Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (568219)	5/26/2010 3:28:13 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1579041

Oops! A GOP UPSET IN IDAHO.... The Republican primary in Idaho's1st congressional district would, under normal circumstances, fail to generate national attention. But Vaughn Ward (R) proved to be so endlessly entertaining, the primary contest took on unexpected significance, just by virtue of the sheer comedic value. In a bit of a disappointment for those of us hoping to use Ward for amusing blog posts for the rest of the campaign season, the Republican favorite was handed an upset defeat in the Gem State last night. Top national GOP recruit Vaughn Ward on Tuesday lost his primary in Idaho after a series of missteps by his campaign, throwing the Republican Party's chances in doubt against top-targeted Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho). Ward was trailing state Rep. Raul Labrador (R) 48 to 39 percent, with 90 percent of precincts reporting. The Associated Press called the race for Labrador early Wednesday. For reporters anxious to argue that establishment-backed candidates are in trouble this year, I suppose Ward will be a useful data point. The national Republican Party is aggressively targeting Rep. Walt Minnick, Congress' most conservative Democrat, in a reliably "red" district. The state and national party enthusiastically embraced Ward as one of the year's top Republican contenders. Indeed, the NRCC included Ward as one of the first candidates on the campaign committee's "Young Guns" program, and just last week, a certain former half-term governor campaigned alongside Ward in Idaho. Ward also enjoyed a six-to-one fundraising edge over primary challenger, Labrador. But Ward managed to lose badly anyway, despite all the institutional support, because he was arguably the year's worst congressional candidate. His recent troubles included blatant plagiarism from an Obama speech; blatant plagiarism on his website of Ward's policy positions; and odd remarks during a debate in which he characterized Puerto Rico as a foreign country. Ward was also reprimanded last month for violating military protocol when he gave the impression that the U.S. Marine Corps was supporting his campaign. The Republican Party stood by him anyway, making his defeat that much more embarrassing for everyone involved. So long, Vaughn Ward. We knew ye a little too well.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (568219)	5/26/2010 4:38:48 PM
From: Jim McMannis	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1579041

I think you hit the nail on the head so to speak.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (568219)	5/26/2010 6:16:37 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1579041

From the Obama thread: What if the oil spill just can’t be fixed? by David Roberts 25 May 2010 3:59 PM The BP Gulf oil disaster is reaching an interesting phase. People's gut instinct, their first reaction, is to find someone to blame. They blame BP for negligence; the Obama administration for its tepid response; the Bush administration for lax regulatory enforcement. People have been casting about for some way to compartmentalize this thing, some way to cast it as an anomaly, an "accident," the kind of screwup that can be meliorated or avoided in the future. We are, however, drifting toward a whole different kind of place. Tomorrow BP is attempting the "top kill" maneuver -- pumping mud into the well. If it doesn't work, well ... then what? Junk shot? Top hat? Loony stuff like nukes? Relief wells will take months to drill and no one's sure if they'll work to relieve pressure. It's entirely possible, even likely, that we're going to be stuck helplessly watching as this well spews oil into the Gulf for years. Even if the flow were stopped tomorrow, the damage to marshes, coral, and marine life is done. The Gulf of Mexico will become an ecological and economic dead zone. There's no real way to undo it, no matter who's in charge. I'm curious to see how the public's mood shifts once it becomes clear that we are powerless in the face of this thing. What if there's just nothing we can do? That's not a feeling to which Americans are accustomed. Once we know that accidents can be catastrophic and irreversible, it becomes clear that there is no margin of error. We're operating a brittle system, unable to contain failure and unable to recover from it. Consider how deepwater drilling will look in that new light. The thing is, we're already operating in those circumstances in a thousand different ways -- it's just that the risks and the damages tend to be distributed and obscured from view. They're not thrust in our face like they are in the Gulf. We don't get back the land we destroy by mining. We don't get back the species lost from deforestation and development. We don't get back islands lost to rising seas. We don't get back the coral lost to bleaching or the marine food chains lost to nitrogen runoff. Once we lose the climatic conditions in which our species evolved, we won't get them back either. We're doing damage as big as the Gulf oil spill every day, and there's no fixing it. Humanity has grown in power, wealth, and appetite to the point that there is no more margin of error anywhere. We're on a knife's edge, facing the very real possibility that for our children, all the world may be one big Gulf of Mexico, inexorably and irreversibly deteriorating. Perhaps if the public gets a clear taste of this, they'll step back and contemplate whether the kind of energy we use is really as "cheap" as it looks. Maybe they'll stop thinking about how to drill better and start thinking about how to avoid drilling altogether. Because some mistakes just can't be undone. grist.org