apple juice

love this song, by The National… this is an instrumental version.

too bad it was full of lies.

fact-checking palin

Thomas Friedman’s excellent new op-ed, Flush with Energy, contains this startling stat:

Denmark today gets nearly 20 percent of its electricity from wind. America? About 1 percent.

What are we doing here?

I don’t agree with everything position Obama takes, I think he could be even stronger in his plans to break our addiction to oil… but, it is pretty hard to tell Americans that “As president, I’m going to make gasoline $10 a gallon”.

Here’s Obama’s latest ad, “Hands”. I think it compares nicely with McCain’s plan for “more drilling”.

now, I am an obama supporter, and i believe that given our choices, obama is the better direction for the country. but i have some criticisms.

in his new energy plan, released yesterday, there is only brief mention of actually getting at the root cause of our energy consumption:

Build More Livable and Sustainable Communities
Over the long term, we know the amount of fuel we we will use is directly related to our land use decisions and development patterns. For the last 100 years, our communities have been organized around the principle of cheap gasoline. Barack Obama believes that we must devote substantial resources to repairing our roads and bridges. He also believes that we must devote significantly more attention to investments that will make it easier for us to committed to reforming driving and public transit.

so that’s it? no plan to fund transit solutions? no plan for high-speed commuter and intercity rail? not one mention of trains or rail in the whole thing.

i say throw some support behind solutions that are going to get cars off the road. like flying cars. (thanks doug!)

here’s a little background on McCain’s campaign manager. This link, circa 2006, comes to us from the always excellent talking points memo.

John McCain has signed up GOP operative Terry Nelson as his campaign manager — yep, that would be the same Terry Nelson who produced the infamous, racially-charged “bimbo” ad attacking Dem Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr.

that ad makes me vomit a bit in the back of my throat every time I see it.

read more: McCain Hires Strategist Behind Harold Ford “Bimbo” Ad As Campaign Manager

this heads up from TPM comes as they recount the last week of gutterball from McCain

good article examining why mccain has taken the low road. too bad obama is a bit hamstrung on fighting dirty since he has championed a “new kind of politics”.