October 29, 2007 archive

Ron Paul Supporter Embarressed He Met Candidate Online

Buffalo, NY – While most Americans’ are introduced to their candidates through friends  and families, local salesclerk Tim Ofroll has gone about things differently. After not finding any candidate through traditional means, he wound up finding, then choosing, Ron Paul online.

“I am sorta a political junkie,” said Ofroll, who still hasn’t told his close friends he discovered Ron Paul on the internet. “I watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann and even Meet the Press on Sunday mornings, but I just didn’t see any other candidate I liked. It wasn’t until I went by Reddit.com that I saw Ron Paul, and then clicked on a link to his profile.”

Ofroll, like most normal Americans, usually finds candidates through his friends, or even at bars and parties, where political discussion abounds in the lead up to the 2008 election. But after playing the field, Ofroll still could not find that special candidate in real life that he wanted to share his vote with, instead having to go online to discover Ron Paul.

“Man, Thanksgiving is coming up, and I just know my mom is gonna ask my where I first saw Ron Paul,” said a distraught Ofroll. “I better come up with a story quick, or else I am gonna be shamed into admitting I became a Ron Paul supporter online.”

Kucinich Campaign update 10-29-07

Produced in Los Angeles, California and Cleveland, Ohio for Kucinich for President 2008 by Chad Ely and Dutch Merrick.
Hosted by Anne Marie Howard.
Directed by Dutch Merrick
Edited by Chad Ely
Written by Dutch Merrick and Sharon Manitta
Camera Operator, Sound Mixer- James Legoy
Script Supervisor, Playback- Sue Sterkenburg
Check out the hottest campaign show on the web!
This Week’s Campaign Update will keep you informed on the latest events in the Kucinich for President Campaign.

Gotta get those credits in!

Fueling the Fires of War and Discontent: $100 Oil and $3 Gas on the Event Horizon

This is troubling, not because it is unexpected but more due to the fact that many have predicted it and watched as their dire predictions came true. From CNN Money:1

With oil prices setting records over $90 a barrel – and $100 looking ever more likely – experts say there’s a good chance drivers will see $3 gasoline before the end of the year.

“Three dollar gasoline in this market is unavoidable,” said Stephen Schork, publisher of the industry newsletter the Schork Report. “At this rate, we’re going to see $4 a gallon.”

If you think that’s bad, make the jump and read more…

Following the Money

Originally published Sun Oct 28, 2007 at 10:03:07 PM EST on ePluribus Media.

Hat-tip to jrichards of DelphiForums for the pointer to the primary source article.

Sometimes, “follow the money” is best done in rather obscure places, then compared and contrasted to other items of interest to see where things fall on (or off) the balance sheet.

An obscure but potentially informative source to aid in following the money trail is the Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR). The recently released edition — the 23rd such report, which has been compiled and published almost continuously since 19831 — represents all the domestic federal spending for Fiscal Year 2005. The principal author is Gerry Keffer, chief of the Federal Programs Branch at the Census Bureau, who leads a team of eight Census workers in the task of compiling the CFFR.

There’s more…

Pony Party: What are you doing for Halloween?

Light Emitting Pickle here to bring you the most recent open thread. First, a few words about Pickle Pony Parties:

Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one.  There will be another along in a few hours.

a world of mass consensus

is it now


Al Gore’s Social Engineering

you’ve got me thinking… what if we didn’t think history needed much perspective from one decade or century to the next… when there were long stretches of reproducable events… until spice routes and merchant classes and the world, from ancient china to marriage alliances in europe in the middle ages, created more people and players vying in complex ways for resources, power, and political advantage.

and while we can catalogue events and relate history, even try to interpret it or, as you did, assign cultural milestones… maybe we haven’t begun to grapple with leaving 1000s of years of behaviors to enter a world of mass consensus… relationships too intricate and too large in scope, scale, and implications

maybe we’re still not past napolean or the revolutionary war… definately still an undercurrent of civil war

and in europe, old rivalies still inform cultural attitudes

anyway… just a reaction to your interesting essay, thinking that in the span of time, what’s a few thousand years…

Frankenkerry

dont tase constitution fr t

Ok So Its Not Much Of A Diary

Well, its not really a diary at all – but it will give you a much needed laugh.
From the Financial Times “The Best Political Videos on YouTube”

Highlights including Bush Seniors’ thowing up upon eating brocolli
Enjoy and happy monday

http://blogs.ft.com/…

“Too Many Notes”

(Crossposted from To Us.  Permission to use noncommercially with attribution. I have very limited public access computer time, so if you desire a response, please email me at aek2013 at columbia dot edu for a quicker reply.)

A novice to jazz, I attended the NEC’s tribute to George Russell with an all Russell composition performance.  I plunked down in a seat on the aisle in the middle of the hall.

The students, all dressed in beat-wannabe black, clomped on stage, but the pianist was smiling a genuine toothy smile, and he didn’t appear to be any student!  Bradley Hatfield was “subbing” for the scheduled pianist.

And then the music started and I was blown away – literally – by the amped up volume, but also by the must-move beat and rhythms.

Just behind me, a tremulous voice was offering some syncopated running commentary.  Very pointed and informed commentary.

More on the Chicago Rally!

First, thanks to Sheddhead for the essay and great pictures. 

This would have been sooner, but I’m kinda’ new at this digital stuff and uploading on a public site, etc.

As Sheddhead said, the day turned out beautiful, although a little brisk.

I did not attend the Union Park Rally, or the march, but instead went early to Federal Plaza, where all protestors ultimately gathered.

Federal Plaza
Early arrival at Federal Plaza

There’s more:

On Cults of Personality

Kos writes a timely piece on cults of personality:

when your hero turns out to be not so perfect after all, clinging to that fiction can’t possibly reflect well on you. Understand that these candidates are all human, thus imperfect. Understand that they have free will, thus will do things you will disagree with. And that’s okay. Politics is about weighing the good and the bad and going with the best we have. There is no such thing as “perfect” in this biz.

Feel free to rationalize every stupid thing your candidate does, but don’t expect the rest of us to go along with it. All of the Democrats have done stupid things and smart things. I mean, Chris Dodd announced his candidacy on Don Imus, for chrissakes. And yes, when they do those stupid things, some of us will be right there talking about how stupid those things are.

We’re not Republicans, “carrying water” for their leaders and keeping their mouths shut as they drag the nation into the gutter. And we certainly shouldn’t be like the 24% dead-enders, who still cling to Bush despite all evidence of him being the worst president in our nation’s history.

Hear! Hear!

Four at Four

Some news and OPEN THREAD.

  1. Ribbit. Ribbit. Great News! Scientists in New Zealand have discovered a possible cure to a deadly disease that has been destroying much of the world’s population of frogs and other amphibians. Kim Griggs, BBC News science reporter, reports from Wellington, New Zealand of a Frog killer fungus ‘breakthrough’. The breakthrough is chloramphenicol, which is a common antibiotic used for humans as an eye ointment. “The researchers found frogs bathed in the solution became resistant to the killer disease, chytridiomycosis. The fungal disease has been blamed for the extinction of one-third of the 120 species lost since 1980.”

    “We found that we could cure them completely of chytrids,” said Phil Bishop from the University of Otago. “And even when they were really sick in the control group, we managed to bring them back almost from the dead.”

  2. More good news. Xan Rice in Nairobi, Kenya for The Guardian reports Uganda ‘averts tragedy’ with reversal of decision to clear virgin forest for biofuel. “Conservationists have hailed a decision by the Ugandan government to drop plans that would have allowed a private company to grow sugar cane for biofuel production on a protected forest reserve.”

    This is a tragedy averted,” said Paul Buckley, head of the Africa programme at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “There are plenty of places to grow sugar cane, but not many tracts of virgin forest left in Uganda.”

    “The controversial proposal, which would have turned over 17,500 acres of the 74,000-acre Mabira forest to the Indian-owned Mehta Group, had caused alarm in environmental circles and stirred up racial tensions. Protected since 1932, the Mabira reserve acts as a vital catchment area for Lake Victoria, just eight miles south of the forest, and is home to more than 300 species of birds, 200 types of trees and nine different primates. Besides the biodiversity loss, local and international conservation groups claimed the forest’s value in storing carbon dioxide and mitigating global warming far exceeded any commercial gains from sugar cane production.”

Below the fold are stories about growing vegetables in Greenland, critter cameras, Lake Superior, and the nexus of birds and wind power in the Columbia River Gorge. That’s right! Two bonus stories today, making that a Four at Four first.

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