This week I discuss targeting ME Senator Collins as an enabler of the McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation, call Rudy Giuliani to task for his Karl Rove like tactics, and discuss what it REALLY means to support the troops. If you visit my blog, don't forget to click on an advertiser or two since that helps me keep the blog going. As usual I also highlight local events and organizations for several states. And, if you want more political and social discussions, please check out our offerings on Culture Kitchen.

What a week! Gonzales looking like a deer in the headlights, Virginia Tech, and McCain seemingly completely losing it (see here and here). As usual I can barely keep up. But I hope what I can get to is still helpful to you.

This week I discuss targeting NH Senator Sunnunu as an enabler of the McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation, present John Edwards' response to Democracy for America, show how Dems and Repubs differ on election reform, an experiment in alternative energy in Indiana, and revisit the issue of recycled paper. If you visit my blog, don't forget to click on an advertiser or two since that helps me keep the blog going. As usual I also highlight local events and organizations for several states. And, if you want more political and social discussions, please check out our offerings on Culture Kitchen.

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.

This week I discuss the Democratic approach to getting out of Iraq, targeting Ann Coulter, reform in NY State, recycled paper, Barack Obama's response to Democracy for America and some strategy for 2008 based on Rove's strategy. If you visit my blog, don't forget to click on an advertiser or two. As usual I also highlight local events and organizations for several states. And, if you want more political and social discussions, please check out our offerings on Culture Kitchen.

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.

This week I discuss how Republicans hurt our troops, Rudy Giuliani's flip flops, Democratic Presidential hopefuls going to Indian Country, and LOTS of stuff about Ann Coulter. If you visit my blog, don't forget to click on an advertiser or two. As usual I also highlight local events and organizations for several states, including some real disgusting stuff about Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project in NYC. And, if you want more political and social discussions, please check out our offerings on Culture Kitchen.

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.

This week I discuss election fraud in Florida's 2006 election, Iowa and Michigan SLAMMING John McCain for hypocricy, corruption NYC real estate, and turning red states blue. If you visit my blog, don't forget to click on an advertiser or two. As usual I also highlight local events and organizations for several states. And, if you want more political and social discussions, please check out our offerings on Culture Kitchen.

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 was a latecomer to eating organic, and even now it is a preference, not an absolute. I favor organic when it isn't TOO expensive. I often found organic advocates ill informed and fanatical. It made me suspicious of the whole thing. But I have been slowly converted, not so much by any strong organic farming advocates, but by realizing on my own that modern agriculture methods are often unsustainable, and often produce food only with marketability in mind, not anything like taste or nutrition or environmental concerns.

This year, there is a sign that many are coming to a practical conclusion that organic farming is sound economically. One sign of this is the fact that in two states not known for their hippie leanings, Montana and Iowa, organic farmers are running for office and may even win.

The diary below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal on August 27th.

Richard Nixon manipulated Americans into believing he had an honorable exit strategy from Vietnam. Ronald Reagan successfully convinced voters he championed a Norman Rockwell society that valued hard work and neighborhood generosity. In 1988, oilman George Herbert Walker Bush won in part as the "environmentalist" candidate. Twelve years later his son stole the presidency after campaigning as a "plain spoken" truth telling man of the people with a "humble" foreign policy.