Today Dick Cheney flew into Alabama and went to the Shoal Creek Country Club for a fundraiser with the Alabama Republican Congressional Delegation. He shook some hands and apparently nobody bought a $2,000 photo with him. How do we know? Well, He was back on the tarmac a few minutes after 1:00. Kind of interesting when the fundraiser didn't start until 12:30.

The press and public weren't allowed at this event, so I couldn't get my picture made. However, the press was allowed to watch him land on the tarmac. We have footage. Wait for the ambulance at the end of this video. I think he was in it. It's a trip, otherwise this is just watching some old bald guy come down a plane. He wouldn't even take any questions from the Press.

Please note the call to action at the end of the diary.  

Obama.com is a website owned by a japanese company which has nothing to do with the Barack Obama Presidential campaign. However, they are greatly benefiting from the Illinois senators speaches. see the traffic graph below.

Every single time I'd ride with my brother on a road trip we'd get stopped by the cops, especially when he got his new shiny car. I don't drive since, I'm concerned about the environment, but I can tell you first hand that "driving while black" is still something of a hazard. I mean, it's improving, but still.

The thing that gets to me most is not, being stopped with my brother, or the time I was told I was biking "too fast" on a street for cars in the park in Pittsburgh (huh?) --I mean, I really do want to cooperate and help make things run smoothly. No, what makes me angry is that cars, mostly very expensive cars, speed through my neighborhood all of the time and not a thing is done about it. I've even stood next to a cop watching a person run a red-light and I'll say, "did you see that! They just ran that light!" And the officer will look at me with these blank placid eyes and say "What about it?"

The Decline of the Angry Left

The signs of change are unmistakable. Over the last year, the Kossacks themselves seemed to be waning -- the number of monthly page views on the site is down dramatically.

– Dan Gerstein, February 2, 2008, WSJ

Sometime on Sunday, we will pass the one billion page view milestone. Half of that is going to be from the last two years. Given that we were written off for dead by concern trolls like Dan Gerstein, who don't understand the dynamics of Presidential politics (but sell themselves as consultants, regardless), that's not a bad achievement.

Let's see some pretty pictures, first monthly and then cumulative page view traffic.

Traffic is driven by the news (something Gerstein, in trying to compare last year's non-election cycle to years with elections, doesn't get), and when there's political news to discuss, people turn to Daily Kos. We've doubled our viewership compared to last year, and sustained that through the primaries. ct and the technical crew have made this transition nearly seamless, and there's more to come between now and November.

So, when you hear that the site is losing viewership, do what bloggers do – click the link and check the data for yourself.

What you see is what you get, each and every day - community-driven commentary you can't find anywhere else on the internets, and often weeks before you hear it in the traditional media.

Thanks, members and commenters and readers, for making Daily Kos what it is. We couldn't do it without you.

Cross-posted by Will Bunch at my Philadelphia Daily News blog, Attytood:

That waddling sound we heard here in the Philly area this afternoon was a quick-in-and-out from America's second lamest duck, Vice President Dick Cheney, who snuck in with little fanfare for maybe the most empty photo-op since Ronald Reagan's handlers invented them. Apparently your federal rebate check may come from here in the Philadelphia region, a fact that hasn't sped the arrival of mine yet:

Most cities in this country were built around the automobile, and in many places public transportion is now almost non-existent, even in large cities.

Public transportion that existed prior to the automobile were dismantled by the emergent automobile industry in a move that came to be known as the Great American Streetcar Scandal; General Motors managed to remove over 100 streetcar systems nationwide by 1950. By the time antitrust investigators could go to work, the deed was done. American mass-transit was "dead".

Great American Streetcar Scandal

Another Sunday, another week asunder...

L.A is sleepily rising from Saturday night.

The breeze blows gently on the palm fronds outside, the smog stirs.

The roads are less busy. It's Sunday. People are taking it easy.

I wish every day people took it easy.

Three stories down on Moorpark St. a young couple in cargoes and polo shirts cross the street, holding hands, their eyes softly shielded from the sun by aviators. The man's shirt is meringue color. They're not too much younger than me, I'm guessing ten years, so chances are good that at least one of them will live longer than me. My money's on the girl.

Last year, New York City Michael Blomberg announced his support for what is called a "congestion pricing" scheme in New York City's Manhattan. Yesterday the plan moved a step closer to fruition after the New York City Council approved the controversial idea, which now goes to the State Legislature and Governor. (who has said he supports it)

The plan would result in automobiles being charged $8 to drive into the highly congested areas below 86th Street .  The market based theory, similar to a plan implemented years ago in London, would probably reduce auto traffic, estimated to be around 850 thousand cars daily, by around 20 percent according to most experts.

While a number of advocates of the plan offer various reasons for supporting less automobile traffic on the 35 square miles that make up Manhattan, those of us who ride a bike have additional reasons.  

But, while NYC, with its amazing public transportation system allows such an idea serious consideration, would a similar scheme work elsewhere in the United States?

Having lived in Northern Virginia for a while, I am truly aware of the problems with commuting and traffic congestion. Being a nurse working in a hospital setting for many years I was able to work a night schedule, make more money through shift differential, and avoid the traffic congestion. Recently though that has changed as I have decided I want to be a "normal" person, have time with the family, sleep in a bed not a coffin, etc (I am still a nurse and will draw blood but...). So with these changes in my life came another big change, the D.C. commute!

Everyone remembers September 11, they say.  OK let us see what you remember:  I'll help you remember 2001 which consisted of more than only a September.

3,000 Americans died cruel early deaths, in bombings in America.

41,000 Americans died cruel early deaths, in traffic in America, plus that much again every year since.

Back when I watched TV, I had an epiphany while watching an ad for some brand of automobile. The brand doesn't matter, because they all look alike. There was the car speeding down an otherwse-empty road. They never show traffic, let alone traffic jams, in automobile ads. I said:

Aha. Those guys out there in the traffic jam paid somebody good money to travel smoothly. And they feel entitled. So,anytme there is a traffic jam, somebody is obliged to smooth it out for them. Since the guy they paid can't, the government has that obligation.

Call it the "somebody owes me" syndrome.
You can see the syndrome in action in all sorts of other cases. Some of them are listed after the jump.

It is so close to happening.  Thanks in part to extra attention since Yearly Kos, combined with the steady death march of the right-wing noise machine, Daily Kos is now poised to register more page views than the freakin' Drudge Report, the once-mighty purveyor of conservative spin, as shown on this oh-so-tantalyzing Alexa chart:

I noticed this in today's Washington Post, on page A-2. This sure sounds like a tax increase to me if this "congestion pricing" system is put in place in New York City.

Is this the first explicit example of the Bush Administration coming out in favor of raising taxes? Moreover, apparently the Department of Transportation will help fund the pilot project to the tune of $537M of your tax dollars.

A tax is a tax after all. Maybe these extra tolls won't add to federal coffers, but they will add to New York City coffers.

YearlyKos has brought a lot of attention to this site.  The all-powerful Gina graciously volunteered to make O'Reilly go batshit insane for the event, and that publicity, amplified by Colbert, Olbermann, et al., has been wonderful:

I got to play Ghostbuster last summer. I was a volunteer for an air quality survey in New York City, which meant I walked around Midtown carrying a bunch of pollution sensors in a backpack.  On a handheld monitor, I could see the "particle counts" in real time - and it was a real eye-opener. For example, every time I was near idling traffic (and there's a lot of that in NYC!) the numbers spiked. I wanted a mask!

That's why I'm posting this action alert on behalf of my Living Cities colleagues, rather than my usual climate science diary. (On the other hand, cutting pollution is a climate winner...)

The short version of my call for action is this: New York can get $500 million in federal funds to help cut pollution, clean the air, and speed up transit - but only if Albany acts by July 16. The Speaker of the NY State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, is not yet on board. Please call his office and ask him to support congestion pricing, at (212) 312-1420.

More below the fold...

I think I have road rage.  Or at least road annoyance.  But it could easily grow into the real deal.

I'm not the only one.  Road rage is spreading like the monkey-borne virus from "28 Days Later."  And not without reason – people just don't seem to know how to drive unless its in a manner that imposes the maximum amount of inconvenience upon other drivers.  Anyone who’s taken 45 minutes to cover three miles knows exactly what I’m talking about.

As you may have heard by now, Governor Corzine was involved in a serious car accident this morning and is in critical condition.  It has been suggested by news reports that he may not have been wearing a seatbelt at the time since he commonly goes without a seatbelt.  Given that New Jersey law requires seat belt usage, I want to know why he feels he can go without a seatbelt?  Does he think he's above the law?  Does he have some sort of view that they are a nuisance?  I honestly don't know.

But here in Maryland this week, a young couple from PA were killed in a road rage incident. They had been on their way to a beach house in North Carolina. Not wearing seat belts in the convertible they borrowed from her mother likely sealed their fate as the two were thrown from the car when he swerved to avoid another driver who had cut in front of them and intentionally slammed on his brakes.

Brooksville, Florida proposes to foreclose homes and seize cars over less than $20 in parking tickets.

Insanity on the flip....