With fuel prices being as high as they are, not everybody can afford to make it out to Denver to see the next President of the United States accept the Democratic Party’s nomination. Fortunately, you can watch Barack Obama’s convention speech right here in your own neck of the woods.The Committee to Elect Bryan Lentz is throwing a convention party, and we want you to be there! Bryan Lentz, the State House Representative from Pennsylvania’s 161st Legislative District, was one of the first Pennsylvania politicians to endorse Senator Obama for President. Now, he wants to share Obama’s historic moment with you.

We’ll watch Obama’s speech, in its entirety, live from Invesco Field in Denver. Of course, we’ll provide refreshments (food and beverages). We’ll have tons of balloons, and even our very own string band! It will be a fantastic opportunity to witness history being made. You’ll also get a chance to meet and chat up Bryan Lentz. Other than winning airfare to Denver, this is the most fun you’ll have on the closing night of the convention!

It all goes down Thursday, August 28. The Democratic Party hasn’t announced yet exactly when the speech will begin, but we will start to gather at 6:00 PM at Lentz Campaign Headquarters, at 21 S. Chester Road in Swarthmore. You can drop by whenever you can make it. We’ll see you there!

This’ll be the funkiest Presidency ever!

When Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign was launched, in January, 2007, her supporters feared that Bill would overshadow her, as he had when they both spoke at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, a year earlier. Now the constant fear is that he will embarrass her. When he makes news, it is rarely a good day for his spouse.

Lizza points out that with the current media portrayal, it’s easy to overlook or forget that President Clinton “still connects better with voters than his wife or Obama.” However, with his every word recorded by embedded reporters and the off-message outbursts becoming YouTube sensations, Lizza, like most Americans, wonders if the President’s legacy has been permanently diminished.

“(Bill Clinton) doesn’t like Obama,” South Carolina Representative James Clyburn told Lizza. Clyburn, the House Majority Whip, said that after Obama won the South Carolina primary, Bill Clinton called Clyburn to rail at him for fifty minutes. I don’t think I could rant about Martin Brodeur for fifty minutes, and I basically consider him the worst person in the world. It’s not hard to see why President Clinton doesn’t like Barack. A big portion of the Obama campaign has been to portray the gains of the Clinton presidency as inadequate at best; hollow at worst. Fairly or no, behavior like this raises real questions about why Clinton refuses to back down, and as a pledged-delegate victory becomes mathematically impossible, the question will only get louder.

What will the ultimate effect of this campaign be to President Clinton’s legacy? That ball is solely in President Clinton’s court. Even Hillary’s most fervent supporters must admit that her potential paths to the nomination are few and ugly. How will Bill handle being a loser for the first time in his political life? Will he play the sore loser and cry foul, or will he take the mantle of party elder and take nominee Obama golfing with him? I, and I’m sure most of the Democratic base, hope greatly for the latter. After all, President Clinton’s legacy rests in our hands (the right will always see him as the Devil). If we feel that he has acted in a matter demanding an apology, will we forgive him? Will he give us the chance?

“The set-up for this summer is disturbing,” says Mark Serreze, of the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). A number of factors have this year led to most of the Arctic ice being thin and vulnerable as it enters its summer melting season…

Arctic ice at its maximum in March, but that maximum is declining by 44,000 km2 per year on average, the NSIDC has calculated (see graph, top right). That corresponds to an area roughly twice the size of New Jersey.

What is more, the extent of the ice is only half the picture. Satellite images show that most of the Arctic ice at the moment is thin, young ice that has only been around since last autumn (see picture, right). Thin ice is far more vulnerable than thick ice that has piled up over several years.

“There is this thin first-year ice even at the North Pole at the moment,” says Serreze. “This raises the spectre – the possibility that you could become ice free at the North Pole this year.”

I’m going to miss winter. Anyone care to go in with me for some property in Newfoundland?

Dear Friends and Fans:

Like most of you, I’ve been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where “…nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.”

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man’s life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we’re proud to support Obama for President.

The man who has made his career exploring the bitterness of working class America says Obama is good enough for him. What about you?

Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said on Thursday he would not accept the nomination for U.S. vice president as he did four years ago…

After his keynote speech at CTIA, the annual U.S. wireless industry showcase, Edwards was asked in a question-and-answer session if he would accept the nomination for vice president.

“No,” said Edwards, who also declined to say whether he would endorse Clinton or Obama.

I like Edwards quite a bit. But I think that this is a perfect opportunity to announce that I, too, will refuse the Vice Presidential nomination. Because I have exactly as much chance as Edwards of being asked.

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey plans to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president today in Pittsburgh, sending a message both to the state’s primary voters and to undecided superdelegates who might decide the close race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Dan Pfeiffer, deputy communications director for the Obama campaign, confirmed that Casey would announce his support during a rally at the Soldiers and Sailors Military Museum and Memorial and that he would then set out with the Illinois senator on part of a six-day bus trip across the state.

The endorsement comes as something of a surprise. Casey, a deliberative and cautious politician, had been adamant about remaining neutral until after the April 22 primary. He had said he wanted to help unify the party after the intensifying fight between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Endorsements, as we’ve seen already this cycle, don’t sway huge numbers of voters. However, Bob Casey’s endorsement sends a message loud and clear. I don’t believe Casey would endorse unless he felt that this primary was over.

Well, at the very least, add another unexpected superdelegate to Obama’s count.

And it gets worse:

David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey noted that the larger formation from which the chunk detached—the Wilkins Ice Shelf—could itself collapse in 15 years.

“Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on West Antarctica yet to be threatened,” Vaughan said in the statement. “This shelf is hanging by a thread.

Will Greenland have to collapse before Americans finally get off their asses and enact real policy change?