Motley Moose – Archive

By: Inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

Below is a list of what, in my view, the most important to-dos on the president’s lengthy to-do list are.

Of course I could be a smart aleck and just put –

1. THE ECONOMY

2. THE ECONOMY

3. THE ECONOMY

But that would be both unintellectual and too crude a way to make a point. Nevertheless – and quite coincidentally – all of the priorities listed below do link to the economy in some way or other. Here they are:

1. Fix the subprime mess.

2. Reform the banking industry.

3. Cut health care costs.

More analysis below the fold.

After last fall and news from Iran its no surprise the power Twitter has had on politics world-wide. Another case of a tweet that has had immense power locally is that of user @OGLE_Toronto who on Friday posted a TwitPic on their Twitter account of a sleeping Toronto Transit Commision ticket collector.

I have personally created several corporations in my time, and never once have I thought any of them to be separate “people” – if I had I would have been granting myself more than the “one man, one vote” concept of our Constitution and all related laws.

Now we have the Supreme Court allowing Corporations (and, yes, Labor Unions – also not separate “people”) the ability to spend unregulated amounts of money on elections… because they are “people” within the law.

David Plouffe is back to run the 2010 mid term elections for the Democrats, and he gives a stirring message to Democrats in today’s Washington Post. Hat tip to Dansac at Dailykos for this, one of the few mature and sane bloggers there who hasn’t written a GBCW in the last few weeks.

Among the other sterling bits of advice and comfort he has for the coming year is this:

No bed-wetting. This will be a tough election for our party and for many Republican incumbents as well. Instead of fearing what may happen, let’s prove that we have more than just the brains to govern — that we have the guts to govern. Let’s fight like hell, not because we want to preserve our status, but because we sincerely believe too many everyday Americans will continue to lose if Republicans and special interests win.

After months of speculation that popular talk show host and former Rep. JD Hayworth might challenge Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for his senate seat, Hayworth took the first concrete step by resigning from his talk radio show Friday night. Later, he told reporters that he is not ready to make a formal announcement but is “moving forward to challenge John McCain.”

Crossposted from The Huffington Post

This is the fourth part of a series of posts analyzing the swing state Florida. The last part can be found here.



The Miami Metropolis



Diverse, populous, sun-baked – south Florida is far different from the rest of the state. It is the Democratic base, where liberals win their biggest margins.

Like most liberal places in this country, south Florida contains incredibly diversity; ethnic minorities compose a large share of the population. The region as a whole has reached majority-minority status. Blacks, Jews, Latinos ranging from Cubans to Nicaraguans, and many others call south Florida home.

More below.

I’ve noticed the people on the Moose like to talk about music. I thought I’d share some info about my own favorite musician with you.

Sufjan Stevens comes from Michigan, my home state. He was born in Detroit and raised in the upper most parts of the lower peninsula. He started his musical career early, learning the scales and timings of music. He was playing Mozart-like symphonies on a toy piano at the age of 5 and progressively mastered over 25 (to the best of my knowledge) instruments, recording most of the instrumentation of what he puts on his albums. Sufjan went to Hope College in Holland, MI. and later enrolled in the masters program for writers at the New School for Social Research. He said in an interview, almost jokingly “I’m inspired a lot by the landscape of America, and it came up to do an album for every state in America.” He has progressed to be one of the most finely-tuned, multi-instrument wielding musical craftsman of this era. Much of his music is derived from stories he wrote while attending Hope College, but some draws from his Christian upbringing and Bible stories. He and his music have been the biggest influence in my own musical endeavors.

(Thanks for the editing help, Gramps)

The last two years have been quite a ride. The beginning of that two year period started in January, 2008. Super Tuesday was fast approaching. I was still a nominal Edwards supporter, although I had been leaning towards Obama for a while. I got on board after Super Tuesday. That’s when the real primary battles heated up. They stayed like that until Clinton conceded in June. Then we had to deal with the PUMA backlash. Time that should have been spent on kicking into general election mode was spent on repairing party unity. The Democrats were still dealing with bruised egos when Palin burst on the scene. Things got really nutty after that.

The Moose was born out of that perfect storm of politics. The first diaries were posted on motleymoose.com about two months before the election. We agonized over every drop in a poll. We clapped with glee when things went our way. And, we watched the flameout of the ex-Governor of Alaska. Fun times, indeed.

I’m doing a story about banks and their importance to the economy of the New York area. I interviewed a major figure in a New York investment bank this morning, and was struck by his comments. Here’s what he said on the record;

“The market is down three percent in the past two days. It doesn’t like these reforms, it’s clearly an attempted government takeover of our financial system. We’ll fight it in the courts if we have to. These are too draconian. We don’t see the President putting these regulations on auto companies, for example.”

Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

For the past few months, we’ve been collecting information about agricultural innovations from all over the world (survey in English and French). We shared the initial responses in September and even more responses in November, but continue to receive interesting information and recommendations from farmers, NGOs, research groups, and policymakers in a multitude of countries. Below are a few tidbits we’d like to share.

The following projects, already featured on the Nourishing the Planet blog, have recently provided information for our survey, further describing their agricultural innovations and helping us as we seek to define innovations that best nourish people as well as the world in our upcoming report, State of the World 2011.

From our friends at the Developing Innovations in School Cultivation project in the Mukono District, Uganda: Describing the innovation as spreading a “passion for producing local foods to the next generation,” Edward Mukiibi helped flesh out the details of his project by filling out the survey after Danielle’s visit. You can read more here: Cultivating a Passion for Agriculture, Conversations with Farmers: Discussing the School Garden with a DISC Project Student, and How to Keep Kids “Down on the Farm.”

From Never Ending Food in Lilongwe, Malawi: The Nordins are educating others about permaculture and growing indigenous crops to increase income and improve food security. You can read about Danielle’s visit to their home and farm here: Malawi’s Real “Miracle” and Sweeping Change.

Please continue to share your agriculture innovations with us. We look forward to featuring your success stories on our blog and in Nourishing the Planet. Stay tuned for more updates from the survey-maybe next time it will be your innovation we highlight!