The Daily Pulse- Foreign Edition

The Daily Pulse is a regular survey of editorial content you might not usually see. We don't look at the New York Times or the Washington Post. You already have those saved in your Bookmarks. Instead, we look at The Bolivar Commercial or The New Haven Ledger. Why? Because those editorials, local columns, and letters to the editor tell you what real people are thinking about and talking about. And sometimes, we wander past our borders to see what OTHER people are thinking about and talking about. Today, The Daily Pulse goes north and south of the border, looking at (English language) editorial pages. We are also looking for contributors. I would give a minor body part for somebody willing to do a weekly survey of American Spanish-language papers, interpreting the highlights with some commentary. Also, a European survey, an Asian survey, perhaps alternative papers (GLBT, African American, Jewish, Lithuanian, etc.). Let me know if you're interested. And, without further ado, the Pulse across our borders. To see the rest, go to The Daily Pulse (too long for a front page).

Al Gore is the Kwisatz Haderach

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeFrequent readers of TCD will know I have made a few references to Frank Herbert's Dune series - maybe some of the best science fiction ever written. What I can't escape is the close allegories between Dune and the current political climate. It is fun to play at placing the characters around the story. Is Karl Rove part of the Spacing Guild or House Harkonnen - maybe a mentat? Rice has to be a Bene Gesserit. I shudder to think of the role of Barbara Bush in all of this. Taking this game to the logical conclusion, Al Gore is the Madhi, the off-world prophet that will lead the Fremen and the world of Arrakis to a paradise of green and lush ecology. But there is a price and that price is a loss of spice that the Empire needs in great abundance to continue its reign of power. That of course makes all of the Gore supporters, Fremen. Bi-La-Kaifa!

Cheney: The Real Story About His Heart

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeDick Cheney died many years ago. The figure we see today as Dick Cheney is simply the reanimated organic portal that is kept alive by the constant tweaking and upgrading of his underlying hardware. The hardware itself has become problematic of late. Originally the Cheney Avatar was built on a reversed engineered construct developed in Area 51, at the Groom Lake facility in Nevada. Using spare parts from downed UFOs, obtained during the Project Bluebook days, Cheney was kept running with minor adjustments. However, the reversed engineered UFO parts was not as good as the real thing since the Cheney Avatar kept breaking down with alarming frequency! After the Groom Lake facility ran out of spare UFO parts, drastic measures were undertaken over the last few weeks with decidedly mixed results. The Cheney Avatar was going to be upgraded with a UNIX operating system to make more peripherals available to the avatar: web cams, microphones, USB enabled waterboarding device, etc. But since Apple is the largest distributor of Unix operating systems and since Al Gore sits on the Board of Apple, Rove's demands for idealogical purity forced Groom Lake engineers to look to Redmond for a solution. That is when things went wrong. Early Monday morning, the 26th of November, Microsoft Vista was installed in the Cheney Avatar and the Fatherboard (Sieg Heil) was woefully underpowered to handle the corporate bloat. Emergency measures were enacted and it is reported the Cheney Avatar is back at work this morning and all is well. All is well except for the USB enabled waterboard device. Thank God the driver is incompatible.

What is Hillary Really Thinking?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThis must have been "pile-on week" for Hillary. No one runs a perfect campaign and the longer a campaign goes without a bump, the larger the faux pas will seem when it does happen. Concerning the double-speak at the last debate about driver licenses for illegal aliens, I didn't think it was that much of a big deal. Frankly, it seemed to be the status quo from the Clinton Camp - not ever really simply stating a position like Kucinich can. Kucinich can tell you what his position is in under 8 words and 99% of the population will understand exactly what he means - they may not agree however. Face it, he is a better communicator. Back to Hillary, this past week, both sides of the aisle and the great vast "middle-wing" conspiracy of independent populists led by Lou Dobbs all dumped on Hillary and the results were shocking, at least to me. Her drops in polls, specifically Iowa, I think showed how really weak she is as a candidate. Don't get me wrong, she has a ton of cash, and is still considered a front runner, but if a slight mistake like the one in the last debate can cause such a whirl wind of negative results, maybe she is not bulletproof. Kucinich, now that guy IS bulletproof, but that is another blog entry. P.S. Credit for today's strip has to go to DKos user Common Cents, from this diary comment. It has been reported by Members of Congress and the media that Hillary can, on occasion, cuss like 20 sailors being waterboarded. However, this is a fictional cartoon and not a direct quote.

The Goresque Statement

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeA lot of bandwidth has been used for the phrase "Shermanesque Statement" in reference to Gore's plans about the 2008 Presidential race. Gore is not one of those guys who uses words in an unmeasured fashion. From his years in Congress and the White House, Gore is known for his precise language. He has even been accused of being a total geek about it. When he said he will not make a "Shermanesque statement" about his plans to run, I seriously doubt he pulled that out of thin air. Let's look at the origins of the phrase. The term derives from the Sherman pledge, a remark made by American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman when he was being considered as a possible Republican candidate for the presidential election of 1884. He declined, saying "If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve." Gore had to of known what the actual quote was. Hints at the future? Portents? Chicken entrails? The imagination runs wild. it is obvious to Gore and his staff that there is a HUGE movement afoot to draft him to run for 2008. I know, I called his office and they added me to a list of hundreds that call on the typical day. So if he ISN'T going to run, why not just say "time has passed for me to consider a run in 2008?" Why NOT make that Shermanesque statement? Could it be if drafted, he will run; if nominated, he will accept; if elected, he will serve? We can only hope.

Condi and Hillary - Separated at birth?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThe more I hear Hillary on the stump trying to explain why she won't commit to pulling the troops out by 2013, the more she sounds like Condoleeza Rice. Now we are dumping gas on the fire by banging war drums for Iran and again Hillary is lining right up with Bush on the issue - seemingly trumpeting whatever talking points Condi gave her. It is a damn chorus of destruction. To make matters worse, the Hymn to Pakistan was taken out of the songbook. Pakistan is the country to REALLY worry about. They ARE an Islamofascist country WITH WORKING nuclear weapons. Why aren't we worried about Pakistan? Well it seems because Rumsfeld says so. From The Guardian: Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz headed the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, which concluded in July 1998 that the chief threat - far greater than the CIA and other intelligence agencies had so far reported - was posed by Iran, Iraq and North Korea: the future Axis of Evil powers. Pakistan was not on the list, even though just two months earlier it had put an end to the dissembling by detonating five nuclear blasts in the deserts of Balochistan. It was also difficult not to conclude that Islamist terrorism was escalating and that its epicentre was Pakistan. The camps that had once been used to train the US-backed mujahideen had, since the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan, morphed into training facilities for fighters pitted against the west. Many were filled by jihadis and were funded with cash from the Pakistan military. It was made clear to the new president, Bill Clinton, that US policy on Pakistan had failed. The US had provided Islamabad with a nuclear bomb and had no leverage to stop the country's leaders from using it. When he was contacted by lawyers for Barlow, Clinton was shocked both by the treatment Barlow had received, and the implications for US policy on Pakistan. He signed off $1m in compensation. But Barlow never received it as the deal had to be ratified by Congress and, falling foul of procedural hurdles, it was kicked into the Court of Federal Claims to be reviewed as Clinton left office. The entire article needs to be read from beginning to end. It should be a MUST READ for anyone wondering why we are at war with the Middle East. And what is Hillary's position on Pakistan? They are a valuable ally in the war on terror. Now would be a good time for Al Gore to start hogging a microphone.

Al Gore’s Real Risk

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge Dear Al Gore, Americans want you to run and we can be sooo annoying at times, I know. But I doubt any of us will shut up anytime soon - you know how we can be. The Blue States are yours already, the Purple States are yours too because they look back at what could have been if things had gone differently in 00, that and they feel bad - they feel you need your chance to pull us out of the Hell-hole we are currently in. The Red States (what there is left of them) are a toss up. Nothing you can do about the blind political rage they have. I know another run for the Presidency may not seem like a fun thing to do right now and in a strange sort of way WINNING the election will totally suck. It will be on your shoulders to fix the multi-layer putrid mess we are in. You know what to do, global warming-wise, but it will also be up to you to fix our debacle in Iraq and what ever mess Bush starts in Iran. Oh and there is that open sore called Afghanistan we should put some compute cycles into. And did you know the economy is a wreck? Remember that high-falutin' job I had under Clinton / Gore? It went extinct in 2001. The dollar also is lower than a Dick Cheney Dirty Trick™. So I know you would rather not get sucked into the slime pit known as politics, but we need you. Few men in American history have been called by a nation for the singular purpose of becoming President. Our founding fathers loved to hide out on their farms and wait for the worst of the hand-wringing to pass when it was their turn to sit and helm the nation that is America. Well, they didn't live in a world that included the Internet, blogs and mass email campaigns. So no matter how far out in the woods your farm may be, I am sure the Internet is available. Few have been called and you should be warned we will keep dialing. P.S. If you get a chance, please take my Blog Reader Survey. Thanks!

Satan Can’t Sleep Because of GOP Nightmares

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThe trolls are out in full force today trying to beat down the Al Gore movement. As shown in this troll thread on Daily Kos and throughly debunked here the neo-cons will use any and all means and measures to lie where needed. It seems Rupert Murdoch's Sky News is twisting Al Gore's standard response of "I have no plans to run" into "I will not seek the office of the Presidency." Murdoch, for those not in the know, owns Fox News and now the Wall Street Journal, typically not known to be the bastions of truth. But I will give props to the Murdoch camp. By lying about Gore, it puts puts the meme out there that he is not a contender and forces Gore to denounce the statement. It should be further mentioned that for what ever reason, Rupert Murdoch is backing Hillary Clinton and at this point, Al Gore is the ONLY one who can disrupt her campaign. Notice how Fox News goes after Gore repeatedly and leaves Hillary mostly unscathed? And after Gore's Current.com video releases on Monday, Murdoch may have felt the time was right to ratchet up the attack on the Goracle. However, I am tapping my foot and I am not signaling for a Senator Craig reach-around. P.S. If you find time today, please take my reader survey.

The Goracle of Memphis and his stealth campaign.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeOn May 20th, 2007 in the New York Times, Gore remarked... Having spent 30 years as part of the political dialogue, I don’t know why a 600-day campaign is taken as a given, and why people who aren’t in it 600 days out for the convenience of whatever brokers want to close the door and narrow the field and say, ‘This is it, now let’s place your bets’ — If they want to do that, fine. I don’t have to play that game. With recent Current TV video uploads, I must wonder what kind of campaign is he running? In marketing/advertising terms, this is a stealth product release. The candidate is running, but the paperwork hasn't been filed. The Current clips are strong. In the link above, some of thecommenters suggest Gore may be trying to frame the debate. I doubt this. First of all, with the exception of Edwards and Kucinich , none of the other Dem candidates really have an environmental platform that does anything about global climate change. If they aren't listening to Gore now, they never will. Gore has been successful in moving the issue to the front of the news, and the melting icecaps, crop failures and record drought have all backed him up with common sense observation - just ask the average family farmer. I have no idea what the game plan is for Gore but he has been successful in keeping himself and more importantly the issues he cares about, at the forefront of the news since he stepped in front of theMoveOn.org microphone and blasted the Bush administration over Iraq. Everything he claimed in his "In The Balance" book, his 2000 campaign and everything else since has proven to be right. Whereas everythingBushCo has said since then has turned out to be a lie. Bush may be the guy Middle America wanted to have a beer with, but once in office, Middle America learned Bush just stiffed them for the bar tab. As I speak with people across the country, they tell me they can't help but look at Gore and wonder "what if?" Since the Clinton/Gore administration was all over AlQaeda and the Taleban before Middle America knew they existed, would 9-11 have happened at all? Would all of America have their phones bugged and emails read? Would China have eaten our lunch? Would Summer at the North Pole feel like a spring day in Myrtle Beach? Would we be bogged down in a Vietnam style war in Iraq while ogling the oil underneath Iran? If Bush invades Iran, the US will control everything in the Middle East from Saudi Arabia to the former Soviet Union - from Europe to China. There hasn't been a land grab like that since (yes, I am going to say it so get over it already) the Nazi's controlled everything from Paris to with 15 miles of the Kremlin. Where Gore takes us from here is anyone's guess, except maybe Karl Rove. I think he might be sweating.

Derangement and Denial

Appearing at The Jaundiced Eye, the Independent Bloggers' Alliance, and My Left Wing. Update: Blog Action Day 2007 has been declared by its organizers an "unprecedented success." They have documented the participation of 20,603 bloggers who blogged on the environment on October 15, 2007. With that the Blog Action Team appears to have folded its tent and gone home, taking their graphics with them. (Art for this entry has been replaced.) Thanks for reading. Krugman hits it out of the park once again, with a send-up of conservative dissonance. Faced with the reality of Al Gore's Nobel win, denial rules the right. On the day after Al Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize, The Wall Street Journal’s editors couldn’t even bring themselves to mention Mr. Gore’s name. Instead, they devoted their editorial to a long list of people they thought deserved the prize more. And at National Review Online, Iain Murray suggested that the prize should have been shared with “that well-known peace campaigner Osama bin Laden, who implicitly endorsed Gore’s stance.” You see, bin Laden once said something about climate change — therefore, anyone who talks about climate change is a friend of the terrorists. And so the slime machine slugs along in its tireless disregard for troublesome facts. Still more merriment was to be found on Fox News Sunday, where Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer came not to praise Gore but to bury him. Sarcastically calling Gore’s win “deeply moving,” Kristol disparaged Gore and the Nobel prize itself, saying “it’s a prize given by bloviators to a bloviator”: KRISTOL: Friday, I felt a warm glow thinking that this man got the Nobel Peace Prize for bloviating about global warming. I mean, it’s a prize given by bloviators to a bloviator for nothing. What did he — he was Vice President of the United States for eight years. I missed the Clinton administration’s bold initiatives on global warming and carbon caps. Did they enforce the Kyoto Treaty? I don’t think so. You know, so he gets the Nobel Peace Prize for talking. Claiming that the Nobel Peace Prize is “the Kentucky Derby of the world left,” Krauthammer was even more shrill than Kristol, saying “Al Gore now joins the ranks of Yasser Arafat, the father of modern terrorism.” He then claimed the award “has nothing to do with peace” and that “it gives it to people whose politics are either anti-American or anti-Bush, and that’s why [Gore] won it.” Laying aside, for the moment, the hilarity of warmongers like Kristol and Krauthammer discussing what does and doesn't advance peace, I must point out that the issue of global warming, which the Nobel committee has underscored with Gore's award, has a very direct connection to issues of peace and security. Or so the Pentagon learned when it commissioned a risk assessment study... which they promptly buried. Appointed to head that study was Edward W. Marshall, or "Yoda," as he is referred to in Pentagon circles. The findings could only prove embarrassing to an Administration in denial of the reality of global warming. Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents. 'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.' Global warming, a bigger threat than terrorism! Where is our war on greenhouse gases? Krugman explains why the Bush Administration has it's head in the sand -- looking for oil, presumably -- while we are teetering on the brink of a genuine security nightmare. Today, being a good Republican means believing that taxes should always be cut, never raised. It also means believing that we should bomb and bully foreigners, not negotiate with them. So if science says that we have a big problem that can’t be solved with tax cuts or bombs — well, the science must be rejected, and the scientists must be slimed.

Gore not compatible with Evangelicals?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeWhen I was a teen, I got kicked out of Sunday School. I was not disruptive, drunk, high or violent, my crime for banishment was curiosity. Actually, I got suspended, then booted for good. Here is how it went down. The teacher was discussing Noah's Flood and how the water covered all the Earth, then the waters receded and the ark came to rest upon the land. I asked in all sincerity, "So where did the water go?" "The water is now frozen in the North and South Poles." "That can't be. If you melt all the water on the Earth, the sea level would rise less than 100 feet. To cover the whole of the Earth with water, you would need to cover Mount Everest with water, thus raising sea level by almost 30,000 feet. That is a large amount of water, so where did it go?" "Well, Mt. Everest wasn't there then." "Then neither would Mt. Ararat." Out I go for three weeks. Once they let me back in, I sit and mostly ignore the teacher until this whopper came out of her mouth. "In the Garden of Eden, Adam named all the plants and animals and dinosaurs." "Excuse me Ma'am, the dinosaurs didn't exist when humans were around. That is why you never find dinosaur bones mixed in with human bones. They never co-existed." And that was it for me, that was when I left Christianity. These events were in 1979 and I think the Evangelical movement has become MORE anti-science and MORE separatist since then. In recent years, the only thinking Christians I have come to know have been from liberal blogs. I haven't met any since 1979 is my offline life, they only get more hard core as the years roll by. I understand "real" Christian values would support things like universal healthcare, eradication of poverty, world peace, and support the cherished possession of the thing we call The Earth, but "mainstream" Christians embrace war with a callous disregard for human life, support torture of the human body, mind and spirit, support tyrants and seek the raping of all natural resources. These aren't "Gore People" and probably never will be.

Deny, Deny, Deny - The GOP Weapon Against Gore

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge And the GOP Smear Machine wasted no time going after Gore - the first volley shot by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. "Morning Joe" started with the lies about Gore's use of private jets (fact, Gore uses airlines) and the rest of the show went downhill after that. The only weapon the GOP has anymore are lies. And it is getting very hard to stand behind those lies when the climate is going to hell all around us. Atlanta only has 12 weeks of water supply left, many parts of the country are experiencing summer weather and most of the Arctic ice pack is gone. Should that be a surprise since the temperatures have hovered near the 70's all summer? Now an adventure to the North Pole takes the same preparation as an April trip to Myrtle Beach - sunblock and a light windbreaker. Lastly, someone should think about drafting Gore to run for President. Really.

Going Up River with Al Gore

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge I cannot escape Vietnam... and I was never there. My first memory was the assassination of JFK and the memories following dealt with adventures in the backyard, a fist fight over a teddy bear (don't ask) and Cronkite signing off every night with the dead and wounded tallies of the Vietnam War. We all went "up river" and more than 50,000 dead came down river. This nation is still up river - the Mekong Delta is very much ingrained in our culture and our actions. It is a hinge on which our society swings - served vs. deferment is still a gold standard to many Americans, a standard in which Republicans scoff at. Al Gore went up river, he went to Vietnam - he VOLUNTEERED to go even when his family reserved him a spot in the National Guard. Others fled service or took spots reserved for them by their families. Gore went up river. Time is becoming short for Al Gore to run for the Presidency. From Daily Kos: This is what so many of us have waited so many long - and I mean long! - months for. It is very likely that within three weeks, we will know whether Al Gore will enter the 2008 fold and seek the presidency again. Many of us have been trying to read the tea leaves and keep up enthusiasm and hope. If you're still waiting and hoping and haven't given up, thank you. I'm confident that I can speak for everyone within the Draft Gore movement when I say that - we have worked tirelessly for months, some of us years, to get Gore to run; that there are still thousands of people here, and millions of people nationwide that are still receptive and hoping for a Gore run means a lot to us and our work. We are in another American misadventure in a far-off land and we can't find our way out. The Republicans want to continue the war in a direction that will not lead to a solution. The current crop of front-runners in the Democratic Party seem unable to commit to an action of quick withdrawal. We are still under the spell of the Nine Dragons and the claws of the beasts hold us still. Al Gore met the Dragons head-on and he came back. This country needs someone who has gone up river. Only they can show us the way out.

HRC - Planetary Saviour?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeFrom the Draft Gore Campaign: We are entering the final stretch of this campaign, energized by a wave of enthusiasm and the hope that a Gore candidacy may be just weeks away. No, we cannot promise you that. But our candidate has left the door wide open and now it's up to us to try to persuade him to walk through it. Events over the next few weeks could affect this decision - and with it, the course of history. Some of them are out of our hands, such as the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize on October 12. But what we can do is make our voices heard to let Al Gore know that our call to service is backed by our willingness to fight for him. The war is more or less my number one issue, however, the environment really trumps it. Regardless of the death toll in Iraq, the death toll from global warming could be exponentially greater. Not just for humans, but for other species as well. The war definitely sucks, there is no arguing it. But if the Great Conveyor stops, we are hosed on a scale that cannot be imagined. Somehow, I doubt Hillary Clinton has the environment at the forefront of her thoughts. Maybe she just hasn't been able to figure out how to triangulate it yet?

Al Gore: Poll Teaser

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeBeing an Al Gore supporter is tough The high's, the low's, the empty liquor cabinet, it all starts to take its toll. Then yesterday Gore drops this bombshell: "I may re-enter politics at some point in the future because I'm only 59 years old," Gore told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Singapore. Gore said he has "no plan" to run in the 2008 presidential election but aims to make the environment a focus of public discussion during the campaign. "There is no single candidate that is putting forward a comprehensive argument about the environment or making climate change a priority," Gore said. Heart be still! Who is the environmental candidate in this race? Mitt Romney has probably said more about the environment than anyone else and that is a sad state of affairs. We all know Gore has that as an issue and it is a vitally important one. But do we think he will sit on the sidelines for this? Will he let Hillary win the nomination knowing the Presidency will then probably go to a Republican? If that happens, it is another 4 years of the climate getting the shaft. As many scientists claim, 2013 may be too late to change course. If Gore is so passionate about the environment, will he allow his inaction lead to catastrophe? There is only ONE place for him to reenter politics and that is as President. A friend of mine yesterday had an interesting observation. If Gore gets in, he will be the target of three strong candidates: Hillary, Edwards and Obama. He doesn't believe Gore can win the nomination after getting beat down by three other contenders. Echoes of Howard Dean here I believe. Either way, I want Al Gore to run and by my calendar, he has about 60 days to do it. SPECIAL FAVOR SECTION Never let it be said liberals don't support the troops. During the first Gulf War, I began collecting books to send to my college friends serving in Saudi Arabia. I must have sent hundreds of books. When US troops got deployed to Iraq, I started doing it again but I knew the job was too big for one person to do it, so I set up Books For Soldiers, a 501 (c)(3) charity to send free books, dvds and video games to deployed US soldiers. But I wasn't that smart since I only thought the war would last 6 weeks tops in Iraq. What was I thinking? Now, FOUR years later, we are still shipping books. But today I need your help. There is a contest sponsored by VAJoe.com, they will contribute $2,000 to charitable military organizations next month in its Charity for Charities event. You can vote on your favorite charitable military organizations. The top four charitable organizations and a randomly selected organization will share $2,000 in donations from VAJoe. Books for Soldiers has been included in the event. The Alexa Traffic Rank for BooksForSoldiers.com is 242,975 and you would not believe our bandwidth bills! So these next few days, I am asking (begging actually) for your vote for Books For Soldiers. It won't take you 30 seconds to help a liberal out! CLICK HERE TO VOTE! A short, fast and easy site registration is required. P.S. Thank-you Michael Moore.

Does Hillary know why Edwards is smiling?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeIt took months but I finally found someone I know personally who supports Hillary Clinton - a military contractor. His motto is "Vote Hillary or Else!" Everyone else? They are looking at Edwards or maybe Obama. Yet for Obama they tend to sneak in the caveat of "I still don't know what he stands for. Unless he clear that up soon, I will be supporting Edwards." Also, support for those two slips away if Al Gore kicks his hat in the ring. The other problem that continues to swirl around people I know is that of "getting out the vote." If Hillary does win the nomination, everyone I know will vote for her, but there is not a lot of volunteerism being vocalized. No where near the level that I saw in the 2006 mid-term election. The 2006 GOTV movement was huge, larger than I have seen since back in my Perot days. There is something about Hillary that just doesn't encourage folks hitting the street and getting the word out for her. And if her GOTV is weak, it will influence the GOTV for the House and Senate races that will be VITAL in 2008. Vital. Yes, people will vote for her, but while holding their noses. That kinda attitude does not drive people to blow all their weekends knocking on doors, enduring cold November rains to had out brochures at polls or spend hours away from the family at a phone bank begging people to "Vote Hillary or Else." You don't see that with John Edwards. If you look past the polls, Edwards is the leader on the issues. I would say he is dragging the rest of the field with him. From AlterNet: "I don't need to read a poll, I don't need to see a focus group and I don't need to see what the other candidates are saying," said Mr. Edwards, sitting next to his wife in a blue van pulling away from Kitty's Fine Foods in Charleston. "I know exactly what I would do as president and that's why I have been leading on these issues. And it is exactly the kind of leadership I will provide as president." Mr. Edwards and his campaign are rallying around the idea that he has demonstrated leadership by getting out front early on major issues, advocating "big change" and then almost daring his rivals to follow his example. When he challenges other candidates to raise the minimum wage, he gets thunderous applause. Other candidates get that level of applause, but only when they snark off about Bush. Edwards all seems to be revamping his campaign. Gone are the button-down, adviser steered campaign days of 2004, Edwards has placed himself in the hands of the people. After running a decidedly traditional race for the White House in 2004 and in the early stages of this contest, Mr. Edwards has quietly overhauled his campaign with one central goal: to harness the Internet and the political energy that liberal Democrats are sending coursing through it. In a slow but striking power shift, advisers who champion the political power of the Web have eclipsed the coterie of advisers who long dominated Mr. Edwards’s inner circle, both reflecting and intensifying his transformation into a more populist, aggressive candidate. “They want me to shut up,” an unsmiling Mr. Edwards said to an audience in Creston, Iowa, on Thursday — remarks that were videotaped by an Edwards campaign worker and posted both on YouTube and the popular liberal Web site MyDD.com. “Let’s distract from people who don’t have health care coverage. Let’s distract from people who can’t feed their children. Let’s talk about this frivolous, nothing stuff.” Still, he is in the shadow of Obama and Hillary and he knows it. I think it has a specific effect on Edwards that a lot of people are not noticing - it is making him smarter, more daring and, should I even say this, it has given him a spine. Could this explain the noticeable shift in Edwards' rhetoric recently? As Democratic strategist David Sirota said in an interview, what we're hearing from Edwards these days is a "full-throated populism." For instance, aside from the Obama-Clinton flap, the next most significant moment in the YouTube debate came when Edwards said: "Do you believe that compromise, triangulation will bring about big change. I don't. I think the people who are powerful in Washington - big insurance companies, big drug companies, big oil companies - they are not going to negotiate. They are not going to give away their power. The only way they are going to give away their power is if we take it away from them." Yep, that is USDA Grade "A," organic, grain-fed, free-range SPINE with no GMO's or antibiotics. That could catch on.

The REAL Gore Story!

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane & My Left Wing click to enlarge Seriously, 100 miles per hour? That is the real news story. Someone is possessing pot? Bah, who cares?

If you are a Gore Fan, Soprano fans feel your pain.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane & My Left Wing click to enlarge There is a whole groundswell of people who lean into the TV when Al Gore is on. Endless blog entries are made over the tiniest nuance of Gore's expression, body language and SWEET GOD ALMIGHTY - his actual words. But at the end of every show, every clip, every soundbite, every video on the Gore-strained YouTube server farm, we never hear "I am running." The bandwidth used on the nuanced "I have not ruled it out" is utterly amazing. There are only so many ways you can put it, yet the wordsmiths over at the Gore compound have written that phrase in such a way that it means more and more that he will run. At first it was the "I have no plans to run" and that has morphed into "I don't need a 500 day campaign." And that brings us to today's question, what, Al, do you need? What is Al Gore's decision tree? Is there a Hillary element? Of all the books I have read, there is not a lot of love shared between the Clinton and Gore household. Yes, Al and Bill had a kumbaya moment after 9-11, but that was Al and Bill, not Al and Hillary or Tipper and Hillary or Tipper and Bill. If Hillary looks to be poised to win the nomination, will Gore jump in to save We The People? Is there a GOP metric? Would Al be watching the contenders to see what he would face? Would sleepy-headed Fred Thompson (also from Tennessee) raise the ire of Al to push him to Iowa? Is there a "the world is cooking on high and no one is in the damn kitchen" meme that Al watches? No one else seems to be able to do anything about global warming in our current government and frankly, the current crop of 2008 candidates doesn't seem that worried about it. Yes, they all mostly have somewhat passionate position papers on the environment, with, IMO, Edwards on top, but no one that I have seen has Al's presence on the issue and it is a WEIGHTY issue. Is there a war switch? By the looks of our current Defeatocrat Congress, the troops aren't coming home until we get a new President. Will Gore get fed up with the sorry state of international affairs compared to the condition he and Bill left the world in 2000? Could it be as simple "screw this, I'm in?" There are probably a great many factors that would go into this. But my bet, our Larry King Moment won't come until October. Special Note: Today's strip has two new characters; Larry King and Al Gore.

Can Gore save the Earth and John Edwards?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane & My Left Wing click to enlarge I am truly saddened about Edwards' message not being as well embraced as I had hoped. He is running a vastly different campaign than I recall seeing before. He has made it a point to bring activism to the issues instead of the same tired message of "vote for me." I was especially impressed how he went to the mat on the war funding bill. His message of send it back was strong, well received and really did separate him from the rest of the hand wringers who waited to the last minute to vote "no" on the funding bill. The activism thing is the part of Edwards that reminds me of Gore. Gore has obviously been against the war from the start and has undertaken a great many activities to bring awareness to global climate change. So if Gore were to run, would Edwards make a good match? Would Gore even pick Edwards? If offered, would Edwards sign on for the second seat again?

I went to Nashville and all I got was a spine.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane & My Left Wing click to enlarge I should not be surprised at the lackluster and scampering dances of the Democrats that avoided taking a position on anything substantial during this past Sunday's morning political talk shows. Poof and fluffery was all I heard, especially from the overly-distilled ex-firebrand Ted Kennedy. For example during his interview with George Stephanopoulos, Kennedy said in response to the lack of support for the immigration bill, "There are groups that are opposed to this." Ya think? Way to tell him Ted! Glad to see so MUCH fight left in you! As I scan the tube and the web, the only person, and I do mean ONLY one standing up for the America I once knew is Al Gore. Will he or won't he? Who knows. But I do know the Democratic Party's answer to the question of bringing the troops home. "Ain't gonna happen."