December 2007 archive

See, y’all got it all backwards.  None other than Norman Podhoretz just knows that this is a vast left wing and intelligence community conspiracy.  Mister Bush says that this is proof that we need to step up pressure on Iran – precisely because they stopped their weapons program.

And that goes exactly with the thinking of the chest thumping “send others off to kill and die” crowd.  Are you “formidable” and do you have nuclear weapons?  Then sorry, we don’t want to mess with you.  But if you appear to be formidable and “evil”, but aren’t really a dire (or even imagined) threat to the US, your neighbors or anyone else, then it is of utmost importance to make sure that the weapons that aren’t being developed, well, aren’t being developed.

Which makes the NIE confirm the reason why Iran must be bombed.  Just look at recent past history.

Part One: A simple lesson in supply and demand.

We are in a water crisis.

Man has become so detached from his natural state of being, that water is not only taken for granted, it is damn well forgotten by most in the Industrialized Western World.

Some never have forgotten, and soon enough, we all will remember that precious fluid that serves both our bodies and our land, bringing nutrients and carrying away waste.

Here are some numbers from the BNET Research center that gives one pause:

Almost all the water on our planet–more than 97 percent–is undrinkably salty. Of the remainder, more than two-thirds is locked up in glaciers and ice caps. Only a minute share of Earth’s water, less than one-hundredth of 1 percent, is both fresh and renewed each year–a total of 110,300 cubic kilometers of freshwater that circulates annually among the sea, air, and land in an endless cycle, driven by the Sun. After it falls as rain or snow, much of this water returns to the atmosphere through evaporation, or by transpiration from plants. Only a bit more than a third of the total, about 40,700 cubic kilometers a year, runs back to the sea via rivers, streams, and underground aquifers.

Not really an essay.  (Not gonna rant again.)  Just a bloody shame!

From today’s New York Times Web site:

December 4, 2007,  9:53 am

The ‘Draft Gore’ Movement, Sidelined

By Corey Kilgannon

The effort to draft Al Gore for the New York Democratic primary has been put on hold, but signed petitions are stacked in an apartment on East 84th Street just in case. (Photo: Corey Kilgannon/The New York Times)Al Gore is not running for president – not yet, anyway, his most ardent supporters would say — but the campaign to draft him in New York lives, if only on life support, in an apartment on East 84th Street.

Yes, the local “Draft Gore” campaign rests in several neat stacks of nomination petitions, on a campaign table next to “Gore for President” buttons, stickers and fliers. The table is in the modest, rent-stabilized apartment of Robert Plautz, 60 a tax lawyer and longtime Democratic activist. Mr. Plautz helped organize a last-ditch effort to put Mr. Gore on the Democratic primary ballot in New York State with a signature-gathering mission to persuade the former vice president to run again.

The petitioners began on Oct. 30 and, since Mr. Gore did not publicly tell such “Draft Gore” groups across the country to stop, they continued to gather 2,352 signatures in New York State on dozens of petitions. Finally, on Nov. 13, a Gore representative sent an e-mail message urging them to desist.

Mr. Plautz’s group complied, but not without second thoughts.

“We were told, ‘Please don’t put Al Gore in an uncomfortable position,'” Mr. Plautz said. “Some of our supporters said, ‘How do we know it’s not a dirty trick by another candidate?’ and wanted to continue on. But in the end, we felt it came from a credible source.”

Mr. Plautz said that state election law permitted petitioning until the Dec. 6 ballot registration deadline, or Thursday, to get 7,000 signatures to place Mr. Gore on the ballot for the Feb. 6 primary. Mr. Plautz estimated that the group would have gotten more than 7,000 by the deadline, then Mr. Gore would have until Monday to decline by filing formal papers with the Board of Elections.

While he accepts that Mr. Gore is not running, Mr. Plautz said, there is no sense in destroying the petitions before the Thursday deadline, in the event of a miraculous change of heart.

The campaign had no advertising and no real budget, he said. It did (and still does) have a Web site, Newyorkforgore.com, and a column section called “Reading Al’s Mind” — “in which we will post your thoughts on why Al Gore is or is not running.” (One entry is titled, “Will We Soldier On?”)

On the table in the apartment, there were letters from some of the 63 volunteer petitioners. One petition bore a purple Post-It that read, “Since I never heard back from anyone, I assume this effort is dead.”

Mr. Plautz said that, in all, he collected 99 signatures in about five hours on city subway platforms. “I’d say, ‘Would you like to see Al Gore on the Feb. 5 ballot?’ and some people would say, ‘Is he running?'” Mr. Plautz said. “Some people would look at me strangely, either because they didn’t like him or didn’t believe he could get on the ballot.”

Here’s the linky, in case you want to read the comments and/or post one yourself:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes….

Peace.

Good luck, Christmas shoppers!  Get out your VISA card one last time, purchase some mistletoe at The Dollar Store, bend over with it, and get ready to kiss your ass goodbye . . .

Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It’s expanding by about $1.4 billion a day – or nearly $1 million a minute.  It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States. Even if you’ve escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That’s because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion.

$9,130,000,000,000.78 in debt . . .

For concerned citizens keeping score at home, I admit in front of Santa and everybody that I still owe our fiscally responsible government 78 cents in back taxes.  I’ll send the IRS a check as soon as the criminal politicians responsible for this economic holocaust are prosecuted, convicted, and hauled off to prison cells.

Back in January, when our national debt was only $8,780,000,000,000.78, many Americans traveled to BushCo World Headquarters because wars of aggression and years of oppression hell bound on our way to the next Great Depression does not even remotely resemble compassionate conservatism.

They were not in a very forgiving mood . . .      

This is not a diary, just a way to get graphics to Buhdy and OnTheBus.

Please click on the image to access copies (2 versions).

Buhdy needs a graphic for Dharmapedia. Your ideas, comments and suggestions are most welcome. These are “blue lotus” drafts. I could try something with Lennon and the reclining Buddha. In this sample, the eyes will need a lighter red in the lower lid.