From The Huffington Post….by way of Charlie Peters…

An Abdication in Detroit

Carl Pope, Huffington Post, July 6, 2006

San Francisco — Last week, the Ford Motor Company joined the parade of stunningly hypocritical auto manufacturers by announcing that it was abandoning its goal of selling 250,000 hybrid vehicles per year by the end of the decade. Instead, Ford joined other automakers in promising to make 2 million flexible fuel vehicles. “In a joint letter sent Wednesday to members of Congress, General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG announced a new promise to double annual production of vehicles that run on alternative fuels, to 2 million per year.” Congress promptly responded to the announcement by refusing, once again, to increase fuel economy standards.

But the auto industry knows that making two million “flexible-fuelled vehicles” won’t dent our dependence on oil. First, the “alternative fuel” they are touting is a mix of gasoline and ethanol called E85, because it is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Regular cars can, and often do, burn ethanol-gasoline mixes that are up to 10 percent ethanol already — so the real difference with E85 sounds like it might be an impressive 75 percent.

But the reality is far different. First, it takes a fair amount of fossil fuels to make ethanol — diesel fuel for tractors to grow the corn and transport it, natural gas to make fertilizer for it, and gas or (worse) coal to distill it. But this doesn’t matter so much, because 99 percent of these flexible fuel vehicles never see a drop of E85 but run on gas instead. That’s according to a March 2002 study by the Bush Administration.

Since there are fewer than 700 gas stations selling E85, out of 176,000 stations in the U.S., these flexible fuel vehicles will mainly burn the same gasoline that the rest of the fleet does. For example, within 25 miles of my home there are NO gas stations selling E85 to the public! So, the actual savings from this big new auto industry commitment will certainly be trivial at best. Unfortunately, it gets worse.

The auto industry gets bogus fuel economy “credits” for selling flexible fuel vehicles, as if these vehicles were actually all burning ethanol-based fuel. As a result, U.S. gas consumption is actually going to go UP as a result of the auto industry’s latest maneuver. The Bush Administration’s study estimated that the combination of the fuel economy loophole and failure of 99 percent of the flexible fuel vehicles to use E85 would result in an increase in U.S. oil dependence of 17 billion gallons by 2008. On the other hand, we could easily reduce consumption by 50 percent by using more-efficient vehicle technology, the solution that Congress — and the auto industry — just rejected. ed. note: Did you notice the recent spike in food prices? These are connected folks.

Again, William Clay Ford and the rest of the auto know these numbers. This is not something someone just dug out. They don’t care.

If we really want to kick our oil addiction, we’re going to have to do it from the grass-roots up. That’s why the Sierra Club has just launched “Smart Energy Summer” — a campaign to connect Americans with the real solutions to our energy and global warming problems — ones that our leaders know about, but just won’t embrace.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/an-abdication-in-detroit_b_24523.html

A Brief Word…..

…..yeah, the revolution will not be televised. Indeed, there looks to be no revolution. With Barky calling for a non-vote Democratic Convention, he won’t get that predicts I, and McSame being…well, more of the same I suppose you could vote for Nader or Barr but neither are viable let’s face it. Sister Beezlebub still has a shot moreso every time Barky sticks his foot in his mouth and hops around going Uh…Uh…Muh! Currently the Bark-O-Meter has him at 1.5 hops per week. But enough of the cheap shots.

The real problem sits on ‘The HIll’ like a horrific knot of toads in human form. 535 elected representatives of the people.

Or not.

Yep, in situation, after issue, compounded by crisis we see that the legislative branch of our government is stuffed to the gills with folks who are one of three things:

Corrupt…the biggest faction. Politicians are trained early that it’s all about the Benjamins as our ‘system’ rewards those who get elected and under the current system you need lots of B’s to get elected…

Stupid…plenty of those after all if you’re buying a Congressperson you don’t need one that’s smart. Just one that loves to follow orders.

Nuts….Yeah, barking mad. These are the ones found in a hotel room with hookers and coke or an underage boy. Significant fraction….

So what to do. First up is very simple.

Get real.

Understand that the level of corruption is now at unprecedented levels. Levels no mere change in ‘party’ will fix. The job is a wholescale clean up similar to Hercules and the Augean Stables. Ever read that one? You should it’s not really about what it seems. Yeah, get real. No one candidate is going to ‘save’ us folks. Most adults realize reality don’t work that way but….

People want to believe.

Well…

Believe this.

If you and I don’t get off our asses and take back our government the future will be very bleak. The tipping point on many problems affecting our very survival as a society is near. I assert that the tools to fix those problems which threaten us most are also hand. Requiring only affordable amounts of money and some intelligent leadership. But with a government composed of the corrupt, the stupid and the barking mad we are not going to be able to use those tools.

What to do?

Look around join up with like minded folks. Stop talking and start doing. You will be noticing some changes around here as I ‘renovate’ my new primary residence. And no I don’t care what the Congressional mortgage lending ‘bail out’ bill says, it’s amazingly stupid go look it up, about how to treat ‘primary’ vs. ‘secondary’ residences.

One signpost to a new way is the widget in the upper right sidebar called: ‘Accountability Money Bomb’.

This takes you to a spot where you can contribute to a fascinating group headed by Jane Hamscher and a bunch of right wing folks. Yep, wingers and progressives…together. Seems there is common cause to be made by all Americans in the face of the Congress’s gutting the 4th Amendment. Here is the link to the statement of purpose from StrangeBedFellows the ad hoc group just beginning to get some traction. I will be blogging about this more as the idea of ‘Accountability for the Asylum (Congress)’ resonates with me.

Hope you will hang around as I am planning some extensive remodeling here and I hope you will find it interesting.

I don’t now about you…But I am sick and tired of being lied to…

….being treated as if I was some fool who’s opinion is of no import whatsoever. But whose money is good. Yeah…

How about you are you tired of the lies and  the b.s. and the corruption? In the words of  James Carville, ‘Had enough yet?’

I think you probably are. Many whom I have talked to have expressed these exact sentiments, and worse, about their
Democratic reps and the ‘Do-Nothings’ of the ‘Democrat’ Party. Oh! Did you think I was talking about Republicans?

Well, no…

After all the Dems have had a majority in both houses of Congress since 2006. Sure! You remember the worst liar, the most pathetic excuse for a human being, the woman who could if she so wished have stopped the occupation of Iraq in it’s tracks.

But who didn’t.

Remember her stream of lies about, ‘…..making the Bush administration accountable…’? Not to mention, and I’m  not, the ‘…Impeachment is off the table…’ cave in.  No, just evaluate Madame Speaker’s’ promises about what she would do against what she has done. Just looking at that against the background of the situation the nation finds itself in and I am prepared to assert that not only is the vile, heartless Pelosi the First Woman Speaker she may very well be the Worst Speaker we’ve ever elected.. That’s big job but Miss Nancy has been up to it sez I.

But for every action there is and equal and opposite reaction, physics yes but consider that everything is subject to the laws of that discipline, and we’ve got that reaction now.

Cindy Sheehan has qualified for the ballot. You’ve got a hardworking woman whom you know will not sell you out if elected and who is just the antidote our sick political culture needs. I intend to do whatever I can to help her send the vile Pelosi packing.

I’ll be keeping you posted on the Sheehan campaign’s progress and passing on every call for action from them. She is what progressives should be supporting a candidate who wants to shine the clear disinfecting light of progressive values into the fetid darkness our government currently works in.

This just in:

Cindy Sheehan Is On The Ballot!! Now Let’s Go For The General
Election Gold

Today we got confirmation that Cindy Sheehan has QUALIFIED for the
ballot as an independent candidate to challenge Nancy Pelosi for the
seat from the 8th Congressional district of CA. This required the
verification of the signatures of more than 10,000 of her
constituents, only the 6th time in history this has ever been
accomplished in the state of CA.

And it could not have been done without the heroic support of people,
not just in that one district, but from all over the country who
recognize that a successful challenge to Pelosi will do more to
compel real policy change than almost anything else we can do.
Pelosi, who has turned a deaf ear to the entire American people on
ending the war funding, impeachment and everything else, MUST be
defeated to start to finally hold the White House, and the rest of
Congress, accountable.

This is now a very winnable race, but only if we rally behind Cindy
Sheehan, who had the courage to call the recent non-impeachment
hearing the toothless sham that it was, and was thrown out of that
hearing for saying so. Let’s make her a member of Congress so they
can never throw her out again. Please make a donation now to help
Cindy Sheehan win the big one.

Cindy Sheehan Donations: http://www.usalone.com/donations_cindy.php

The faster we can give Cindy Sheehan a big head of steam, the faster
we can get the attention of each and every other member of Congress
who thinks they can just coast through their next election without
actually standing up for us. Let them know that there is a Cindy
Sheehan waiting in the wings in their district to take them down too
next time unless they do their job now.

The simple, cold fact is that unless and until Congress sees a
downside to their despicable cowardice there will be NO policy
change. We’ll repeat that. No policy change whatsoever. Their whole
self-justification is they point to the elections they are winning.
Unless and until we defeat one of their own, one of the biggest of
them all, we can send emails and make phone calls until we’re blue in
the face, and they will must keep lying to us and stalling. Yeah,
sure they’re just about to impeach. Sure.

Now some people (defeatists) will say, “Oh, you’ll never defeat the
Speaker of the House”. Well guess what, until we do they will never
take the voice of the people seriously. We HAVE to win. And we have
to do everything we could have done to make that a reality. So we are
calling on all of our participants to throw everything they have
behind candidates who will fight for the issues, the real issues.

And there is no better investment in time, energy or money we can
make now than to give Cindy Sheehan the biggest platform possible to
advocate for us.

Paid for by Cindy Sheehan for Congress

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

If you aren’t prepared to help this woman hold Congress accountable then take you do-nothing ass over to OpenLeft, FDL or dKos and play with the children.

‘Rope the Sun’

Yep, while Senator Obama as lining up like a good lil’ trooper to sign off on Cheney’s Energy Bill….

‘Cheney’s Energy Bill….’

Man that just sounds wrong does it not? ‘Cheney ‘s’ ‘Energy’ ‘Bill’. Huh….Yeah, according to the Big Men of the ‘Sphere Kos, Marshall and Bowers if’n Barry does it or is for in, for no matter how short a time, why then it must be ‘progressive’. Have I got that right ‘BoneHead’ Bowers?

Oh…goody…

Where was I? Oh, yeah a sustainable society, something we don’t have. Something nobody really gives a f$%k about even though they’re always talking about it. Someone better get serious soon. The Japanese are dead serious about it. See, they don’t have a lot of desert which is a central resource America is ‘rich’ in and which Scientific American’s The Grand Solar Plan takes advantage of to produce all of our electricity needs, including converting every car to plug in, by 2050. Cost, $420 Billion. Sound outrageous? Read the article at the end below.

Nope, no desert but plenty of Sci-Fi and lots of Outer Space. The Japanese take advantage of both in:

‘Rope the Sun, Suzuki-san!’

Kakuda, Japan—In a recent spin-off of the classic Japanese animated series Mobile Suit Gundam, the depletion of fossil fuels has forced humanity to turn to space-based solar power generation as
global conflicts rage over energy shortages. The sci-fi saga is set in the year 2307, but even now real Japanese scientists are working on the hardware needed to realize orbital generators as a form of clean,
renewable energy, with plans to complete a prototype in about 20 years.The concept of solar panels beaming down energy from space has long been pondered—and long been dismissed as too costly and impractical. But in

Cost of Gas as Per Cent of Income Nationwide

                                       clik for bigger image

This is of course heavily depdendent on how far you drive. Wonder what
it will look like at $8.00/gal?

Maybe I’m Wrong…..No not about Barry…about ‘Oil Never Coming Down’…..

These guys are playing a role in the global market. They are not happy that their government is not going to subsidize their fuel costs anymore You see in many Asian countries that’s exactly what’s been going on. To forestall ‘unrest’ the governments have been spending massive amounts to keep fuel prices in their countries down. But….now running out of the ability to do this, out of money they are, the price off fuel is rising so…the demand is falling.

These guys are pissed but this might mean, might, that our costs will fall somewhat due to the lack of demand.

Read more about this and  a lot more on the ‘oil crisis’ at Robert Oak’s blog where guest blogger New Deal Democrat starts his post off with a bang:

‘I was in the midst of writing a diary about how there aren’t "2 Americas", a la John Edwards, but 3, when it became clear that so much information has become available this week concerning the forces affecting Americans’ demand for oil, that it demanded its own diary. Even if the world has reached the plateau of "Peak Oil" and supplies will gradually be rationed at higher and higher prices, there are going to be booms and busts along the way. I’m here to tell you that the evidence suggests that there has been a speculative boom in the last 6-9 months and we may shortly see a bust, echoing the sudden decline of oil from $80 to $55 a barrel just before the 2006 elections. The boom and the bust, if it happens, have everything to do with (1) Subsidies to gas consumption by Asian governments, (2) hoarding (in tanker ships), and (3) unintended consequences of the Fed’s bailing out billionaires, that have added about $1 to every single gallon of gas you buy.‘

Whoa, I don’t believe I read that part about you an me subsidizing the Bear Stearns bailout to the tune of $1 per gallon in the SF Chronicle. But then I wouldn’t would I. It’s all about how Barry is gonna be Pres. Great, follow that Kabuki there but if you want a head’s up on what’s coming:

Energywise…

Taxwise…state anyway…

Technologywise….

Econmically speaking….

This is the place to come.

A “biofuel” which is NOT ethanol

Algae: a carbon-neutral energy platform fueled by sunlight. Photo by Steve Jurvetson.

In light of the skyrocketing cost of petroleum-based fuels, 100 years ago was now is an ideal time to look into the sorts of technologies which deserve more attention from you, me, the broader investment community, environmentalists, and our “government.” (That last one makes me want to both laugh and cry.)

One exciting new areas of research we should look into involves a technology called “renewable gasoline” and which is manufactured from algae — not corn. No food crops required. The folks leading in this technology are a San Diego-based company called Sapphire Energy, and their announcement of May 28, 2008 is noteworthy:

Pioneering effort alters ‘food vs. fuel’ debate, supports American energy independence with revolutionary platform that harnesses microorganisms, sunlight, CO₂

Leading investors commit over $50 million to scale effort; production innovator Brian Goodall hired, team leader behind first biofuel 747 flight

Sonoma, California – May 28, 2008 – Sapphire Energy announced today they have produced renewable 91 octane gasoline that conforms to ASTM certification, made from a breakthrough process that produces crude oil directly from sunlight, CO₂ and photosynthetic microorganisms, beginning with algae.

“Sapphire’s goal is to be the world’s leading producer of renewable petrochemical products,” said CEO and co-founder Jason Pyle, speaking from the influential Simmons Alternative Energy Conference. “Our goal is to produce a renewable fuel without the downsides of current biofuel approaches.

“Sapphire Energy was founded on the belief that the only way to cure our dependence on foreign oil and end our flirtation with ethanol and biodiesel is through radical new thinking and a commitment to new technologies.”

The end result — high-value hydrocarbons chemically identical to those in gasoline — will be entirely compatible with the current energy infrastructure from cars to refineries and pipelines.

Not biodiesel, not ethanol. And no crops or farm land required.

The Sapphire platform offers vast advantages – scientific, economic and social – over traditional biofuel approaches.

Company scientists have built a platform that uses sunlight, CO₂, photosynthetic microorganisms and non-arable land to produce carbon-neutral alternatives to petrochemical-based processes and products. First up: renewable gasoline. Critically important, in light of recent studies that prove the inefficiencies and costs of crop-based biofuels, there is no ‘food vs. fuel’ tradeoff. The process is not dependent on food crops or valuable farmland, and is highly water efficient. “It’s hard not to get excited about algae’s potential,” said Paul Dickerson, chief operating officer of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy “Its basic requirements are few: CO₂, sun, and water. Algae can flourish in non-arable land or in dirty water, and when it does flourish, its potential oil yield per acre is unmatched by any other terrestrial feedstock.”

Scalability key to success

Sapphire’s scalable production facilities can grow easily and economically because production is modular, transportable, and fueled by sunlight – not constrained by land, crops, or other natural resources.

“Any company or fuel that hopes to solve the biofuel conundrum must be economically scalable – and that requires conforming to the existing refining distribution and fleet infrastructure,” said Brian Goodall, Sapphire’s new vice president of downstream technology. Goodall led the team responsible for the highly visible, first-ever Virgin Atlantic “green” 747 flight earlier this year. In addition to a three-decade career in the petrochemical industry, he is a corporate inductee at the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

[Press Release continues…]

In fact, Sapphire states that research is an introduction to an entirely new sub-category of fuel research that they refer to as Green Crude Production. See their take on

• The Problem
• The Solution
• The Potential

Even more encouraging is that this sort of research appears to be going in several directions at once. C|Net recently reported the following:

Sapphire said that it developed an algae process to avoid the controversy over using land for fuel crops instead of food crops.

But at this point, algae fuels are largely experimental and no company is making fuel on a commercial scale.

GreenFuel Technologies, which had to scale back a pilot site, said that it has landed a large European customer to make fuel from algae but has not shared any more information.

Sapphire is not the only company creating technology to make hydrocarbons from plants. Others include LS9, Amyris Biotechnologies, Codexis, and J. Craig Venter-founded Synthetic Genomics.

The advantage of this approach is that the fuels can be integrated into existing transmission infrastructure and can run in cars or planes without modification.

Let’s all keep our eyes on these companies and their technologies.

tekstone’s thought for the day

Earlier this morning, I received the following message from our old friend “tekstone.” In my opinion, some of his basic premises are a bit off base, but overall, I appreciate his opinion and respect his set of conclusions. I intend to expound on these issues in the very near future.

we already have bio-diesel cars that run on renewable biomass fuel – and have for a loooong time (see history of diesel engine)

and

we already have hybrid cars that allow the poor petroleum companies to be slowly weened off their $11billion profit per quarter habit. (don’t want to do anything too drastic now…)

so

why don’t we have bio-diesel hybrids dominating the roads? we would be free of foreign fossil-fuel dependence – making us safer – AND we would be cleaner and more efficient all at once!

the main reason we don’t have bio-diesel hybrids? one article puts it this way:

The only obstacle is profit. Making America a safer and more socially responsible country just isn’t cost-effective for two of America’s most important corporations. Or, even worse, making America safer isn’t even a concern.

this, my friends, is the thought for the day. feel free to forward to others. maybe if enough people realize how beholden we are to corporate profits at the direct expense of our national security and our potential survival as a species, we can set ourselves on a new course…

this is not about Democrat vs. Republican or what poor people are doing that the rich people don’t like or who is winning American Idol – so you won’t see this on the so-called news stations. but our dependence on foreign fossil fuel is the direct cause of the “terrorist” threats (real or perceived) and the “global climate crisis” – the two most serious issues facing us as a civilization that we have been “too busy” and too distracted to address.

yes, we are too busy arguing about whether gay people can marry or how we should keep Mexicans out of our country. but let the polar ice caps melt and keep giving billions of dollars to terrorist states for their oil.

we are a strange people aren’t we?

‘Been Keeping My Mouth Shut’ since I felt what was happening would be obvious to most…..

But guess what?

It’s not. People, that’s people who say they are ‘progressive’ or liberal, have been expressing the most ignorant ideas about what’s going on in this Dem Primary. Sorry about that word ‘ignorant’ but hey…the show fits…wear it.

Here with commentary by me is eriposte to…well…

Tell a story.

You do like a story don’t you?

It’s Ain’t Over Yet

by eriposte

Having been rather busy last week, I’m a bit behind on blogging. I thought the best way to catch up and comment on the state of the race is to respond to Steve’s question on why Sen. Clinton would stay in the race despite facing significant debt ($). West Virginia aside, I can think of so many reasons. Here are a few, not necessarily in order.

Political: Sen. Clinton appears to be staying in the race because she really believes she has a much better chance of delivering the White House to Democrats in November than Sen. Obama. I have seen a lot of discussion in the blogosphere about who has a better chance of winning against Sen. McCain and obviously supporters of Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton both have strong views about their respective candidates’ electability. My view has been unchanged since December. I strongly believe Sen. Clinton has a much better chance of beating her Republican opponent – esp. Sen. McCain – than Sen. Obama, once the GOP and media attacks begin. The events of the last couple of months have only solidified my view. More importantly, neither candidate will have enough pledged delegates to cross the delegate threshold (more on this below), there is just a slight difference between Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama on the popular vote and she’s still got a shot at coming out ahead on this metric when all the races are over (see Jay Cost’s spreadsheet where Sen. Clinton just beat his popular vote estimate for WV, and Cost’s article from last week "Not Quite Yet"). Moreover, according to the rules of the primary, the role of superdelegates is to exercise independent judgment, and given the other not so minor detail that Sen. Obama has not won yet, there is absolutely no reason for her to quit now. The fact that her chances of winning are low doesn’t mean her chances of winning are zero. When you are this close on the popular vote and creaming your opponent by over 40% after he has been crowned the nominee (by the media and big chunks of the blogosphere) then you have every reason to stay in the race. [Fun fact: Nebraska – discussed later in this post]. (I wonder how those who are insisting that Hillary has no chance would talk if this was the GE and McSame was in the lead…Oh, yeah…we did that already in 2000…what is the difference…Obama’s more charming than Bush…maybe….Obama’s black….Hmmmm that might be it….Obama’s backers…do you know who they are? don’t want to lose their ‘investment’…Bingo..get a cupie doll, pal)

Don’t Let The Media Define the Rules of Elections: One of the fundamental values I have sought to see in Democrats is that they not quit before the votes are counted and certainly not quit because the media asks them to quit. I was appalled at what happened in 2000 when Vice President Gore was hounded in the media and declared a "sore loser" even before a Florida recount. I was very disappointed in 2004 when Sen. Kerry gave up quickly without a proper recount in Ohio, ostensibly because he didn’t want to be branded a "sore loser". I am sick and tired of Democrats who refuse to stand up for democracy (who would rather sit on their  hands and do exactly nothing an then complain about the outcome incessantly..yeah..me also on that) and who are more concerned about what elitist jokers like Tim Russert, David Broder, Frank Rich or (fill in the blanks) think of them than they care about the Democratic party’s ideals – one of which is making sure as many people can vote and another being that every vote should be counted. So, if Sen. Clinton can afford to campaign till June 3rd and she and her supporters continue to fund her campaign (I certainly will), I would consider myself indebted to her if she does exactly that and demonstrates that the era of the media ordering candidates around is effectively over. I want a Fighting Democrat as President and as good as Sen. Obama may be as a candidate, there’s only one Fighting Democrat left in this race and that’s Sen. Hillary Clinton (also see here). As Emily’s List President Ellen Malcolm said recently in her op-ed focusing on the calls for Sen. Clinton to quit – "winners never quit and…quitters never win". In fact, there is simply no other American candidate in modern history that I’m aware of who withstood absolutely unprecedented and sustained levels of hostility in the media and blogosphere, was outspent by huge margins in state after state (even WV), was insulted and demeaned in the worst manner possible – sometimes by alleged progressives, and yet, stayed resolute and focused and revealed the true fighter that she is. Her blowout victory in West Virginia where she amassed an impressive popular vote gain under record turnout follows a series of victories in big states despite calls for her to drop out – this is particularly noteworthy coming as it did after the morale-depressing commentary in the media last week about how the race was over. [Big bonus for Democrats if Sen. Clinton becomes the nominee: She is building a massive base of Democratic voters who don’t trust the media to tell the truth about Democrats (like her) and who have deep contempt for the gasbags in the media. (Gee….what have I been listening to for fukin’ months but ‘The Media….the media….they always kill ‘us’ Democrats….Guess The Hill did not get the memo. To damn bad a lot of the folks I know don’t get this.) This is a dream come true for me because building voter skepticism about the media has been one of the principal failings of the Democratic party for a long time and she’s almost single-handedly accomplishing what to me should be one of the holy grails of Democratic and progressive politics, i.e., making voters realize that the media is elitist and often dishonest in how it transmits false, often Republican (and increasingly fake "progressive") talking points about Democrats. Another holy grail that she’s on the right side of – she has been long been firmly in support of funding alternative progressive institutions and groups outside the Democratic party apparatus that are critical to ensuring the long term success of the progressive movement; contrast that with Sen. Obama’s inclinations.]

Universal Healthcare: Yet another reason why she should not drop out has to do with one of the biggest issues facing the country – something that affects the poor and working class of all races and backgrounds – universal healthcare. As I have said before, Sen. Clinton represents the only remaining opportunity to really get universal healthcare passed in the next 4 years. Granted, the chances of her getting it passed are less than 50% but those odds are much better than the odds that truly universal healthcare will get passed by an Obama administration (0%). To me, this alone is an important enough reason for her to stay in the race to be the Democratic nominee, especially given the other considerations above. (Oh hell, nobody is concerned about that….Let’s sing a few verses of Kumbaya! The Magic Man will fix things…..ya just gotta believe….in his for-profit-health-care-solution)

History and Change: Having the first female President in the United States – especially someone with her impressive experience, knowledge, courage and resilience – would be an enormous positive change for the country and path-breaking for roughly half of the American population – women.

Florida and Michigan: It would be disastrous for the Democratic party to disenfranchise Michigan and Florida. Moreover, as Obama supporter Chris Bowers noted last month in his post "No Objective Delegate Math", the magic delegate number is 2208, not 2025. Since revote primaries in FL and MI were not supported by the Obama campaign, we have no choice but to use the results of the previous elections to decide how MI/FL votes/delegates get allocated. Big Tent Democrat has more on this. The DNC Rules Committee very much has the right to seat these delegates according to the rules of this primary and until they make their final decision on this (and we can be sure that the egregious Donna Brazile will try to not significantly undo what she did), any declarations of victory would be no different than prematurely declaring Mission Accomplished. (Even  ‘BoneHead’ Bowers finally got this. You wanna beat McSame you do not run the guy who told MI and FL to fuck off! Simple really…apparently too damn simple for some)

Let me stop there and let readers provide more of their own reasons, but a brief note on Sen. Clinton’s win in West Virginia – a 41% victory margin and a nearly 150,000 popular vote gain (which would have likely been even higher if Sen. Edwards had not been on the ballot and which erased roughly 70% of Sen. Obama’s popular vote gain last week). It has been downright depressing to see some people stereotype lower income working class whites as racists and distort Sen. Clinton’s argument about working class voters, when the fact remains that both Al Gore and John Kerry lost white working class voters by huge margins (and lost WV) not because of racism. (Yep,  the only reason there is to be against Barry the Precious One is….yer a fukin’ Racist White Scumbag. Funny how the ‘Democat’ Party never realizes that some folks are just that and gets who those folks are. That’s why they are all inside the tent pissing on each other instead of pissing out on the folks OUTSIDE the tent.)

Let’s close with some observations on Nebraska. Nebraska held a primary yesterday not just for the Republican party but also for the Democratic party – the latter being irrelevant when it comes to delegates but important to assess the impact of caucuses v. primaries. When Nebraska held its Democratic caucus on Super Tuesday (Feb), the turnout was around 38760 and Sen. Obama won the caucus 68%-32%, giving him a popular vote margin of almost 14000 votes. Yesterday, the primary attracted 93161 voters and the result was 49-47% in favor of Sen. Obama, with Mike Gravel taking up the remaining 4%. In other words, a 36-point caucus victory was reduced to a 2-point primary victory for Sen. Obama along with a much lower popular vote margin of just ~2600 votes. This lends further credence to the points I have made previously. Taking no credit away from Sen. Obama for his caucus victories, the fact remains that his large victory margins in caucuses are clearly inflated significantly by the lower turnouts in the caucuses and may not be representative of any unique advantages for him in the general election. This is consistent with previous trends and is important to note because it cuts against the conventional wisdom about the significance of those caucus victories. As Anglachel observed yesterday:

OK, I can see a loss in a state where demographics favor your opponent, but 41%? Of the front-running presumptive nominee? Who outspent Hillary 2-to-1 and has the entire MSM lined up singing his praises?

[…]

In contest after contest, we see him failing to turn out the massive numbers that his allegedly unstoppable movement says they command. We see dominance in highly restrictive caucuses. We see him turning out super-majorities of AA voters. We see him dominating urban areas where you have upper income liberals. We see the college aged children of those liberal families voting in university areas.

What we aren’t seeing is any new coalitions for the Democratic Party coming out of his organizing. We aren’t seeing his share of the electorate increase. If anything, it is declining, given his defeats in OH, TX, PA, IN and WV, and what looks like a royal shellacking in the works in KY….In a Nebraska primary held today, which was like Washington State’s with no delegates awarded, he’s barely 2 points ahead. This was a caucus state that went for him 60/40 [Eriposte note: actually 68-32]. Hmm, maybe he didn’t have all that much support there? Maybe he won big there because the voters didn’t turn out?

It is beginning to look like the main reason for Obama’s red state caucus successes is the absence of voters, not the presence of new ones.(Res Ipsa Loquitor folks. Those hordes of Obama supporters who are gonna ride to his rescue in them there RedStates…They….wait for it….DON’T EXIST. This is not the only evidence of that fact. Take it from me or DON’T I don’t give a fuck; polling and analysis show Clinton is bringing in more new voters AND WHY THE FUCK NOT. SHE’S TALKING POCKETBOOK ISSUES TO THE VOTERS. What’s Obama’s message been lately? What? Can’t answer the question? What does that tell you?)

Without a doubt, Sen. Obama has a strong and deep following within the traditional Democratic base, but the evidence that he is building a new and broad coalition is much less compelling when we analyze the demographics of the recent races and deflate the results of the caucuses by acknowledging the reality of turnouts. It is also clear that ever since being declared as the likely nominee who has the nomination pretty much sewn up, he has been repeatedly underperforming the scenarios from his own campaign at least since April – in PA, IN, Guam and now WV (NC was the only exception). That says something about the state of this race and what it means for the Fall.

P.S. Andrewwalker08 has more on the Nebraska results and what they mean in the context of the DNC’s stated principles – here.

(So my good friends and colleagues remember. A vote for Barry is really a vote for McSame! IF you find yourself going, ‘No’, ‘No’, ‘NO’ about any of the points made here by eripost I’d think twice before I tried to cross the road. I love a good story….don’t you?)

Fact not Fiction: Krugman vs. Galbraith…er…vs. versa….

I guess there is not doubt who the editors of The Economist favor, at least from the article’s title, but hey….This is a great exchange and the comments add to it. Clik on the opening para here to read the whole thing because I can assure you that discussions of who should be taxed and why, an important question with any doubt, will soon take a back seat to $8.00/gal. gas and trade balances….Not to mention the Pareto Distribution and ‘Complexity Economics’, a subject you will notice Paul and James tap-dance around pretty effectively:

‘Paul’s worldview rests on the belief that useful implications for important questions of public policy can be derived, essentially from first principles, with the help of a well-structured logic. Well-structured deduction from metaphysical first principles is the Krugman forte.

I don’t accept that much of use can be learned about policy in this way. When the world deviates from the principles, as it usually does, the simple lessons go astray. This is not a complaint against math. It is a complaint against indiscriminate application of the deductive method, sometimes called the Ricardian vice, to problems of human action. Mine is an old gripe against much of what professional economists do; not against science but against scientism, against the pretense of science. To combat it, I spend my research time wrestling with real-world data, and I spend much of my writing time warring against the policy ideas of aggressive, ahistorical deductivists.’

Whuh-oh…that bold by me….looks like James is gonna hand out some whup-ass for Paul. Actually, the whole thing is much more interesting than that.

Read it.