Chilly reception for debate offer
Friday, October 05, 2007

"Seven hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money to spend to try to get someone to talk to you and not get an answer.

That's how much the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based libertarian think tank, has forked over in six months for advertisements in national newspapers trying to persuade Al Gore to debate one of its experts on global warming issues."

A Chicago-based libertarian think tank...Is that what the kids are calling it these days? The article makes it sound like cat food eating grandmothers scrimped and saved this money to confront the big bad Gore on his damnable lies. They're funded by Exxon.

Other sources of Heartland funding:
  • Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation: "Koch Industries is also a major polluter. During the 1990s, its faulty pipelines were responsible for more than 300 oil spills in five states, prompting a landmark penalty of $35 million from the Environmental Protection Agency."

  • John M. Olin Foundation: "The Foundation is financed by the Olin chemical and munitions fortune with assets estimated at $90 million, $3 million of which goes to conservative advocacy groups."

  • Scaife Foundations: "is built on at least 5 pillars; the family's ownership of Gulf Oil Corporation, the family's monopoly ownership of Alcoa and Alcan going back to 1891, ownership of Koppers and Carborundum corporations, and their participation in the uranium cartel."
  • I could go on but this is just too pathetic.

    That's some crack reporting there Steve Huntley. Do they pay you for this stuff, or do you just do it for fun?

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    Operation Lockbox is go!
    Thursday, September 27, 2007



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    Nexus of power
    Tuesday, May 22, 2007


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    Statecraft vs. Stagecraft
    Monday, April 30, 2007

    Last week in South Carolina the eight announced hopefuls (I'm still pullin' for you Ali G!) for the 2008 Democratic nomination met to "debate." This fat honkin' slice o'political theater has been re-run on MSNBC several times since, and has been edited and condensed in Daily Show soundbite-montage-style in various forms online (If history were written using only tidbits of viral marketing one might think former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel dominated the event).

    I'm an election geek, so I was looking for the basics: Tie color, lighting, stage position, camera angles. Throughout the campaign process, top candidates from both parties are trained, poked, and prodded to take full advantage these near subliminal elements which in aggregate add to the publics estimation of that indefinable yet all important quality of appearing "Presidential." Take stage position for instance (supposedly random, by the way):

    The Right Wing
    Richardson (Gov-NM)
    Dobbs (Sen-CT)

    The Center/Mainstream
    Edwards (Sen-NC)
    Biden (Sen-DE)
    Obama (Sen-IL)
    Clinton (Sen-NY)

    The Left Wing
    Kucinich (Rep-OH)
    Gravel (Sen-AK)

    The mainstream media is once again attempting to short circuit our electoral process by choosing our front runners for us by emphasizing Obama and Clinton. Personally I didn't see anything in the debate that excited me about any of the candidates beyond the fact that none of them are the current Administration. In that light, my pick for the top two clear winners of the first debate are: John Kerry (Sen-MA) and Al Gore (former USVP)!

    Both are smart enough to realize that it's ridiculously early to even announce candidacy, never mind hold a staged and manipulated debate. Both have also won Presidential elections in the past. These two facts alone put them head and shoulders above the rest of the field.

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    Operation Lockbox: March Madness
    Friday, March 02, 2007

    As I write this, the Extra Bold Sumatra is flowing and Ballroom Blitz (The Ark cover, thanks Ajay!) is pumping. Al Gore won a frikin' Oscar and is on track to pick up a Nobel Prize later this year. Congress has issued it's first round of subpoenas regarding "corruption and mismanagement allegations on everything from pre-war Iraq intelligence to the mishandling of the response to Hurricane Katrina."

    Spring is coming to America, and not a moment too soon. From 9/11 fear mongering, to the dilution of American civil liberties, to the utter squandering of world-wide good will towards America, to lying to Congress and the American people, to unprecedented and unwarranted expansion of executive power to the detriment of our democratic system, to the criminal bungling and incompetence of the Katrina (NSFW) disaster, to illegal wiretapping, to government sponsored kidnapping, detainment, and torture of civilians around the globe without regard for human rights, due process, international or Constitutional law, this Administration has set the stage for the most significant social, cultural, and political change our nation has yet to experience.

    Hold on to your hats kids, 'cause our country is barreling towards the looking glass, the hatter is at the switch, and the rails are greased. What happens when the richest, most technologically advanced nation the world has ever known wakes up, takes a swig of the morning brew and realizes just how surreal our world has become under the sway of fear, uncertainty and doubt?

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    Operation Lockbox
    Monday, February 12, 2007

    It's February, and in a normal year before a presidential election the campaign cycle would be just a gleam in a political science junkie's eye, but this is no normal year. Our incumbent president is so unpopular candidates from both sides of the aisle are clamoring to announce their intentions to run for the highest office of the land, and the cycle is already revving up to full speed.

    There are a lot of great candidates out there - all of whom could likely do a far better job than our current Commander-in-Chief - but none of them has captured my imagination as much as a man who's already proven he can win the White House: Former next President of the United States, Al Gore.

    While Mr. Gore has yet to officially announce his candidacy, and indeed may choose not to run at all, I am officially kicking off Operation Lockbox in support of his campaign. Rapid dissent will hence forth feature news and resources related to the Gore campaign - whether real or imagined - for the duration of Operation Lockbox. I encourage you to learn more about the man who was elected in 2000 to be America's 43rd President, and who - with your help - I hope to see elected again as our 44th in 2008.

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    "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."

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