One of my local "projects" has been opposing the construction of one of the largest natural gas power plants by Florida Power & Light within 1/2 mile of the Arthur Marshall Wildlife Refuge, also known as the Loxahatchee Wildlife National Refuge, the northernmost edge of the Everglades.  Collectively, we have fought this plant at every level, from land use changes, to administrative challenges, appearing before the State Siting Board, and of late preparing for the filing of Federal challenge, having lost at every prior level (with some concessions at least administratively).

In my news skims tonight, I ran across this article featured in the Washington Post:

Clean-Air Rules Protecting Parks Set to Be Eased
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 16, 2008; Page A01

The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan.

Yes, Hillary will win West Virginia big tonight, and kudos to her campaign for doing so; but there was no 60 point win blowout.  There will be a 40 point blowout win for Clinton tonight, with 92% of the vote in, but what this means is that Obama did 20 points better than expected by all of the pre-election polls that the Clinton Campaign was claiming early on.

My apologies to Melvin here, and only if you were reading last night on the diaries that didn't make the rec' list, as most of the diaries I respond toward and actually write never make, would you understand why I was apologizing to Melvin.  If you need more that that, here is my post to Melvin last night:  

http://www.dailykos.com/...

For some years now, the Bush administration has set upon a course of filling up our strategic oil reserves.  He was doing this long before Congress, in 2005, via its Energy Bill required the Bush administration to actually expand the reserve to 1 billion barrels of oil.  

I will not claim any expertise on this topic, nor on the types of oil being marketed, but I have been paying attention to this simply because of rising oil hence rising gasoline prices.  Perhaps others with some expertise might share some of their knowledge with us.

What I have heard estimated is that the US Gov't, via Bush, is purchasing about half of what is purchased in our county.  Further, I have heard that we put nothing but the finest of oil into our reserve, the light stuff, at top dollar paid on the open market.  Follow me over the fold, if you will...

During the 2004 General Election, I received a "form" letter from the Bishop of the local Catholic Diocese which essentially discussed the then upcoming election.  The letter didn't name the candidates, it just offered a suggestion that good Catholics shouldn't vote for a candidate who offered a pro-choice position on the reproductive rights of women.  Essentially, it was an anti-abortion screed, which immediately offended me.  

Tonight, I read this...a May 9, 2008 AP article, which started off...

NEW YORK (AP) - Conservative legal advocates are recruiting pastors nationwide to defy an IRS ban on preaching about politicians, in a challenge they hope will abolish the restriction.

The Alliance Defense Fund, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., will ask the clergy to deliver a sermon about specific candidates Sept. 28. If the action triggers an IRS investigation, the legal group will sue to overturn the federal rules, which were enacted in 1954.

Working my way through some "election" news this evening, I ventured to The Hill, which I haven't visited in quite a while.  They offer some news that I have not seen reported or linked to at any of my typical news sites, so I thought I would share some of these stories with you.

The one that I found most interesting was a story where Obama has taken a different stance than the Congressional Black Caucus on of all things, legislation that would punish the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

Follow me over the fold if you wish to read more...

Remember recently Dick Cheney joked about his wife saying that portraying him as Darth Vader humanized him?  If it humanized him, it was just barely, and I suppose that this comment going back to September 16, 2001 introduced us to the real "Cheney"...

On September 16, 2001, Vice-President Richard Cheney appeared on "Meet the Press", in an interview you can read from the web pages of the White House itself...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/...

I will offer below, if you follow me, a few snippets of that interview, where we see the "Darth Vader" of Dick Cheney coming into the light...we should have been warned right then and there, but I suppose we were all in shock, I know I was, by the tragic events of 9/11...

This is just an IMHO; but I was determined at the start of this primary season not to vote for Hillary Clinton, for many reasons.  I didn't support any other candidate, and I pretty much liked them all, except for Clinton.

It was only in January, after Iowa, listening to Obama's speech, that I finally decided he was the candidate I would support.  When Florida held its unsanctioned primary on January 29, I was one of the few who voted Obama.  I doubt other Floridians were as focused on the Democratic primary as I was, and in fact, know quite a few who just voted "Clinton" because of Bill.

Let me be clear here in stating that part of my absolute determination not to vote Hillary was because of Bill.  I didn't vote for him in '92, I did vote for him in '96, but I hated the 90s with the exception of the economy (and that was only for the most part).

Before you are misled into believing this has anything to do with the 2008 Democratic Nomination, you should stop reading right now.  There is no Obama, nor Clinton, nor even McCain in this diary.  There is, however, imho, bad news which I consider good.  So with this disclaimer, if you wish to read about the IMF, and globalization, etc. etc. etc., please keep reading!

In my evening reading tonight, I ran across some bad news, which made me cheer in reading!  Nothing pleases me more than reading that the IMF (the International Money Fund) is "going down".  It is not that I am a radical, but I am a great sympathizer of the anti-globalization efforts that we have seen throughout the world.  The more I see efforts at quashing the protest, the more I wish to see the protesters succeed, at least in the majority of their efforts.

For me, my great interest in this topic was stirred in the late 90s, specifically, 1999, and the Seattle "riots" that occurred during the WTO meeting.  

While I read about this a long while ago, perhaps because "religion" has become such a forefront of modern day politics (including the war against terrorism, and even the sectarian violence occurring in Iraq), this will relate a little bit of USA history.

One site I visit sporadically on the internet, and have for years, can be found here:  http://members.tripod.com/...

Basically, the site is dedicated toward the principal of the separation of church and state.  It is updated a few times per year, hence my sporadic visitation.  However, for those of you who believe in the principal, you might venture into an exploration of the site, as it offers quite a bit of history, going back toward our founding, and continuing on into modern day events.  Follow me over the fold...

Here is how it goes for me.  Yesterday, from 9:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., my body was parked at a County Commission Meeting.  April 28, 2008, marked round one of Comprehensive Land Use Plan changes for Palm Beach County Florida.  

Every year, the County Commission hosts two rounds of changes to the Palm Beach County Comprehensive Land Use Plan.  They follow a procedure set out by State law, rules and regulations.  I would be willing to bet your county and state has a similar type system.  If you live in a municipality, the same thought applies.

For me, it all began with my support for Howard Dean, early on, way early in 2002.  I finally fell in political love with a candidate who actually dared me to participate.  The "you have the power, we have the power" message really caught me, and wow, I was dedicated toward gaining Howard Dean the nomination...

Sure, it is true, we are a pretty big country.  Some claim we are the richest nation in the world.  Some claim we are the only "superpower" remaining in the world.  All of the claims are somewhat tenuous, especially considering current economic times, and let's not mention two wars that are straining our military and our budget into extremes.

Tonight, proudly (?) we can proclaim that the USA Dwarfs Other Nations...in...the number of inmates!  That's right, the USA imprisons more people per capita than any other country in the world!  In fact, this little statistic might shock some...

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

I can only say WOW upon reading this news.  Ok, I know this site is abuzz with what is happening in Pennsylvania tonight, but honestly, didn't we all already know it wouldn't end tonight?  I don't even care about the margins.  I prayed that Obama would win, it appears he hasn't, and now it is on to North Carolina and Indiana.  My attention is refocused on, of all places, Iraq.

I will start with this article...the Iraqi legislative panel proposing a ban on importing toy guns.  After all, it encourages violence in Iraqi children:

A parliamentary committee is drafting a bill that would ban imports of toy guns and fireworks into Iraq, hoping to curb increasingly aggressive behavior among children who have grown up amid real war, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

For any of you have ever read any of my diaries or my comments, you will know that I am a resident of the State of Florida, and further home of the "butterfly ballot" Palm Beach County, Florida, the county targeted for losing the election for Al Gore in 2000.  

Further, as most of you know, Florida is one of those "States" again targeted for screwing up the election this year, only in the primary and not in the general.  This time, it had nothing to do with ballot design, or chads, or mysterious laws, it just had to do with violating the rules and schedules adopted by the DNC.

In any event, as any of you who might have read my past diaries and/or comments know, I live in a fairly conservative, mostly rural area, which is more "Republican" than "Democratic".  Which leads me toward this diary for today, anecdotal as it is...

especially with the redefinition of the "middle class" as being those who earn an average of $250,000 a year.  Depending upon the year, I earn between $40,000 and $57,000, and I thought I was doing well enough.

Granted, I never quite earned that college education, but I made sure that my children had the opportunity for that college education.  My older daughter has actually earned the education I once desired, and now works in government.  Her salary?  - $42,000 per year.  My younger daughter, after nearly completing her first year in college is set on a goal of being an elementary school teacher...starting salary $35,000 per year.

Since when is "middle class" defined as earning $250,000 per year?  Since when is defining middle class defined as those earning over $97,000 per year?

Now some might want to know why they should remember $9,444,399,908,742.20.  It does sound like a random sort of number, but this is the "debt to the penny" figure offered by the US Treasury as our total public debt owed as of April 14, 2008.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/...

Yes, paying taxes is painful.  It has been described as "theft" by some; it has been described as a necessary "evil" for maintaining government by others.  My thought on paying taxes falls more into the second description.    Nobody enjoys paying taxes; however, government could not operate without their assessment and collection.

Unashamedly, I watched the CNN forum on faith and its relationship with politics.  Clearly, I am not one of those who is overtly religious, in fact, I declare myself an agnostic.  Yet, underneath it all, my Catholic upbringing stays with me.

I do believe in God, perhaps not the punishing God offered by a "bible" which I frequently state was written by "men".  Further, as it relates toward my life, I have adopted the message of Jesus.  I don't worship at any shrine, and basically scorn organized religion.  Yet, the message of Jesus, over 2000 years old is incorporated into my daily life in so many small ways I could not describe it entirely.

Most of my adult life has found me centered of the belief that there is and should remain a separation of Church and State.  I wholeheartedly believe this; yet, tonight, I watched the faith forum on CNN and found myself again astounded by Barack Obama...

While all of us have become familiar with "pledged" delegates and "superdelegates" and even who the superdelegates might be; tonight, I learned about the super superdelegates.  There apparently are extra-privileges "some" superdelegates have via the ability to name some 76 additional supers who might make an overall difference in whom our nominee might me...

From Findlaw news...

Largely overlooked in the arcane process, though, is the power of a select few to complete the superdelegate ranks by naming 76 newbies, and Clinton and Obama are fighting hard over every one of those from state conventions to back rooms.

http://news.findlaw.com/...

As Rachel Maddow pointed out quite eloquently tonight, should we accept John McCain at his word, we truly never will leave Iraq.  If there are American casualties, this means we must stay until success is attained, if there are none, it is safe for us to remain.

It has always been impossible for me to describe what exactly is happening in Iraq, but pre-war, I became a huge advocate for the one candidate who openly and loudly questioned that lead up to war and subsequent invasion, and it was Howard Dean.  I came to admire many other things about Howard Dean, but ultimately, that drove my support for him, and I became a Deaniac, much in the way I am an Obamamaniac.

In 2002, I never envisioned that my older brother would decide, because of finances in 2004, he would become one of those private Americans signing on with KBR to go to Iraq.  He lived and worked in the Green Zone for 3 years, and now we simply don't speak.  For most of those 3 years I begged him continually to return home, knowing how miserable he was.  So miserable he changed from my older brother into a person I now no longer know.