"Copia" is Latin for "abundance," and this blog explores my belief that abundance is all around us. We live in a world of infinite possibilities, and we have the ability to choose our own paths. I write about a wide range of topics, and common themes are politics, civil liberties, health, the environment, and science. Who am I? I'm Torq Anvil...
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Why Obama
I talked to my dad yesterday about Obama's Thursday night convention speech. And as I left the gym today and saw an Obama commercial on one of the televisions in the locker room, I realized why I support Obama so strongly.
It's not because I think that he's going to go to the White House and fix all of our problems.
Instead, it's because he seems to understand those challenges in the same way I do.
And while I know that I don't have answers to all the issues our next president will face, it's gratifying to know that one of the candidates at least is sizing up the world similarly to me.
Apparently Karl Rove said on television today that Sarah Palin was formerly the mayor of the "second largest city in Alaska."
Lies!
In truth, when she was mayor, Wasilla was the eighth largest city in Alaska.
But for some perspective... Anchorage, the largest city, had a 2006 population of some 280,000 people. The second and third largest cities are around 30,000 people each.
When Palin was mayor of Wasilla (1996-1999), the population was less than 5500. (Note that the media have been reporting that she won "two terms" as a city councillor and another two as mayor; it appears that these were two-year rather than four-year terms.)
For comparison, during Obama's eight year tenure as a state senator in Illinois, he represented approximately 220,000 people.
The population of the entire state of Alaska is around 670,000 people, which makes it about the size of Memphis, Tennessee, the 17th largest U.S. city.
I don't know where you live, but think about your mayor. Do you think he or she is ready to be President of the United States?
Whatever you think about Obama, for eighteen months he's been under the microscope, and he can speak intelligently on a far wider range of topics than any mayor I know, not to mention most governors.
So when you hear the talking heads start spouting off about Palin's experience, keep those numbers in mind! And try to imagine Palin sitting in the Oval Office, meeting with Putin, forging a solution on healthcare, or... dealing with any other issue that isn't petroleum-related.
WASHINGTON-- Senator John McCain just announced his choice for running mate: Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. To follow is a statement by Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.
"Senator McCain's choice for a running mate is beyond belief. By choosing Sarah Palin, McCain has clearly made a decision to continue the Bush legacy of destructive environmental policies.
"Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska's coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration.
"This is Senator McCain's first significant choice in building his executive team and it's a bad one. It has to raise serious doubts in the minds of voters about John McCain's commitment to conservation, to addressing the impacts of global warming and to ensuring our country ends its dependency on oil."
Andrew Sullivan quotes an article that suggests she may not be as gay-friendly as early reports suggested
The Washington Post wonders about her readiness and notes that Karl Rove had previously suggested that Tim Kaine (who has governed a larger state than Palin for a longer period of time) was too inexperienced to be Obama's VP (yesterday Rove told Fox News he approved of McCain's pick)
Though John McCain clearly concluded that Palin could attract female voters and grab his campaign some Barack Obama-style media buzz, he also is taking a risk that in elevating a largely unknown figure, he undermines the central theme of his candidacy that he puts "country first," above political calculations.
For a candidate known to possess a quick temper and an unpredictable political streak, the decision raises questions about how McCain would lead -- whether his decisions would flow from careful deliberations or gut checks in which short-term considerations or feelings outweigh the long view.
"Americans like risk-takers, but they also want to know that in times of crisis, you're going to be calm," said Matthew Dowd, who was a senior campaign strategist for President Bush but is neutral in the McCain-Obama race.
"Americans don't necessarily want somebody in a time of crisis to be overly emotional," Dowd said. "That's the balance that John McCain's going to have to show the public."
The Portland Oregonian has some fun facts on Wasilla, Alaska, where Palin used to be mayor
Having said all that, I do know that Americans will often surprise me... should be very interesting to see how the polls react in a week or so once the Republican Convention is over and Palin's novelty has worn off. Interestingly, I've checked out several of those online "polls" which ask the question, "Did McCain make the right pick?" A majority of them reported 50-50 results.
Governor Sarah Palin today responded to the energy plan put forward by the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
“I am pleased to see Senator Obama acknowledge the huge potential Alaska’s natural gas reserves represent in terms of clean energy and sound jobs,” Governor Palin said. “The steps taken by the Alaska State Legislature this past week demonstrate that we are ready, willing and able to supply the energy our nation needs.”
In a speech given in Lansing, Michigan, Senator Obama called for the completion of the Alaska natural gas pipeline, stating, “Over the next five years, we should also lease more of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production. And we should also tap more of our substantial natural gas reserves and work with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska natural gas pipeline, delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process.”
Governor Palin also acknowledged the Senator’s proposal to offer $1,000 rebates to those struggling with the high cost of energy.
“We in Alaska feel that crunch and are taking steps to address it right here at home,” Governor Palin said. “This is a tool that must be on the table to buy us time until our long-term energy plans can be put into place. We have already enjoyed the support of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, and it is gratifying to see Senator Obama get on board.”
It appears that this story has been deleted from the Alaska state webserver that it appeared on!
Here's a question I haven't seen raised yet: imagine that this was 2000 and George W. Bush had picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. Or that another Republican had instead won the primaries this year and had selected Palin.
Ezra Klein on McCain's VP selection: "Country didn't come first"
Here's what Ezra Klein has to say about McCain's selection of Sarah Palin:
This was, for McCain, a major decision. And we can learn from it. And here's what even his supporters must admit: Country did not come first. Polls did. The calculations are fully transparent. Understanding that he needed to broaden his electoral coalition, he picked a woman. Understanding he needed youth, he picked a young politician. Understanding he needed to emphasize his reformist credentials, he picked a onetime whistleblower. What he didn't pick was anyone able to help him govern, or capable of stepping forward in a moment of crisis. Palin is not an experienced foreign policy hand like Lieberman or a successful and experienced governor like Tommy Thompson. Today, McCain chose his campaign over his presidency. Over our presidency. Palin seems like a promising young politician, but McCain increasingly seems like a desperate one.
Here's Sarah Palin defending her firing of the Alaskan Public Safety Commissioner who claims that she pressured him to axe her former brother-in-law. She's currently under investigation by an independent prosecutor.
Interestingly, she claims to not have a clear idea of what the VP does! Considering that the interview was given less than a month ago, she's got a lot of work ahead of her now that McCain thinks she's got the right stuff for the job, lol.
You can walk the talk... or you can just talk the talk.
I always want to believe that people will see things with the same logic that I do, but of course that's not the way the world works! :-)
My opinion is that McCain picked Palin for tactical reasons, while Obama picked a seasoned statesmen who truly has demonstrated the ability to lead our nation.
And while there may be a lot of short term excitement about Palin, it's our job to remind our friends, families, and neighbors about how important this election is and why Obama is the clear choice to get our country moving in the direction that we need to go in order to ensure the future of the next generation of Americans, not to mention our own.
The more I think about it, the more staggered I am by the pick. It's totally about electioneering (misguidedly, I'd hazard, but I don't know enough about her to know yet) and fundamentally unserious about governing.
The first criterion for a veep - and I'm simply repeating a truism here - is that they are ready to take over at a moment's notice. That's especially true when you have a candidate as old as McCain. That's more than especially true when we are at war, in an era of astonishingly difficult challenges, when the next president could be grappling with war in the Middle East or a catastrophic terror attack at home. Under those circumstances, we could have a former Miss Alaska with two terms years under her belt as governor. Now compare McCain's pick with Obama's: a man with solid foreign policy experience, six terms in Washington and real relationships with leaders across the globe.
One pick is by a man of judgment; the other is by a man of vanity.
She may be a fine person, but she's my age, she has zero Washington experience, and no foreign policy expertise whatsoever.
McCain has just told us how seriously he takes the war we are in. Not seriously at all.
And while Obama has spent the last eighteen months running for the presidency--and convincing a majority of Democrats that he has the judgment, wisdom, and knowledge to be president--Palin has no publicly stated positions on any issues of foreign policy.
McCain's new choice for his running mate is the subject of an ethics probe to determine if she illegally fired Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner because he didn't terminate a state trooper who was going through a messy divorce with Palin's sister.
I'm reading that McCain has picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. I think it's a good pick... I can think of few other people who better undercut McCain's assertion that Obama's experience is insufficient to be President!
Change is clearly what we need. The question Obama clearly put out there last night was whether you trust John McCain to deliver it after he's spent the last eight years supporting George W. Bush 90% of the time!
They're saying it's because of Hurricane Gustav which is bearing down on the Gulf Coast, but coming right on the heels of Obama's major speech, they sound a little cowardly.
But I will be able to say that I watched the finest speech of a generation live.
Barack Obama just said "enough" to the last eight years of George W. Bush and stated in no uncertain terms why a vote for John McCain would be a mistake.
He was specific, he was lofty, and he was tough.
OMG elect this man.
Yes, we can!
Now... do your part... make a difference for the U S of A and make a contribution or share some of your time. :-)
Just heard on NPR that Obama isn't the first Democratic nominee to make his acceptance speech in a stadium: John F. Kennedy did as well in Los Angeles in 1960.
I had some doubts about whether giving Bill and Hillary two nights at the Democratic National Convention was a good idea, but Obama has demonstrated once again his outstanding judgment and ability to build bridges.
Bill Clinton just strongly endorsed Obama, saying that he is ready to lead the nation. And he's boldly contrasting what Bush-McCain offer and what an Obama presidency would do for the country, saying that McCain is the wrong candidate on the two key challenges we are facing: rebuilding the American dream and restoring America's leadership abroad. Clinton said that McCain embraces the "extreme philosophy" that the Republicans have espoused for the last 25 years.
25 votes for Obama, 8 for Clinton. Like most state delegations, many of Hillary's Nevada delegates are switching to Obama. The New Hampshire delegation just unanimously cast their 30 votes for Obama, even though Hillary won the state. Ditto for the New Jersey delegation.
After watching it, I told Victor that the moment when she got me was when she was talking about Barack driving her and their first daughter home from the hospital after her delivery. From that point on, she was perfect.
For me, the crucial moment when it went from good to great was when she told the story of her husband driving her and their infant daughter home from the hospital, creeping along at ten miles an hour, watching them in the back seat, the weight of the world on his shoulders. As a father myself, I remember doing exactly the same thing, and I know exactly what he was feeling at that moment -- it's one of the most intense experiences of a father's life.
I've been super busy getting ready for school... and will be pretty busy for the next several months. I've got three biology courses, organic chemistry II, and statistics. Whoa! ;-)
A Democrat has not been elected during wartime in over 50 years. A healthy party cannot only prosper when the world is at peace and the waters are quiet. But seven years of Republican incompetence and failure have generated tremendous mistrust in the conservative foreign policy approach. Iraq was a historic blunder, Osama bin Laden is loose, America's international standing is dismal. There's an opening for Democrats to press the advantage, argue that they, in fact, have the better record, and the sounder ideas, on national security. But they have to actually engage the argument. They can't hope that events will do the work for them. Picking Biden, the Obama campaign signaled that this is a project they want to take on, and a project they realize will have to be engaged affirmatively and aggressively. The fact of Obama, the fact of Iraq, it's not enough. You need to actually win the argument.
Just watched Obama and Biden make their first appearance together... they're an awesome combination. And seeing Biden trot across stage to join Obama at the podium, I couldn't help but grin. Biden is thrilled to be there and eager to get to work.
During Obama's introduction of Biden, he recounted the tragic accident that killed Biden's wife and young daughter shortly after his being elected to the Senate for the first time. Biden was sworn in not at the Capitol but at the hospital where his sons were still recovering. It was at that point that Biden began taking the train back to Delaware every night after his work in the Senate was done. He raised his sons for five years as a single dad before remarrying.
What occurred to me was the contrast with McCain, who ditched his first wife after she suffered a disfiguring accident. Nice.
Biden used this quote from Lincoln:
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
I'm pretty pleased about Obama's choice of Joe Biden as his running mate. I've always admired his intelligence and directness. Together they are an outstanding ticket.
During the debates, I often found myself agreeing with his observations about and positions on foreign policy issues. He has deep knowledge about international issues, the judiciary, and the legislative process. He also has working class roots and remains one of the least wealthy senators. Biden takes the train home to Delaware from D.C. nearly every day to be with his family. Despite his decades in the Senate, he remains his own man.
McCain's description of the rich last weekend (those who make more than $5 million) and his inability to answer the number of homes he owns yesterday are getting a lot of airplay.
Maybe with his $100 million he can hire some better handlers. ;-)
Whew! Today was the full day session of the first annual National Clean Energy Summit here in Las Vegas, and it was a long one. T. Boone Pickens opened the day at 9am, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrapped it up with remarks at 5pm.
I'll write more tomorrow and share some of the details of today's presentations, but here are some initial thoughts.
My sense is that transitioning from oil and other fossil fuels to new, renewable energy sources will be the challenge of this generation.
For the past century, we've had the luxury of investing our wealth in, well, luxuries. Why? Because energy has been cheap.
Now that peak oil has or is about to arrive, we'll have to instead invest in the research and development of clean energy alternatives and the electrical transmission and other infrastructure required to get energy from where it's available (the Southwest has abundant sunshine, the Midwest plenty of wind) to where it's needed (the coasts).
If we fail to do this, we'll be spending whatever is left of our wealth on true necessities... and the things that now seem like necessities will become tomorrow's luxuries.
AS FOR WHAT YOU CAN DO: my takeway from yesterday and today is that getting Congress to renew investment tax credits for solar and other renewables is critical to making progress. Every day when there's uncertainty in this industry increases the risks of climate change and reduces our flexibility in an unstable world.
Bill Clinton opens the National Clean Energy Summit
The National Clean Energy Summit began today in Las Vegas with an opening address by President Bill Clinton. One of the first things I noted when I arrived is that based on the number of business suits I saw people wearing, people here mean business.
Like Al Gore, Clinton talked about the challenges facing America--a slowing economy, terrorism, and global warming--and their common roots in our dependence on fossil fuels. He noted that while the U.S. failed to ratify the Kyoto climate change agreement, only six to eight of the countries that did are actually on track to meeting their commitments. That means 150 or so aren't.
He listed the top ten initiatives that the federal government, the states, and non-governmental organizations should take on in order to make meaningful progress on weaning ourselves off oil and coal:
Pass legislation to create a carbon cap and trade system in the U.S.
Make tax incentives for alternative clean energy sources longer in duration. These industries need six to eight year incentives to ramp up as quickly as necessary; the current one to three year tax breaks won't do it.
Have the government partner with utilities to improve the efficiency of the power grid and ensure that it can move electricity from those areas with a lot of solar and wind capacity to the places where people live.
Follow California's lead and give utilities the ability to make money from energy conservation, not just selling electricity. One big way they could do this is by financing the retrofit of homes and other buildings to reduce energy use. (One figure he cited: only about $5 billion a year is spent on improving the efficiency of buildings around the world, a tiny sum when compared against the potential savings.)
Accelerate the transition to compact fluorescent lighting and energy-efficient appliances.
Invest in carbon sequestration research.
Move beyond corn ethanol. Speed up development of cellulosic ethanol and eliminate or work around the tax on Brazilian sugar cane ethanol. (The latter is produced much more cheaply than corn ethanol.)
Close landfills and use the organic matter to generate useful heat. The CO2 produced would still impact the climate less than the methane that leaks from landfills.
Invest in hybrid and electric vehicle technology as well as high speed rail.
Demonstrate that the developed and developing worlds are in this together. He noted that we are popular in much of sub-Saharan Africa because of our efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS there.
Clinton also talked about the importance of capturing the world's imagination by helping a U.S. state or small country to become energy independent by switching to clean energy sources. Potential locations he mentioned included Liberia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, and Nevada.
Right off the bat, Clinton made the point that if the case for switching to clean energy cases is based on limiting its impact to global GDP, the effort will fail. A winning argument will have to focus on the economic benefits. Just as financing the construction of the interstate highway system with a gasoline tax increased the cost of driving, the overall economic impact was still overwhelmingly positive for both individual consumers and the nation as a whole. Investing in a new energy future for America will result in new jobs and allows us to maintain or increase our standard of living.
And he pointed out that maintaining the status quo is costly: we're borrowing money to pay for our addiction to oil.
Europe, it was stated, is moving ahead. Ten years ago the U.S. had 44% of the world's installed solar power capacity. Today we're around 10%. Germany leap-frogged us by changing what energy sources they subsidized.
Clinton said that he prefers Obama's energy plan but still thinks John McCain was better on energy issues that the typical Republican. He added that he thought offshore drilling was overrated as part of the solution to our problem.
The summit continues tomorrow with a full day schedule of keynote speeches and panel discussions. I'll post video of Clinton's address later.
Researchers have been working on using salmonella to fight human cancers for over ten years. Sounds crazy, but salmonella are hungry bacteria, and apparently tumors are great sources of food. And while chemotherapy and radiation both work well against actively dividing cells, they are less effective against non-dividing cells. The goal of this research is to pair salmonella with standard cancer therapies to kill both types of cancer cells.
The bacteria are engineered to specifically target tumor cells and are weakened so that the immune system can fight them off before they cause illness.
Obama was back on the campaign trail Sunday. Fresh off his vacation, he started in Reno, Nevada, where he talked about differences between his economic plan and McCain's. Besides taxes, he highlighted energy:
Obama also said he wants to commit $15 billion a year to developing new sources of energy. This would reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil and create "5 million new green jobs" that could not be outsourced to other counties.
"We've got a lot of sun here in Nevada," Obama said. "And we can use that to generate energy and free ourselves from dependence on foreign oil.
"Here in Nevada, we should have solar panels all throughout the state, everywhere," he said, his remarks heralding today's energy summit in Las Vegas organized by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Obama said McCain is talking about the need to produce alternative energy sources, but his track record shows the opposite.
McCain has in the past opposed tax credits needed for companies to invest in solar power, he said.
McCain also opposed improving fuel efficiency standards for U.S. vehicles.
"And then he's got the nerve to stand up there on television and talk about how he believes in alternative energy," Obama said. "It's just not true."
Obama also addressed labor concerns:
At Sunday’s invitation-only event at a Reno high school, rather than go after a large crowd, Obama targeted labor supporters. It is a group Obama needs in order to win here.
Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, active in Northern Nevada organized labor, said if the Illinois senator is going to do well in the region, it’s important for him to get rank-and-file members onboard. Even though union leadership has endorsed his presidential bid, members have in the past broken ranks.
“We have a large Republican union membership,” she said.
Obama highlighted his economic plan, his push for renewable energy and his support of labor issues. He also swiped at presumed Republican nominee Sen. John McCain for what he said were “terrible” policies that benefited the wealthiest Americans. He repeatedly tried to tie the Arizona senator to President Bush.
One woman, who said she was a United Auto Workers member, asked: “What can we do to help you?”
Obama replied that the biggest thing union members can do is contact fellow members and shoot down rumors about his religion (he’s Christian) and his stance on gun control (he said he supports the Second Amendment, though he’s in favor of “common sense gun control”).
He also noted that the McCain campaign has come to increasingly resemble George Bush's:
The Illinois senator also criticized McCain's advisers as "the same old folks that brought you George W. Bush. The same team." He noted many had been lobbyists in Washington before McCain asked them to sever all lobbying ties.
Obama added, "They say this other guy is unpatriotic, or this guy likes French people. That's what they said about Kerry," referring to the 2004 Democratic nominee who lost narrowly to Bush. "They try to make it out like Democrats aren't tough enough, aren't macho enough. It's the same strategy."
Back in 1984, I took an engineering course about alternative energy sources. Wind energy was one of the topics... and this wind turbine farm near Palm Springs, California, was built around the same time.
We had great burgers at Grill-A-Burger after our day by the pool.
I had the Mama Mia cheeseburger (roasted red peppers and grilled onions and mushrooms) but substituted a salmon patty and whole wheat bun. It was so juicy I didn't even think about adding any condiments.
On the side: sweet potato fries with chipotle mayonnaise.
Yum! Totally satisfying.
They're located at 166 N. Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, California.
Back in the day, the Palm Springs White Party was held here when the property was called the Marquis Hotel. Good memories! My favorite party ever was held in the ballroom here in 1995.
The Advocate interviewed a number of Obama's gay and lesbian friends, as well as gay leaders in Illinois, and reports that:
In interviews, more than a dozen of those old friends and other gay leaders in Illinois who’ve worked with Obama described more than a decade of consistent advocacy for gay civil rights. Their stories cast new light on Obama’s ties to antigay Christian leaders and on his tortured, though canny, position on marriage equality. They reveal long-lasting relationships with gay people that help explain his ease in talking about gay issues, and a legal disposition that helps account for his choice to speak about gay rights, even in settings where it’s not obviously in his best political interest to do so....
Tracy Baim, the publisher and executive editor of Chicago gay newspaper Windy City Times, has covered Obama since his first race for the Illinois state senate, in 1996. “He and Michelle don’t just come to gay events for political reasons,” she says. “They come because they understand the issues, and they have friends in the community. If he were to betray us, it would be personal.”
I wrote a post a few days ago about Manhunt, a gay male hookup website.
Turns out the owners--gay men--have donated the maximum amount allowed by law to John McCain's campaign.
So these guys are basically siphoning up $30 million a year from the gay community and then sending some of it to the candidate who supports "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and opposes gay marriage andgay adoption.
And on a subject that the folks at Manhunt probably aren't that clear on themselves, McCain is pretty fuzzy on HIV prevention.
Our deployed troops are voting with their dollars for the next president... and it ain't for John McCain:
According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.
Finally found a fine dining restaurant I really like here in Las Vegas. Of all the meals I've had here in the past year, I think I enjoyed last night's the most.
Nove Italiano is in the Palms Casino Fantasy Tower. It's a great room, the food was delicious, and the service was perfect. We lingered for over two hours and were treated to a complimentary dessert... and then a second one when I told our waiter it was Victor's birthday.
We started with barbecued octopus and a caprese salad. Both were excellent. We then had a small ravioli course with a walnut pesto. For our entrees, we had steaks. The best touch was the balsamic glaze... so tasty. Add in a couple of sides and the desserts and it was tough to squeeze back into my car. ;-)
The republic of Georgia has a pipeline which serves as an important route for getting Central Asian petroleum to the U.S. and Europe without having to pass through Russia.
After reading this article about the pipeline, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand why we continue to tie our future to oil. We will never again produce a majority of our petroleum needs domestically. The only path to energy security leads away from depending on the stuff.
A fascinating article about the role smell plays in human mate selection. Apparently use of the pill may cause women to choose partners who are less genetically compatible.
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
John Kerry is helping to push back against Republican efforts to smear Obama the way they smeared him four years ago. Check out the Truth Fights Back website.
You can't just play defense against smears, pointing out how they aren't true. You've got to play offense, too, exposing the whole cynical game for what it is: an attempt to keep us from talking about the real issues and ultimately changing our country for the better.
The Republicans have nothing to run on, no ideas to push, no solutions for America. They'll run a campaign of laughable gimmicks and outright distortions and lies. But we can fight back with the truth - and the truth can win this time.
Why sign up?
By signing up, you'll stay on top of what the rightwing is doing and help fight for the truth. And you can report smears when you see them to keep us on track on what the smear machine is up to at every moment. You will be our eyes and ears.
The bigger danger from the push for drilling—or more exactly, the arguments used on its behalf—may be how it affects our own behavior. If we pretend that offshore drilling is a fail-safe means of lowering oil prices (or even a likely means), we may hold on to rosy and unreasonable expectations for future gas prices. (In this respect, the Lantern thinks Obama has been more honest than McCain.) That will in turn change the calculations we make when it comes to long-term decisions like whether to shell out extra cash for a more fuel-efficient car or a home with access to mass transit. As long as we're counting on gas prices to go down, those green lifestyle choices won't seem as attractive. We may well be surprised once again that we're paying so much at the pump, without having done anything about it.
Andrew Sullivan has written a passionate piece about the Russian invasion of Georgia and what eight years of Bush and Cheney have done to American standing in the world. A must read.
Mercy Corps, one of the charitable organizations that I admire most, has started a fundraising campaign to provide assistance to Georgians affected by the Russian invasion.
They do good work and with little overhead. Over the past five years, 90% of the funds they've raised have gone directly to their programs.
There's a new grassroots organization called "Republicans for Obama" that has set up a website to help share information about the Democrat with their fellow disaffected GOP members.
I love this quote:
"A very large number of us feel deeply that John McCain, good man that he is, will be a continuation of Bush," said [Rita] Hauser, who served as a foreign policy adviser to the current president. "And that is something that we are strongly opposed to. It is difficult to walk away from your party's nominee, but you have to put your country first."
And you thought John McCain owned that "country first" line.
Here are a couple of additional Republican endorsements from Obama's website: here and here.
So we use electronic voting machines here in Clark County, and I have to say that I was more confused by the process than I've ever been using a paper ballot.
I spent 18 years in the software industry and am very comfortable with computers... yet I still had to ask for assistance.
How do seniors and others with little computer savvy do it? Beats me. I didn't ask if there was a paper ballot option, but I think providing one should be mandatory.
After the 1973 Arab oil embargo, Denmark and the United States responded in decidely different fashions to their dependence on foreign energy supplies.
At the time, Denmark imported 99% of their oil. They are now energy independent. While a North Sea oil discovery has helped, the Danes also responded in a focused and sustained manner to wean themselves off their foreign addiction.
And today, they have 1.9% unemployment and are one of the biggest exporters of alternative energy products (one third of all the world's wind turbines are built there).
Here's a chilling five minute video that briefly covers the consequences of eight years of Bush's foreign policy... and raises the prospect of what McCain would do as president. I don't think I'd want John McCain in the White House right now considering what's going on in Georgia.
Jill Derby is releasing her energy plan on Wednesday
Jill Derby, the Democrat running to unseat Republican Congressman Dean Heller in Nevada's 2nd Congressional District, will be releasing her energy plan on Wednesday morning at the University of Reno's Renewable Energy Lab.
The Derby Energy Plan calls for an Apollo Project-style investment in 21st century renewable energy to end our dependence on foreign oil. It includes goals for safeguarding national security, developing a strong 21st century economy by creating jobs through renewable energy development, and reducing the threat of global warming.
Nevada, by the way, makes the highest per capita use of solar energy in the nation. Which just makes sense given the weather here. ;-)
The New York Times ran an article today on physician assistants and nurse practitioners and the differences between them. Both professions are growing rapidly as the U.S. population ages and our healthcare system works to reign in costs.
For more info on this topic, click on the "physician assistant" tag below.
A new study has confirmed that dogs yawn contagiously. They're the only creature known to do so other than humans and chimpanzees. In fact, they are even better at it than we are:
Seventy-two percent, or 21 of the 29 dogs, yawned after watching the researcher yawn -- higher than the 45% to 60% rate reported in humans and the 33% rate reported in chimps.
No dogs yawned during the control portion of the experiment.
"Dogs are not only reading and responding but may be sharing feelings with humans," said Atsushi Senju, a research fellow at the University of London's Birkbeck College and one of the study authors.
After Hillary... McCain; disabled vets remain skeptical
John McCain also made an appearance in Las Vegas this weekend. He spoke to a disabled veterans group and received a lukewarm response according to the Las Vegas Sun:
Just one of 14 veterans interviewed by the Sun after his speech said he is a certain McCain voter....
Duke Hendershot, a double amputee retired Marine who served in Vietnam, supported McCain’s run for president in 2000 but is undecided this year.
“John just isn’t the same as he used to be. He’s not his own man,” said Hendershot, who lives in San Antonio, Texas. “A lot of that has to do with how he’s wanted this job so bad for so long that he’s tied himself to President Bush.”
He said McCain’s embrace of Bush, whom Hendershot called a “draft-dodging coward,” is even more perplexing because of the rivalry between the two candidates during the 2000 campaign.
Hendershot also criticized McCain for taking swipes at Obama in his speech. “He should have been talking about veterans issues, not his opponent,” he said.
Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois former congressional candidate who lost both legs in Iraq, also criticized McCain for not supporting the "New G.I. Bill," an expansion of veterans' education benefits that became law earlier this year. Obama supported the legislation, while McCain, who had opposed it, was not present for the vote in the Senate.
"When the time came to cast a vote on the most important piece of legislation to improve benefits for veterans, Senator Obama was there for us," Duckworth said. "Senator McCain did not show up."
Duckworth, now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, was honored as the Disabled Veteran of the Year at the convention....
McCain has gotten low marks from the disabled veterans group in the past, earning the lowest grade in the Senate in the group's 2006 rankings, a 20 percent score.
The grade was largely because of McCain's votes against bills that included VA funding because of his opposition to wasteful spending. Obama got an 80 percent score.
Obama has something else that all great stars have -- he embodies a theme. Every great star is a walking idea. James Cagney demonstrated the power of sheer energy early in his career, and the way that energy could curdle later in his career. Cary Grant demonstrated the force of charm and quick-wittedness. Paul Newman demonstrated the limitations of self-interest and the redemption that comes with engagement outside oneself. Robert Redford demonstrated the deception of appearances. Barbra Streisand, in the immortal words of critic Pauline Kael, demonstrated that talent was beauty. That is what made these individuals stars. They incorporated ideas that mattered to us, that resonated with us.
Obama is a star in this sense too. As he reiterates endlessly, Obama brings idealism at a time when many Americans are despairing of making any headway against the problems the nation faces. Drawing on his own personal story of disadvantage that led to Columbia University, Harvard Law School and now to the Democratic nomination, Obama in his every gesture and utterance suggests that "Yes We Can." This idealism isn't inspiring adulation because Obama is already a star. Obama is a star precisely because he is inspiring. He is the anti-Bush, and what he's selling is hope.
And in a world facing as many challenges as this one, hope is something we need.
Hope is not blind optimism. Hope is not ignorance of the difficulties of the task ahead or the hurdles that stand in your way. It’s just the opposite. I know how hard it’s going to be to pass healthcare reform. I know how difficult it will be to ween ourselves off our dependency on foreign oil. I understand that reducing poverty or improving our schools don’t lend themselves to easy repair. I know because I’ve fought for these things on the streets. I fought in the courts. I’ve watched good legislation die because good intentions were not enough. And we didn’t have the political will or strategy or numbers to beat the powerful who held sway. I’ve seen this country get led into war because of fear and falsehood, and because nobody had the judgment or courage to stand up and ask the tough questions before troops were sent in to fight. I know these things. But what I also know is this. There is nothing this country has ever achieved where somebody somewhere didn’t have some hope.
I'm not blind. I know how much force the "way things are" will exert to remain unchanged.
But there's this: the world does change. I wouldn't have ever guessed when I was first struggling with my sexuality in those dark days of my teen years that gay marriage would be legal in my lifetime. But in several countries--and two U.S. states--it is.
In the 80's I sometimes lay awake at night wondering if the bombs would fall. The fear of the world ending via nuclear annihilation was real. The Soviet Union's dissolution wasn't an outcome that my generation expected.
If you had shared with me twenty years ago any of the particulars of my life today, I would have laughed outloud. And yet here I am.
The world is not static. We are capable of transformation.
But change requires a choice. And to choose something other than what we already have, we need a little hope.
Having the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. chastise Russia for engaging in "regime change" in Georgia is rather hypocritical, no?
But having said that, I'm just as opposed to Russia's actions in South Ossetia as I was opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
And while I didn't back Bush on Iraq, at least he made an attempt to garner some international support. He wasn't very successful, but he went in with some cover from the U.N. (Illegitimate, perhaps, considering the deceptive tactics he used.)
Russia hasn't, to my knowledge, even made that attempt. Their behavior is eerily reminiscent of Nazi Germany's as described in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
Not that I think Russia has any plans to pursue global dominence Soviet-style. Rather, I'm simply noting the similarities I see in their behavior to historical precedent.
UPDATE
Some background on the conflict here (scroll down past the reports of early fighting to get to the historical notes).
A month or so ago, Bush and McCain made a big fuss about Obama's willingness to talk to America's enemies being tantamount to appeasement.
After reading this article from the New York Times, I find myself wondering if Mr. Bush isn't engaging in a bit of appeasement himself. The U.S. response to Georgia's calls for support in the face of Russia's attacks has been tepid at best. (Those attacks, incidentally, have included strategic bombers and ballistic missiles. Here's a map of Georgia.)
And while Russia's military operations were underway, Bush cozied up with Putin to watch fireworks in Beijing.
If you're not a gay man, you're probably unfamiliar with Manhunt, a website designed to facilitate sexual hookups for those aforementioned gays.
Andrew Sullivan pointed me in the direction of this Out magazine article about the site which just happens to gross around $30 million a year.
I will admit that I've used the site in the past, and this description rang true to me:
The seemingly endless stream of available men on Manhunt is, according to marketing director Henricks, “addictive, like a slot machine. You keep hitting next, to see another screen of profiles, thinking you’re gonna get lucky sevens.” This drive, according to Alan Downs, a psychologist and author of The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World, lies at the core of the appeal of online cruising: “Variable payout schedule, which is used in slot machine designs, is the most addictive form of psychological conditioning, because you never know when you’ll get paid. It could be every 10 times you play, or every hundred.” In the same way, Downs adds, “every time you log on, you never know what you’ll find. That’s why it expands to fill a person’s time. Last night was a bust, but who knows who will be online this morning or tonight.”How vulnerable are Manhunt users to its addictive quality? “We’re the second-stickiest website in America,” Henricks boasts.
“Stickiness,” he explains, is slang for attention ranking, the measure of the amount of time a user spends on a website each time he visits. According to Compete.com, the Web’s Nielsen equivalent of attention rankings, the average Manhunt user spends 40 minutes on the site per visit. That’s about twice the amount of time the average Facebook or MySpace user spends on those sites. And, back to the slot machines, the only website in this country that is stickier than Manhunt is the wildly popular gambling website Pogo.com.
But what impact is online cruising having on gay men, the new generation of whom are now finding their first male encounters online rather than in person?
Beyond a certain point, though, perpetually settling for Mr. Right Now becomes a failure of hope. When you came out, you did it because you wanted something. Part of what you wanted was sex, but part of what you hoped for was the possibility of being loved as your true self. And when, as often happens while cruising online, we diminish the hopes that drew us out of the closet, we reduce sex to a purely physical act.
When we do these things we lie to ourselves -- and worse, we tell the same lies that our enemies tell about us. The fundamentalist canard about loving the sinner but hating the sin draws a nonsensical distinction between person and act. Cruising online, by encouraging us to separate sex from the rest of our lives, does exactly the same thing. These are falsehoods about human nature and about the place of love in our lives, and they undermine the belief that sex can be anything more than a pastime.
As a normative way of socializing for gay men, online cruising is a disaster. We need to recognize its effects -- including its tendency to isolate us, encourage objectification, and diminish our sense of life’s nonsexual possibilities -- as disasters. We need to recognize that too many of us, too much of the time, are cruising online because it is easier and feels safer than thinking about the love we are missing and the power we do not have. Too many of us, too much of the time, are cruising online because it’s easier and feels safer than mustering the courage, patience, discipline, and imagination required to help ourselves and each other become the men that, in our strongest moments, we want to be.
A report on Hillary's appearance here in Las Vegas (well, Henderson) yesterday, along with some discussion of the Clintons' role at the Democratic Convention.
The New York Times debunks the myths about coffee. It won't dehydrate you unless consumed in excess, and moderate use may actually prevent cardiovascular disease rather than promote it. Drinking coffee helps ward off diabetes and Parkinson's disease, won't result in bone loss, and may lower the risk of liver cancer (another good reason to drink it when you've got a hangover :-).
The event is sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and scheduled speakers include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former President Bill Clinton, Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Nevada State Senator Dina Titus, former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, Governor John Huntsman of Utah, Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, and a variety of energy industry experts and business leaders.
On Tuesday, panel discussions will cover the clean energy economy, increasing profitability through efficiency, restoring American leadership, and government's role in our energy transition.
Hillary just finished speaking in support of Obama, pointing out all the ways he would better represent and serve American families and women than John McCain. (E.g. healthcare, equal pay for equal work, and family leave.) She spoke easily and sincerely. I'm glad I came.
Twenty years ago in June I graduated from Stanford. Somehow that day came and went without my noticing.
At the time, it was a pretty momentous day for me. My parents, sister Molly, grandparents, and cousin Kim all made the trip to California to help me celebrate. I had come out the previous fall, and as a result my grades weren't all that good that quarter. My final spring quarter I was taking 23 units of classes, each a requirement for graduation. Let's just say I was a little nervous the last few weeks of school...
TODAY'S DATE, however, I remember pretty clearly, because it's the day I started my first real job. I had interviewed with Oracle Corp. in May of '88 and received a job offer a couple of weeks before graduation. I started my "Class of '88" training with Oracle on 8/8/88.
During my first six years at Oracle, I worked in the Worldwide Technical Support organization. When I started, the entire department was around 55 people. By the time I moved on, I was managing a group of nearly that size. In retrospect, those were probably my best years on the job, but in the final couple of years, the organization was moving toward a "factory assembly line" model, and I wanted out.
I spent the last half of my tenure at Oracle working in the Interactive Television Division. Especially in the early days we were Larry Ellison's pet project and had a lot of visibility. Good times. :-)
Here are a couple of pics from the 1999 National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow here in Vegas.
For more on Oracle's history, check out the timeline they put together in recognition of their 30th anniversary in 1997.
When I joined in 1988, Oracle was still doubling in size every year. I think we had a billion dollars of revenue for the first time the following year. (That same year, a billion dollars worth of Bart Simpson t-shirts were sold. I remember thinking at the time that that sounded like a lot easier way of making money. :-)
I transfered to the media division in 1994... when Larry predicted that everyone would have video-on-demand within the next two years or so. He made a lot of prescient calls; this wasn't one of them. VOD didn't become widespread until 2002. But without Oracle's support during those intervening years, our product would have withered on the vine. It now powers some of the largest VOD deployments in the world, like Time Warner Cable's system in New York city.
Our division was sold to nCUBE, one of Larry's privately held companies. That led to my moving to Portland a year later. nCUBE was subsequently acquired by C-COR, and after I left, by Arris.
Sometimes I'm intense, sometimes effervescent. After 16 years in the SF Bay Area, I moved to Portland for four years, and fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. After a couple of years back in SF and a couple more in the clean, beautiful desert air of Nevada (yes, Las Vegas, but just minutes from beautiful Red Rock Canyon), I'm back in Oregon. I grew up in a town of 800, went to Stanford, did the corporate thing at Oracle, became a circuit boy, and now finally think I'm settling down a bit. I like a lot of stimulation and a lot of variety... you might find me camping in the woods, dancing all night, or deep in conversation over coffee or cocktails. I'm a science buff, especially biology and cosmology. I like being a prankster... goofy things amuse me. Travel is great, whether it's my favorite city (NYC) or a tropical island.
>>> WHAT DO I BELIEVE? That life can be absurd and random, and those qualities give it much of its beauty. That we have choice in our lives. That there is no way that things are supposed to be; there's only how they are. That vampires exist. That this, too, shall pass. And don't worry, it only seems kinky at first. ;-)
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