Wow!  This is hugely good news.  I’ve always wondered how a born-again christian like George Bush could justify trashing God’s creation…

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01…

Jim Douglas.

This from Ben Smith @ politico.com (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Dept_of_fraying_tempers.html):

John McCain’s brother exchanged sharp words with a police operator after calling 911 to complain about traffic.

His call, and a call back to reprimand him for an inappropriate use of the service, were recorded by City of Alexandria Police, WJLA first reported.

Here’s the exchange:

Operator: 911 state your emergency

Caller: It’s not an emergency but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95 traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic’s coming the other way?

Operator: Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (pause)

Caller: “Fuck you.” (caller hangs up)

The operator then called back, and received this message: “Hi this is Joe McCain I can’t take this message now because I’m involved in a very … important political project… I hope on Nov. 4th we have elected John.”

McCain then apparently called 911 again, to complain about the message.

You can listen to the call here (.wav): http://share.ovi.com/download/…

This HAS to stop!

VERNON – Federal regulators are investigating the cause of radiation exposure that forced the evacuation of 25 workers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Officials say the unsafe levels of radiation were released on Monday after the top of the reactor vessel was placed too close to a fan as workers prepared to refuel the plant.

ntergy Nuclear spokesman Robert Williams said the workers were evacuated from the top floor of the reactor building for four hours, inspected for contamination and later went back to work.

“There was never any issue of public health,” said William Irwin, of the Department of Health.

The incident happened during the nuclear plant’s regular refueling and maintenance outage, which is scheduled to last three weeks.

The workers, both Entergy employees and contractors, were exposed to a “very minor” amount of radiation, which was below their yearly exposure limits, Irwin said.

Such contamination incidents occur when a reactor is taken apart for refueling, he said.

“It was a minor contamination event. You don’t really want them to happen, but Entergy handled it well,” he said.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said the incident is being investigated.

Damn.  I was really looking forward to their convention.

Let’s hope for the best for those in this storm’s path.

That is all.

From Politico.com

http://www.politico.com/news/s…

In Michigan, Edwards endorses Obama

By: Ben Smith and Carrie Budoff Brown

May 14, 2008 08:44 PM EST

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards announced his support for Barack Obama Wednesday, giving the Illinois senator a key endorsement prize and signaling that party leaders may be ready to coalesce around his candidacy.

The endorsement followed Obama’s 41-point defeat in the West Virginia primary to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, when he was overwhelmingly rejected by a core Edwards constituency: lower income workers. Edwards even received seven percent of the vote Tuesday despite dropping out of the race in late January.

I’m not particularly Christian, but I’ve always appreciated the symbolism of hope and rebirth that Easter presents.  Many religions offer the opportunity to “start over,” but Easter is often helped along in this regard by the calendar.  For instance, today, though a little chilly, was almost a springtime day.  And it was sunny; that sure helped the illusion.  At least there was mud under that snow and by God, I swear I could smell it and that did my heart good.

All in all it was just a beautiful day-until I heard that we hit 4,000.

Rationally, I know the difference between 3,999 and 4,000 is 1, but us humans just seem to latch on to “benchmarks.”  5 years.  4,000.  Springtime.  Easter.  Hope.  

One life is what started Easter.

Doggy

Try:

http://www.cleveland.com/live/…

Msnbc.com is not cutting it, or perhaps it’s Comcast.

Doggy

Vermont Tiger Interview: Jeb Spaulding

State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding served in the Vermont State Senate from 1985-2000.  He chaired several committees over the course of his eight terms as a senator, including the Appropriations Committee and Joint Fiscal Committee.  During his years as Education Committee chair, he sponsored various versions of bills authorizing charter schools.   Spaulding hoped that Vermont would become the second state after Minnesota to adopt charter schools.  But it was not to be.  None of the bills ever became law, and Vermont is still not a charter school state.

We contacted Treasurer Spaulding recently to recall what happened with the charter school bills that he sponsored.  Spaulding was quick to point out that he wasn’t as up on the current research on charter schools as he would be if he were still in the Senate.  The demands of his current job have pulled him in other directions.  Nevertheless, his philosophy about school choice remains as solid as ever.  Here is our conversation:

Vermont Tiger:  Did you have kids in school at the time?

Spaulding:  Yes, I did.

Vermont Tiger:  In public schools?

Spaulding:  Yes, my two daughters went through 12 years of Montpelier public schools.

Vermont Tiger:  Would you say you were happy with the results?

Spaulding:  Yes.  So that’s not what motivated my interest in school choice and charter schools.

Vermont Tiger:  So that’s not what was influencing your thinking?

Spaulding:  No.  I’m still — for several reasons, for school choice – I’ll use the broad term “school choice” because eventually you have to get down to what you mean by school choice.  Charter schools would be one form of school choice.  There are several reasons why I favor choice.  But the primary one is I don’t see how you can say you’re for equal educational opportunity when wealthy people have all the choice they want getting their kid into a school that meets their own needs, and people with no wealth have no choice – and, to me, that is patently unfair.  My kids happened to do well in Montpelier in the public schools.  But if they hadn’t been successful there, I would have had the capacity to find a private school to fit their needs or paid the tuition to send them to another public school.  And I just think that’s – since I think education’s the most important thing we can provide for our kids – I think that’s unfair.  For me, if you believe in equal educational opportunities, then all children ought to have the opportunity to get into a learning situation that allows them to thrive.

To read the complete interview, click here.

Listening to Douglas on VPT tonight was like…

…Eating cardboard while wearing sandpaper underwear.

It’s your turn.