Although without the !!!, I have to admit. Indeed, their announcement that Peak Oil has officially arrived was fairly low key. In a story about the new spike in crude oil prices, Gibson observed that the 100$ a barrel milestone was about to be breached. Following that he stated that prices were unlikely to fall soon according to experts, because supply is decreasing while demand is increasing.

Got that? Every aspect of our lives is based on unbelievable cheap energy, energy so cheap that it makes sense to get your food from at least 3000 miles away and to kill of local agriculture. How much longer is that going to work as the price of oil keeps going up as supples decline?

Supply is decreasing while demand is increasing is the very definition of Peak Oil.  

Juan Cole of Informed Comment caught this juicy quote from a Stanford round table discussion entitled "Courting disaster: The fight for Oil, Water, and a Healthy Planet". The round table discussion included the likes of Thomas Friedman and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, as well as General John Abizaid.

From The Stanford Daily Online;

While Hennessy, Matson, Friedman and Bryson discussed green technology, the subject of America's operations in Iraq was also a hotly debated topic. Abizaid, who was formerly the Commander of the United States Central Command, quickly established a connection between the the two topics. "Of course it's about the oil, we can't really deny that", Abizaid said of the Iraq Campaign early in the talk.

Funny thing is, they have been denying it all along. But now Abizaid has joined Greenspan in stating the obvious.

Thank god no one was badly hurt apparently, but it's still scary.  From the WPO;

Hampton, Iowa--A campaign van carrying the wife of Senator Barack Obama collided with a motorcycle on a two lane country road in Central Iowa on Tuesday, sending the motorcyclist to the hospital.

Long story short: After the van started a left turn a motorcycle plowed into the left side of it. The motorcyclist was driving at high speed and the driver had passed many other vehicles on the left. Apparently he was trying to pass again when the van began to turn. No one in the van was hurt, although the van was totaled. The guy landed in some soft grass, but wasn't wearing a helmet. He had a cut on his head, but was conscious and lucid when taken to the hospital. The campaign rally was canceled because Michelle said it was not the time to campaign, but promised to return.

Update [2007-10-9 19:40:16 by PLS]: MSNBC just reported the story on Hardball.

The current goal on the Obama website is an astonishing 350,000 individual donors, and 500,000 donations. There are less than 24 hours left until the deadline, lets get cracking people...it can easily be done. You can give as little as 5$'s and help make history, lets push Obama over the top! At 6:00 pm, the ticker sat at 346,679 individual donations and 495,241 donations. This goal is easily within our reach if we all do our part, and I think everyone should even if they support another candidate. I heard on the news the other day that Obama was coming close to trumping the whole Republican field on either number of donors, the number of donations, or perhaps both. Even total dollars is possible as I was concentrating on something else and tuned in part way through the few lines the MSM thought this fact merited. Regardless, think of the waves that would generate, if the headlines declared that more folks were excited by one Democratic candidate than by the whole Republican lineup! And even more humiliating to the Repugs, this guy is running second in a strong field.

More below  

A new Gallup poll was just released that used a unique measure, a "feeling thermometer" to measure positive and negative feelings in the electorate towards the various candidates in both parties. The results indicate that Barack comes out on top for both parties, while Clinton lags way behind. Quotes to follow below.

Barack is discussing The Audacity of Hope right now with Tim Russert, on The Tim Russert show. This is a re-run from 11/18/06, which I never saw. So far he has been just amazing, it is obvious how intelligent and thoughtful he is. First he handled faith and the left, now he is talking about the sharp partisan atmosphere. He is talking about the problems with extreme ideologies, and the ways in which we have been split apart.

From The New York Times;

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton who has criticized Senator Barack Obama for saying that he would rule out using nuclear weapons to root out terrorists in Afghanistan or Pakistan, made a similar comment regarding Iran last year, before she became a Presidential candidate.

Got that? Clinton claimed that Obama showed his inexperience again by saying nukes were off the table against allied countries,while in fact she had ruled them out against a member of the Axis of evil over a year ago.

When Keith did the countdown tonight, one of the stories he mentioned (third story I think) was Obama's speech yesterday. He showed the clip in which Obama pointed out that we are currently fighting the war Osama wanted us to pursue. Keith commented that "Obama has a plan" about how to combat terrorism, unlike Bush who "doesn't have a clue".

Keith just mentioned the story again, showing a clip of Obama walking to the podium yesterday while commenting; "Countering terrorism and attacks for being soft, Obama shows that unlike Bush he has a plan"

Looks like it will be a good segment, and should put to rest the notion that Olbermann does negative stories about Obama. I am glad Olbermann is giving some props to Obama for a very good speech overall.

I don't know about you guys, but I want to watch the debate again. For one thing, I didn't really notice how the crowd (ie..the people) reacted to Clinton's reply to "Would you consider?" question. Given the recommended diary that is currently up, I want to really track the audience responses to all the candidates.

Besides, I thought at the time that Obama started framing his idea of change, putting meat on the bones, so to speak. Prior to "the question" flap, during the actual debate, Obama took every opportunity to talk about the corporate elite's stranglehold on our government.

Keep score with me. Debate starting now on the east coast. It will be broadcast again in two hours.

I just read the great news in Geekesque's recommended diary about how Obama responded to Hillary's attack, and I was reminded of when I really started to get on board with Obama in the first place. It was when he got attacked early on and hit back with deadly force.

Reading what he had to say about this, I have to say that Hillary just lost.  Calling him "naive"  when she claims that Bush "mislead" her is a wonderful gift. She thought she had him because the CW is that you don't reward your enemy by "talking" to him unless "said" enemy agrees up front to capitulate. And Obama uses that to tie her to Bush, and hoists her on her own petard on Iraq. Man, this guy is a great infighter.

He is a gentleman, that's what worries people I think. But it seems that those who attack him regret it later. Isn't that what we all want?

I was blown away by the details the campaigns released about their fundraising numbers, especially by the complete graph that Adam B provided a link to in his front page post yesterday. I believe that those numbers show that Barack Obama is the guy we have been waiting for, the guy that can build a large coalition for real change.

Follow me over the break to look at the numbers more closely.

We all know, or at least think we know why Hillary was able to push back Barack Obama's surge towards the nomination, stabilize her numbers, and cement her "frontrunner" status. After the Q1 numbers came out, Obama started climbing in the polls and many pundits declared that Hillary's "inevitable" meme was no longer operable. Then came the debates, and despite Barack' rhetorical skills on the stump, it was Hillary's performance that everyone lauded. Much was made of Hillary's greater experience vs Barack's difficulty with the 60 minute soundbite. More than one pundit declares that debates are simply not his strong suit, and Obama's poll numbers began to stall and once again the "inevitable" meme started dominating the coverage.

Thursday, Obama clearly hit one out of the park at the NAACP debate, but this fact went unmentioned except in print. More below...  

First, this isn't an Obama hit piece, or a puff diary, even though I do support Obama if Gore stays out it. Rather, it is my belief that the money Obama and the other Dems have raised is part of a much larger picture. A picture that includes the accelerated primary calender, the unprecidated early start of the election "season", the huge crowds so early in the contest, and so on.

Many here, as well as many of the pundits blame the early start on the media, claiming that the media is driving this frenzy, and we should all just relax because it's far to early for all this right now.

Not so, and here's why. This time, the primary is the real presidential race, and the general election will only serve as an afterthought. Explanation below...  

Kos was right, that how the contenders are polling right now basically means diddly squat, but he didn't go far enough. The real reason that Obama will be our nominee is NH. Why NH? The McCain factor.

Explanation below.

CNN is reporting that Conyers and Leahy have issued 2 subpoenas regarding the firings by the Attorney General's office, one of which went to Harriet Miers. The WH responded that they would respond "appropriately" I believe. Any guesses as to what Bush views as an appropriate?

Kudos the Conyers and Leahy for not caving into the ceaseless   spin by the MSM that "there is no underlying crime here", and thus, it is just partisan politics to continue to investigate these firings. Nice to see that all the Dems aren't invertebrates afterall!!!

Anyone else see this? If so, please fill in missing details.  

Wow, what a great race, the best I have seen in years. Rags to Riches is her name, and she ran a great race. Stumbled out of the gate and ended up having to go wide, she was the forth horse from the rail starting the stretch run. The race ended with her and the favorite, Curlin dueling nose to nose. Rags to Riches went a head by a nose, but then Curlin battled back to go a head of her for a few paces before she pulled into the lead by a nose under the wire. The last filly to win the Belmont was in 1905, and the race was only a mile 1/4 then, not a mile and 1/2!!!

Ironically enough, tonight they are airing "Ruffian", the story of the last great filly (probably the greatest before today) who broke her leg just as she was pulling away from a stallion in a match race.

Wow, just wow...if you didn't see it, be sure to watch the news.

Just wanted to let Steve's many fans know that his family created a wonderful obit that has been posted at The News Blog,  which contains gems like this one;

The oldest child of Evelyn Gilliard...and Steven Gilliard Sr..., Steven displayed his passion for the written word as a child and was reading the newspaper by the time he was three.

More below.

Recent events such as being granted SS protection this early in the campaign, as well as CBS not allowing any more on line comments regarding Obama due to the overt racism of many of them, have once again raised the specter at Dkos that Obama cannot win because he is black. Considering the history of this country, this point of view seems quite reasonable, however, just the opposite is true. Obama's bi-racial status is actually a key element of his appeal. Recently David Greenberg wrote this commentary for Slate "How Obama is like JFK";

In the 1960 campaign, Kennedy turned his religion from a liability into an asset. Obama seems to be doing the same thing with his race.

More from Geenberg below.