Initially posted in somewhat different form at Blue Mass. Group. I hope that the wider DKos community members might see fit to carry this action to their own congressional delegations.

So it seems that in our eagerness to get on the biofuels bandwagon and enrich vast farm-state special interests with the vast taxpayer-funded boondoggle of corn ethanol, we've legislated our way into a starvation crisis for many, many folks in the third world. 37 countries are in a food emergency, which besides being an utterly needless humanitarian catastrophe, plainly threatens political security as well. Would you riot if you were starving? I would.

Cross-posted from Blue Mass. Group

The New Republic's blog (it's not bad!) thinks this video might turn out to be "one of the '08 campaign's seminal moments":

I think it may be a seminal moment not so much for Edwards, but more for health care as an issue. (more on the flip)

Senator Kerry stopped by Blue Mass. Group today to talk about coal-to-liquid, and mixed it up in the comments section. Here's a taste:

Charley called up my office to ask about my position on coal-to-liquid technology and efforts in the Senate to promote it. Let me lay it out for you here in person:

I'm against it. Strongly.

The Alaskans are still after Cape Wind: now they're proposing to let their little assistant (Mitt Romney) pull the switch on Cape Wind:

The new language, floated by U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, would target the Nantucket Sound project specifically, sources say. In particular, the proposed compromise would grant Massachusetts officials authority to approve or deny the project even though all 130 turbines would be built in federal waters.

No, I'm not talking specifically about Jack Abramoff. It's pretty darned clear that Abramoff's life work was to encourage an inseparable bond between Republicans and moneyed interests.

No, the real scandal is our system of legalized bribery in the form of campaign contributions. When someone writes a letter to an candidate or elected representative, it's because they wish to persuade them of something. When someone writes a check to a candidate or elected representative, they have bought -- invested in -- a piece of their representation. Now, some investments go bad, and maybe folks think that they've bought more shares than they thought... But that's how it works, whether it's an individual writing a $2000 check, or a $25 check, or corporations making huge donations to parties, or unions doing the same, or providing travel accomodations.

More after the flip...

Mike Wallace was on NPR's On Point this morning. You simply must hear the one question that he would ask George Bush. Start listening to the clip at about 27:30.

Not so much a question as a complete demolition, you'll find.

WALLACE: What in the world, sir, Mr. President, prepared you -- what in your background prepared you to be the Commander in Chief of the supreme power in the world? Your military background? No. Your business background? No. Your travels? You were an incurious man for such a long time, I'm at a loss to understand. And you were -- according to Bob Woodward in his book Plan of Attack -- you said when asked if you ever talked to your dad, George H.W. Bush, Number 41, about what you might do better or different: "No", you said, according to Bob Woodward. "No, I look to a higher Father."

Give  me a break.

... So many people say [W] is such a likeable guy. [Clears throat.] I pass.

Health care seems to be the juggernaut issue for the next several years -- one which both parties have tried to avoid. It's closing in on all of us, one way or another: Costs continue to spiral upwards to the tune of 10-13% a year; people get dumped from the rolls; GM is cutting benefits, along with other relatively generous companies; etc. A continuous drumbeat of lousy news for us. We all know our "system", if you can call it that, is busted.

So why doesn't anything get done at the federal level, which is where such reform really ought to occur? There's certainly enough blame to go around, but let's start with who we can control: Ourselves. As John Edwards says in his recent anti-poverty speeches, "We are the ones we've been waiting for."

I listened in on a conference call with Senator Kennedy this morning. Following are my notes from the call -- I apologize if things aren't clear. I didn't get a chance to get my question in, which would have been: "What have you been hearing from the public about the Omnibus spending bill cutting 39 billion? Are bloggers doing enough? How do we get public interested in critical but nuts-and-bolts issues?" I guess that's a question for another time.

During this week of Scooter and Alito and Reid, here's a heads-up on an outrage which will add insult to the injury of Hurricane Katrina:

The Senate voted this week not to boost the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program by a few billion dollars. To put it in perspective, the Republicans have already given $14.5 billion in tax breaks to oil companies in the energy bill passed three months ago.

(Cross-posted at Blue Mass. Group.)

Former Senator and Vice-Presidential candidate Edwards has taken on the cause that many of us thought would be front-and-center after Hurricane Katrina: systemic poverty. He's currently on a poverty awareness tour of colleges that stops at Darmouth College in Hanover NH today. It's in conjunction with group called "Opportunity Rocks", and the Center for Promise and Opportunity.

To the nation, and to the other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation who did their duty by opposing the oil refinery subsidy/environmental destruction bill in the House, which infamously passed by a 2-vote margin after DeLay and co. were able to twist some arms: We're sorry about our absent three congressmen.

So, the Bush administration goes back to the old "buck stops somewhere else" playbook:

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 3 -- Tens of thousands of people spent a fifth day awaiting evacuation from this ruined city, as Bush administration officials blamed state and local authorities for what leaders at all levels have called a failure of the country's emergency management.

And we've heard the old ad hominem defense that adminstration critics are just "playing politics".

We are not "playing".

Just heard NPR's Robert Siegel interviewing Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff. Chertoff suggested that the report by NPR's John Burnett that 2,000 people without food or water, "living like animals" at the Convention Center in New Orleans, was just "rumours". Chertoff was content to robotically spout talking points about how food and water are getting to their "staging points" -- wherever the hell they are.

Siegel, to his great credit, did not let Chertoff off the hook. "These aren't rumors, they're seeing thousands of people here!"

That's what we're dealing with: A total lack of recognition of the problem, a total lack of leadership, going straight to the top. (Condi Rice went shopping today.) We are desperate for leadership, and our leaders are nowhere to be found.

Michael Chertoff must resign. He is utterly incapable of dealing with a disaster; as such he simply must go.

In addition, we've seen Amnesty International get some attention and criticism -- not just from the administration and 'wingers -- for using the word "gulag" to compare conditions in America's new extra-legal prison camps (Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and beyond) to the old Soviet system.

Well, hyperbole is obviously dangerous for all involved, but there's a difference between hyperbole that obscures or needlessly inflames, and that which illumines.

You know what the Democratic party needs? Charisma boot-camp. In August of election off-years, ship all candidates -- from ward chair to President -- to the JFK Library, and drill some sparkle into them for a week. Get in touch with your inner JFK, RFK, FDR, Clinton, Gandhi, Jefferson Smith, what have you. Work up your stump speech with James Carville hollering in your face like a drill sergeant. George Lakoff hits you with a switch when you use Republican frames. Barack Obama tells you how to stand up and tell folks what they don't want to hear, but need to hear. Make your themes ring with sincerity and truth. This stuff can definitely be taught.

This needs to happen. I'm tired of cardboard cut-out candidates with long résumés and a repertoire of cheesy sound-bites.

Is there such a thing? Will some think-tank step up and make this happen?

(This is part of a post I made at our blog about the MA Gov. candidate Deval Patrick, who sounds very promising. We are eager to be rid of Romney in this bluest of blue states. I'd love to get the Kos community's impressions.)

"Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.: "The Bush administration's so-called 'Social Security crisis' is a worthy successor to the so-called 'Iraq nuclear weapons crisis.' WMD used to stand for Weapons of Mass Destruction. Under President Bush's Social Security privatization plan, WMD now stands for "Watch your Money Disappear."

'Nuff said. We got your frames right here, pal.