When I lived in Knoxville we had the regular meetings of the Knoxville Area Peace Coalition at the Unitarian Universalist Church that was the site of a recent shooting. Hearing the pastor speak at a peace rally and meeting some of the members back then are why I decided to attend several Unitarian services. I keep thinking how strange it is that he brought his shotgun to kill in a place that truly valued peace.

News reports say the shooter wrote a letter stating he planned the attack because he hates liberals and blames them for his problems. I'm thinking a lot of things about this but I want to wait a few days for more news to come out before I write much.

The Springfield Citizens Club (Illinois) held a forum on oil Friday morning. This was a one-sided presentation from the oil industry but it was interesting to hear their perspective.

Dave Sykuta of the Illinois Petroleum Council was the most predictable speaker. His job is to represent the financial interests of the oil industry, no matter how it effects everyone else, and everything he said reflected that. I didn't expect to agree with anything he said but it turns out that we'd both like to see a Cards-White Sox world series.

Sykuta took the usual rhetorical tactic of the oil industry and their talk radio stooges who blame everything on environmentalists. He kept urging people in the audience to get involved in the political debate so that the big bad Sierra Club and NRDC aren't the only groups with a voice. With Orwellian irony he presented the oil companies as helpless victims of a political process rigged against them.

Not long after the Iraq invasion, when things started to get more complicated, some anti-war leaders in Congress and elsewhere started saying that it had become a civil war. I suspect they were trying to compare it to Vietnam and argue that Iraq is an equally unwinnable war. That bothered me because I've never been convinced that it's a civil war and calling it one provides another rationale to stay there.

Calling the violence in Iraq a civil war implies there are differing factions that will continue to fight each other if U.S. troops leave. That allows those in favor of the war to argue that the US occupation is a stabilizing humanitarian mission that should last until internal conflicts are resolved. It shifts the blame for instigating the violence away from the US invasion and onto the Iraqis themselves. If its truly a sectarian civil war then we would see widespread examples of Iraqis attacking other Iraqis who have nothing to do with the occupation.

Our Brand is Crisis is one of my favorite political documentaries and I've thought back to it often during the Democratic Primary.  It follows James Carville's political consulting firm to Bolivia where they run the campaign of the centrist, pro-free trade former President attempting to come back to power.  The director had outstanding access to strategy sessions and conversations that would be kept private in a U.S. Presidential campaign.

Most of my friends who are old enough to remember Lyndon Johnson's Presidency don't like him because of his escalation of the Vietnam War. That's understandable, but despite that I have to admire his domestic achievements.

From civil rights, to the environment, education and fighting poverty, Johnson has a record of domestic accomplishments rivaled by no President save Franklin Roosevelt. His list of achievements includes things that dramatically effect the daily lives of every American to this day. That includes creation of the Head Start program, which Bill Clinton often brags about expanding.

Ronald Reagan was conservative. Very conservative. More conservative than many of the independents and Democrats who voted for him. He's the hero of the Republican Party because he had an appeal that went far beyond the conservative base of voters who agreed with him on the issues.

At the end of my quadrennial trip to Iowa Thursday night, as the caucus results were coming in, one of the Iowa radio stations reported that independents and first-time caucus goers were heavily favoring Obama. Clinton lost narrowly among regular Democrats. The tone sounded as though the Fox affiliated station was trying to downplay Obama's victory but I took it as a positive statement.

Republicans named Congressman John Shimkus as the ranking member on the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  No, this isn't a joke.

Let's review a few facts that explain how completely ridiculous this is.  First, Shimkus uses his position on the Energy & Commerce Committee to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from polluters.

A few weeks ago I heard Cokie Roberts say on This Week that she was surprised Romney's religion was such an issue with some voters.  I get the feeling that a lot of people are about to get an education about the deep religious division in middle-America.

AP reports Huckabee asking:

"Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

The article, to be published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, says Huckabee asked the question after saying he believes Mormonism is a religion but doesn't know much about it. His rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is a member of the Mormon church, which is known officially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mormons will immediately recognize that characterization of their faith.  The AP article shows the polite way of saying why.

A spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Huckabee's question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine.

There's no group more powerful in the Democratic Party than organized labor so its hard to overstate the importance of Joe McMenamin's endorsement by the Illinois AFL-CIO.  Schoenburg calls it a "boost" for McMenamin in his column today.

That's in addition to endorsements by the Democratic party organizations in the two largest counties in the district (Madison and Sangamon) along with several others.  Leaders across the district know that McMenamin is our best shot at defeating Republican John Shimkus in November!

Cross-posted from www.thereisaway.us

Democrats in the Illinois 19th Congressional district think Republican incumbent John Shimkus is more vulnerable than ever this year which is why three candidates are running in the Democratic primary. Shimkus' involvement in the Foley page scandal cover-up, the violation of his term limit pledge, his offensive statements about Iraq, and the likelihood that 2008 will be a good year to unseat a Bush rubber-stamp gives new hope to local residents who are tired of John Shimkus.  So far only one candidate, Joe McMenamin, shows signs of being a serious threat to Shimkus.

One indication of his strength as a candidate is the support he's receiving from Senator Dick Durbin.  Durbin states in a letter on McMenamin's campaign website:

Since I posted a diary here a few days ago about this event I thought I should cross-post my post-event report.  I have another post about press coverage that I'm not re-posting here.

On Saturday about 100 people participated in a rally across the street from Peabody Coal's corporate headquarters in downtown St. Louis to oppose plans for a new coal fire power plant.  The Prairie State plant proposed for rural Washington County Illinois would be the largest source of global warming emissions built in the U.S. in 20 years.

Much of the power from the plant will go to other states while Illinois residents will be stuck with increased asthma rates among children and mercury poisoning the lakes and rivers that drive the Southern Illinois tourist economy.  And we'll all be stuck with the consequences of global climate change.

Cut and pasted from the event information flier:

Peabody Energy is the world’s largest coal company – and largest enabler of global warming pollution. Peabody is proposing massive coal-fired power plants and liquid coal facilities throughout the Midwest that will accelerate global warming. Just three of Peabody’s projects would emit as much global warming pollution as seven NE states are proposing to eliminate from all of their power plants.

At a time when the world is trying to reduce global warming pollutions, Peabody is forging forward with the largest new sources of global warming emissions seen in this country for 20 years. If we are going to stop global warming, we have to stop BIG COAL.

Join us in voicing your opposition to Peabody’s plans to increase global warming pollution.

Saturday, November 17, 2007
1:00pm Kiener Park
Across from Peabody Headquarters
700 Market St.
Downtown St. Louis

I first met Joe McMenamin a few weeks ago after the showing of a documentary movie in Springfield.  He spoke during the group discussion period about why he felt Bush leading us into Iraq was misguided.  He mentioned speaking in front of the Springfield city council in favor of a resolution opposing the war even before it began.

He also said he believes America has been hijacked by extremist ideologues who are taking us down the wrong path.  Its immediately obvious when you hear McMenamin that he speaks with passion and the courage of conviction.

When he told everyone that he's running as a Democrat for Congress in the 19th district of Illinois against John Shimkus the room burst into wildly enthusiastic applause.

This is a topic I'm raising because I think it will be interesting see other peoples' views and debate.

Which candidate is the most logical and most likely to receive Al Gore's endorsement in the primary? It's increasingly unlikely as time passes that he will be a candidate himself.  If Gore makes an endorsement, which candidate has the combination of shared values and political viability that will earn Gore's support?

Please try to answer honestly based on what you think Gore is likely to do rather than simply voting for the candidate who you hope he will support.  I'll give my thoughts in a comment.

One of the most frequent claims automobile industry lobbyists make when arguing against improving mileage requirements and other environmental standards is that new regulations will cost American jobs.

Two weeks ago GM announced that they're laying off workers at its Hamtramck plant due to low demand for two models of gas-guzzling cars made there.  The good news for workers at the Hamtramck facility is that they'll start producing a new plug-in hybrid called the Chevy Volt starting in 2010.  One has to wonder how many jobs might have been saved had General Motors committed earlier to meeting market demand for cars that get better mileage and pollute less.

Today Chrysler made a more severe announcement that it will cut 12,000 jobs in North America.  This time the cuts will effect Illinois workers at the plant in Belvidere.

The State Journal-Register has a recent article featuring complaints by the National Corn Growers Association about a new documentary called King Corn.  I had the chance to see an advance copy of the film a few months ago and I fully expected big agribusiness to object to how their industry is portrayed.

The plot of King Corn is that two city-slickers from Boston move to Iowa to grow an acre of corn.  Their goal is to find out where the end product of what they grow is eventually used.  The audience learns along with the film-makers about modern farming and the agriculture industry.

Several interesting topics came up at the Liberty Brew & View showing of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" in Springfield Illinois.  Over 30 people came to see the movie and hear Illinois State Representative Mike Boland talk about the Illinois Clean Car Bill and other clean energy legislation he's supporting.

Representative Boland mentioned one of the tired old scare tactics auto-industry lobbyists are using against the Illinois Clean Car Bill: that it will cost jobs.  They use this rationale so often that they don't even bother to explain or justify the claim anymore.  How exactly will it cost jobs?  Can't union auto workers make a lower polluting car just as well as old outdated ones?  If anything is costing American jobs its the failure of American car companies to offer hybrid and other lower polluting cars that consumers are asking for.
Illinois Clean Car Bill