OSLO, Norway: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has been nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker said Thursday.

"A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference," Conservative Member of Parliament Boerge Brende, a former minister of environment and then of trade, told The Associated Press.

Norwegian lawmakers nominate Al Gore for Nobel Peace Prize for climate campaign - International Herald Tribune

LADIES AND gentlemen, welcome to the first virtual debate of the new political season, a mock matchup to help take the true measure of two men locked in ideological conflict.

Our first candidate is Mitt Romney.

Candidate number two? Why, that's Mitt Romney as well.

The first Romney is the man who ran for the US Senate in 1994 and for governor in 2002.

Let's label him Moderate Mitt, or MM for short.

Romney number two is the conservative Romney has become since catching Potomac Fever. We'll call him Romney2008.

A note on the proceedings: While our forum is fanciful, the words in quotation marks are real.

Let's begin.

Where do you stand on abortion?
...
Please give us your views on gun control.
...
Would you sign a no-new-taxes pledge?
...
What political leader do you particularly admire?
...

Please pardon me for editing the posted text, but I didn't want to spoil the fun. This is a great example of research journalism, and forces politicians to remember they cannot hide from their record. All quotes culled from on the record reports.

Romney vs. Romney - The Boston Globe

Outgoing Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) announced Wednesday that he will not run for president in 2008, further winnowing a Republican field that has contracted since the Nov. 7 elections.

Frist, who did not seek re-election to another term this year, said he intends to take a sabbatical from public life, return to his professional roots as a physician and explore other ways to serve outside of politics.

Yeah we all knew this on November 7th it just took him this long to figure it out.

Frist Announces He Won’t Run for President

On Thursday, Vilsack established a presidential campaign committee by filing documents with the Federal Election Commission, the AP reports.

First on the block.

All Headline News - Iowa Governor Kicks Off Dem. Race For White House - November 9, 2006

'nuff said.

Election 2006: Senate and House Races Updated Daily

ABC is marketing its docudrama, The Path to 9/11, as “based on the 9/11 Commission Report.” It is defending the films multiple inaccuracies by claiming some scenes were “drawn from a variety of sources.”

Now we finally have an answer to the question:
What does it take to air a 2hr docudrama commercial free on broadcast television now a days.

The answer is lies, lies, lies.

_Path to 9/11_ is a "docudrama" whose major thesis is that 9/11 happened because President Clinton didn't prevent it. It is airing on ABC.

This is a link to the thinkprogress tag about everything related to the film. I can only cite some of the highlights:

* Scholastic is giving out materials to teachers clearly made w/ partisian politics in mind.

* At NO POINT did Fmr National Security Advisor Sandy Berger discourage going after Osama bin Ladin.

This is so very paritsan it's sick. The best part is that it will air commercial free. When's the last time you heard a broadcast network do that? (esp. concidering all the free press it's been getting on this fantasy)

Think Progress [tag Path to 911]

I hate blogs. But I like the washington post and I like David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria. PostGlobal is a good comprimise.

PostGlobal: A Conversation on Global Issues - washingtonpost.com

Maryland's Ugly Flag

POSITION OF DANIEL R. VOVAK:
"As a lover of the arts, I encourage Maryland to redesign its flag. I will encourage art students to create a completely new design for our State flag, with a full-paid college scholarship to the student who wins the contest. View State flags. You will immediately find Maryland's flag to be the ugliest flag in America. In fact, after further study, I have concluded Maryland has the ugliest flag in the world. View world flags.

I was just saying to myself, "if I were to run a guy for the Senate what issue would catipult him into the chamber?" It would need to be haughty and high-handed, a bit pompous to be sure. Oh I know! Lets focus on crap and not anything that's important to the community.

Elect Daniel 'The Wig Man' Vovak For United States Senator In Maryland, Republican 2006

The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure our national policies reflect these values. Our policy and communications efforts are organized around four major objectives:

• developing a long term vision of a progressive America,
• providing a forum to generate new progressive ideas and policy proposals,
• responding effectively and rapidly to conservative proposals and rhetoric with a thoughtful critique and clear alternatives, and
• communicating progressive messages to the American public.

The Center for American Progress is an awesome think tank that runs several sites besides just http://www.americanprogress.org including:

http://www.americanprogressaction.org
http://www.campusprogress.org
http://www.radioprogress.org
http://www.thinkprogress.org

The Center was founded by John Podesta and so he's my new boss.

Center for American Progress

The day Judge Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court, I interviewed Kate Pringle, a partner in a New York law firm whom I met working on John Kerry's presidential campaign. Pringle was a law clerk for Judge Alito after she graduated from law school, so she knows him better than most of us. She's a liberal Democrat, but she nonetheless supports Alito's nomination, and she is going to testify in support of him later this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee. So I thought it would be useful to reprint the interview. See below...

So this "Kate Pringle" person... No one from the Kerry campaign remember's her. I'm sure someone's combing thru the w-2s but I'm pretty sure she didn't work for the Kerry campaign.

Basically this whole thing is bullshit.

Blue Mass. Group :: A liberal who supports Alito: reprinting my interview with Kate Pringle