The stairs that lead to the lighthouse at Point Reyes. My advice? Be in shape. It's the equivalent of three stories down or so they say, and I swear it's longer. But once you get there? Well worth it.
Big picture here.
Wacky schedule changes and demands on my time means this post may be sporadic for a bit, but I'm doing my damnedest to stay on the horse. Onward.....
Convention bouncey-bounce continues. While this will probably subside a bit in the coming days, all signs are pointing in the right direction. My man Greg Sargent has a breakdown on the new ABC/WaPo poll concerning the economy - and if Obama wins that sentiment, it's hard to see how he loses the election.
Don't underestimate the public's dislike of Republican policy in all of this. Maybe they don't really want candidates who are moving backwards on not only the economy, but on social issues as well. It's the entire package we vote on.
Paul Ryan loves him some government spending. Turns out that Ryan not only asked for stimulus money for renewable energy companies, he wanted some of the sweet DOE money for green cars too. "Years before becoming famous as an advocate of fiscal restraint, Paul Ryan supported a now-controversial Energy Department loan program aimed at developing greener cars — and even called for DOE to hand out lump-sum payments to companies." Add all that to the fact that he requested money from Obamacare for a health care center, and you've practically got yourself a Democrat. Who knew?
But what did you expect from a dude that lies about everything. His Face the Nation appearance was pure condescending arrogance as he tried to backtrack on his own voting record. Watch as he smugly smiles as he lies through his teeth and talks down to O'Donnell. The pathology is rather chilling, actually.
He has years to go until he catches up with Mitt when it comes to lying though. Practice, young man!
Same goes for government spending. The people that know Mitt best say that he loves him some government too, and probably won't repeal all of Obamacare - just replace it with... whatever makes his rich friends happy. You listening, tea baggers? That's the sound of you getting thrown right under the bus.
Another economist runs the Romney numbers, and yes, his tax plan does work - if you raise taxes on anyone making more than $100,000. Key words here: "It’s not possible to make the numbers add up if you refuse to raise taxes on people making less than $200,000."
Are we better off than four years ago? It's getting better all the time, says the public to Gallup. Economic confidence surged 11 pts last week, even after the supposedly horrible jobs report. Good to know.
Funny how the Republican Congresscritters are backing off the threat of a government shutdown now, isn't it? All those pricipled stands against "spending" go right out the door when they think their ass is on the line. Real knee-slapper there.
From the really-cool-news-that-points-out-how-much-Congress-really-SUCKS comes this: Wind power could meet the world's energy needs: "A new study published this week in Nature Climate Change finds that there’s enough wind potential both on the Earth’s surface and up in the atmosphere to power human civilization 100 times over. Right now, humans use about 18 terawatts of power worldwide. And, technically, the study found, we could extract about 400 terawatts of wind power from the Earth’s surface and 1,800 terawatts of power from the upper atmosphere." Too bad we are busy laying off wind energy workers because Congress refuses to act.
Remembering 9-11. National Geo has 25 pictures. Must see.
Off to the day....