politics

Young evangelicals not a lock for Republicans

For a great read about how Republicans are losing young Republicans, read this.

Japan to Cut the Cost of Solar 50%

Japan’s making solar power for regular people cheap.

Tax breaks begin next year.

The prime minister, aiming to take the lead in the fight against climate change as host of the Group of Eight leaders’ summit next month, unveiled on June 9 a long-term goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80 percent from current levels by 2050.

Once again, other developed nations beat the U.S. to the punch when it comes to alternative fuel sources. Our current administration’s big idea is to drill for more oil, an idea that, while I’m not opposed to it, doesn’t solve any problems. It only create more money-making opportunities for the oil companies which are already making 100 BILLION in profit every year.

Bush and Co. have offered no alternatives to oil. Why should he? He’s an oil man. All his friends are in oil. He from Texas for crying out loud!

Several years ago, Bush gave a speech saying that America was addicted to oil and that his administration would work to lesses this addiction. Looking back, I now realize that speec was like a crack dealer telling all his clients they were addicted to crack and that he would help them out by locating more places for them to buy crack.

Guess which religion suffered most by the Iraqi invasion. Christianity.

According to an article published today by the Robin Harris in the National Review (article), the Christian population in Iraq is shrinking very quickly since the invasion and fall of Saddam.

…Christianity now faces extinction. The 1987 census recorded 1.4
million Christians in Iraq. Numbers began to drop as conditions
deteriorated after the first Gulf War. There were, though, around
800,000 at the time of the U.S-led invasion of 2003. Of these, about
half have now left the country altogether, while more than 100,000 are
internally displaced persons.

Harris continues:

Members of all religions have been affected by the violence since the
toppling of Saddam Hussein. But Christians are in a worse position
since they suffer directly because of their Christian faith. Targeted
by Islamist extremists, they are confronted by demands to convert,
death threats, looting of their homes and businesses, systematic
intimidation, abductions for ransom, bombings, and frequently murder.
Because Christians are known to be weak they and their property are
also prey to gangsterism. Churches and church leaders are particular
targets for Islamists.

Someone remind me again why we are there in Iraq?

MoveOn.org follows Obama’s lead and is closing down.

In an unprecedented move, MoveOn.org sent this email to their mailing list today:

For almost ten years, we’ve worked together to change American politics. Millions of us have collaborated to build a new progressive moment, catalyzed by the Internet and motivated by our belief that the country we love deserves better.

Now, in Barack Obama, we have a Presidential candidate who has based his campaign on precisely that kind of new politics—a people-driven politics focused on the outside-of-the-beltway consensus around Iraq, climate change, and health care, not the gridlock in Washington.

Using a lot of the tools and techniques developed by the progressive movement—as well as a visionary approach to leadership—Obama’s brought millions of new people into the process. And, following in the footsteps of Howard Dean, ActBlue, and other innovators, he’s adopted a new way of funding a campaign—relying on a donor base of millions rather than contributions by lobbyists and special interests.

It’s a very exciting moment. And so the time has come to answer an important question: should we make an all-in commitment, together, to this new politics?

While MoveOn Political Action has always been funded exclusively by small donors like you, we’ve held open the MoveOn.org Voter Fund—a separate “527″ organization—which can raise money from big donors. We haven’t actually taken any big-money checks since 2004, when MoveOn members matched big contributors to educate voters about George Bush’s policies. But in light of the new politics offered by Barack Obama, I’ve come to believe it’s time to close the 527 forever—and to challenge organizations on the right to do the same thing.

That means that we won’t raise any money for our election work from foundations, or even individuals who want to give over $5,000. It’s an all-in commitment to the small-donor way of doing things. But the time is right to take the leap.

Not relying on big donors means that all of us, together, have to take responsibility. So before we sign the final paperwork, we need to know that you’re in. Are you?

I’m interested to see what other 527’s do over the weekend and into next week. We’re seeing a shift in politics, folks, and I think people who don’t get one board will be seen as “the old way of doing things” as their power and influence diminishes greatly.

The Meaning of Life, According to Barack Obama

(source: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/06/barack-obama-ex.html)

Barack Obama Explains the Meaning of Life

June 12, 2008 2:43 PM

At a town hall meeting in Kaukauna, Wisc., Thursday afternoon, amidst questions about health care and the economy, a young man said he had a question for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Obama should “please be as intellectual or spiritual as you would like.”

“Well this is a lot of pressure,” Obama said to laugher.

“My question is: what does life mean to you?” the young man asked.

“Oh goodness,” Obama said, a bit taken aback. “What does life mean to me?”

He stammered a bit as he contemplated the enormity of the query.

“Well, uh, I, uh…”

The crowd of 2,500 supporters at Kaukauna High School * laughed with apparent sympathy.

“I don’t know where to start on a question like that,” Obama said. “Let me just say a couple things. Right now what I think about most is my daughters who are 10 and 7,” he said, referring to his daughters Malia and Sasha. “And not that I’m biased but they are perfect in all ways.”

To the young man who asked the question, Obama said, “when I was your age, I thought life was all about me. And how do make my way in the world and how do I become successful and how do I get the things that I want. And right now life for me revolves around those two girls. And I think about what kind of a place am I leaving them.”

And with that, came the able pivot.

“Michelle and I have been incredibly blessed,” Obama said. “As long as God’s looking over, my girls are going to be OK.” They go to “great schools, will be able to afford college, are in good health and will be well cared for if they ever get sick.

But the country and the world they’re living in, Obama said, needs work.

“Are they living in a county where there’s a huge gap between a few who are wealthy and a whole bunch of people who are struggling every day?” Obama asked. “Are they living in a county that is still divided by race?

“Are they living in a country where because they’re girls they don’t have as much opportunity as boys do?

“Are they living in a country where we are hated around the world because we don’t cooperate with other countries as effectively as we should? Are they living in a country where they are threatened by terrorism and a nuclear explosion could happen in a major American city? Are they living in a country in which because of a lack of sensible energy we are not only ransoming our future, but we’re also threatening the very livelihood of the planet?”

Obama continued, “what life means to me is that every day I wake up trying to figure out how can I secure their futures and the futures of all children, …How can I make sure that we are giving a planet and a country to them that is better than the one we got? And, you know ,so I guess what I’ve discovered is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re somehow giving yourself to something larger to yourself. And that’s part of my Christian faith. It’s also part of the reason I am running for president of the United States.”

So.

That’s what life means to him. In case you were wondering.

- jpt in Kaukauna, Wisc.

**

* Kaukauna High School Ghost Spirit Song:

Hail Kaukuana
Hail to Thee
We Thy Loyal Sons Shall Be
Fighting for the Orange and Black
In Future Years
You’ll See Us Back

See The Laurels She Has Won
Through Every Good and Faithful Son
Her Courageous, Valiant Students
March On to “Victory”!!

McCain doesn’t know how to use a computer. At all.

Look, I can maybe understand that the guy is from an era where computers took up entire rooms. I can possibly understand the guy’s aversion to “learning new things,” since it took my mom about a year to get the hang of email.

But what I don’t get is McCain’s statement that he doesn’t know anything about computer. Nothing. NADA. ZILCH.

Is this really the person we in the tech industry want signing off on policies that will affect Net Neutrality, privacy and IP rights? Someone who has no clue how to use “The Google”!?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/mccain-admits-he-doesnt-k_n_106478.html