Global
If the wind changes direction, the oil slick may well spread all the way up the East Coast, and more oil could continue spilling for months.
This is the catastrophe that oil industry lobbyists and their friends in Congress said would never happen.
They said new technology made drilling "safe and protective of the environment."2 And in 2008, after spending millions on lobbying, Big Oil got President Bush and the Democratic Congress to repeal the ban on new off-shore drilling that had been in place for more than 30 years.
But now public support for drilling is plummeting, and we must seize this moment to stop Big Oil from getting their hands on any more of our precious coasts.
Can you call Senator Sherrod Brown today? Tell him that you want Congress to immediately reinstate the ban on new off-shore oil drilling. Here's where to call:
Senator Sherrod Brown
Phone: 202-224-2315
Then, please report your call by clicking here:
Move On
This is the catastrophe that oil industry lobbyists and their friends in Congress said would never happen.
They said new technology made drilling "safe and protective of the environment."2 And in 2008, after spending millions on lobbying, Big Oil got President Bush and the Democratic Congress to repeal the ban on new off-shore drilling that had been in place for more than 30 years.
But now public support for drilling is plummeting, and we must seize this moment to stop Big Oil from getting their hands on any more of our precious coasts.
Can you call Senator Sherrod Brown today? Tell him that you want Congress to immediately reinstate the ban on new off-shore oil drilling. Here's where to call:
Senator Sherrod Brown
Phone: 202-224-2315
Then, please report your call by clicking here:
Move On
From reining in Wall Street to preventing the next oil spill and tackling global climate change, we often hold back from taking important public stands because we’re caught in a trap I call “the perfect standard.” Before let ourselves take action on an issue, we wait to be certain that it’s the world’s most important issue, that we understand it perfectly, and that we’ll be able to express our perspectives with perfect eloquence. We also decide that engagement requires being of perfect moral character without the slightest inconsistencies or flaws.
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As vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Rich Cizik represented 4,500 congregations serving 30 million members. Considering himself a “Reagan conservative” and a strong initial supporter of George W. Bush, Cizik had been with the organization since 1980, serving as its key advocate before Congress, the Office of the President, and the Supreme Court on issues like opposition to abortion and gay marriage.
In his report on Gaza issued late last year, prominent South African jurist Richard Goldstone accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes. His language also showed awareness of the fact that the former is an occupying power with most sophisticated weapon arsenal (as reflecting in the number of Palestinian victims), and the latter is a besieged, occupied faction in a state of self-defense. Although Goldstone must have been aware of the kind of hysteria such a report would generate, he still did not allow ideological or ethnic affiliation to stand between him and his moral convictions.
Despite some initial apprehension – owing to the fact that Goldstone is a self-declared Zionist with links to Israel - many justice and peace advocates were comforted by the man’s past record. He was a former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Despite some initial apprehension – owing to the fact that Goldstone is a self-declared Zionist with links to Israel - many justice and peace advocates were comforted by the man’s past record. He was a former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Is it that you don't know what war costs, or that you don't know that it makes us less safe?
We've spent $268 billion on making war on Afghanistan, and using Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz' analysis of Iraq we need to multiply that by four or five to get a realistic cost including debt, veterans care, energy prices, and lost opportunities. Public investment in most other industries or in tax cuts produces more jobs than investment in military. In fact, military spending is economically, as well as morally, the worst thing Congress can do. And this is economically the worst time in many decades to be doing the worst thing you can do.
We've spent $268 billion on making war on Afghanistan, and using Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz' analysis of Iraq we need to multiply that by four or five to get a realistic cost including debt, veterans care, energy prices, and lost opportunities. Public investment in most other industries or in tax cuts produces more jobs than investment in military. In fact, military spending is economically, as well as morally, the worst thing Congress can do. And this is economically the worst time in many decades to be doing the worst thing you can do.
(Stony Ridge, OH) For decades a quiet neighborhood in the suburbs of Toledo, Ohio has been home to working class Americans and the place where their children were raised. There is even a local park and playground right around the corner complete with Little League field. Its idyllic serenity has not been spared from the pains of the current economic and housing crisis. On the morning of May 3rd, one working-class anarchist and laid-off auto-worker facing eviction resulting from just one more of the nearly 1.5 million foreclosures in the U.S., decided that now was the time to stand his ground.
I was unaware that SOS did not require the precincts to have paper ballots on hand for the primary. I do not disagree with that decision, as it seems to me that it would be a pretty high cost for just a few people like me who dont trust the machines and wish to vote on paper.
When my wife and I went to the polls this morning, she asked for paper ballot and was asked the reason she was asking for it. She refused to answer and left the polling place, with the intention of returning later. She (we)did not feel that question was appropriate. I asked for paper, and gave the reason that I did not trust the machines.
I was then given a provisional ballot envelope. I informed them I did not want to vote provisionally, I wanted my vote to be counted tonight, not next week. The informed me that all paper ballots needed to go into the envelope for privacy, and that all paper ballots would be treated as provisional. I was decidedly unhappy at this point, still not realizing that SOS did not order paper ballots to be available. At this point, I decided to vote on the machine.
When my wife and I went to the polls this morning, she asked for paper ballot and was asked the reason she was asking for it. She refused to answer and left the polling place, with the intention of returning later. She (we)did not feel that question was appropriate. I asked for paper, and gave the reason that I did not trust the machines.
I was then given a provisional ballot envelope. I informed them I did not want to vote provisionally, I wanted my vote to be counted tonight, not next week. The informed me that all paper ballots needed to go into the envelope for privacy, and that all paper ballots would be treated as provisional. I was decidedly unhappy at this point, still not realizing that SOS did not order paper ballots to be available. At this point, I decided to vote on the machine.
The panic has set in at the Big D in the state capitol. The staid daily monopoly, also known as the Columbus Dispatch, published an op-ed by senior editor Joe Hallett confirming what the Free Press previously reported – Tea Party activists will take over the Buckeye State’s Republican Party.
By Hallett’s estimate, the 66-member Republican state central committee has 54 Tea Party activists running in Tuesday’s primary. How many are expected to win? A high-level Republican official told the Free Press that he thinks 50 of the 66 seats may go to the Tea Party. However, the official cautioned that he’s not as sure as the Free Press or the Dispatch that the Tea Party activists are “far right.” He claims most are “fiscal conservatives.”
Hallett doesn’t see it that way. He writes that if the Tea Party takes over the Ohio Republican Party central committee, “…the Ohio GOP will die.” Where does Hallett see the Tea Party heading? That direction, indeed, is "right, far right."
By Hallett’s estimate, the 66-member Republican state central committee has 54 Tea Party activists running in Tuesday’s primary. How many are expected to win? A high-level Republican official told the Free Press that he thinks 50 of the 66 seats may go to the Tea Party. However, the official cautioned that he’s not as sure as the Free Press or the Dispatch that the Tea Party activists are “far right.” He claims most are “fiscal conservatives.”
Hallett doesn’t see it that way. He writes that if the Tea Party takes over the Ohio Republican Party central committee, “…the Ohio GOP will die.” Where does Hallett see the Tea Party heading? That direction, indeed, is "right, far right."
Santa Rosa, CA (2. April 2010) With the media coverage on the horrific Gulf Coast oil spill largely centering on the volume of the spill and efforts to stem the outflow, Post Carbon Institute offers 12 additional important angles, each tackled by one of the Institute’s 29 acclaimed Fellows. For further perspectives, information and insight contact the Institute.
1. The Ripple Effect
RICHARD HEINBERG (Senior Fellow – Energy & Climate) – We’ve only just begun to see the true cost of the Gulf Coast oil spill. As we saw with Hurricane Katrina, the ripple effect of disruptions in oil supply can lead to profound and surprising outcomes. When you add the unimaginably large costs associated with the discovery and delivery of deep water oil to the even more prohibitive costs of cleanup and damage control and remove the oil industry subsidies, suddenly ‘alternative’ energy supplies seem far more mainstream, affordable and realistic.
1. The Ripple Effect
RICHARD HEINBERG (Senior Fellow – Energy & Climate) – We’ve only just begun to see the true cost of the Gulf Coast oil spill. As we saw with Hurricane Katrina, the ripple effect of disruptions in oil supply can lead to profound and surprising outcomes. When you add the unimaginably large costs associated with the discovery and delivery of deep water oil to the even more prohibitive costs of cleanup and damage control and remove the oil industry subsidies, suddenly ‘alternative’ energy supplies seem far more mainstream, affordable and realistic.