The Progressive Democrat Newsletter grew out of the frustration of the 2004 election. After much pressure from readers, this email newsletter is now going the blog route. I update the blog once a week focusing on both national issues and issues of interest to particular regions or states. In general, NYC, California, New Jersey, Virginia and the Midwest get special attention simply because those are the areas where I seem to have the most readers. However, these days I am too busy to give each region the attention I used to. As my readership on Daily Gotham and Culture Kitchen goes up, I have to spend more time on those sites. So this newsletter is fading a bit. I hope it is still usefull to you, though.

This week I talk about corruption in government, focus on a Sierra Club action targeting Home Depot and Fox News, energy solutions and I focus on some local goings on in New York, Florida and New Jersey.

Sometimes things just come together and several individual items that don't quite add up to a story unite into a really good one. This week, there is a really good story like that on Energy Policy that comes from three synegizing sources.

This last week, a discussion with someone who grew up in Iowa, this month's issue of Catalyst, the newsletter of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and a press release from Nancy Pelosi all synergized to remind me that Democrats have been pushing for a real, American, practical energy policy since the Carter administration and all the Republicans advocate for are oil, oil, oil.

On October 26th, in response to the release of record profits by the bloated oil company Exxon/Mobil, Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement:

I am writing this partly out of some things that have been floating through my mind for some time and partly in response to Scottage's pessimistic article on Global Warming. My premise is simple. Our lack of a response to the immanent cirsis of Global Warming is not due to a lack of solutions or technology or ability to deal with it. We still have a chance to face the problem and ensure a better future for our children. What we lack is leadership.

"So tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative -- a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research at the Department of Energy"

 -- George W. Bush's proposal for Energy Independence, State of the Union Address, January 31, 2006

Wow! a 22% increase! That's fantastic. I can feel our Middle East oil dependence shrinking as I write this.

Four more years!
Four more years!
Four more years!

Wait... you mean that's not enough? It's what?... a "speed-bump increase in the spending of research in a single government department.  This is Bush's entire plan for cutting our ties to foreign oil."

Whoa. I see what you're saying. That doesn't really amount to anything at all, does it.

Well, I heard through that grapevine (and this is just a rumor) that the administration and all their buddies in industry and on K-Street are moving toward a STRONG endorsement of this Ten-Point Plan for Good Jobs and Energy Independence.