This diary will be a bit rambling. Just hastily shoving a bunch of stuff that came to mind today out there as food for thought.
If someone with an Obama website account could suggest in the appropriate forum that a good campaign event would be to hold a side-of-the-road "car wash" type event where Obama volunteers inflate people's tires for free (and talk up/leaflet energy policy) ... I just haven't gotten around to making an account or exploring the forums there.
I wonder how many Exxon execs are fuming at McCain right now for putting tire pressure in the public spotlight. They've got this collapsing demand problem at the moment, you see...
PIBI stands for Pride In Being Ignorant. Or Proud I Be Ignrent. Pass it on.
More than you ever wanted to know about tires after the bump.
Most of you are probably unaware of the "contest" going on at myyardourmessage.com to design lawn signs that will be available for ordering, and some of which will be put up around town before the RNC in August.
It seems the Walker Art Center wanted only non-partisan signs. They were not very clear about that in their submission rules. Any sign that mentions a candidate or Republicans or Democrats is being "un-approved" for the contest, unless it's one of those weenie "can't we all just get along" things.
Now as far as I know they might even have legal reasons to do this. I don't know whether they get federal funds and/or are restricted somehow.
I just wanted to make sure the signs that got "un-approved" got seen. So they are linked after the bump.
Lunch break is always painful for me because that's the time of the day I have to watch the best front-page diaries go sailing by without leaving a comment. (I only have a couple of minutes to glaze over websites.)
So I missed out on the Veep-a-thon today. Coincidentally, I was talking with a friend and fellow kossack this weekend about who would make a good VP pick for Obama. Nothing clicked then. At lunch today it did, and I couldn't post, dammit!
I had a bunch of criteria, and I'll list those after the bump, but one criteria some are hesitant to mention is that Obama's veep is more than a Vice President. He/she should be an insurance policy against foul play -- that's about as lightly as it can be put I guess. Someone that those most likely to commit the unthinkable would not want assuming power after the fact.
And I came up with a name nobody mentioned (unless my text search betrayed me.) It's an out-of-the-box, out-on-a-limb suggestion, from a non-policy-wonk, but who knows... at the very least I expect to be constructively berated...
UPDATE: I decided to point mcangry.com to AnotherMassachusettsLiberal's johnmcaingry.com. which is funny because I actually am a Mass Liberal.
No seriously, type "McAngry" into a web browser and you end up here at this very diary. I registered it last night and just pointed it here. Sort of like tinyURL.
The "McThreat Level" estimates the chances of a McCain "Dean Scream", a.k.a. a "McHulk Moment"
MCTHREAT LEVEL: GREEN
As the campaigns are taking time off this weekend, McCain should get plenty of McNaptime.
Keith Olbermann locked up the prime top-of-page real estate for this week with his segment on McAnger Management.
You hate stupid people, too, right? You know: the "joe six-packs"; the "uninformed"; the "people who should know better"; the "American Idiots."
Like all those morons in the electorate -- not just the "30% backwash," but even some "so-called progressives" are pretty numb.
You'd like to see a presidential campaign be about the real issues, for example, but all you get is "identity politics," "wedge issues," and other hysteria.
So what do you do about it? Read on, I'll tell you...
I think by now it is established that both the Obama and Hillary campaigns realized that populism sells, watching Edwards do what he did in Iowa with much less cash. I have been watching the language slowly morph and it is fascinating for those of us who really like to parse.
Depending on their demeanor, Edwards supporters (I am one) are either irked, or just point to it as Edwards having a positive influence on the campaign. Talking about poverty, it seems, is OK even for a rich guy to do, and no amount of accusations of hypocrisy will kill that message.
Especially when Edwards is savvy enough to string the media along waiting for the Iowa "concession" sound-bite they so desperately wanted, reclaiming some of that lost airtime they have been denying him.
The consequences? Disease, the occasional dead child, decreased productivity. Increases health care costs. A nation of sickos. The teeth are often the first domino to be tipped. Prevention here is perhaps the best investment of time, money, and effort a nation can make.
But you are left on your own. So time to bone up...
When we last left our terrified audience, they were fleeing the movie theater, as the credits to Attack Of The Killer PondScum scrolled by, watched only by those too petrified to find their feet.
Hastily they upgraded their sleeping pill scripts and returned to their lives, hoping to someday forget the horror. It was not to be. Just when they thought it was safe to go back in the water, the previews started, and try as they might, they could not avert their eyes. Something was calling -- a great undertow of a voice pulling them like helpless jellyfish, taunting them with that little orange link they knew they just should not click on, but yes they just did, tripped over the bump they did, to suffer the sequela of the sequel.
It's been, wow, almost a year, since I last summarized solar concentrator companies for our mutual eco-edification. I started this post yesterday afternoon thinking I'd just have to check out ten or so news articles. Boy was I wrong. For every company I looked at then, there are two more on the radar screen now. Many are based in California, but also other states and across the globe.
You hear all the time that the cost of solar power is going to go down, and if you are like many people find yourself asking "yeah, right, when?" Well, don't let the slow progress fool you. There's a bulge in the garden hose and if you'll follow me past the bump, I hope to give us a better idea of how far we are from the nozzle.
Did you know you have a power? It's a kind of force that is completely nonviolent. It hurts nobody. Your grandparents did not have it, but you do. Did you know that?
The force is called by many names -- "numerical complexity," "strong cryptography," but you can just call it "math" -- yes that stuff that made your head swim in high school.
Math is based on simple rules. To many it seems to exist in this far-off land completely detached from reality, full of baskets full of unknown numbers of apples and oranges and more letters and symbols than a bowl of alphabet soup (unless it is made in Greece.) But math is very real, and has real world effects.
Read on to see how that alphabet soup belies the basis of the FISA legislation, and can be used to restore your privacy by force, since our government no longer cares to protect it. Learn to "whisper" in the digital age.
It has come to our attention that tomorrow Lou Dobbs is running a hit piece on the "Deep Pocketted Lobby" to legalize Marijuana.
We, said Deep Pocketted Lobby, apologize for the short notice, but we just got home from running a money order over to the electric company office to get our power turned back on. Also we can't afford cable, so we didn't notice until today. Actually we should have known yesterday since someone sent us an email, but between you and me who has time to check their email between working two shifts and clipping coupons?
Right before Christmas my best friend died at 35 years of age.
I found him on a Friday after work, no longer with us. It was a shock to everyone, and then when the shock wore off, a sucker punch to the stomach. We were housemates for ten of the last fifteen years, starting in college.
Although Aaron rarely ventured into discussion forums or blogs, I would not be surprised if a lot of kossaks had met him. He was a well connected activist both in his spare time, against the War on (some) Drugs, and in his "day job" where he was a strident protector of workers, fighting safety violations and longterm chemical exposure.
Even if you didn't know him, please take a moment. I think you'll find his a life to be worth knowing about...
I volunteer my diary for today for everyone wishing to to happy dances about their state legislatures. Stateline.org (A Pew site) has a good writeup of Dem pickups nationwide, most dramatically:
Democratic gains vastly outnumbered Republican gains in the nation's state legislatures Nov. 7, enough to take control of legislative chambers in at least six states -- including the New Hampshire House for the first time since at least 1922.
Democrats also took control of the Iowa House, Senate and governor's mansion for the first time in 40 years. The party gained five seats in the Iowa House and now has a 54-45 majority, with one seat undecided, according to preliminary results reported by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Democrats moved the state Senate from a tie to a 29-21 majority, according to NCSL. Democrat Chet Culver defeated U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle in the gubernatorial race to replace outgoing Gov. Tom Vilsack (D).
It's predicted that somewhere in the area of 1 out of every three voters will vote early or absentee this year. Today, that means they've pretty much already voted or are at the polls right now.
I'm really just posting this for the below poll which I think Kossaks will find interesting. But to make this space useful here's some links:
Most of you are probably already aware that there is a place to call on election day to report any weirdness at your polling location -- or for that matter with absentee ballots now. Reports can be filed online at voteproblem.org or called into 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683).
This is the system that will be promoted by the NAACP, PFAW, and a host of other organizations, and seems to have many faces: www.nationalcampaignforfairelections.org, www.ep365.org, and www.866ourvote.org. (This has actually been the source of some mystery and confusion, as exactly who runs it and precisely why as such is seldom clearly defined, but I just chalk this up to a lack of PR strategy.)
Below the fold you'll find information on a few other initiatives, and hotline numbers for use on election day, where I could find them. Please lend a hand fleshing out this list -- the goal is to create a web form which will allow voters to enter their state and find a list of all voter protection hotlines or websites taking reports nationally or in their own state, along with contact information for their local BOE.
Half a year ago, I diaried about the new wave of solar power devices which concentrate sunlight onto solar cells to get more power out of them.
The solar panel market seems to have priced in the silicon feedstock shortage, and panel prices will likely coast downwards from now on (inflation adjusted.) Also the non-silicon technologies seem to be gearing up for mass production.
However a mirror or lens will likely remain cheaper per square foot than the cells themselves for quite some time. So let's check in with this market and see what has happenned in the last six months.
How quickly we forget the lessons of history. Like Mitt Romney winning votes with a sad looking basset hound. Or the Anti-Kerry wolves.
So while I applaud those Dems that are creating hard-hitting ads that really speak to the issues, I implore candidates to remember: the last few weeks before the election everyone is so saturated with politicians they will hit "mute" at the very site of a podium or sound of the CSI "accusing spooky guy voice." All commonsense is about to disappear for short spell.
Which is why if you do not have a CUTE FURRY ANIMAL, preferably doing something naughty, in the pipeline you are going to miss your audience. Oh yeah, and printing stuff on the screen works even when the TV is muted.
Right before Christmas my best friend died at 35 years of age.
