Organic garden scares farming group

Michelle Obama's organic White House garden has upset a lobbying organization dedicated to "conventional" (chemical-laden) farming ...

http://www.thecleanestline.com/2009/04/keep-out-of-reach-of-children-industry-reps-fear-organic-garden.html

Colbert skewers Glenn Beck

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Growth or Virtue?

I stumbled across a Web site called FrontPorchRepublic.com recently. (Nash, I think you'd like it. It preaches fiscal conservatism without all the culture wars stuff of the GOP.)

Anyway, I thought a blog post today was pretty good.

If the ideal of perpetual economic growth requires a perpetually frenzied consumerism, it is time to consider a different indicator of economic health. President Obama’s stimulus package is clearly based on this false ideal of perpetual economic growth. This ideal is embraced by the leaders of both political parties, even as the Republicans reject the specific means to that end. As the slurry of dollars begins to wash over us, many Americans are looking for a new direction. A return to the virtues of self-control and thrift would signal something really radical. So would a return to the idea of sustainability, a return to the belief that conserving for future generations is our first duty, and a recognition that putting aside idols is the first step to wisdom.

http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=1294

Obama is cooler than you

Hey, kid, the POTUS is sipping a frosty cold adult beverage next to you in some high-dollar NBA seats. Show a little respect!

We Are Everywhere

We've seen Terrible Towels at the Olympics in Beijing, so why not at Obama's Inauguration?

Hooray Joe Barton

SB's boss makes headlines today

WASHINGTON - Taking aim at a BCS system he said "consistently misfires,'' a member of Congress planned to introduce legislation Wednesday that would force college football to adopt a playoff to determine the national champion.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, didn't specify what sort of playoff he wants — only that the BCS should go.

"In some years the sport's national championship winner was left unsettled, and at least one school was left out of the many millions of dollars in revenue that accompany the title,'' Barton said in a statement released ahead of the bill's introduction. "Despite repeated efforts to improve the system, the controversy rages on.''

He said the bill — being co-sponsored by Reps. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat, and Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican — "will prohibit the marketing, promotion, and advertising of a postseason game as a 'national championship' football game, unless it is the result of a playoff system. Violations of the prohibition will be treated as violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act as an unfair or deceptive act or practice.''

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/28161939/

Gov. Palin, could we reshoot this interview?

Giving Up on God

No, no. Not me personally.

But that's what Kathleen Parker, a Washington Post columnist, says the GOP must do.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.

At this point, I should mention Parker is a conservative columnist who writes for National Review.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111802886.html

My last attempt at swaying Nash

Good enough for the Rooneys, good enough for all of us!

Guns a gray area for McCain, Obama

For my boy Nash ...

BOSTON (AP) — John McCain supports background checks for buyers at gun shows and has his name on a law restricting special-interest group advertising, two positions strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association.

So how'd he end up with the group's presidential endorsement? By running against Barack Obama, whom NRA leaders accuse of wanting to put the firearms industry out of business.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iws_NUP4CywbKPEd1Czf0PY8NWVAD93QQH6G0

Joe? Where are you Joe?

A perfect microcosm of the utter FAIL of McCain's campaign ...

Ultimate proof Palin is not smart

How else do you explain a Republican VP candidate wearing a "Vote Democrat" scarf at a campaign event?

Remind me not to defend Arkansas in the future

The next time I hear somebody talking about the hicks and hillbillies living in Arkansas, I'm afraid I'll have to shrug my shoulders and STFU.

That's because a University of Arkansas poll revealed a whopping 20 percent of Arkies believe Obama is actually a Muslim.

But, on the bright side, 55 percent oppose Act 1. Originally touted as a way to keep gay couples from adopting children, it's been written to prohibit unmarried heteros who live together and single heteros from adopting as well. That means, God forbid, anything happens to me and Jen and this passes, then my mother wouldn't be able to adopt her granddaughter.

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2008/10/poll_watching.aspx

Political Compass

All this political talk here and on Nash's blog got me to thinking. Maybe my views have changed. So I visisted PoliticalCompass.com to see how I scored. Here's my chart ...

Sunday feature on Obama

I was struck by the candid comments Obama made in this article. And I think we all agree with this one ...

“If voters are similarly polarized and if they’re seeing two different realities, a Sean Hannity reality and a Keith Olbermann reality, then we’re not going to be able to get done the work we need to get done,” Obama said.

Working for the Working- Class Vote

A baby name we won't be considering

A new father has secretly named his baby girl Sarah McCain Palin after the Republican ticket for president and vice president.

Mark Ciptak of Elizabethton put that name on the documents for the girl's birth certificate, ignoring the name Ava Grace, which he and his wife had picked earlier.

"I don't think she believes me yet," he told the Kingsport Times-News for a story to be published Tuesday. "It's going to take some more convincing."

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=66550&catid=2

McCain booed ... at his own rally

McCain and Palin spend day after day whipping up the anger and paranoia among the GOP, then when McCain says Obama isn't the anti-Christ he's booed by his own voters ...



In my last post, Nash commented and asked "Is this really a self-proclaimed libertarian in charge of this blog?"

Yes, I still consider myself a libertarian.

But I'm disgusted at the Rovian tactics John McCain, an honorable and principled man, resorted to in an attempt to win this election. This is a man who lost the South Carolina primary in 2000 to GW Bush thanks to a smear campaign. Yet now, thanks to a crashing economy, he resorted to the tactics once used against him. My gosh, the man repeatedly mentions William Ayers in every stump speech, yet he didn't have the cahones to say it to Obama's face. I took that as a sign that McCain knew it was a distasteful tactic. That video above confirms my suspicion.

The 2000 version of John McCain has got to be deathly embarrassed by the 2008 version. The sad thing is John McCain 2000 would have been a great POTUS, if he'd just been the same person this election season as he was then I think he'd have won. And probably won easily.

Man, I totally can see reasons to vote for McCain instead of Obama (experience being first and foremost). But this campaign and the GOP followers have debased political discussion in the USA. Every American is dumber for having lived through this election thanks to the mouthbreathers forwarding e-mails that actually claim the Bible predicted Obama is the anti-Christ, or that he's a super-duper secret mole controlled by Islamic fundamentalists.

The past week has completely turned me off of McCain. So if people can vote against Obama because he's black, or the anti-Christ or Osama bin Laden's BFF, then I can vote against McCain because he led us down this path to idiocy instead of sticking to, you know, the issues.

And that's a shame, because I voted for him in the 2000 Arkansas primary. If John McCain 2000 was running now, I'd consider voting for him again. But this 2008 version of him won't get my vote.

Springsteen on this year's election

Normally, I don't give a damn about the political statements issued by celebrities. Their opinions are no more valid or informed that yours or mine.

That said, Springsteen gave a poetic and inspired speech on behalf of Obama recently ...

Palin debate flowchart

Slow Internet connection? Blame John McCain.

John McCain is an AT&T guy; Barack Obama is a Google guy. And that’s one of the most important policy differences between the two.

Think of the Internet as working at different layers. There are all the pipes that go into your home, and then there’s all the stuff on your screen—from e-mail to eMule. The telecom companies like AT&T control the pipes; the software companies, like Google, create the stuff.

In an ideal world, both these layers would be sites of great innovation and creativity. But in the United States, that isn’t so. The software industry may seem like a team of Gandalfs, constantly producing magic. But the average telecom company resembles Jabba the Hut: it moves slowly and slobbers a lot.

The United States created the Internet, but it’s the rest of the world that can really use it. People in Japan are twice as likely as Americans to have broadband connections, and their pipes are ten times as fast. Compared to France, U.S. Internet access is twice as expensive and one-fourth as quick. Since 2000, the United States has gone from fifth in the world to twenty-second in broadband penetration. We have become a nation of buffering YouTube videos.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0808.thompson.html#Byline