This afternoon, newly minted Senator-Elect Energy Smart Jeff Merkley (D-OR) took the time to reach out to the netroots with a blogger conference call.  “The Netroots were critical to my election … It is 40 years since an incumbent lost in Oregon and only the second time in 100 years that a Republican incumbent lost … the Netroots put the campaign over the top.”  

But, more important than any plaudits for bloggers (“Netroots Nation was one of the best things that I did during the campaign.”) and promises to remain engage for the future, was Merkley’s evaluation as to the election’s mandate and visions for moving forward.

We have a very strong mandate for a progressive agenda. We have had two cycles in a row with winning six [at least] seats in the Senate.

Bush claimed a mandate when he didn’t even win the popular vote.

We absolutely have a mandate and we should not be shy in anyway in claiming it.

If not now, when?  Our people need us, our planet needs us …

The journal Nature has come out with a solid endorsement of Barack Obama for President:  America’s choice.

The opening:

The values of scientific enquiry, rather than any particular policy positions on science, suggest a preference for one US presidential candidate over the other.

According to Nature‘s editorial page editor M. Mitchell Waldrop, as to Nature‘s record of presidential campaign endorsements.

To the best of the anyone’s knowledge currently here at the magazine, this is the first time.

One of the joys of 2008: there are too many good races, too many viable opportunities to turn Red districts Blue on the electoral map. Sadly, on Kos’ latest map of the Western US, one of the opportunities that we all should be banding together to make a reality remains red.  In CA-46, we have a true progressive, Debbie Cook, is facing a die-hard troglodyte, global-warming denying, immigrant bashing, etc … Dana Rohrabacher who might be “the biggest blithering idiot” on the Hill.  

In the past few weeks, this race has tightened. We are talking within measure of error.  Debbie doesn’t have DCCC behind her but she does have us.  A few $XX.01s could help to flip a district which would, in this case, shift from deep (corrupt) red representation to truly a “better Democrat”.

For ever so long, the energy and environmental community have been working to communicate the dishonesty, truthiness, deceptiveness of John McCain’s claims when it comes to renewable energy and global warming.  Sadly, the McBlurring McSame McCain has worked all too well.  The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has just released a great video that shines a new light to unblur the situation.

Tonight, Frontline will broadcast Heat, a result of some 18 months of work …

From 9 to 11 pm, ET, the television will be on, tuned to PBS.

Architecture2030 is a tremendous group, with concepts that should be seized and acted upon as part and parcel of moving forward toward an Energy Smart future. Recently, they’ve made a bit of a name for themselves with excellent graphics that call out just how sensible John McCain’s energy policy proposals are for changing the nation toward a better path forward.  

Today, they just released the graphic to the right.  

Yes, according to their work, 20 years from now, John McCain’s 45 nuclear power plants would provide just over two percent of business-as-usual electricity generation.  

A few days ago, Jill Richardson brought us news to pay attention to with the question “Can Organics Save Us from Global Warming?”  Jill excitedly brought news of a new study from the Rodale Institute entitled Regenerative Organic Farming: A Solution to Global Warming.  After now having taken the time to read this report, it seems worth seconded Jill’s excitement … even if perhaps seeking to dampen it a little bit.

In South Carolina, the “Democratic Party” candidate is Bob Conley, who must be mentioned was recently a Republican, on a county GOP committee until winning the Democratic Party primay, and Ron Paul supporter.  On the Repulbican side, Lindsey Graham.  In this race, Saturday’s debate could well be a telling one for anyone who cares for science and issues of Global Warming.

Conley, in Inhofe-scale like terms, very “firmly proclaimed his denial of global warming science”.  In face of a question as to whether Global Warming is real (come off, is this a real question people?), Conley’s response:

CONLEY: It really is the arrogance of man to think that we are having any effect.

These are not words of someone interested in reality-based policy making.

Paul Krugman, the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics, penned an article a few months ago: “Know-Nothing Politics“.  

the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

For Krugman, the Republican embrace and promotion of Drillusion exemplified how “know-nothingism” had become revered within the Republican Party.  “The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”” ANd, “In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump.”  

Krugman called the Republican leadership to task for promoting a policy that flew in the face of facts and expert knowledge.  His real fear was the power of this “dumb” approach to energy when it came to potentially swaying votes. Looking at this debate and the difference between lying and confusion, Krugman came to this generalized conclusion:

In any case, remember this the next time someone calls for an end to partisanship, for working together to solve the country’s problems. It’s not going to happen – not as long as one of America’s two great parties believes that when it comes to politics, stupidity is the best policy.

The various fossil fuel industries have been spending hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars to influence the national discussion this year, from campaign contributions to Santa Claus giving out ‘clean coal’ at the Metro exits closest to Congressional offices to sponsoring presidential debates throughout the election cycle.  This fossil foolish promotion of a carbon-heavy, civilization-unfriendly seems to be putting money in many pockets, including public communications companies and broadcast companies.  

For example,  CNN has been earned much from coal industry sponsoring of debates, CBS from ExxonMobil, and ABC has aired Chevron greenwashing Human Energy ads just after debates.

One has to wonder whether this funding has affected ABC’s decision to deny the We Campaign’s Repower America advertisment that criticizes the money that big oil and lobbyists are spending to insure that Americans reman “stuck with dirty and expensive media”.  

As noted in McCain DisDain for being truthful, the townhall debate actually fostered some good questions.  And, for the first time in the Presidential debates and far more pointedly than has occurred in any traditional TV situation, Ingrid Jackson asked a pointed question on climate change (video):

Sen. McCain, I want to know, we saw that Congress moved pretty fast in the face of an economic crisis. I want to know what you would do within the first two years to make sure that Congress moves fast as far as environmental issues, like climate change and green jobs?