Cross Posted at Earth Friendly Shopping

I have been thinking about Al Gore’s renewable energy challenge recently. On July 17, he challenged this country to commit to producing 100% of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon free sources within 10 years. I have asked myself what the purpose of the speech was. Now, maybe it is exactly what he said, maybe he was laying out a vision for an achievable goal.

Welcome back for more speculation! Today we'll continue the final elimination series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began with the bottom 14 names, and eliminates the bottom vote-getter(s) and replaces them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we go (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not be the ones cut--who's cut will be determined by the new averages generated from this series's votes only). I hope that'll be complicated enough to dissatisfy and confuse everyone equally. I'm hoping we'll have five or six candidates left when Obama picks and see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. It should take about 14 threads to get all of the top candidates in the poll again, out of the 28 or so total threads. Fmr. Sen. Max Cleland (GA) and Rep. Chet Edwards (TX) were eliminated in the previous round, and Sen. Russ Feingold (WI) and Fmr. Sen. Sam Nunn (GA) rotated in to replace them this time.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to simply state their name, unless you have further comments. "Oh my God, where's Jane/Johnny Politician?!" would be a bit alarmist, don't you think? I'm sure they're fine. I'm happy to hear all ideas, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

  Several days ago I posted a diary pointing up a story from the Albany Times Union with this catchy headline: Toxic gas-drilling technique - "Hydrofracking'' plan raises questions about water safety in state. It seems there's a new technique that can get natural gas out of shale that's now economically viable - but with significant risks of poisoning ground water in a watershed that supplies millions.

  Since the original TU article, there have been several followup stories. (more below the fold)

Last week, Vice President Al Gore presented the American people with a challenge: meet 100% of our electricity needs through renewable energy within 10 years.  Al would be the first to acknowledge this is not a minor task.  And yet it is an urgent one, a challenge that will require a transformation in how we invest our time and money, and how we view ourselves.

I wanted to respond to Al Gore’s call by asking two things of each of you:

1. Include your voice with the millions of others expressing support for this mission

2. Be part of collective solutions to make it a reality

Follow me below the fold to learn how.

This is big.

Great news for all of us who seek a Blue/Green Alliance!  The Teamsters today left the ANWR coalition, a group in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Jim Hoffa has just announced that the Teamsters are pulling out of the coalition supporting drilling in ANWR and are shifting their support to efforts to build coalitions with green groups to create a sustainable energy economy around sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

"We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing—not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Hoffa told labor and environmental activists at an Oakland, Calif., summit on good jobs and clean air. "We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power."

Hoffa Rejects 'Drilling Our Way Out' of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

More, after the fold.

Welcome back for more speculation! Today we'll continue the final elimination thread of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This elimination series began with the bottom 14 names, and eliminates the bottom vote-getter(s) and replaces them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we go (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not be the ones cut--who's cut will be determined by the new averages generated from this series's votes only). I hope that'll be complicated enough to dissatisfy and confuse everyone equally. I'm hoping we'll have five or six candidates left when Obama picks and see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. It should take about 14 threads to get all of the top candidates in the poll again, out of the 28 or so total threads. Fmr. Sen. Bob Graham (FL) was eliminated in the previous round, and Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO) rotated in to replace him this time.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to simply state their name, unless you have further comments, in which case please include them. "Oh my God, where's Jane/Johnny Politician?!" would be a bit alarmist, don't you think? I'm sure they're fine. I'm happy to hear all ideas, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

I have little doubt that Senator Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic Nominee had it not been for her caving to right wing talking points and voting for the Iraq War. Being on the wrong side the the biggest foreign policy disaster in a generation is what advanced her career from inevitable nominee to junior senator. At the time, many of us in the netroots were flabbergasted, we knew it was a disastrous course of action and came to the conclusion that those who sided with George Bush and the neocons either had no grasp of the situation or were doing it for as a purely political calculation (and a poor one at that as Clinton discovered).

Iraq was the single biggest foreign policy decision, but when it comes to the global climate crisis, I'm getting a sense of déjà vu from the positioning and language used by San Francisco Mayor and 2010 California Gubernatorial hopeful Gavin Newsom as to why he's siding with PG&E against the Sierra Club on clean, renewable energy.

Today's Congress Party victory on the No-Confidence motion in New Dehli got scant coverage in U.S. media, reported more in the business press for its likely trade benefits to the American nuclear industry than for its profound social implications and probable beneficial impact with respect to Global Warming. The Indian decision to greatly expand its use of Carbon-free sources to meet its rapidly growing energy demand is the single greatest victory to date on Climate Change.

Running neck and neck for that title, however, is the epiphany of veteran oilman T. Boone Pickens, now an evangelist for a greatly expanded U.S. Wind Power sector, who recently dug into his very deep pockets to risk $4 Billion of his own cash on the world's largest wind energy project. His plan to convert 20% of American electric generating capacity to Renewable Energy represents greater progress on Climate Change and Energy Independence than all of the policies of the last eight administrations - of both parties - put together.

These are cause for Hope... (more...)

 The Albany Times Union had a front page article today that should be mandatory reading for anyone who thinks we can get all the oil and gas we need if we just go drilling for it. As it happens, there's known deposits of natural gas in New York state waiting to be tapped - but the costs could be rather heavy from the side effects.

Upstate New York's looming natural gas nightmare
Regulators asleep as lawmakers attempt to declare vast acreage open to the energy industry's iffy underground fracturing technique

By ABRAHM LUSTGARTEN, ProPublica / Special to the Times Union
First published: Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Read the article, then be very afraid of what the oil and gas companies are doing to us while the President runs interference for them.

...Gore seems clearly to be trying to deceive, and the consequence of the success of his deception is likely to give him immense power over other people's lives.  Syndicated Columnist Tibor Machan  

...two things about this proposal merit attention. It points a country that uses too much energy down the right path. And Gore is showing that being environmentally responsible is economically sensible. WaPo columnist E.J. Dionne

The polar-opposite quotes above are examples of what was actually a very meager editorial response in American newspapers to Al Gore's recent "Challenge to America" speech. As I listened to the speech, (full video and text here) I wondered  how much attention Gore's message would get in the press and what newspapers around the country would say about it, so I decided to do some research. This diary is about what I learned.

Saturday at Netroots Nation Al Gore challenged the netroots just as he challenged America to become carbon-free in ten years. That means 100 percent of our power, if we succeed, will come from renewable energy sources.

You can watch Al Gore issue this challenge:

This is the second diary in my "I lost my virginity at NN" series. First of all - git yer minds outta that gutter. It's not what you think. I had several "firsts" at NN that felt like losses of virginity.

In this case, it was my first time talking to a VP, first time stumping a politician AND getting an honest answer, and the first time making national news. Wow! Below you'll find an open letter I wrote to Al Gore, which is posted on http://www.organicconsumers.org too. (If you haven't checked out that site, I recommend it)

How can Barack Obama choose a running mate who will help him win both independent voters and Hillary supporters, while reassuring skeptics that he's really a new breed of politician?  Simple: by exploring the option of a one-term vice president.

Here’s how it works: Obama picks a VP who rounds out the ticket, say an older, experienced white guy with a military background, and a solid record of public service.  But Barack, the champion of change, rejects the old notion of the vice presidency as a stepping stone, and deliberately picks someone who has no overriding ambition to become president.  Then he and his running mate announce that Good Old White Guy will serve only one term as vice president, and that when Obama runs for reelection, he will pick a woman as his running mate.

To see how this plays out, imagine Obama tapping Jack Murtha, the pro-military, anti-Iraq war Congressman from the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.  

Ok, it's paraphrased. Actually, I saw that bumper sticker 10 years ago while walking into a steakhouse in Nashville, TN. (You know the place, peanut-shell strewn floors & wait staff jossling each other to hand demo-tapes to the biz pigs in the corner booth.) So it's no wonder that my fav enviro-savior Al Gore cops to being a part of the problem when it comes to eating meat unrepentantly. Here's how Al responded to a question from Orange Cloud at Netroots Nation last weekend (1st round of questions, 3/4 the way thru the Cspan video).

It is true it would be healthier for us individually & the planet if we consumed less meat. ...I myself am a meat eater and maybe that has had an impact on my definition of the problem.

Yes, he knows the sizzle in that steak bears a heavy carbon-load. Follow me over the fold to find out what meat eaters like me and Al, and even you can do about it...

Let me reiterate what I say in the title.  This is one person’s perception.  

Let me put that into context.  I have attended all three conventions, and organized and led at least one panel at each.  I also write this as a long-time member of this community and someone who lives in the National Capital region and is somewhat politically active here.  That sentence is offered solely to perhaps help readers understand some of what I will offer.  While this is my perception, my observations, my analysis, I hope that this diary can provide an occasion of conversation, where others can provide evidence supporting or gainsaying what I have offered.  After all, I was but one of 2,000 attendees, and only saw a small fraction of the sessions.

So please join me below the fold.

Sadie and I are back in the saddle today, recovering from our six-day stint in Austin with Chun Yang and her nine-year-old son, Tai -- and my first order of business is thanking Cali Scribe and Chun Yang again for their extraordinary generosity. Were it not for them, we would have watched longingly from the sidelines -- something I can't even fathom because we had such a terrific time!

By way of thanks to both, I offer up this photo diary of Sadie Lady's experiences and her impressions of Netroots Nation/Austin, the Kossacks she met, and the politicians she encountered.

More below:  

Ah, summertime! Time for summer rituals! Baseball, beaches, BBQ's, and Bill O' Reilly rant that Daily Kos is just like the Klu Klux Klan and the Nazis.

Welcome back for more speculation! Today we'll continue the final elimination thread of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This elimination series began with the bottom 14 names, and eliminates the bottom vote-getter(s) and replaces them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we go (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not be the ones cut--who's cut will be determined by the new averages generated from this series's votes only). I hope that'll be complicated enough to dissatisfy and confuse everyone equally. I'm hoping we'll have five or six candidates left when Obama picks and see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. It should take about 14 threads to get all of the top candidates in the poll again, out of the 28 or so total threads. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (NM) was eliminated in the previous round, and Fmr. Sen. Bob Graham (FL) rotated in to replace him this time.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to simply state their name, unless you have further comments, in which case please include them. "Oh my God, where's Jane/Johnny Politician?!" would be a bit alarmist, don't you think? I'm sure they're fine. I'm happy to hear all ideas, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)