The Swamp
New Orleans levees remain worry

by Frank James

I just watched Homeland Security Sec. Michael Chertoff's brief press conference at Andrews Air Force base just before he got on a plane to head to the Gulf Coast region to check in on preparations for Hurricane Gustav.

The secretary, a very nice man, said the levees are stronger than they were before Hurricane Katrina. Chertoff should doublecheck that information.

The reporting I've read indicates that the levees are not generally and absolutely stronger. True, some levees have been strengthened and rebuilt after they failed.

But there've been questions about the rebuilding efforts that reconstructed levees that failed after Katrina.

There's also been seepage under a few of the levees that has confounded the Army Corps of Engineers.

Some of the levees that held up under Katrina are among those that experts are most worried about.

Here's a story from New Orleans's Times-Picayune newspaper from April 17, 2008:

Despite withstanding Hurricane Katrina and being poised to
become the area's first levee to reach the vaunted 100-year storm elevation, the
East Jefferson lakefront levee might not be adequate and may need to be totally
rebuilt or substantially enlarged.

Stunning new data spit out by a complex geotechnical
computer model has concluded that lake levees in East Jefferson and St. Charles
Parish could be at risk for catastrophic failure.

Though Army Corps of Engineers officials said some experts
doubt the accuracy of the new analysis, the agency intends to identify and
implement solutions -- which could range from entirely rebuilding the levees to
constructing a huge rock jetty in front of them.

"Our new method of analysis has given us (data) that we
don't intend to ignore," said Lt. Col. Murray Starkel, deputy commander of the
corps' New Orleans District.

Because the corps is under the gun to provide an improved
hurricane protection system by 2011, officials said they can't wait for the
results of additional studies that might ultimately debunk this new finding of
the "Spencer's method" analysis.

"There will come a point at which we go forward with
(contracts), even if they produce an overly conservative design," said
geotechnical engineer John Grieshaber, technical support chief for the corps'
Hurricane Protection Office.

"We will award contracts to meet that 2011 date, and if we
find out later that we can do with a less conservative design, we can modify a
contract in the field," he said.

Design standards updated
The computer-generated
data, which blindsided even those engineers overseeing planned improvements to
the region's hurricane protection system, are the result of applying more
conservative design standards adopted since Katrina.

Key to that corps effort to ratchet up reliability, complex
computer software was specially adapted over the past year that enabled the
Spencer's analysis to identify any type of failure that could possibly occur in
tricky south Louisiana soils.

As recently as January, engineers overseeing planned
improvements to the East Jefferson lakefront predicted that it would be the
first to attain the new elevations needed to help provide a stepped-up 100-year
level of storm surge protection by 2011.

But the very next month, the Spencer's software began
unspooling the news that it had identified a failure potential not detected by
previous computer analyses in the Lake Pontchartrain levees of East Jefferson
and St. Charles Parish.

"No, we absolutely did not expect this result," Rich
Varuso, geotechnical chief for the district's engineering division, said of the
geometry-based calculations that resulted

.

Now, keep in mind, this is a levee that didn't fail during Katrina. What about a levee that did fail. That should be unquestionably stronger, right? Think again.

Here's a story from the May 30, 2008 Times-Picayune:

Water persistently seeping out of the 17th Street Canal near
the repaired levee and floodwall indicates serious flaws in the design, not only of that levee section but of much of the multibillion-dollar 100-year hurricane protection for the region, a California engineering expert and outspoken critic of the Army Corps of Engineers has repeatedly charged.

For months, corps engineers have said the water puddling
outside the levee near the infamous 17th Street Canal breach does not threaten the levee or repaired floodwalls.

Now, on the eve of the third hurricane season since Katrina, the local levee district wants to know who is right, and it has called in an independent team of engineers to figure it out.

"We've got to get to the bottom of these issues . . . starting with the seepage at the 17th Street Canal," said Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East commissioner Tom Jackson of Metairie, a retired civil engineer and a former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers."(University of California-Berkeley civil engineering professor Bob) Bea says one thing, the corps says another and we have an obligation to the public to find out who's right and who's wrong," Jackson said. "If the challenges are valid, the corps needs to address them. And if they're not, they can be dismissed."

--- Independent review planned ---

Jackson, levee authority President Tim Doody of St. Bernard and commissioner John Barry of New Orleans began discussing the need for independent peer review late last week. On Wednesday, Doody said he
invited the corps to join in that undertaking, an offer he said was readily accepted.

"We are embracing the idea of peer review," said Karen
Durham-Aguilera, director of the corps' Task Force Hope mission of overseeing repairs, rebuilding and improvements to the federal flood defense system brought to its knees by Hurricane Katrina.

Levee commissioners anticipate asking the National Academy of Engineering, or some other group independent of the corps
and Bea, to provide expertise about the condition of floodwalls along the 17th Street Canal and the source of seepage along the canal's eastern side. Corps engineers have said for months that they do not believe the small but persistent seepage is cause for alarm and is likely just water seeping into the levee through the sheets of steel piling used to repair the breach that occurred during Katrina.

"We continually monitor, test and watch . . . and we haven't
seen anything to make us think that isn't the case," Durham-Aguilera said. "But I think it's now valid to ask if there is a bigger issue . . . and we're doing that (through) the peer review process."

Bea rests his case against the system on multiple grounds of improper design, dangerous safety margins and flawed assumptions, most of which have been pinpointed by three post-Katrina forensic investigations -- including a Berkeley-based probe that Bea helped
co-lead for the National Science Foundation.

But Bea has also opined since late last fall that he has done subsequent analyses using information not previously available. And he says that work proves there are extensive underseepage problems that put many levees and floodwalls at greater risk than previously thought.

--- Working with victims ---

Bea, hired by a legal team representing thousands of Katrina victims seeking to collect damages from the corps in federal court, thinks underseepage is responsible for the water that continues to recur near the repaired breach in the canal's east wall, despite the corps' best efforts to dig up the area, remove rubble to eliminate seepage paths and repack with good clay.

If correct, Bea says the same problems haunt the marshy areas underlying many levees and floodwalls throughout the region, including the London Avenue Canal, portions of eastern New Orleans, the entire Industrial Canal area -- including the Lower 9th Ward -- and St. Bernard Parish.

Bea said his latest work on the 17th Street Canal, where he had access to corps' pressure readings taken in the subterranean marsh layers beneath the levees, showed an intimate and dangerous connection between water rising in the canal and, simultaneously, water rising so quickly under the levees that it destabilized them.

As a result, he said, the rising water table creates "uplift pressures" able to blow out or destabilize the levee and trigger a failure.

"The only way to keep that from happening there is to drive sheet piles so deep that the water can't seep into the adjacent levee, and the corps didn't do that," he said.

If the Army Corps of Engineers is wrong, and we all know they've been wrong before, and with New Orleans looking like it may take a more direct hit than with Gustav than it did during Katrina, there's a possibility we may even see more levee failures.

It's surprising that Chertoff didn't mention this. It's unclear from what he said if he's even aware of these concerns. There are so many doubts about the levees three years after Katrina, that it's not really possible to say they are stronger.
Posted by Frank James on August 31, 2008 10:39 AM

Corps explains newspaper's use in floodwall

Joints are sealed outside, officials say

Saturday, April 26, 2008
By Chris Kirkham

West Bank bureau

Gathering around a newly constructed portion of the 15-foot Harvey Canal flood wall, representatives with the Army Corps of Engineers staged a press event Friday on the West Bank to clarify their techniques for preventing floodwater from seeping through openings in the walls.

After a recent media report of joints between a New Orleans floodwall being stuffed with newspaper instead of the usual rubber material, corps officials said the work was a temporary solution in 2006 that is not being repeated elsewhere in area levee systems.

"You had a lot of work being done to get things up to snuff after Hurricane Katrina," said Maj. Timothy Kurgan, chief public affairs officer for the Corps' New Orleans district. "I don't want people thinking there's just a bunch of newspaper inside this wall, and that's the only thing keeping water out."

In order to prevent cracking in the floodwalls due to temperature change, walls are divided into separate panels with a half-inch gap in between.

A series of barriers are placed in the gaps to ensure floodwater or other debris does not seep inside. The most important barrier is a thick rubber "waterstop" that runs vertically from the top to the bottom of the floodwall gap and is anchored into the concrete foundation.

The waterstop is in the middle of the floodwall, and other rubber material fills the gap on both the front and back side of the floodwall. That material is sealed again on the outside.

Corps officials said Friday that three panel gaps in a flood wall near the Paris Road bridge in New Orleans, near the St. Bernard Parish line, were plugged with newspaper instead of rubber in May 2006, as an "expedient" method to do minor repairs the year after Katrina. Those three gaps were the only ones where such a method was used, Kurgan said.

"It's not the preferred technique," he said.

Because the waterstop is in place, and because the outside of the newspaper filling was sealed, the risk of leaking is minimal, he said. Several engineers pointed to the black rubber filling being installed on one of the Harvey Canal floodwall gaps.

Corps officials said it used its own hired workers in 2006 to put in the newspaper filling, not a contractor.
. . . . . . .
Chris Kirkham can be reached at ckirkham@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3786.

Maybe This Is God's Wrath on GOP Claims to Christianity?

above: Katrina below: Gustav


Hmm. Okay, let's assume that Katrina was sent by God for a purpose.

Perhaps that purpose was misunderstood by a Christian right wing that was obsessed with gays and abortion. Oddly enough, there are no discussions of either of these issues in the Gospels recorded in the New Testament. What we do have in the recorded sermons of Jesus of Nazareth is a long instruction to love your neighbor and to minister to the poor and sick. Those themes are repeated many, many times. Let's say God sent Katrina to New Orleans to test the Christian right's commitment to the teachings of Jesus. Would this self-proclaimed Christian administration be said to have passed such a test?

Now, it is three years later. The GOP is going to nominate another candidate for president, John McCain, who has just demonstrated, with the nomination of Gov. Palin as a vice president, that he intends to adhere to the Christian right's position. A candidate who feels he must govern with ideological purity just as his predecessor has. This ideological purity is questionable if one reads the New Testament without prejudice. (This is why the test of Katrina and it's purpose would be different for a true Christian than it would be for a political "christian".) The Republican standard bearers for this political right wing have planned to do this in a huge media event, the Republican National Convention, that coincides with the anniversary of the landfall of this "judgement" from God. However, they seemed to have missed God's initial reason for, or the instruction of, Hurricane Katrina. This is demonstrated by the slow or non-existent efforts on behalf of the poor so devastated by the event, the so called "Wrath of God", and the suffering that continues three years later.

Is Gustav a reminder for Christians of the true nature of the instruction of Jesus? Do we have more of the "Wrath of God" demonstrated with the timing of this meteorological event? As a result of the impending landfall of this major Hurricane, there has been a disruption of the GOP convention here in Minnesota. Neither Bush nor Cheney will even show up to thank the very Republican leadership that elected them to two terms in the Whitehouse as a result of Gustav's impending destruction. Perhaps Gustav is God's not so gentle reminder of our failures as a nation to embody the teachings of His son.

Now I am not a religious person who believes that God spends all day personally talking to each and every person who claims some sort personal relationship with him. My idea of God would be a greater spiritual being. I doubt that God worries about which pair of shoes Michele Bachman should wear to campaign with or would directly intervene in my thoughts on what to serve for supper on any given night. These people are obviously not questioning their own thought processes or the reasons they hear "voices". I am offended by the proclamations from the right wing nuts who call themselves Christians of every disaster being God's wrath on our nation. I really think such talk is not only unpatriotic but also sacrilegious. But, I am posing an argument that I think would fundamentally cause someone who believes such ideas to pause, just for a second, and ask yourself the simple question I started with. If you believe that these events are somehow inspired by divine instruction shouldn't you seek a greater lesson from that meaning? And if that question is a political one, which candidate you should vote for. With the weakening of this storm, perhaps one should ponder the religious meaning of God's mercy as well.

September 1, 2008

Storm Disrupts Republican Plans for Convention

By PATRICK HEALY

ST. PAUL — Plans for the Republican National Convention were in flux on Sunday as the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, announced that the thrust of the convention would change “from a party event to a call to the nation for action” to help residents of the Gulf Coast affected by the approaching Hurricane Gustav.

Mr. McCain, speaking in Jackson, Miss., as he toured the federal disaster relief center there, said he would announce major changes later on Sunday for the Republican convention, which is scheduled to start Monday in St. Paul. Already, President Bush said he would not attend the convention on Monday because of Gustav, and the White House spokeswoman, Dana M. Perino, said Vice President Dick Cheney also would not attend it. Republican officials have said the four-day convention may shortened or delayed.

“We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of president and vice president of our party to acting as all Americans,” said Mr. McCain, appearing with his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, and Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi. “We have to go from a party event to a call to the nation for action, action to help our fellow citizens in this time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster.

“I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans not Republicans, because America needs us now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat.”

Convention planners and delegates arriving in St. Paul said it would be politically perilous to hold a four-day party as Americans were evacuating New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in advance of Gustav, a Category 3 hurricane, with winds of up to 125 miles per hour, that is expected to make landfall sometime on Tuesday. The Bush administration’s unsteady response to Hurricane Katrina, which left New Orleans in ruins three years ago, outraged Americans and remains, for many, a stain on Mr. Bush’s record.

Among the options for altering the convention format, Republican officials said Sunday, were cutting back on the evening and prime-time hours of convention sessions in the hall over the four days, or delaying the start of the convention by a day or two and then compressing the main events over perhaps two or three days, instead of four. Party officials may also plan blood banks and Gustav relief fund-raisers.

Cancellations were announced steadily in St. Paul on Sunday: Delegates from Louisiana and Mississippi were making plans to head home because of Gustav. Separately, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California announced he would skip the convention to deal with a continuing stalemate in Sacramento over the state budget. He had been slated to have a high-profile speaking role on Monday night.

Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, said in Ohio on Sunday that he had no plans to travel to the Gulf Coast because he did not want to get in the way of emergency efforts there. Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters after leaving services at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Lima, Ohio, said his campaign would mobilize its giant e-mail list of supporters to encourage them to volunteer or send contributions as soon as the impact of Hurricane Gustav becomes known.

“We can activate an e-mail list of a couple million people who want to give back,” Mr. Obama told reporters. “I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary.”

Asked whether he believed it was appropriate for Mr. McCain to travel to the Gulf Coast, Mr. Obama said: “A big storm like this raises bipartisan concerns, and I think for John to want to find out what’s going on is fine.”

“The thing that I always am concerned about in the middle of a storm,” Mr. Obama said, “is whether we’re drawing resources away from folks on the ground because the Secret Service and various security requirements sometimes it pulls police, fire and other departments away from concentrating on the job.”

He added: “I’m assuming that where he went that wasn’t an issue. We’re going to try to stay clear of the area until things have settled down and then we’ll probably try to figure out how we can be as helpful as possible.”

He said he had talked by telephone to Gov. Bobby Jindal and Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans. Mr. Obama also is calling into a black radio station in New Orleans, aides said, amplifying the warning for any remaining residents to follow the evacuation order and leave the city.

President Bush, who was monitoring disaster relief preparations at the White House on Sunday, also spoke with Mayor Nagin, saying he was “checking in and getting ready to go through this again with him,” according to Ms. Perino, the White House spokeswoman.

“We’re working with governors to identify and secure out-of-state shelter for people in the path of the storm,” Mr. Bush said during a news briefing at the Washington headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “Several states, including Missouri, Texas, and New Mexico, are preparing to and have accepted a lot of evacuees. People are leaving those areas that are of concern and we’re working hard to make sure that they have a place to go.”

Mr. Bush added: “In the coming days, I encourage people across our nation to help their neighbors in need. You can contribute to charities, such as the Red Cross. You can volunteer your time to help those in need. And, of course, you can pray for those who might be suffering.

While the National Hurricane Center said Sunday that Gustav had weakened from a Category 4 hurricane on Saturday to a Category 3, it could pick up strength later today.

New Orleans residents are under a mandatory evacuation order on Sunday, and other parts of the Gulf Coast are expected to clear out over the next 36 hours if Gustav continues on its current course.

Appearing on the ABC News program “This Week” news program on Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close ally of Mr. McCain, said it might make sense to postpone the convention depending on Gustav’s strength and direction over the next 24 hours.

“The goal is to make sure that you take the conservative approach, that we’re not seen to be out of touch with people who could have everything they worked for lost,” Mr. Graham said. “I’d advise Senator McCain to go down as is, today, to figure out what can I do?”

The potential for disaster along the Gulf Coast has overshadowed not only the Republicans this weekend: It has consumed media attention to the point of at least partially obscuring both the Democrats’ glow over their convention in Denver last week and their criticism and questioning of Governor Palin, who Mr. McCain introduced as his running mate on Friday.

The major television networks are pulling some of their top talent out of Minneapolis, promising to diminish, if not upend, coverage of the convention. Katie Couric will head to the Gulf Coast to open the “CBS Evening News” from there Monday night, instead of from the convention hall as planned. Charles Gibson of ABC News and Brian Williams of NBC are expected to do the same.

“Nightline” on ABC will also broadcast from the storm area as will CBS News, a sign that all of the major news programs will be focused on the hurricane zone rather than the convention floor adorned with Mr. McCain’s “country first message” — robbing him of the crucial perk of wide television coverage of his message that comes with a political convention.

As of now, the networks still expect to devote one hour a night to the convention, from 10 to 11 and the cable news channels will almost certainly juggle both stories.

Still, the networks’ decision is a potential blow to Mr. McCain, whose campaign is hoping to use the Republican convention to give him a burst of positive coverage into the final stretch of the campaign. And it has cut into the Obama campaign’s plans to portray Ms. Palin as inadequate to the job of the vice presidency.

Ms. Palin, now midway through her second year as governor, was by and large a surprise choice — Mr. McCain barely knew her before Friday, and she was not widely discussed as a likely vice presidential nominee. Democrats have been framing Ms. Palin as a purely political selection, based on her potential appeal to female voters who favored Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton over Mr. Obama during the primaries this year. But that message has largely been drowned out by Gustav’s approach.

Still, on ABC on Sunday, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, said the selection of Ms. Palin reflected poor decision-making on Mr. McCain’s part.

“I think John McCain’s judgment is once again put at issue, because he’s chosen somebody who clearly does not meet the national security threshold, who is not ready to be president tomorrow,” Mr. Kerry said.

And he scoffed at the notion that one-time Clinton supporters would be wooed to the Republican ticket by the possibility of the first female vice president — one who opposes abortion rights and many other commonly held positions for Democrats.

“I mean, for heaven sakes, the people who supported Hillary Clinton are not going to be seduced just because John McCain has picked a woman,” Mr. Kerry said. “They’re going to look at what she supports.”

Senator Graham, echoing other Republicans on the Sunday talk shows praising Ms. Palin as a “bold” choice and as a reformer, said he believed Ms. Palin was ready to be commander in chief today.

“Oh, I think so, I think so. Compared to Barack Obama, absolutely,” Mr. Graham said.

Mr. Obama and his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, planned to spent Sunday campaigning together in Ohio and Michigan before parting ways to travel separately on Labor Day.

Traveling with Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin in Mississippi, meanwhile, were Cindy McCain, Mr. McCain’s wife, and two surprise guests: their sons Jack, 21, a midshipman at the Naval Academy, and Jimmy, 20, a Marine, according to a pool report.

The McCains were reunited with their sons at the St. Louis airport, where Mrs. McCain took the senator’s arm and excitedly pulled him toward them, and they embraced. Brooke Buchanan, a campaign spokeswoman, said the sons would be with the family for the convention week.

Michael Cooper and Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.

Hurricane Gustav to Become Gulf Coast Monster?

Willie Drye for National Geographic News

August 27, 2008

The once and future Hurricane Gustav—currently a tropical storm over Haiti—could attack the U.S. Gulf Coast as a major hurricane this weekend. Or not. The Gulf Coast's fate depends largely on a developing high-pressure system, whose southern edge extends roughly from the eastern Gulf of Mexico to the western Atlantic Ocean. (See a map of the region.) High-pressure "ridges" repel storms, so if the developing ridge north of Cuba is strong, Gustav could be deflected westward and into the central Gulf of Mexico, where vast stretches of warm water could supercharge the storm as it heads for the U.S. coast. But if the high-pressure system wanes, Gustav could turn north, unimpeded, and move overland, across Cuba. The temporary lack of contact with warm water would deprive it of power. From Storm to Hurricane to Storm … to Hurricane? Gustav began as a tropical depression in the eastern Caribbean Sea on Monday and quickly intensified into a Category 1 hurricane with winds of about 90 miles (145 kilometers) an hour. Gustav hit shore Tuesday in Haiti and has been blamed for at least 17 deaths there and the neighboring Dominican Republic. The passage over Haiti's mountains weakened Gustav's winds to about 60 miles (100 kilometers) an hour, reducing it to tropical storm status. As of Wednesday morning, the center of Gustav was nearly stationary over Haiti. But the storm is expected to start moving westward later in the day. That would put it over the very warm waters of the Caribbean, and forecasters think Gustav will quickly regain its status as a Category 1 hurricane, with wind speeds between 74 and 95 miles an hour (119 and 153 kilometers an hour). By early Saturday, Gustav is predicted to be just off the coast of western Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane, with winds between 110 and 130 miles (177 and 209 kilometers) an hour. Where it goes from there—and how intense it becomes—is less certain. (Related: "Hurricane Bertha's Burst of Strength Stumps Experts" [July 8, 2008].) Path of Least Resistance Gustav is expected to turn toward the U.S. sometime Friday or Saturday, and the high-pressure system will decide how sharp Gustav's turn will be. "Once it starts moving, it will move west-northwest under the southern periphery of that ridge," said Rebecca Waddlington, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "If the ridge gets stronger, that will keep Gustav moving farther west. If it gets weaker, the storm will move more to the north." There is "no way of knowing" at present how the high-pressure ridge is going to evolve, Waddlington said. The present long-range forecast says Gustav could come ashore anywhere from the central Florida Panhandle to the Texas-Mexico border. A hurricane will move along the edge of a high-pressure system until the storm finds a weak spot. Then the hurricane will move toward the weakness as though a door had suddenly opened. Hurricanes "want to go to the weakest path they can find," said Gary Beeler, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, said. Plenty of Energy To intensify, storms need water that is at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit (about 27 degrees Celsius). The warmer the water is, the more the hurricane can intensify. Jeff Garmon, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Mobile, Alabama, said the water temperature in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico is currently as high as 89 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) in some places. "There's plenty of potential energy for Gustav to feed off of," Garmon said. Even if a hurricane has warm water in front of it, however, upper-level winds known as wind shear can disrupt the storm's development and keep it from strengthening. But wind shear will be very light over the Caribbean and Gulf for the immediate future, and will not impede Gustav's development, Garmon and Waddlington, of the National Hurricane Center, said. Hard to Predict There is always uncertainty about the path a hurricane will take, especially longer-term forecasts. "It's a foregone conclusion that the forecast will have an error in the track," Garmon said. "That's what makes forecasting the intensity so hard." "I'd like to stress that we don't start getting really confident [about landfall location] until it's two or three days out," he said. "That's when you see the whites of its eyes." "It's not time to panic just yet. But it's time to be aware of what's going on and have a plan in place." Willie Drye is author of Storm of the Century: the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, published by National Geographic Books.

We're thinking of you right now Gulf Coast and let's all hope Gustav loses steam no matter where it is headed.

Another Date which will live in infamy By: Attaturk Friday August 29, 2008 1:30 am

Fundamentally Sound? Very Funny, Mr. McCain.

July incomes drop by largest amount in 3 years

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Personal incomes plunged in July while consumer spending slowed significantly as the impact of billions of dollars in government rebate checks began to wane.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that personal incomes fell by 0.7 percent in July, the biggest drop in nearly three years and a far larger decline than the 0.1 percent decrease that analysts had expected.

Consumer spending edged up a modest 0.2 percent, in line with expectations, but far below June's 0.6 percent rise. When the impact of rising prices was factored in, spending actually dropped by 0.4 percent in July, the weakest showing for inflation-adjusted spending in more than four years.

The July performance for incomes and spending reinforced worries that the economy, which posted better-than-expected growth in the spring because of the rebate checks, could stumble in coming months as their impact fades.

Some economists worry that overall economic growth, which rose at a 3.3 percent annual rate from April-June, could come in at less than half that pace in the current quarter, and could actually dip into negative territory in the final three months of this year and the first quarter of 2009. Back-to-back declines in the gross domestic product would meet one rule of thumb for a recession.

Well Received Both Here and Abroad.

• Previous
• Blog home

Just the right speech

Defeating the Messiah-esque predictions, Obama actually managed to make his speech about his audience

Obama says 'it's time to change America'

Denver is a very nice city, but it doesn't remotely have the transportation infrastructure to handle this week's onslaught. So, as my wife and I left Invesco Field after Barack Obama's speech, the only choice was the usual one – to walk – and the only place to go was across a bridge that thousands and thousands of people were funneling into from many directions and despite the presence of various fences and barricades and jersey walls.

It was a nightmare, and under other circumstances (particularly ones where they served beer, which they did not Thursday night), distemper and impatience and testy rhetoric and maybe even a fight or two would've ensued. But this night all was calm. People were patient and cooperative. An African American woman walking in front of us carrying two small American flags turned to us to remark on this.

I use this as metaphor for the speech because I thought, while it was not one of those rhetorical barnburners for which the candidate is famous, it accomplished something else, more subtle but maybe more profound. Obama made his speech not about him but about his audience. He gave away some of his power this night and gave it to the people (sure enough, "Power to the People," John Lennon's somewhat unfortunate radical-chic anthem from 1971, was among the background music piped into the stadium before Obama spoke).

This to me was the single most important thing about the speech. There were other important aspects to it, and I'll get to those, but the main victory Thursday night was that he successfully made the night not about him in a way that could feed into the Celebrity/Messiah/The One/He Who Makes the Clouds Part narrative that the McCain camp has so successfully deployed.

The concerns that the speech-event would feed that narrative were palpable. You know – this was all about his endless ego and so on. There's no denying the man has an ego, but the worst fears of Obama partisans were not confirmed. He said explicitly at one point, "What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you." The non-verbal presentation worked as well. The stage set as initially described, a Roman temple of some sort, seemed horrifying and an awful choice sure to feed GOP themes. But in reality it turned out to be fine. It more resembled the Rose Garden portico of the White House than any place where Caligula hosted bacchanals. And anyway it didn't appear that any columns showed on television at all.

I haven't watched any TV coverage as I write these words but it's my strong bet that they're not talking any Messiah nonsense. And if the speakers at next week's GOP convention will try to poke fun at the speech on those grounds, they'll get laughs in the hall, but I will bet that the jokes won't resonate outside the pews of the already-believing. The speech was more workmanlike than that. And workmanlike was just what was called for under the circumstances.

He talked a lot about the economy. He did not – the speech's one failing, to my ear – have a short and strong bumper-sticker phrase describing the guiding philosophy of his economic plan. But after this speech, anyone who highly and mightily demands that Obama produce specifics will merely be showing his ignorance and laziness. He also focused on his empathy for working people's concerns.

And speaking directly before him were six or seven regular Americans who'd been hit hard by the Bush economy. Each was fantastic, especially Barney Smith, an Indiana factory worker and lifelong Republican who is disgusted with his party and voting for Obama.

It was Smith, not the silver-tongued one, who (surely by design – another way the night was not about Obama) got off the single most memorable line of the evening: "We need a president who puts Barney Smith before Smith Barney."

He took on John McCain in a tough and tonally just right way. He accurately painted McCain as a joke of an intellect on economic questions, and (again, subtly, but clearly) on foreign policy, he described a sort of crazy person whose experience has not given him superior judgment at all. Among the three of them, Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden made a sharp case against a McCain presidency.

Obama also addressed questions about his resume and experience, albeit indirectly. But he dealt with the questions about his preparedness and seriousness less with words than with demeanor. He did not look like a guy Thursday night whom Putin could push around and did not sound like a guy who couldn't run the army (about 15 generals also took the stage to endorse him).

It was just the right speech for the occasion. He did not aggrandize himself. He explained the seriousness of the task at hand in a way that did not send his shock troops over the moon in Messiah ecstasy. Rather, he equipped them with battle armor – and with determined serenity about what they had to do until November 4.

And that was why everyone behaved in such an orderly way as they exited through a veritable obstacle course. They're armed. They were given agency Thursday night, not made into abject Barack-o-maniacs. And that, for a campaign that's banking on winning this election on the strength of thousands of volunteers, may have been the most important thing, more important even than how the media received it.

Who? Damn, There Goes Our Chance to Get Rid of Tim.

Happy Birthday, Mr. McCain. I guess when you were questioning experience you were just blowing smoke. Governor Palin has even less experience than Senator Obama. Nevermind, I figured out long ago that there are no depths to which you would not sink in order to attain the Presidency.

August 29, 2008, 8:31 am

McCain V.P.: It’s Palin

By Michael Cooper

Updated 10:32 p.m.: Senator John McCain has selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Whether her selection would really improve Mr. McCain’s appeal to women who had supported Mrs. Clinton was unclear. Both Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin oppose abortion rights, and important issue for some women. And a major theme of the Democratic convention that just concluded in Denver was both Clintons urging her supporters to unite behind Mr. Obama, in no uncertain terms.

Updated 10:10 a.m. DAYTON — And then there were … How many?

Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota said in a radio interview on Friday morning that he planned to be at the Minnesota state fair on Friday, not here in Dayton with Senator John McCain, who has an event planned for noon, Eastern.

When he was asked if that means he would not be Mr. McCain’s running mate, Mr. Pawlenty told WCCO radio that “I think that’s a fair assumption.’’

Also this morning, The Times’s Michael Luo reports that Mitt Romney, who had long been perceived as one of the final candidates for the slot, has been ruled out. A source close to Mr. Romney said he is not going to be in Dayton today.

So who does that leave? The Times’s Elisabeth Bumiller sends the following:

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska? As reports circulated on television and cable networks on Friday morning that Senator John McCain might have selected Ms. Palin as his running mate, McCain advisers expressed bewilderment. One adviser said that while Mr. McCain thinks highly of Ms. Palin, who is opposed to abortion rights and would be welcomed by Christian conservatives, her less than two years in office would undercut one of the McCain campaign’s central criticisms of Senator Barack Obama — that he is too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief.

“While it’s a dramatic and interesting choice, it would make the argument he’s making difficult to make,” said one McCain adviser.

Much of the campaign apparatus remained in the dark about Mr. McCain’s choice as of 9 a.m. Friday. Briefing calls that had been scheduled to go out to a top group of outsider advisers were delayed Thursday night, and then delayed again Friday morning.

John Harwood, of CNBC and The New York Times, reports that a Republican strategist reports being informed by McCain campaign official choice is Palin.

Thank You for Speaking to America With Intelligence, Sen. Obama. I Appreciated the Thought and Effort You Put Into This Speech.

A short "wise tale", often attributed to an
unnamed Native American elder, about a "two dogs" tale.  A version
goes like this:
"Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil.
The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog, all of the
time."  When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and
replied "The one I feed the most."

So, I had to drive through St. Paul to take my son to start college in Wisconsin today. (We can't afford to send him to the University of Minnesota, it is nearly $3,000 cheaper for the UofW, but that is another post.) Guess what was in the sky of "Pig's Eye"? Lear (oops! Leer?) jets and a smell of corruption. The Republicans are coming.

Saint Paul

Minnesota, United States

Main

...city, capital of Minnesota, U.S., and seat of Ramsey county. Situated in the southeastern part of the state, St. Paul is at the head of navigation on the Mississippi River near its confluence with the Minnesota River. The city adjoins Minneapolis on the west, and together they form the Twin Cities metropolitan area, the largest conurbation in the state and in the U.S. north-central region. Suburban communities include Roseville (north), Maplewood (north and east), Woodbury (east), Cottage Grove (southeast), and South St. Paul and Eagan (south).

St. Paul, the state’s second most populous city (behind Minneapolis)(We like a, how should I say this, more "refined" clientele?--java), lies along a deep S-shaped bend of the Mississippi and is built on a series of bluffs rising from the river to the surrounding plains. Eight lakes are located wholly or partially within the municipal boundaries, and the city maintains more than 160 parks. The climate is cool temperate, with long, cold winters and warm summers. High river levels in spring have caused damaging floods on occasion, as in 1965 and 1993, but control measures have been undertaken to reduce the problem. Inc. village, 1849; city, 1854. Area city, 56 square miles (145 square km). Pop. (2000) city, 287,151; Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MSA, 2,968,806; (2006 est.) city, 273,535; Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MSA, 3,175,041. (Ewww, they lumped us together again!--java)

History

Sioux and Ojibwa peoples were early inhabitants of the area. In 1680 the Franciscan missionary Louis Hennepin passed the site, and in 1766 explorer Jonathan Carver probed a nearby cavern (since known as Carver’s Cave). In 1805 Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, leader of an American expedition to explore the headwaters of the Mississippi River, made a treaty there (never officially ratified) with the Sioux for possession of the region, including the site on which the military outpost Fort Snelling (now a state park) was later built. The first land claim was made in 1838 by tavern owner Pierre (“Pig’s Eye”) Parrant. The settlement was known as Pig’s Eye Landing until 1841, when Roman Catholic missionary Lucien Galtier built a log chapel dedicated to the apostle Paul. In 1849 St. Paul became the capital of the newly formed Minnesota Territory, and it was made the state capital when Minnesota was admitted to the Union in 1858.

St. Paul’s historic importance in the development of the Upper Midwest was as a commercial centre that utilized its strategic location on the Mississippi (they cleaned this up for your pleasure. good old pierre had a side business of robbing travellers along the mississippi for years at this senic bend in the mighty miss--java). Furs were its first products for the outside market. In 1862 the first train left the city on the 10-mile (16-km) track of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. In 1883 a great celebration marked the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway from St. Paul to the West Coast, and 10 years later the Great Northern Railway, under the leadership of James J. Hill, was completed, with St. Paul as the eastern terminus (both railways are now part of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation). These railroad developments made the city the gateway to the Pacific Northwest and spurred its growth. In 1886 the St. Paul Union Stockyards were established, and the livestock market (later moved to suburban South St. Paul) (These also are closed. That Tim Pawlenty is really a great governor. Even if he doesn't get elected VP, can we send him to Washington anyway? Yeah, just don't touch anything else, Tim. Really, you've done enough, k?--java) became one of the world’s largest. Meatpacking plants also flourished in the city, but during the 1970s the market dramatically declined in size, and most major packing plants closed.

In the 1920s and ’30s, St. Paul became known as a safe haven for gangsters from other Midwestern cities; some of the locales formerly associated with them have become tourist attractions. Economic difficulties and migration to the suburbs contributed to a decline in the central city in the mid-20th century, but, beginning in the mid-1970s, the city undertook large-scale urban-renewal projects, redeveloping downtown business and residential areas.

St. Paul’s population grew steadily during the first half of the 20th century, nearly doubling between 1900 and the peak year of 1960 (when it reached 313,411). The number of people subsequently declined, as had happened in Minneapolis, though in St. Paul the drop was not nearly as sharp as it was for its western neighbor. By about 1990 the city’s population was again increasing. Throughout the city’s history the great majority of its residents have been of European (largely German and Irish) ancestry, but that proportion has been decreasing as the number of African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics has grown; the latter three groups now constitute about one-third of the population.

The contemporary city

St. Paul is a major education, health care, government, financial, and industrial centre. Highly diversified manufactures include automobiles (not for long, the Ford plant is on it's last repreive--java), chemicals, computer products and software, tools, machinery, and medical equipment. Insurance, high-technology industries, food processing, oil refining, and convention business are also important. The city is corporate headquarters of 3M (Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company). The Twin Cities region is a rail and trucking centre and includes a major international airport on the southwestern corner of St. Paul. The Skyway, a system of enclosed, climate-controlled pedestrian walkways located at the second-floor level, connects various points in the downtown area.

St. Paul is the home of some dozen institutions of higher education, including the main campus of the College of St. Catherine (Roman Catholic; 1905), the University of St. Thomas (Roman Catholic; 1885), Hamline University (Methodist; 1854), Macalester College (1874), Bethel University (Baptist; 1871), Luther Seminary (Lutheran; 1869), Concordia University (Lutheran; 1893), a campus of Metropolitan State University (1971), and a part of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (1851), campus. The state capitol, Minnesota’s third, was designed by architect Cass Gilbert and was completed in 1904. (Err, the roof has been leaking for years but good old Tim took the pledge after drinking the koolaide and can't raise taxes to fix the damn thing. Remind you of a bridge or two?--java) Dominating the concourse of the 20-story city hall and county courthouse (1931) is Vision of Peace, a 36-foot- (11-metre-) high statue of white Mexican onyx, by Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. Other historic buildings include the Alexander Ramsey House (1872), the James J. Hill House (1891), the Landmark Center (1902), and the Cathedral of St. Paul (1915). Sibley House Historic Site preserves the 1836 home of Henry Sibley, Minnesota’s first governor.

The city’s cultural institutions include the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Minnesota Transportation Museum, and a children’s and a historical museum. The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is the home of the Minnesota Opera and the renowned St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Como Park on the city’s northwest side has a conservatory and a zoo. The Xcel Energy Center (opened 2000) houses the Wild, Minnesota’s professional ice hockey team. Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (1988), which includes St. Paul’s riverfront areas, is headquartered in the city. The annual St. Paul Winter Carnival features parades and other outdoor events and ice and snow sculptures (great French restaruant called Forepaughs within walking distance of the "X"--java).

How much does a LearJet cost?

And how much does it cost for operations and maintenance, ie fuel etc? New LearJet's start at $5 Million USD. Used jet airplanes can be purchased for $3 million and up. These are small jets that can take 5 to 8 passengers (This was a large, prolly 8 passenger model.--java) over a range of 2,000 miles or 3,000 km Larger jets can range up to $50 million, carry 12 passengers over a range of 4,000 miles or 6,500 km. Annual operating and maintenance costs, including insurance, fuel, catering and pilots, can range from $100,000 to $200,000 per year, depending on the size and usage of the jet. Answered by: Doug - 7 Months Ago.

“Because our military power dwarfs that of other countries - we spend more on defense than the rest of the world combined - this Administration believes that alliances and international institutions are more of a burden than a benefit. They allow the Lilliputians to tie down Gulliver.”

Attack mode expected from Biden tonight

By Jessica Fender

The Denver Post

DENVER — Democratic stalwarts expect Sen. Joseph Biden to deliver a tough attack on Sen. John McCain during the vice-presidential candidate's speech tonight.

Party loyalists remain anxious that nice-guy presidential candidate Barack Obama hasn't countered GOP attacks effectively, although Democratic leaders Tuesday spiced up their rhetoric with some bashing of McCain.

Waiting for Tuesday's program to begin, Michigan delegate Edna Bell said Biden has the type of experience necessary to take aim at McCain. Indeed, the Senate veterans traded criticisms at separate campaign stops Tuesday.

"He's the right person to frame John McCain and to tell the truth about the kind of things he's supported," said Bell, Wayne County chairwoman of Women for Obama. "I didn't expect [McCain] to be vilified early in the convention. That's demonstrative of who Barack Obama is. He's not an attack dog."

Attacks typically fall to vice-presidential candidates, although this campaign must strike a balance between optimism and criticism after a primary in which Obama identified himself as above partisan bickering, Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli said.

"They're incredibly conscious of their own image," Ciruli said of the Obama campaign. "One of the reasons he won [the primary] was because Hillary Clinton was the partisan. He was the one who was going to bring people together."

Ciruli said he expects Biden to focus on "economy, economy, economy" in his remarks tonight.

Polls show it's the top issue among voters, with up to twice as many people concerned about pocketbook issues than their second-most-talked-about concern, the Iraq war, he said.

Obama fans received a preview of Biden's thoughts on the economy Tuesday when he lambasted McCain's tax policy at an economic roundtable focused on women's issues and hosted by Michelle Obama.

The $100 billion in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans could instead be used to improve health care, Biden told a cheering crowd in Denver.

"How can you tell me, my friend John, that you're the party that values people?" Biden said. The Delaware Democrat added that his father used to say, "Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value."

Kucinich tells DNC: 'Wake up America!' David Edwards and Nick Juliano Published: Tuesday August 26, 2008

DENVER -- He might not have had the marquee billing of a Mark Warner or a Hillary Clinton, but Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) nonetheless whipped his party faithful into a frenzy Tuesday evening.

The Ohio lawmaker and liberal stalwart who earlier sought the Democratic presidential nomination delivered a passionate address calling on those in the audience here in Denver and watching at home to "wake up" and prevent another four years of Republican rule.

"Wake up America," Kucinich declared from the podium of the Democratic National Convention. "In 2001 the oil companies, the war contractors and the neocon-artists seized the economy and added $4 trillion of unproductive spending to the national debt. ... Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid for with borrowed money."

Though he never mentioned GOP nominee John McCain by name, Kucinich's address was in line with Democrats' strategy to take a harsher tone of attack against the Arizona Republican and his party.

"We cannot afford another Republican administration," Kucinich said. "Wake up, America; the insurance companies took over health care. Wake up, America; the pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing. Wake up, America; the speculators took over Wall Street. ... Wake up, America; we went into Iraq for oil."

Kucinich, a favorite of the party's liberal base who has led a push to impeach President Bush, enumerated some of the administration's most egregious abuses but said they would not dampen Democrats' spirits. As his speech crescendoed to its peak, the audience rose in boisterous applause.

"This administration can tap our phones -- but they can' t tamper our creative spirit," he said. "They can open our mail, but the can' t open economic opportunities. They can track our every move, but they lost track of the economy while the cost of food, gasoline, and electricity skyrockets. Now, they have skillfully played our post 9/11 fears, and they've allowed the few to profit at the expense of the many."

This video is from C-SPAN, broadcast August 26, 2008.




Download video

Welcome Home, Bill. We Have Missed You.

Bill Clinton to fly flag for Obama

2 hours ago

Former US president Bill Clinton will support presidential hopeful Barack Obama in his own words after his wife urged Democrats to "unite as a single party with a single purpose".

In a rousing prime time address at the party's national convention in Denver, Colorado, a passionate Hillary Clinton declared: "Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our president."

But her husband, who will vie with Mr Obama's vice presidential nominee Joe Biden for top billing, chose not to join her and their daughter Chelsea on stage.

His speech is expected to be less effusive, and his support more qualified, after Mr Obama beat his wife in an often bitter 16-month primary season which saw his own reputation tainted.

Joe Lockhart, the White House press secretary during Mr Clinton's administration, said: "He's going to come here and make a compelling case for why this election's important, why the stakes are so high, and why the choices are so clear.

"I think at the end of his speech it will be very clear that his first commitment between now and election day is making sure that Barack Obama is the president and that John McCain and the sort of warmed-over George Bush Republican philosophy is not."

Tensions between the Clinton and Obama camps remain, partly because Mr Clinton is reported to be furious at suggestions that he played the race card during the primary season as Mr Obama sought to become America's first black president.

Aides said he was also disappointed that he would be making his speech on a night themed "Securing America's Future", instead of on the American economy and the success of his presidency.

But Mr Obama, keen to publicly diffuse any tension, told reporters that Mr Clinton would be able to talk about anything he wanted to.

"Bill Clinton knows a little bit about trying to yank the economy out of the doldrums," Mr Obama, 47, said.

"I freed thousands of slaves; I could have freed more if they knew they were slaves."~Harriet Tubman

• This reminds me of one of my favorite American heroines, Harriet Tubman. For when she made it to freedom after having been a slave and she got to New York and she could have been so happy to just stay at home and just breathe a big sigh of relief but she kept going back down South to bring other freed slaves to freedom. And she used to say, 'No matter what happens, keep going.'
  • Hillary Clinton.[1]

Disputed

• Children, if you are tired, keep going; if you are hungry, keep going; if you want to taste freedom, keep going.
  • "Harriet Tubman never said this — it comes from one of the scores of juvenile Harriet Tubman fictionalized biographies." — Kate Larson, Harriet Tubman biographer.
  
  

  • Minnesota State Motto L'Etoile du Nord Language:French Translation:Star of the North Adoption:1861 State mottoes may be said to reflect the character and beliefs of the citizens of the state, or more accurately, the citizens of the state when they were adopted. State mottoes can help us gain insight into the history of a state

Dear Delegates to the RNC:

As you come to our state on the 150th anniversary of our joining the union don't expect an unconditional welcome. We Minnesotans have an attitude toward strangers that is called: Minnesota Nice. Don't mistake courtesy for support (Barack Obama currently leads this state by double digits to your candidate, Mr. McCain). And, yeah, it can get really, really cold here.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Shame on You John McCain & Steve Schmidt (who even looks like Dr. Evil)

This is Steve Schmidt, the veteran campaign strategist and public relations expert, who is heading up day to day operations of the McCain campaign. In his career to date he has been:

* Communications director for Senate campaign of Matt Fong. (1998)
* Chief strategist in charge of Supreme Court nominations of Samuel A. Alito. and Chief Justice John Roberts
* Counselor and spokesman for Vice President Dick Cheney.
* Member of the exclusive "breakfast club" led by top White House adviser Karl Rove that ran President Bush's re-election campaign. (2004)
* Campaign Manager for re-election campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (2006)

He was a chief player in the George W. Bush re-election campaign in 2004 and is seen as a Karl Rove protege.

This is Dr. Evil, (born Douglas Powers) is a fictional character, played by Mike Myers, in the Austin Powers film series.

Schmidt has been a driver of the rapid move to the gutter by the McCain campaign over the last 3 weeks. This has been exemplified by the disgusting ad, about which Steve Waldman writes:

Saying that Republicans are taking Obama's comments out of context doesn't come close to capturing this. What Obama probably meant is pretty much the opposite of what they're implying he meant.

The line used in the McCain ad, a campaign memo, and on just about every conservative blog in America is Obama's quote: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

Witnesses who attended the closed-door talk at which Obama suposedly said this have claimed that Obama's actual words were:

"It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign -- that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have just become a symbol. I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions" [my emphasis]

There apparently was no transcript but this version fits what Obama has said in the past.

After getting a rousing welcome from students in Virginia,

he said::

"This crowd is not about me. it's about you. I've been a receptacle for your hopes and dreams."...

Early in his campaign, he commented on how so many people had flocked to his campaign. "I do think that I've become a receptacle for a lot of other people's issues that they need to work out."

He's repeatedly described himself as a "flawed vessel" and said that the race "wasn't about me."

Another line often cited to show Obama's arrogance is the idea his quote that "we are the ones we've been waiting for" -- the implication being that the world has been waiting for the Obamas.

Again, read the full quote:

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

His point was that change will not come by waiting for someone else but that "we" have to do it ourselves. This is classic community-organizer-speak. Take control of your own destiny, etc, etc.

There are plenty of things to mock or criticize Obama about, both stylistically and substantively. And I have no doubt that he has a very healthy ego. But in the debate about whether these McCain ads were funny or appropriate, let's not lose sight of this basic fact: the quotes cited by Republicans to illustrate Obama's Messianic complex were taken grotesquely out of context. That ought to matter.

As the Rove/Cheney/Dobson grip on power is challenged, I fear we will see more & more of this over the next 3 months. When you retain power by fear, then people expressing hope is worthy of disdain. Dr. Evil's drive for world domination was fictional - people like Schmidt & Rove & Cheeny & McCain - well their drive is well documented.

So much for McCain as a person who wanted a different kind of campaign.