Oh the tangled links we weave when we link to inform.

He remembers a blast, the smell of smoke, oil and blood. He remembers ammo “cooking off”. He lost consciousness. – Circling the Moon

• Lawmakers Should Be at Least as Thoughtful About Abortion as Women Are – A compelling discussion of policy impacts on women and their life decisions.
• The Real Story – The actual story of how a CBS reporter got blown up in Afghanistan. A must read blog post.
• What Happens To Your Body If You Drink A Coke Right Now – It turns out, the cocaine was redundant.
• Water and and Access: Arsenic in Bangladesh Aid agencies in Bangladesh dug wells without checking for heavy metals. Local residents had told the agencies that the wells wouldn’t be good. Agencies need to work WITH communities.
• The Reagan Revolution Comes Home To Roost – How conservatism kicked America in the gut, with charts!
• Leading Cornell Doctor Performing Genital Cutting – You mean you thought medically-unnecessary genital mutilation was only practiced by patriarchal religious sects on the little girls of some “other” culture? Wrong.
• Texas GOP platform – It’s a big Plate o’ Crazy.
• Rolling Stone’s McChrystal interview shows the magazine’s nonmusical side – The Post writes an article about the pop culture magazine that has consistently been out-reporting them for a while now. And it’s a good summary of why that’s the case.

Follow below the fold for some of the progressive solicitations we’ve actually responded to recently.

Like, for example, making sure that BP provides safety equipment to cleanup workers on the Gulf coast.

• Nausea, nosebleeds, and chest pains – Tell BP that they need to provide safety equipment to cleanup workers. People come first!

Senator Reid is betting big on real, strong legislation to cap our carbon emissions. In light of the political environment, I think it’s great to see Democratic leadership picking to go big, or go home.

Instead of combining climate with clean energy, then listening to conservadems whine that climate has to be ditched in favor of a clean-energy-only bill, Reid is unambiguously coupling climate with a politically popular Spill Bill.  He’s daring conservadems and Republicans to stand with Bad People and Beach Polluters, or stand with the American public.

The ads write themselves.  “Will the Party of Barton vote with BP against America’s clean energy future?”  “Will Republicans keep on apologizing to Big Oil for burdensome regulations, or will they stand up for the American people?”  “Democrats want polluters to pay, Republicans want to give them a license to pollute free.”

The strategy isn’t a guaranteed win.  Already conservadems Landrieu and Bayh are dithering.  Politico, again: “Thus far, Reid can’t count on all Democrats coalescing around this approach. Several say they are fearful that hitching a popular oil reform bill to a big, unwieldy climate plan will just sink legislation that could otherwise serve as a quick, easy and politically popular win.” – DailyKos

This is a big, bold move and deserves our backing. Follow below to write our Senators!  So, I wrote our Senators.

Senator Warner,

I strongly support the strategy of linking climate change (carbon cap) legislation to the Spill Bill. Please come out in favor of Senator Reid’s plan and vote in favor of all motions, procedural and otherwise, necessary to pass it.

Sincerely,

Paradox13

I encourage you do to so too!

Email Senator Webb

Email Senator Warner

(With a tip-o-the-cap to Blue Virginia.)

Supervisor Miller will be holding a public hearing for residents of the Dulles district on the Chesapeake Bay Act tonight.

Want to learn more about the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act?

I am interested in hearing Dulles District residents’ opinions regarding the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. I will be hosting a community meeting to discuss concerns with Dulles District residents. Loudoun County staff will present information and attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions. The meeting will be:

Tuesday, June 22nd at 6:30 pm, Mercer Middle School

For more information about the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, please visit:

www.loudoun.gov/chesapeakebay

Hope to see you there,

Stevens

If you live in the Dulles district, you should make an effort to come out. A map to the location is below.Here’s a map to the school where the meeting will be held.

Mercer Middle School

42149 Greenstone Dr

Aldie, VA 20105

View Larger Map

So, the Loudoun Independent and the Loudoun Times-Mirror are merging, in another change to the local Loudoun media market. You may recall that Leesburg Today went through bankruptcy last year, and LoudounExtra was scrapped by the Post. The number of independent media voices in our county – the richest in Americ – will be further reduced.

Two Loudoun newspapers announced Thursday that they are merging their print and online operations.

The Loudoun Times-Mirror and the Loudoun Independent are combining, Peter Arundel, president and chief executive of Times Community News, said in an article on LoudounTimes.com.

The Times-Mirror will continue to be published Wednesdays, and the Independent will move to Fridays. – The Washington Post

The consolidation and reduction in independent media does not mean that the quality of reporting and news in Loudoun will be improving.Recall, for example, the totally made-up “news” story based on a non-scientific poll of an insignificant number of self-selecting website readers that the Loudoun Independent ran last week. As Daverunner opined then:

The Loudoun Independent is owned by William Dean, who also runs engineering firm M.C. Dean, Inc., headquartered in Sterling, VA. Ironically, Bill Dean personally donated $2,000 to Mr. Black’s campaigns when he (Black) served as Delegate for the 32nd District.

Even more ironically, M.C. Dean Building intelligence Inc. is also on record as having donated $19,500 to Mr. Black while he was a delegate, dating back to 2000. – Loudoun Progress

We will watch closely the editorial bent of the Times-Mirror in light of this merger. Money buys access, and sometimes even coverage and spin. Here’s hoping the Times-Mirror’s historical independence will not be sullied by Mr. Dean’s Independent investment.

Why, links, what have you done?

• First Replicating Creature Spawned in Life Simulator – At it’s most basic, the mathematics of life itself. Fascinating, with video, as well!

There’s a thousand reasons to read Digby. Here’s one more.

I know the Democratic Party sucks. (It always has to one degree or another, by the way. Check out Roosevelt’s policies on race. It’s not like he didn’t know they were bad — it was his deal with the devil to keep the old confederacy in the coalition.) Sadly, that’s true of every political party ever created. However, it is the only institutional governance vehicle we have for liberalism of any kind and it is the only viable tool our system provides to fight back the increasingly manipulative, nihilistic and fascistic conservatives. – Digby

This is what I think of when I hear my fellow Democrats get disheartened and complain about our Party. We are the Party. Not the President, not Congress members, us. The Party is what we make of it. The fight is never done, and the party is not perfect – no human institution is – but it’s what we have, and it’s what we make of it. Just as America isn’t perfect, but we’re working towards an ever-more perfect union. Our Democratic party isn’t perfect. It’s flawed and it’s scared, and it needs our help to stay true to its bearings. But isn’t that kinda the point of being involved in the first place?

Go link or go home!

Mentioning your religion helps you, but, paradoxically, it helps you most if you have no religion. We know that’s going to piss a lot of people off, and we’re more or less tongue-in-cheek with this advice, but it’s what the numbers say. – Exactly What To Say In A First Message

• Some educators question if whiteboards, other high-tech tools raise achievement – About those electronic whiteboards…
• Treasury: Bailout repayments exceed outstanding debt – So, basically, the US Taxpayer made about an 11% return on the TARP program. And yet the same people who decry the TARP are the ones railing about the deficit. I guess intellectual consistency is truly the hobgoblin of little minds.
• Online Dating: Exactly What To Say In A First Message – Fascinating statistical study of what words work, and what words don’t in initial messages on online dating sites. Did you know that’s is good to be an atheist if you want to meet someone online?
• Student attacks Hells Angels with puppy – “A German student created a traffic jam in Bavaria after making a rude gesture at a group of Hells Angels motorcycle gang members, hurling a puppy at them and then escaping on a stolen bulldozer.”

Follow below the fold for some of the progressive solicitations we’ve actually responded to recently.

Reading blogs isn’t really activism unless it gets you to take action.  

• As Rep. Wolf to Co-sponsor the CIR ASAP bill – The Comprehensive Immigration Reform, ASAP bill, introduced by Rep. Gutierrez, would solve our immigration mess. Tell Rep. Wolf to support it, today.

The Upright Citizens Brigade takes on the BP Oil Spill.