There are some users that are making TPM not a very productive place for me.

Heh.

“I thought to myself, ‘Man, do they have a heavy-duty network and focus on this guy,’ ” Mr. Monegan said. “You’d call that an obsession.”

Yeah, they're done.

Thanks Slink. You took all the suspense away:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/5/131911/844/607/620798

Here's her find that ruined all our fun:

Mother Jones: You not only have had combat experience in Vietnam, but you were also a prisoner of war. When you look at terrorism right now, with people like Osama bin Laden, do you have any reservations about watching strikes like that?

John McCain: You could say, Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted? Most of us have never heard of him before. And where there is a parallel with Vietnam is: What's plan B? What do we do next? We sent our troops into Vietnam to protect the bases. Lyndon Johnson said, Only to protect the bases. Next thing you know.... Well, we've declared to the terrorists that we're going to strike them wherever they live. That's fine. But what's next? That's where there might be some comparison.

...I have been spending alot of energy trying to get people to recognize McCain's inconsistencies and that while the man may be good, it's the party that backs him that is the bigger problem. Thanks to the stock markets, I've made significant inroads with several repubs who staunchly defend the mess with:

R - "Well it was Bill Clinton who signed..."

D- "That is completely true, he did sign that bill through. It was called the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. I'm sure you recognize that first name, because it's chief architect was Phil Gramm of TX. The same Phil Gramm who is John McCain's top Financial Adviser. The same Phil Gramm who while during this catastrophe on Wall Street where you just lost your money, called us a "Nation of Whiners". This is the man who will most likely be put in charge of the Treasury. Finally, let me expand on that one last time, it was the Gramm act of 1999 that repealed the Glass-Stegall act of 1930 that separated Banks and Investment Services, which exposed us to this catastrophic condition"

R - "Ok, but Obama and the Dems just will bring socialization with their health care and..."

D - "Are you arguing that the Dems are the socialists when the Republicans just socialized our debt and mortgages?"

R - "Well he wouldn't put Phil in charge of the Treasury, it'd probably be Carly Fiorina."

D - "The woman who singlehandedly ran HP, a decades old leading technology company, into the ground? The same Carly Fiorina who spied not only on her employees, but on her board of trustees?"

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/72dbz/the_great_schlep_jewish_grandkids_are_flying_to/c05hznb

I have an idea that may help some with the trash vortex problem out in our oceans. At the very least it may help others start thinking of their own ideas.
I’ve been reading about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower">solar power towers</a> and happened to have read about the <a href="http://moonseeds.wordpress.com/2007/12/10/the-north-pacific-gyre-the-plastic-vortex-the-8th-continent/">plastics clogging our oceans</a>. I started to think that if a solar tower were set up on something like an old oil rig, with some sort of net or dredging device to scoop the plastic it would be a self powered way to at least start to clean out the plastic. The only thing I was having issues with was what to do with all of the plastic that gets scooped.

I started looking at different things that are done with plastics to recycle them. It’s not easy to take unsorted plastic from the ocean and make it usable for consumers again. That’s when I stumbled across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization">Thermal depolymerization</a>.

From Wikipedia:

Thermal depolymerization (TDP) is a process using hydrous pyrolysis for the reduction of complex organic materials (usually waste products of various sorts, often known as biomass and plastic) into light crude oil. It mimics the natural geological processes thought to be involved in the production of fossil fuels. Under pressure and heat, long chain polymers of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon decompose into short-chain petroleum hydrocarbons with a maximum length of around 18 carbons.

It’s oil, that we can get for free, floating on the ocean. Environmentally friendly and profitable.

The only downside I can think of is, are there fish & ocean mammals swimming in that stuff? How could the plastic be harvested without harming wildlife?

(crossposted on <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/19/10515/0446/656/538348>kos</a>)