Are we seriously talking about House elections already?

In a word, yes. It's been less than a month since the 110th Congress was sworn in, and talk of House races is already back in the air. Ridicculous? Maybe. Although while we're talking about '08 WH contenders (and have been for a while), we might as well be discussing how we're going to retain (expand?) our newfound House majority.

From what I've heard, Van Hollen was a pretty good choice for DCCC Chairman, and seems to have a good head on his shoulders. Check out some of the early chatter- its interesting to even imagine we could have any more GOP targets left after the 2006 cycle.

The Real McCain

Dick Cheney vs. Nancy Pelosi: The Blink-Off

Mayor proposes national education plans

Check out Gabe in the Villaraigosa article from the Daily Bruin.

Dick Cheney vs. Nancy Pelosi: The Blink-Off

Let the Flood Gates Open

Last week I said...

If Virginia Republican Senator John Warner, former Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and former Secretary of the Navy also breaks ranks with the administration, expect many more Republicans to follow.

And today John Warner has come out against the Bush/McCain surge plan, as well as offering alternative legislation.

Video link

Unbelievable

It's Official

We all saw it coming, but now it's official. Hillary is good to go for 2008.

Just to recap...

OFFICIAL CANDIDATES
Christopher Dodd
John Edwards
Mike Gravel
Dennis Kucinich
Tom Vilsack

ANNOUNCED (but have not yet filed the necessary papers with the FEC)
Joe Biden

FORMED EXPLORATORY COMMITTEES
Bill Richardson
Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton

DECLINED TO SEEK NOMINATION
Evan Bayh
Tom Daschle
Howard Dean
Russ Feingold
Mark Warner

OTHER POSSIBLES
Wesley Clark
Al Gore
John Kerry

Keep an Eye on Bill Richardson

I can’t help but notice that Gov. Bill Richardson is constantly on cable news shows talking about domestic issues, and even dabbling in on some foreign policy from time to time. It’s been a rumor for sometime that Richardson has been eyeing the White House. Back in December he said that he would be making his decision sometime in January.

Now you may ask, “Who is Bill Richardson, and what’s makes him so special, compared to every other elected official Presidential wannabe out there?”

Richardson is the two term Governor of New Mexico. He is a former Congressman, as well as being Clinton's Secretary of Energy and his Ambassador to the UN (foreign policy experience).

In 2006 he was reelected in New Mexico with nearly 70% of the vote. In the same election he served as head of the Democratic Governors Association, and as we all known, it was a great election for Democratic Governors nationwide.

For six years he has held the executive office in New Mexico, a very important swing state. In 2000 New Mexico broke for Gore by .06%, and in 2004 Bush won New Mexico with .79%. Richardson is no stranger to working with the other side, and has an overall approval rating 62%. More importantly 60% with Independents and 41% with Republicans!

And lastly, you might not be able to tell by his name, but Richardson is the only Hispanic Governor in all of the US. In 2004, Bush took 44% of the Hispanic vote, which makes up 8% of the electorate.

Minus an embarrassing white lie he told about his baseball career, I think Richardson is a talent in the party, and should be seriously considered for higher office. The bloggers on Kos seem to think highly of Richardson as well. Plus he makes great campaign commercials.

Denver It Is

Mark your calendars. The Republicans will be Minnesota (cough cough Al Franken) following our convention, which will be in Denver, Colorado from August 25^th-28^th, at the Pepsi Center.

Significance:

Republican Senator Wayne Allard may be retiring that year, and nut job Minuteman Congressman Tom Tancredo will most likely run if he does. Regardless if Allard retires or not, expect the very funny Democratic Congressman Mark Udall (as seen on Better Know a District #5, Colorado’s 2^nd. The fighting 2^nd! Airing on November 16^th, 2005, so what if I watch it?), to run. He has all but officially announced. Maybe that Coors guy will run too.

Not only is that big Senate Race shaping up but this yet again shows the trend of the mountain west becoming America's new battle ground. Colorado is another one of those purple states that has barely broke Republican in the last two elections; 8% in ’00, and 4.6% in ’04. With those numbers, and the fact they elected Democratic Senator Ken Salazar in 2004, Colorado could be trending Democratic. Picking up those 8 electoral votes would be big. The strategic reasons for Denver are much of the reason many of the bloggers over at Kos were pulling for Denver.

I'm Jealous

I wanna talk crap to Bush and Rove

Augmentation, Not Increase

That's right, you heard it here first. This whole 20,000 troop increase thing that the public is just loving, isn't an increase after all, but as Dr. Rice likes to put it, "It's an augmentation that allows the Iraqis to deal with this very serious problem that they have in Baghdad".

Not only is the American public and the Democratic Congress on the same page in not buying this terrible plan, but some Republicans have come around to jumping off the sinking ship that is the Bush/McCain doctrine. At last count, Andrew Bielak over at TalkingPointsMemo.com had tallied up seven Republican Senators coming out of their partisan coma and doing what’s right for America, including ’08 hopefuls Brownback, and Hagel (although Hagel’s actually been against all of this stuff for a good while now).

Not that I’m keeping score or anything, but of the other five Republican Senators, three of them are up for reelection in blue states in ’08; Susan Collins, Gordon Smith, and Norm Coleman (cough cough Al Franken). If Virginia Republican Senator John Warner, former Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and former Secretary of the Navy also breaks ranks with the administration, expect many more Republicans to follow.

But kids, all of this stuff we just talked about isn't important in this story. Whats important is that our California Senator Barbara Boxer pointed out Condi hasn't been married or has any kids. Thats where the real news in this whole Iraq thing is.

p.s.
aug·ment
Pronunciation: og-'ment
Function: verb
1 : to make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense

Ancient ice shelf snaps and breaks free from Canadian Arctic

Anyone who has seen An Inconvenient Truth would probably appreciate this, let alone anyone who cares about the environment and is somewhat educated on it...

TORONTO: A giant ice shelf has snapped free from an island south of the North Pole, scientists said Thursday, citing climate change as a "major" reason for the event.

"This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years," Vincent said. "We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead."

"It is consistent with climate change," Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 percent smaller than when they were first discovered in 1906. "We aren't able to connect all of the dots ... but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role."

Copland said the speed with which climate change has effected the ice shelves has surprised scientists.

"Even 10 years ago scientists assumed that when global warming changes occur that it would happen gradually so that perhaps we expected these ice shelves just to melt away quite slowly," he said.

Click here to read the full story

Barack Obama Announces...!

Howard Dean Speaks

Wait for the end... Jon Stewart wants him to do "the yell" and he takes it all in stride. A great interview, overall.