Whenever your brain gets tired from wondering why poor ol’ Joe Biden still bothers when the national press won’t even talk about his candidacy, you can dig a little deeper and ask yourself, "Chris Dodd? What’s he doing here? Who’s he kidding?"
At least, I have had such thoughts, on the rare occasions when his presence has been brought to my attention.
But lo and behold, the man now has a South Carolina staff — and it actually includes people I’ve heard of before. Anyway, here’s the news:
DODD ANNOUNCES KEY SOUTH CAROLINA HIRES
Senior Advisor, Political Director, Press Secretary To Lead Palmetto State Team
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michelle Macrina
Christy SetzerCOLUMBIA – Senator and Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd’s campaign today announced the hiring of three experienced Democratic operatives to lead Dodd’s South Carolina effort.
Charleston native Ashley Cooper, a former top aide to U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings and an attorney in Charleston, will serve as Senior Advisor for South Carolina.
Gadsden native Heyward Bannister, of Columbia, will serve as state Political Director. Formerly the director of Fannie Mae’s South Carolina Community Business Center, Bannister directed President Clinton’s 1992 campaign and the 1996 coordinated campaign in the state.
Michelle Macrina, of Greenville, a former state Democratic Party executive director and field director of Senator John Kerry’s 2004 campaign in South Carolina, will be the campaign’s Press Secretary.
"No one knows South Carolina better than Ashley, Heyward and Michelle," Senator Dodd said. "All over the state, my campaign is attracting an effective, experienced and energetic team, and I’m happy to have Ashley, Heyward and Michelle to offer counsel and guidance."
A graduate of Clemson University and University of South Carolina School of Law, Ashley Cooper is making a name for himself in the regulatory and legislative law arena. After spending four years on Capital Hill as U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings’ Legislative Director and Counsel, Cooper joined SCANA Corporation as Assistant General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. He also has served as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Government and International Studies at the University of South Carolina. He currently practices regulatory and legislative law and civil litigation in Charleston and Columbia, and has been active in local and statewide campaigns.
"Senator Dodd is very fortunate to have Ashley Cooper advising him in his South Carolina Campaign," stated Waring Howe, Jr., DNC member and Charleston County Democratic Party Chair. "By building on his work experience with Senator Fritz Hollings and his legal work now, Ashley knows the issues, knows the politics and knows the people of South Carolina."
Heyward Bannister has played a senior role in over 100 campaigns in South Carolina during his 27 years as a political and marketing professional. He was a co-founder of the first African-American owned public relations firm in South Carolina and is currently the owner and president of Bannister Company of Columbia (BANCO). He worked in President Bill Clinton’s Administration and was the White House Liaison for the Department of Veteran Affairs. Throughout his professional career, he has been active in many community organizations, including the Columbia Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, the South Carolina Educational Television Endowment, East Central City Consortium and the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). He is a life member of the NAACP and an advocate of the SC Conference of Black Mayors. Bannister received both undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of South Carolina.
"I have known Heyward for over 40 years," stated former South Carolina State Representative Joe Brown of Columbia, "and I can honestly say that Heyward is one of the finest and most outstanding leaders that we have in South Carolina."
Formerly of Arkansas, Michelle Macrina has made South Carolina her home since 1998 at the request of U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings during his re-election campaign. She has worked on over 50 campaigns in 15 states, and she is currently the owner and president of The Macrina Group, a political and public relations consulting firm. In addition to working on numerous South Carolina campaigns from city council to governor, Macrina was the Chief Operating Officer and Acting Executive Director of the South Carolina Democratic Party and served as the field director for U.S. Senator Max Cleland of Georgia. She also was the National PAC Coordinator and Virginia Program Director for Clean Water Action in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of David Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN.
"I have worked directly with Michelle over a number of years, and she has a great knowledge of South Carolina politics," said Joe Erwin, Chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. "With Michelle’s strong organizational and communication skills, Senator Chris Dodd is very fortunate to have Michelle on his Palmetto State Team."
"Many political watchers already know that Senator Dodd is building a strong team around the country," said Beneva Schulte, Dodd’s Communications Director. "Adding these three experienced activists to the team is another step in building a winning organization."
# # #
Paid for by Dodd for President, Inc.
PO Box 51882
Washington, DC 20091
[email protected]
And somewhere out there, the Monkees are still performing, hoping for that big comeback shot.
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Brad, my ZoneAlarm filtered out a nice little worm when I clicked the Monkees link. Is that how far they’re stooping now, hacking our computers?
He’s from the postage stamp-state,he’s a nutmegger,give the guy a break.Thanks for the Monkees alert,Randy.Could we get a heated 200-post Beatles vs Monkees debate going?
Chris Dodd, son of Thomas Dodd, co-author of the 1968 Gun Control Act, later tossed out of the Senate for extracting bribes from domestic firearms manufacturers.
Chris Dodd, with close ties to the communist regime run by the Ortega brothers in Nicaragua.
Yeah, there might be 100 people in SC who would support that.
Anyone willing to bet I got more votes for school board in 2002 than Dodd will get for President? Over/under is 3817….
http://www.state.sc.us/cgi-bin/scsec/2002/ret021
I got rid of the Monkees link. Thanks.
To heck with all that anti-gun stuff…I want to know about the waitress sandwich between Chris Dodd and Teddy Kennedy! This is the stuff of legend, and surely qualifies Dodd to be president. Here’s the man we need in these darkening and perilous times…a profligate nor’easter with an unassailable heritage of liberalism. Besides…the “profligacy” thing is not new…we lived through eight years of BJ’s and cigars with human humidors…how bad could Dodd be? Ed
I’ve heard him speak three times now, I think. Each time he has made leering (that is, “leering” in a sort of Rotary Club, almost-acceptable-in-mixed-company kind of way) references to the fact that he’s an old guy fathering children, a la Strom.
Actually, now that I think about it, that’s about the only message he has stressed often enough for me to recall…
The first debate of Dem’s is coming up…in SC at SC State.
Watch for Obama and Hillary to pull away from the pack.
Edwards might hang on for a while.
But Dodd, Biden, Richardson, and Kucinich will be out by the Fall.
mark g, we haven’t seen hate politics yet until we see what the Clintonistas plan to do to Obama. Wait and see what is coming from Hillary.
“Pulling away from the pack” can’t be that difficult or considered much of an accomplishment when the “pack” is comprised of Dodd, Biden, Richardson and Kucinich…can it? I’m not sayin…I’m just sayin. I mean, certainly there are no worthy conservative contenders at this point, but we’re not yet at the place where we’re going to start saying how good Clinton looks because she’s put Biden away, are we? Ed
I mean, for CRYIN’ out LOUD!! Ed
Sorry to go off topic here, Brad, but I consider this an emergency intervention.
Community Leader: Online Journalism Skills I Wish I’d Learned in School
A successful forum or blog relies upon a robust user community. However, these communities don’t magically form. They require enormous amount of time, effort and leadership. If you’re lucky enough to develop a community, the work only gets harder: a forum/blog moderator is equal parts party host, discussion leader and diplomat.
What does this have to do with journalists? Online, writers and editors are expected to interact with the audience. (If you work at a place where this isn’t an expectation, start looking for another job; your current gig has an expiration date.)
Audience interaction can yield better stories and more interesting content, but it also opens the door to arguments, mindless debates and comments so stupid — so egregious — you want to throttle the nearest life form.
Moderators must swallow that first impulse and step back. They need to see opportunity amidst arguments and story ideas amidst flame wars. They need to lead the discussion and prod it when it falters.
Hurl, I finally agree with you on something. You definitely have driven Brad to the point where he may have wanted to throttle the nearest life form. But what is the emergency?
This story is shocking to me but has received scant coverage from the mainstream media. Although this story is a couple of months old the implications are profound:
****
Mexico – Cantarell crashing
On Friday PEMEX made it official. Production from Mexico’s largest oilfield, Cantarell, fell from 1.99 million b/d in January 2006 to 1.44 million b/d in December. The company’s overall crude production in December was 2.98 million b/d, falling below 3 million barrels for the first time in six years. Nearly a year ago, a leaked internal PEMEX study forecast that under the best-case scenario Cantarell’s production would fall to 1.54 million barrels a day by the end of 2006 — almost exactly what happened.
Mexican oil analyst, David Shields, expects the field’s output to drop another 600,000 barrels a day by the end of this year. He says that Pemex will likely increase output by 200,000 barrels a day at other fields — leaving the country with a net decline of 400,000 barrels a day by year’s end
The sudden crash of production from Cantarell has serious implications for the US and Mexican economies. Mexico derives 37 percent of its federal budget from PEMEX’s profits. Last year, revenue from the nation’s crude exports reached an all-time high of $34.7 billion. In 2005 Mexico exported 1.82 million b/d mostly to the US. By last month exports had fallen to 1.53 million b/d and will obviously continue to drop during 2007 and beyond as production drops and the growing Mexican economy continues to demand more fuel.
Mexico has already warned US crude importers that it will be unable to fulfill some existing contracts. US imports from Mexico could drop by over a million barrels a day between 2005 and the end of next year. A loss of this magnitude will be very difficult and probably expensive to make up through purchases on the international market.
from Peak Oil Review
Vol.2 No. 5
January 29, 2007
Tom Whipple, Editor
So what’s your point Bud? Is it that MORE poor Mexicans will be driven across the border to seek better lives here? Or is it that we’re out of oil and that the whole world economy is going to crash within the next 6 months? Ed
ed, there are a number of points here. Two stand out.
First, there is growing evidence that worldwide production of oil is peaking. The experts disagree on when but virtually everyone agrees that oil production cannot increase beyond the year 2040. The range is 2005-2040, with the average at about 2010. Unless demand drops sharply from current predictions prices will skyrocket. There has been much made of the Jack 2 oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico. But at 3-15 billion barrels of oil this large field only represents about 2 years (at 15 billion) of oil consumption for the U.S. alone. The Canterell field originally held 35 billion barrels but it is now depleted to the point where it will be a minor source of oil in less than 5 years. Large fields in Russia and Kuwait are also past their prime. North Sea oil has been in decline since 1999. And although we don’t know for sure, because of the highly secretive nature of their oil industry, the largest field in Saudia Arabia may be at or even past peak. Even with new discoveries, such as Jack 2, production cannot continue to increase much longer.
The second point concerns Mexico itself. With it’s huge oil fields in decline the Mexican government will soon face a cash crisis. As much as 40% of it’s revenue is derived from oil exports. Without that cash infusion our southern neighbor is likely to face severe economic problems that are certain to affect the U.S.
Bottom line: We must start NOW cutting back on our oil consumption. Even if the optimists are correct we don’t have more than 20 – 30 years to weam ourselves from oil. Let’s hope they’re correct, overwise it’s already too late and economic collapse is inevitable.
Then again, Don Imus and baby Dani Lynne really are of critical importance so let’s discuss that some more.
The corrupt government is going to steal all the money from the Mexican oil, no matter how much they pump.
That’s why we need a border fence, round up and deportation of all of them right now.
Lee, if the peak oil pessimists are correct the Mexicans may build a border fence to keep jobless Americans out!
Bud, I’ve not spent one second of my life or time on this blog talking about either IMUS or Anna Nicole, other than to say that IMUS should be gone. But, neither do I believe in the peak oil myth. My research on it shows just as much data that says it is made up as data that supports it. I think people who are either alarmists, or have a hidden agenda, are the ones who put forward the peak oil scam. Ed
TEST
Thank you, Cindi. Everyone, a hand for my lovely assistant…
I’ve been having trouble with the blog the last 24 hours, which is why I haven’t posted anything.
All appears to be copacetic now. Expect to hear from me soon.
ed I wasn’t referring to you when I made the Imus/Anna comment. My point was that people in general are focused on inconsequential issues while other real and important issues are being ignored.
I have an open mind about the Peak Oil issue right now. It may very well turn out to be an overblown concern. But with gasoline prices hitting the $2.70/gallon mark in Columbia without any dramatic political/weather issues in play there certainly is evidence to suggest the supply of oil is not as resilient as it used to be. We should at least consider the possibility that world oil supplies have peaked. One thing is a 100% certainty: world oil supplies WILL peak.
The only questions are when and how. When the peak does occur market forces will mandate a shift to alternative energy sources. Perhaps this will end up like the whale oil industry where a plentiful alternative energy source emerged to take its place. Or, the world’s economies could be thrown into chaos. But to suggest the peak oil phenomenon is false is to deny a mathematical reality.
What mathematical reality? We have become a nation of handwringers…lost and adrift unless we have a cause to fret over and obsess about, and peak oil is just another in a long succession of them that seemed to begin in the sixties and seventies. In the late sixties and early seventies it was imminent and unavoidable world starvation unles population growth rates were severely reduced. In the seventies and eighties it was the inevitable nightmare of global cooling that spelled doom for mankind. In the nineties it was Ted Dansons’ research that showed beyond a shadow of doubt that the seas would become lifeless watery deserts. This decade it has been global warming. Now it is peak oil. All the earlier catastrophes were myths. All were bought into by millions of handwringers and all have been demonstrated to be utterly without merit. This decades’ liberal causes ~ global warming and peak oil ~ will be shown to be nonesense as well. Relax Bud. We as a nation have MUCH more to worry about with the liberal obstructionists in congress who refuse to allow domestic exploration for and extraction of oil than we do these bogus emergencies! Ed
Besides…I actually remember when global cooling was a “mathematical reality” too. The research was IN. Expert minds were completely made up. People who doubted and questioned global cooling orthodoxy were scorned and ridiculed. There were grants to be collected and research dollars to further careers with. Where are all of the global cooling high priests now? Why, comfortably retired of course…never being held to account for being hugely wrong. Just like the present-day global warming priests will be in fiften to twenty years. It’s not about being right…it’s about be the leaders of a movement, on the crest of the wave, and enjoying the status and the money that comes along with it. And gullible, handwringing nitwits lap it up like a kitten in a creamery. And of course evil politicians and big-government types see a beautiful opportunity to increase taxes and grow government and reduce freedom. This last part is really the only reason I care a wit about it. Were it not for threat to freedom, I’d be perfectly content to let the Buds of the world to drive Prius’s and sort trash use recycled toilet paper or whatever. Ed
ed, I remember the global cooling hype in the 80s. It didn’t last long. A year or two at the most. But to be fair the scientific community never formed a concensus on it. Your point is well taken, however. Here are a few more scares of recent years:
The Y2K computer issue.
The inevitability of widespread AIDS (Yes it is a big problem, but one that is treatable and not nearly as widespread as predicted).
The domino theory of a communist takeover following the fall of Vietnam.
And now, the fear of Islamo-fascism. (It will continue to be an extremely rare event for Americans to die from an Islamic terrorist act.)
Granted, there are many left and right wing scare events. Most of which never pan out.
But all of the above are largely based on conjecture and/or unproven science. But peak oil is different. It is a mathematical certainty that the world’s production of oil will someday reach a peak. It’s as much of a certainty as the sun coming up in the morning. That’s because unlike the other phenomenon it’s completely beyond the control of humans. Simply put, there is a finite amount of oil available for human consumption. At some point we will not be able to increase production no matter what we do. At that point in time we will have to balance our demand for the stuff against whatever the maximum (and falling) possible production level is for that point in time. That can occur through the pricing mechanism or government fiat but occur it must.
Conservatives argue that we can simply drill our way out our dependence on foreign oil. Not only is it not possible to drill our way out of importing oil, we can’t drill our way out of the certainty of peak oil. It is simply not a possibility.
There is a growing volume of evidence to suggest peak oil is at hand. The Cantarell oil field is collapsing, that much is known. And if that is the underlying cause of the gasoline price upsurge of late then we may be facing a very long increase in prices until alternative energy sources are perfected. Keep a close eye on the price at the pump. Fluctuations will occur but if we shoot through the inflation adjusted peak price set in 1980 without clear evidence of extraneous political or weather events to blame then we are certainly facing peak oil. If so, give me a call and I’ll give you a ride to work in my new Prius.
Bud, peak oil apologists (and you apparently) seem to believe that the oil situation on the earth is zero sum. In other words, the planet started with some finite amount of oil, and we’ve been using it at an increasing rate with none being replenished by natural processes. Under this scenario,of course we’d run out, or there’d be a “peak’ after which there’d be an inexorable decline. However, I have seen scientific documentaries and read research that indicate that exactly the opposite is true. Real scientists cite real data that show we don’t fully understand all of the conditions under which this planet produces oil naturally, and I have heard real oil men say that wells which have dried up and been capped have unexpectedly begun producing again for reasons that are completely unknown to geologists. Peak oil apologists are operating under exactly the same kind of arrogance that global warming nuts are, and that global cooling nuts did 25 years ago. They assume (or at least want us to believe) they know all there is to know about systems which are vastly more complex than they would ever admit, so as to advance their agendas. I don’t buy it. Ed
PS Bud, I am 6’5″ and weigh in at 260. Somehow I don’t think a ride in a Prius is in my future. I’d need one for each foot. Ed
Oil is a byproduct of decaying plant and animal vegetation over the period of millions of years. So I guess new supplies will form in about 100 millennia. As for the oil wells that begin flowing again, there is nothing about that phenomenon that would discredit the certainty of peak oil. Peak oil allows for the continued discovery and exploitation of new fields as well as improvements in technology to extract oil from old fields. We will continue to refine and use gasoline. But what we cannot continue doing is increasing the overall production rate of oil. Unless demand is reduced prices will increase. And at some point the increase will be steep.
The situation as it stands now looks very serious. Of the four largest oil fields in the world 3 are definitely in decline. Canterell is in steep decline. Almost all the largest fields in the world were discovered more that 30 years ago. Newer fields are extremely expensive to bring to market. The deep water wells in the Gulf of Mexico that hold so much promise are not economically feasible at prices below $40/barrel. That makes them profitable at today’s prices but it also sets a floor price. So the days of cheap gasoline are long gone. Even so, at the optimistic end of the equation new oil finds will not replace the old, depleted fields discovered in the 50s. So what we’ll have is continued disruptions in supply, along with rapidly increasing prices.
My prediction is this: the inflation adjusted price of gasoline will surpass the record set in 1980 ($3.15 in today’s prices) within 2 years. At that point we will know whether peak oil has arrived.
As for the Prius, it has ample room for two tall adults. In fact the front leg room is more in a Prius that in the GMC Yukon. Not bad for a car that gets a legitimate 45 miles per gallon.
Front Leg room Prius 41.9 inches
Front Leg Room Yukon 41.3 Inches
Bud, I understand that conventional wisdom has held that oil is the product of decay of ancient plant and animal matter. I am simply saying that according to many modern day scientists, based on what they’ve observed, oil is being produced in meaningful quantities by natural means other than what has been understood to be the conventional way. These processes are not fully undertood, and most probably neither are the ones that you cite and that we call “conventional.” To say that new production from old wells does not disprove peak oil theory is to miss my point. I am simply making the case that the processes by which oil is produced are NOT all fully understood, and for peak oil apologists to speak as if they WERE fully understood makes about as much sense as global warming nuts telling us exactly what the climate will do 50 years from now when we can’t even get a reliable forecast for next Wednesday. Believe peak oil foolishness if you want. I don’t. And I don’t intend to let it go unchallenged. Ed
ed, how about sending some links on how oil is magically produced. Is this based on the same “science” that considers the earth to be 6,000 years old? If you really believe that nonsense then go ahead and buy a Hummer and drive alone to your place of work 30 miles from home. But don’t go whining about the price of gasoline as if it’s some sort of conspiracy.