The ongoing character assassination and donut bombing of all who speak fondly of Ron Paul on this site has got to stop.

Each of us are responsible for electing anywhere from 22 to 115 different politicians in different offices to represent us throughout our various municipal, county, state and federal governments. The office of President is only ONE of these dozens of offices that we the voters have the privilege to fill with each election.

What purpose does it serve the Democratic party to shout down every traditionally democratic Ron Paul supporter and viciously characterize each of them as racist homophobes, when their support for Paul only represents at most 4.5% of their total representational voice?

I can't write with the eloquence of bonddad or Jerome a Paris, but when I read this I immediately thought it needed to be brought to everyone's attention who is concerned about how wealth is being concentrated more rapidly in the hands of a few, at the cost of driving struggling and sometimes even profitable businesses into bankruptcy.

I'll just post a few choice excerpts and let the experts parse it out. The businessweek article is titled Gluttons at the Gate.

I'm posting this mainly because I need help understanding the business model being followed by the company below, and to get clarification on some aspects of the synthetic fuels industry.

To the best of my understanding, it costs anywhere from $5-35 per barrel to produce synthetic fuels such as gasoline and diesel, using proven coals-to-liquids refining processes. Those costs translate to maybe $1 per gallon on the retail market, give or take a nickel or two.

Back when oil was cheap - under $30/barrel, Congress passed legislation to provide tax credits for synthetic fuels producers because their costs to produce usable fuel were higher than petroleum fuel producers. But as the price of oil rose above $30/barrel, the tax credits for synfuel production diminish. I'm not real clear on the details of these tax credits, which is one reason for posting the diary.

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Georgia Democratic Sec. of State and gubernatorial candidate Cathy Cox has just lost her campaign manager Morton Brilliant over a wikipedia entry he posted that attacked her Dem. primary opponent Mark Taylor with personal information regarding his son.

Just in: Tropical Depression Fifteen forms off the Bermuda coast, early predicted path points toward the Carolinas.

Though it's really too soon to know the exact dangers from this storm, I think the earliest heads up possible will help us prepare in the target zones.

Are we ready?

Where are the shelters in your area? What are the evacuation routes? Gas up your vehicles, gather food/water/equipment together for yourselves, and prepare to help the less fortunate evacuate out of the path by offering them rides to the nearest safe shelter. Start your planning now (as if that even needs to be said).

Please give this Diebold-Georgia diary your attention and recommendation. Some incredibly important stuff is making its way into the public consciousness to deal with Diebold touchscreens and the people who defend them.

Good and distracted with the Rove mess are we? Well the campaign finance sneak isn't the only thing slipping below the radar. I just ran across this article about Sensenbrenner's intentions to ram through legislation tomorrow (today?) to make all provisions of the Patriot Act permanent. Is there any hope that we can stop this? Excerpt below.

The battle over controlling cable content is heating up, with conservative Christian groups leading the fight to pressure the FCC to impose regulations on cable operators that will allow subscribers to pick and choose which channels are piped into their home.

This proposal is gaining acceptability with the masses, because of the way it's framed.

I didn't see anything on this with the search feature, and didn't see anything about it in the US news media. I just happened to stumble onto it while looking at other news, on an Australian news site.

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Jesse Jackson to Visit Hospice Where Terri Schiavo Lives

Rev. Jackson is responding to an invitation from the Schindler family to come and pray with the family, and if possible visit Terri Schiavo in the hospice.

In this news segment from NPR, we learn that Europe takes the privacy of personal information much more seriously than the US.

Partial transcript below:

The dam has broken on the use and abuse of our personal data by the information brokerage industry. Choicepoint wasn't the beginning, and certainly isn't the end of it. Almost daily, another company announces a breach, and this time LexisNexis.

This article in Thursday's Washington Post reports that yet another power player has recently given access to our personal data to thieves. But this time, the company involved is the brain behind the government's Matrix. [more]

Cornyn-Leahy OPEN Government Act improves FOIA access, recognizes bloggers as media sources

Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Leahy (D-VT) have introduced bipartisan legislation that would bolster public access to government information, and for the first time recognize bloggers as legitimate representatives of the media. Called the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2005 (OPEN Government Act), the bill is designed to promote openness in government.

The bill is being praised on both sides of aisle (supporting excerpts below) as much-needed legislation to update open records access to bring agencies into compliance with the statutory 20-day response times and broaden legitimate media access requests to include internet journalists, or bloggers. It also seeks to establish a hotline and internet tracking ability of the status of such requests.

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