Spring Is the Time for Slinging Slime

Surprising as it might be, that title is not a description of the presidential election. Rather, it refers to the yearly necessity of cleaning out the accumulated rotting organic material and slimy stuff from my backyard pond after the winter. Yes, this is a real muckraking diary!

This may be a strange diary for a political site, but we all need a break from politics now and then, so I wanted to share with you something that brings me joy, relaxation, and renewal.

Maybe together we can answer the age old question...

If water is so darn precious, why do we let fish poop in it?

- Stephen Colbert

I have always liked water, fish, other aquatic and semi-aquatic wildlife, and beaches. Maybe that's because I'm a Pisces. Ever since I read a book about feng shui and the various elements that go into creating a balanced and harmonious environment, I have wanted to have a water feature in my home environment for the nurturing energy that flowing water brings.

When I lived in Santa Cruz, California, I was within 2 miles of the beach, so I could walk there, and I had a large aquarium in my living room.

About a year and a half ago, I moved to Baltimore, Maryland, but after seeing An Inconvenient Truth, I decided not to buy property in a low-lying area near the water. My house is not within walking distance of the Chesapeake Bay, but I did manage to find a house that came with a fish pond in the back garden. I like this house anyway, and I like the neighborhood, but the fish pond sort of clinched the deal.



Caring for a backyard pond has been a new and exciting experience, although I must admit I wasn't the best caretaker for the pond during the Edwards campaign. It got somewhat neglected during that time, but as it is a mini ecosystem unto itself, mostly it survived without getting too out of whack.



There are goldfish in my pond. They came with the house too, except for the ones that have been spawned since then. I've never added any fish to the pond, because the ones I have just keep breeding. Occasionally some of them die or disappear too. There are certainly cats in the neighborhood, and I've also occasionally seen a big blue heron, who is beautiful, but eyes my pond a little too closely. This has been a good lesson on the Buddhist theme of impermanence. It doesn't pay to get too attached to any one fish.



Over the winter, the fish stay in the pond and when it's cold enough, the pond freezes over. The fish become inactive, and mostly stay very still at the bottom of the pond. They don't need to eat during this time. It's important to keep a hole in the ice, so that foul gases from decaying organic matter and fish poop can escape. Otherwise, it would kill the fish. I can keep a hole in the ice by continuing to run the pumps for the waterfall. The movement of the water keeps it from freezing.

In the spring, it's time to clear all the decaying leaves, the ever present fish poop, and usually a couple of dead fish out of the pond. Since this is the first time I've had a pond, I'm really not an expert on that, so I've consulted various books and websites for how to do that.

The first advice that I came across for a spring clean out involved completely draining the pond, catching the fish and putting them in a temporary container, such as a kids inflatable wading pool. cleaning all the muck out of the bottom, and power washing the pond. This is probably really very desirable, but wasn't something that I felt up to doing myself the first year that I owned the pond.

What I ended up doing instead was partially draining the pond, so I could see how much muck was on the bottom, using a net to scoop out a lot of the muck, and then gradually replacing the water. I knew from owning an aquarium before that you don't want to add too much tap water to the water at one time, because it contains chlorine and will harm the fish and kill off the beneficial bacteria.

Actually, this latter strategy seemed to have worked OK, although this year I don't think I will take a lot of water out of the pond, because it probably keeps the balance better if I don't.

I've already done some of the spring clean out this year. I cut back the water irises and removed a bunch of dead leaves and debris from the water. When it gets warmer, I'll need to get some beneficial bacteria additive that I can put in the water to help the remaining muck go through its process of decay at the bottom of the pond.

The pond water is kind of green, which means there is quite a bit of microscopic floating algae in there. This isn't really bad, so long as it doesn't get out of control, because it helps oxygenate the water.

Last year, I used some algae killer chemical to control the algae, but as I was getting it out this year, I noticed the warning on the package about how it contained a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, and decided against using that. I'm not sure how the State of California knows so much more about the dangerous properties of chemicals than other states, but I'm willing to take their advice.

I finally turned to the Creative Homeowner Ponds & Fountains Smart Guide that I bought a while back at Home Depot or Lowe's and had never really cracked open. From that I learned...

It is normal for a pond to have excess algae growth until aquatic plants have established themselves. Submerged plants (oxygenating grasses) eventually starve out the algae by consuming available nutrients directly from the water. Surface plants like water lilies and various floating plants also consume nutrients and they cut off the sunlight needed for algae to grow. The addition of fish and snails, and the eventual unplanned introduction of algae eating insects like water fleas, also help to control algae, but to a lesser degree than plants.

The guide further informed me that when starting a new pond, I should start with...

Two bunches of submerged plants (oxygenating grasses) per square yard of pond surface area.

Well, isn't that interesting? There are some of what the guide calls bog plants in my pond, irises and water lilies, but apart from a few stray scraggly weeds, there are approximately zero bunches of submerged oxygenating grasses. I estimate that given my pond size, I should probably have at least eight. Maybe if I had that, my water wouldn't be so green.

Another thing I keep seeing recommended is snails, and although I've seen a few very small ones, I don't think I have the right number of those either.

I went out to Valley View Farms, which seems to be the main place in my area that people talk about as having a good water gardening department, but I learned that it's too early for them to have the oxygenating plants, because we could still get frost. I had gotten too excited by a few very nice days, and of course where I used to live in California, spring is already well underway.

Instead, I bought some rocks that enabled me to redo and move my waterfall. The water had previously been falling away from the house, which I didn't like because it was carrying energy away, when I looked at it from my limited understanding of feng shui.

I changed the direction of the tube coming from the pump, and moved the waterfall to the other side of the pond, so that it is now cascading over rocks toward the house. I am much more pleased with it.



I also cleaned out the pump filter, which increased the water flow.

Rocks, crystals, and plants could be added around the waterfall to improve the appearance, but this is a nice start, and I can collect the rocks from places that I visit.



Ah! The sound of water is so relaxing!



What have I learned from a little over a year of water gardening?

Don't put chemicals in the water that are known to the State of California to cause cancer. (Always good advice!)

To everything, turn turn turn, there is a season, turn turn turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven.

A fish in the pond is worth two in the blue heron's stomach.

If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. If you teach him to fish, KEEP HIM AWAY FROM MY POND! I have enough trouble with the blue heron.

And yes, Stephen Colbert, water is precious, even if it has fish poop in it. Just ask the squirrel that drinks out of my pond.

I leave you with some photos of ponds in a park not too far from my neighborhood. These ones are slightly larger than my own.





In a few weeks, that place will look like this:



For now, enjoy the first of the spring flowers.

Why I Will Support John Edwards through the Convention and Beyond

I've been away from my home for three weeks. I was in New Hampshire helping the Edwards campaign, then I went to Michigan for Christmas, then I was in Iowa for the caucus. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of hard work. Sometimes it was an emotional roller coaster. Many things happened during that time, but through it all, one thing never changed: I will support John Edwards through the convention and beyond, no matter what.

I was glad to hear him reiterate last night what I first heard him say on George Stephanopoulos’ show: that he plans to stay in through the convention and to the White House. I will support him all the way.



Here's a quote from his speech last night:

Because of those who have called, and knocked on doors, and worked tirelessly on behalf of this cause, this cause to create the America that all of us believe in, because of that, I want to be absolutely clear to all of you who have been devoted to this cause, and I want to be clear to the 99% of Americans who have not yet had the chance to have their voices heard that I am in this race to the convention, that I intend to be the nominee of my party. And I am in this race until we have actually restored the American dream, and strenthened and restored the middle class of America, and so I ask all of you here and all of you who can hear the sound of my voice, the 99% whose voices have not yet been heard in this democracy to join us in this grassroots campaign to create the kind of America that all of us believe in.

This is the first time in my life that I've ever had such utter, unswerving loyalty to a candidate. There are a lot of reasons for it, but I've been struggling as to how to distill it down to the essence so I can communicate the reason to others. It boils down to my principles.

There are certain principles I've held throughout my life, and my support for John Edwards is a vibrant and clear expression of every one of them, because he embodies these principles with his actions and his policies.



Liberty - All Americans, and certainly all American politicians, give at least lip service to Liberty. How many of us really believe in it?

How many of us really believe in freedom of speech, even when we disagree with what is said? How many politicians are willing to show their respect for freedom of speech by being willing to answer hard questions on any subject? John Edwards never tries to silence dissent, and he encourages tough questions.

Edwards is not just passively in favor of freedom of speech, he actively encourages it. Throughout this campaign, he has encouraged bloggers to create political dialogue on the Internet. He has stood up for net neutrality, speaking clearly about the importance of the Internet for our democracy. He has spoken in opposition to media consolidation, even sending a letter opposing media consolidation to the FCC during a public comment period at a time when the FCC was considering adopting rules that would allow further media consolidation.

When you have Liberty, Democracy necessarily follows, since if you are free, you deserve a say in your government. How many of us really believe in democracy, even when we don't like the outcome? How many times have you been told that you have to fall in line and support the front runner, even if you disagree with them? How many times have you been told to support the person with the most cash, because fund-raising is going to determine the outcome? These are profoundly anti-democratic sentiments, but some I've heard them repeated a lot in the past 6 months.

John Edwards has repeatedly stood up for the right of every person to have a voice in this democracy. He has repeatedly stood up for the right of all people to be heard, regardless of whether they have money to give to campaigns. He has supported public financing by taking it himself, and he has never taken a dime from a Washington lobbyist. He is standing up for our right to be heard now, by staying in this race and fighting for the nomination.

Edwards believes in freedom of religion, too. I heard him speak at the Sojourners conference in Washington, DC earlier this year. That was a religious audience, and he didn't pander to them, in spite of the fact that he is religious himself. In fact, he stated clearly that people of all religions and people without a religion all deserve an equal voice in our democracy.

At every turn in this campaign, it seems to me that Edwards has always sought to empower people -- to enfranchise us at a time when we have become so accustomed to disenfranchisement.

Equality - This may be the deepest of my core principles. I haven't always expressed it perfectly, and I haven't even always understood it perfectly, but I know that few things outrage me more than people being treated unfairly and inequitably by others.

I think perhaps a principle takes root more deeply when you have struggled to understand it. I know that when I was a child, the assertion that "All Men Are Created Equal" puzzled me. The first thing I wanted to know was, why was it men? I can still remember my mother telling me that in that case "men" meant all of humanity. Given the sexism of the time when the Declaration of Independence was written, I'm not sure that was really what it meant, but it is certainly the only acceptable interpretation now.

Beyond my concern about the use of the word "men," I was still puzzled. Surely some people are more intelligent than others, some people are more attractive than others, some people are more healthy than others, some people are born with more wealth than others. So what does it really mean?

The answer that I have come to, and which I have stuck with, is that the statement "All of Humanity Is Created Equal" is true at a spiritual level. Regardless of their personality, gifts, or abilities, each person is born with equal worth. Each person has the same rights by nature or, as the Declaration says, each person is "endowed by their Creator with" these rights. In other words, you have basic human rights simply because you exist. Each person is equal to every other person simply because they are human. Nobody is better than another.

I know that John Edwards believes this to his core like I do, because I have seen the way he treats other people. It doesn't matter who you are. You could be a farmer, a schoolteacher, a blue-collar worker, a white-collar worker, a lawyer, a doctor, a senator, a person who is struggling to get by, or a wealthy campaign donor. You could be a woman or a man, you could be white, black, yellow, or brown, or any other color. John Edwards will treat you exactly the same as he treats everyone else -- with utmost respect for your humanity – and no matter who you are, if you’re his opponent, he’ll be tough on you.

I know some will say that if Equality is so important to me, why not support the “first” woman candidate or the “first” black candidate (and I could have sworn I voted for Jesse Jackson in the '80s, but according the media, I must have imagined it). The thing is, when you really see people as equal, you evaluate them on their merits. JRE is the best candidate. His gender and race are irrelevant to me.

Compassion - I think it's rather simple. If you think of all people as being equal, how can you not have compassion for them? If they have as much worth as you do, how could they possibly not merit compassion when they are suffering? To me, compassion goes along with the idea that all are created equal. Equality seems to me to imply that we are all in it together, and therefore should have compassion for one another.

As the candidate who has put poverty back on the national agenda pretty much all by himself, Edwards embodies compassion. And if everyone is of equal worth and deserves compassion, then it seems to me that universal health care is a right. Edwards will give us universal health care.

Integrity - I’m tired of all the lies. I tell the truth. I want a president who will do the same. John Edwards tells the truth. I don’t want to go negative here, but I don’t believe that about any of the other candidates in this race. Time for some truth. I trust John.

Respect for the Earth – This is fundamental. We live on this planet. We need to respect it. It is not to be bartered away to the highest bidder. We need to take care of it.

JRE has the best plan to fight global warming and develop alternative energy and he is the only one of the major candidates who opposes nuclear power. His rural agenda supports family farmers and opposes big stinky factory farms. He is the only candidate to get an endorsement from a national environmental organization, Friends of the Earth Action.

This is the right thing for me to do.

I haven't often had a sense of purpose in my life. I've spent many of my years on this earth wondering what I should be doing. I’ve been relatively successful at times, but I admit that sometimes I have felt rudderless. Not this time.

I saw what kind of man JRE was during the 2004 campaign, and I know he would be a great president for our country. When he got into this race, there was no question in my mind what I needed to do. I have been volunteering on his behalf for just over a year now and for most of that time, I’ve been doing it at least 8 hours a day, 7 days a week.

During these last few weeks and months, I've had a deep sense of peace within myself and a feeling that I was doing exactly what I was put on this earth to do. No matter what happens in this presidential election, I know I have done the right thing by supporting John Edwards. I will always be proud of that.

This is the time to fight with all we've got for the candidate who will really change this country. America needs John Edwards.

For more information...
http://www.johnedwards.com/

Contribute here...
https://www.johnedwards.com/action/contribute/form/

Edwards Evening News Roundup: Save the Planet Edition

Welcome to your Saturday night Edwards Evening News edition, where we're working to save the planet! I am delighted about tonight's news, which includes:

• Dr. Helen Caldicott says vote for JRE!


• Edwards Opposes Peru Free Trade Agreement


• Edwards visits 99th Iowa County


• Media Shocker: the Washington Post Has a Decent Story on Edwards!

Dr. Helen Caldicott says vote for JRE!

For over 35 years, Nobel Prize nominee Dr. Helen Caldicott has been a leader in the struggle to rid the world of nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, and to educate others about the dangers of radiation.

While living in the United States from 1977 to 1986, she co-founded the Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization of 23,000 doctors committed to educating their colleagues about the dangers of nuclear power, nuclear weapons and nuclear war. On trips abroad she helped start similar medical organizations in many other countries. The international umbrella group (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. She also founded the Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND) in the US in 1980.

This woman is a hero! I think I probably heard about her first at least 25 years ago, and she's been working on this issue all that time. She is really inspiring.

Dr Caldicott has received many prizes and awards for her work, most recently the Lannan Foundation's 2003 Prize for Cultural Freedom, 19 honorary doctoral degrees, and was personally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Linus Pauling - himself a Nobel Laureate. The Smithsonian Institute has named Dr Caldicott as one of the most influential women of the 20th Century. She has written for numerous publications and has authored seven books, Nuclear Madness, Missile Envy, If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth (1992, W.W. Norton) and A Desperate Passion: An Autobiography (1996, W.W. Norton; published as A Passionate Life in Australia by Random House), The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush’s Military Industrial Complex (2001, The New Press in the US, UK and UK; Scribe Publishing in Australia and New Zealand; Lemniscaat Publishers in The Netherlands; and Hugendubel Verlag in Germany), and Nuclear Power is Not the Answer (2006, The New Press in the US, UK and UK; Melbourne University Press in Australia). Dr. Caldicott’s most recent book is War In Heaven (March 2007).

She also has been the subject of several films, including Eight Minutes to Midnight, nominated for an Academy Award in 1981, If You Love This Planet, which won the Academy Award for best documentary in 1982, and Helen’s War: portrait of a dissident, recipient of the Australian Film Institute Awards for Best Direction (Documentary) 2004, and the Sydney Film Festival Dendy Award for Best Documentary in 2004.

Dr Caldicott currently divides her time between Australia and the US where she lectures widely. She is also the Founder and President of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NPRI),headquartered in Washington DC. NPRI’s mission is to facilitate a far-reaching, effective, ongoing public education campaign in the mainstream media about the often-underestimated dangers of nuclear weapons and power programs and policies.

Today, annefrank told me about a wonderful letter to the editor in the Concord Monitor in support of JRE. The writer, who had flirted with several candidates, had finally decided on Edwards because of his environmental policies, but what really caught my eye was this:

I'm moved by his Friends of the Earth endorsement. We must tackle man-made global climate change.

I'm moved by Dr. Helen Caldicott of the group Beyond Nuclear, who told a recent gathering that Edwards is the right candidate. "Clinton and Obama are ignorant on radiation-release issues," she told us.

I'm not sure if this can be called an official endorsement, but Dr. Caldicott speaking out in favor of John Edwards is huge, in my opinion. Did I mention that she's brilliant?

I wanted to confirm that this was true, so I did a Google search and found this article. Dr. Caldicott spoke about problems with nuclear weapons and nuclear power and the need for a nuke free world in Boise, Idaho on Tuesday night. And...

Political action is the way to avert a radioactive disaster, Caldicott said. She is pushing for the removal of subsidies to nuclear power plants. She urged the audience to support presidential candidate John Edwards, who opposes nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

So there you have it. Another brilliant woman for JRE!

I was hoping to find a video of the event, so that we could hear her speaking about John Edwards directly, but I didn't find one. What I have instead, is a delightful interview with her that I did find on YouTube. I don't think she mentions Edwards in this, although I might have missed a brief reference, because I was doing other things while listening to it, but she does speak her mind about another presidential candidate. In the interview, she has also asked what she would do if she were president of the United States, and her response is fascinating. Here's a woman I would gladly support as president of the United States! Lucky for John Edwards, she's Australian. The interview is almost an hour long.



Of course, she's not the only person impressed with JRE's rejection of nuclear power. That was a factor in the endorsement by Friends of the Earth Action.

Here's a recent video of John Edwards speaking about energy and global warming in New Hampshire:



I think it's time to save the planet!



Edwards Opposes Peru Free Trade Agreement

Today in Iowa, John Edwards spoke out against the controversial Peru Free Trade Agreement, which at least one other presidential candidate supports.

Newton, Iowa – Today, as part of his seven-day "Stand Strong" campaign, Senator John Edwards will announce his opposition to the expansion of the NAFTA model with the Peru trade deal now before Congress.

Edwards will make this announcement in Newton, Iowa - the former headquarters of the Maytag Corporation and the location of a Maytag washer and dryer plant. The Maytag plant, which opened in 1893, officially closed its doors last Thursday. Maytag was acquired by Whirlpool in March of 2006 for $2.6 billion. Several weeks later, Whirlpool announced it would close the Newton factory and former headquarters, eliminating 1,800 jobs. Whirlpool is moving production to non-union factories in Ohio where workers earn significantly less than their union counterparts in Newton.

"I grew up in Carolina mill towns and so I've seen firsthand the devastating impact trade can have on workers and communities," said Edwards. "Presidents from both parties have entered into trade agreements like NAFTA and the WTO promising that they would create new jobs. Instead, in recent years we've lost millions of manufacturing jobs, seen wages stagnate, and run up larger and larger trade deficits.

"For too long, Washington has been looking at every trade deal and asking one, and only one, question - is it good for corporate profits? And they haven't looked at all at the harm it will do to workers, their wages, or to the U.S. economy. Like the failed free trade agreements before it, the Peru Agreement puts the interests of the big multinational corporations first, ahead of the interests of American workers and communities."

NCDem Amy had a great diary on this earlier, in case you missed it.



Here's Edwards speaking on trade in New Hampshire recently:



Edwards visits 99th Iowa County

As of today, John Edwards has visited all of the 99 counties in Iowa, and marked his visit to the 99th county with a community meeting in Coulter, Iowa.

“Democrats will never win in so-called ‘red areas’ if we don’t go to them,” said Edwards. “I believe Iowans from all walks of life deserve a voice in Washington, no matter where they live. I will continue to reach out to Iowans from the largest cities to the smallest towns, and as the nominee, I will never concede the ‘red states’ or the rural vote to Republicans. Our party should stand up and fight for regular, hard-working families everywhere.”

To mark this milestone, Iowans from every county are participating in the “99 County Day of Action.” Iowans from all 99 counties are taking action to help Edwards win the Iowa caucuses and build One America – from a phonebank in Mills County to a winter clothing drive in Cedar County to a letter writing party in Dubuque County. The Edwards campaign has built grassroots organizations in all 99 counties with County Chairs and Rural County Chairs in every county. The campaign is on track to be the first campaign to announce Steering Committees in all 99 counties. The campaign will also commemorate the milestone by handing out a special edition of its newspaper, The Edwards Extra.

Media Shocker: the Washington Post Has a Decent Story on Edwards!

This goes into the "will wonders never cease" category. The Washington Post actually has a decent article on John Edwards today! Aside from the media's obligatory nod to the Clinton "inevitability" theme, there's barely a negative in this article. What on earth are they thinking? If they keep this up, we might even begin to think of them as responsible journalists.

Pomerantz, who first caucused for Edwards in 2004, hasn't felt this way about a candidate since she volunteered for Kennedy's campaign when she was a teenager. Edwards has a combination of honesty and charisma, she says. She senses that when he talks about poverty, he means it, and that despite his success, he hasn't forgotten his roots as the son of a millworker. She likes the attention to detail he shows in his policies. She feels for his wife, Elizabeth, who is struggling with cancer, and to whom she gave a necklace with a Hebrew word that means "life."

She likes the fact that when his daughter Cate showed up once to speak at an event, "she came in flip-flops. . . . Her feet hurt. They're real people."

Friends of the Earth Action endorses John Edwards for President

Today, John Edwards won a key endorsement from national environmental organization Friends of the Earth Action. He was in Dover, N.H. this morning to accept the endorsement.

Friends of the Earth Action enthusiastically endorses John Edwards for President. He has led the way among the candidates in addressing global warming and ruling out a new embrace of nuclear power. He has also demonstrated himself to be the top-tier candidate most likely to stand up to the powerful, corporate polluters and their lobbyists. After seven years of the most destructive environmental president in modern history, we feel strongly that John Edwards will fight for a healthy and just planet as President.

Edwards, who has an excellent plan to stop global warming, get us off our addiction to oil, and create a new energy economy, was the first candidate to commit to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, and he is running a carbon neutral campaign. His environmental platform has been widely praised by environmentalists, and he won the MoveOn town hall on global warming earlier this year.



Friends of the Earth Action will run an independent campaign to educate their members and other environmentalists about Edwards' platform and to get people out to vote, particularly in New Hampshire.

Here's a video of the endorsement bye Friends of the Earth Action:



And here are John's remarks at the event, video by YouTube user guerillavlogger:

Keeping up with John Edwards

Sometimes I think people reading my blog must think that I'm a professional political junkie or something like that. I know all of my posts are about the Edwards campaign. In the past six months, for me, it's all about the Edwards campaign. Every single day the question I ask myself is "what can I do to help get the word out about John Edwards today?" It was not always this way.

Once, I had a life. Up until late 2003, as a matter of fact, I had more or less ignored politics for 20 years. I voted, but that was about it. Then, two things happened. Bush cheated his way into office and proceeded to ruin my country, which eventually angered me so much that I felt I had to do something about it. Then, in the course of looking for a Democratic candidate to challenge him in 2004, I discovered someone who I thought would be not just a good president, but a great president. That is John Edwards. I've been rooting for him ever since.

It's not easy these days to keep up with John Edwards. I write blogs about him at least a few times a week, but if all you know about John Edwards is what I write in my blog, I will be the first to confess that you're missing a lot of substantial news about him.

For one thing, the guy is a nonstop policy guru. His campaign puts out several press releases every week with new and detailed policy proposals, only some of which I find the time to write about. In this post, I'll do a quick update on a few things I didn't have time to write about in the past week or so.

A few days ago, Edwards announced a plan to protect our food supply, require country of origin labels, and strengthen the FDA. The plan would require imported food to meet the same safety standards as homegrown food produced in the USA, and would help protect the business of family farmers, too. From the press release:

Des Moines, Iowa – Senator John Edwards today announced a new initiative he would pursue as President to ensure the safety of food for American consumers and to help farmers and ranchers in Iowa and across the nation. Edwards will discuss the initiative on a conference call with Iowa reporters today and will be joined by Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), who is supporting his campaign for President.

"It's time to stop the delays and stop giving in to big agribusiness and food importers," Edwards said. "We need to give Americans the information they need to choose the best, and safest, food for their families."

"Senator Edwards grew up in rural America and understands the challenges we face, and that's reflected in his proposals to strengthen agriculture," Herseth Sandlin said. "We need the kind of presidential leadership he's offering, whether it's protecting our food supply, helping our agricultural producers, or revitalizing rural America."

Edwards is clearly right in step with what voters want on this one. A recent consumer reports poll shows that 92% of Americans favor country of origin labels on food.

What I didn't know, and wouldn't have known from the campaign's press release, is that Edwards has been an advocate of country of origin labeling since at least 2002. As MontanaMaven wrote in her great diary on the subject on Daily Kos,

Senator Edwards support of the 2002 Bill which mandated Country of Origin Labeling(COOL) for beef,pork,lamb, fish, perishable agriculture commodities and peanuts. (The fish and seafood part has already been implemented.)

Proving once again that John Edwards is COOL.

Then, just today, Edwards announced a plan to train 150,000 American workers every year for "green collar" jobs.

Des Moines, Iowa – Senator John Edwards today announced a new initiative he would pursue as President to ensure that regular Americans share in the benefits of the new energy economy. His investments in a new energy future are projected to create over a million new jobs economy-wide, and the new Green Collar Jobs training plan will offer job training and placement for up to 150,000 workers a year.

"We can turn the crisis of climate change into an opportunity for a new energy economy, right here in America – and Iowa in particular," Edwards said. "Now is the time to make sure that the economy of tomorrow is an all-aboard economy where nobody is left behind."

Green collar jobs! How cool is that?!

Another thing I like about Edwards is that he isn't afraid to speak out on things that other politicians find inconvenient to bring up. George Bush's mental problems, for example. This is what Edwards said yesterday about Bush's statement on Iraq:

"The president's remarks today defending his Iraq policy without regard to actual facts border on the delusional. The president claimed that the same people attacking U.S. troops today are the ones who perpetrated 9/11. It must be nice to live in a world where your actions have no consequences. There was no group called Al Qaeda in Iraq before the president's disastrous mismanagement of the war gave them a foothold, a fact the president flagrantly ignores. After being discredited again and again, the president is still trying to link Iraq and 9/11 - a rationale for the war that virtually everyone except Dick Cheney has now recognized was false.

"The president needs to stop pretending and start taking responsibility for the results of his failed strategy: There are more terrorists. Al Qaeda is resurgent and restored to full strength. And that's according to the Bush Administration.

"We need a real strategy against terrorism, like the one I have offered. We need to take Al Qaeda in Iraq as seriously as we take terrorism anywhere. As president, I will apply the full extent of our security apparatus to protect our vital interests, to take measures to root out terrorist cells, and to strike swiftly and strongly against those who would do us harm. I will also launch a sweeping effort to eliminate the conditions that generate instability, radicalism, and violence toward the U.S. and our allies."

I would have left out "bordering on," but I'm not a Southern gentleman.

Well, those are a few of the key events this week. I know that's not all. I expect to have even more trouble keeping up with John Edwards next week, when he launches his Road to One America tour to highlight the issue of poverty in the United States. Should be an exciting week!

John Edwards Calls for Action to Stop Global Warming

I have just learned that on Saturday morning, July 7, John Edwards will again call for bold action to halt global warming as part of his Saturday morning e-cast series. According to a press release from the Edwards campaign, Edwards will call for America to meet three goals:

• Halt global warming by capping and reducing greenhouse gas pollution and leading the world to a new global climate change treaty.
• Create a new energy economy and 1 million new jobs by investing in clean, renewable energy, which will spark innovation, a new era in American industry, and life in family farms.
• Meet the demand for new electricity through efficiency for the next decade, instead of producing more power.

The Edwards campaign was the first presidential campaign to be carbon neutral. According to the campaign, they balance the carbon emitted by campaign travel and the energy used in their campaign headquarters and field offices by conserving energy and purchasing carbon offsets.

According to the press release from the Edwards campaign, this is what Edwards will say in his Saturday morning e-cast:

"Let me say first thank you to everyone for joining me in this conversation. This is a really historic week in the worldwide movement to do something about global warming, to stop it. This Saturday, 2 billion people on seven continents will come together for the 24-hour Live Earth concerts, series of those around the world, that have been organized by Al Gore and Kevin Wall. Here in the U.S., members of MoveOn are going to host thousands of house parties to watch the concert and take action to deal with this issue.

"This is more evidence of an idea I believe in very strongly, which is that the true power in this country is not just in the Oval Office, it’s in the American people. And those people will gather in living rooms, town centers and communities for no more important task than saving the world.

"I'm not surprised that regular people are leading while Washington goes slowly and stalls, because we all know that Washington has been dominated by special interests, and they keep getting richer while the climate keeps heating up. Normal people are leading because the supposed leader of the free world is not leading– but I want to assure all of you that when I’m president, they will have a leader who is up to this task.

"I was proud of the fact that earlier this year, I was one of the first candidates to pledge a carbon neutral campaign and I was the first to come out with a detailed plan to stop global warming by reducing our carbon emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050, build a new energy economy that among other things produces 25 percent of our electricity from renewable sources, and to freeze our growing electricity demand with efficiency, getting more out of the power we already produce.

"My plan – which you can actually find on my website, johnedwards.com – has lots of ways that not just the government and not just business but regular people can stop global warming. I have also set up a website called ReduceYourCarbon.com where you can pledge to reduce your personal carbon footprint – visitors have pledged to reduce over 30 million pounds of carbon so far this year.

"But as this week’s gatherings show, this cause of stopping global warming is going to require us all to stand up and push back – because there are powerful interests who are profiting from the way it is.

"That’s why I want to talk to you today about just one of the ways I will take up the fight against climate change as president. Coal is the dominant source of electricity in America and it will be for decades to come, but we need to find a way to use it without heating the planet.

"So as president, I will stop big coal from building a single new power plant in America that doesn’t have the technology to capture their carbon emissions.

"The government reports that the coal industry and their financial backers on Wall Street are planning to build around 150 new coal-fired power plants to meet rising energy demand in the next few decades. That would add more than 800 million metric tons of CO2 to our environment a year. That’s 40 percent more than we’re emitting now. That’s when we know we need to go in exactly the opposite direction. And an estimated 30,000 Americans die every year from diseases linked to pollution from coal-fired plants.

"This is not something they are talking about in Washington. In the energy bill debate two weeks ago, some people actually tried to wrap increased pollution in the flag, saying that investing in more traditional coal-fired plants – or even worse, new fuels made out of liquid coal, which is a terrible idea – is the patriotic thing to do for America because coal is abundant here at home.

"Here's what I say to this: it’s not moral leadership if we reduce imports of oil but increase our exports of carbon pollution. We’re already 4 percent of the world’s population emitting 25% of its greenhouse gases.

"That’s not the America we want to be. As president, I will take back our democracy from these powerful interests so that regular people can change this country.

"Not only am I going to stop coal-fired power plants from adding to our pollution problems, but I will reduce our emissions, doing what the global community asked America to do at the recent G8 summit: cut the world’s carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050.

"It's time for the President of the United States to ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war.

"We will need a cap and trade system where polluters pay if they pollute. And big companies are required to change the way they operate.

"Oil companies that run gas stations will have to carry alternative fuels at a quarter of their stations, because every new car in America will have to be equipped for alternatives or flex-fuels.

"Utilities that today profit by selling more and more polluting energy will have to help customers save electricity, and open up their grids to power produced locally, with rooftop solar panels and local wind turbines.

"Automakers that are squeezing profits out of high-polluting SUVs will have to develop the cars of the future with a 40 miles-per-gallon fuel economy standard.

"None of this is going happen unless we demand it. The oil companies won’t do it. The utilities won’t do it. The coal companies won’t do it. And as we saw with the energy bill, Washington won’t do it. Our generation has to do it – we cannot wait for somebody else to take responsibility.

"I've seen it with my own eyes what regular people can do when they are called to action. Actually, in January, our campaign asked supporters to join our One Corps National Day of Energy Action. All across the country, One Corps members took action and worked on community service activities, weatherizing homes, distributing energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. In April, I joined the thousands who gathered at “Step It Up” events across the country, demanding that Washington step up action on climate change.

"This is just the beginning. We are at that legendary crossroad: The point at which the future is determined by the choices we make and the action we take, all of us.

"As people all over the world are showing this week, if we don’t act now, we are going to be in trouble. But if we’re willing to act, and willing to lead, we can literally save the world.

"Thank you all so much."

You can also sign the LiveEarth pledge on the John Edwards website.

To all of this I say: