PMCG - thePhoenix, S@N, FNX

The ProJo on Palin

Ian Donnis — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:20:00 GMT

The Journal editorial board, once a GOP redoubt, offers its view on Sarah Palin's coming-out party, dubbing it "Fine entertainment":

Governor Palin didn’t mention that she’s a global-warming denier, that she opposes stem-cell research and would set back science education by teaching creationism in public schools. She also didn’t note, of course, that she opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest.
Some Americans might be put off by the image of a noisy social conservative who harasses librarians over their book selections but whose own family displays the ambiguities of some sexual matters that come to mind. Meanwhile, while some viewers were moved by the relentless televising of her infant child with Down syndrome, others saw this as her using her children as a campaign prop.
You’d never have known from listening to Ms. Palin that Republicans have been running this country for most of the past 26 years. Rather than address some of her party’s shortcomings, she tried to revive the “culture war” with self-pitying riffs on how mean the big media allegedly are to small-town working folk.
Her much-hyped latter-day opposition to the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” is dishonest given her support of the infamous boondoggle before it became the subject of national public anger. And as mayor of Wasilla, she played the federal-welfare game as well as any other master pol from Alaska or West Virginia. Mr. McCain, who has made much of his opposition to pork, has a running mate who hired lobbyists to reel in $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700.
Whether the blue-collar persona she engagingly presents will distract a stressed middle class from pinning at least part of its decline on Republican policies remains to be seen. Americans are besieged by rising health-care costs, stagnant or falling real wages and a White House and Congresses (Democratic and Republican) that have all too often showed themselves obsessed with rewarding rich friends. We didn’t hear anything about that on Wednesday night. We have a couple of months in which to see if her personality and personal story will trump all else.
Sarah Palin has shown herself as someone to be reckoned with. If only her positions were as convincing as her speaking ability and her speechwriters’ acumen.

Undecideds: Why the numbers are breaking for Obama

David S. Bernstein — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:54:00 GMT

The cross-tabs of a new Economist/YouGov poll provides some insight into the undecideds in the Presidential election. The poll, taken this week, has Obama ahead 42-39 -- but the "not sure" respondents are obviously where the action is.

First thing to notice is that a much higher percentage of women than men say they are undecided, and they therefore make up two-thirds of the group. Given the huge edge Obama has among women voters, that figures to be a big, big edge for him.

Obama is seen favorably by 54 percent of those undecided voters, compared with 46 percent who have a favorable opinion of McCain. Only 13 percent of those undecideds see Obama as "very liberal." Only 16% say they dislike him, with 13 percent liking him "a lot" and 43% "somewhat.

Overall, various polls are showing Obama's favorability at the mid- to high-50s, which in my opinion is deadly for McCain. Voters are generally disposed to voting for the Democrat (or more accurately, against the Republican), so McCain really needs to make them wary of him. So far they don't.

Back to the new poll, the breakdown numbers for the "not sure" group look like they are awfully inclined toward Obama on the issues. For starters, a whopping 50% say that the economy is their most important issue for the election, with health care and Iraq tied well behind at 13 percent. These undecideds are even more down on the economy than the full survey sample: 52% say the economy is "poor," 34% "not so good," a mere 4% "good," and zero percent "excellent." On the classic "right track/wrong track" question, these voters are beyond gloomy: 1% right track, 77% wrong track, 22% unsure.

By a 61-14 margin they say it was a mistake to invade Iraq. By a 67-16 margin they approve of raising taxes on families earning over $200,000 a year. By a 45-27 margin they want universal health care coverage.

To my mind, this all confirms what I've been saying for some time, which is that for McCain to sway the undecideds, he needs to A) drive up Obama's negatives, and B) convince people that he will, to borrow a phrase from years past, focus like a laser on the economy. With an audience of 40 million last night, I don't think he did either one.

39 Million Watched McCain Last Night, Exceeding Obama's Total

Steven Stark — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:20:00 GMT

John McCain's speech last night drew an audience of 39 million, surpassing Barack Obama's tremendous audience of the week before by about a million. As noted earlier, we didn't give the speech particularly high marks and undoubtedly, an NFL lead-in on NBC helped the totals.

But 39 million is a lot of people. Look for a McCain bounce over the next few days that could well put him in the lead in the polls for the first time in a long time.

Auten to join Roberts's staff

Ian Donnis — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:50:00 GMT

Matt Auten, one of the more visible enviros in RI, sends this word:

After five wonderful years of running Environment Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Public Interest Research Group and serving on the Environment Council of Rhode Island I have decided to move on to a new opportunity and will be leaving Environment Rhode Island and the Environment Council in the next few days.

Over the past few years I believe we have made tremendous progress for Rhode Island's environment and citizens. Working collaboratively (or as adversaries) we have helped make Rhode Island a better place to live. While your hard work and dedication sometimes get overlooked, the changes we've made surround us each and every day. Every new car pollutes less, our drinking water and gasoline are safer, electric efficiency programs are growing, Rhode Island now has a statewide natural gas conservation program, ground has been broken on Rhode Island's first municipal wind turbine and more are coming, and we have become one of the first states to regulate global warming pollution from power plants.

Although I will miss working directly with you in my capacity with Environment Rhode Island I am excited to tell you that , I have recently accepted an offer from Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts to serve as her Senior Policy Analyst. As you may know, I had the opportunity to work extensively with Lt. Governor Roberts on identity theft legislation and energy efficiency legislation during her tenure as a State Senator and was always impressed by her work ethic, integrity and principles.

Rhode Island is currently faced with a number of serious interconnected challenges to our economy and our energy, transportation, health care and education systems. I firmly believe Lt. Governor Roberts is one of the leaders we need to help guide us through these trying times and challenges, and I am honored to have the opportunity to work on her staff.

Big Jim's Big Predictions for the Big 2008 NFL Season.

Big Jim — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:17:00 GMT

If I'm right about these things, you can fully expect me to gloat about it come early next year.

If I'm wrong, well, whatever. Feel free to call me an idiot, or something much worse.

- The Patriots are going to have a year like the 2002 season.

Well, not EXACTLY like it.
That team finished 9-7, failed to make the playoffs, and had a HORRIFIC run defense.
HOWEVER.
They WERE frustrating as hell to watch, and they just looked like they were hungover
from the previous years absurdly awesome playoff run/Superbowl win.
Mark it down, people.
You can expect that same kind of frustration this season.
Their secondary is going to make you want to scream.
Lawrence Maroney is NOT a premier NFL running back. This year, the people will learn this.
If the postseason didn't expose Richard Seymore as the most overrated D-lineman in NFL history,
this season will.
And perhaps worst of all, something is just....'off' with Tom Brady.
He looked like shit during the postseason, and this "foot injury" terrifies me.
Not to mention, he's my starting QB for my stupid fantasy team.
So clearly, something bad is going to happen to him now that THAT black cloud is over his head.

The whole thing has the feel of 10-6. 11-5, AT BEST.
Sure, they'll win the AFC East.
But they're one n' done in the playoffs.

Believe me.
I hope I'm wrong.

- My Sleeper pick for 2008 is.... The Buffalo Bills.

Here's my reasons.
1) Great coach in Swampscott's own Dick Jauron.
2) Stud running back in Marshawn Lynch.
3) 2nd year QB who really didn't look like a complete doofus last year in Trent Edwards.
4) BIG additions to an already decent defense in the offseason with LB Kawika Mitchell and DT Marcus Stroud
5) Call it a hunch. I say they sqweak into the playoffs as the 6 seed. Say... 9-7ish.

Oh, and you can forget all of this if J.P. Losman is on the field, ever.

- Don't. Don't believe the hype.

Y'know, if I was the NY Giants, y'know who I'd send a complimentary Superbowl ring to?

Brett Favre. That's who.

See, if it wasn't for that dumb hick/interception machine, the Patriots would have played Green Bay, demolished them,
and finshed 19-0, like we all know they SHOULD have.
Instead, Brett Favre became Brett Favre of the last 6 years (last years regular season was an anomaly)
and threw a BACKBREAKING pick which ultimately led to the Giants winning.
And well, the rest...the rest I don't want to talk about because I'll just get really angry.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is this.
The Jets are still going to suck.
Brett Favre will NOT make a big difference.
I'll say this though.
They'll fool everyone into thinking they're awesome by starting 4-0 (including beating the Pats in wk. 2) then, Brett Favre will become Brett Favre of the last 6 years, the rest of the team will realize "hey, we're the Jets!" and then they'll win only 3 or 4 more games the rest of the season.

- This years freakouts and meldowns will come from the following players and or coaches.

1) Matt Leinart (Because he sucks, and he'll realize he'll never be a starter again.)
2) Marvin Lewis (Because he got hit by a bus known as Bengals management, and he's sick of criminals.)
3) Randy Moss (Because he's overdue, and I just feel it coming.)
4) Terrell Owens (See above.)
5) Jerry Jones (Because the Cowboys won't win the Superbowl. Again. And he'll fire Wade Phillips, too.)

- In what will be the worst Superbowl since the Steelers beat the Seahawks....

Brace yourself for the excitement of Jacksonville vs. New Orleans!

With your Superbowl champion being...

- The New Orleans Saints.

They'll do it with nothing but offense.
And sure, I picked them to win it all last year and couldn't have been more wrong.
Whatever.
That's why they're called predictions.
9 times out of 10 they're wrong.

Your thoughts?

Regardless, enjoy the greatest sport the world has ever known for the next few months!

Joan Baez Tickets plus CD Giveaway

webteam — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:40:00 GMT

Click Here to enter to win Joan Baez Prizes.

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New surge in war movies

Peter Keough — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:36:00 GMT

Now that we’ve gotten war off our TV screens, we can put it back where it belongs, in movie theaters. Because it looks like the war movie is back, repackaged and marketed anew, just like the war we used to see on TV. So observes “The Hollywood Reporter” after taking a look at the upcoming films now being showcased at the Toronto Film Festival. Among those featured are Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” which is the war movie as vindication of overlooked African-American history and Paul Gross’s “Passchendaele” which is the war movie as reminder of the mind-numbing and pointless slaughter of thousands of Canadians on a blood-soaked hard to pronounce Belgian WWI battleground. And sneaking in too is the now untouchable Iraq War Movie, called “anything but an Iraq War movie.” Such as an action-adventure movie that just happens to take place in Iraq like Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” or a romantic comedy involving goofy, attractive folks who just happen to be Iraq War veterans on stateside leave in the US like Neil Burger’s “The Lucky Ones.” "Iraq is a dirty word in film marketing right now," explains Roadside Attractions co-topper Howard Cohen, who is distributing "The Lucky Ones." The "Reporter notes that Cohen is planning a Sept. 26 release for "Lucky" "in hopes that the zeitgeist might change, making the film more marketable.’

And let us not forget the war movie as Tom Cruise movie, “Valkyrie,” or as Quentin Tarantino movie, “Inglorious Bastards,” (both of which apparently are raising controversies with German critics, who are still soreheads more than 60 years after the war ended)..

But the real sign that the war movie is making a comeback is the Hollywood script-like story of John McCain as processed into his presidential campaign narrative. As another Hollywood Reporter article comments about the just-concluded Republican Convention and its nominee (and you can just imagine these words being spoken by the late voice of Hollywood trailers, Don LaFontaine) “A prisoner of war who beat the odds during five years of brutality in a Hanoi jail cell, John McCain beat the odds again Thursday night when he accepted the Republican nomination for president. The story of McCain's youth was told in the 2005 TV movie "Faith of Our Fathers." But walking up to the podium at the Xcel Energy Center, the now 72-year-old McCain turned another page in a new script that brought him from nearly failed candidate to a possible Hollywood-style triumph as president of the United States.”

And if they can’t do it in real life, there’s already the movie version. "The Guardian" has been calling on readers for casting suggestions for all the leading figures. The leading candidate for the role of McCain is, no surprise, neo-Republican Jon Voight.

Fourth time's the charmer for Darien Brahms

Clif Garboden — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:34:00 GMT

I love music, know a lot about it, seldom write about it, but I'm inspired my good-buddy Darien Brahms (self-styled Tomboy Fatale) up in Portland, Maine who releases her fourth solo CD (appropriately titled Number Four) on Saturday, September 6, at that city's SPACE Gallery.

Darien's done a lot of things: musically those include jazz, country, folk, rock, and protest. She also paints -- woodwork. Seriously, that's her day job.

Anyway, Darien is a modest sort, who doesn't know (or won't acknowledge) the extent of her own talents. Her latest self-produced CD was a long learning experience for her in terms of production technology. She claims she learned a lot, and she's right about that. This is a richly produced and well engineered (she did both) album that seldom, if ever, overplays the studio gimmicks.

Number Four, which was five years in the making is not one of those albums where once you've heard the "good song," you've heard them all. I'd call every song on this thing "good," and more to the point, different from the rest. Sort of a sampler of musical styles covering pop to hip-hop to rock to country with no one example being trapped purely in it's signature genre.

You can test-drive some of this at Brahms's MySpace page. The current pick for hit single seems to be "Sweet Little Darling," which is indeed infectious -- a little old-school soul, a touch of bubblegum, and references to Memphis horns. All in all difficult to get out of your head. But the harder, more challenging cuts are even more rewarding, especially, "I'm So Afraid," which effectively turns fear into kind of scary power. And "Too Late for Whitey" doesn't so much break new ground as invent it vis a vis Brahms's past efforts.

Though Brahms as toured around and opened for big-name acts and such, she tends to stick pretty close to Casco Bay these days. This album could (and to my mind should) change that.

And if you don't believe me, here's what long-time Phoenix music writer Brett Milano said about the album.

"What a voice Darien Brahms has-warm and earthy and full of deep blue intrigue; you hear it once and want to learn any secrets she's telling. You wouldn't want to waste this voice on mundane songs, and that's not the kind she writes: Whether exploring the spiritual, the sensual or the grey areas in between, she doesn't shy away from the messy emotional territory where you gain the greatest insights and have the most fun. While she'll always be a rocker at heart, her fourth album adds some idiosyncratic touches of blues, lounge pop, even hip-hop. It's all smart and adventurous, with a few of the sharpest hooks I've heard this year."
-Brett Milano, author of The Sound of Our Town -- a History of Boston Rock and Roll

You might also want to read Sam Pfeifle's Portland Phoenix review of Number Four.

“No, you can’t do that. It’s bad for you.”

Harvey Silverglate — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:50:00 GMT

I'm as vicious a critic of cigarettes as there is - my father, who smoked four packs of Camels a day, befouled our small Brooklyn apartment (as well as his lungs and heart) and died of a massive heart attack two months before my college graduation, at the age of 48. But I think that the current mania for seeking to ban the nasty habit without actually outlawing the product has finally gone too far. The recent Boston Globe report by Stephen Smith illustrates the point.

Smoking opponents, fresh from their completely appropriate and salutary victory in banning smoking in office buildings and, more recently, in restaurants and even bars, are now on the verge of significantly extending the ban. The new restrictions, given an initial nod of approval by city health regulators at a hearing held yesterday, include bans on cigarette sales at Boston drugstores and college campuses. In addition, regulations would, remarkably, extend the ban to the outdoor patios of restaurants where food is served.

It's perfectly understandable that the government would ban smoking in enclosed spaces where second-hand smoke could easily affect the health and comfort of non-smokers. And it's likewise reasonable to ban the sale of cigarettes on university campuses where some of the residents are underage. But what can be the possible justification for banning smoking on the outdoor patios of restaurants? And is it really reasonable to prevent drugstores from selling tobacco products, merely because, as Barbara Ferrer, the executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission told the Globe: "Why, in a place where people go to get healthy and get information about staying healthy, would you want to sell something that has absolutely no redeeming value and ends up killing a lot of people?" (It does not take a huge leap of logic to see the future movement to ban the sale of soda pop, candy, and anything else without "redeeming value.")

There's an answer to Ms. Ferrer's question, and it goes to the heart of our nation's founding: Liberty. The oft-forgotten (and less rosy) corollary to our celebrated self-determination is the liberty to do harm to oneself, as long as harm isn't inflicted upon others. If we continue to make it harder for people to smoke, we will get to the point where reasonable regulations, meant to protect non-smokers, will become a virtual prohibition against sale and use of a lawful product. If we continue to tighten the screws, and if we take the further (and inevitable?) step of actually outlawing cigarettes altogether, we will produce yet another disaster akin to the catastrophic "war on drugs" that has produced a series of monstrous legal and social problems, including the exorbitant costs, the massive violations of civil liberties, the highest rate of imprisonment in the world, and the corruption of many police and enforcement agencies in this country and around the world. (Has anyone noticed that the cultivation of the opium poppy in Afghanistan - sold in the form of heroin largely to the illicit American market - is a major source of funding for terrorist groups?)

There is yet another aspect of this debate that has received little attention. When these types of products are removed from the shelves of pharmacies and grocery stores, they will inevitably end up stuffed in corners of freight ships and delivery trucks - part of the black market. Rather than decrease the demand, restrictions are much more likely to distort the supply. Take, for example, the massive underground operation that has arisen in England after the government pushed cigarette taxes through the roof. The official rationale was to make the harmful product less available to the public. But it is now widely known that most London club bouncers double as bootleg tobacco providers. In just one instance in 2007, customs officials seized over 50 million illicit cigarettes and over four tons of hand rolling tobacco. Because of the nature of the black market, it is impossible to gauge the overall effect, though some groups estimate the annual revenue loss to be $50 billion worldwide. And it's not just lost money - where there is no industry or government oversight, anything can be put into an already harmful product. In addition to increased chemical levels, the counterfeit products, often made in Chinese forced labor camps, have been found to contain "sawdust, tobacco beetles and even rat droppings," according to a BBC report. So think twice when considering the benefits versus the detriments of placing cigarettes next to health information and Nicorette patches at your neighborhood pharmacy.

The Boston Public Health Commission spent less than an hour before giving the initial nod of approval for extending the ban. The discussion will soon enter a 60-day public comment phase before taking effect. Let us prove, once again, we have more intelligence, more perspective, and more faith in reason than those who represent us. Tell our city officials that there are better ways to combat smoking - ways that don't require the government to tell us what to do.

Persuasion, for instance, has proven an effective tool in reducing the smoking rate in this country from over half the adult population to well under a third. Additional progress surely can be made until the only smokers left are the hard-core addicts who will do anything and go anywhere to obtain the stuff. But to resort to increasingly Draconian bans risks not only a backlash, but also the destruction of civil liberties that, in a free society, must count for something.

By Harvey Silverglate & Kyle Smeallie

Eco-grafitto

Deirdre Fulton — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:48:00 GMT

This could be bigger than the Valentine's Phantom. Imagine if moss graffiti started springing up all over town.

Pats, Cares?, WTF and The Finisher!

Charlie — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:08:00 GMT

	Mike Reiss of The Boston Globe and Boston.com weighs in on the Pats opening weekend, the panel reconvenes for Cares or Who Cares?, we check the WTF Line and get our Heart on with The Finisher! Listen here!
	Put us on your iPod.

Hooters Hogskin Showdown - Week 1

Special Ed — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:44:00 GMT

Every week during football season Ed and Jim will face off. Each man will pick three games with the loser having to face some terrible punishment.

Here are the picks for Week 1.

“Why is it classified?” That’s a secret!”

Harvey Silverglate — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:22:00 GMT

Despite breaching multiple security classification laws, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who departed the office on Sept. 17, 2007 in the wake of multiple scandals, will not face criminal prosecution, the Department of Justice announced on Sept. 2. The documents, which Gonzales improperly carried to his home and failed to store in a safe, reportedly discussed aspects of the administration's top-secret wiretapping program. The DOJ investigation concluded, however, that Gonzales' breach of the classification regulations was inadvertent. (For one thing, Gonzales forgot the combination to the safe!)

Naturally, the matter quickly became a political football. Congressman John Conyers Jr (D - MI) asked the DOJ to "explain clearly why it declined to pursue charges against Mr. Gonzales and what actions it intends to take." Conyers, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, should know better. Those with even the slightest experience with the federal government's security classification program - and surely this has to include Conyers - know that these agencies won't hesitate to stamp "Top Secret" on a ham sandwich. And while it's true that a few documents containing genuine security secrets would, if disseminated, cause arguable harm to the nation's security, the extent of overclassification is a national scandal.

In my forthcoming book, Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent (coming from Encounter Books in the third quarter of 2009), I write about my experience in defending an East German physicist, Professor Alfred Zehe, against a charge, growing out of an FBI sting, that he engaged in a conspiracy with East German officials to commit espionage. An FBI operative sold obsolete - but still classified - submarine sonar technology documents to the Communist East German embassy in the 1980s. East German officials allegedly consulted with Professor Zehe over the meaning of the documents, much as American governmental officials often consult with American academics on a variety of issues, then and now. When Zehe arrived in this country to attend a physics conference at MIT, he was arrested and charged.

As my law partners and I prepared to defend Zehe at trial, we asked to see the documents in order to review them with an expert. The Department of Justice objected - we needed to undergo a security clearance procedure before seeing the documents. I was taken aback. It would be absurd, I told the judge, to require such a procedure, since I was a native-born American citizen, I was a member of the bar, I had no criminal record, and there was not a single reason to doubt my loyalty. Besides, my credentials aside, the documents were functionally useless and had been selected by the FBI as bait to make an espionage case against Professor Zehe. The documents, I argued, were currently in the hands of the East German Stasi, or secret police, in East Berlin, thanks to the FBI's having sold them! If the Stasi were sold the documents by the FBI, surely a presumptively loyal citizen could be allowed to see them.

But my common sense position got nowhere. The DOJ persisted in its objection - classification regulations must be obeyed. The judge, with some apparent embarrassment, agreed. The law, as Dickens wrote, can be an ass. But surely the classification regulations and procedures take the cake - part Kafka, part Gilbert & Sullivan.

And then there's the case of the DOJ obtaining a temporary prior restraint injunction against publication of a 1979 article in the politically radical magazine The Progressive, which purported to disclose the "secret" of how to make a hydrogen bomb virtually in one's backyard. The government actually convinced a federal district court to issue an injunction that lasted for several months while the litigation proceeded, despite the fact that the article's "secrets" had been gleaned from government libraries that were open to the public! The injunction was dissolved only when another magazine published the article, making the case "moot." (Unfortunately, the specter of "security" issues clouding jurisprudence has only gained strength since The Progressive case.)

The absurdities that spring from the government's obsession about keeping too many secrets can fill volumes. But best of luck to whoever writes those volumes - their de-classifying litigation against the DOJ and other government agencies tasked with keeping so much of what our government does (so often incompetently - the real reason for so much of the secrecy) would likely last a lifetime.

Kyle Smeallie assisted in the preparation of this piece.

KNOW IT , LOVE IT, REUSE IT

Julie Kramer — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:49:00 GMT

544,000: trees saved if every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones.

20 million: tons of electronic waste thrown away each year. One ton of scrap from discarded computers contains more gold than can be produced from 17 tons of gold ore.

9 cubic yards: amount of landfill space saved by recycling one ton of cardboard.

$160 billion: the value of the global recycling industry that employs over 1.5 million people.

79 million tons: the amount of waste material diverted away from disposal in 2005 through recycling and composting…

5%: the fraction of the energy it takes to recycle aluminum versus mining and refining new aluminum.

315 kg: the amount of carbon dioxide not released into the atmosphere each time a metric ton of glass is used to create new glass products.

98%: the percentage of glass bottles in Denmark that are refillable. 98% of those are returned by consumers for reuse.

51.5%: the percentage of the paper consumed in the U.S. that was recovered for recycling in 2005.

GREEN TIPS FOR THE WEEKEND

Julie Kramer — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:46:00 GMT

Buy recycled

The essence of recycling is the cyclical movement of materials through the system, eliminating waste and the need to extract more virgin materials. Supporting recycling means feeding this loop by not only recycling, but also supporting recycled products

Recycle your water

If you're a homeowner, consider rearranging your plumbing so that rainwater or wastewater from your shower and tub is used to flush your toilet. If you have a garden, water it with leftover bathwater or dishwashing water (as long as you use a biodegradable soap

Recycle your greenery

Biological nutrients are those that, at the end of their useful life, can safely and readily decompose and return to the soil. Composting is one of the simplest and most effective recycling methods. Both your garden cuttings and your green kitchen waste can go into an outdoor or indoor composter (with or without entertaining a population of worms). If you don't have a garden yourself, find neighbors or a community garden that can make use of your soil. Composting food scraps will mean your regular kitchen wastebasket fills up more slowly and also won’t smell. Hotter, more active compost heaps can also consume tougher stuff like newspaper and paper napkins. After Christmas, many cities also have programs for turning your tree into mulch.

If you don’t love something, let it go

Lots of charities welcome your donations. Groups like Freecycle and Recycler's Exchange exist to help you get rid of useful objects that you just don't want to make use of. If you're in a Craigslist city, make use of the "free stuff" section. Give away clothes that don't fit, the boxes you used in your last house move, or scented soaps that don't appeal to your sensibilities. Make it a rule in your house that nothing useable goes in the trash until you've given the community a fair shot at it.

What McCain Didn't Do

David S. Bernstein — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:25:00 GMT

I am stunned at how obstinately McCain declined to use this convention to respond to the overarching accusation made by the previous week's Democratic convention: that he doesn't "get it" about what American families are going through.

A Democracy Corps survey this week of likely voters in 18 battleground states -- 13 of which went for Bush in '04 -- should scare the pants off of McCain in this regard. (Granted, the survey was conducted during the RNC, and thus before people saw all of it.) By 51 to 41 percent, they see Obama as "on their side" rather than McCain -- including 38 percent saying "much more" so. Bringing the right kind of change: Obama 56-39, including 43 "much more." Would do a better job with the economy: Obama 54-38, incluiding 35 "much better." Standing up to powerful interests, Obama 51-37, with 34 "much better." Raising middle class living standard: 58-32, with 42 "much better."

Overall, the respondents plan to vote for Obama, 49-43. Other recent polls show some of the reddest of these 18 "battleground" states, like Indiana and North Carolina, very close, and some bluer ones, like Minnesota and Iowa, increasingly out of reach for McCain. In my opinion, he needs to do two things to have any hope: scare people silly about the prospect of a President Obama; and convince them that he feels their economic pain and worry, and will do something about it in office.

He put some work into the former task, although I don't think anyone really laid a glove on Obama. (Their main accusation, that he'll raise taxes, won't cut it: polls show that most Americans fully expect Obama to raise their taxes, and it seems to have no impact on their decision.)

But there was no empathy, and no solutions. Instead, the convention whipped back and forth between two contradictory purposes: bashing Obama and the liberal Democrats, and praising bipartisanship and cross-aisle cooperation.

It was certainly clever of McCain send emissaries out to enflame the partisan divide, so that he could then step forward and offer to end it. But I see no evidence that Americans are particularly looking for a President to "drain the swamp" in Washington, or to heal the bipartisan divide, or reform the system.

Sure, they always want that (as well they should). But every bit of evidence says that it's a low priority for them. And perhaps more importantly, the more you make the election about draining the swamp and reforming Washington the more they'll want first-term Senator Obama, not lifer McCain. The more you make it about willingness to reach across aisles and put compromise over partisanship, the more they want a Democrat, and not another member of the party of George Bush, Tom DeLay, etc.

McCain clearly gets how much the public despises the Republican Party (although, oddly, most of the media punditry doesn't seem to); he pretty much banned the word "Republican" from the floor, didn't let a single member of the administration speak, and could not stress enough how much he likes to go his own way and not the party's.

But he couldn't bring himself to actually feel America's pain, or offer any solutions for it to the undecided voters tuning in -- and today, those voters are reading about unemployment jumping over six percent, the stock market tumbling, and the percentage of homeowners in foreclosure or delinquency hitting yet another new high. McCain's unwillingness to take that seriously is likely, in my opinion, to quickly convince those voters -- just as happened to Bush Sr. in 1992 -- to take their chances on the unknown guy who at least seems like he'll try to do something about it.

RNC things that make you go Hmmmm

Ian Donnis — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:17:00 GMT

A day after Sarah Palin ridicules Obama and glides past her own hard-right positions, how can John McCain credibly say that the time has come to move past partisan politics?

Speaking of Palin: the prevailing meme among critics when a strong woman happens to be a Democrat is that, at minimum, she's some kind of uppity bitch. So how comen when the woman is a Republican, her putative strength is celebrated?

McCain's military service, particularly his experience as a POW, is unimpeachable. Yet isn't there some irony in how some of the same GOP supporters who now trumpet his military credentials had no problem with the slimy effort that transformed John Kerry from war hero to wuss?

After McCain's halting delivery last night, it's clear that Palin is vastly superior in the public-speaking department. But after George W. Bush won plaudits as the kind of guy with whom you'd want to have a beer, is America going to move a bit beyond personality-based politics?

Ron Paul Mainers

Deirdre Fulton — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:16:00 GMT

Instead of belaboring the insultingly reductive question of whether Hillary supporters will back Sarah Palin just because she's female, perhaps we should be wondering how all those die-hard Ron Paul-ians are going to vote this November. After all, there were a lot of them in Maine. They're talking about it over at AsMaineGoes.

Jerzyk and Yorke on 10 News Conference

Ian Donnis — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:05:00 GMT

Jim Taricani and Bill Rappleye typically do a strong job with 10 News Conference, and Matt Jerzyk and Dan Yorke aren't shy when it comes to sharing their opinions, so it should be a lively show when the latter two offer their thoughts this Sunday on the recent Democratic and Republican conventions.

Btw, I'll join Matt and the folks from Anchor in thanking Charlie Bakst for mentioning our respective blogs in his recent column on useful Web sites for news junkies. I ran into Charlie at last Sunday's Sox game and he seemed content and very relaxed as he prepares to end his tenure on Fountain Street. He also showed off his iPhone, with which he has become adept at taking pictures, among other things.

Mollis on Newsmakers

Ian Donnis — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:37:00 GMT

Secretary of State Ralph Mollis says he supports Clean Elections' legislation as a way of making elections in Rhode Island more competititve, and he thinks campaign-finance reform could become law once the state moves past its ongoing budget woes. Mollis make the remarks this morning during a taping of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers.

While there might be just one legislative primary -- House District 39 -- with both Democratic and Republican opponents on Tuesday, Mollis said that many other candidates are running in local races.

Also appearing on this week's show, to be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 65, are state Senator James Doyle (D-Pawtucket) and Deputy US Marshal C.J. Wyant. The duo, who recently traveled to a conference in Dallas about sex offenders, talk about efforts to curb such crimes.

Sarah "Barracuda" Palin

Clif Garboden — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:27:00 GMT

The lighter side . . .
The Boston Globe earlier this week quoted an Alaskan resident who announced that, among her many other accomplishments, Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin had once been named Princess of the Fur Rendezvous, which we can only guess means she had the honor of clubbing the first baby seal of the season.

Now the darker side . . .
The Internet is a puzzling convoluted place, sometimes presenting ethical dilemmas. For example, my friend Comrade April out in LA forwarded me a forwarded copy of a quite telling write-up about Woman for All Seasons and VP nominee Sarah Palin, written by someone who has known and dealt with her in Wasilla, Alaska.

Confoundingly, the text begins with an invitation to share the content followed by an admonition not to post it on any blogs. Without wanting to mess the author up, I nevertheless note that the memo is already available online at something called My Two Buck$.

So it's not really secret after all. And why should it be? This is a fairly level-headed appraisal of the woman the GOP wants to put a proverbial heartbeat away. Don't harass its author, but everyone should read this. Just don't let on who told you.

And back to a little levity . . .
Our loyal West Coast co-conspirator also sent along this remarkable iconic photo of Ms. Palin, apparently preparing to shoot liberal swimmers. Is it real? Dunno. Surely it's a PhotoShop masterpiece. Then again, if you go by Palin's own RNC speech, people will believe anything.

NOTE: This sort of photo-phun is fun, but, in general, we in the elite liberal media need to be careful to attack this pistol-packin' mama on her lack of qualifications, not her inherent absurdity. Too many of those famous undecided voters apparently identify with her. And who can blame them? How pathetic do you have to be to call yourself undecided in this election?

The Sandbox Show Recap-9.5.08. by Intern Robocop

FNX Intern — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:24:00 GMT

6am
The guys play “Who said it?” and Eric from Nashua scores a pair of tickets to see Death Cab for Cutie after naming Charlie the man who said “They must have good weed in Manchester.”

Ed’s gushes over Andrew Ference during Sports on the: 30 and accuses Coach Belichick of playing with our minds for not putting Brady on the injured list.

Dave Doyle from Yahoo sports talks UFC, Kim Couture needing to stay in “her place” and a bet he lost to Chris Forsberg, Charlie tries to start a feud between the two.

7am
Mike Reiss from The Boston Globe weighs in on Brady’s “Injury,” Faulk’s suspension, and predicts that we’ll see a better team this year than we did at last year’s Super Bowl.

The guys talk Republicans in the news… Fletcher thinks McCain’s wife looked like a character from Babylon 5 in the outfit she wore to the RNC, “I wear this outfit when I hunt wild boars!” Ed notes that he and VP Candidate Palin were both Communication majors, “I hold the same degree! I was a communications major! How do you feel?!?!?”

“Cru Jones” Bill Allen from “RAD” called up confirming RAD’s DVD release, a RAD sequel?!?! And Ed asked if he could use Cru Jones as his new radio moniker.

8am
The Comcast Mega Robo Thunder Phone Query today was Do you think there should be a maximum age vote of 65? Scott from Stoneham thought “Whoever gets into office is just going to screw us over anyway”; Patty from South Boston wants to still be in the electoral process when she’s 80, Bethany argued that the constitution states that everyone should have the right to vote and I mean quite literally argued this for as long as humanly possible.

Tamera from Stuff @ Night checked in with the guys to talk about the weekends’ upcoming events which include: A Diddy party in Connecticut, A Latin music festival on City Hall Plaza tomorrow, and October fest at the Park Plaza.

9am
Cares? Who Cares? Featured the return Henry, and Sarah!! Today’s panel tackled, Sara Palin: Lance and Henry cared, Sarah on the other hand did not. MTV VMAs-Lance and Henry did not care, but Sarah thinks that Britney Spears will make good T.V. cared. Pedroia as MVP?-Lance and Sarah did not care, Henry did however.

The debut of the Hooters hog skin showdown with Big Jim and Special Ed! If Ed wins Jim had to say “Hey its Big Jim I’m a heroin addict thief” during his air checks and Ed would have to say “I’m a sex offender” after each sports segment. Jim’s picks: The Pats, The Jets and The Bills. Ed’s Picks: Arizona, Dallas, and Denver.

Today on the WTF line: Threats to big gay robot, little bong horns, Fletcher calls from the Jonas Brothers concert, big gay robot gets a virus from Jim, and lots of angry women!

Today’s Finisher was Heart’s “Barracuda”

The Middle East Downstairs

webteam — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Silver Jews, a Nashville-based outfit started by the prolific Stephen Malkmus before his other, better-known band, Pavement, was cemented, may be the most famous group you’ve never heard of. And they seem to like it that way. Their frontman, David Berman, was the subject of a documentary this past year, but otherwise, they’ve long stayed on the DL, turning out pensive rock albums loaded with Berman’s lyrics, which would likely tickle Dylan Thomas’s fancy. Their sixth album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, hit shelves in June, and this summer’s tour is only their second time on the road. Call it stage fright or call it a marketing ploy — we’re not sure, but we’re glad they’re back. The Middle East Downstairs (472 Mass Ave, Cambridge, 617.864.3278) is their Boston-area stop tonight. Also on the bill is Who Shot Hollywood and local crooners Hallelujah the Hills. Tickets are $15 and available at www.ticketmaster.com or at the Middle East box office.

it’s gravy, baby

Move over, Ragú. Nebo (90 North Washington Street, Boston, 617.723.6326) owners Carla and Christine Pallotta are offering some of their mother’s tried-and-true kitchen classics — think marinara sauce and peperonata relish — for purchase by the jar. Available exclusively at Nebo, products from Angelina’s Pantry (named after mother dearest) allow cooking neophytes to enjoy fresh, authentic Italian food in their own kitchens (and to slyly impress dinner guests, perhaps), without all the dicing and spicing. Inspired to explore your inner top chef? Watch for more Angelina’s Pantry offerings — including pizza dough, salad dressings, and aioli — in the coming months.

SP, RNC?

Charlie — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:50:00 GMT

McCain's Tepid Speech, Delivered Worse, Ends a Lackluster Convention

Steven Stark — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:19:00 GMT

It was not a great speech and John McCain did not deliver it well. So ended a GOP convention that achieved only some of his goals. The pick of Sarah Palin galvanized his campaign (whether it ultimately works remains to be seen) and he did recast himself in the reform tradition. But the convention spent far too much time bashing Barack Obama rather than laying out a positive agenda.

The Dems did better a week ago. Will the Palin pick overshadow anything else that went on in the last two weeks?On to the fall campaign.