GOOD MORNING DAILY KOS - Weekend Edition!

So -- now the general election begins in earnest. It's Obama:

Versus McCain:

Otherwise known as "My shoe vs. ant."

And now, some ITEMS!

ITEM! Obama went to AIPAC and rocked the house. It wasn't just that he gave a brilliant speech. It was also, as Akhavi of Antiwar.com points out, a challenge to Israel to do it's part for Middle East Peace. With that, and with also insisting that we rely upon diplomacy first, Obama has signaled what I think is a whopping shift in the Democratic position on Iran. Pardon my language, but I think it's merited here: about fucking time!

That said: the NIE says that Iran very likely stopped working on nuclear weapons in 2003. Don't take my word for it. Here's the NIE (PDF). It's seven pages, four of it introductory. Read it for yourself. And I really wish Obama would have challenged the neocons on that point.

The fact that he didn't -- and the fact that he takes the position that Jerusalem must remain undivided -- has the antiwar right saying that Obama sold out the peace movement. I think they read too much into Obama in the first place. The reason why the antiwar movement needs to support Obama isn't because he won't attack Iran, it's because he's a lot less likely to attack Iran, and a lot more likely to listen to the peace-through-negotiation point of view, than John McCain.

ITEM! According to the International Energy Agency, the world needs to invest $45 trillion (yes, with a T) in non-carbon-producing energy generation over the next 40 years to cut carbon emissions in half. Most of that goes to nuclear power and wind power. If this looks like a hell of a lot of money, it is. But it's achievable.

Let's consider our own example here in the United States. Our electricity and transportation needs consume about 1.1 trillion year-watts. Right now that comes almost entirely from coal and gasoline -- about 10% of that is non-carbon-producing. So, let's say we need to create 1 trillion watts worth of generation capacity to take care of all our electricity and all our electric-powered transportation -- over a period of 40 years. Sounds daunting!

But, if we do this with a combination of 75% pebble bed nuclear reactors at $4.80 a watt ($2-4 a watt right now, so take the high price with 20% redundancy thrown in), and 25% wind power at $2 a watt ($1 a watt with 100% redundancy thrown in), you get a total cost of $4.1 trillion over 40 years -- or $103 billion a year. Put it another way, that's about the cost of the Iraq war. Most of that, by the way, is going to come from private investments, with substantial government subsidies and tax breaks to help it along. (Note: solar panels at $1/watt are on the way; those would cost as much as wind.)

There's another big cost that has not been factored in here, and that's the cost of all the new infrastructure we're going to need to move this electricity around. That easily could be another trillion. Again, over 40 years, it's doable. We just have to bite the bullet and get to work. On the bright side, lots of people are going to make lots of money on all this -- and we won't have to screw around with Middle East oil once this is done.

ITEM! Speaking of electric transportation, there's a fascinating project underway to build a 600-mile-long maglev train system in the United States that would ferry passengers from point A to point B at 300 mph. This project just got some serious, albeit preliminary, funding. This is mostly to study the environmental effects. The only downside? It goes from Las Vegas to Disneyland in two hours. Hey, it's a start. As a side note, it would be very nice indeed if one day I could get on a MagLev in Portland, Oregon at 10 PM, and wake up in Chicago, Illinois at 8 AM. I'm just saying.

ITEM! Is the NRA losing its reputation as a pro-gun organization? The evidence, increasingly, says that this is so! Check out this tidbit as an example.

ITEM! Bonddad is back. Actually, he never went away. He has his own blog, and a few days ago he explained how we can get rid of the deficit, stop inflation, reduce oil and gas prices, and save the United States from Argentina-style financial colapse, all in one fell swoop. More here.

ITEM! No less an authority than John McCain's campaign tells us that the man is a huge ABBA fan. They even have the YouTube video for "Take a chance on me" to prove it. Gotta say, that's a hell of a compelling message.

On second thought, no, no it isn't.

MICE!

The girls.

ITEM!

If I were that guy (and single, btw), I would keep both ads in my wallet to help my odds with the ladies. You know, as a conversation starter.

And now, a message from Ghastly.