Tonight's Rescue is brought to you by HoosierDeb, watercarrier4diogenes, mem from somerville, rexymeteorite, jlms qkw, ybruti, and pico.

Diary Rescue is all about promoting good writers, so remember to subscribe to diarists whose work you enjoy reading.

• Steven D is dismayed that in spite of all the data there is traction for Most Successful Conspiracy Theory Evah. (mem from somerville)
• jamess tells us what we already suspected is true. Science Says: Those 3-D Underwater Oil Plumes Belong to BP. (watercarrier4diogenes)
• sheddhead illustrates training, and it might not be just for woozles, in Rally On. (jlms qkw)
• Marie crafts and stages a speech she'd like to hear Obama deliver in The Snowe/Collins/Brown Challenge. (mem from somerville)
• goffchris obtains an unexpected awareness on a day out with the kidlet in Airshow Musings. (mem from somerville)
• Christopher Bair, after graduating from college and enduring a long period of unemployment, happily narrates From Ohio to Texas, a Job Love Story. (ybruti)
• freelixir brings us a depressing glimpse into the real world of 'child protective' services in How Your Gov't Steals Kids and How You Suffer The Consequences - Part 1 (watercarrier4diogenes)

jotter has High Impact Diaries: July 23, 2010.

carolita has Top Comments 7-24-10 - Meet the Family Edition.

Please suggest your own, and use as an open thread.

Netroots Nation 2010 is just about in the rearview mirror as this Wrap hits your screen. I am not looking forward to the drive back home through the desert early tomorrow morning. I am, on the other hand, very much looking forward to doing it all again next year.

You should, too...and with that, it's time for the weekend edition of the Wrap...

THE U.S. SENATE

CT-Sen: Simmons says he's not campaigning...(honest!)
Somehow, it is a touch hard to believe him: former GOP congressman and one-time Senate candidate Rob Simmons is adamant that his campaign's return to the airwaves is not the re-launch of his campaign. He actually equated the ads paid for as "public service announcements." Except that the "public service" he is performing, of course, is reminding voters that he is still on the ballot. And that is different from campaigning...how, exactly?

FL-Sen: Jeff Greene denies the obvious, looks silly in the bargain
Move over Alvin Greene--we have a new leader in the clubhouse for Democratic Senate candidate most likely to provoke a face-palm moment, and you don't even need to change the last name. Greene's campaign is inexplicably denying reports that his 140-foot yacht Summerwind destroyed part of an ecologically sensitive reef off the coast of Belize in 2005 when it dropped anchor offshore. Greene, who was not on the yacht at the time, denies the incident ever occurred. Which would be swell, were it not for the fact that Greene's employees at the time confirmed the incident. When given that piece of information, Greene's spokesperson offered perhaps the weakest denial in the campaign cycle to date: "That's our position. That's our quote." Greene is competing against Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek in the August Senate primary.

IN-Sen: Ellsworth unloading any and all Rangel cash
This is not unexpected, nor is it probably the last example of this symbolic gesture. Brad Ellsworth, the two-term Democratic congressman from Southern Indiana and current Senate nominee, announced that he will donate the total amount of contributions that he has received from embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel to a charity. The total amount in question is $12,000. This might have been in response to an NRSC blast at the end of the week devoted to any and all Senate candidates who received money from the scandal-laden New York congressman.

KY-Sen: Conway and Paul in a toss-up, according to new public poll
The first non-Rasmussen public poll in Kentucky in a few weeks confirms what other non-Ras polls have shown--the battle for the Bunning seat between Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Jack Conway is still a coin flip. The poll, which was conducted by Braun Research for cn|2, showed Rand Paul with a three-point edge (41-38) over Democrat Jack Conway. The poll also looked ahead to the 2011 gubernatorial election, and found incumbent Democrat Steve Beshear leading Republican David Williams by a 48-30 margin.

LA-Sen: GOP plays dueling internal polls, claims double-digit edge
Incumbent Republican Senator David Vitter clearly took notice when his leading Democratic rival, Rep. Charlie Melancon, released an internal poll showing the race to be a tossup. Vitter has returned serve with another internal poll, courtesy of the NRSC, showing him leading the Democratic challenger 48-31. Worth noting, of course, is the fact that even public polling a few months back had Vitter leading by a wider margin.

MO-Sen: Mason-Dixon poll gives Blunt modest lead over Carnahan
The first public poll out of Missouri in a good long while gives Republican contender Roy Blunt a six-point edge over Democrat Robin Carnahan (48-42). The poll, conducted by Mason Dixon for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, found that Blunt also holds a very wide primary lead over state senator Chuck Purgason. Carnahan does well in the two metro areas (Kansas City and St. Louis), but gets thumped everywhere else, according to M-D chief Brad Coker.

NV-Sen: Reid nabs huge endorsement, hours before NN appearance
Unbeknownst to most NN10 conventioneers, Senator Harry Reid's busy Saturday extended well beyond his well-received appearance at the convention. A few hours before he took the stage at the Rio, Reid accepted the endorsement of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. Goodman, a Democrat who actually flirted openly with an Independent bid for Governor, hailed Reid as the "man we go to to get things done in the city."

WV-Sen: NRSC staying out of special election primary
The ten Republicans that are fighting it out for the right to face Democratic Governor Joe Manchin will do so without the imprimatur of the GOP's Senate campaign wing. At least, that is what the NRSC is promising, in advance of the late August primary. The expectation is that self-funding businessman John Raese, who was thumped in 2006 by the late Senator Robert Byrd, will be the frontrunner for the GOP.

THE U.S. HOUSE

OH-13: Sutton becomes first to call for Rangel resignation
As news of the legal troubles for longtime Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel broke at the close of the week, second-term Ohio Congresswoman Betty Sutton became the first Democrat to call for the resignation of the New York Congressman. Part of Sutton's statement last night read as follows: "It is regrettable, but Charlie Rangel needs to resign from his seat in Congress. This isn’t about being a Democrat or Republican, this is about preserving the public trust."

PA-15: Dent tries to game debates--Callahan gets big visitor
Two separate news items emerging from the Lehigh Valley this weekend. First, we learn that Republican incumbent Charlie Dent is trying to game the candidate debates a little bit, fighting hard to exclude third-party candidate Jake Towne from the debates. Towne is further to the right than he is to the left, and Dent is clearly concerned about a conservative alternative gaining any press coverage or voter attention. Democrat John Callahan, meanwhile, is going to get a big assist from the man coming to town on August 10th to assist his campaign--former President Bill Clinton.

THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES

CO-Gov: Tancredo issues weekend ultimatum--get out, or I get in
Apparently, when Tom Tancredo made the public pronouncement that he was mulling a gubernatorial bid. Tancredo has taken it, indeed, a step further, demanding that both embattled GOP candidates (Scott McInnis and Dan Maes) step aside. Tancredo issued the threat late Thursday that if they did not do so, he would file as the candidate of the right-wing Constitution Party. In order to make it work legally, either Maes or McInnis would have to wait until the August 10th primary, resigning after the nomination has been claimed. That would allow the GOP to replace the nominee with a candidate of their choosing. Not surprisingly, the GOP is not thrilled with the Tancredo ultimatum. Several county chairs have asked Tancredo to reconsider his threat, while the state GOP has made it clear that they wouldn't even bother with trying to replace their nominee if they did step aside (something that both Maes and McInnis already made clear that they would not do).

MI-Gov: New primary poll contradicts other polling
Who is leading the two-man Democratic primary for Governor in the state of Michigan? In this case, it really does come down to which pollster you believe. Earlier in the week, a new poll for the Detroit News gave state House Speaker Andy Dillon a lead in the high single digits over Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. But a new poll out Friday from Inside Michigan Politics gave Bernero an impressive lead over Dillon. The total margin was 14 points (36-22), and the number of undecided voters is still shockingly high for a primary that is now just ten days away.

SC-Gov: Haley quick to flip-flop in wake of primary win
Now that the Republican nominations is hers, state legislator Nikki Haley is busying herself by walking back some of the rhetoric that defined her insurgent campaign. The best example: after tapping anti-big business anger in her primary by flatly declaring that all bailout supporters should lose their jobs (including Republicans), she has embraced South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson, who was one of those supporters. She has also been working overtime to make nice with the state's business lobby, which she condemned during the primary as "a big fan of bailouts and corporate welfare."

THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA

It's all repeats for the House of Rasmussen, and some of it is predictable (little-known John Raese posts similar numbers to Shelley Moore Capito) and some of it less so (the Ras-sies have Earl Pomeroy closer to Republican challenger Rick Berg than he has been in a while).

Oh, and let Rasmussen be only the latest pollster to declare Blanche Lincoln's political career over.

AZ-Gov: Gov. Jan Brewer (R) 56%, Terry Goddard (D) 37%
AR-Sen: John Boozman (R) 60%, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) 35%
ND-AL: Rick Berg (R) 49%, Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D) 46%
RI-Gov: Lincoln Chafee (I) 37%, Frank Caprio (D) 30%, John Robataille (R) 23%
RI-Gov: Lincoln Chafee (I) 36%, Frank Caprio (D) 33%, Victor Moffitt (R) 18%
WV-Sen: Joe Manchin (D) 51%, John Raese (R) 35%

Netroots Nation 2010 is just about in the rearview mirror as this Wrap hits your screen. I am not looking forward to the drive back home through the desert early tomorrow morning. I am, on the other hand, very much looking forward to doing it all again next year.

You should, too...and with that, it's time for the weekend edition of the Wrap...

THE U.S. SENATE

CT-Sen: Simmons says he's not campaigning...(honest!)
Somehow, it is a touch hard to believe him: former GOP congressman and one-time Senate candidate Rob Simmons is adamant that his campaign's return to the airwaves is not the re-launch of his campaign. He actually equated the ads paid for as "public service announcements." Except that the "public service" he is performing, of course, is reminding voters that he is still on the ballot. And that is different from campaigning...how, exactly?

FL-Sen: Jeff Greene denies the obvious, looks silly in the bargain
Move over Alvin Greene--we have a new leader in the clubhouse for Democratic Senate candidate most likely to provoke a face-palm moment, and you don't even need to change the last name. Greene's campaign is inexplicably denying reports that his 140-foot yacht Summerwind destroyed part of an ecologically sensitive reef off the coast of Belize in 2005 when it dropped anchor offshore. Greene, who was not on the yacht at the time, denies the incident ever occurred. Which would be swell, were it not for the fact that Greene's employees at the time confirmed the incident. When given that piece of information, Greene's spokesperson offered perhaps the weakest denial in the campaign cycle to date: "That's our position. That's our quote." Greene is competing against Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek in the August Senate primary.

IN-Sen: Ellsworth unloading any and all Rangel cash
This is not unexpected, nor is it probably the last example of this symbolic gesture. Brad Ellsworth, the two-term Democratic congressman from Southern Indiana and current Senate nominee, announced that he will donate the total amount of contributions that he has received from embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel to a charity. The total amount in question is $12,000. This might have been in response to an NRSC blast at the end of the week devoted to any and all Senate candidates who received money from the scandal-laden New York congressman.

KY-Sen: Conway and Paul in a toss-up, according to new public poll
The first non-Rasmussen public poll in Kentucky in a few weeks confirms what other non-Ras polls have shown--the battle for the Bunning seat between Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Jack Conway is still a coin flip. The poll, which was conducted by Braun Research for cn|2, showed Rand Paul with a three-point edge (41-38) over Democrat Jack Conway. The poll also looked ahead to the 2011 gubernatorial election, and found incumbent Democrat Steve Beshear leading Republican David Williams by a 48-30 margin.

LA-Sen: GOP plays dueling internal polls, claims double-digit edge
Incumbent Republican Senator David Vitter clearly took notice when his leading Democratic rival, Rep. Charlie Melancon, released an internal poll showing the race to be a tossup. Vitter has returned serve with another internal poll, courtesy of the NRSC, showing him leading the Democratic challenger 48-31. Worth noting, of course, is the fact that even public polling a few months back had Vitter leading by a wider margin.

MO-Sen: Mason-Dixon poll gives Blunt modest lead over Carnahan
The first public poll out of Missouri in a good long while gives Republican contender Roy Blunt a six-point edge over Democrat Robin Carnahan (48-42). The poll, conducted by Mason Dixon for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, found that Blunt also holds a very wide primary lead over state senator Chuck Purgason. Carnahan does well in the two metro areas (Kansas City and St. Louis), but gets thumped everywhere else, according to M-D chief Brad Coker.

NV-Sen: Reid nabs huge endorsement, hours before NN appearance
Unbeknownst to most NN10 conventioneers, Senator Harry Reid's busy Saturday extended well beyond his well-received appearance at the convention. A few hours before he took the stage at the Rio, Reid accepted the endorsement of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. Goodman, a Democrat who actually flirted openly with an Independent bid for Governor, hailed Reid as the "man we go to to get things done in the city."

WV-Sen: NRSC staying out of special election primary
The ten Republicans that are fighting it out for the right to face Democratic Governor Joe Manchin will do so without the imprimatur of the GOP's Senate campaign wing. At least, that is what the NRSC is promising, in advance of the late August primary. The expectation is that self-funding businessman John Raese, who was thumped in 2006 by the late Senator Robert Byrd, will be the frontrunner for the GOP.

THE U.S. HOUSE

OH-13: Sutton becomes first to call for Rangel resignation
As news of the legal troubles for longtime Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel broke at the close of the week, second-term Ohio Congresswoman Betty Sutton became the first Democrat to call for the resignation of the New York Congressman. Part of Sutton's statement last night read as follows: "It is regrettable, but Charlie Rangel needs to resign from his seat in Congress. This isn’t about being a Democrat or Republican, this is about preserving the public trust."

PA-15: Dent tries to game debates--Callahan gets big visitor
Two separate news items emerging from the Lehigh Valley this weekend. First, we learn that Republican incumbent Charlie Dent is trying to game the candidate debates a little bit, fighting hard to exclude third-party candidate Jake Towne from the debates. Towne is further to the right than he is to the left, and Dent is clearly concerned about a conservative alternative gaining any press coverage or voter attention. Democrat John Callahan, meanwhile, is going to get a big assist from the man coming to town on August 10th to assist his campaign--former President Bill Clinton.

THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES

CO-Gov: Tancredo issues weekend ultimatum--get out, or I get in
Apparently, when Tom Tancredo made the public pronouncement that he was mulling a gubernatorial bid. Tancredo has taken it, indeed, a step further, demanding that both embattled GOP candidates (Scott McInnis and Dan Maes) step aside. Tancredo issued the threat late Thursday that if they did not do so, he would file as the candidate of the right-wing Constitution Party. In order to make it work legally, either Maes or McInnis would have to wait until the August 10th primary, resigning after the nomination has been claimed. That would allow the GOP to replace the nominee with a candidate of their choosing. Not surprisingly, the GOP is not thrilled with the Tancredo ultimatum. Several county chairs have asked Tancredo to reconsider his threat, while the state GOP has made it clear that they wouldn't even bother with trying to replace their nominee if they did step aside (something that both Maes and McInnis already made clear that they would not do).

MI-Gov: New primary poll contradicts other polling
Who is leading the two-man Democratic primary for Governor in the state of Michigan? In this case, it really does come down to which pollster you believe. Earlier in the week, a new poll for the Detroit News gave state House Speaker Andy Dillon a lead in the high single digits over Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. But a new poll out Friday from Inside Michigan Politics gave Bernero an impressive lead over Dillon. The total margin was 14 points (36-22), and the number of undecided voters is still shockingly high for a primary that is now just ten days away.

SC-Gov: Haley quick to flip-flop in wake of primary win
Now that the Republican nominations is hers, state legislator Nikki Haley is busying herself by walking back some of the rhetoric that defined her insurgent campaign. The best example: after tapping anti-big business anger in her primary by flatly declaring that all bailout supporters should lose their jobs (including Republicans), she has embraced South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson, who was one of those supporters. She has also been working overtime to make nice with the state's business lobby, which she condemned during the primary as "a big fan of bailouts and corporate welfare."

THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA

It's all repeats for the House of Rasmussen, and some of it is predictable (little-known John Raese posts similar numbers to Shelley Moore Capito) and some of it less so (the Ras-sies have Earl Pomeroy closer to Republican challenger Rick Berg than he has been in a while).

Oh, and let Rasmussen be only the latest pollster to declare Blanche Lincoln's political career over.

AZ-Gov: Gov. Jan Brewer (R) 56%, Terry Goddard (D) 37%
AR-Sen: John Boozman (R) 60%, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) 35%
ND-AL: Rick Berg (R) 49%, Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D) 46%
RI-Gov: Lincoln Chafee (I) 37%, Frank Caprio (D) 30%, John Robataille (R) 23%
RI-Gov: Lincoln Chafee (I) 36%, Frank Caprio (D) 33%, Victor Moffitt (R) 18%
WV-Sen: Joe Manchin (D) 51%, John Raese (R) 35%

Are you watching closely?

Did you ever see a play from before Shakespeare?  Anything from Sophocles through Marlow will do. No matter how you love Faustus, or what lessons we take from Oedipus Rex, there's something decidedly odd in the narrative structure of these works. In ways both subtle and obvious, they are alien to us.   

...

He wrote the note himself.

The hillside is covered in hats.

He pulls the top from his pocket and spins it.

...
 

In his book Everything Bad is Good for You, Douglas Rushkoff points up the moment when television changed. Take a look at any of the shows running on Nick at Night. Watch an episode of Mannix or Hawaii 5-0. You'll find there's just one plotline, a handful of characters, and very little that isn't wrapped up in the space of an hour. That's not to say these shows are not entertaining, but none of that entertainment comes in the form of any kind of challenge. Honestly, there's more mental exertion and hidden meaning in an hour of Spongebob. Then something happened...    

Hill Street Blues
A fire guts the house; Furillo conducts a separate investigation into Buntz's alleged cocaine theft; Henry works with an odd detective (Steven Keats) to nab a serial killer; LaRue knows a back way into a gangster's vault that a reporter (Charles Brill) hopes to open on TV. Daniel J. Travanti, Dennis Franz, Joe Spano. LaRue: Kiel Martin. (TV Guide, January 15, 1981)

In many of his novels, Phillip K. Dick flirted with the meaning of "reality." That theme pervades books like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and A Scanner Darkly.  Nowhere is this idea more central than in the novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. The novel features a drug that can be taken to escape into a dream world -- a more colorful alternative to a humdrum existence. Early in the book, the main character samples this drug, and discovers that the nature of the dream is not in his control. Both time and his own identity begin to slip away...

Eldritch seated himself nearby, rested his artificial arm on his bent knees, and idly swung his stick from side to side, scrutinizing the gluck, which had still not departed.  "When we get back to our former bodies... You'll find that no time has passed. We could stay here fifty years and it would be the same."

There are a thousand artists who can do great work within the confines of a medium. And then someone comes along to show that the boundaries are not where you thought they were.  They discover how to apply the mathematics of perspective within the flat space of the canvas, or a new twist to the narrative form that turns a series of scenes into a plot. And that changes things, not just for them but for other people working in their medium.

For the last decade, filmmaker Christopher Nolan has been creating visions that tamper with the notions of time and reality in film. In Memento, Nolan took the normal course of narrative, cut it into overlapping slices, and fed it back to the audience in reverse order. Keeping that structure cogent was a terrific accomplishment, but Nolan did more. He used the unique structure of the film to inform us about the characters and situations that would have not been possible had the film been presented in a more conventional way. His altered time stream wasn't a gimmick, it was leveraged to make a film that couldn't otherwise exist.

In The Prestige, Nolan did a variation on the same trick. The film opens near the end of the narrative, but the viewer then lacks the information to interpret what they are seeing. The story then backtracks along two main narratives, telling the story of competing magicians at the end of the 19th century. As the story begins to fill in the gaps, that initial glimpse of the ending becomes a noose tightening around the narrative. Both characters have flaws. Neither is completely the villain or the hero. And both are willing to make sacrifices the scope and nature of which are unclear almost until the closing frame.         

Reading this some are sure to say, "surely you're not going to compare Christopher Nolan to Shakespeare." To which I say, I think I already did that. Is Nolan's impact on film equal to that of the Bard? No, of course not. Is he even the first to juggle order and scale on screen? Nope. But he has does something very special: he's shown that those boundaries can be broken in a film that still appeals to a broad audience. He's walked into the middle of the summer blockbuster wasteland and demonstrated that box office dollars can be measured in the pleasure of wrestling with a narrative challenge, not just in the size of explosions (not that Nolan's own the Batman films are lacking for pyrotechnics).       

with Inception, Nolan has once again challenged summer moviegoers to do more than crunch popcorn. There's less twisting of narrative order in the latest film. Instead the film deals with the passage of time and the meaning of reality. In some ways, it's an experiment in relativity. At one point in the film, there are events happening in four different versions of "reality," all of them ticking along at different rates of time and all of them racing toward one critical moment. And just as critical, at several points in the film, it's unclear what "level" we are on. Clues are planted that may mean that we neither enter nor exit the film on the ground floor of reality. 

Personally, I don't think Inception is quite so rewarding of repeated viewing as some of Nolan's other films, but it is still refreshing to see that summer entertainment need not equal brainless entertainment. Christopher Nolan is changing the form of general entreatment in a way that is going to affect not just his films, but what people expect from films in general. And right now, you can see the boundaries being broken.

Are you watching closely?

Unless it is revived and passed, the astonishing collapse of energy and climate legislation in the Senate will be remembered as this era's signature political failure. At a time when Democrats control the White House and both Houses of Congress. Paradoxically, this should serve as an even stronger motivation to elect more Democrats to Congress. There still is a chance to get this right, and we can't afford not to.

The tired excuse that we need 60 votes doesn't fly given the success of so many previous administrations and majorities in passing controversial legislation despite their majorities being smaller than those now held by the Democrats. But even if one accepts that excuse, it only underscores the necessity of changing the rules. To do that, Democrats must retain their majorities, then do whatever it takes to pass the climate and energy bills that the science demands. This is not a time for political excuses. On this issue, we can't afford political excuses. On this issue, we can't afford to be patient or incremental.

The New York Times Friday placed responsibility at the very top, where the buck usually stops. And those who so laud the President for every good piece of legislation that hits his desk need to accept that he also bears the burden when bills don't reach his desk. As the Times puts it:

The Republicans obviously bear a good part of the responsibility for this failure. With a handful of exceptions, they have denied or played down the problem of global warming for years and did pretty much anything they could to protect industry from necessary regulation. There are, however, as many as a dozen Senate Democrats, mainly from the South, Appalachia and the Midwest, who share the blame.

But:

Mr. Obama never fully committed to the fight. He raised hopes here and around the world last year when he pledged in Copenhagen to reduce United States greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent. Until a couple of months ago, he talked a good game, praising the House bill that aimed at the 17 percent target and promising to make every effort to get the Senate to follow.

Then, despite the opportunity offered by the oil spill to press for a bold energy policy, the president essentially disappeared.

And even before he disappeared, his efforts were curiously tepid. His energy speech was a deeply disappointing missed opportunity. He didn't galvanize public opinion, and he didn't play hardball with Congress the way he did at the very end with the health insurance bill. And without his leadership, the Senate did what it usually does and what it undoubtedly will continue to do, without his leadership. As the Times concludes:

There is no chance unless Mr. Obama comes out fighting: calling out the Republicans, shaming and rallying Democratic laggards and explaining to the American people that global warming and oil dependency are clear and present threats to American security.

The science is overwhelming and terrifying as we endure the hottest year on record. This is a historic moment and we can't afford to fail. We need our leaders to lead. Otherwise, we have no chance.

Unless it is revived and passed, the astonishing collapse of energy and climate legislation in the Senate will be remembered as this era's signature political failure. At a time when Democrats control the White House and both Houses of Congress. Paradoxically, this should serve as an even stronger motivation to elect more Democrats to Congress. There still is a chance to get this right, and we can't afford not to.

The tired excuse that we need 60 votes doesn't fly given the success of so many previous administrations and majorities in passing controversial legislation despite their majorities being smaller than those now held by the Democrats. But even if one accepts that excuse, it only underscores the necessity of changing the rules. To do that, Democrats must retain their majorities, then do whatever it takes to pass the climate and energy bills that the science demands. This is not a time for political excuses. On this issue, we can't afford political excuses. On this issue, we can't afford to be patient or incremental.

The New York Times Friday placed responsibility at the very top, where the buck usually stops. And those who so laud the President for every good piece of legislation that hits his desk need to accept that he also bears the burden when bills don't reach his desk. As the Times puts it:

The Republicans obviously bear a good part of the responsibility for this failure. With a handful of exceptions, they have denied or played down the problem of global warming for years and did pretty much anything they could to protect industry from necessary regulation. There are, however, as many as a dozen Senate Democrats, mainly from the South, Appalachia and the Midwest, who share the blame.

But:

Mr. Obama never fully committed to the fight. He raised hopes here and around the world last year when he pledged in Copenhagen to reduce United States greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent. Until a couple of months ago, he talked a good game, praising the House bill that aimed at the 17 percent target and promising to make every effort to get the Senate to follow.

Then, despite the opportunity offered by the oil spill to press for a bold energy policy, the president essentially disappeared.

And even before he disappeared, his efforts were curiously tepid. His energy speech was a deeply disappointing missed opportunity. He didn't galvanize public opinion, and he didn't play hardball with Congress the way he did at the very end with the health insurance bill. And without his leadership, the Senate did what it usually does and what it undoubtedly will continue to do, without his leadership. As the Times concludes:

There is no chance unless Mr. Obama comes out fighting: calling out the Republicans, shaming and rallying Democratic laggards and explaining to the American people that global warming and oil dependency are clear and present threats to American security.

The science is overwhelming and terrifying as we endure the hottest year on record. This is a historic moment and we can't afford to fail. We need our leaders to lead. Otherwise, we have no chance.

The science is in:

Through a chemical fingerprinting process, University of South Florida researchers have definitively linked clouds of underwater oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico to BP's runaway Deepwater Horizon well — the first direct scientific link between the subsurface oil clouds commonly known as "plumes" and the BP oil spill, USF officials said Friday.

Most people had figured that out, but it's important to have the proof.

The announcement came on the same day that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that its researchers have confirmed the existence of the subsea plumes at depths of 3,300 to 4,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf. NOAA said its detection equipment also implicated the BP well in the plumes' creation.

Now we have independent verification that what most people had figured out is true.

Together, the two studies confirm what in the early days of the spill was denied by BP and viewed skeptically by NOAA's chief — that much of the crude that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon well stayed beneath the surface of the water.

That's BP for you, denying even the most obvious. Proudly and consistently lowering the bar on honesty and integrity.

The science is in:

Through a chemical fingerprinting process, University of South Florida researchers have definitively linked clouds of underwater oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico to BP's runaway Deepwater Horizon well — the first direct scientific link between the subsurface oil clouds commonly known as "plumes" and the BP oil spill, USF officials said Friday.

Most people had figured that out, but it's important to have the proof.

The announcement came on the same day that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that its researchers have confirmed the existence of the subsea plumes at depths of 3,300 to 4,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf. NOAA said its detection equipment also implicated the BP well in the plumes' creation.

Now we have independent verification that what most people had figured out is true.

Together, the two studies confirm what in the early days of the spill was denied by BP and viewed skeptically by NOAA's chief — that much of the crude that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon well stayed beneath the surface of the water.

That's BP for you, denying even the most obvious. Proudly and consistently lowering the bar on honesty and integrity.

McClatchy's David Lightman has an interesting post about Netroots Nation and the current state of the liberal blogosphere. He begins by pointing to the contribution of the Netroots to the electoral success of 2008, but then turns to the frustration many are feeling, as the Democrats fail to enact a more liberal agenda. There is supposed to be a question as to the Netroots' approach going forward.

"We get better results when we advocate for what we believe in. I don't think everyone in Washington gets that," said Arshad Hasan, the executive director of Vermont-based Democracy for America, founded by former Gov. Howard Dean, the Democrat whose unsuccessful 2004 White House bid often is seen as the first major Internet-driven presidential campaign.

And then Lightman falls into the false framing that it's a question of idealism or pragmatism, that super-majorities are necessary, for enacting a party's agenda. This thinking always begs the question of how Bush and Reagan succeeded in enacting the bulk of their agendas with nothing close to super-majorities. It also glosses over the question of how a party sells its agenda to the public, and how an administration sells its agenda to Congress. Any student of history knows that some leaders have been more successful than others-- and not because they had more partisan or idealistic legislatures. Pragmatism is in the eye of the beholder.

Lightman finds the usual compromised quotes from supposed centrists, and DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen rightfully pays homage to the party's diversity. But Darcy Burner gets more to the point, when she points to Democrats' excessive ties to corporate America at the expense of the public good. And Rep. Raul Grijalva accurately identifies the strategic mistake that was made in trying to woo supposed moderate Republicans, when it always was clear that Republicans only were interested in scuttling the Democrats' agendaand destroying the Obama presidency. He also pointedly criticizes those who worry about the deficit during an economic crisis that always demanded larger stimulus.

"That's fool's gold," said Grijalva, referring to money saved by not passing those bills. "By not investing in job creation and state support, the economy's going to get worse."

While the Democratic moderates and liberals clashed — and Republicans stood solid in opposition — some 2.5 million jobless workers have lost extended unemployment benefits.

Lightman closes by quoting Netroots Nation Executive Director Raven Brooks:

What people in the netroots want is bold action to solve the problems

The Netroots should be about pushing the Democratic Party to the left. It should be about agitating for real change. When incrementalism occasionally is necessary, there should be no backing off, as if an incremental step is acceptable. The next step is at least as important as the previous one. And we never should accept incrementalism when there is no time for it. But more than anything, it is the job of the Netroots to push for bold action. The internet provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to speak truth to power, to challenge both the traditional media and entrenched political and economic structures, and to make of the American experiment a truly democratic ideal. If we in the Netroots accept less than the ideal, there will be no one left on the left to define the ideal.

McClatchy's David Lightman has an interesting post about Netroots Nation and the current state of the liberal blogosphere. He begins by pointing to the contribution of the Netroots to the electoral success of 2008, but then turns to the frustration many are feeling, as the Democrats fail to enact a more liberal agenda. There is supposed to be a question as to the Netroots' approach going forward.

"We get better results when we advocate for what we believe in. I don't think everyone in Washington gets that," said Arshad Hasan, the executive director of Vermont-based Democracy for America, founded by former Gov. Howard Dean, the Democrat whose unsuccessful 2004 White House bid often is seen as the first major Internet-driven presidential campaign.

And then Lightman falls into the false framing that it's a question of idealism or pragmatism, that super-majorities are necessary, for enacting a party's agenda. This thinking always begs the question of how Bush and Reagan succeeded in enacting the bulk of their agendas with nothing close to super-majorities. It also glosses over the question of how a party sells its agenda to the public, and how an administration sells its agenda to Congress. Any student of history knows that some leaders have been more successful than others-- and not because they had more partisan or idealistic legislatures. Pragmatism is in the eye of the beholder.

Lightman finds the usual compromised quotes from supposed centrists, and DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen rightfully pays homage to the party's diversity. But Darcy Burner gets more to the point, when she points to Democrats' excessive ties to corporate America at the expense of the public good. And Rep. Raul Grijalva accurately identifies the strategic mistake that was made in trying to woo supposed moderate Republicans, when it always was clear that Republicans only were interested in scuttling the Democrats' agendaand destroying the Obama presidency. He also pointedly criticizes those who worry about the deficit during an economic crisis that always demanded larger stimulus.

"That's fool's gold," said Grijalva, referring to money saved by not passing those bills. "By not investing in job creation and state support, the economy's going to get worse."

While the Democratic moderates and liberals clashed — and Republicans stood solid in opposition — some 2.5 million jobless workers have lost extended unemployment benefits.

Lightman closes by quoting Netroots Nation Executive Director Raven Brooks:

What people in the netroots want is bold action to solve the problems

The Netroots should be about pushing the Democratic Party to the left. It should be about agitating for real change. When incrementalism occasionally is necessary, there should be no backing off, as if an incremental step is acceptable. The next step is at least as important as the previous one. And we never should accept incrementalism when there is no time for it. But more than anything, it is the job of the Netroots to push for bold action. The internet provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to speak truth to power, to challenge both the traditional media and entrenched political and economic structures, and to make of the American experiment a truly democratic ideal. If we in the Netroots accept less than the ideal, there will be no one left on the left to define the ideal.