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As a loyal Clintonista and New Hampshire resident, I'm trying to get my hands around this idea.  At first it seems ludicrous to try and pull off a write-in.  This is the USA, not some backwater little country, but then I think, maybe the time is right?

As the writers point out, this is the year of the Arab Spring, OWS and even an awakening in Russia.  Perhaps America is ready for revolt.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70623.html

By PATRICK H. CADDELL and DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN | 12/18/11 10:15 PM EST

We argued in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that President Barack Obama should stand down and let Secretary of State Hillary Clinton run as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2012.

We are now calling on Democratic voters nationally — particularly in New Hampshire — to organize a write-in campaign for Clinton. This is something that New Hampshire voters have a long history of doing.

We advocate this Draft Hillary movement not because of the desire to make political mischief — but to put the country on the right course.

It’s clear that Obama has been unable to build consensus and, with the polarizing campaign he is now running, will be unable to govern effectively even if reelected. Only Clinton can commit the Democratic Party — and, indeed, the nation — to a unification and healing process. This could allow Washington, in a bipartisan manner, to finally address the economic and governmental crises that now grip America.

We are facing a crisis of national leadership, so citizens should step up and take charge of their country the way demonstrators in the Middle East did earlier this year. And, stunningly, as the people of Russia are now doing.

It’s time to take the decision about America’s leadership out of the hands of the established powers and return it to the citizens of our country. That opportunity to change U.S. politics will appear in the second week of 2012 in New Hampshire.

To seize this moment two things are required:

First, and most important, ordinary Democrats and independents in New Hampshire should mobilize behind a grass-roots effort to write in Clinton’s name during the Jan. 10 Democratic primary.

Second, a committed group of Democrats with resources and stature needs to help facilitate an authentic citizens’ movement — independent of party structure, Clinton and organized interests — to support a massive New Hampshire write-in campaign and put this before a deeply disaffected electorate.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70623.html#ixzz1gzPkx75K

Can I get my heart into it?  Do I want to?

I still think she is the strongest, smartest leader we could have.  But she has turned me off in many ways the last few years.  If I can wrap my arms around the fact that she is a party animal and some of what she has said and done was under orders, then I can perhaps throw my support behind a fun try at a Write-In vote.

It might mean divorce for me, but then again maybe not.  My little o'bot wife is perhaps a sign that this could work.  She, the staunchest supporter of his O'liness I knew in 2008, she never ever listens to his speeches anymore.  She avoids politcal news and has shut her ears to the disaster that is his Presidency.  Our Vermont o'bot friends who you may recall I had to suffer through the Christmas before the 2008 NH Primary, well I was speaking to one on the phone recently and she flat out told me that Obama is a failure for the Democratice party.

They won't admit their horrendous mistake of 2007/2008, but they know in their hearts they were so very wrong.

This could be interesting.  But like the movements around the world, we'd need a name and it should not include Hillary.  This is about bringing America back to the people.  This is about Occupy Wall Street and the one former candidate who spoke up about a looming financial crisis when nobody would listen.

Take Back The Party, Renew America Now

RUN - Renew USA Now

Honesty has lost a guardian.

One of my true heroes, a man who could not tell a lie, has died and gone back into the the interstellar dust from which all things are made.

Christopher Hitchens - 1949 - 2011

The Vanity Fair Obituary

Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.

“Cancer victimhood contains a permanent temptation to be self-centered and even solipsistic,” Hitchens wrote nearly a year ago in Vanity Fair, but his own final labors were anything but: in the last 12 months, he produced for this magazine a piece on U.S.-Pakistani relations in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, a portrait of Joan Didion, an essay on the Private Eye retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a prediction about the future of democracy in Egypt, a meditation on the legacy of progressivism in Wisconsin, and a series of frank, graceful, and exquisitely written essays in which he chronicled the physical and spiritual effects of his disease. At the end, Hitchens was more engaged, relentless, hilarious, observant, and intelligent than just about everyone else—just as he had been for the last four decades.

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Last week I was in Las Vegas for the annual convention that is the extent of our company marketing.  A big week and I did not even look here.

The meetings end on Thursday and I planned to stay through Sunday.  I was going to Zion National Park in Utah for the sights and photo ops.

But, Friday at noon I get a call that my daughter is in labor.  She was due mid-January.  I kept playing black jack while waiting for news and then my son-in-law calls and says hi Grandpa.  Logan decided he wanted out so they did a C Section.  The little guy comes in at 4 lb 11 oz.  Tiny and in the incubator.

I left Vegas early and was in NYC Saturday.  The kid is in fabulous health but will need to stay in the hosp. for a few weeks which of course is breaking my daughter's heart.  They need to be sure his lungs are fully up to the job of climbing those NYC apartment stairs.

I left a winning table for this bundle of joy and would do it again, but he will pay someday.  Not sure if I'll wait until he's an adult or begin to torment him when he's a young'n.

Cute huh?

http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/8700-a-club-of-liars-demagogues-and-ignoramuses

 

A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses

By Marc Pitzke, Der Spiegel Online

17 August 10

 

frica is a country. In Libya, the Taliban reigns. Muslims are terrorists; most immigrants are criminal; all Occupy protesters are dirty. And women who feel sexually harassed - well, they shouldn't make such a big deal about it.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the US Republicans. Or rather, to the twisted world of what they call their presidential campaigns. For months now, they've been traipsing around the country with their traveling circus, from one debate to the next, one scandal to another, putting themselves forward for what's still the most powerful job in the world.

As it turns out, there are no limits to how far they will stoop.

It's true that on the road to the White House all sorts of things can happen, and usually do. No campaign can avoid its share of slip-ups, blunders and embarrassments. Yet this time around, it's just not that funny anymore. In fact, it's utterly horrifying.

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Time Mag does it in covers.

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/68-68/8627-focus-why-americans-are-stupid

I hope everyone has an enjoyable day with family and friends.

My condolences to those who work in retail.  I'll be asleep at midnight Friday and 5 am.

Open thread

I gave a little bit to Wikipedia today because I realize I use this incredible service every single day. They are building the greatest library of knowledge in human history and it may indeed become the archive of our shared history.

Please consider a small donation by clicking the globe.

Thanks nh

Dad served in WW II

He passed away September 26 at 94 having lived the life most of us dream of.  He always had his health, love, family and did everything he every desired, without ever being rich in dollars.  He sailed and played tennis up until a few years ago and we all think that not being able to play tennis with the young guys (70 - 85) anymore is what really killed him.

His ashes were interred at the VA cemetary, Lake Worth, FL, on October 25th and my son brought me home the flag.  Mom, after 70 years of marraige, is trying to clean out the closets not fill them.

So here's to all the veteran's of the greatest generation.  They were a heck of a bunch of life loving folks.

nh

Women in science are seldom remembered so thanks to Google for bringing this remarkable woman to our attention.

As anyone who attended a high school science class is aware, Curie and her husband Pierre are credited with the discovery of radium and polonium. Her work landed her two Nobel Prizes, one for physics in 1903 and another for chemistry in 1911.

Curie was born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. By age 11, she had lost her oldest sister to typhus and her mother to tuberculosis. Nonetheless, she graduated high school at age 15 but soon came down with a nervous disorder that was likely depression, according to the American Institute of Physics. She recuperated in the country for a year before returning to Warsaw and attending a "floating university" with her sister Bronya. It was illegal for women to attend universities in Warsaw at the time, so these classes met in secret at locations that changed regularly.

The sisters wanted to expand their studies in Paris, however, so Marie agreed to work and pay for her sister's classes and her sister did the same for Marie after she graduated. Marie made it to Paris just before she turned 24. She eventually earned a grant from the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry to study the magnetic properties of different steels, AIP said, and that led her to the lab of Pierre Curie.

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Makes blogging sort of difficult, except when in the office like today.

We lost our electric at 10PM Saturday.  I had my generator ready to roll since it was obvious this storm would destroy many trees.   But the generator only powers so much.

I don't have it wired into the house.  Instead I take heavy duty extensions all over the house to power the fridge, the sump pump, the freezer, a few lamps and Mrs. Hampster's TV and DVD player.  No cable or phone either.  I've also hacked my boiler so we do have heat and hot water.

Just ducky!  Living with a headlamp attached to me like a third eye.  Getting up at 6 to fill the generator and our neighbor's who had the recent shoulder surgery.  Then off to the gas station to fill the 2 or 3 5 gallon jugs of fuel.

Oh! I forgot little Lola.  We have the grand puppy for two weeks and of course I need to feed and walk her first, then come home at lunch to walk her again since the former O'bot is still recovering from hip surgery and disc outages.

But dang if the main thing I wonder is, and the thing I've tweeted about is...

Does being without power, going to work without a shower, eating only cold food, no TV and no good light for 1/2 the day.  Does it give the Greedy Wingers any empathy towards those who live this way 365?

p.s.  The photo is of 1/3 of our shade maple which I'll be attacking with the chain saw this weekend.

Yes she is a brilliant woman who understands that this is a new world and the old methods for using power are no longer effective.  She believes in, encourages social media.  She understands that power has moved from core capitals into the hands of those who embrace change, real change.  This woman should be in charge.

Time Magazine's cover story

By Massimo Calabresi

Hillary Clinton argues in our cover story this week that America is not so much in decline as adjusting to a world of increasingly diffuse power, where like-minded networked individuals, non-governmental organizations and other non-traditional global actors may steer events as much as great power capitals. Clinton lays out “smart power” strategies for protecting and advancing U.S. interests in that new non-polar world.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/10/27/hillary-clinton-and-the-limits-of-p...

<snip>

Lastly, we polled her against Romney and Perry, and found that she does better, by far, than Obama, leading Romney by 17 points and Perry by 26. Her closest aides strongly dismiss any 2012 ambitions and say 2016 is very unlikely: she’d be 69 the day of the vote that year. We don’t speculate on the source of her popularity.

 

Miss Representation—a haunting new documentary, from first-time filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, about girls’ body image, self-confidence and leadership aspirations, and how they are intertwined with the way women are portrayed on television and in media. Making its debut on the Oprah Winfrey Network this Thursday, the film tackles Hollywood, TV news, advertising, politics—all against a backdrop of the young women who consume all of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6gkIiV6konY

Juxtaposing images of cat-fighting reality television stars with women’s-rights leaders; lip-plumped Housewives with “in” political leaders—and peppered with powerful interviews with Condoleezza Rice, Katie Couric, Nancy Pelosi, Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and a dozen other women—Miss Representation makes the case clear: “We are teaching young women that their worth lies in their youth, their beauty and their sexuality,” says Newsom. “Not in their capacity to lead.” Ultimately, she says, the gap between women in media and women in real life is huge, and growing.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/20/miss-representation-on-own-why-does-the-media-hate-women.html

click it for a large one.

The server was down all night so I thought some humor was in order.

ahead and close up the ranks."

Beth Robinson chosen by Shumlin for state's high court

Written by Dave Gram, The Associated Press

Beth Robinson, a major force in Vermont's passage of gay marriage in 2009, was selected today to become Vermont's next Supreme Court justice. Gov. Peter Shumlin made the announcement at noon in Montpelier.
•11:27 PM, Oct. 18, 2011

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20111018/NEWS02/111018016/-1/HEADLINES01/Beth-Robinson-chosen-by-Shumlin-state-s-high-court

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/18/hillary-clinton-2012-president_...

WASHINGTON -- Some of Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters just are not willing to let go -- and they've mounted a push to get her into next year's White House race by making donations of $20.12 to her old presidential campaign committee.

A review of Clinton's most recent Federal Election Commission filing finds dozens of $20.12 donors, all of whom have donated before, since contributions that small are not reported until a giver's total exceeds $200. There are likely others whose totals fall below that threshold.

"The purpose was to to encourage her to reconsider her candidacy for 2012," said Will Bower, a Clinton die-hard who ponied up his $20.12 on Aug. 13, around the time many of the other like-minded donors cut checks.

"Many of us still believe she was the victor in 2008, if not on paper, in spirit," said Bower, who ended up voting for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008.

Clinton had been the focus of a flurry of speculation about a possible Democratic challenger for President Obama shortly before the burst of contributions.

Seal Beach police said the death toll from the salon shooting has risen to eight people. A ninth victim is in critical condition at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

"This could be one of our greatest tragedies," Police Sgt. Steve Bowles said.

The gunman opened fire inside the crowded salon Wednesday, littering the shop with bodies. Police said he acted alone, although investigators said they were still scrambling to piece together what triggered such violence.

Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach beauty salon

Eyewitnesses said that he was targeting his ex-wife and that the two were involved in a custody dispute.

LA Times

Yes, once more 8 families, a community and a county can be thankful that guns don't kill.

It's the madman who kills.  The sicko who was pissed at the wife who'd had enough.

It's not the gun's fault.  He could have done as much damage with a knife, a machete or maybe a sword.  Once a madman decides to kill, he'll do it somehow.  Those are the bullshit arguments we hear from the gun industry and all of you who have been suckered by their threats.

Guns Kill.  Guns have only one purpose, killing.  A hunter cannot release undersized prey like the fish I release.  Guns are for killing and the only reason to own one is if you plan on using it someday.

Sharyn sent me this Naomi Klein speech from Occupy Wall Street.  This short text, that the Guardian transcribed from the print Occupied Wall Street Journal, really puts the protests and the movement into perspective for me.  This will indeed be the fight of our lives and will most likely outlive many of us, but we can't stop.  We must change this society before it crumbles.

-----------------

Naomi Klein

If there is one thing I know, it's that the 1% loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate, that is the ideal time to push through their wishlist of pro-corporate policies: privatising education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.

There is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it's a very big thing: the 99%. And that 99% is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say: "No. We will not pay for your crisis."

That slogan began in Italy in 2008. It ricocheted to Greece and France and Ireland and finally it has made its way to the square mile where the crisis began.

Many people have drawn parallels between Occupy Wall Street and the so-called anti-globalisation protests that came to world attention in Seattle in 1999. That was the last time a global, youth-led, decentralised movement took direct aim at corporate power. And I am proud to have been part of what we called "the movement of movements".

We all owe so much to this great man. Whether you are an Apple lover or not, he affects our lives every day.

RIP in Peace Steve and thank you for the future you brought us.

Love this new anthem for the protests in NY and elsewhere.

I went to get a late lunch at the local sandwich establishment. I Ordered the "Wolverine" with special sauce... When I went to pay and my trusty plastic came up as "invalid". Huh? "Can't be". I looked at the mag stripe on the back of the card thinking it was damaged. Nope. I went next door to an ATM. It came back with the recipt saying "20.00 requested" 0.00 dispensed....

I went back into the sandwich shop and said, "I am concerned that I don't want you to toss the perfectly made food be cause my card is not working"...

They had me sign an I.O.U. and I will pay them tomorrow for a sandwich today.

I might be underfunded, but I am not flat broke yet, so I called the sanehalf to give her a heads up.

me: "My card came back invalid, what's up with that?"

sanehalf; "thats wierd, crazy daughter had the samething happen this morning. I looked at her balance and my computer froze. I had to reboot it."

This was sent to me, I am forwarding it becausemath is not in my personal data base.  To me, SS has been alot like any insurence policy - you pay into it every month.  If something goes wrong, there it is; if not the money is lost.  But SS differs in a significant way - if one lives long enough it is a savings policy that pays off, keeping many elderly people off the dole.

Steve Chapman - Chicago Tribune

Obama's home town paper sees the light.  Will Obama get the point?

Even if, and there is a good probability, he is reelected, his second term will be even more devisive and contain fewer successes for his policies or his party.  His is a failed Presidency and if he cares at all about his party or his country then he must not run again.

To me, a second term would mean four more years of no action on climate change.  It would mean increased drilling for oil rather than investing in the alternatives we know we need.  It would also mean a good chance of never having true single payor healh care in this country.

Please Mr. Obama, listen to those of us who care.

Why Obama should withdraw

When Ronald Reagan ran for re-election in 1984, his slogan was "Morning in America." For Barack Obama, it's more like midnight in a coal mine.

The sputtering economy is about to stall out, unemployment is high, his jobs program may not pass, foreclosures are rampant and the poor guy can't even sneak a cigarette.

His approval rating is at its lowest level ever. His party just lost two House elections — one in a district it had held for 88 consecutive years. He's staked his future on the jobs bill, which most Americans don't think would work.

The vultures are starting to circle. Former White House spokesman Bill Burton said that unless Obama can rally the Democratic base, which is disillusioned with him, "it's going to be impossible for the president to win." Democratic consultant James Carville had one word of advice for Obama: "Panic."

 

--snip--

In the event he wins, Obama could find himself with Republicans in control of both houses of Congress. Then he will long for the good old days of 2011. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner will bound out of bed each day eager to make his life miserable.

Besides avoiding this indignity, Obama might do his party a big favor. In hard times, voters have a powerful urge to punish incumbents. He could slake this thirst by stepping aside and taking the blame. Then someone less reviled could replace him at the top of the ticket.

The ideal candidate would be a figure of stature and ability who can't be blamed for the economy. That person should not be a member of Congress, since it has an even lower approval rating than the president's.

It would also help to be conspicuously associated with prosperity. Given Obama's reputation for being too quick to compromise, a reputation for toughness would be an asset.

As it happens, there is someone at hand who fits this description: Hillary Clinton. Her husband presided over a boom, she's been busy deposing dictators instead of destroying jobs, and she's never been accused of being a pushover.

Not only that, Clinton is a savvy political veteran who already knows how to run for president. Oh, and a new Bloomberg poll finds her to be merely "the most popular national political figure in America today."

If he runs for re-election, Obama may find that the only fate worse than losing is winning. But he might arrange things so it will be Clinton who has the unenviable job of reviving the economy, balancing the budget, getting out of Afghanistan and grappling with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Obama, meanwhile, will be on a Hawaiian beach, wrestling the cap off a Corona.

 

 

Steve Chapman - Chicago Tribune

 

Not much is made of this heroic, volunteer effort - an example of Americans working together without politics or politicians screwing things up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg&feature=player_embedded