Drinking Liberally®

This Tuesday (10/30), we are meeting at the Cleveland Draft House in Garner, which will be the launch pad for our trip to Ken's Korny Corn Maze. I will be there at the normal time, 6:00pm, and we will depart as a group at 7:30pm sharp! That should give most of us time to grab a bite and a drink before our adventure. See y'all there!

Reminder: BRING FLASHLIGHTS! It will be dark.

Posted by wdpankow at 09:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cute pic...

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On Tuesday, October 30th, Raleigh Drinking Liberally will be celebrating Halloween by going to Ken's Korny Corn Maze! More details to come regarding where we'll meet, time, etc.

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It's great to have access to Krugman again...

Gore Derangement Syndrome
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: October 15, 2007

...

What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane?

Partly it’s a reaction to what happened in 2000, when the American people chose Mr. Gore but his opponent somehow ended up in the White House. Both the personality cult the right tried to build around President Bush and the often hysterical denigration of Mr. Gore were, I believe, largely motivated by the desire to expunge the stain of illegitimacy from the Bush administration.

And now that Mr. Bush has proved himself utterly the wrong man for the job — to be, in fact, the best president Al Qaeda’s recruiters could have hoped for — the symptoms of Gore derangement syndrome have grown even more extreme.

The worst thing about Mr. Gore, from the conservative point of view, is that he keeps being right. In 1992, George H. W. Bush mocked him as the “ozone man,” but three years later the scientists who discovered the threat to the ozone layer won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 2002 he warned that if we invaded Iraq, “the resulting chaos could easily pose a far greater danger to the United States than we presently face from Saddam.” And so it has proved.

But Gore hatred is more than personal. When National Review decided to name its anti-environmental blog Planet Gore, it was trying to discredit the message as well as the messenger. For the truth Mr. Gore has been telling about how human activities are changing the climate isn’t just inconvenient. For conservatives, it’s deeply threatening.

...

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Via Down With Tyranny:

1. One to deny that the light bulb needs to be changed
2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed.
3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb.
4. One to tell the nations of the world that they are either for changing the light bulb or for darkness.
5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid/cost-plus contract to Halliburton for the new light bulb.
6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a stepladder under the
banner: "Light Bulb Change Accomplished."
7. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally in the dark.
8. One to viciously smear #7.
9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light bulb changing policy all along.
10. Finally, Joe Lieberman to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing the light bulb and screwing the country.

Posted by wdpankow at 09:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Shouldn't we be doing more to prevent the atrocities in Burma? Why don't we help, you ask? The answer might surprise you.

... As I explained last week, a critical fact about Burma is that it shares a 2,000 kilometer border with China. Burma also supplies natural gas and other vital resources to China. Therefore, any messing around with Burma by a western power is likely to be of keen interest to China.

And there are two key facts to keep in mind about China:

1. China has the largest standing army in the world.

2. China is holding a big honking chunk of U.S. debt.

...
Bottom line, the more in debt we become to China, Russia, and the Middle East, the less power we have to influence anything they do. Ferguson thinks this is bad. Frankly, so do I. So let’s talk about why this is happening.
...

Posted by wdpankow at 02:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

I'll need to read this article more carefully when I have the time. A couple of excerpts:

During the past seven years of the Bush administration, America has been subject to what can only be called antiscientific governance. Scientists have been ignored, threatened, suppressed, and censored across agencies, across areas of expertise, and across issues. Policies have gone forward repeatedly without adequate scientific input and sometimes in spite of it, and have subsequently backfired.

The picture couldn't have been any more stark this past summer, when former US Surgeon General Richard Carmona testified before Congress that he'd been blocked by the Bush administration from offering his expertise on issues ranging from embryonic stem cell research to mental-health problems emerging in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. To hear Carmona relate his experiences not only stirred outrage; his testimony further inspired an already powerful demand for change. Under George W. Bush—the man who pronounced climate science "incomplete," who misled the nation in his first major address about the availability of embryonic stem cells for research, who claimed that Iraq was collaborating with Al Qaida—America's relationship with reality itself has reached a nadir.

Further down:

Americans desperately need to be encouraged once again, as they were at other times in the nation's history, to take an interest in the vital, exploratory world of science. The next president must foster that interest. Scientific information and scientific thinking, after all, are critical to the type of informed decision making that resides at the heart of a democracy. To be sure, the spread of technocratic knowledge among voting citizens is extraordinarily difficult to achieve. However, a great leader should stir citizens to aspire to the very rationality, logic, and reason on which the scientific method is based. Americans' public health, job security, well-being, defense, and quality of life depend on an ability to do just that. So does the nation's standing as a global power.

Posted by michael at 09:02 PM | Comments (0)

First, for reasons I won't go into here, I am not one of Hillary Clinton's biggest fans. However, she has just won many points with me:

Fifty years ago, Sputnik marked the dawn of the Space Age and the beginning of a new era filled with new challenges. Fifty years later, there is no single, galvanizing event to steel our resolve and to lift our eyes to the heavens. The challenges we face are more complex and interconnected. From the rise of globalization to the threat of global warming. These challenges require big ideas and bold thinking.

But instead of fostering a climate of discovery and innovation, the Bush administration has declared war on science. The record is breathtaking: banning the most promising kinds of stem cell research, allowing political appointees to censor studies on climate change, muzzling global warming experts like Dr. James Hansen, overruling doctors and the FDA on emergency contraception, suppressing and manipulating data on mercury pollution ...

A bit later:

For six and half years under President Bush, it has been open season on open inquiry. They've tried to turn Washington into an evidence-free zone. And by ignoring or manipulating science, the Bush administration is putting our future at risk and letting our economic competitors get an edge in the global economy. Well, when I am President, I will end this assault on science.

It's a strong speech. Imagine, an administration that listens to scientists rather than try to muffle them.

Via Bad Astronomy. The text of her entire speech is here.

Posted by michael at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)

And guess who was found creeping around in there...

Alleged Haggard Escort: 'Sen. Craig Visited Me'

The male escort responsible for the downfall of Christian evangelist leader Ted Haggard is now alleging that embattled Senator Larry Craig also came to see him.
...

Posted by wdpankow at 04:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

These people do not meet the normal standards of admission to the elite colleges in our nation. They bump more qualified students from enrollment and consume 60% of federal financial aid money. Things need to change and it starts by ending this unfair system.

So, I say STOP AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.....for rich, white kids*:

...
Peter Schmidt, deputy editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, writes that researchers with access to the college admissions data that many institutions keep a tight guard on found that 15 percent of freshmen at 146 "highly selective" colleges are white students who didn't meet the school's minimum admissions standards for high school GPAs and SAT or ACT scores. There are more than twice as many sub-par privileged white kids at highly competitive institutions than there are black and Latino students whose race gave them a boost in competing for a spot, the researchers found. Some of the white kids are athletes, and many others are the children or friends of alumni, politicians, faculty members, donors, and administrators.
...

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Senator Larry Craig (R-Wide Stance) lists as a favorite recipe the 'Super Tuber'......a baked potato with a hot dog crammed inside. (h/t Crooks & Liars)

Continue reading "Jokes which write themselves"

Posted by wdpankow at 10:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Now it's your turn. Get out and vote! Friday is the last day for early voting. The election is Tuesday, October 9th.

As requested, here is the Independent Weekly elections page, where you will find their endorsements, information, and handy take-along voting guides.

Posted by wdpankow at 04:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

This came into my inbox this morning. Just passing along for those who are interested in attending:

MoveOn.org Rally for Our Children's Health Care

Host: Rally R.—fellow MoveOn member
Where: NW corner of Moore Square (E Hargett & S Blount) (in Raleigh)
When: Thursday, Oct 4 2007, 6:00 PM

President Bush just vetoed health care for millions of uninsured kids. So overnight, we set up an emergency rally (one of more than 200 around the country) demanding Congress override the president's veto. We only need 15 more Republicans in Congress to break with Bush to override the veto—if we demonstrate enough public outrage, we can do it.

We set this rally up fast, and we still need more people to come—can you make it?

Posted by wdpankow at 11:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What a brilliant freaking idea! Why not ask the taxpayers to fund our ongoing Mid-East adventures?

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If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out Get Your War On! Here's my personal favorite from June 2003:

Who knew clipart could be such an effective anti-war voice medium?

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