people who have already contributed, May just may get off to a big start for Barack. Is it really Cinco de Obama? Follow the money...read more | digg story
Did Illinois State Police murder a corrections officer?
R.I.P. Lernard "Sandy" Grigsby
Police said Grigsby, 48 struck a sergeant in the head, then attacked the trooper. He then tried to grab the sergeant's weapon, and the sergeant fired twice, authorities said, hitting Grigsby in the abdomen. In an employee dormitory at Stateville Correctional Center?
Troopers were responding to a domestic disturbance in the dormitory. When a sergeant and a trooper found the woman who had made the complaint, Grigsby allegedly attacked the officers.
Lernard's nephew, MN Vikings DE Otis Grigsby isn't buying it. The Chicago Trib can't seem to find anything substantive to say... So Grigsby has taken his story to the public via YouTube.
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