Like most Americans, Barack Obama first entered my consciousness with his keynote speech at the 2004 DNC Convention. Maybe it was the exultation of hearing for the first time the soaring rhetoric for which he has become so famous, made all that much more amazing in contrast to the painful chewing of words and malapropisms of George W. Bush. Maybe it was that Barack Obama appealed to the intelligence and altruistism of his listeners rather than shutting it down in the monotone lecturings of then-candidate John Kerry. Maybe it was a little bit of both and more. Whatever the cause, the speech was electrifying and I’m sure that I was not the only person sitting saying “If this country ever elects an African American for president, it’s going to be Barack Obama.”

If you look at long term unemployment, the recession of the mid 1970′s had an interesting feature: some jobs never came back. The economy down shifted to a state of higher structural unemployment. This sort of thing should, in neo-classical theory, result in an immediate reduction in wages until unemployment reaches equilibrium.

This state is so awesome.McLeroy [an avowed creationist] is among board members who want the standards to require a more critical approach to the teaching of evolution. It’s a theory that McLeroy, 62, believes lacks the empirical data required to be taught without discussion of its particular insufficiencies.

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In addition to asking teachers to engage Texas students in a discussion of how gaps in the fossil record might undermine the notion of

Treasury bailed out AIG counterparties, and forgot to tell us. Now they won’t tell us who got the money and how much. As the news leaks out, we find out why.

It’s democracy that threatens Republican power. Curbing democracy is their strategy.

too-cozy relationships under Kurtz’s microscope…sorta

An anonymous Senator (or Senators) has put a hold on the nominations of John Holdren to be White House science advisor, and on Jane Lubchenco to head NOAA. The office of the early suspect, NJ Senator Bob Menendez, denied Thursday that he has a hold on the nomination. Nobody now knows who placed the hold, or why.

Despite a decent amount of negativity roiling around the socio-political scene lately, on a fine Saturday night right here in the ole USA, this gives me a lot of heart somehow:Then, with a scream of revving engines, it begins: a yellow Corvette and a red Mitsubishi go head to head, racing down the road at terrifying speeds, just inches apart.

Even during the winter, plants are waiting to wake up and grow in the garden.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, Sen. Evan Bayh, Sen. Richard Shelby, Thomas Donohue, Peter Orzag, Rep. John Boehner, Rep. Eric Cantor, Se, (R-AZ). Democratic National Committee Chairman Gov. Tim Kaine, .Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Billy Tauzin, Erica Williams, Karen Kornbluh, Garry Leech, Earl Ofari Hutchinson.