Only now it’s not just the weather it’s the climate. At least once a week bizarre and extreme weather besieges some corner of our earth. And it’s not just the climate, there’s the dehumanizing corporate culture – I got mine, see ya I’m going off-shore. We find ourselves in the greatest (potential) country in the history of the planet and arguably our strongest industry is the machinery of death, destruction and control. There is the insanity that nuclear weapons even exist. The population is currently expanding at the rate of 1 billion people in just over a decade. …The weather report is in, it’s inescapable and it’s a nightmare, we are racing exponentially not to an unsustainable, but to a unsurvivable future. And if we don’t do something now, later may be too late.

I think that realization is the birth, the zygote of this tsunami. Its not just the Republican ineptness to lead and govern, the Democrats (for the most part) have been enablers. The experience argument falls dead flat – it doesn’t matter that you have slowed or slightly veered the ship of state – its still going over the goddamned cliff.

And for those who find no substance behind Obama’s rhetoric – I say you are beyond help hope. Remember, he wrote his autobiography BEFORE he ran for president. If in fact the votes are counted in November he will have from February 6 to plan. He and we will be more than ready. He has made it his life’s work and there is nobody better positioned to redirect the arc of history.

As a side note: this site in particular among progressive others, and the net in general will be critical in not letting history be forgotten or rewritten. Besides the Florida theatrics and 5-4 theft by SCOTUS we got Bush43 by letting the Clinton Democrats sweep the crimes of team Reagan/Bush off the table.

I agree about Edwards. The thing I worry about with an Obama presidency is I don’t see any evidence he’s equipped with the shrewdness and toughness in dealing with a ruthless and corrupt GOP.

Actually, regarding SOME areas (net neutrality, executive power), Obama has taken a more explicit, forward stand than Edwards; on others (particularly the economy) Edwards has taken the more forward stand. These are not caricatures, here, either Edwards or Obama. It does our side no good to treat them as simply different caricatures than the trad med is treating them.

Fair enough; the Obama part of my comment was a little confused. I mixed up the popular emotion idea with the candidate positions, without mentioning the frame I was thinking in. Which was: voter perceptions today, based on the candidates’ highlighted signals very lately, i.e. in 2008 — which I think is about as long as the great majority of voters have been paying attention. And I haven’t heard much explicit from Obama about restoration since the voting’s started. Lots of generalities that could be interpreted that way…

…But then again, that’s my major Obama concern at this point, and one that I’ve seen a number of smart people mention: the large speeches generate strong positive emotions, but for the most part are pretty nonspecific; and therefore any specific policy details get discussed instead in smaller venues; however, because the Obama campaign is whip-smart, and because it’s using demographic targeting consultants (cf. Vanity Fair article), I’m concerned that every voter might be mainly getting told just those parts of the detail story they’re most likely to be receptive to. Not the whole story.

I do so hope you’re right, and maybe it’s just the last 8 years talking, but “trust me” (and by that I mean O, not you EW) is just not working for me any more. Post-Enlightenment judgement, it’s not just for R’s any more.

“Do the back-ups contain the e-mails said to be missing?” Facciola asked.

is answer “no”

Judge demands answers on White House’s missing e-mails. A federal judge today ordered the White House “to reveal whether copies of possibly millions of missing e-mails are stored on computer backup tapes.” The AP reports:

Facciola gave the White House five business days to report whether computer backup tapes contain e-mails written between 2003 and 2005.

The time period covers the Valerie Plame affair in which at least three presidential aides were found to have leaked Plame’s CIA identity to the news media.

“Do the back-ups contain the e-mails said to be missing?” Facciola asked.

In a four-page order, Facciola said he needs to know “if the missing e-mails are not on those back-ups.”

Facciola noted the importance of acting quickly since e-mails that might be retrievable from individual computer workstations in the White House “are increasingly likely to be deleted or overwritten with the passage of time.”

CREW has more on the judge’s order.

seems to me these guys are running…. um, out of ideas!