Donal,
Does this suggest global peak oil has arrived already? If so, all bets are off.

Posted at May 20, 2008 5:53 PM in response to Got Oil?

Typical South Jersey provincialism.

Andrews may be good on the environmnent (I don't know), but name one issue on which he isn't equal to Lautenberg or else to his right. His war vote should be an automatic disqualifier, and, hearteningly, it looks like it will be.

I actually wish Lautenberg had retired and let Rush Holt step in; he'd be a great senator. But the old guy has some fight left in him, and he's never kowtowed to the Republicans, from Reagan through Bush the Lesser.

Posted at May 20, 2008 5:45 PM in response to Poll: Key Senate Dem Incumbent Is Safe

"Smart" pre-election politics or not, what Obama is saying is just the least of the choices that will be necessary if the earth is to remain habitable. NASA's chief climatologist, James Hansen, warned of this 20 years ago, and no action was taken. Now he says atmospheric carbon must be cut back to 350 ppm if we are to avert tipping points (which are already starting)into catastrophic climate change. We're already around 385 and rising fast.

For all Carter's faults, the election of the "sunny" Reagan in 1980, when we already knew about the greenhouse effect, looks more and more like the fateful turning point.

No one is prepared to deal with this. And if you think the "American way of life," which now seems to mean gluttony rather than freedom and equality, is at all sustainable, look up Peak Oil. Soon.

Posted at May 19, 2008 6:48 PM in response to Obama's Carter Speech?

What's wrong with having three A&F frat boys in back of him? Maybe it'll show other white "dudes" -- and the girls who love 'em -- that he's the cool candidate. No harm in that.

But seriously, he doesn't know when to wind up a speech, he's still lousy in these "debates," and he's got to start winning somewhere again. Hope he does, and soon.

Posted at April 22, 2008 11:37 PM in response to Obama: Hillary "Ran A Terrific Race"

Does the apartheid analogy offend you? Sorry, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu agree. They honor the Jews who fought with them against white rule, like Joe Slovo and Ronnie Kasrils, but they were Communists, not Zionists. But they also know that Israel collaborated with the white regime.

Who else has warned of Israel going the South African route if the window for a two-state closes? That lefty anti-Semite Ehud Olmert, that's who.

If anything, Carter was being too mild by saying the apartheid label only applies in the territories. The Arab citizens of Israel have many rights, but the state is defined as not theirs. The Law of Return is based on blood, not religious observance, so it does have a "racial" aspect, even if it applies to Ethiopian Jews as much as Russians.

The settlements, and mainstream Israel's refusals to confront them, make a viable two-state solution impossible. The one-state alternative will spell the end of Israel.

Posted at April 15, 2008 2:42 PM in response to Mr. Olmert: "Tear Down That Wall....I Mean 'Those Settlements' " & Israelis Refuse to Protect Carter

tnathan:

I'm not "threatening the Jews with progroms," as if America in 2008 were Kishinev in 1908. I'm not advocating a rise in American anti-Semitism; I fear it, being Jewish myself. I am merely pointing out that the overbearing arrogance of the right-wing AIPAC element, and its tendency to target black people (Jesse Jackson, Earl Hilliard, Cynthia McKinney) has consequences.

If the most promising American leader in generations (at least since Bobby Kennedy) is seen, accurately or not, as being "taken down" by "the Jews," the results will not be pretty.

As for "Obama fascism," the Likud party is the direct heir of Jabotinsky, an avowed admirer of Mussolini who organized his Revisionist movement along fascist lines and spawned the terrorist Irgun. Today's American Christofascists, the Robertson, Hagee and Parsley, "love" Israel to death.

Posted at April 5, 2008 2:39 PM in response to The Next President and Israel

"If AIPAC succeeds in destroying Obama."

You don't want to go there. They would reap the whirlwind. Black America would not forget it. A large slice of young America would not forget it. Anyone hoping for the restoration of decent government after the Bush regime would not forget it (since the result would be a McCain presidency, not a Clinton presidency).

America has always been remarkably free of anti-Semitism compared with Europe. If Obama is seen as being taken down by "the Jews," that could change permanently.

As for Israel, even Olmert has spoken of the danger of turning into South Africa -- the very analogy Carter was crucified here for making. They are beginning to realize that their campaign to destroy PA institution is leading straight to one state -- named Palestine.

Posted at April 5, 2008 12:56 AM in response to The Next President and Israel

Corzine's so unpopular in New Jersey these days that I hope he sticks with Hillary.

Posted at April 3, 2008 11:37 PM in response to Corzine: If Hillary Doesn't Win Popular Vote, I Might Switch To Obama

Jimmy and John are McCain's sons by his current, wife, Cindy. His sons by his first wife, Carol, are in their 40s. Pretty obvious if you remember how long ago Vitenam was.

The Democrats would be fools to say, "Even with his own sons in Iraq, McCain wants more war." That would backfire big-time, as when Kerry brought up Mary Cheney's lesbianism. Obama is no Kerry, thank God, and should avoid that pitfall.

Posted at April 3, 2008 12:52 PM in response to McCain's Sons Serving In Iraq May Frustrate Dem Attacks

Durbin is a good soldier. It would been decent of Obama to back up his senior senator and mentor when he was crucified for comparing U.S. torture, correctly, to the Nazis, Stalin and Khmer Rouge, but he didn't.

Posted at April 3, 2008 12:05 AM in response to Durbin To Ickes: Hit Us With Your Best Shot