Look, I’m not opposed to anything that saves some energy. If you can leave your lights on less often, take less trips in your car or cook more meals at home you’ll probably save some money and use a bit less fuel. Good! But Obama’s recent comments about keeping your tires properly inflated to save energy have been around for a while. Check out this YouTube video. Here’s where it came from: The Carter Administration Published A Study That Proposed “Mandatory Tire Inflation...

Our guest author, Paleo-Pat of Political Byline, has looked across the silly season and found reason to sink into dismay. Today’s topic is on… shoes. Please note that Guest Voices do not necessarily reflect those of Joe Gandelman or The Moderate Voice. Honestly, is this the best that the liberals can do? There have been times, when I, as a Blogger, have wanted to bang my head on the desk. There are times, when I have become so frustrated at the level of stupidity being served by both...

Today on Mid Stream Radio, we have a bit of a treat for you, should you care to stop by. (1 pm eastern, 10 am pacific today.) In the second half, Cindy and I will be talking to Derek Barr, representative of the Bob Barr campaign. (And probably only by coincidence, Bob’s son.) We’ll be talking to him about the campaign and asking some questions on issues raised by readers here at TMV. If you already have, or stop by early and pick up, a nickname for the live web chat at the BTR homepage,...

Observing the McCain campaign this week is becoming uncomfortably akin to watching a New York Jets game. Even if you really, really want them to win, you get a sick feeling in your gut as you see them drop passes, fumble and throw the ball to people wearing the wrong jersey. Opportunities are there, but flailing, wild swings are taken in the wrong direction. And now we see McCain comparing Obama to a pop star such as Paris Hilton or Britney Speares? “This is a typically superfluous response...

This is an exciting story coming out of NASA this week. Using the Cassini spacecraft, we have now determined that liquid lakes exist on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. PASADENA, Calif. — NASA scientists have concluded that at least one of the large lakes observed on Saturn’s moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, and have positively identified the presence of ethane. This makes Titan the only body in our solar system beyond Earth known to have liquid on its surface. Scientists...

After Messiah One touched down back in the States, Barack Obama sat down for a meeting with fellow Democrats to cover some of the lessons learned during the trip. One of the big topics was, apparently, mideast relations. Obama told the caucus, according to an attendee, “Nobody said this to me directly but I get the feeling from my talks that if the sanctions don’t work Israel is going to strike Iran.” Others in the room recall this as well. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Look, Senator...

Lots of us in the blogging community will be attending the GOP Convention this September in Minnesota to cover the events live and report back to you. Would you like a chance to join us for free? Stop by the convention’s YouTube page for details of how you can submit a two minute video and possibly win a free trip to the big party. Ok, there’s one catch. You need to be a Republican, and the them of your video must be, “Why I’m a Republican in 2008.” The deadline is Friday,...

Pete Hamill, of New Yorker fame, made an appearance on Morning Joe today and decided to jump on the bandwagon with Joe Scarborough’s daily tirade against “the Cheetos brigade.” (His name for bloggers.) Joe was talking about some mass e-mail he received with smears against one of the candidates, and then moved into saying how unreliable bloggers were, as if they were one in the same with the mass smear-mails. Hamill had the following to say about blogging: It’s not journalism,...

Stop by the Ed Morrissey show between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm today and I’ll be the guest. I know… you’re overwhelmed.

I had held off from commenting on the recent polling showing either John McCain pushing Barack Obama off his pedestal or Obama pulling into his widest lead in the last month. I find this pair significant, not for their informative value as to who is ahead or behind, but for the demonstration of exactly how increasingly useless these polls are. This rare case shows us the same company conducting polling during the exact same three day period and coming up with a set of results that are 12 points...

A blogger conference call was held today by the Bob Barr campaign, with the candidate giving opening statements and then taking questions from various bloggers. Bob has been doing some cross country travel for fundraising, but is now back in Atlanta. The candidate continues to aggressively pursue a solid relationship with the new media, giving us levels of access you simply don’t see with the two major parties. I was also impressed with the level of candor we saw, offering up very direct answers...

Well, ok… I know what it’s doing right now. It’s reading TMV. But there may be a fair amount of time when your computer is sitting around unproductively contributing nothing to society. Perhaps you would like to get that lazy processor off of its butt and help in the search for ET! SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes...

It was a cold, drizzly day in Laketown as Bard, descendent of Girion of Dale, lifted his bow toward the flying figure of the great fire-drake, Smaug. The dragon was covered in jeweled armor from nose to tip of tail, impervious to arrow or spear, but Bard had found a bare spot on the beast’s belly where the plating had fallen away. He launched his arrow skyward, striking the drake in its vitals and sending it crashing into the waters of the lake below. So ended Smaug, last of the great fire...

The Washington Post attempts to make some hay over oil company contributions to the McCain campaign following his call for increased domestic oil production. Here’s the lede, just to set the tone of the piece. Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling. Oil and gas industry...

Back in June, as I prepared to go on my annual vacation, I was invited out by some friends to a local watering hole for drinks and a few games of pool. Despite years of experience, good times with good friends stretched the evening out and the phrase “a few” rapidly disappeared from descriptions of both billiards and beverages. At one point I found myself engaged in a heated discussion – let’s be honest and just say it was an argument – with a woman who attends our church, on the subject...

This is a tough question to field, since the word “bold” could very easily be interpreted as either “visionary” or “stupid” depending on the context. With that in mind, I’ll take a shot at this one. For Obama, my choice might fall into both the visionary and stupid categories, but I would say Bill Richardson. He’s hugely popular in his home state of New Mexico, but this doesn’t really bring much to the table as Obama looks to carry New Mexico...

A blogger conference call was held today, hosted by McCain policy adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer, to discuss energy issues in election 2008. Nancy started off by stressing the need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and the impact of rising fuel prices on not only gas, but almost all goods owing to rising transportation costs. “It is irrational and irresponsible to ignore safe, known energy sources.” Congress is refusing to consider increases in domestic production, and she describes...

Despite the perceived dire climate for Republicans nationally, I continue to watch the COPM (Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan) states for an indicator of how the general election will play out. While the media focuses on the various stops of the Obama team across Europe, John McCain continues to hammer on energy policy and the economy in some of these states, and the message seems to be sinking in. The four polls conducted by Quinnipiac University in partnership with the Wall Street Journal...

Last night I penned a column on whether or not Duncan Hunter wants to shoot wildebeests. Earlier I posted a picture of my basset hound. This morning I began my morning ritual of screening the headlines of Google Political News and the hot topics on Memeorandum, while flipping back and forth between Morning Joe, CNN Headline News and Fox News, and found myself totally uninspired to write about anything I saw. What happened? It’s the summer political doldrums when we plunge to the lowest depths...

Today we bring you yet another story reminding me that we need to ask T-Steel for a “WTF” category for stories. Congressman Duncan Hunter of California apparently decided that some personal action was required to help out with the dire refugee situation in Chad, where hundreds of thousands of Darfur citizens are seeking safety. His team quickly leapt into action. Hunter’s staff contacted the embassy in N’Djamena, Chad, last week to see whether Hunter could distribute food...