Rain Storm -- an online journal of opinion and culture

Nader, who refused to turn over his supporter lists to the Green Party following his 2000 presidential campaign, is now trying to splinter the national Green Party. He wants the California Green Party to ditch David Cobb, break from the national Green Party and instead give the California ballot line, which he couldn't gain access to by himself, to him.

I don't know why the Greens chose him, since he certainly has never been green. The green candidate in 2000 was Al Gore.

"Bobo" means "bohemian bourgeoisie" and was invented by Brooks himself as a mocking label for middle and upper middle class lefty-leaning cultural creatives, or just plain consumers of counter-culture.

His implication is that it's somehow inconsistent or even hypocritical to be both "countercultural" and to have money to spend on cool stuff like lattes and Volvos.

The anti-illegal-immigration group Protect Arizona Now has named a white supremacist to lead it's national operations, an anti-bigotry group charged on its Web site Friday.

[. . .]

Abernethy denied the allegation from her Nashville, Tenn. home. She's a separatist, not a racist, she said.

"There's a huge difference," said Abernethy, 69. "We're not saying anything about supremacy, not at all. We're saying that each ethnic group is often happier with its own kind."

Abernethy is intensely involved with the Council of Conservative Citizens, sitting on the editorial advisory committee and contributing articles to its publication, The Citizens Informer, and speaking at CCC conferences.

It would appear difficult for Dr. Abernethy to feign ignorance about racism, the CCC, and her role with the group, given that she has been confronted about the problem on numerous occasions. When asked about her role with the CCC by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2002, Abernethy retorted, "My view of the Council of Conservative Citizens is that they support traditional values and the freedom of people to associate with people that they want to associate with."

PAN’s appointment of Dr. Virginia Abernethy, an individual active in the leadership of multiple white supremacist organizations, has numerous disturbing ramifications. It legitimizes racism and xenophobia in the political arena, helping to “mainstream” white supremacy. It conveys respectability on white supremacist organizations. And, as California’s Proposition 187 campaign demonstrated, it forebodes the likelihood of an even uglier and more divisive situation in Arizona.

What's the military mission in Iraq? Can it be clearly defined? Is it achievable? At what cost and over what time frame? How many troops will be needed? How many casualties are we willing to accept? And how much suffering are we willing to endure here at home in terms of the domestic needs that are unmet?

Four former finance employees at the Halliburton Company contend that a high-level and systemic accounting fraud occurred at the company from 1998 to 2001, according to a new filing in a class-action lawsuit on behalf of investors who bought the company's shares.

The filing accuses the company of accounting improprieties that go far beyond those outlined by the Securities and Exchange Commission in its civil suit against Halliburton, which the company settled on Tuesday, paying $7.5 million.

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

And even though it might seem like all that encouraging, advice-giving, and Reagan-idolotry tending would leave Peggy with enough time to dash off a weekly column, the WSJ said they don't employ "political operatives," even on an occasional basis, so Peggy would have to take unpaid leave.

And she bought it! If she would take the time to read their editorial section and see how many political hacks get stuff published there, she'd know they were just using this as a graceful way of telling her that her services are no longer required because she's loony.

Over the years I've tried to think long and hard about what it means to be American: about the distinctive identity and position we have in the world, and how that position is best carried. I've tried to write songs that speak to our pride and criticize our failures.

These questions are at the heart of this election: who we are, what we stand for, why we fight. Personally, for the last 25 years I have always stayed one step away from partisan politics. Instead, I have been partisan about a set of ideals: economic justice, civil rights, a humane foreign policy, freedom and a decent life for all of our citizens. This year, however, for many of us the stakes have risen too high to sit this election out.

Through my work, I've always tried to ask hard questions. Why is it that the wealthiest nation in the world finds it so hard to keep its promise and faith with its weakest citizens? Why do we continue to find it so difficult to see beyond the veil of race? How do we conduct ourselves during difficult times without killing the things we hold dear? Why does the fulfillment of our promise as a people always seem to be just within grasp yet forever out of reach?

I don't think John Kerry and John Edwards have all the answers. I do believe they are sincerely interested in asking the right questions and working their way toward honest solutions. They understand that we need an administration that places a priority on fairness, curiosity, openness, humility, concern for all America's citizens, courage and faith.

Six months ago, the company's 109 soldiers were greeted as heroes when they returned from Iraq. A column of police cars, sirens blaring, escorted them from the airport to a welcome-home parade. Businesses closed. The whistle at the local paper mill shrieked to announce their arrival.

But on this July morning, only 52 soldiers showed up for roll call. Four were AWOL, or absent without leave. About 30 had decided to get out of the Guard for good. Another 26, who had been temporarily assigned to the company to beef it up before combat, had returned to their regular units.

While President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney held a 47 percent to 41 percent lead among vets in mid-July, the tickets are now in a statistical tie: Kerry-Edwards with 48 percent, and Bush-Cheney with 47 percent.