Obama Baby! '08

Some friends and I have researched and composed an email that we think will be interesting for people to forward and post on blogs. Our hope is that you will forward the copy below to all of your contacts and start a forwarding e-mail campaign. To go along with Obama's 'Change' theme, we have created an “It’s time for a change” onesie (get it?) and other baby merchandise at www.obamababy08.com. As you will read below, the merchandise fits within the theme of our forwarding e-mail campaign. Profits after the administrative costs of the Obamababy08.com website will be donated directly to the Obama 08' campaign.

To the estimated 4 million babies born in the United States this election year…

On the day you are born... According to current census data, over 40 million people in the U.S. were considered to be living in poverty, over 45 million people were without health insurance, and the national debt exceeded $9 trillion.

The cost of fighting one day in Iraq could provide health insurance coverage for a year to 380,900 uninsured children in America, immunize every baby born in the U.S. against measles, mumps, and rubella 14.2 times, and feed all of the starving children in the world four and a half times over.

By the end of your first year in the world... As you're just beginning to walk, you will be facing a 50% likelihood of the detonation of an atomic weapon by a terrorist on U.S. soil within 10 years.

At the end of 2007, Harvard professors Graham Allison and Douglas Dillon said, "Based on current trends, a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States is more likely than not in the decade ahead. As horrific as that vision is, the most important but largely unrecognized truth is that this ultimate catastrophe is preventable."

By the time you enter kindergarten... As you're learning to read, at least 40-50 million Americans will not read well enough to provide a wage to raise their standard of living above the poverty line.

Six million middle and high school students read significantly below their grade level. A full third of high school graduates do not immediately go on to college. American 15 year olds rank 28th out of 40 countries in mathematics and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Almost 30 percent of students in their first year of college are forced to take remedial science and math classes because they are not prepared.

By the time you are a senior in high school... As you are taking your SAT/ACT's and applying to colleges, you will be facing the reality that your first year of tuition will cost about $54,750.

College costs have grown nearly 40 percent in the past five years. In 2007, the average graduate left college with over $19,000 in debt. Between 2001 and 2010, 2 million academically qualified students will not go to college because they cannot afford it.

By the time you finish your last year of college... As you are looking at places to visit on your spring break, you will have 5-7 years left to see Glacier National Park before all the glaciers melt due to climate change.

As of 2007, Glacier National Park only has 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.

By the time you're 30... As you are preparing to marry or start a family and plan for your financial future, the Social Security system will be able to cover only about 73 percent of benefits owed.

According to projections, in 2015, the Social Security program will begin to spend more money than it collects in taxes. At that point, the Social Security program will begin to collect on the money that it has loaned to the federal government. Between 2037 and 2075, the Social Security program is projected to run annual deficits totaling 30 trillion dollars.

Rep. John Dingell - 'No' To Fuel Efficient Cars

The new head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell, has voiced that increasing fuel efficiency in automobiles is not part of his agenda. From MSNBC:

Rep. John Dingell, who has been a U.S. lawmaker since 1955... gave a strong indication of what he did not plan to do: raise fuel-efficiency standards for U.S. automobiles.

“I’m not sure that there’s any urgent needs for us to address those questions,” Dingell told CNBC in an interview.

Is this part of the "New Direction for America"? It sounds an awful like the "Old Entrenched Paid For By Big Oil America" that we just threw out of Congress. Maybe Rep. Dingell didn't get the message. Please contact Rep. John Dingell to let him know your concerns regarding our current low fuel-efficiency standards and that we expect the new congress to enact tougher standards.




Molten Carbon

Americans Voted Their Values - Senator Tester

From DailyKos:

It's about time the Senate has someone that looks like Montana.

Calling McCaskill, Tester, Webb

Molten Carbon is calling all three remaining senate races in favor of McCaskill, Tester, and Webb. The most likely fight will come from Allen's team and will include a very expensive all-star litigation team from RNC headquarters. That's our prediction anyway and we're sticking to it.




Calling McCaskill, Tester, Webb

Live Virginia Senate Race

11:58pm MST Webb by 7,811 votes

1999 War Games Predicted Problems In Iraq

The Associated Press broke a story today about war games conducted in 1999 which were focused on overthrowing Saddam and the ensuing outcome. The following conclusions resulted, and were ignored for the subsequent real War in Iraq:

• A change in regimes does not guarantee stability


• A number of factors including aggressive neighbors, fragmentation along religious and/or ethnic lines, and chaos created by rival forces bidding for power could adversely affect regional stability


• Even when civil order is restored and borders are secured, the replacement regime could be problematic — especially if perceived as weak, a puppet, or out-of-step with prevailing regional governments


• Iran’s anti-Americanism could be enflamed by a U.S.-led intervention in Iraq


• The influx of U.S. and other western forces into Iraq would exacerbate worries in Tehran, as would the installation of a pro-western government in Baghdad


• The debate on post-Saddam Iraq also reveals the paucity of information about the potential and capabilities of the external Iraqi opposition groups. The lack of intelligence concerning their roles hampers U.S. policy development


• Also, some participants believe that no Arab government will welcome the kind of lengthy U.S. presence that would be required to install and sustain a democratic government


• A long-term, large-scale military intervention may be at odds with many coalition partners

This could be a copy from the pages of the Bush Administrations 'Lessons Learned' manual. Unfortunately for us, they aren't reading this manual and didn't bother to read the intelligence and assesments that had already been prepared. Why do we pay our intelligence agencies billions of dollars annually if the President isn't going to follow their advice?


Molten Carbon

Republican Candidates 2006

--UT-Sen: Senator Hatch

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert