McCain Doesn’t Do “New”

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeMcCain was speaking about his "new" energy policy of $300 million, "one dollar for every American" to leap-frog to the next level of battery technology so we can have plug-in hybrids. Here is a link for the McCain campaign's science adviser - Lithium-Ion Batteries. They are available now. The technologies required to put them into automobiles are available now. But McCain wants to drill the shit out of ANWR - an old Bush policy. McCain also wants to drill the shit out of American coastal areas. Also McCain wants to blow the shit out of mountains to get out all the dirty coal out that he can, with total disregard to the environment - just like Bush. Lastly, even though McCain is trying hard to be green, he fails to understand the true impact of global warming. His $300 million, wrongly spent, does nothing to solve the climate crisis. McCain's insistence in allowing the "free market" economy solve that woe is Bushian to the core. More McSame for a Do-Nothing President. SPECIAL REQUEST FOR TCD FANS: The San Francisco Chronicle is pondering the addition of new cartoons for their paper - a process that seems to be initiated by Darren Bell, creator of Candorville (one of my daily reads - highly recommended). You can read the Chronicle article here and please add your thoughts to the comments if you wish. If anything, put in a good word for Darren and Candorville. I am submitting Town Called Dobson to the paper for their consideration. They seem to have given great weight to receiving 200 messages considering Candorville. I am asking TCD fans to try to surpass that amount. (I get more than that many hate mails a day, surely fans can do better?) This is not a race between the two of us, it is a hope that more progressive strips can be represented in the printed press of America. So if you read the San Francisco Chronicle or live in the Bay Area (Google Analytics tell me there are a lot of you), please send your kind comments (or naked, straining outrage) to David Wiegand at his published addresses below. If you are a subscriber, cut out your mailing label and staple it to a TCD strip and include it in your letter. candorcomment@sfchronicle.com or David Wiegand Executive Datebook Editor The San Francisco Chronicle 901 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103

Off-shore drilling - Bush’s real agenda

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeFrom the Washington Post - a non-AP story: President Bush called on Congress today to lift a 26-year-old ban on oil drilling off the shores of the United States, arguing that the country needs more domestic energy production to alter the circumstances that are driving up oil prices. In a speech in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said that if Congress removes the ban it first imposed in 1982, he would lift an executive order that also prohibits drilling for oil and gas on the U.S. outer continental shelf. That executive order was issued in 1990 by Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush. Bush also repeated his call for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska and urged Congress to allow access to oil shale in the Green River Basin that stretches across parts of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. He said the basin contains the equivalent of about 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil, more than three times the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. I just don't buy it. Bush's energy estimates are overly rosy. Look at ANWR. The most optimistic, GOP think-tank estimates show us, at present consumption rates, ANWR oil would only satisfy the needs of the US for barely 18 months. What they don't tell you is it would take ten years to develop the field before you can pump out the first drop. They also don't tell you that the field would need to be pumped slowly, taking about 40 to 50 years to pump the oil out. That is half a century of trampling the wild reserve. In short, ANWR doesn't solve anything. Bush went on to yap about the drilling offshore on the outer continental shelf - how that will save America. All of that oil and natural gas will make the United States energy independent he tells us. What Bush doesn't tell you is it will take decades to explore the shelf, build the new drilling rigs and extract the fossil fuels. He also doesn't even want to mention what will be required on-shore. Such massive off-shore operations requires significant on-shore support. New oil pipelines, new refineries, new storage depots, and a host of other dirty, oil related crap that does nothing to ween us off of fossil fuel. This is billions in infrastructure that could be used to actually get us off of oil - forever. SPECIAL REQUEST FOR TCD FANS: The San Francisco Chronicle is pondering the addition of new cartoons for their paper - a process that seems to be initiated by Darren Bell, creator of Candorville (one of my daily reads - highly recommended). You can read the Chronicle article here and please add your thoughts to the comments if you wish. If anything, put in a good word for Darren and Candorville. I am submitting Town Called Dobson to the paper for their consideration. They seem to have given great weight to receiving 200 messages considering Candorville. I am asking TCD fans to try to surpass that amount. (I get more than that many hate mails a day, surely fans can do better?) This is not a race between the two of us, it is a hope that more progressive strips can be represented in the printed press of America. So if you read the San Francisco Chronicle or live in the Bay Area (Google Analytics tell me there are a lot of you), please send your kind comments (or naked, straining outrage) to David Wiegand at his published addresses below. If you are a subscriber, cut out your mailing label and staple it to a TCD strip and include it in your letter. candorcomment@sfchronicle.com or David Wiegand Executive Datebook Editor The San Francisco Chronicle 901 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103

Don’t take your eye off of Bush

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThe only thing that seems to be in the news is McCain, Hillary and Obama with an occasional smattering of tornado coverage and a few blurbs about gas prices. I rarely see any recent coverage on MSM about Iraq. Last night I saw that same old tired file footage of the Al Qaeda training video that has run since 9-11 - you know, the one with the Jihadis on monkey bars. When I see these reports this morning, it makes me think Bush wants to wait till these deals go though before the US strikes. Iran eyes Azeri Shakh-Deniz gas from Caspian Sea Iran is interested in buying significant amounts of gas from the second phase of ex-Soviet Azerbaijan's largest gas field, Shakh-Deniz, in the Caspian Sea, an Azeri government source told Reuters on Wednesday. The second, $10 billion phase of Shakh-Deniz is expected to come on stream towards the end of 2013. "Iran's deputy oil minister and the general manager of its state gas company spoke to the management of (Azeri state oil firm) Socar over importing some seriously large volumes from Shakh-Deniz's second phase," the source said. Iran sees gas pipeline deal with India, Pakistan by mid-year Iran's ambassador to New Delhi said Tehran hopes to finalise a gas pipeline deal with India and Pakistan by mid-year, in an interview released on Wednesday. The 7.5-billion-dollar project which aims to transport natural gas from Iranian oilfields to Pakistan and India was discussed during a visit to India last month Iranian by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "It is hoped the trilateral agreement will be signed by the middle of summer this year," Iran's ambassador to India Sayed Mahdi Nabizadeh was quoted as saying in an interview in the latest issue of India's Hardnews magazine. I just think we are taking our eye off of Bush way too much. When he is NOT watched, he tends to exercise his powers of dictatorship more readily. SPECIAL REQUEST FOR TCD FANS: The San Francisco Chronicle is pondering the addition of new cartoons for their paper - a process that seems to be initiated by Darren Bell, creator of Candorville (one of my daily reads - highly recommended). You can read the Chronicle article here and please add your thoughts to the comments if you wish. If anything, put in a good word for Darren and Candorville. I am submitting Town Called Dobson to the paper for their consideration. They seem to have given great weight to receiving 200 messages considering Candorville. I am asking TCD fans to try to surpass that amount. (I get more than that many hate mails a day, surely fans can do better?) This is not a race between Darren and I, it is a hope that more progressive strips can be represented in the printed press of America. So if you read the San Francisco Chronicle or live in the Bay Area (Google Analytics tell me there are a lot of you), please send your kind comments (or naked, straining outrage) to David Wiegand at his published addresses below. If you are a subscriber, cut out your mailing label and staple it to a TCD strip and include it in your letter. candorcomment@sfchronicle.com or David Wiegand Executive Datebook Editor The San Francisco Chronicle 901 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103

The Daily Pulse

What are people thinking about and writing about beyond the Beltway and the national press? That is the question we try to answer here at The Daily Pulse. We do random surveys of editorial pages for political content, with the idea we learn more about what America and Americans are thinking for themselves, instead of what classed punditry is thinking for them. Would you like to be a part? Can you contribute a weekly, or monthly, Daily Pulse? Are you interested in foreign papers, alternatives (GLBT, African American, religious, ethnic community), or can you translate (I would kill for somebody to do a weekly Spanish editorial pages)? Let me know, and join one of the tubes' longest-running features.Tuscaloosa News In my opinion, this editorial hits all the high points of Iowa- the strong Democratic turnout, answers to the question "is a black man viable," and what a disaster Huckabee would be for the Republicans. Winds of change blow through Iowa results The surprising results of the Iowa caucuses may set the tone for the election season or they may be just a bump on the road to politics as usual. However, contrary to the spin of a Republican spokesperson who claimed the results signal continued GOP occupancy of the White House and gains by the party in Congress, it's hard to see the result of the caucuses as anything but a victory for Democrats. ... But Obama's win in a heavily majority-white state shows that a black man can be a viable candidate for president. His electability, along with his lack of experience, has been one of the main questions surrounding his candidacy, which trailed Clinton's by 30 points in some polls only last summer. ... There's also the fact that 220,500 Democrats participated in the Iowa caucuses, while about 114,000 Republicans took part. In 2004, Bush took the state by a narrow margin. ... If [Huckabee's] juggernaut continues and he finds himself nominated, however, the Republicans could be in deep trouble. Democrats won't have to try hard to paint him as what Rolling Stone magazine termed "full-blown nuts, a Christian goofball of the highest order." Connecticut Post States' rights? What States' rights? We didn't mean that. At least, not unless it was about them black folk. You see, when it comes to ACTUAL States' rights, like the right to keep air breathable, corporate donors come first. Emissions change must be allowed Following California's lead, Connecticut has joined a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to approve strict vehicle emissions standards. It's a good move, and one that has the backing of dozens of other states where people are concerned that the federal government is not going far enough in terms of environmental standards. ... The dismissal by the EPA of the proposed changes is nothing but a slap in the face to the supposed "states' rights" crowd. It turns out federalism is only preferred when it's OK with big campaign donors. The courts must rule against the EPA, allow the state regulations to be passed and stand in the way of an administration with no respect for the demands of its citizens. The Pueblo Chieftain How many people reading today remember whether they had an odd or even license plate number in the 70s? How many even know the relevance of the question. Ladies and gentlemen, oil prices and the economy are going to only get bigger as issues between now and November. The really fun part, though, of this editorial is the blame on "radical environmentalists. ANWAR would not have been on line for years even if it was passed the first time around. The blame isn't "radical environmentalists." The "blame" (corporate donors call it "credit") goes the the buffoon in the White House. Some perspective LAST WEEK oil traded briefly at about $100 a barrel, 10 times the price a decade ago. Still, analysts don’t expect record-high prices by themselves to send the economy into recession, simply because expensive as oil is, energy doesn’t consume as big a chunk of Americans’ budgets as it did a few decades ago. ... It would not have had to come to this, though. Oil industry experts say there are huge reserves beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our shores below the seas. That oil is staying put, for the time being, at least, thanks to radical environmentalists. As far as ANWR is concerned, measures to open up that rich energy trove have died in the Senate, most recently in 2005 and 2006. ... Drilling would not harm ANWR. But drilling there has been precluded time and again by a Big Lie. Remember that the next time you fill up at the pump. San Bernardino County Sun Yes, we need a new surveillance law. No, we don't need retroactive immunity. Not much here to disagree with. Don't give up freedoms to fears After spending the holidays on hold, the controversy about government wiretapping practices is about to pick up volume this month. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expires on Feb. 1, and Congress needs to revamp it to limit the government's warrantless surveillance powers. ... In no way is corporate immunity more important than the tried and true American system of checks and balances inherent in requiring judicial approval of the executive branch's use of wiretaps to track private conversations. ... In the "long war" against terrorism, intelligence is a powerful weapon. But as we defend ourselves from enemies, we must not sacrifice our freedoms to our fears. Herald Tribune (SW Florida) Conservation is not a virtue- it is a duty we owe to each other. Would you call the police if you saw a man breaking into your neighbor's home? Every day we steal our children's birthright with every mile we drive. Energy and the economy ... When the price of crude oil reached $100 a barrel last week -- hitting a mark 44 percent higher than in August -- economists offered up a timely history lesson. A few decades ago, they pointed out, a spike like this would have had a much greater impact on the U.S. economy. ... The change in the share of GDP is little comfort, of course, to low-income Americans struggling to pay for gas for their automobiles or heating oil for their homes. Energy prices play an oversized role in their personal finances. ... The gains in efficiency should embolden U.S. policymakers to continue to push for more improvements in the years ahead. And those gains should encourage all Americans to make conservation a routine part of their lives. ... The effect on the economy may not be as severe as it might have been a few decades ago, once inflation and efficiencies are factored in. But the impact will be felt --and it will be felt more deeply by more Americans if efficiency and conservation don't become a greater part of everyone's life.

Al Qaeda Map of the World

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge I had the most depressing meeting of my life yesterday (and in some ways uplifting but on a personal level that would bore you to tears). The reason it was depressing is because of who it was with and our discussion of the state of the world. My meeting was with a friend of mine who is a military contractor and a former Republican. This guy is one of the last bastions of business leaders in America who "get it." He has no problem making piles of cash, but he makes sure he EARNS it and he sure as hell does. He is one of the hardest workers I know and can work magic with troubled companies. He strives to keep manufacturing and jobs in the US but I believe in his heart, those days are numbered. As we discussed the state of the world, and the tragedy of the Bush Administration, he has declared the American Dream is dead as a doornail. "If you want the American Dream, go work in Europe, it is alive and well there. Bush has so destroyed the middle class, I doubt it can return with the business leaders we have now." Then we lamented the lack of leadership in corporate America. Over the last few years I have met with a lot of CEOs that frankly of no business running a business. The level of corruption and total lack of foresight is very troubling. These anti-CEOs are either running their business into the ground or flip the business and cash out - then go on to ruin another company. We talked more about how to fix it. One of his fast "emergency fixes" is "Vote Hillary Or Else!" The "else" being the total collapse of American society, economy and government. Keep in mind this is coming from a "life-long Republican" who voted straight tickets up until 2004 - Kerry was his first Democratic vote and remember, he is a military contractor. Maybe I am depressed for no reason. If someone like my friend can make such an extreme turnaround, maybe the rest of the country has had similar flashes of Jeffersonian insight? Regardless, we both agreed the Bush Administration is just a front for Big Oil and Cheney is guiding the chariots to secure and exploit the last of the fossil fuel resources in the world. It is all about oil - everything. Iraq? Oil. Gonzales? Oil. Warrantless wiretaps? Oil. All of it. In every scandal there it the recurring stain of fossil fuel. I am very tired of BushCo's oil slick.

Does this lead to minty fresh breath?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge How many times in American history have we fought wars over economics instead of human rights? The Revolutionary War was a fight for freedom and democracy, but it was for Whites only. The Civil War was about ending slavery but it took about a century for equal rights to bestowed upon African Americans and between those two events, we had two World Wars. In the last World War, we jailed people of Japanese descent just because of their ethnicity- even Americans that were born here were thrown into concentration camps - not in Gitmo, but in California, Arizona, Utah and many other states. During the first Gulf War, we moved into the Middle East to kick out the Iraqis from Kuwait - a theocratic dictatorship with a horrible human rights record, but we rode into town and liberated the dictatorship of Kuwait. Now we find ourselves in a fake war in Iraq with no real or visible reason other than the oil. When this nation is faced with war over Human rights, we flinch, or I should say, our government flinches. It took a lot of courage to go into Kosovo. Even though there was heavy outcry by the GOP not to go into Kosovo and stop the genocide, we did and we were successful. The Taleban has been committing endless human rights violations for years, but it took a Saudi terror attack on the United States to get us to move on the Taleban (where the Saudi's weren't). But what about Darfur? You can throw a dart at Africa and chances are you will hit a dictator that is far worse than Saddam ever was, but into Iraq we went. Darfur continues to be ignored, just as we ignored Rwanda. Oh, and maybe in another century after homosexuals gain equal rights, the Lakota will finally get the Black Hills back after it was stolen by the United States government. Sadly, this country will never fight a war to bestow the equal rights owed to homosexuals - it will need to be a slow budding of awareness in the hearts of Americans. Society is changing, not fast enough for some and too fast for others. But the change and embracement will come. Here is a little story to explain why I believe this. I am a Southern White Boy born in 1963 and my wife is a Strong Black Women born two years later. When we were born, it was illegal for Blacks and Whites to marry and it wasn't until 1967 that the last of the anti-miscegenation laws was struck down. Back in the 1960's, the racism in American was still very, very strong. Lynchings, rape and murder were all still a reality for Blacks in America. But things changed and they changed rapidly. By the time I had arrived in high school in 1978, I was living in a small little rural town in North Carolina called, oddly enough, Dobson. Somehow, between 1967 and 1978, interracial dating had gone from being a suicidal taboo to being the "in" thing to do. I started dating, and snogging like no tomorrow, out of my race by the time I was 16. Channell and I have now been married for 14 and a half years and no one, except for one idiot uncle, has ever given us any grief over the color difference. They do ask why on earth a quality woman like Channell is with the likes of me, and sometimes I wonder that myself! Color? No one cares. Soon, no idea when but soon, no one will care if two women get married. Or two men and just as color fell away from most, so will orientation. Humans will still have hang-ups and some things will still be seen as outlandishly unacceptable by society, like what if someone marries a philandering Republican that switches hookers as often as his socks? Well, that taste NEVER leaves your mouth.