The Gates Foundation is doing good work in its own areas. No one can do everything.

Climate change needs to be addressed not at the foundation level, but at the national policy and international treaty level, or nothing meaningful will result. it is real, the effects are well-documented, and the peer-review process (something the truly ignorant - such as DimStar - will never grasp) will determine the utility, validity, or inanity of the skeptics out there. it is by surviving such review that theories - a term deeply misunderstood by the DimStars of this world - evolve.

Those who say there is no man-made climate change need to ask themselves why (a) The bastion of liberal bias called The Pentagon has an office dedicated to researching and preparing for catastrophic effects of said climate change, and (b) Why insurers - not normally my favorite people, but a serious lot who generally know how to bet - are less and less willing to underwrite new or rebuilt construction in low-lying coastal areas that will be prone to sea level rise and increasing storm severity with the increase in climatic instability coming in the near future.

DimStar is a blithering idiot.

I offer a hat tip to Josh Marshall's TPM, of course:

I mentioned a few days ago that congressional Republicans were simply not part of the conversation on saving the American economy. The policies they're pushing don't even amount to conservative. In most cases they're pushing stuff that's just transparently ridiculous. Like a federal spending freeze in the face of massive economic downturn and possible deflationary spiral.

And now Greg Sargent has dug up a quote where a leading Republican admits that this is in fact their strategy. It's not about coming up with policies to save the country; it's all about pulling down Nancy Pelosi's and her caucus's favorability ratings.

"We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010," said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. "Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint."

That's not really surprising. But it's a bit stunning, though perhaps also refreshing, to see them say it out loud.

--Josh Marshall

"...and it seems to me, you've lived your life with a finger in the wind.."

The first person post-AIG to publicly call for any labor contract to be voided, be it in bankruptcy, acquisition, or any other reason, needs to be publicly beaten.

http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/t/4020/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=551

Now, normally I do not believe in either petitions or street protests as being particularly effective. This one, I'm behind. It's well beyond time the people "at the top" who make the decisions that crash things down around the rest of us confront the aftermath of what they've done.

Cause and effect, simple as that.

Shocked to discover that Sarah Palin is making a false statement. Everyone knows that no one from Alaska, especially not a female Republican elected official, would ever do that.

(Snark-o-meters pegged yet?)

Would it kill them to protest in relevant venues?

Rep. Frank's hearings have nothing whatsoever to do with Iraq or Afghanistan. It's very much akin to protesting getting a traffic ticket by complaining to McDonald's.

Code Pink has destroyed what credibility they may have once had by their behavior and their absolute unwillingness to keep their actions germane.

If you don't like it, go get elected to office and hold hearings of your own at which anyone may protest anything, no matter how pertinent to the hearing at hand.

No more. Consider me "unchurched" - as the terms seems to be these days for those of us who do not attend any sort of services.

This, and much of the other reactionary nonsense of the Donohue/Opus Dei/wingnut Catholic right wing, explain and illustrate why.

They think they can profit from it. If they thought someone would buy spots for it, they'd run a show dedicated solely to urging viewers to switch channels. As would any commercial network.

TV is, after all, an advertising medium.

If you're getting B-complex from somewhere. And consuming complete proteins.

Veganism, on the other hand, is profoundly unhealthy.

And do not provide them any services, even essential ones such as fire protection or military defense, without overcharging them severely. Payment due in advance, in cash.

"You want that fire out? OK, that'll be $18,000 cash - upfront!"

Once he lands in Costa Rica, do not let him back into the country! And good riddance to Gov. Spellcheck...

That's what piracy is. Do they have a legitimate beef about others fishing in their coastal waters? Maybe. Does it justify attacking people who have nothing whatever to do with that? Hardly. Cry me a freakin' river...

Convoy the merchantmen, and send the pirate motherships to the bottom without hesitation. Repeat as necessary.

Apple is a "designer prison" populated entirely by volunteers.

The poor widdle conservatives are offended. Someone help them please! How dare anyone?

Really, wingnuts, don't you think it's time you learned to take it as well as dish it out? Grow a pair, maybe? (I know, I know, it's difficult when no one's buying your way out of things for you...)

What a bunch of hypersensitive wimps. Crybabies. Cowards. Punks. Losers. Weaklings. (I have more...)

Marty Ingels or not, she makes the final call, yes? (If not, maybe something else is terribly wrong.)

And there are beautiful women of every age - and description - in the world. What they choose to do with their beauty is up to them. Our choice in that is to either view or turn away.

has she read any?