Political News Online: 2010

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Blue-collar desert town goes green

by Todd Woody.

Cities like San Francisco and Seattle usually get kudos for being green pioneers, but the blue-collar Mojave Desert town of Lancaster really shines.

Literally.

Located about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles, Lancaster has embarked on a program to solarize the community. Last week, for instance, the city and SolarCity, a Silicon Valley photovoltaic panel installer, announced that the local baseball park would become the first minor-league stadium in California to go solar.

The 340-kilowatt array to be installed on carports at Clear Channel Stadium—home base of the Lancaster JetHawks—will supply enough electricity to power nearly the entire facility (during the day, at least). It will mean as much as $48,000 in savings on utility bills during the first year of operation, according to the city.

Another 114 solar projects under the city’s Solar Lancaster program will generate a total of 12.5 megawatts when built out. The installations include five other city buildings that will produce 2.5 megawatts.

Like other inland California communities, Lancaster has been hit hard by the housing collapse and the disappearance of construction jobs. The solar program will create green jobs while tapping the city’s most abundant natural resource—the intense desert sunshine.

“I don’t know of a business that burns more electricity than these stadiums, and 98 percent of it is now alternative energy from the sun,” Mayor R. Rex Parris said at a ceremony Thursday to launch the solar ballpark project. “There is not a business here that couldn’t have the electrical needs met by solar power.”

Covering the carports with solar panels will also keep baseball fans’ vehicles cooler during Lancaster’s scorching summers. “You have to live here to understand the feeling of grabbing a 120-degree steering wheel,” said Parris.

Lancaster’s embrace of solar was a major factor leading eSolar to build its five-megawatt demonstration Sierra solar thermal power plant in the city last year, company founder Bill Gross told me when I visited the project while it was under construction.

“They welcomed us with open arms,” Gross said as we stood amid a huge field of mirrors called heliostats. “We had absolutely no problem getting Sierra permitted, unlike other places.”

Will we make the needed investment in the nation’s cities?

Less energy, less pollution, and greater savings. Some dilemma.

Source: http://feeds.grist.org/click.phdo?i=a7868c32cd60b40595ea36177c812476

CUOMO

Ask Umbra gives relationship advice to a couple battling it out over ?eco-stress?

by Umbra Fisk.

Send your question to Umbra!

Q. Dear Umbra,

This is a personal question, but hopefully you can help. My husband and I met when I was 20. I “woke up” to the destructive nature of our consumer lifestyle at 25. Still in love with my husband at age 30, I am wrestling with our vastly different levels of commitment to changing said lifestyle. I would like to go to a therapist that can bring us together on this issue, but I can’t find one that shares my concern for the environment. I’m tired of compromising my values. He’s tired of compromising the conveniences and luxuries he feels he’s “earned” at his corporate job. I feel trapped; he feels judged. Do we keep compromising, or do we divorce and find more like-minded mates? Do you know of any resources for people like us?

Michelle F.
Milwaukee, WI

A. Dearest Michelle,

I think it was Shakespeare who said, “The course of true love never did run smooth, especially when there’s climate change.”

Take some comfort in knowing you’re not alone, Michelle. More and more couples are having disagreements as we collectively learn about the impact of our consumerism. Couples in the U.K. are fighting over how much water is getting boiled in the teakettle. Pairs there and elsewhere are squabbling over leaving the lights on vs. turning them off. I once caught a certain redhead gruffly saying to her significant other on a mission to buy a shower curtain, “No vinyl, that’s final!” It can happen to the best of us.

Your different levels of commitment to sustainability don’t have to be a deal-breaker.

So before recycling your wedding band, take inspiration from the Fixers’ Collective and repair what you have. It sounds like you and your husband love each other and are committed to the relationship, a solid foundation on which to retrofit your marriage. (And while you’re at it, you may want to do some of that to your house, which will save money, often a good way to help sway the not-so-convinced-or-interested.)

Couples therapy can be a useful resource. There are therapists out there who care about environmental issues, even some who do something called Eco-Therapy. But don’t expect a therapist to “take your side” because they share your “concerns for the environment.” A more helpful expectation is that therapy will reframe your problems, giving you both communication tools to navigate any disagreement together.

“It’s important to listen to your partner and support him,” notes therapist and licensed clinical social worker Sarah Gentry. “If you want to be listened to, it helps to listen a lot.”

You say he feels judged and you feel trapped. I say open the door, step outside, and throw judgment into that compost pile you’ve been tending. “Try to appreciate his ability to give you room to pursue living more sustainably,” adds Gentry.

And have a little fun! Share what you enjoy about your values, Michelle. In the process, your fella is likely to discover living mindfully and living luxuriously are not mutually exclusive.

What are your favorite parts of living a more sustainable life? What fascinates you? Delights you? The way to a person’s heart is through the stomach, so food is a great place to start. Local, seasonal, organic food can itself become a positive reinforcement for a new set of values. Has he tried a freshly laid egg from a local farm? Once it cracks, he’ll never go back. Share your good taste at a locavore farm-to-table restaurant like Roots, or the Hinterland Gastropub near you.

You’ll catch more flies with local honey, honey. Try shopping together at a local farmers market. Fair-trade organic chocolates won’t hurt, either. But if you pull something, consider getting massages at an eco-friendly day spa, an “extravagance” you both can feel good about. Give your guy an experience to remember, rather than an object, this holiday season. Perhaps a romantic train trip to a biodynamic winery?

You could stay at a wind- and solar-powered eco-village for your next vacation. Or enjoy a staycation while spicing up your beau’s sense of sustainability. In the sack! Renewable, sumptuous bamboo sheets and DIY lube made from flax seeds can be gamechangers. Hey, any entry point will work!

Sharing this type of enjoyment together will also beging shifting your hubby’s behavior. Behavior change is the name of the game in sustainability, as it leads to changes in beliefs, as my colleague David Roberts has so eloquently written about of late.

Michelle, my belle, I wish you and yours the best.

Love is all you need—which means love is impressively sustainable.

Therapeutically,
Umbra

Get off your ass alert:

Have a Movie Date: Pop some local corn and sit down for the relatable, entertaining and inspiring tale of a couple with different values and ensuing “eco-stress” in the movie No Impact Man—starring Colin Beavan and his Prada-wearing, very funny wife Michelle.

Want therapy? Do a search in your area and ask trusted friends for recommendations for either a Licensed Marriage Family Therapists, a therapist trained in Imago relationship therapy, or one who specializes in cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Building with the disabled in mind means better access for everyone

Greenpeace Sues Dow, Sasol, Dezenhall for Corporate Spying, RICO

Source: http://feeds.grist.org/click.phdo?i=7655430284a5d12efd7cf92b6fd63e41

DAVID PATERSON DAVID PETRAEUS DAVID PLOUFFE DAVID SOUTER

Solving the problem of the city, scientifically

by Sarah Goodyear.

Anyone who thinks that cities are key to the future of a sustainable human presence on the planet—and anyone who thinks the contrary—should read Jonah Lehrer’s fascinating piece in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine, “A Physicist Solves the City.”

In it, Lehrer examines the ideas of Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist who (with his colleague Luis Bettencourt) has come up with a variety of mathematical equations that attempt to define and explore the essential nature of cities. (West’s and Bettencourt’s work was also featured on a recent excellent episode of Radiolab that I discussed in an earlier post.)

As Lehrer writes, “West considers urban theory to be a field without principles, comparing it to physics before Kepler pioneered the laws of planetary motion in the 17th century.”

And so he set out to discover those laws—proceeding on the assumption that they exist, and can be mined and refined from the chaos of urban life.

West first noticed the similarities between cities and living organisms:

This implied that the real purpose of cities, and the reason cities keep on growing, is their ability to create massive economies of scale, just as big animals do. After analyzing the first sets of city data—the physicists began with infrastructure and consumption statistics - they concluded that cities looked a lot like elephants. In city after city, the indicators of urban “metabolism,” like the number of gas stations or the total surface area of roads, showed that when a city doubles in size, it requires an increase in resources of only 85 percent.

But West and his colleagues then realized was that the true essence of a successful city can’t be explained by efficiency:

[A] city is not just a frugal elephant; biological equations can’t entirely explain the growth of urban areas…. “In retrospect, I was quite stupid,” West says. He was so excited by the parallels between cities and living things that he “didn’t pay enough attention to the ways in which urban areas and organisms are completely different.”

What Bettencourt and West failed to appreciate, at least at first, was that the value of modern cities has little to do with energy efficiency. As West puts it, “Nobody moves to New York to save money on their gas bill.” Why, then, do we put up with the indignities of the city? Why do we accept the failing schools and overpriced apartments, the bedbugs and the traffic?

In essence, they arrive at the sensible conclusion that cities are valuable because they facilitate human interactions, as people crammed into a few square miles exchange ideas and start collaborations. “If you ask people why they move to the city, they always give the same reasons,” West says. “They’ve come to get a job or follow their friends or to be at the center of a scene. That’s why we pay the high rent. Cities are all about the people, not the infrastructure.”

The agglomeration of all those people leads to a lot of innovative thinking—which is good, because we need the innovations to keep pace with our ever-growing appetites. (See some recent related discussions of David Owen’s New Yorker article on energy efficiency and the Jevons paradox).

Lehrer writes this about West’s evolving thinking on the city and its role as a hotbed of innovation:

There is a serious complication to this triumphant narrative of cliff edges and creativity, however. Because our lifestyle has become so expensive to maintain, every new resource now becomes exhausted at a faster rate. This means that the cycle of innovations has to constantly accelerate, with each breakthrough providing a shorter reprieve. The end result is that cities aren’t just increasing the pace of life; they are also increasing the pace at which life changes. “It’s like being on a treadmill that keeps on getting faster,” West says. “We used to get a big revolution every few thousand years. And then it took us a century to go from the steam engine to the internal-combustion engine. Now we’re down to about 15 years between big innovations. What this means is that, for the first time ever, people are living through multiple revolutions. And this all comes from cities. Once we started to urbanize, we put ourselves on this treadmill. We traded away stability for growth. And growth requires change.”

Ultimately, West’s research affirms his belief in the organic resilience of megalopolises. But is he right? Is this real science? Can cities continue to grow without collapsing in on themselves?

With more than 50 percent of the world’s populations now living in urban areas, much depends on the answer.

Helmet Wars: A gripping account of the great bicycle helmet campaigns

Memo to ecovores: It’s cheaper being green

Source: http://feeds.grist.org/click.phdo?i=92b9db02725def9014f969fc4c9ff779

DAN LUNGREN DAN ROSTENKOWSKI DAN SENOR DANIEL COWART

START moves a step closer to approval

The Senate stepped closer to approving the START treaty Tuesday, with 67 senators voting to tee up a final vote to ratify the nuclear arms pact before Christmas Eve.

Source: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/21/5690778-start-moves-a-step-closer-to-approval-

ALBANY (NY) ALBERTO GONZALES ALBERTO GONZALEZ ALEX CASTELLANOS

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Sultans of Storage

The Sultans of Storage
As governments begin mandating storage on the grid, big questions loom: Who's gonna pay for it? How much will it cost? Can we survive without it? Decision makers at the policy and utility levels mix it up onstage with the tech companies providing solutions.

Moderator: Eric Wesoff, Senior Analyst, Greentech Media

Ed Cazalet, VP & Founder, Megawatt Storage Farms

Nat Goldhaber, Managing Director, Claremont Creek Ventures

Christopher Villarreal, Policy and Planning Division, CPUC
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700
Location: Stanford, CA, Stanford Memorial Auditorium, VentureBeat
Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2010/11/03/The_Sultans_of_Storage

Source: http://fora.tv/2010/11/03/The_Sultans_of_Storage

BILL NELSON BILL OWENS BILL RICHARDSON BILL RITTER

California approves more Big Solar projects

by Todd Woody.

The California Energy Commission on Wednesday approved two more big solar thermal power plants, ending the year having green-lighted a total of nine projects that would generate 4,142.5 megawatts if all were built.

That’s enough carbon-free electricity to power more than three million homes. The question now is, how many of those massive solar farms will actually break ground?

Hours after the energy commission vote, a federal judge temporarily blocked construction of Tessera Solar’s 709-megawatt Imperial Valley power plant in the Southern California desert in response to a suit by the Quechan Native American tribe.

The Quechan sued the United States Interior Department in October over its approval of the project, arguing that the government failed to adequately consult with the tribe over the impact of installing 28,360, 40-foot-tall solar dishes on its ancestral lands.

The Quechan argued the project would harm the flat-tailed horned lizard, an animal proposed for endangered species protection that is part of the tribe’s creation story.

“Tessera Solar is deeply disappointed with the federal court’s ruling last night,” Robert Lukefahr, Tessera’s chief executive, said in a statement on Thursday. “This ruling sets back our ability to provide clean, renewable power to Southern California and delays our ability to bring jobs and economic development to a region with the highest unemployment rate in America.”

Lukefahr pointed out that El Centro, a city 14 miles from the Imperial Valley project, suffers an unemployment rate of 29.3 percent.

However, a Reuters story last night reported that Tessera had put on hold the Imperial Valley power plant as well as its 663.5-megawatt Calico project in the Mojave Desert due to difficulties in raising financing to build the solar farms.

But on Thursday, Tessera spokesperson Janette Coates told me that the projects had not been abandoned.

“We are actively seeking equity for our Imperial Valley Solar and Calico Solar projects and the actual start of construction will depend on project financing and compliance work which is ongoing,” Coates wrote in an email.

There was some good news on Wednesday for the developers seeking to finance such multibillion-dollar renewable energy projects.

The U.S. Senate passed a one-year extension of a crucial cash grant program that was set to expire at year’s end. The program allows developers to receive a cash payment to cover 30 percent of a renewable energy project’s cost in lieu of receiving an investment tax credit.

The House of Representatives was set to take up the extension of the cash grant program on Thursday.

Related Links:

Blue collar desert town goes green

Less energy, less pollution, and greater savings. Some dilemma.

The top five stories of the year for climate hawks

Source: http://feeds.grist.org/click.phdo?i=3eb2aa11a000c13172b02ebe209aec9f

CHRISTOPHER HILL CHUCK DEVORE CHUCK HAGEL CIA

Bishop Eddie Long Accusers Say They Broke Into Office to Obtain Evidence

Filed under: News

The Bishop Eddie Long sex scandal has been the peculiar incident in Atlanta that turned the black church upside down. A popular pastor given the responsibility of caring for scores of young men has been accused of coercing some of them in to sexual relationships.

Just when you thought the scandal couldn't get anymore scandalous, another piece of evidence emerges from the fray.

Several of Bishop Eddie Long's accusers now claim that the reason they broke in to his office earlier this year was to obtain evidence against Bishop Eddie Long for a pending lawsuit. This is in contrast to previous reports that the men broke in to Long's office for money.

"That man was hurt," said one of Long's accusers, Jamal Parris. "He wanted to get evidence to prove what was happening to him and to all of us."

Related Articles

Parris' story is corroborated by the fact that the buglars took Bishop Long's I-Phone and I-Pad, copying all of the information off of it before giving it back.

Additionally, there was more than $100,000 in jewelry left in the Bishop's private bath that could have been easily stolen. The young men did, however, take some of Long's valuables during the break-in.

"They are feeding the media that this was about money," Parris told Fox 5 News in Atlanta back in September. "But it was about more than that, these men were collecting evidence because they were tired, tired of being hurt and used - so they decided to stand up for themselves and do what they had to do to get attention."

When it comes to the Bishop Eddie Long sex scandal, my head has been spinning for months. First, I must publicly wonder why a man has more than $100,000 in jewelry just laying around his office?

Is he a Baptist minister or a gangsta rapper?

Most black folks don't even have $100,000 in home equity or in their 401K account, let alone in jewelry.

Second, the fact that the young men didn't take the jewelry supports their case. At the same time, it's not as if they didn't take anything of value, and it's hard to determine if that particular part of the theft was due to revenge or simple robbery.

At the very least, Long's attorneys can't easily write the men off as thugs just because they broke in to the man's office. The truth is that young people who are sexually abused may act out in strange ways.

We recently asked here on Black Voices why Bishop Eddie Long settled for mediation instead of a public trial. One of our members of the Your Black World coalition, an attorney out of Atlanta, claims that part of the reason Long might have gone for mediation is because the court system in Atlanta is overcrowded and the courts strongly encourage this option. In fact, he claims that Long was forced to use mediation, which doesn't make much sense to me. So, I reached out to Dr. Christopher Metzler, a highly-respected attorney who also resides at Georgetown University to ascertain the likelihood that Bishop Long was not given the option of having a public trial.

According to Dr. Metzler,"He could have decided to forgo mediation and went to trial. The court can't force mediation, it is simply an alternative. Under Georgia rules of Civil Procedure, and county rules, mediation is known as alternative dispute resolution. Thus, it is an alternative rather than a mandate."

Once again, I submit that Bishop Eddie Long, being accountable to thousands of church members and supporters around the nation, should ensure that his name is cleared by asking that all evidence be presented to the public.

If there is any chance that he may have been having sex with teenage boys while they were in his care, he should not be anyone's spiritual leader.

http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,localizationConfig,entry&id=868400&pid=868399&uts=1292427844

http://www.aolcdn.com/ke/media_gallery/v1/ke_media_gallery_wrapper.swf

Your Hottest News Stories

10-Dec-10 - University of Illinois professor Deborah McGregor has shed light on an important piece of American history. McGregor has noted that Dr. James Marion Sims, considered the father of modern gynecology, developed many of his techniques by operating on slaves.

Click Here for the Complete Story

Getty Images

Getty Images North America

Your Hottest News Stories

10-Dec-10 - Child star Darius McCrary who played Eddie Winslow on the famed sit-com "Family Matters" is accused of beating up his ex-wife video vixen Karrine ("Superhead") Steffans with a belt in front of her 12-year-old son.

Click Here for the Complete Story

Your Hottest News Stories

09-Dec-10 - Administrators at a Memphis middle school have developed an interesting way of battling students with sagging pants: making them look like television nerd Steve Urkel.

Click Here for the Complete Story

Your Hottest News Stories

08-Dec-10 - Why did Bishop Eddie Long choose mediation in his sexual-coercion suit, rather than aiming for a public trial?

Click Here for the Complete Story

Your Hottest News Stories

06-Dec-10 - Mike Epps, who is known for his comedic talents in films and on stage, didn't think it was funny when a paparazzo kept annoying his wife at her birthday celebration.

Click Here for the Complete Story

Your Hottest News Stories

03-Dec-10 - Former teen R&B hearthrob Jermaine Jackson is knee-deep in child-support woes. Reportedly, the crooner owes his ex so much in back child support payments that his driver's license has been confiscated.

Click Here for the Complete Story

Your Hottest News Stories

02-Dec-10 - Chicago's infamous projects Cabrini-Green are finally being closed after 68 years.

Click Here for the Complete Story

Your Hottest News Stories

01-Dec-10 - Two Edmond, Okla., women were arrested for shoplifting goods from a retail store then hiding the items within the folds of their body fat.

Click Here for the Complete Story

Your Hottest News Stories

30-Nov-10 - Rashad Walker Jr. was killed in the back of his mother's minivan in Syracuse, N.Y.

Click Here for the Complete Story

Your Hottest News Stories

30-Nov-10 - Shereé Whitfield of Bravo's Real Housewives of Atlanta fame might be facing eviction yet again -- this time from her rented mansion.

Click Here for the Complete Story

Your Hottest News Stories

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Source: http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/12/17/eddie-long-accusers-say-they-broke-into-office-to-obtain-evidenc/

ARNE DUNCAN ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER AT AUSTRALIA

Has Obama Turned it up to 11?

Source: http://reason.com/blog/2010/12/05/has-obama-turned-it-up-to-11

ADRIAN FENTY ADS AFGHANISTAN AFL-CIO

Smithfield caught on tape abusing mama pigs

by Tom Philpott.

The year is not ending well for the meat industry. Last week, after years of dodging the question, the FDA revealed the amount of antibiotics the industry pumps into the unfortunate animals it holds in confinement. Turns out that Big Meat has been drastically underestimating its routine drug use—while blithely helping nourish antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” in the process. Thanks, guys.

And this week, the ever-heroic Humane Society of the United States released a stark report, including video, from inside a factory “farm” run by Smithfield, the globe’s largest pork producer. Once again, an HSUS inspector has snuck into an animal factory posing as a worker, documenting the horrors therein. Given the near absence of proper oversight of animal factories by the USDA (which oversees meat) and the FDA (eggs and dairy), HSUS has become our shadow regulator, the eyes through which the public can see what the industry gets up to behind its well-guarded gates. (It has also done vital recent work on the industrial-egg industry.)

It ain’t pretty. I sure hope those investigators get PTSD counseling.

Here’s the short video. There’s a longer one, for the steely-hearted, and a slideshow for the less so.

The focus here is gestation crates—a housing method used by the industry to “efficiently” tend pregnant sows. The HSUS report says:

Female breeding pigs were crammed inside “gestation crates” so small the animals could barely move for virtually their entire lives. The animals engaged in stereotypic behaviors such as biting the bars of crates, indicating poor well-being in the extreme confinement conditions. Some had bitten their bars so incessantly that blood from their mouths coated the fronts of their crates. The breeding pigs also suffered injuries from sharp crate protrusions and open pressure sores that developed from their unyielding confinement.

Despite the suffering and potential for infection from wounds, medical attention is virtually absent from the scene—and when care is administered, it’s outright malicious. Reports HSUS:

The investigator never saw a veterinarian at the operation. A barn manager told the investigator to ignore a pig with a basketball-sized abscess on her neck, and then cut the abscess open with an unsterilized razor.

How does the company even manage to keep these tortured animals alive until they give birth? I guess those daily lashings of antibiotics do the trick.

For its part, Smithfield has whipped itself into PR overdrive, issuing a press release announcing it had hired the renowned animal-welfare expert Temple Grandin to help with an “ongoing investigation” of the incidents captured on film. Perhaps the incident will compel the company to keep its 2007 promise to phase out gestation crates by 2017—a slothful pace the company had already signaled it simply can’t stick to, reports HSUS.

Note that government regulators have nothing to do with this process. Glacial as its pace is, reform in the meat industry is being driven by consumer outrage generated by NGOs like HSUS. Why might that be? Well, a recent Union of Concerned Scientist survey of rank-and-file FDA and USDA employees portrays agencies essentially under heel of the industries they’re meant to regulate.

And the campaign-finance/lobbying tracker Open Secrets suggests an answer as to why. Reports Open Secrets:

Individuals and political action committees associated with the meat industry contributed $1.6 million to the candidates at the federal level during the 2008 campaign cycle, with nearly 70 percent going to Republicans. The industry is a strong supporter of the GOP, and has given the party more than three-quarters of the $10 million of its contributions made since the 1990 election cycle. The industry’s contributions have remained fairly steady—in the range of $1.1 to $1.7 million—since the 2000 campaign cycle.

The industry also floods the Hill and regulatory agencies with lobbyists:

On the federal lobbying front, the industry has markedly increased its expenditures throughout the last decade, from less than half a million dollars to high of $6.2 million in 2008. In 2009, the industry spent $5.6 million on lobbying, with top spender Tyson Foods accounting for nearly $2.5 million—more than double what the company spent just two years before in 2007. Smithfield Foods—maker of Butterball turkeys—spent $1.3 million.

With the Republicans resurgent in Congress and Obama in retreat from progressive ideals, it’s hard to imagine that our regulatory agencies will grow a backbone and begin to defend the public interest against industry’s cheap-food-at-any-cost demands.

Until they do, thank goodness we have the Humane Society acting as our eyes on the meat-factory floor.

The FDA finally reveals how many antibiotics factory farms use—and it’s a shitload

Why you should eat insects instead of meat [VIDEO]

Source: http://feeds.grist.org/click.phdo?i=1c8dcc4e16140decea21c222d06efbc4

AL FRANKEN AL GORE AL QAEDA AL SHARPTON

Video: Top 10 Media Disasters of 2010

By Mark Berman Opposing Views

The web site Mediaite has ranked the top 10 media disasters of 2010. They counted them down on Fox News:

Source: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/video-top-10-media-disasters-of-2010

CNN RADIO POLITICAL NOTEBOOK CNN TV CNN VIDEO CNN VIDEO NEWS

Monday, December 20, 2010

Friday music blogging: The Secret Sisters

by David Roberts.

The Secret Sisters are Lydia and Laura Rogers, a duo based in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Their sweet voices and old-time sensibility caught the interest of the legendary T-Bone Burnett, who took them under his wing, produced their record, and started a label purely to release it.

He also brought in a bunch of old Nashville session musicians to play behind them, using instruments and recording methods from the 1950s. The result is an unabashed throwback and a consistent pleasure. There’s a bit of genteel NPR-ishness to it, sure. They’ll probably play it in Starbucks. But whatever—you’ll pry my love of pretty harmonies out of my cold, dead hands. Or ears, rather.

This tune is called “Why, Baby, Why.”

UPDATE: Turns out this song is a cover of a honkey-tonk classic by George Jones. Thanks to janssen for pointing it out in comments. I feel duly chastened.

Friday music blogging: Girl Talk

Friday music blogging: Daft Punk (Tron)

Source: http://feeds.grist.org/click.phdo?i=47adf8c0aebea39f18a21d75c292fa15

CHICAGO (ILL) CHINA CHIP SALTSMAN CHRIS CHRISTIE

Sarah Palin 'Target WikiLeaks Like Taliban'

DMandPenfold writes "Sarah Palin, who is widely tipped as a possible Republican candidate for president in 2012, has said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be hunted down in the way armed forces are targeting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda." So that means we should spend billions of dollars and not catch him? Good plan.

The Republican congressman who supported terrorism

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., is set to assume the chairmanship of the House Homeland Security Committee in January, and today comes the news that he intends to launch an investigation of "radicalization" among American Muslims.

Source: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2010/12/17/peter_king_terrorism/index.html

CNNMONEY CNNMONEY.COM COFFEE PARTY MOVEMENT COLIN POWELL

New report on state transportation policy shows a long road ahead

by Sarah Goodyear.

With action on transportation policy utterly stalled out at the federal level, the best hope for reforms that would lead to a reduction in carbon emissions from transportation might lie with the states. Emphasis on might. Because with some exceptions, they’re not doing so great either.

In an effort to move things forward, the Natural Resources Defense Council, in partnership with Smart Growth America, put out “Getting Back on Track.” The study ranks all 50 states on a variety of policy criteria that indicate a commitment to reducing transportation emissions—including safe routes to school programs, variable road pricing, incentives for transit-oriented development, and transportation investment decisions.

The top five states in the study’s rankings were California, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Washington. Some 24 states fell into what the study defined as “Tier 3,” meaning “Limited or no alignment between transportation policy and climate change goals.”

The overall picture was not rosy:

[M]ost states use few of the available transportation policy tools to reduce greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions from the transportation sector, and in most cases make decisions that will likely increase emissions.

Why is state policy on transportation so important? Let’s hear it from the NRDC and Smart Growth America wonks themselves:

[T]ransportation accounted for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990, making it the fastest growing source of emissions through 2007. Poor traffic and congestion management, underinvestment in efficient transportation options, and failure to coordinate transportation plans with local land use are just some of the policy failures that produce significant inefficiencies in our transportation system. Endemic congestion in metropolitan areas and along freight corridors exacerbates this inefficiency. As a result, petroleum consumption by personal vehicles accounts for 60 percent of transportation- related GHG emissions in the United States, with an additional 20 percent coming from freight trucks.

Projections show emissions from the transportation rising further in coming decades, consistent with past trends. Between 1977 and 2001, the U.S. population grew by 30 percent; driving rates, measured in vehicle-miles traveled (VMT), grew by 151 percent.7 In this same time period, average trip lengths, trips per capita, and the proportion of drivers traveling alone each increased.8 While such growth trends have abated somewhat in recent years, they are still pronounced: between 1990 and 2007 VMT in the United States rose twice as fast as its population. National VMT is projected to double between 2005 and 2030.

The corresponding increase in GHG emissions would undermine the emissions savings achieved through improved vehicle efficiency and transitions to cleaner transportation fuels.

The report did cite several positive examples of how states can effectively work against the rising tide of emissions, and that could serve as models for progress. In Colorado, so-called “complete streets” legislation was adopted in June 2010, requiring the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists to be included in “the planning, design, and operation of transportation facilities, as a matter of routine.”

In Virginia, policymakers in Arlington County made a series of decisions benefiting transit-oriented development and public transportation that led to less traffic volume on many roads today than there was in 1996 (something that simply building new roads cannot achieve).

But state legislatures can also block the road to policies aimed at reducing emissions, as when the New York State Legislature killed a congestion pricing plan for New York City—despite support from the New York City Council and voters.

If states are going to be part of the emissions solution, they’ll need to start moving a lot faster.

Read more on the report’s recommendations at the blog of NRDC’s Colin Peppard, one of its authors.

Related Links:

The Republican congressman who supported terrorism

Source: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2010/12/17/peter_king_terrorism/index.html

CNN CNN 100 CNN DEBATE CNN EDITION

Working Poor Take Home Less Pay With Tax Deal

Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama

Despite a tax cut compromise that is supposed to keep everyone whole financially, if not better off, 51 million households will face a higher tax bill or a lower refund compared with this year.

The main culprit: The proposed payroll tax break would not be as generous for many low- and middle-income households as the tax cut it is replacing.

The bill, which has passed the Senate and is set for a House vote on Thursday, would for one year reduce workers' Social Security taxes. Workers pay 6.2% on their first $106,800 of wages. The tax cut deal would reduce that to 4.2%.

That payroll tax "holiday" would replace the Making Work Pay credit, which expires Dec. 31 and was part of the 2009 Recovery Act.

As a result, 51 million households -- about a third of the total -- would be out an average of $210 compared with this year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

"Nothing else in the compromise tax agreement compensates [them] for those losses," Tax Policy Center senior fellow Roberton Williams wrote in the blog Tax Vox.

About 45 million of the households represent private and public sector workers.

Here's why they won't get as much tax relief in 2011: Making Work Pay was worth $400 for individuals making $75,000 or less or $800 per couple making $150,000 or less.

To get that much under the payroll tax break, one would need to earn at least $20,000 ($40,000 for couples). That's because the payroll tax break would amount to 2% of a worker's pay.

The other 6 million households affected represent state and local government employees who received the Making Work Pay credit but won't qualify for the payroll tax holiday. Why? Because they're not covered by Social Security and therefore don't pay into the system.

Source: CNN

Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and Illustrator from New Jersey. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Follow him on Facebook.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Source: http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/12/16/working-poor-take-home-less-pay-with-tax-deal/

ALASKA ALBANY (NY) ALBERTO GONZALES ALBERTO GONZALEZ

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Contractors behaving badly mean headaches for US

At two in the morning on Sept. 9, 2005, five DynCorp International security guards assigned to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's protective detail returned to their compound drunk, with a prostitute in tow. Less than a week later, three of these same guards got drunk again, this time in the VIP lounge of the Kabul airport while awaiting a flight to Thailand.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40738549/ns/politics/

BUDGET BUDGETS AND BUDGETING BUSH ADMINISTRATION BUSINESS

Top Senate Republican To Vote Against Arms Treaty

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday he would oppose a nuclear arms treaty with Russia, damaging prospects for President Obama's top foreign policy priority in the final days of the postelection Congress.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/19/132186892/top-senate-republican-to-vote-against-russia-treaty?ft=1&f=1014

CNN POLL OF POLLS CNN POLLS CNN RADIO CNN RADIO POLITICAL NOTEBOOK

Wonderfest 2010: How Did Evolution Shape Human Behavior?

Wonderfest 2010: How Did Evolution Shape Human Behavior?
This program was recorded at the 12th Annual Wonderfest, the San Francisco Bay Area Festival of Science.

Wonderfest's broad goals are best described by its mission statement: Through public discourse about provocative scientific questions, Wonderfest aspires to stimulate curiosity, promote careful reasoning, challenge unexamined beliefs, and encourage life-long learning.

Wonderfest achieves these ends by presenting series of scientific events to the general public. At most of these events, pairs of articulate and accomplished researchers discuss and debate compelling questions at the edge of scientific understanding.
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 2010 13:30:00 -0800
Location: Berkeley, CA, Stanley Hall, Wonderfest
Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2010/11/07/Wonderfest_2010_How_Did_Evolution_Shape_Human_Behavior

Source: http://fora.tv/2010/11/07/Wonderfest_2010_How_Did_Evolution_Shape_Human_Behavior

APPEALS COURTS (US) ARIZONA ARKANSAS ARLEN SPECTER

Would the Repeal Amendment Actually Limit the Size and Scope of Government?

Source: http://reason.com/blog/2010/12/03/would-the-repeal-amendment-act

CNN DEBATE CNN EDITION CNN ELECTION CENTER CNN ELECTION EXPRESS

Wonderfest 2010: Science Laughs with Norm Goldblatt

Wonderfest 2010: Science Laughs with Norm Goldblatt
This program was recorded at the 12th Annual Wonderfest, the San Francisco Bay Area Festival of Science.

Wonderfest's broad goals are best described by its mission statement: Through public discourse about provocative scientific questions, Wonderfest aspires to stimulate curiosity, promote careful reasoning, challenge unexamined beliefs, and encourage life-long learning.

Wonderfest achieves these ends by presenting series of scientific events to the general public. At most of these events, pairs of articulate and accomplished researchers discuss and debate compelling questions at the edge of scientific understanding.
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2010 16:30:00 -0700
Location: Palo Alto, CA, Hewlett Teach Center, Wonderfest
Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2010/11/06/Wonderfest_2010_Science_Laughs_with_Norm_Goldblatt

Source: http://fora.tv/2010/11/06/Wonderfest_2010_Science_Laughs_with_Norm_Goldblatt

CIA CINDY MCCAIN CINDY SHEEHAN CITIZENS UNITED

Senate Passes Repeal Of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

The Senate voted to repeal the 1993 "don't ask, don't tell," which bars gays from serving openly in the military. The president is expected to sign the bill into law next week.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/18/132168864/Senate-Passes-Repeal-Of-Dont-Ask-Dont-Tell?ft=1&f=1014

CARLY FIORINA CAROLINE KENNEDY CAROLYN MALONEY CARTE GOODWIN

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Adrienne Zihlman: Are 'Ardi' and 'Lucy' Really Female?

Adrienne Zihlman: Are 'Ardi' and 'Lucy' Really Female?
Human Evolution: Investigating Our Origins

Science is always evolving. New discoveries shape our current understanding of human evolutionary milestones such as bipedalism, the use of tools, dietary adaptation, changing body shapes and sizes, and life historys.

Join us to reflect on the roots of humanity as we explore key early hominin adaptations and their evolution through time. Speakers include: Zeray Alemseged, Adrienne Zihlman, Tanya Smith and Teresa Steele.
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700
Location: San Francisco, CA, California Academy of Sciences, California Academy of Sciences
Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2010/11/06/Adrienne_Zihlman_Are_Ardi_and_Lucy_Really_Female

Source: http://fora.tv/2010/11/06/Adrienne_Zihlman_Are_Ardi_and_Lucy_Really_Female

CNN VIDEO NEWS CNN\\\'S SHORT LIST CNN.COM CNN.COM LIVE

Dutch Design Week: Graphic Design Lecture

Source: http://fora.tv/2010/11/15/Dutch_Design_Week_Graphic_Design_Lecture

BOB BENNETT BOB CASEY BOB CORKER BOB DOLE

Rep. Louie Gohmert: Gays in Military Threaten Existence of US

By Mark Berman Opposing Views

During the debate over the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the House on Wednesday, Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert got up and made an interesting speech against it.

Not only did he say that the military is "inconsistent with American values" because troops do not enjoy the same rights as civilians under the Constitution, he said allowing gays in the military would threaten the "existence" of our nation:

Source: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/rep-louie-gohmert-gays-in-military-threaten-existence-of-us

CHRIS GIBSON CHRIS VAN HOLLEN CHRISTINA ROMER CHRISTOPHER COX

Fox News Viewers Often Misinformed

A new University of Maryland study finds that those "who had greater exposure to news sources were generally better informed... There were however a number of cases where greater exposure to a news source increased misinformation on a specific issue."

Key finding: Fox News viewers were were "significantly" more likely than non-viewers to erroneously believe false information about the economy, taxes, climate change, bailouts and whether President Obama was born in the United States.

"These effects increased incrementally with increasing levels of exposure and all were statistically significant. The effect was also not simply a function of partisan bias, as people who voted Democratic and watched Fox News were also more likely to have such misinformation than those who did not watch it."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PoliticalWire/~3/vh3LJX47uUA/fox_news_viewers_often_misinformed.html

CNN.COM VIDEO CNN/MONEY CNN/YOUTUBE DEBATE CNN=POLITICS DAILY

The Climate Post: Cancun climate talks limp to a compromise at close of hottest year on record

by Christopher Mims.

It’s official, at least according to NASA: worldwide, 2010 was the hottest year on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.K. Met Office Hadley Centre may disagree, but the bottom line, says Andrew Freedman of the Washington Post, “is that all of the data as measured by land, sea, air, and even from space, shows 2010 has been an unusually warm year globally.”

Meanwhile, the international climate talks in Cancún concluded Saturday with an agreement endorsed by 193 of the 194 countries present. For the first time, the international climate agreement included emissions targets for developing as well as developed countries, as well as an adaptation and mitigation fund for channeling $100 billion from developed to developing countries via the World Bank.

Scientists were quick to point out if emissions pledges are delivered upon, they could lead to 5.7 degrees of warming and a CO2 concentration of 650 parts per million (ppm) by 2100. Notably, India indicated it would accept greenhouse gas emissions limits in the future, and the country played a key role in breaking a deadlock over how to verify emissions.

The deal represents a starting point, at least, but, “ongoing greenhouse gas emissions have committed the world to at least [a] 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7 degree Fahrenheit) warming from pre-Industrial levels.” This is a mere 0.5 degree Celsius (0.9 degree Fahrenheit) below what the Copenhagen Accord—and Cancún compromise text—promise to avert.

The agreement also advances a framework for preventing deforestation and transferring green technology to the developing world.

Overall, Cancún was a small but significant success, and international frameworks of its kind aren’t where real progress on climate change is going to be made anyway, says Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.

Taking the opposite position, John Vidal, environment editor at The Guardian, said most of the “triumphs” of Cancún are merely a “political aspiration,” including the $100 billion for a climate fund.

“For there to be any chance to hold temperatures to even 2C, countries had to agree to ‘peak’ their emissions in the next 10 years and then rapidly reduce them. But all references to peaking have been dropped [from the agreement],” Vidal adds.

A “clear and present danger” to civilization: More than a few reports were timed to coincide with the news spotlight shown on climate issues during the Cancún talks, and bluntest among them is a new paper [PDF] from Ohio State University’s Lonnie Thompson, who is worth quoting in full:

Climatologists, like other scientists, tend to be a stolid group. We are not given to theatrical rantings about falling skies. Most of us are far more comfortable in our laboratories or gathering data in the field than we are giving interviews to journalists or speaking before Congressional committees. Why then are climatologists speaking out about the dangers of global warming? The answer is that virtually all of us are now convinced that global warming poses a clear and present danger to civilization.

Self-described “climate hawk” Joseph Romm has a summary of Thompson’s paper and links to his other work at Climate Progress.

A new study describes the fate of the American southwest in the near future, including a high likelihood for a 60-year drought of the kind last seen in that region during the Middle Ages.

“I don’t consider the Southwest unique,” Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, told ClimateWire. “I consider them the first dying canary in the coal mine. ... There is more and more evidence that climate changes are going to be felt in the Southwest early and deeply.”

When “smart growth” means harvesting energy from cities themselves: A paper that went largely unnoticed by the press when it first came out in late October proposes exploiting the fact water in aquifers below cities is slightly warmer than surrounding areas in order to heat those same cities. Researchers estimate that by exploiting the “urban heat island” effect, they could warm entire cities such as Winnipeg and Tokyo for centuries.

In China, the Hangzhou East Railway Station for high-speed trains will soon sport the world’s largest single-building solar photovoltaic power plant, which will cover 148,000 square meters (1.3 million square feet) and generate 10 megawatts of power.

Stateside, Soladigm, a company that just received $30 million in early-stage funding, hopes to manufacture windows that automatically dim or become more transparent in response to outside temperatures. Their CEO claims use of these windows can reduce expenditure on heating and cooling by 25 percent.

The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

Memo to ecovores: It’s cheaper being green

Hey, Obama: You can’t bargain with the climate