To Publicly Finance, Or Not To...

Hmm. I support Obama but I'm not sure how I feel about this. I mean, he pretty plainly has said all along that he believes in, and will use, public campaign financing. Until... yesterday. When he announces that no, in fact, the quarter of a billion dollars he's raised is a HELLUVA lot more compelling than the paltry $85M that he'd get from the public coffers.

On the one hand, I totally get it. Why not fight the fight with the best and most generous resources you can muster? On the other hand, as a citizen, I'm disgusted. I mean didn't he say one thing for months (nay, years) and then totally reverse himself when it was politically expedient (or financially expedient as the case may be) to do so?

Anybody wanna weigh in on this thing? Frankly, I already know where you'll stand if your a McCain supporter, so save me the piling-on... I'm more curious what the Dems have to say about this thing...

Proposal To Force Sex Offenders to Register Email Addresses, IM Aliases

Hmmm... don't I know someone in that AG's office?

Richmond, Va. -- Marking the first legislation of its kind in the nation, convicted sex offenders in Virginia could soon be required to register their email addresses, instant messaging screen names and chat handles into a statewide database. Under the proposal by Attorney General Bob McDonnell, web sites would be able to use the list to block sex offenders, and law enforcement officials could also use it as a tool to fight online predators. "We require all sex offenders to register their physical and mailing addresses in Virginia, but in the 21st century it is just as critical that they register any email addresses or IM screen names," said McDonnell, whose Youth Internet Safety Task Force worked with social networking site MySpace to craft the legislation. Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer of MySpace, called it "an important recognition that the Internet has become a community as real as any other neighborhood and is in need of similar safeguards." MySpace last week announced plans to build its own searchable national database of sex offenders.

More here and here.

The revolution will be grown here, And then televised.

Local, sustainable small farms... what do they mean? Do they mean not having to truck lettuce 2,000 miles to get to my dinner table? Do they mean not using pesticides? Do they mean growing regionally-appropriate crops?

I have to believe this is the true wave of the future, even if for some of us it conjures images of "off the grid" hippies and liberal politics. It's bigger than that, my friends, it's bigger than partisanship and one-upmanship. I'm coming to believe it's a moral and national imperative, and, judging by the way the heirloom tomatoes and locally-harvested honey from my neighborhood farmer's market taste, it's a tasty future.