Howard's still the most firstiest. And the cutest, too.

woot

Attention all true Deaniacs.  You must read Chris Bowers post tonight about a Dean sign from a long time ago.  We still have our signs also.  Howard truly commanded a real loyalty. 

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2496

Also be on guard against the centrist hawks in the party.   And for the Hamilton Institute

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1665

I have a new e-mail address and am up-dating my address book and came across this and had to stop for the night.

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

floridagal

pretty special group of activists Howard gathered, no doubt

thanks for your posts

Short of Money, G.O.P. Is Enlisting Rich Candidates

By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 — Confronting an enormous fund-raising gap with Democrats, Republican Party officials are aggressively recruiting wealthy candidates who can spend large sums of their own money to finance their Congressional races, party officials say.

At this point, strategists for the National Republican Congressional Committee have enlisted wealthy candidates to run in at least a dozen competitive Congressional districts nationwide, particularly those where Democrats are finishing their first term and are thus considered most vulnerable. They say more are on the way.

These wealthy Republicans have each already invested $100,000 to $1 million of their own money to finance their campaigns, according to campaign finance disclosure reports and interviews with party strategists. Experts say that is a large amount for this early in the cycle. ...full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/us/pol...

thinking of you tonight Judy Lynne Cadoret

you will be remembered on this blog

can you post a working store link puddle?

From the previous thread.

7.

sunlight
Sun, 11/25/07
10:10 pm


I couldn't think of any place that wouldn't have satellite access to the internet so close to the capitol. My hubby has some email friends who live in a convent. They're retired.


We live in a rural area. When we first moved here it didn't have cable TV. Now you can get everything but it's limited to one internet provider and one cell phone company.

Good morning, BFA! Pretty much on the *old* schedule for a time since I'm going in to work for a time.

************
Judy Lynne Cadoret ♥ !!!

************
Enjoyed Mike's Oreo-eating techniques (only n BFA!) ... LOL ... and *A Christmas Story* is one of my favorite Christmas movies. I hadn't seen it in years and wanted to be sure that the grandkids would, so I got the DVD for Christmas 2005 while I was back home so that they could watch it. Wouldn't you know that the movie then played back to back on one of the cable channels that we had?

And then Darren McGavin died ... he was great in that.

*************
Good thread topic ... you in CA have got yourselves a great SoS!

Very interesting timing for this ... if putzCo really want to keep the Saudis friendly during the Annapolis conference.

===============
US obtains Swiss records and flies in British witness in BAE investigation
· Washington wants papers from SFO's Saudi inquiry
· Britain trying to block questions on payments
David Leigh and Rob Evans
Monday November 26, 2007
Guardian

US corruption investigators have gone behind the back of Downing Street to fly a British witness to Washington to testify about Saudi arms deals with the UK arms firm BAE Systems, the Guardian can disclose. In a hitherto secret move, Swiss federal prosecutors have also agreed to hand over to Washington financial records linked to the Saudi royal family.

The US is seeking - but has so far been refused - more than a million pages of documents seized from BAE, its bankers, Lloyds TSB, and the Ministry of Defence during an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, who says there was no impropriety about a £1bn payment he received for brokering arms deals with BAE, has hired a former head of the FBI and a retired British high court judge to defend his position. The British government has been attempting to block all investigations into payments from BAE to members of the Saudi regime.

British ministers are refusing to grant a six-month-old official request from the US department of justice for mutual legal assistance, in defiance of the UK's anti-bribery treaty obligations. This follows the suppression of Britain's own Serious Fraud Office investigation, which was abandoned last year on the grounds that the inquiry might jeopardise national security. The move, following Tony Blair's intervention, infuriated anti-corruption campaigners.

There was further uproar when the Guardian published the SFO's findings - that £1bn had been paid to Bandar with UK government acquiescence, and another £1bn had been sent to Switzerland to agents acting for other Saudi royals. Bandar, who was also presented with a new Airbus jet by BAE, does not deny receiving the money, but says it was for authorised purposes.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33136...

The legacy of shame for the Aussies ... the big difference between their putz and our own is that at least their economy was booming under Howard.

Of course, he frittered their wealth away to HIS friends, too.

==================
A decade of John Howard has left a country of timidity, fear and shame
His power resided in his ability to speak directly and powerfully to the negativity at the core of the Australian soul
Richard Flanagan
Monday November 26, 2007
The Guardian

John Howard famously said the times were his, and for more than a decade it seemed they were. Australia experienced the greatest and most sustained boom in its history. Yet at its end Australia's indigenous population was in a ruinous state, its extraordinary environment was threatened on numerous fronts, and its people were beginning to ask where the wealth had gone: public schools and public health were in crisis, social welfare was straitened, housing was unaffordable for many, and wages and conditions were being cut under Howard's industrial reforms.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...

Can you just imagine putz doing this? Not in a million years.

===============
Iran leader's blog attracts critics
Robert Tait in Tehran
Monday November 26, 2007
Guardian

When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, wanted to create a forum to trumpet his populist political message without the interference of media and opposition catcalls he launched his own blog.

But he may have failed to reckon with the merciless mud-slinging and sarcasm that characterises communication in much of cyberspace. Far from being a repository of fawning admiration, Ahmadinejad's blog has attracted criticism as scathing as that voiced by his known adversaries.

Somewhat gleefully, the reformist newspaper Etemad reported yesterday that some respondents were venting their spleen with little regard for pleasantries.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33136...

Archbishop's assault on US foreign policy

By Auslan Cramb


The Archbishop of Canterbury has launched a stinging attack on the United States, comparing it unfavourably with the British Empire at its peak.

Commentary: Archbishop confused about radical Islam
Your view: Has America lost the moral high ground?
Dr Rowan Williams criticised America for intervening overseas with a "quick burst of violent action" and claimed its foreign policy had created the "worst of all worlds".


Dr Williams has been a critic of the Iraq war
The wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim lifestyle magazine included the Anglican leader's most outspoken criticisms to date of the US and the war in Iraq. ...full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jht...

Phil, if you are really looking for a new dog, here's one that you might want to consider.

Does Iowa have truffles? I guess you'll never know unless you have one of these.

==================
Italian mongrel leads owner to record-breaking truffle
· Crowds gather for sniff of biggest find in 50 years
· Delicacy flown to Macau for charity auction
Tom Kington in Rome
Monday November 26, 2007
Guardian

A mongrel dog named Rocco helped make history in a Tuscan wood when he led his owners to a 1.5kg (3.3lb) white truffle, the largest unearthed in half a century and now expected to break auction records.

"I had to tie Rocco up, he was so excited," said truffle hunter and trader Cristiano Savini, who spent more than an hour on his hands and his knees with his father, Luciano, carefully digging down 80cm (2.6ft) to find the truffle at a secret countryside spot near Pisa on Friday.

As crowds gathered at a local truffle fair over the weekend to breathe in what Savini described as "the incredible smell" of the truffle - second in size to a 2.5kg truffle found in 1954 and presented to President Eisenhower - news spread, and the knobbly, soil encrusted truffle will now go under the hammer on Saturday in Macau during a charity auction attended by millionaires flying in from Hong Kong.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33136...

Wonder what the Rethugs will make of this.

==================
Sarkozy calls publicly for Hu to let yuan rise
By Tim Hepher and Emmanuel Jarry

BEIJING, Nov 26 (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy used a state visit to China on Monday to publicly urge President Hu Jintao to let the yuan rise more swiftly against Europe's single currency.

The European Union has been ratcheting up pressure on Bejing to correct what it sees as the Chinese currency's unfair undervaluation, but Sarkozy eschewed all diplomatic niceties by urging Hu to his face to take action.

"We need to arrive at currency rates that are harmonious and fair," Sarkozy said at a joint media appearance. China, he said, should "accelerate the appreciation of the yuan against the euro".

Hu stood impassively as he listened to Sarkozy, who also said China had growing global responsibilities on issues such as the environment.

While the Chinese currency has climbed 9 percent against the dollar since its landmark 2.1 percent revaluation in July 2005, it has fallen about 11 percent in total against the euro.

[...]
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idU...

No EarlG and the Top Ten this week. He's having a well-deserved break.

But we do have Krugman.

And that's it for now. Have good ones!

=================
November 26, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Winter of Our Discontent
By PAUL KRUGMAN

“Americans’ Economic Pessimism Reaches Record High.” That’s the headline on a recent Gallup report, which shows a nation deeply unhappy with the state of the economy. Right now, “27% of Americans rate current economic conditions as either ‘excellent’ or ‘good,’ while 44% say they are ‘only fair’ and 28% say they are poor.” Moreover, “an extraordinary 78% of Americans now say the economy is getting worse, while a scant 13% say it is getting better.”

What’s really remarkable about this dismal outlook is that the economy isn’t (yet?) in recession, and consumers haven’t yet felt the full effects of $98 oil (wait until they see this winter’s heating bills) or the plunging dollar, which will raise the prices of imported goods.

The response of those who support the Bush administration’s economic policies is to complain about the unfairness of it all. They rattle off statistics that supposedly show how wonderful the economy really is. Many of these statistics are misleading or irrelevant, but it’s true that the official unemployment rate is fairly low by historical standards. So why are people so unhappy?

The answer from Bush supporters — who are, on this and other matters, a strikingly whiny bunch — is to blame the “liberal media” for failing to report the good news. But the real explanation for the public’s pessimism is that whatever good economic news there is hasn’t translated into gains for most working Americans.

One way to drive this point home is to compare the situation for workers today with that in the late 1990s, when the country’s economic optimism was almost as remarkable as its pessimism today. For example, in the fall of 1998 almost two-thirds of Americans thought the economy was excellent or good.

The unemployment rate in 1998 was only slightly lower than the unemployment rate today. But for working Americans, everything else was different. Wages were rising, yet inflation was low, so the purchasing power of workers’ take-home pay was steadily improving. So, too, were job benefits, including the availability of health insurance. And homeownership was rising steadily.

It was, in other words, a time when Americans felt they were sharing in the country’s prosperity.

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/opinio...

Prop. 92 finds two teachers unions at odds
Measure would cut fees, guarantee funding level for community colleges.

By Shane Goldmacher

The community college measure on the Feb. 5 ballot is shaping up to be a battle royale between California's biggest teachers' unions.

On one side is the California Federation of Teachers, the state's second-largest teachers' union. It has been the biggest financial backer of the campaign for Proposition 92, which would lower community college fees and set aside a percentage of the state budget for the two-year schools.

On the other is the California Teachers Association, the largest teachers' group in the state, which so far has been the sole funder of the opposition campaign – to the tune of nearly $300,000.

"We're used to being on the same side of issues," lamented Marty Hittelman, president of the federation of teachers backing the measure.

"I can't say that it never happened, but I don't remember any measure where it has," said Sandra Jackson, communications director for the teachers association opposing it.

Proposition 92 would lower community college fees to $15 per unit, from the current $20. More controversially for the CTA, the measure would tinker with the funding formula in Proposition 98, the 1988 ballot measure that locked in K-12 education's portion of the state General Fund at roughly 40 percent. It is considered sacrosanct by the education community, particularly the teachers association.

Opponents fear that by locking in community college funding, money could be siphoned away from the K-12 schools, where most CTA teachers work.

David Sanchez, president of the CTA, co-signed the lead ballot argument against the measure. "Nowhere in the measure does it identify a way to pay for all the new spending. ... They could cut education funding, including K-12 schools," he wrote.

But Hittelman said that argument "doesn't hold up."

"It goes back more to Proposition 98 was their invention and they don't like to see it messed with," he said. "I think the rationales (for opposing the measure) that are being given don't make much sense."

Union membership rolls are likely also playing a part in the split. Hittelman estimated that teachers in the community college system constitute about 30 percent of CFT members. They make up only 2 percent of CTA teachers. full article: http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/story/4...

---

The California Young Democrats are supporting Proposition 92. At the CDP E-board meeting CYD Members and Community College Students lobbied us for yes endorsement votes and support. The CDP E-board voted to be neutral. It's another battle between the unions on this one. And who gets hurt? Our youth. I wish folks in the numerous labor movements of California would learn to get along with each other. They compete way to much with each other in California for funding. It hurts everybody when they do.

Everything’s Cool global warming film opens for a one-week run in New York and LA Nov. 23-29

Everything’s Cool, a feature-length documentary film about ‘global warming messengers,’ will screen at the Cinema Village in New York City and at the Laemmle Grande 4-Plex in downtown Los Angeles November 23-29. Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz and the filmmakers will do a Q&A session at the 7 p.m. screening on Friday, November 23, in New York.

The film features writer/activist Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and organizer of the Step It Up global warming campaign; investigative journalist Ross Gelbspan, author of The Heat is On and Boiling Point; Heidi Cullen, the climate scientist on The Weather Channel; Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, authors of The Death of Environmentalism and Break Through; Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz; and Bish Neuhouser, grassroots homemade biodiesel pioneer.

Everything’s Cool had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on January 19, 2007, where it was screened as part of the juried competition for best U.S. feature-length independent documentary. It has been screened at film festivals nationwide and internationally and at community events. ...further information: http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/index...

Good morning, everybody

I have been slumming on the internet.

Found some interesting stuff, including a YouTube for which I will retrieve the URL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th4su1NDu0g  (warning vulgar language)

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/11/14/columns/john_brummett/111507lrbrummett.txt

The most interesting thing I've found is that our NH Executive council seems to have been hijacked as a Huckabee promor site.

http://nhexecutivecouncil.com/

Scroll down to the bottom of the page 

BTW, I found stuff on Huckabee by entering "Huckabee Stephens Rockefeller" in Google. 

Didn't know we have a Rockefeller Institute at Dartmouth.

So, here's a nice summary.

6:00 clock test

Published: November 23, 2007

Monica you have to have wealthy backers to run for President or be very rich yourself because start up costs are enormus.

The question is when you follow the money is the bet on the candidate for self enrichment of the backers, literally an investment, so that policies result it paybacks if elected.

Free trade has winners and losers as an example and if a group of winners backs a candidate is it more or less approriate than if a single backer does it because he will win on his issue.

One is called rightly corruption and the other politics.

http://www.rockridgenation.org/blog/archive/2007/11/12/ask-rockridge-responding-to-conservative-name-calling

http://conservablogs.com/nuke/2007/11/06/more-on-the-club-for-growths-smear-of-mike-huckabee/

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

a club for growth attack ad should automatically trigger an actblue response

25.  Not if that's the purpose of the attack.  What got me interested was how Huckabee got such sudden notice in Iowa.  You'll remember that Club for Growth ads got Dean and Gebhardt attacking each other, leaving us with Kerry/Edwards whom a little skullduggery at the polling places could take out.

The Stephens boys, who have a history of funding both sides of the political contest, are suspect in my book.  Together with the Rockefellers, they seem to have developed a recipe of promoting "deserving" fellows into political prominence so they can get their bidding done.  And the fellows tend to be a bit unscrupulous even though they recite their religious convictions well.

Did you know that Nelson A. Rockefeller was a Baptist?

Huckabee believes he had a "calling" to both the ministry and to politics. Holding public office is a part of his faith — not a separate path, he explained.

"I am ultimately responsible to a creator who knows everything I do," he told the students at XM.

Just what we need.  Another fellow who's responsible to his creator, rather than the Constitution and the will of the American People.  

I live in a part of the world where I don't have access to tv so I'm not able to see A Christmas Story

____________________________________________________________________________

sunlight,

This is terrible news..terrible...worse than Dean not getting the 04 nomination..NOBODY should miss watching "A Christmas Story" ever.....even if you arent a Christmas type of person.......sounds like you are either in some remote village in the Amazon or staying at base camp #2 benaeath Everest..............but you must have a computer, for I have deduced that you could not be here if you didnt have a computer............go to youtube and just type in "A Christmas Story"............cheers, or ho ho ho

http://bluehampshire.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2498

There's a new thread.

http://blogforamerica.com/view/23083#com...

I don't understand where the above 29 comments came from -- they appear to have nothing to do with the original post.