schweitzer's support for liquid coal?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VS6gV7EtH0&feature=related

I don't know too much about Brian Schweitzer, but with the recent veep speculation surrounding him, I started looking to find out what I could.  It seems like he has a lot of support among progressives, so I am wondering what people think about his seemingly devout commitment to liquid coal.  I found it surprising, and disconcerting to say the least.  Obama has my vote regardless (he is no saint regarding his past support for coal either), but energy policy is one of the most important issues facing this country at this time, because of its repercussions in foreign policy, the economy, the environment, etc; and Schweitzer's positions (not just liquid coal, but corn ethanol) seem antithetical to the progressive, intelligent ways forward.

Quotes like the following are especially alarming to me, and seem clearly at odds with certain facets of Obama's foreign policy which have to do with vastly increasing the amount of food, health and education aid we are providing to third world countries (which is absolutely the right course of action from my point of view).

"Now understand folks, we won't be exporting that food anymore.  The third world is going to have to buy its food somewhere else, and the price of food is going to ratchet up 50% in this country.  Do we have the resolve?"


What do you all think?  Maybe he doesn't get chosen and it's all for naught, I'm pulling for Biden anyway.  I would have been thrilled with Schweitzer, but now I'm not so sure.

John McCain must lose.


"McCain wants to stay in Iraq until no more Americans are getting killed, no matter how long it takes and how many Americans get killed achieving that goal--that is, the goal of not getting any more Americans killed. And once that goal is achieved, we'll stay."

My friends, John McCain would be a disaster, my friends.   Here, courtesy of my lunch break and some serious bookmarking over the past few months, are some links which demonstrate why.  Please forward.

prerequisite watching for any American planning on voting:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/#


http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/04/scary-stuff.html

"I don't think McCain knows much about economics. I see no sign that he cares to learn about it. That would be scary under any circumstances. Right now, though, it's terrifying."

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/23/mccain-dismisses-equal-pay-legislation-says-women-need-more-training-and-education/

"McCain dismisses equal pay legislation, says women need more 'training and education."

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=why_john_mccain_wants_you_to_give_up_your_health_insurance#corrected
"When he says, "we have the highest quality of health care in the world in America," he is speaking as a man who has enjoyed a lifetime of government-run care [due to his life in the military, and then the senate].  But now John McCain is seeking the presidency as a Republican, and a healthy distaste for government-run health care is de rigueur. "I am convinced," said John McCain at Miami Children's Hospital, "that the wrong way to go is to turn over your lives to the government and hope it will all be fine. It won't." Spoken like a 71-year-old whose government health coverage has kept him healthy enough to run for the presidency."

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_militarist

"The neocons' first choice may have lost the primary in 2000, but through Bush we've had the opportunity to observe seven years of neoconservative high drama and higher causes, and most people don't like it very much. Most, that is, except for McCain, who gives every indication of wanting to shift neoconservatism into higher gear. He is the foremost proponent of an imperial conception of America's role in the world since Teddy Roosevelt, the most persuasive advocate of "national greatness" in practical politics, and the most loyal adherent of neoconservative ideas in Congress. And possibly the next president of the United States."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/184135.php

"But his record actually shows he's one of the most dangerous people we could have in the Oval Office in coming years -- not just because he's a hothead in using the military, but more because he seems genuinely clueless about the real challenges and dangers the country is facing. He's too busy living in the fantasy world where our future as a great power and our very safety are all bound up in Iraq."

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14763.html (this one is especially good)
"With this in mind, for the first time in months, I thought now would be a good time to update the list of John McCain's Biggest Flip-Flops. There have been some key additions since the last time I did this (in November)."

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=mccains_delusional_tax_plan
"Depending on your perspective, McCain's agenda is either empty or terrifying. It is empty in the sense that McCain offers an array of budget-cutting gimmicks that dwarf Reagan's magic asterisk. But McCain's tax cuts are terrifying because, as Jared Bernstein has argued in these pages, they would eventually trigger a budgetary crisis that transforms deep spending cuts from unthinkable to inevitable... McCain's strength as a candidate is rooted in his claim that he is a man who talks honestly and stands up to special interests. But now, on the central issue of this election, he has an agenda that does neither. With corporate giveaways and phony freezes and scrubs, McCain's tax agenda undermines his core political appeal."

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=02&year=2008&base_name=the_pete_rose_of_politics#104506
"I don't think it's an exaggeration to say this is a promise to perpetuate a fraud on the American taxpayers: if he no longer intended to seek the presidency, he made a legally-binding promise to pretend to remain in the race just long enough to collect public money to repay the loan... There's a reason no one's ever done anything like this. It makes a travesty of the choice inherent in voluntary public financing, between public funds and unlimited spending. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Legal or not, it should bring to an end whatever tiny thread of credibility John McCain still has as a straight-talker or reformer of the political process."

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/02/mccain-sells-bi.html
You read that right: in exchange for a loan, John McCain gave away his right to decide for himself whether or not to stay in the race for the Presidency. And he did so in order to use his eligibility for future matching funds, rather than the funds themselves, as collateral.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/02/the-other-mccai.html
"Whether or not this violates the law -- a law McCain authored -- I have no idea, but it is certainly an attempt to wriggle out of its requirements, and it ought to put paid, once and for all, to the idea of McCain as a straight-talking man of principle."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/179368.php
"Explain to me how this guy gets out of the gate attacking anyone else about honoring pledges tied to the campaign finance system."

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/02/the_mccain_enigma.php
"John McCain has engaged in some pretty astounding policy meandering over the years in a way that makes it absurdly hard to tell what he would actually do as president"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06rich.html?hp
"We're succeeding," Mr. McCain said after his last trip to Iraq. "I don't care what anybody says." Again, it's the last sentence that's accurate... The difference between the Democrats and Mr. McCain going forward is clear enough: They want to find a way out of the morass, however provisional and imperfect, and he equates staying the disastrous course with patriotism. Mr. McCain's doomed promise of military "victory" in Iraq is akin to Wile E. Coyote's perpetual pursuit of the Road Runner, with much higher carnage. This isn't patriotism. As the old saying goes, doing the same thing over and over again and hoping you'll get a different result is the definition of insanity."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/politics/22diamond.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
"Donald R. Diamond, a wealthy Arizona real estate developer, was racing to snap up a stretch of virgin California coast freed by the closing of an Army base a decade ago when he turned to an old friend, Senator John McCain."

heyitsbecker

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