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John McCain: Nothing's Sacred
A fun, quick look at how McCain is faring on the religious front which may have you humming REM's "Losing My Religion" by the time you're done reading. A fun, quick look at how McCain is faring on the religious front which may have you humming REM's "Losing My Religion" ... more
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Obama, Clinton don't dare challenge King Coal's unspeakable environmenta...
It's the one environmental crime that no US politician will confront – the destruction of Kentucky's mountains. Leonard Doyle visits the Appalachian peaks being blasted by Big Coal.
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The road slicing through the thickly forested hills of eastern Kentucky used to be called the Daniel Boone Parkway. It was named for the controversial American folk hero who fought his way across Indian country to settle a state where many of his descendants still live.
That was before the coal industry began blowing up the Appalachian Mountains as a cheap way of getting at the black stuff below, behaviour decried by the environmental group Appalachian Voices as "one of the greatest human rights and environmental tragedies in America's recent history".
Daniel Boone's road is now the Hal Rogers Parkway, named after one of the Kentucky coal industry's closest friends in Washington, a Republican Congressman of 34 years. It passes through a mountain range older than the Himalayas and is blanketed in broadleaf forests rivalled only by the Amazon basin in its biodiversity.
But the canopy of trees which lines the parkway as it rises from the bluegrass horse country to the mountains is a trompe l'oeil. The lush forest gives way to scraggly trees along the ridge-line, and behind those trees is evidence of unspeakable ecological violence. In a process known as mountaintop removal an upland moonscape is being created, which is incapable of regenerating trees. As far as the eye can see, the land is grey and pockmarked with huge black lakes, filled with toxic coal slurry.
This has come about because of America's insatiable appetite for cheap coal to generate electricity, a process enthusiastically backed by the Bush administration as it tries to displace the consumption of imported oil. And the Democrats are little better. They control Kentucky and neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton have dared to challenge "King Coal" while campaigning.
The devastation being wrought on Appalachia is best appreciated from the air. An organisation called Southwinds offers people an eagle-eye view of the carnage, not readily appreciated from the road. Another way to see what's going on behind the ridge-line is to take a Google Earth virtual tour of an online memorial to the 470 mountains blown up and levelled in recent years. It's the one environmental crime that no US politician will confront – the destruction of Kentucky's mountains. Leonard Doyl... more -
Obama accuses Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs for spreading hate against immigrants
I don't listen to Rush: so I don't know what he says about immigrants But I did watch Lou and I totally agree with Obama.
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Don't be fooled by windmills in the McCain photo op
Conservative presidential candidate Sen. John McCain chose a clever but ultimately hypocritical location for his big climate speech. I hope the media aren't fooled by his ironic choice of wind turbine company Vestas as the backdrop, but I have little doubt they will run enticing photos and videos of wind turbines. McCain, however, does not deserve to be linked to such images.
I would title the speech "Not the man for the job" (see "No climate for old men").
Let's be clear: Conservatives like John McCain, or more accurately, conservatives including John McCain, are the main reason McCain has to go to a Danish wind turbine manufacturer to give a climate speech. With the major government investments in wind in the 1970s, the United States was poised to be a dominant player in what was clearly going to be one of the biggest job-creating industries of the next hundred years. But conservatives repeatedly gutted the wind budget, then opposed efforts by progressives to increase it, and repeatedly blocked efforts to extend the wind power tax credit.
That's right. The United States is now a bit player in an industry we launched (we had 90 percent of global installed capacity in the mid-1980s) -- thanks to conservatives, including McCain.
In December, McCain himself failed to show up for a key vote that would have extended the wind power production tax credit, which has been a key driver of wind power in this country -- allowing it to compete with our better-subsidized power sources (like nuclear) in this country, and to partly offset the much bigger subsidies other countries have for renewables. The vote would have shifted money from subsidies to the oil industry, which hardly needs it given record oil prices and record oil profits (see "How high must oil go before we end subsidies?")
McCain's vote could have broken the conservative filibuster blocking the effort to support renewables, since the clean energy tax package failed 59-40, but his spokesperson said that "he would not have supported breaking the filibuster." This was but one recent example of a series of missed votes or anti-renewable votes McCain has cast in recent years. Conservative presidential candidate Sen. John McCain chose a clever but ultimately hypocritical location for his big climate speech. I... more -
Clinton, Obama talk up clean coal
US Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are talking more about "clean coal" and less about global warming as they woo voters in West Virginia and Kentucky - two states that sit at the heart of the nation's coal economy.
In a bid to draw voters ahead of Democratic primaries in West Virginia tomorrow and Kentucky on May 20, both candidates are playing up the ascendant role of commercially untested and so far economically nonviable ways of converting America's plentiful coal supplies into electricity without spewing massive quantities of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
"We need some big investments right now in figuring out how to capture and store carbon dioxide from coal," Senator Clinton told a rally in the rural town of Clear Fork.
To get there, she took a windy road through the Appalachian Mountains that passed at least four big coal mines cut into the mountainside.
Not to be outdone, Senator Obama's campaign has distributed flyers in Kentucky stating that "Barack Obama believes in clean Kentucky coal." The flyers show a picture of giant barges carrying coal down the Ohio River.
Coal-fired power plants generate about half of US electricity supplies, and account for about 40 per cent of US greenhouse gas emissions - the biggest single industrial source. US Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are talking more about "clean coal" and less about glob... more -
Nuclear energy heats up U.S. Presidential race
John McCain embraces it. Barack Obama wants to address its flaws. Hillary Clinton is cautious but not opposed.
Nuclear power -- controversial in the United States and throughout much of the world -- is on the agenda of all three US presidential candidates as they seek to diversify the country's energy mix and reduce dependence on foreign oil.
Interviews with top policy advisers to the three White House hopefuls reveal a varied approach to the technology that some observers see as a necessary answer to fighting climate change and others view as expensive and dangerous.
McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona who has wrapped up his party's nomination, is by far the most enthusiastic about the carbon-free fuel source, regularly calling for more nuclear power plants at campaign stops throughout the nation.
"I believe we are not going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and become energy independent ... unless we use nuclear power and use it in great abundance," he said in North Carolina on Monday.
McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said nuclear power faced an "uneven playing field" from years of political opposition.
"Sen. McCain would eliminate the political obstacles that hinder nuclear power, allow it to compete more effectively, and likely increase its share of the US energy portfolio," he said.
Nuclear energy accounts for about 20 percent of US electricity supply, a figure that could rise if regulations on carbon dioxide emissions are imposed, making greenhouse gas emission-free nuclear plants more attractive.
There are 104 operating nuclear reactors nationwide.
Obama, an Illinois senator and the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, shares McCain's belief that nuclear energy is part of the solution to climate change.
But he opposes new federal subsidies and would work to address concerns about safety and waste storage, senior adviser Jason Grumet said.
"Because of the fact that climate change is a species-challenging dilemma, we don't have the luxury to do anything but try to solve those real problems," associated with nuclear technology, he said.
Clinton, a New York senator, prefers using renewable fuels to fight climate change because of nuclear energy's risks.
"Hillary has real concerns about nuclear power because of the issues around safety, waste disposal and proliferation," policy director Neera Tandem said.
"She opposes new subsidies for nuclear power, but would continue research focused on lowering costs and improving safety." John McCain embraces it. Barack Obama wants to address its flaws. Hillary Clinton is cautious but not opposed. ... more -
Obama says he will back Petraeus as leader of Central Command
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who has called for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq, said on Sunday he will vote to confirm the top commander there for a new job as head of the military's Central Command.
President George W. Bush has nominated Gen. David Petraeus, who led the buildup of troops in Iraq, to be in charge of operations across the Middle East and Central Asia.
If confirmed by the Senate, Petraeus will still be in that job when the next president replaces Bush at the White House in January 2009. Obama hopes that person is him.
"Yes," Obama told "Fox News Sunday" when asked if, as a senator from Illinois, he would approve Petraeus. "I think Petraeus has done a good tactical job in Iraq."
Obama has said he would start pulling out more troops as soon as he became president.
"My hope is that Petraeus would reflect that wider view of our strategic interest," he said on "Fox News Sunday." Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who has called for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq, said on Sunday he will vote... more -
Florida: Legislature of the Absurd
Diane Roberts wrote a piece the other day criticizing the Florida State Legislative body for it's priorities (and the lack there of) during it's current session. The follwoign is just an excerpt listing some fo the antics of the Legislature's 2008 regular session:
"Look at the legislature's priorities: pushing "I Believe" license plates sporting a cross and a stained glass window. Voting to sneak the teaching of "intelligent design" into high school science classes. Forcing pregnant women who want or need an abortion to undergo an ultrasound — and making them pay for it, too. Filing bills against the scourge of boys in baggy britches. Making sure you can you can tote your Smith and Wesson to the day care center, the mall, or that downsizing construction company — the one you're kind of mad at. And debating whether the faux bovine cojones known as "Truck Nutz" should be banned from the backsides of Florida vehicles."
There's more discussed by the author but the failure fo the Florida Legislature is that it doesn't seem to have any idea what the citizens need any more... Though they do know how to address wedge issues and the mundane in order to distract the citizenry from the real problems facing the state.
This is what a failure of government looks like. Diane Roberts wrote a piece the other day criticizing the Florida State Legislative body for it's priorities (and the lack there ... more
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