Who's on first ?

Howard

New DesMoines Register poll

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=caucus

Who's Afraid of Barack Obama?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/opinion/02rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

if you look at the 2nd tier candidates in the poll, none of them are viable. so, honest bet, richardson goes to hill. the others combined don't make a challenge when added to either john or obama???

then consider the margin of error, which was no where to be found on the polling data??? 5 points? at least?

polls/stuff like this is misleading and probably bunk besides!!!

The Al Gore/Arnold Schwarzneggar global warming conference will be held on December 19th.

The conference will also be hosted by Senator John McCain.

We're awaiting more details, but at least we have a date.

Sunni bloc boycotts Iraq parliament after crackdown on leader Sat Dec 1, 7:12 AM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's main Sunni bloc pulled out of parliament on Saturday in protest at a crackdown on their leader Adnan al-Dulaimi, throwing the country's political process into new turmoil.

"We announce our boycott of the parliament until Adnan al-Dulaimi returns to the assembly today or tomorrow," Abdul Karim al-Samarraie of the National Concord Front said in parliament.

---

The political QUAGMIRE continues...an awfully lot of American taxpayer money (12 BILLION dollars a month) is being flushed down the can in Iraq that could be used to assist in expanding healthcare coverage to MILLIONS of American children.

I thought the minimal surge was going to provide the Iraqi government with the necessary space to negotiate and bring about political reconciliation. Ironically, however, the increased presence has had the opposite effect of what it was intended to provide. Rather than promoting better cooperation among the sectarian parties, it has further divided them.

Such is the nature of QUAGMIRES.....

Now, those are some icicles  hanging on those balls.

...now, if someone tells me those are cherries.......

don't we have another problem of cherries on a tree in December? 

ok, no gore...i'm left to pick/choose and move forward. i'm going to work for the election of john edwards. i have heard and realize the truths contained in sitka's and other's statements about edwards, but i think that he is saying the right stuff of all the candidates, and, unfortunately, the only way to know the truth is to elect him. the other candidates, for me, don't get there. i like dodd. obama's ok. the rest, for me, well, no there there. ok. i just wanted to be completely open about this and tell all my dfa friends where i've landed.

criticism is welcome. slamming is not.

3882

oh, and, btw, feet-fire is the thought process going forward. no one who gets support or gets elected is free of the feet-fire scenario. WE have to be the fire for those feet. WE have to hold them accountable. without us, they'll do as they want.

roger, it's going to be 4,000 soon. i fear for my brothers and sisters in harm's way. whose face will fate choose? i don't want to be any part of the prediction. troops home now! all troops! no permanent bases, no residual troops for any reason!!!!

8.  :(  a tough choice isn't it.?   There isn't a stand out winner.  It's a choice of which one has at least a bit more spice than the rest of these bland flavor choices.

 Folks are not very excited by this.  So sad...and scary.

...I remain hopefull that some folks wake up for the better the Dem party, 

our country and planet.

....this path these folks want to take us on will not lead us to where we need to be:(   

Time for

a COOL

change,

GORE

2008 

but i think that he is saying the right stuff of all the candidates, and, unfortunately, the only way to know the truth is to elect him.

It's your money to gamble. 

linda, you know i'm for gore, but he isn't running. isn't that the truth? we're left with those who are running, and i've decided to back edwards. i hope that you can see the logic behind my stance. if not, well, we can still be friends, right....

WE have to be the fire for those feet. WE have to hold them accountable. without us, they'll do as they want.

That doesn't hold  water when you're willing to set Edwards' record aside. Because what are politicians to be held accountable FOR if not their actions while in office?

14. mprov, Oh yes, I agree.  Did I say something wrong?  i agreed, these are the choices folks have...............CURENTLY   :)

"That doesn't hold water when you're willing to set Edwards' record aside. Because what are politicians to be held accountable FOR if not their actions while in office?""

absolutely right, sitka.

i'm not setting his record aside, but instead hoping that his current bi-line is the true john. i think its a matter of something to loose or not. john and elizabeth don't have anything to loose. hill and obama do....

...it's just not real choices, imo

Un problemo grande para mi.  No se. 

no, linda, you and are together on this. i completely agree!!!!

john and elizabeth don't have anything to loose. hill and obama do....

That's been said here before. I didn't get it then either.

One of the things I find all Edwards' supporters have in common is the need to rationalize their support around his record, which they can't support.

mprov, I'm just gonna' have to do what Al asked in his last  RS interview.  I'll keep my" energy stored to have a go at it then" when ever that future date comes.

...and it's staying in that lock box that only HE HAS A KEY TO  :)

I'll keep my" energy stored to have a go at it then" when ever that future date comes.

I don't feel the need to join a campaign just for the sake of it. 

i'm not setting his record aside, but instead hoping that his current bi-line is the true john.

You have to believe that his record is insincere and set it it aside in order to believe he is sincere now. 

I would have to agree, out of the the "3 front runners", Edwards would be the only possibility, but that doesn't really help me for final decisions.



Hillary's record, we all know. Funny, at least she's not trying to pretend about it, she doesn't lie and try to tell us she's somethingn she not. She does deserve some kudos for that. Obama's record is even more disturbing, not even holding up his US Senate Campaign promises and all those other votes from Condi to bankruptcy amendments and liquified Coal. Worse for me is that he claims opposite of his votes and that is truly troubling that he tries to pretend he's something he's not. And showing to vote for his donors, from Exelon and Nukes to Coal and his financial backers that he voted for the Bankruptcy amendments. And that he has only been in the US Senate 2 years before running, with this record, I think is a nightmare scenario.

Then Dodd. He seems like a nice man, but his record is all the same as Lieberman. Including Alito.

OY VEY!

I would have to agree, out of the the "3 front runners", Edwards would be the only possibility

That's why I think it best to consider them all regardless of their polling and vote for the one whose rhetoric and record best matches my values. 

But I would like to see just one Edwardian say, "I LIKE his Senate record and don't care that it no longer matches up with what he's saying now!"

Good interview of Howard Dean at C-Span during intermission of the DNC meeting.

http://www.c-span.org/rss/video.asp?MediaID=33625

Hover your mouse over the video to get the 2x mode or full screen.   About 5 minutes.

28. Well, don't look my way. LOL


Twas fun. Nite folks.

Be well.

Hillary's record, we all know.

If so, then we also know the records of Edwards, Biden, and Dodd since they are virtually identical.

When I narrow it to that lineup, I might as well vote for the first woman president.

And since becoming a senator, Obama is almost another clone of them except that he's skipped a lot of the telling votes in order to claim plausible deniability.

Richardson doesn't have the damning Senate record, but he's DLCer who supported invading Iraq. That's no-go  enough for me.

Kucinich's only problem with me with regard to record is that he threw his support to the WarDem Edwards in 2004, so I won't go out on limb and praise him.

Gravel? His boasting about the Alaska pipeline and call for a regressive sales tax have tainted him for me.

My primary is on Feb. 5, so I'll tell everyone how I vote then. 

My primary is on Feb. 5, so I'll tell everyone how I vote then.

And my vote will not be influenced by who wins previously. I will not be herded. 

30.....still here, taking a break from dishes. YEP, what a quandary, huh?

????????

some how, something tells me if I don't write Al Gore, I should just go with Kucinich.


But even that leaves me.............

some how, something tells me if I don't write Al Gore, I should just go with Kucinich.

Sometimes it's a tough call to do what's best. That's why I'll make no decision this time around until I need to. 

Mark wrote "ok, no gore...i'm left to pick/choose and move forward. i'm going to work for the election of john edwards."

Does your decision have anything to do with whether Edwards has a shot at winning?

Good morning, BFA!

**********
Just like to say here that I support and admire all here who are working for their Dem candidates of choice, because they are DOING something that they believe in. And it is the doing that will make the difference.

I'm like Linda, and mprov, and LOTS of others who really believe that Al would be unquestioningly the best option. So long as he is not running, I really cannot get 100% behind anyone now running in the primaries and really keep hoping against hope that some kind of miracle will happen. It's probably a fantasy but just perhaps this one might come true.

Of the top three, however, I lean Edwards for many of the reasons that mprov stated. I would probably have used Sitka's reasoning for Hill, but she lost me with her Kyl-Lieberman vote. There's a lot of hope generated with Obama, but I've seen little real there there. Sorry, Obama fans, that's just me.

Of those not currently in the top three, I like Dodd the best because of the whole package. He has the same baggage as Edwards and Hill with his Iraq vote, but he also has seen the error of his ways, has found his stride and is letting Chris be Chris instead of a calculating politican. Of all of those running, as a former Peace Corps Volunteer, he has seen what it is like to work with other cultures at the grassroots level and how our foreign policy can literally mean life or death in their daily lives.

And thanks to all the good people like Monica for all that they do!

After the billions of USD poured into the black hole of Iraq, this prospect illustrates the total failure of putzCo there more than anything else.

The miracle is that it has taken this long to come.

====================
Cholera crisis hits Baghdad
Iraqi capital fears an epidemic if stricken sewerage system collapses as the rainy season arrives
David Smith
Sunday December 2, 2007
Observer

Baghdad is facing a 'catastrophe' with cases of cholera rising sharply in the past three weeks to more than 100, strengthening fears that poor sanitation and the imminent rainy season could create an epidemic.

The disease - spread by bacteria in contaminated water, which can result in rapid dehydration and death - threatens to blunt growing optimism in the Iraqi capital after a recent downturn in violence. Two boys in an orphanage have died and six other children were diagnosed with the disease, according to the Iraqi government. 'We have a catastrophe in Baghdad,' an official said.

The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) said 101 cases had been recorded in the city, making up 79 per cent of all new cases in Iraq. It added that no single source for the upsurge had been identified, but the main Shia enclave of Sadr City was among the areas hardest hit.

As Iraq's rainy season nears, its ageing water pipes and sewerage systems, many damaged or destroyed by more than four years of war, pose a new threat to a population weary of crisis. Claire Hajaj, a spokeswoman for Unicef, said: 'Iraq's water and sanitation networks are in a critical condition. Pollution of waterways by raw sewage is perhaps the greatest environmental and public health hazard facing Iraqis - particularly children. Waterborne diarrhoea diseases kill and sicken more Iraqi children than anything except pneumonia. We estimate that only one in three Iraqi children can rely on a safe water source - with Baghdad and southern cities most affected.'

Although US forces in Baghdad have found that security is improving, on daily patrols they face complaints from residents about streets plagued by piles of household waste and fetid cesspools, often near schools and where children are playing. Captain Richard Dos Santos, attached to the 3rd squadron of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, said that in the al-Hadar area of south Baghdad sewage pumps were only 30 to 40 per cent operational. 'There is sewage near schools and there is an increased threat of cholera and flu in winter when resistance is low,' he said.

The UN has reported 22 deaths from cholera this year, and 4,569 laboratory-confirmed cases, almost exclusively in northern Iraq where it was first detected in Kirkuk in August. It has now spread to half of the country's 18 provinces, but anxiety is focused on Baghdad.

[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

Good morning, everybody

Woke up thinking about why I referred to Barack Obama as "presentable" yesterday and then contrasted him with Jess Jackson, who's presidential.  What I've decided is that it comes down to my being comfortable about saying "I'd like to present Barack Obama to you," and realizing that he's not what used to be called "seasoned."  In his case, I think it's that he's not experienced any real disappointment or failure.  And, in that sense, he's very representative of the American Dream--it's what Americans wish life were like, but know it isn't.  

Anyway, I think Americans could be proud to present Barack Obama as the face of America to the world.  There are no Republicans in the field about whom that can be said.  

I certainly couldn't/wouldn't  say it about Bush or Cheney or Rice or  a host of other people who are an embarrassment.  That they hold the positions they hold is shameful.

The EU is seriouslz looking towards development of renewable energy sources. If this idea works, it would be beneficial for all concerned ... and most of all for the globe.

But under putzCo, whose souls were sold to their oil & gas friends from the beginning, we are doomed to grub about and battle for the last bits of fossil fuels.

==================
How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power
A £5bn solar power plan, backed by a Jordanian prince, could provide the EU with a sixth of its electricity needs - and cut carbon emissions
Robin McKie, science editor The Observer Sunday December 2 2007

Europe is considering plans to spend more than £5bn on a string of giant solar power stations along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East.

More than a hundred of the generators, each fitted with thousands of huge mirrors, would generate electricity to be transmitted by undersea cable to Europe and then distributed across the continent to European Union member nations, including Britain.

Billions of watts of power could be generated this way, enough to provide Europe with a sixth of its electricity needs and to allow it to make significant cuts in its carbon emissions. At the same time, the stations would be used as desalination plants to provide desert countries with desperately needed supplies of fresh water.

Last week Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan presented details of the scheme - named Desertec - to the European Parliament. 'Countries with deserts, countries with high energy demand, and countries with technology competence must co-operate,' he told MEPs.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20...

Monica Smith
Sun, 12/02/07
5:40 am

[...]
Anyway, I think Americans could be proud to present Barack Obama as the face of America to the world. There are no Republicans in the field about whom that can be said.

[...]

I absolutely concur with your thoughts, Monica, although as also noted above, I currently do not lean Obama.

***************
On a whole different topic, Carla del Ponte is Swiss and I believe that the Swiss have good reason to be proud of her tenure at the ICC.

===============
The pride and passion of a manhunter
Crusading UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte is about to end an eight-year mission that has convicted 53 killers. In this exclusive interview with Ed Vulliamy in The Hague, she looks back at her triumphs and failures
Ed Vulliamy
Sunday December 2, 2007
Observer

She is compact, with a shock of white hair and darting eyes that give more than a hint of the passions within the wrapping of the practice of law and its dry lexicon.

Carla Del Ponte, the world's most powerful criminal lawyer, has been chief prosecutor of the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda for eight epic years. A week tomorrow she gives her last report to the United Nations Security Council and leaves The Hague on New Year's Eve.

In her first valedictory interview, she told The Observer of the bittersweetness of the tribunal's successes and failures to conclude: 'For me, it started with the victims, continued for the victims and it ends with them. That is what I have to tell myself - if we have established the record of what happened to the victims, then we have achieved something'.

Del Ponte is hardly a modest or retiring woman, but on her desk, by way of salt in her own wound, lies an adulatory pennant showing the Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, with its sadistic squint. This is the man - along with political counterpart Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader - whose continued freedom, 12 years after they were indicted for genocide, is a thorn in Del Ponte's side. Alongside that of the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, their pictures hang on her office walls and taunt her. 'To one side, I can look at everything this tribunal has done, to establish that these crimes were committed and give voice to the victims. Then I look the other way and have Karadzic and Mladic, wanted for ordering those very crimes and for genocide at Srebrenica, still at large after 12 years of indictment and my eight years here. Then I feel terrible disappointment'.

There are those who see the delivery of Karadzic and Mladic to The Hague as the litmus test of the tribunal's cogency, especially as its biggest catch - Milosevic, who unleashed the killing - cheated justice by dying on trial. But this is churlish. The tribunal - the first of its kind since Nuremberg - has convicted 53 people, both masterminds and lowly perpetrators of horrendous crimes committed during the violence that broke up Yugoslavia. The man who ran the Srebrenica massacre, General Radislav Krstic, was convicted of genocide, reduced on appeal to aiding and abetting genocide. The Srebrenica case was an end piece to years of other criminal violence in Bosnia, much of it preventable by an international community which established the tribunal as an act of contrition.

[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

BTW, it seems they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel for posts.  The delegate selection deadline obviously only applies to new hampshire and people need to consult their state parties to get the local schedule.  I'm not aware that this part of the process was ever well publicized.  In Florida, btw, the county democratic executive committees are much more formalized and active than in New Hampshire.  Members of the committee were regularly on the ballot for each precinct and the slots (we had four people in out voting precinct) were allocated according to gender. 

None of which is to suggest that the executive committees actually had any power.  I introduced a motion of censure once against our State Representative who'd agreed to the transfer of the city's airport to an "independent" authority whose members would be appointed by the governor as an abuse of power.  That didn't go anywhere.  But, you can see that over twenty years ago, I was concerned with the haphazard allocation of public assets to private interests.  The airport, btw, is still languishing.  Compared to a place like Orlando, north-central Florida doesn't look profitable. 

Yikes, the blog is doing it again ... my last was supposed to follow Monica's.

*************
I also misspoke in my last. Carla Del Ponte was at the UN War Crimes Tribunal, not at the ICC.

Must leave for a bit. Will leave you to mull over this one in the meantime.

=================
Turkey attacks Kurdish rebels
Associated Press
Sunday December 2, 2007
Observer

Turkish armed forces fired on a group of between 50 and 60 Kurdish rebels inside Iraq yesterday, inflicting what they called 'significant losses'. The military did not say whether its troops had crossed the border into Iraq.

On Friday Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government had authorised its army to launch a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq at any time.

The military said the attack on guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, happened 'inside Iraqi borders' south-east of Cukurca, a Turkish border town in Hakkari province. Hakkari, where rebels are active, shares a border with Iran as well as Iraq.

The US is sharing intelligence on the Kurdish insurgents with Turkey, but the Turkish army did not say whether it conducted yesterday's operation with American help.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

Hi, Judy.  Funny you should highlight the failure of the prosecutor at the Hague.  It's just that kind of failure that Obama lacks.  Not that it's something anyone wants.  But, it's almost inevitable if one is struggling for the right, rather then one's own interest or convenience.

42.  Turkey has been losing patience for four years.  Their argument that if the U.S. is in charge of security it should be in charge is legitimate.  If "securing the borders" means anything, it should mean preventing armed groups from crossing and waging assaults, on either side.

If so, then we also know the records of Edwards, Biden, and Dodd since they are virtually identical.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

inflexibility is the hallmark of Bush, and only Hillary has refused to recognize her war vote as a mistake, and only Hillary voted for the Iran War authorization vote

but ignore any reality you want if your mind is made up 

 And, in that sense, he's very representative of the American Dream--it's what Americans wish life were like, but know it isn't.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fact that Edwards has experienced the personal challenges of the death of a child and the health struggles of his wife balances I think his living the American dream. Biden too. But Obama has had to overcome the subliminal slights of racism all his life and that does season him in a unique way like Clinton or Richardson as well.

I think we have an outstanding field in many respects and they vary pretty widely in their politcs which makes for a choice.

Kucinich's life history often is found in those that don't vote. but i don't doubt he would remember if elected

but the words they run on matter too because that is the bar we hold them too in office

I still wish as a group they would discover defense of the Constitution and get behind Dodd on that issue. Equality under the law is where that distinction you make shows up. ordinary people don't stand a chance when that is abandoned

Members of the committee were regularly on the ballot for each precinct and the slots (we had four people in out voting precinct) were allocated according to gender. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They have legal responsibilities in Iowa and the caucus purpose that is in our Constitution is for that, the Presidential preference division of the house was added in the reform surge of 72.

We elect our delegates at our District Convention in April.

~~~~~~~~

we got dumped on with seven inches of snow for me to move this morning, bbl

Hi, Phil.  I was just thinking this morning, after a couple of days of really hard freezes that it would be better if we had a blanket of snow.  This way the frost will get down low.  Our first freeze was late (sometimes it comes as early as Sept 8th), but the last few days it's been hard (17 degrees over night and not over 20 during the day).

rae hart
Sat, 12/01/07
10:33 pm

+++

rae hart -

Thanks for sharing that Frank Rich op-ed piece about Obama.

40.

...

Anyway, I think Americans could be proud to present Barack Obama as the face of America to the world.  There are no Republicans in the field about whom that can be said.

...

+++

Monica -

Thanks for that comment.

Back for a few minutes.

More about the tragic situation that is Iraq.

=================
December 2, 2007
Nonstop Theft and Bribery Are Staggering Iraq
By DAMIEN CAVE

BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 — Jobless men pay $500 bribes to join the police. Families build houses illegally on government land, carwashes steal water from public pipes, and nearly everything the government buys or sells can now be found on the black market.

Painkillers for cancer (from the Ministry of Health) cost $80 for a few capsules; electricity meters (from the Ministry of Electricity) go for $200 each, and even third-grade textbooks (stolen from the Ministry of Education) must be bought at bookstores for three times what schools once charged.

“Everyone is stealing from the state,” said Adel Adel al-Subihawi, a prominent Shiite tribal leader in Sadr City, throwing up his hands in disgust. “It’s a very large meal, and everyone wants to eat.”

Corruption and theft are not new to Iraq, and government officials have promised to address the problem. But as Iraqis and American officials assess the effects of this year’s American troop increase, there is a growing sense that, even as security has improved, Iraq has slipped to new depths of lawlessness.

One recent independent analysis ranked Iraq the third most corrupt country in the world. Of 180 countries surveyed, only Somalia and Myanmar were worse, according to Transparency International, a Berlin-based group that publishes the index annually.

And the extent of the theft is staggering. Some American officials estimate that as much as a third of what they spend on Iraqi contracts and grants ends up unaccounted for or stolen, with a portion going to Shiite or Sunni militias. In addition, Iraq’s top anticorruption official estimated this fall — before resigning and fleeing the country after 31 of his agency’s employees were killed over a three-year period — that $18 billion in Iraqi government money had been lost to various stealing schemes since 2004.

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/...

And Phil, I'm sending lots of ♥ ♥ and warm thoughts Iowa's way, as well as other areas in the Upper Midwest.

=================
3 dead as winter storm disrupts highways, airports

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Forecasters predicted freezing rain and snow flurries Sunday in Iowa, a day after snow and ice plastered the Midwest, disrupting airport and highway traffic and leaving at least three people dead.

Hundreds of flights were canceled at airports in Des Moines, Chicago and Milwaukee on Saturday, with officials closing Des Moines International Airport for several hours after a United Airlines plane slid off a taxiway as it headed to a runway for a flight to Chicago's O'Hare. None of the 44 passengers was injured and the airport reopened by mid-afternoon.

At Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin, an incoming Mesa Airlines regional jet flying for United Express slid off the pavement after failing to make a turn onto a taxiway, but no injuries were reported among the 25 passengers.

The National Weather Service had posted winter storm and ice warnings across parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, the eastern Dakotas, Illinois and northern Michigan, but many of the warnings were lifted later in the day. In Minnesota, Duluth received nearly 8 inches of snow.

[...]
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/12/02/win...

Mccain gets the endorsement of the Manchester Union Leader..........I tell ya, Mcain is gonna come out of nowhere in this thing.............look for a Mccain/Huckabee ticket.....................

And the Democrats.................well, if history repeats itself in the upside down world of elections in this country, they will not beat that ticket............long shot?  Edwards/Obama................

Only election Ive ever been wrong in?  92.......................

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071130/photos_wl_africa_afp/3b152853cc21e56b4b604486b0812829;_ylt=AgdZwVjXYUfROT6mH2UWLfKZsdEF

AFP/File - Fri Nov 30, 3:05 PM ET

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30457322.htm