2/27/07

Now We've Just Got to Win




Sen. Obama launches White House bid


By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 40 minutes ago



Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) announced his bid for president Saturday, a black man evoking Abraham Lincoln's ability to unite a nation and a Democrat portraying himself as a fresh face capable of leading a new generation.


"Let us transform this nation," he told thousands shivering in the cold at the campaign's kickoff.


Obama, 45, is the youngest candidate in the Democrats' 2008 primary field dominated by front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and filled with more experienced lawmakers. In an address from the state capital where he began his elective career 10 years ago, the first-term U.S. senator sought to distinguish himself as a staunch opponent of the Iraq war and a White House hopeful whose lack of political experience is an asset.


"I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change," Obama said to some of the loudest applause of his 20-minute speech.


Obama is looking to cap his remarkable, rapid rise to prominence with the biggest political prize of all — the presidency. His elective career began just 10 years ago in the Illinois Legislature. He lost a bid for a U.S. House seat, then won the Senate seat in 2004, a relatively smooth election made easier by GOP stumbles.


In his speech, Obama did not mention his roots as the son of a man from Kenya and a woman from Kansas, his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia or the history he would make if elected. That compelling biography has turned him into a political celebrity.


Instead, he focused on his life in Illinois over the past two decades, beginning with a job as a community organizer with a $13,000-a-year salary that strengthened his Christian faith. He said the struggles he saw people face inspired him to get a law degree and run for the Legislature, where he served eight years.


He tied his announcement to the legacy of Lincoln, announcing from the building where the future 16th president served in the state Legislature.


"We can build a more hopeful America. And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a house divided to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America," Obama said. His voice rose to a shout as he spoke over the cheers from thousands who braved temperatures in the teens.


"I know it's a little chilly, but I'm fired up," Obama said as he took the podium with his wife Michelle and daughters Malia, 8, and Sasha, 5, with U2's "City of Blinding Lights" blaring on the speakers.


Local authorities estimated the crowd at between 15,000 and 17,000.


Obama gained national recognition with the publication of two best-selling books, "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," and by delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 — the same year he was elected to the Senate. His optimistic message and personal story immediately sparked talk of his White House potential.


"He's young and he's fresh," said 22-year-old Rachel Holtz, a graduate student from DeKalb, Ill., who plans to work in education.


Brenda and Michael Talkington, who live near Muncie, Ind., said they have never been involved in a political campaign, but both were laid off from jobs with a lighting company and plan to volunteer for Obama.


"He makes you feel like it is possible to change things," Brenda Talkington said.


She seemed to be reading from Obama's playbook.


He spoke of reshaping the economy for the digital age, investing in education, protecting employee benefits, insuring those who do not have health care, ending poverty, weaning America from foreign oil and fighting terrorism while rebuilding global alliances. But he said the first priority must be to end the war in Iraq.


"It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war," he said. He noted that he was against the invasion from the start.

Obama talked how previous generations have brought change — fighting off colonizers, slavery and the Great Depression, welcoming immigrants, building railroads and landing a man on the moon.

"Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done," he said. "Today we are called once more — and it is time for our generation to answer that call."

The Old State Capitol was where Lincoln launched his unsuccessful 1858 U.S. Senate campaign against Stephen Douglas with his famous "House Divided" speech. During his presidential campaign in 1860, Lincoln used rooms in the second floor as his political headquarters, and his body lay in state there in 1865.

Obama said it is because of Lincoln that Americans of every race face the challenges of the 21st century together.

"The life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible," Obama said. "He tells us that there is power in words. He tells us that there is power in conviction. That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people. He tells us that there is power in hope."

Obama planned to travel throughout Iowa on Saturday and Sunday before a homecoming rally Sunday night in Chicago.





By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 40 minutes ago



Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) announced his bid for president Saturday, a black man evoking Abraham Lincoln's ability to unite a nation and a Democrat portraying himself as a fresh face capable of leading a new generation.


"Let us transform this nation," he told thousands shivering in the cold at the campaign's kickoff.


Obama, 45, is the youngest candidate in the Democrats' 2008 primary field dominated by front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and filled with more experienced lawmakers. In an address from the state capital where he began his elective career 10 years ago, the first-term U.S. senator sought to distinguish himself as a staunch opponent of the Iraq war and a White House hopeful whose lack of political experience is an asset.


"I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change," Obama said to some of the loudest applause of his 20-minute speech.


Obama is looking to cap his remarkable, rapid rise to prominence with the biggest political prize of all — the presidency. His elective career began just 10 years ago in the Illinois Legislature. He lost a bid for a U.S. House seat, then won the Senate seat in 2004, a relatively smooth election made easier by GOP stumbles.


In his speech, Obama did not mention his roots as the son of a man from Kenya and a woman from Kansas, his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia or the history he would make if elected. That compelling biography has turned him into a political celebrity.


Instead, he focused on his life in Illinois over the past two decades, beginning with a job as a community organizer with a $13,000-a-year salary that strengthened his Christian faith. He said the struggles he saw people face inspired him to get a law degree and run for the Legislature, where he served eight years.


He tied his announcement to the legacy of Lincoln, announcing from the building where the future 16th president served in the state Legislature.


"We can build a more hopeful America. And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a house divided to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America," Obama said. His voice rose to a shout as he spoke over the cheers from thousands who braved temperatures in the teens.


"I know it's a little chilly, but I'm fired up," Obama said as he took the podium with his wife Michelle and daughters Malia, 8, and Sasha, 5, with U2's "City of Blinding Lights" blaring on the speakers.


Local authorities estimated the crowd at between 15,000 and 17,000.


Obama gained national recognition with the publication of two best-selling books, "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," and by delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 — the same year he was elected to the Senate. His optimistic message and personal story immediately sparked talk of his White House potential.


"He's young and he's fresh," said 22-year-old Rachel Holtz, a graduate student from DeKalb, Ill., who plans to work in education.


Brenda and Michael Talkington, who live near Muncie, Ind., said they have never been involved in a political campaign, but both were laid off from jobs with a lighting company and plan to volunteer for Obama.


"He makes you feel like it is possible to change things," Brenda Talkington said.


She seemed to be reading from Obama's playbook.


He spoke of reshaping the economy for the digital age, investing in education, protecting employee benefits, insuring those who do not have health care, ending poverty, weaning America from foreign oil and fighting terrorism while rebuilding global alliances. But he said the first priority must be to end the war in Iraq.


"It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war," he said. He noted that he was against the invasion from the start.

Obama talked how previous generations have brought change — fighting off colonizers, slavery and the Great Depression, welcoming immigrants, building railroads and landing a man on the moon.

"Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done," he said. "Today we are called once more — and it is time for our generation to answer that call."

The Old State Capitol was where Lincoln launched his unsuccessful 1858 U.S. Senate campaign against Stephen Douglas with his famous "House Divided" speech. During his presidential campaign in 1860, Lincoln used rooms in the second floor as his political headquarters, and his body lay in state there in 1865.

Obama said it is because of Lincoln that Americans of every race face the challenges of the 21st century together.

"The life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible," Obama said. "He tells us that there is power in words. He tells us that there is power in conviction. That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people. He tells us that there is power in hope."

Obama planned to travel throughout Iowa on Saturday and Sunday before a homecoming rally Sunday night in Chicago.





2/5/07

Global Warming is Good for You

You've heard it here first.

Oh man, so much to talk about so little space. First off I showed my class An Inconvenient Truth a couple weeks ago. I was given permission by my principal to show it and had also received an email from the Diocese of Monterey encouraging teachers to get a free copy of AIT for their classrooms. We watched it stopping here and there to clarify and discuss things. It was like I lit a match under their 11 year old butts. They are appalled at the state of today's world and were amped up to do something about it. We spent another class period the following day discussing what we and specifically they could do. One student suggested that they write letters to politicians voicing their concern over global warming and encouraging U.S support for the Kyoto Protocal. The letters they produced were quite eloquent for kids so young and some even took it upon themselves to write personal letters to the President, Speaker Pelosi, and Al Gore in addition to the class produced letters.

Global warming has become a personal cause for many of them...all but one. Two weeks after we watched the film I received the following email from a parent...

Dear Ladies,

Alec and Adam told me they viewed Al Gore's movie as titled above. If there is anyone more biased than he about what government's role in effecting human behavior related to climate change, I, frankly, can think of none other. Certainly, there has to be better, objective sources about the impacts of human activity on climate change than a hack politician who once told his constituents he was "Pro-Live", then "adjusted" his views to conform to Democrat party orthodoxy to "Pro-Choice" when it was politically expedient. Books have been written about Al Gore's political flip-flops and hypocrisy. Is he really a valid source of objective scientific information?

Here's an inconvenient truth Al Gore fails to render: more people die of the cold than of the heat according to The Potential Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on Temperature Related Morbidity and Mortality in the United States by Michael A. McGeehan and Maria Mirabelli from he Center for Disease Control.

This is just one point that actually refutes the Chicken Little hysteria of Al Gore. In other words, Global Warming for far more people would actually be a good thing, an inconvenient truth Al Gore doesn't mention.

Read from the link below.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0091-6765%28200105%29109%3C185%3ATPIOCV%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8&size=LARGE

I've also attached below another study that Al Gore may actually have used as a source confirming the number of deaths due to hot weather.

Extreme heat and cold

a. Impacts

Extremes of temperature have well-known impacts

on human health. There are indications that the num-

ber of heat-related deaths in the United States have

been increasing in recent years (Changnon et al.

1996a), but heat-related death tallies are suspect (cf.

Donoghue et al. 1997). Ellis (1972) showed that the

hot summers of 1952–55 each resulted in more than

500 deaths, with > 5000 heat deaths estimated in 1963

and 6700 in 1966 (Avery 1985). More than 15 000

heat-related deaths are estimated to have occurred in

the heat waves of 1980 (U.S. Senate Special Commit-

tee on Aging 1983). Unfortunately, statistics on human deaths caused by heat can be biased by many fac-

tors and accurate numbers are usually not available

except under isolated circumstances of major heat

extremes and when special studies are conducted.

Statistics based on identification of heat as the cause

of death by a medical examiner are usually much lower

than statistics based on comparison of overall death

rates. For example, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports 1678 deaths in 1980 (Parish 1997),

based on medical examiner identification; far fewer

than the 15 000 reported in congressional hearings.

The number of deaths due to extreme cold during

the 1979–94 period varied from 267 deaths in 1992

to a high of 524 deaths in 1989, based on statistics from

the CDC. The time distribution over this brief period

does not suggest any obvious trend.



Well, well, no obvious trend.

Furthermore, there is absolutely not disagreement in the scientific community that global climate changes have occurred throughout the existence of the planet before Adam and Eve made their appearance in the Garden of Eden. Climate change has always occurred and caused behavioral changes in humans. They move.

So now you are having the kids send letters to legislators to support the Kyoto Agreement. This is stepping beyond the line of educating. This is propagating opinions that are political in nature. Why not just give the kids registration cards to send home so parents can register in the Green Party?

The Kyoto Agreement actually excuses China and India from spewing coal burning. China is building 10 coal burning plants a week I've heard. When is the last time our country built a coal burning plant?

Finally, my last reading of Catholicism is that humanity is the crown of creation. How many people dying of cold due to lack of availability of petroleum-based fuels are worth a polar bear?

If you want to educate our kids to think, why not have them view alternative viewpoints such as John Stossel from ABC http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1739076 for a balanced view of the what climate change is all about.

Please cease and desist political advocacy and offer our children the WHOLE TRUTH they deserve!

Tom XXXXXXXX

Unlike Al Gore, who just refused to debate the issue recently (Chicken Little), I will gladly debate anyone about Al Gore's movie for Junipero Serra School and enlighten your student body about the wonders of enlightened capitalism and why it would have been terribly unwise to agree to the Kyoto prescriptions



Oh yeah there is just so much comedy gold here it's ridiculous. My principal wrote him back and read him the riot act about following protocol and such since the parent CC'd the email to the pastor and other random people. I think what pissed him off was that his older son watched it in his class a couple weeks after we did and brought up some issues at home. Why the dad mailed me and not the other teacher is beyond me. Either way he can fucking suck it because I had permission from my principal and the Catholic Church.

Friday four students brought in current events about global warming. "Blowbag's" (principal's name for him) son raised his hand and said his parents didn't like him talking about global warming and that his mom said it was "bull". Oh yeah nice talk there. He went on and on about how "my whole family is republican" and how global warming is "political". The other kids looked at him like he was a loon. They couldn't understand (and said so) how global warming was a political issue when it had to do with the sustainability of the earth. I told the student that I didn't know what to tell him except while he was free to express his opinion and feel differently, I had permission to speak of such things and was not going to stop.

As of Monday night no email from his irate parent about that. Dude needs to take a look at the Catholic Church's stance on global warming and how the Church feels that we are stewards of God's creation of earth.

From 2001: http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/globalclimate.htm

Or: http://www.osjspm.org/globalwarming

Sure they aren't as liberal as I like, far from it, but they aren't saying, "fuck the polar bears, humans are the best thing EVA!"

The whole situation has just filled my little liberal heart with glee. I especially love that Al Gore was just nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Bring it home baby. If only to rub it in the nose of the naysayers and polar bear haters.