With all due respect Thom, you are railing against Bush for torture, right? But you say not one word about Obama continue those programs, in fact expanding them. And Obama now claims the mantle that he can assassinate his own people. Which he has done. So how is it helpful to rail against an administration who has not had power for four years? Why isn't this administration held to account for furthering ALL of Bush'es programs, military, etc.

Please tell us why these programs have not been stopped when he had all three houses for two years, he did nothing but hire GE and Wall Street to sit at HIS table.

Okay, one more question. Why do you call those callers who do "get through" right wingers? I am far from a right winger, but I have every right to question the decisions coming from the man I voted for. Why do you silence us when we question Obama?

I could not agree more, Oldcrone (great handle BTW). I remember listening to Randi Rhodes doing the same thing when the Democrats took control of Congress. One caller said he didn't have much faith in Democrats being assertive (my view also) and Randi called him a whiner instead of listening to him. She struck me as almost as bad as Bill O'Reilly.

I too expect more from Progressives and used to think very highly of THom. Not any more.

People who think the only beneficiary of an education is the student are either stupid or are making an extreme effort to miss the point.

When you put a kernel of corn in the ground, nurture it to maturity, and just look at the ear of corn and gripe about the corn taking all of the resources, you are in the same class as people who think that a college graduate is the only one who gains from an education.

A conclusion I take away is that some people just want to make a lot of money from our alleged "system" of education and horrifyingly inflated debt and profit. An honest broker will admit that.

Your Welcome Oldcrone! I know that lonely feeling and I know that "talking to oneself" syndrome so well. I wouldn't worry about it though until you start getting answers coming back (OH THOSE VOICES!( (lol). The only person I have to talk to outside of the few on Facebook I have been able to find is my wife and she finds these things depressing too, so she usually cuts me off.

All media, especially progressive media, is controlled one way or another by the 1%. Air America was systematically shut down through buy-outs, inteference, or whatever means possible. It used to air here in Maine but was sold out and became yet another sports station. We really have very little choice.

Well, to the actual POINT of Thom's post, my answer is "NO!" it's already too late if the decrease in sea ice at the Arctric is opening the Northwest Passage.

Once Siberia's permafrost starts melting, it will be just an endless, self-perpetuating carbon release. We won't be able to stop it, although I'm sure that something even worse will be tried.

I have to faith whatsoever in in patriarchal science which allows men to leap where angels would fear to tread. They have absolutely no respect for life and the Earth and they use their religion to justify everything.

My only hope for the future of this planet is that it really is the cahnging of the Ages from Pisces to Aquarius, the social sign. Perhaps the elites WILL find a habitable palent they can take their exlated selves off to and leave the rest of us to try a differnt way of living.

You can be sure, however, that they will suck every last drop of energy from Gaea before they go.

Idiots! They'll look long and hard before they find a jewel like this one in the gallaxy and tehy'll probably fight with each other to be alpha male on the way and kill each other off. Then, maybe the less agressive males and the women can form a society in the stars that make some sense, cause this one sure doesn't.

You can bet this is why the War on Women is gearing up. They know the population they can exploit iof going to srop off precipitiously here pretty soon and they want more peons to rob and enslave.

P: this really need s spell checker that works

As long as the conservative christians, who run this country, continue with their "God will provide" attitude, there is no hope of saving the planet or the human race. Since I have little time left on this planet, I say let them keep their heads buried in the sand, it makes it that much easier for reality to bite them in the ass!!! And it will, too.

IANACS*, but I've been studying the global warming issue from a layman's perspective for some time, including online discussions with actual climate scientists. The impression I get is that it's too late for us, partly because the denier movement has succeeded in slowing down our reaction to the problem, and partly because things are much, much worse and happening much, much faster than predicted. We basically have less than 5 years to stop the temperature rise from exceeding 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. That not only means changing the minds of the deniers and interference-runners like Sen. Inhofe, but getting everyone else re-aligned to accomplishing that goal. Heck, even Obama doesn't mention the problem any more. The Republican debates were completely devoid of any climate change questions, and we know Mitt Romney will be a complete and utter Stepford-Wife tool of the corporatocracy. No, Thom, in my amateur but studied opinion, as you say, "we're screwed."

*I Am Not A Climate Scientist

Brother Thom,

You speak the truth, despite all the posts here that attempt to obfuscate your message. I tell people who discuss the topic of global warming with me that the main driver of this phenomenon is the current ignorance of human beings of the nature of God's creation (the earth). Because we have lost an understanding of our home, we do things such as use fossil fuels to artificially inflate our population, believing that there will be no repercussions. However, we see these repercussions everywhere - starvation in areas that should be abundant in food, destruction of our sustaining ecosystems and more focus on contolling natural resources than ever before.

When I speak with people who are undecided about what the future brings I try to impress upon them the idea that resources are a zero sum game. I relay to them that we are at the point where any additional birth beyond replacing the original couple is a sentence for suffering and/or death for another child somewhere in the world. Sometimes that makes them stop and think and sometimes it doesn't - It is those in the latter category that trouble me as they appear to ba immune from facts. I think the only way to turn them around is to plop them down smack into any number of populations where people are fleeing their homes because of man-made disasters and have them be one of the "least of these" for once in their lives...

SisterAnnie