Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize:
Former Vice President Al Gore was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker said Thursday.
"A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference," Conservative Member of Parliament Boerge Brende, a former minister of environment and then of trade, told The Associated Press.
Brende said he joined political opponent Heidi Soerensen of the Socialist Left Party to nominate Gore as well as Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier before the nomination deadline expired Thursday.
"Al Gore, like no other, has put climate change on the agenda. Gore uses his position to get politicians to understand, while Sheila works from the ground up," Brende said.
Cool. And now think about how he was supposed to be our president and try not to collapse into a wailing heap with a great gnashing of teeth and dramatic fist-clenching.
(H/T to Constant Comment, who says, "This and an Academy Award nom in a week—not bad." Ha.)
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Is Dick Cheney really this careless?
Excerpt from Cheney's notes, subpoenaed by Fitzgerald for the Libby trial.
Click to enlarge.Surely he could have done a better job obscurring his reference to the "pres," no?
Sully:
There's some debate about what the crossed out words "the pres" means. No idea myself.
A reader writes:
Isn't it pretty obvious what this could mean?
"Not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy the president ... asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder..." Just complete the thought.
Cheney realized what he was about to write, he's no dummy, and decided to go for the vaguer, "that was asked." That was asked "by whom?" is the question. By Cheney or the President? Seems like the latter was the one on the Veep's lips or tip of the pen.
Hmmm. So Cheney was reflecting a presidential decision as to who was expendable and who wasn't? Bush wanted to save Rove by designating Libby the fall-guy. He asked Libby to be the fall guy for Rove. (Cheney may not have been thrilled that he had to lose his right-hand man to save the president's.) Pure speculation, of course. But it makes sense. And if true, it's a fascinating glimpse into the mafia-like code of loyalty that exists in Bush world.
I just can't believe that words he wanted to obscure are still so visible—especially such important words. But then again, he's a busy man. Maybe he just didn't have time to give it that extra scribble.
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I've got some news, Shakers.
I have been offered and have accepted a position as the Netroots Coordinator for John Edwards’ presidential campaign, joining an outstanding internet team that now also includes Pandagon's Amanda Marcotte, with whom I'll be working closely. (Watch out, world!)
To answer what I imagine are the immediate questions: I'm not relocating nor leaving Shakes, and Shakes won't become the all-Edwards all-the-time blog. In fact, I'll be blogging about the campaign at the campaign blog, not here, so you'll probably get less Edwards than you're used to! And it should be noted that while I'm blogging at Shakes in the capacity of John Edwards' netroots coordinator, none of the other contributors are. Their opinions expressed about any candidates are their own, and their content will not be limited as a result of my affiliation with the campaign.
So, basically, you'll still be getting the same old shit around here, Shakers. And I hope you're as happy about that as I am.
As for The Big Question: Why Edwards? A lot of reasons, none of which I've been too shy about sharing as my personal support for him has increased over the last months, although you can read more in my first Edwards blog post here. I will, however, mention the three little words that ultimately got me: "I was wrong." That's how John Edwards started his Nov. 13 op-ed in the Washington Post, referring to his Iraq war vote. "I was wrong," he said, and more than that: "I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake—the men and women of our armed forces and their families—have performed heroically and paid a dear price. … [A] key part of restoring America's moral leadership is acknowledging when we've made mistakes or been proven wrong—and showing that we have the creativity and guts to make it right." I don't need a president who never makes mistakes; those don't even exist. I need a president who's willing to admit them. Those have been in short order as of late, you may have noticed.
Quite some time ago, a staffer for another then-potential presidential candidate called me to pick my brain about what it would take to get my support. One of the things about which I was most adamant was that the candidate had to say, quite plainly, that s/he was wrong on Iraq. The staffer ran a couple of options by me: "What if s/he said this? What if s/he said that?" I said what I wanted to hear was "I was wrong."
John Edwards gave me what I wanted. And I believe he offers America what it needs.
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Josh has been posting on the Biden/Obama story for most of the day, and he now has an audio clip of the interview. The argument now is that a bad transcription is the actual culprit here, not Biden's choice of words.
Take a look and listen.
What do you think? Does the "period" change anything? As Lesly pointed out, it does seem rather odd that Biden went from talking about Clinton's policies, and Edwards' policies to how "articulate" and good lookin' that Obama is. (Although later he does say “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”)
Frankly, given Biden's past dancing on the racism tightrope (and an incredibly poor choice of words in this case), I'm not all that ready to say there's nothing to these (Biden's) comments, but some of you may feel differently.
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Look upon his works, ye Mighty, and despair
One of the last times I found Doonesbury...well, you know...funny...occurred in the wake of the death fatwa issued by Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against author Salman Rushdie for supposed blasphemies in The Satanic Verses. The fatwa was described by Nobel literature prize awardee V.S. Naipaul as "an extreme form of literary criticism." Such a notion certainly informed Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, who launched a storyline in which the wholly-fictional "Islamic Book Critics Circle" handed out literary judgments that were harsh indeed:
To Sidney Sheldon, for The Sands of Time, a sentence of death!
The comic strip's intrepid-yet-witless TV news correspondent, Roland Hedley, offered this breathless bit of commentary to his anchor back in studio:
Ooh, a pan! That's got to hurt, Peter!
All this is to say that the sentence has finally been carried out - by God, if not by man.
Note: Feel free to pay for the privilege of digging through the voluminous archives of ancient Doonesbury strips, if you like. I elected to rely on memory: one of the greatest curses of the human race, as someone or other once said.
("New" Blogger...she blows! Er, cross-posted.)
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I have a heinous migraine.
Can someone come hit me in the knee with a tack hammer to distract me from the THROBBING MADNESS going on inside my head?
I don't get migraines often, but when I do...zoinks. Aleve, take me away.
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Gonzo consents to abide by the law. Aren't we all grateful for the magnanimity of our attorney general?
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday he will turn over secret documents detailing the government's domestic spying program, ending a two-week standoff with the Senate Judiciary Committee over surveillance targeting terror suspects.
So what was the big hold-up? Oh, I'll give you one fucking guess.
"We obviously would be concerned about the public disclosure that may jeopardize the national security of our country," he said. "But we're working with the Congress to provide the information that it needs."
I love the idea that Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and Senator Arlen Specter, who will receive the records, might just go haywire and start wantonly disseminating information that would put our national security at risk. It would be just like those two kooks.
Gonzales described the decision to release the documents to Leahy and Specter as the result of ongoing negotiations between Congress and the administration. He said lawmakers most likely will not have to review the documents at the Justice Department, which keeps a tight grip on classified information, but offered few other details.
"It's important for us that they understand what we're doing," Gonzales said. "All they have to do is ask."
It's so simple! Why didn't those wacky Senators ever think to just
ask before?! They should have saved themselves the trouble of taking the issue to federal court and shit!
Why am I living in a cuckoo clock?
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Who the heck is Jim Sinegal? He's the CEO and founder of Costco, who "yesterday became the most prominent member of a new organization of business owners and executives pressing Congress to approve an increase in the federal minimum wage."
"The more people make, the better lives they're going to have and the better consumers they're going to be," Sinegal said in an interview. "It's going to provide better jobs and better wages."
…Sinegal is one of dozens of business owners and executives who … are lending their voices to an effort called Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a project of Business for Shared Prosperity, an organization of "forward-thinking business owners, executives and investors committed to building enduring economic progress on a strong foundation of opportunity, equity and innovation," according to the organization's Web site.
…Costco, of Issaquah, Wash., would suffer no direct impact from a higher minimum wage because its lowest-paid employees now make about $11 an hour, Sinegal said, adding that the average worker in the company's 504 stores in the United States makes $17 an hour.
Costco is the nation's largest wholesale club. That may suggest progressive economics aren't the impediment to progress conservatives would have us believe. Ahem.
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Put down your drink.
Bush: Link Executive Salaries to Performance
NEW YORK - President Bush took aim Wednesday at lavish salaries and bonuses for corporate executives, standing on Wall Street to issue a sharp warning for corporate boards to "step up to their responsibilities" and tie compensation packages to performance.
[...]
The president does not endorse any government role in reducing those packages. Instead, Bush highlighted new federal rules that the administration thinks are a better path toward wise compensation decisions by companies.
"Government should not decide the compensation for America's corporate executives," he said. "But the salaries and bonuses of CEOs should be based on their success at improving their companies and bringing value to their shareholders."
In effect starting last month, the rules give investors access to clearer and more detailed information from public companies on their top executives' pay packages and perks. Their impact will become apparent as corporations begin issuing 2006 annual reports.
"America's corporate boardrooms must step up to their responsibilities," Bush said. "You need to pay attention to the executive compensation packages that you approve. You need to show the world that America's businesses are a model of transparency and good corporate governance."
...said the most unsuccessful, incompetent, irresponsible "CEO" this country has ever seen.
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One thing I really hate about the primaries is the inevitable in-party bashing. Not only do I find this rather obnoxious, I also just think it's a stupid move, politically. Look at Bush and McCain.
Joe Biden's come out swinging, and he's already put his foot right smack in the middle of his yapper:
On Obama:
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
But—and the “but” was clearly inevitable—he doubts whether American voters are going to elect “a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,” and added: “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”
Yeah, he's the first
articulate African-American in politics. The rest of "those people" are always just talking in that darn street lingo.
And apparently, they don't bathe, either.
(Tip 'o the Energy Dome to Atrios.)
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"Olbermann can't kill him enough." — Don Imus, on Bill "This Sonofabitch" O'Reilly's awesome offer to send one copy of his book to a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan for every book purchased. Come on, people! Buy Billo's stinking book, or the men and women risking their lives on the front lines might never know who's looking out for them, or what it's like to be a brave, brave culture warrior.
Seriously, you know you've hit the bottom of the fricking barrel when you're offending the sensibilities of this douche-sack:
John also reminds us "Limbaugh tried a similar trick of trying to
make money off the troops with his 'Adopt a soldier' scam."
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This is your first stop. This is your next stop. Then here and here and here. And here.
Yeesh.
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Suggested by Spudsy: "What's a more absurd suggestion to combat global warming than GIANT SPACE MIRRORS?"
I say cow corks.
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I just had a serious WTF Moment when I saw this on Yahoo's front page:
Clay Aiken wants to know that? Why? Survive how? Is this about abortion? Snowflake babies? Is Gloria Gaynor somehow involved? Are there organized Americans who are committed to
preventing children from surviving that we must fight? What the hell's going on?
It took me a good 7 seconds of wondering into what weird universe Clay Aiken would lead me if I clicked the link before I saw the itsy bitsy UNICEF tucked into the corner of the photo.
He looks deeply concerned and in need of a good burp.
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Jim Sinegal
