I, like many here, was impressed by Al Gore's Live Earth events. The message was clear, the events were engaging, and really some of the performers rocked.
But I was concerned with Gore's speech, and his support for developing carbon sequestration technology as one of the mechanisms for fighting global warming. Seeing the recommended diary on Edward's plan which also includes carbon sequestration motivated me to write this diary
Carbon sequestration may some day allow us to trap significant quantities of CO2 in geologic formations. But it can do much more than that.
The recent announcements by pet food manufacturers concerning the contamination of pet foods by the chemical melamine have prompted me to look into the general issue of toxic chemicals in our food stream - and things don't look good.
I love this site not only because we have so many talented diarists hammering out the structure and soundness of our platform and positions, but also because we have such an engaging community that will critique and lend aid to refining that message.
In the comments to a recent recommended diary, I passed by a comment
Dems have to sell ideas as well as Reps.
Get some consistent messages and frame them as Progressive (not liberal) issues for today's Dems.
The consistency is the key here, and it isn't just in the message.
In the previous installation of this piece about my burgeoning young progressive family, I described the uncommon, but certainly not unique, sitatuation wherein my wife and I found ourselves six months pregnant. Not having made any plans for this actuality, we were now forced to make choices.
I have been visting the Daily Kos community for long enough to realize that my favorite diaries are the ones that bring the personal into the political. Writers like nyceve, and OrgangeCloud115 have shown me the incredible work that can be done by being our honest selves.
For some time, I have been looking for a voice to do some great work here myself, and over the past year I have gone on a great journey through our nation's social services that I think should be shared.
The year had it's highs and lows, and covers enough issues facing progressive Dems to be relevant here. So please join me in recounting my first year in Finding a Home for Progressives . . .
right now kos has some information on the Glover Park Group frontpaged.
It's too easy to raise a ruckus over their transgressions. Obviously, they are simply serving the interests of the highest bidder.
What seems more productive is building a case that you can take to candidates, party members, even the public as to why these asshats should not be trusted with doing any political work ever again.
Kos is a direct Democratic response to the bitterly partisan warfare of 21st century politics. Everyone on this site knows that, and most are here because that's exactly what they wanted.
I enjoy the site regularly, mostly because of the expert opinions and professional grade writing that I see regularly on issues that I care about (many thanks to bonddad and DarkSyde).
However, there are times when I think the means/ends circle is closed a little too quickly, without reflection on the whether our means as a community are undermining our ends.
The evidence on the flip . . .
UPDATED: thereisnospoon reminds me that the Liberal Blogging whoevers choose the ads, not Kos. So I stopped the insanity.
It was fun while it lasted.
I would love to have the Democrats unite around a common narrative for this election year. So responding to georgia10's front page article, here is my choice for Dem political philosophy.
Kos is wrong. I think he's scared. Maybe he's got a grudge. But the continuing articles demonizing the Sierra Club for endorsing Chafee doesn't show thought towards the big picture of electoral politics, or environmental advocacy.
We've challenged the Democratic Party to step up and fight for the common good - now they're doing it! Below the flip see what Democrats are doing to reverse Republican cuts to federal student loans.
Currently the concept of the Commnon Good is circulating for a theme for the Democratic Party. Nothing is better for our country as a whole as a well educated populace, for both our economy and politics.
Voila! The Dems in Congress just introduced a terrific bill to cut interest rates in half on all student and parent loans and to increase grant aid. This is great news - they haven't been the most proactive at helping college students up until this point so we want to encourage them in their proactive moves. They have set up e-forum to collect testimonials from students.
Today I learned the real meaning of "market based" as libertarians and Republicans use the term. Although I have never taken an economics course, I got a good education, and reading many Jerome, bonddad, and Stirling Newbury diaries has made me feel better about my knowledge of the economy.
Today it all cam together . . .
I have recently followed some great diaries on new scientific findings concerning global warming, and have been dismayed at the lack of diaries on the politics of global warming. For your pleasure, my thoughts on the Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and how we can work to make the Northeast a model for the rest of the country.
For those who don't want the details, but want to do something, call of write MA Gov. Romney, and let him know you support a strong emmissions cap, with the majority of cabron allowances for sale, and no carbon off-sets. This is the best possibility for a national model to fight global warming emmissions.
State House
Office of the Governor
Room 360
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: (617) 725-4005
(888) 870-7770 (instate use only)
FAX: (617) 727-9725
TTY: (617) 727-3666
Washington D.C.
Office of the Governor
444 N. Capitol Street, Suite 208
Washington, D.C. 20001
Phone: (202) 624-7713
FAX: (202) 624-7714
364 robberies and 24 homicides in the preceding 32 days. With the District on pace to match or exceed last year's 198 homicides, the only official to give voice to and act on that dangerous development is the city's top cop. What, indeed, has the city come to?
Not just Washington DC to break homicide records from previous years, also Boston, Richmond . . .
Drezden posted a great diary on new research supporting a climate change theory of global warming. I agree that these climate systems are currently under great stress, and that the activity of humankind has contributed to this stress.
Mid-way through the discussion, a snarky (maybe trollish?) comment was posted
Aren't we suppose to be progressives here on Kos? Why all the doomsday predictions about some changes? <snark>
I see the trollishness, but I think its important to expand on the ideas implicit in a statement like this . . .
It may come as no surprise to readers here, but a new generation of politically engaged students have shown that technology, including blogging, will drastically change the political landscape in the years to come. From the Harvard University Institute of Politics Fall 2005 poll:
Almost half (48%) of today's college students consider themselves to be politically engaged or active. Whereas their parents used protests, marches, concerts, and sit-ins as a means of making their voices heard, and their grandparents joined a union or a political party, today's generation are utilizing technology, marketing, and networking to further their political agenda.
This is good news for the future of the netroots, and it only gets better for the dkos crowd.
More on the flip . . .
While the scandals erupt around the WH illicit incompetance, and the left-wing leads itself into Iraq furor, Congress is considering cuts to the lifeblood of millions of Americans nation wide. And the dailykos crowd seems strangly uninterested.
Just when you thought that we had framed the debate on poverty in America . . . when millions who previously hadn't acknowledged the extent of the problem are forced to see the Katrina Aftermath . . . when House Dems stop HUGE cuts to Food Stamps . . . the powers that be find a brand new way oppress, as noted in today's Worcester, MA Telegram and Gazette
A Washington, D.C., mental health legal advocacy group says the recommendations of the Mayor's Social Service Task Force would violate federal law if they were adopted.
Below the fold for how the Worcester Government treats homeless like toxic waste . . .
