Quick Hits and Deep Thoughts: McPeak for Veep?
Kari Chisholm
- On CBS Sunday Morning, they ran an extended feature on bicycling - and included a long discussion of biking in Portland. Among others, they interviewed Mayor-elect Sam Adams.
- Oregon appears to be on the verge of setting another first - the world's largest wind farm to be sited in Gilliam and Morrow counties. I'm unclear on how this story intersects with the story about the recent stories about wind power generation stressing our power grid. But it's a good thing to see so much investment in non-polluting sources of power. Turns out that we can create jobs, clean up the environment, and go energy-independent all at the same time.
- Dave Porter has a relatively new blog focused on "Oregon solutions to global problems." Around here, he's the commenter best known for insisting at every turn that Oregon students be taught Mandarin Chinese. He's got a fascinating post up today called “Oregon is West Virginia with a beach”.
- The Oregonian's Monday profile features retired USAF General Tony McPeak, a key military advisor to both Barack Obama and Jeff Merkley. Personally, I don't think Obama should pick a military guy for veep, but if he does, McPeak is likely high on the list.
- Over the weekend, Jeff Merkley was endorsed by the Blue America PAC - and then joined them at FireDogLake for another live-blog session. Lots of good Q&A over there.
Also, this note by Howie Klein - about a comment from a lobbyist he happened to be seated next to on a flight:
[He] urged me to support his good friend, Gordon Smith (R-OR). I pointed out that from his first votes authorizing the use of force against Iraq on October 10, 2002 until Match, 2007 when he supported a tepid, toothless resolution urging Bush to change his policies, Smith had been a lockstep, garden variety rubber stamp for the Bush-Cheney agenda in Iraq. "Oh, he's the nicest neighbor you'd ever want to have, a real family man," the nice music lobbyist replied.
Well, maybe Gordon Smith would make a nice neighbor in terms of not turning up the music too loud, or lending someone a cup of refined white sugar but when it comes to preventing bankruptcy from causing homeowners to lose their houses, Gordon Smith has been a lousy neighbor.
And then this great comment from "cinnamonape":
Since Gordon Smith makes such a nice neighbor, the folks in Oregon are gonna bring him back home. And get the Senator that they actually want and deserve.
That's about right...
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Jul 28, '08
The lobbyist said, " "Oh, he's the nicest neighbor you'd ever want to have, a real family man," the nice music lobbyist replied."
Really?? Have you ever been to Weston (out NE of Pendleton)? It's the little town next to one of Smith's plants. It smells like a dead horse due to the foul stuff that comes out of it. I think Smith has paid pollution fines. - He moves in next to me, it's either a high fence or I move.
11:37 a.m.
Jul 28, '08
11:40 a.m.
Jul 28, '08
McPeak? I thought Ann Veneman had the VP slot locked up.
Jul 28, '08
RE: the bike segment on Sunday Morning. Something was missing. Something very obvious was missing. It wasn't mentioned once.
Everyone, including Sam and the stay at home dad, who picks his kids up from school on a cart type contraption, all looked so happy.
But what about the four letter word that was omitted?
11:49 a.m.
Jul 28, '08
OK, RinoWatch -- I give up. What four letter word?
11:51 a.m.
Jul 28, '08
Darrel -- One should remember that names floated during a veep search are almost always names that are NOT being considered, or at least, are no longer being considered.
They're floated in order to assure folks later, after the real pick is announced, that all options were considered and that certain demographics weren't slighted.
Almost surely, Veneman was floated so that they could say they considered Republicans.
Jul 28, '08
R a i n or S n o w or C o l d not to mention I c e
I love to ride my bike too, but not when it's raining, snowing, or just too damned cold.
The Sunday morning piece was fluff video on a nice summer, warm appearing day. Wouldn't you agree?
I wonder if Sam will ride his bike to city hall when it's any of the above.....
Jul 28, '08
Kari, you already commented on this at my DailyKos entry awhile back, but I still have my pipe dream of: VP John Kitzhaber ftw!
Jul 28, '08
I suggested McPeak for veep months ago in another forum. Sounds good to me.
3:07 p.m.
Jul 28, '08
I thought Chuck Hegel covered that well enough. And Obama's spoken for a long time about putting Republicans in the Cabinet.
Although I have to ask: Why do they have to say they considered Republicans? I thought the idea was to get a Democrat into the White House because the Republicans keep screwing things up. The VP is a backup to the President and -- in most two-term administrations -- the leading presidential candidate after the second term. Why not just pick Joe Lieberman again? He transcends all political boundaries. As the Osmonds used to say, he's a little bit Democrat and a little bit Republican. A Frankenstein's monster of bad policies from both parties.
We can get Arnie for Secretary of Termination.
Seriously, it's bad enough that the Democrats haven't been doing their job the past seven years, what's the point of even suggesting a government run in part by the same Republicans who have helped provide the bloc that covered Bush's ass through two terms?
3:09 p.m.
Jul 28, '08
Yeah, I know. OT.
Jul 28, '08
Re the wind farm, I see it takes 303 wind turbines to power 225,000 homes...but just how much land does it use? Is it efficient or even cost effective? For years now I have been wondering why we need to inovate new and renewable energy systems on such a grand scale. There is some controversy about the noise/vibrations caused by large scale wind farms, and the fact that the huge solar energy operations will ultimately have to sprawl over farm lands needed for food crops at a time when our food supply is so fragile, threatened by drought, development, flood, storms, sick bees, and the usage of land for growing biodiesel crops.
But I've always wondered why can't we strive for individual energy producing units on our homes. Why not give tax credits and vouchers and such to homeowners who install a combination of wind/solar units? I recently saw an article in Mother Earth news about someone who'd done just that, both solar and wind. With energy costs escalating this year...and in years to come....the argument that it will take 20 years to offset the costs of switching to renewable energy no longer qualifies. I think companies that start producing viable per-home renewable energy systems will hand us the answer to energy independence. We will never sustain affordable prices on energy as long as it is being produced by corporations trading stock on Wall St.
After all, what good will it do for us promote (through tax incentives et al)...corporate production of wind and solar farms? I'm conditioned to be cynical on this matter. Producing wind power in Oregon won't mean we'll get cheaper energy. We live near a huge hydro-electric plant/dam. And they sell the power out of state and we locals still see rate hikes every year. I predict that ultimately we the consumers will pay dearly for the building of these corporate wind and solar farms, and be told since we are 'saving the environment' we should be proud and happy to pay extra.
All in all, renewable energy is a good thing and the right thing to do. But I'd be truly energy independent with my own wind turbine and solar panels in my own back yard. I know it could be done. And it has to be cheaper per capita than these mega farms.
Jul 28, '08
From the Oregonian article:
Not my kind of guy.
3:42 p.m.
Jul 28, '08
I love to ride my bike too, but not when it's raining, snowing, or just too damned cold.
Well, RINO, maybe you're too much of a weenie, but there sure are plenty of Portlanders who are commuting by bike year-round.
(Not me, unfortunately, I'm all pedestrian as I commute from the upstairs bedroom to the downstairs office.)
4:04 p.m.
Jul 28, '08
McPeak is a gaffe-machine. Have him as an advisor, put him in your administration, but leave him off the ticket. Obama knows this--there's a 0% chance he gets the veep nod.
4:17 p.m.
Jul 28, '08
I don't know McPeak all that well, but he's not even a household name in Oregon, let alone nationally. To avoid picking a Senator, Governor or someone of similar stature would smell like the dismal flailing around of the McGovern campaign that was a telltale sign of its failure. Let's stop bein such homies and supporting McPeak or Kitzhaber or Kulongoski for Veep. If you're looking for value added electorally by region or voting bloc, or wehther you're loooking for the best person one heartbeat away, no disrespect to any of these three good gentlemen, but they're not going to be who is chosen.
11:50 p.m.
Jul 28, '08
I don't know McPeak all that well, but he's not even a household name in Oregon, let alone nationally. To avoid picking a Senator, Governor or someone of similar stature would smell like the dismal flailing around of the McGovern campaign that was a telltale sign of its failure. Let's stop bein such homies and supporting McPeak or Kitzhaber or Kulongoski for Veep.
Huh.
Was there someone here supporting McPeak for Veep? Because I can't find that suggestion anywhere...
1:39 p.m.
Jul 29, '08
"Personally, I don't think Obama should pick a military guy for veep, but if he does, McPeak is likely high on the list. "
What, to keep the string of VP's with a DUI going?
10:03 p.m.
Jul 29, '08
Well, RINO, maybe you're too much of a weenie, but there sure are plenty of Portlanders who are commuting by bike year-round.
Not sure whether this number is big or small, but the City of Portland reports that bike crossings on the Hawthorne Bridge are 50% lower in March than they are in the summer.
1:28 p.m.
Jul 30, '08
Did any of the McPeak supporters happen to realize that he's almost nine months older than John McCain?
2:54 p.m.
Jul 30, '08