...I agree wrt following Europe's example - in some ways. For example, they're far ahead of us in gas mileage. However, in order to get this country off its collective asses (and I do mean that literally), we're going to have to hit our citizens in the pocketbook. I'd be willing to bet the reason European cars get such better mileage is they're paying nearly twice what the US does for refined gasoline. If we were to raise the cost of electricity and gasoline, as well as heating oil and natural gas, to the same rates, we'd see our energy efficiency rise in a hurry. Conversely, if we can prove to our citizens that preemptively increasing energy efficiency (before costs spiral out of control) will result in a significant savings for all, these sorts of measures will pass through the legislative process like a green streak.

Meanwhile, I'm proud of our governor for putting forth these proposals and hope the rest of the states see fit to follow suit.

Damn you, Marquil! You beat me to it!

And yet, no-one has been able to explain the superscript in the memo or the proportional typeface. As far as my limited knowledge goes, this sort of thing was only achievable on typesetting machines, not clanky 1960s Army-issue typewriters. It's my theory that memo was planted for the sole purpose of discrediting Mr. Rather. The speed with which the bloggers pounced was uncanny; even in this modern era of instant opining...

Governor Huckabee is BY FAR more in touch with all levels of socitety, bY FAR THE MOST GENUINE, BY FAR THE BEST COMMUNICATOR THAT WILL THAT WILL BE ABLE TO DEFEAT THE DEMOCRATS at their own game…gOVERNOR HUCKABEE IS scaring the SH** out of the CORPORATE FAT CAT REPUBLICANS ESTABLISHMENT TYPES BECAUSE HE IS EXPOSING THEM FOR THE SHAMELESS SELLOUTS THAT THEY ARE…THEY COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY or about keeping jobs here…they do not give a SH** about the worker american or otherwise all they care about is profit…. period.

Hmmm...Just how drunk were you when you posted that?

Seriously: Governor Huckabee wants to rewrite the Constitution in Biblical terms. Are you really sure you want to be the citizen of a theocracy?

Y'know...when I was a little girl, my favorite uncle used to pinch his thumb between his first and middle fingers, wave it in front of my face, and gleefully proclaim "Gotcher nose!" After about a hundred repeats of this stunt, I became wise to the fact that my nose was, indeed, still on my face and my uncle merely had hold of his own thumb.

You'd think a few hundred grown-up government representatives would figure this out at some point...

Something that hasn't been reported on much in the MSM - the *real* reason the violence in Iraq is down:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8UVQM0G0

Mark my prophetic words: al Sadr is going to become just as bloody and evil a tyrant as Saddam Hussein and it'll be back to Square One, thus proving beyond a doubt that our 4,000+ dead soldiers did, indeed, give their lives in vain...

How does one combat this? I've spent the past 7 years hoping people were too smart to be taken in by the fourth-grade rhetoric the major news outlets have been spewing. The advertisements for renewing the PAA have been running in our telemarket here in Upstate New York but, in keeping with the generally higher level of education up here, they've been very toned down and sound almost reasonable. This worries me...

Regarding Halpirn's list: don't you think he was attempting a Stephen Colbert moment? That's how I read it. To do otherwise is to sink into a morass of despair...

ARG.

"...should only be mentioned in campy 13 second "what's on the blogs today" segments..."

Yes, but today's irrelevant blogger could very well be tomorrow's policy-maker. I know that, even now, Serious Mainstream Media considers the blogging nation no more than an amusing troupe from beyond the fringe. I think, though, as more and more citizens get their information and news from non-traditional outlets, you'll find the corporate media becoming the irrelevant bunch.

"Well firstly I think you missed the scornful target of that comment..."

No, I didn't. I fully understand how *amusing* MSM finds the "blogosphere" (hate that term). I was attempting to repudiate this amusement factor.

"My best hope for blogs is a kind of symbiosis with TV..."

Certain blogs are gathering steam as the general public becomes more and more cognizant of their meticulous fact checking. Case-in-point: Glenn Greenwald. I, too, hope for a certain symbiosis with the mainstream. Everyone chuckles about how the younger crowd admits to getting their news from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but I think it speaks to a major disgust among more and more of the populace with how the MSM is choosing to inform them and what topics they're choosing to cover.

"What I'm trying to get at is, a unified 5% of the population is more powerful than a disjoined 10%."

I concede your point...for now. But I truly think the tide is turning. It gives me a reason to drag myself out of bed each morning.

What good is access to the powerful if you can't publish anything they say?

Wow. Just wow. I'm disgusted, but I also wonder if you really needed to reprint the picture. Aren't we giving credence to his stalwart journalism by repeated such trash?