Open thread

Ok, now I hear that the video didn't have malware. Whatever. Since it was a prank, and not the real video, I'm gonna leave it off. Read More......

George Bush, Sr., hated by conservatives himself, says McCain is a true conservative

Tell me the McCcain camp didn't actually seek out Bush, Sr? Conservatives hate him. Not to mention the rest of the country didn't end up loving George, Sr. much either, so what does McCain get out of this?

Favorite line from Bush, Sr.:

"[McCain's] character was forged in the crucible of war."

Yeah, that was right before McCain came home and dumped his injured wife for a woman 17 years her junior. Please, let's do talk about character and John McCain's war experience. Read More......

McCain beats Hillary in Wisconsin by 7; Obama beats McCain by 10

An interesting new poll out the night before the Wisconsin primary shows Obama beating McCain in Wisconsin but McCain beating Hillary in that state. (UPDATE: A few more polls are in. McCain beats Hillary and Obama in Florida, but beats Obama by 5 points more than he beats Clinton. Whereas in Minnesota, McCain beats Clinton and loses to Obama.)

And here are all the Hillary vs. Obama polls for Wisconsin over the past year. As he's done in many states, Obama seems to pick up more Edwards voters than Hillary:

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Cadbury "eco eggs" for Easter

The Brits have been much more interested in removing wasteful packaging compared to other countries so it's good to see Cadbury respond with their new environmentally friendly Easter eggs this year. It's a start...

The confectionary group hopes to sell 30-35m eggs in the run up to Easter, several million from the unboxed range.

Mark Barthel, of packaging campaign and consultancy group Wrap, said: "This is good news for both the consumer and the environment but also for Cadbury, as cutting waste also means cutting costs."

Last summer Cadbury announced a "Purple goes Green" pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 2020. It includes a pledge to cut packaging by 10%.

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Gay penguins are threatening George Bush's marriage

Well, not just George Bush's marriage, but the marriage of every Republican who thinks we need to amend the Constitution to stop gays from marrying, lest all of America's marriages go kaput. Alan Colmes has more on his blog, it's truly frightening. Bwahahahaha. Read More......

Australian conservatives regret anti-Kyoto decision

One can only wonder how many Bush people are going to moan about their regrets on climate change, torture, rule of law, failed economy and invading Iraq. The John Howard team is now voicing their regrets about how goofy they looked to voters for being aligned with Bush and against the rest of the world on climate change.

Another senior Cabinet minister in the former government, Tony Abbott, agreed with Costello that their Kyoto policy had been politically damaging.

"I don't think it helped us at all," Abbott, who is now an opposition lawmaker, told the ABC.

"There's nothing easy about changing your position on a totemic issue and I'm not saying that if we had changed it, it would necessarily have saved our bacon," he said of his coalition's crushing electoral defeat.

"But certainly as far as ... the voting public were concerned, I think our position looked odd," he added.

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NJ civil unions have "second class" status

Folks have been saying this for a while. Still, rather than just asking for marriage from the beginning, I still think it's much smarter to push for civil unions, then work your way to marriage as society increasingly becomes accustomed to those civil unions (no locusts) and thus is increasingly willing to give gave couples more. It's what the religious right does all the time. They don't actually try to repeal Roe v. Wade, they slowly whittle away at it until Roe is just a shell of its former self. They gradually and incrementally approach their goal in a way that the public shrugs off and accepts because each small step doesn't seem that big a deal.

Blue Jersey blog did some great Mac vs. PC ads about this issue months ago. Check them out:

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Americans increasingly concerned on economic future

Meanwhile McCain can only talk about permanent tax cuts for the wealthy (who have already prospered enormously under Bush) and read Greenspan's book. Sheesh. The GOP simply can't see what everyone so easily sees. The economic boom only applied to the thin layer at the top while everyone else struggles. If that's what McCain wants to promote on the campaign trail, good luck in November.

Except for the late 1990s, pay has been stagnant for more than a generation, barely keeping pace with inflation. In 1973, the median male worker earned $16.88 an hour, adjusted for inflation. In 2007, he earned $16.85.

For many families, the stagnation has been moderated by the addition of a second paycheck as more women went to work, and their pay rose over the same period.

But the largest gains went to workers at the top of the pay scale. Now, economic worries are rising fastest in households with smaller paychecks, and that chasm is widening.

"Over the past decades, whether inflation was much higher or lower, or incomes grew faster or more slowly, there has never been such a wide divergence in the experiences" separating richer households from poorer ones, Richard Curtin, the director of the University of Michigan's consumer survey said in summing up the most recent figures.

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Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning everyone.

It's President's Day. Saw a little blurb in today's Washington Post about how Bush refers to George Washington as "the first George W." Like those two have anything in common -- one of the best Presidents, who saved the country -- and by far, the worst who is doing his best to ruin us.

On that note, let's start some threading. What's the latest? Read More......

Obama and Hillary teams discuss science

Both teams refreshingly discussed science and investment in science. This is yet another reason why either candidate will be a welcome change from the extremist GOP crowd who deny science and learning whenever they can. The McCain and Huckabee teams had "scheduling conflicts." I'm guessing - and this is just a guess - they were wrapped up viewing important videos of Jesus riding in a saddle on the back of a dinosaur or some other "science" documentary rolled out by the religious right. Even just recognizing that dinosaurs existed is progress for them. Read More......

USDA sort of, kind of, issues largest ever beef recall

I'd say it's being generous to refer to this so-called "largest ever" recall as being half-assed. While it's good to see the USDA actually showing interest in regulation of a dodgy industry instead of the usual practice of waiting until someone gets sick or dies, ordering a "recall" and then admitting that "almost all of this product is likely to have been consumed" is not exactly impressive. How many other meat packing shops are slaughtering "downer cows" and putting the country at risk? What took so long here?

This specific shop was only discovered thanks to former workers who provided secret tapes to the Humane Society. The Bush-USDA doesn't really care what goes on, as long as the money keeps on flowing. Compassion always seems to be limited to the almighty dollar instead of consumers. You know, those 300 million people who represent 70% of the US economy. Don't they count? Read More......

London to add free bikes by 2010

The "Velib" program in Paris has been an enormous success with 20,000 bikes stationed around Paris and more to come. Since the launch, big city mayors from around the world (including Bloomberg from New York) have visited Paris to check out the new system that allows people to cheaply rent bikes instead of driving or using other public transport. (They are priced more for point-to-point transport and less for casual riding around town.) Great idea. Read More......