This is an excellent interview with David Mendell - a reporter who has been covering Obama in Illinois since 2002. He has a book out called "Obama: From Promise to Power". The interview discusses the massive amount of legislation that he authored in Illinois (800 bills), their overall tenor, his ambition, the story of his father and his father's political career in Kenya, as well as his wife's attitude toward his political career.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Barack Background
Monday, August 27, 2007
Michigan Plans to Move Primary to Jan 15, 2008
From the electiononline.org newsletter:
The Michigan Senate voted this week to move the state's primary election to January 15. The move, which was not unexpected, could prompt Iowa and New Hampshire to possibly move their caucus and primary elections to December 2007.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
The Visible Vote - Gay & Lesbian Prez Debate
Logo - the TV channel for gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgender peeps is hosting a debate for the democratic presidential candidates tonight. They were originally not going to invite Mike Gravel. True hypocrisy since he is one of 2 candidates who support gay marriage, the other being Dennis Kucinich. John Edward's wife Elizabeth is in support of gay marriage, but last I heard she wasn't running for president, although I think she's more popular than her husband.
The Republicans were offered a Logo debate but they all declined. I hadn't realized that not a single Republican is in support of repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military. I don't know why we can take high school drop-outs, ex-felons, and people who are out of shape in the military, but not gay people.
The debate will be online tonight at 9pm ET, in case you don't get Logo yet.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Mike Gravel's Metaphors
I didn't get the first one with the rock:
But when I saw the second one, then they both made sense.
Here's an interview where he talks about the videos as metaphors. I like where he talks about the power of an ordinary citizen to create ripples, or start a fire. I believe in that. That's in some ways what the film is about. How people either believe they have that power or they don't.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Video & News roundup
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg left the Republican party today and became an independent. Ho hum.
Hillary announced her campaign song in a funny video where she offers Bill carrots. Some people think their are more appropriate songs for her. Hi ho.
John Edwards sneezes and shakes hands. Hi dee hi dee hi dee ho.
I'm sure you've seen the hair video, but just in case you missed it...
President Bush gets shit on by a bird - you could say it was a timely moment - but he's had so many timely moments, a bird could have shit on him at almost any point in the last few years and it would have seemed ironic. Hi dee ho.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Evolution Light
US Senator & Republican Presidential hopeful Sam Brownback raised his hand at the debate to say that he didn't believe in Evolution. Turns out he believes in parts of Evolution. He clarified his position in a New York Times Editorial that I have to admit I had a hard time following. He says that science and faith do not contradict each other - but the truth is that sometimes they do. If you believe that the Grand Canyon is 3000 years old - that's a direct contradiction to scientific findings. It's one thing to say, "Let's agree to disagree." It's another thing to pretend that we agree when we don't.
Here is an excerpt where he seems to be making an argument that I've heard before, basically - I believe in Evolution - but God could have created the process of evolution.
"Ultimately, on the question of the origins of the universe, I am happy to let the facts speak for themselves. There are aspects of evolutionary biology that reveal a great deal about the nature of the world, like the small changes that take place within a species. Yet I believe, as do many biologists and people of faith, that the process of creation — and indeed life today — is sustained by the hand of God in a manner known fully only to him. It does not strike me as anti-science or anti-reason to question the philosophical presuppositions behind theories offered by scientists who, in excluding the possibility of design or purpose, venture far beyond their realm of empirical science."
I don't have a problem with this argument. What I'm uncomfortable with is that after plowing through 11 paragraphs of Brownback's hedging - I still basically have no idea what he actually believes about the science of evolution. The closest he comes to being specific about what he thinks is this sentence:
"If belief in evolution means simply assenting to microevolution, small changes over time within a species, I am happy to say, as I have in the past, that I believe it to be true."
Many scientists replied to this statement saying that one cannot pick and choose what to believe from scientific evidence. The point of science is that the evidence demonstrates what can be believed and what theories the evidence does not support. Here is an excerpt from one of the letters:
"As a person of science who does not believe that sound reason must be “purified,” I find his pick-and-choose approach to science very worrisome, as he might one day be responsible for making the most important decisions for this country.
We can only hope that he chooses to believe the facts when it comes to decisions about our health, national security, economic policy and education."
Here is an interesting and detailed blog on this exact topic.
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