Now let's get back on topic:

Call for the resignation/firing of Lt. Gen. Kiley,now the "interim" chief of Walter Reed.  Also demand the resignation of the VA Secretary Jim Nicholson efective yesterday.

Also geting our troops OUT OF IRAQ would be nice, provided congress has the time to think about.

I appreciate Jim's efforts however, we have more pressing needs at this moment.

Webb of being a one issue senator - but he's wrong.  Webb is branching out which is critical to becoming a successful senator. 

You may not like it, but reality dictates that running a country like the United States won't allow for a single issue government. 

Is the treatment of our veterans important?  Damn straight it is.  Is an Iraq end-game strategy important?  Hell yes.  But the hiring or firing of a few individuals is dwarfed to the point of oblivion by the possible, and increasingly likely, catastrophic effects of climate change.

With this effort Webb is very much on topic and on top of more of the most pressing needs of our time.

We have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

I know Tom Davis very well, talked to him several times druing the campaign, read everything in the press that I know of about what Davis, Webb, Allen/Wadhams were saying about their respective opponents. And I never saw or heard anything that made mention of Davis ever saying anything in the least derogatory about Jim Webb. In fact when Tom Davis stopped by our Dem. booth at the Prince William County Fair last August, the first words out of Tom's mouth when I started talking to him about Jim were "I would never say anything bad about Jim Webb". He went on to say that he and Jim had been friends for over 25 years and that he was very familiar with all of Jim's core campaign positions.

My bottom line question to is: When did you hear Tom Davis say that Webb was a "one-issue" candidate, or if you didn't hear him say it where did you read it and when ?

I'm sure you know that Tom Davis had his hands full just responding to Andy Hurst in his own 11th Congressional District race and so far as I know Davis never made any campaign statements on behalf of Allen, I think partly because he would not engage in the Allen/Wadhams sleezy brand of politics - and especially not against Jim Webb.

If I missed something that significant that Tom Davis said about Jim Webb, I'd certainly appreciate it if you would tell me your source of the quote. Thanks.

  Tom Counts,
  Honored to be a Jim Webb Democrat
  He is, never has been and never will be
  a "one-trick" pony.

to me, with Eric standing right there listening.  There's no doubt he said what he said, I will swear on a stack of Bibles, Korans, Constitutions, or anything else you want me to swear on. 

Good answer. I assumed you meant that he'd made the comment during the campaign; thanks for the correction of my wrong assumption. I forgot the old rule re assumptions that I learned from my boss 35 years ago: "Don't assume anything. It could make an ass of you and me".

More important for you, though, is that just by offfering to swear on the Koran you're now on Virgil Goode's short list for his next attack. Sorry to get you on Virgil's list -not really, he needs an intelligent pushback from the master push-backer (that's you). Watch the Virgil Vigil for your name.

  T.C.

Honored to be a Jim Webb Democrat and a Lowell fan.

At the rally.  Perhaps I was a little strong in using the word "accused", because from my point of view it wasn't an attack on Webb, just that Davis saw him as only dealing with the war.  Regardless, since I can't read Davis' thoughts I'll never know for certain.  But I do know for certain that he said it.

Did anyone else wince when they read the words "clean coal"?  Couldn't he sponsor a bill promoting carbon sequestration and, say, wind power?

Coal can only be "clean" if you spend a lot of money "cleaning" it. And that includes "cleaning" it of carbon, not just of particulates, sulfur, etc.  That could be mega-expensive, and for that reason I'm highly skeptical.

Im sorry, but until the highly destrcutive and polluting practice of mountaintop removal is stopped, I hesitate to support anything that has the phrase "clean coal." 

...and I completely agree it has to be stopped.  Not to defend coal or anything, but I would just point out that no fossil fuel is "clean."  Nor is nuclear, nor is hydro for that matter.  Which is why I strongly support energy efficiency ("negawatts"), plus wind power, solar, geothermal and wave/tidal.  Now THOSE are clean!

P.S.  I'm open to nuclear power, as long as it's safe and the problems of waste disposal and proliferation are resolved.

improvements.  I would also like to see some action taken against the current practice of mountaintop removal, which not only destroys the mountain forever, but causes toxic runoff into streams and tributaries. 

I agree that blowing up mountains is not the way to get coal.  But you have to understand that the economy of a large part of SWVA is coal.  Jim Webb knows that, and he's not abandoning his kin.  Good for you, Jim Webb.  You're doing the right thing.  Saving the environment while protecting Virginia jobs.

in Pennsylvania.  But the problem is with the current practices there's an extraordinary environmental and health impact.  Used to be only the folks going down into the mines got the bad diseases like black lung and the like.  Now it's the people in the surrounding areas who are dealing with arsenic and other toxins running off into local groundwaters,  massive erosion caused by forest removal and the prospect of major mudslides, removal of wildlife groundcover and deleterious impact on local fauna, etc., etc.  There have been incidents involving roads undermined by the mining which have collapsed or developed sudden sinkholes and injured or killed passersby.  Some lowlying towns in mountain areas have seen their water poisoned and their kids developing all manner of illnesses.  There've even been cases of huge boulders rolling downhill and taking out houses and cars in their path. 

I understand coal is a natural resource and the people in those areas all depend upon it.  I'm just saying that our government should strictly regulate the way in which this resource is mined and its benefits utilized. I'm all for technology and practices which will protect both the miners and the environment. 

resource extraction, and increasingly on value-added, knowledge-based jobs.  The sooner we make the transition, the better, and that means top-notch education and health care for all Americans.

which is why I would expect biofuel R&D along with this.

With the majority of US energy being produced from coal fire plants, this will vastly decrease the impact these plants have on our environment. Something needs to be done to improve the existing fossil fuel based energy infrastructure. I am with Lowell in hoping this will be just a step in the broader transition to and not replacement for renewable fuels.