Gore-El Warning

11:08 pm EST June 30th, 2007 | News | 39 Comments

Al Gore has an op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times.

Our home — Earth — is in danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is not the planet itself, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings.

Without realizing the consequences of our actions, we have begun to put so much carbon dioxide into the thin shell of air surrounding our world that we have literally changed the heat balance between Earth and the Sun. If we don’t stop doing this pretty quickly, the average temperature will increase to levels humans have never known and put an end to the favorable climate balance on which our civilization depends.

In the last 150 years, in an accelerating frenzy, we have been removing increasing quantities of carbon from the ground — mainly in the form of coal and oil — and burning it in ways that dump 70 million tons of CO2 every 24 hours into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The concentrations of CO2 — having never risen above 300 parts per million for at least a million years — have been driven from 280 parts per million at the beginning of the coal boom to 383 parts per million this year.

As a direct result, many scientists are now warning that we are moving closer to several “tipping points” that could — within 10 years — make it impossible for us to avoid irretrievable damage to the planet’s habitability for human civilization.

Here’s hoping that the science-based warnings of "Gore-El" are not ignored like those of Jor-El, who was also disastrously right about a planetary emergency.

Topic: Al Gore

Hillary Clinton 1, Fred Thompson 0

8:36 pm EST June 30th, 2007 | News | 27 Comments

How dumb is Hollywood actor Fred Thompson to connect the one bloc of Hispanics who vote Republican with terrorists?

Taking a swipe at a potential GOP presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized Fred Thompson for suggesting illegal Cuban immigrants pose a terrorist threat.

"I was appalled when one of the people running for or about to run for the Republican nomination talked about Cuban refugees as potential terrorists," Clinton told Hispanic elected officials. "Apparently he doesn’t have a lot of experience in Florida or anywhere else, and doesn’t know a lot of Cuban-Americans."

Topic: 2008 Election

But Will The Democrats Listen?

8:27 pm EST June 30th, 2007 | News | 5 Comments

America is practically at consensus on Iraq.

More Americans than ever before, 77 percent, say the war is going badly, up from 66 percent just two months ago. Nearly half, 47 percent, say it’s going very badly.

While the springtime surge in U.S. troops to Iraq is now complete, more Americans than ever are calling for U.S. forces to withdraw. Sixty-six percent say the number of U.S. troops in Iraq should be decreased, including 40 percent who want all U.S. troops removed. That’s a 7-point increase since April.

The war continues because the Democrats are not standing up to Bush. They had a choice earlier this year, and they blinked and spit in the public’s face. The war can end if the Democrats do the right thing, Bush and the Republicans are a lost cause.

Send them a bill with a timeline to end the war. If he vetoes it, send it back.
Send them a bill with a timeline to end the war. If he vetoes it, send it back.
Send them a bill with a timeline to end the war. If he vetoes it, send it back.
Send them a bill with a timeline to end the war. If he vetoes it, send it back.

Topic: Iraq

Borrowed Time

8:23 pm EST June 30th, 2007 | Terrorism | 13 Comments

When I see attacks like the one in Glasgow today, I can’t help but to think we’re living on borrowed time here. These acts are not hard to commit, require little to no sophistication and there are more than enough willing terrorists out there. So why the relative silence? I can only guess that Al Qaeda and their sympathizers see more value in a huge attack on the scale of 9/11 than a relatively small one. But we’re on borrowed time and we aren’t remotely ready for it.

Kim Kardashian At The Premiere Of Michael Moore’s “Sicko”

4:27 pm EST June 30th, 2007 | News | 13 Comments

Political documentary and beautiful women. Worlds collide! They collide so much that me posting this is almost not gratuitous. I live to serve. It’s that hard hitting approach to the news that ranks OliverWillis.com among the top sites on Google for “kim kardashian butt“.

Topic: Women

Fred Thompson Flops In New Hampshire

3:30 pm EST June 30th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Who knew Hollywood actor Fred Thompson would be so quick to fall on his face?

“I plan on seeing a whole lot more of you,” Thompson told about 200 New Hampshire Republicans who paid $50 each to hear him — and to benefit state Republican legislators.

He’d better, because many present came away decidedly under-whelmed.

“It was short,” said Richard Heitmiller of Nashua. “He’s got a nice voice. But there was nothing there. He’s for apple pie and motherhood. He’s going to have to say what he’s for.”

Heitmiller said he hadn’t made up his mind about whom to support — way too early — and had come to learn more about this man he’d heard about but never seen.

“People want to get to know him. He hasn’t been here, and he gives a nine-minute speech,” he said dismissively. As Thompson exited, people started making their way to the doors midway through a reception.

“I told my wife we’d get home by 8. We’ll get home a lot earlier than that,” Heitmiller said.

“He looks good onstage, but I don’t know if he has the gravitas,” said Kathleen Williamson, a conservative Roman Catholic from North Weare. “It seems like he’s trying to win over conservatives, but I’m still not sure he has the credentials. I’m worried he’s trying to get by on his celebrity.”

If I was casting a movie about a gruff conservative president with a bit part, I might cast Fred Thompson, but even in an age as superficial as ours you need more than a role on Law & Order to be president. Even Ronald Reagan brought more to the table than his IMDB credits.

Topic: Fred Thompson

John McCain’s Desperate E-Mail

8:21 am EST June 30th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 7 Comments

The McCain campaign sent out the following e-mail Saturday morning. In big letters it says “John McCain is the only candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton” !!!!!! You always know the cons are desperate and trying to raise cash when they raise the specter of Sen. Clinton, their #1 boogeyman.

Topic: John McCain

Mitt Romney’s Dog Abuse Problem

1:30 pm EST June 29th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 31 Comments

When this story came out, I said to my friend – this is not a policy issue of any substance but the story has legs. Why? America loves pets. America looooves pets. As a pet owner myself, I know how people think about their animals, and the idea that someone of public prominence is mean to a pet – even a long time ago – makes them look like a total ass.

Romney Accused of Mistreating Family Dog

An example of Mitt Romney’s crisis management skills has turned into something of a political problem for the Republican presidential contender.

Romney placed his family dog, an Irish setter named Seamus, into a kennel lashed to the top of his station wagon for a 12-hour family trip from Boston to Ontario in 1983. Despite being shielded by a wind screen the former Massachusetts governor erected, Seamus expressed his discomfort with a diarrhea attack.

Now the story, recounted this week in a Boston Globe profile of Romney, has touched off howls of outrage from bloggers and animal rights activists even though it was presented in the story as an example of Romney’s coolness under trying circumstances.

Topic: Mitt Romney

Listening…

1:35 am EST June 29th, 2007 | Democrats | 7 Comments

This is good… Now, if the Democratic party would just follow the rest of my directions they would rule the world…

PBS Democratic Debate 2

10:08 pm EST June 28th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 13 Comments

– Dems on Katrina: could this question possibly be any easier? Remotely?
– Outsourcing is bad. We need American jobs. Water is wet. Friction, damn it. Dodd, use that giant hair and hammer someone with it.
– If there’s a winner so far it’s HRC. But its kind of like Martyball – you hold the ball when you have the lead and don’t make any sudden moves.

– And that’s it. Game over. I’ll look around and see if there’s anything interesting up here.

– I’m a couple steps away from spin alley. I will never understand why any journalist would go to “spin alley” in search of a story. They might as well call it Spoonfed Drive.

– Up close, Chris Dodd’s hair is as pretty as you think it is.

– I’m always amazed by guys like Bill Richardson — because they look just like how they look on tv.

– If there’s ever a movie of Jesse Jackson Jr.’s life, Cuba Gooding will play him. For some reason I’ve now seen both of them in real life (I saw Cuba buying dog food when I lived in L.A.).

– It should be noted for the record that Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who came by the bloggers to press the flesh, along with his wife Elizabeth who positively towers over him.

– To be honest I did have a moment where I went OMG IT’S CLARENCE PAGE!!!!

– The handlers Mike Gravel had around him were just the kind of guys you would think would follow Mike Gravel around. A little… off.

– I also saw David Axelrod (Obama’s campaign manager), who was talking to Matthew Sheffield from Newsbusters, so if a phony story about Axelrod comes out I will have witnessed its beginnings

– Oddly enough I talked religion with Lashawn Barber. She doesn’t have fangs or anything, but she’s totally wrong on everything. She likes Tancredo though, and I can get behind that!

– Pam and Liza have images and video

Topic: MBAPBSAllAmericaDem