Month: April 2010

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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Guess which organization is one of the most pro-active groups in our country when it comes to promoting and converting the energy it requires to alternative fuels and renewable energy? The answer might surprise you. I know it did me (from McClatchy): it’s the US Military!

While deliberations grind on in Congress about how to shift the nation’s energy away from fossil fuels, the Defense Department is putting plans into action with such things as electric-drive ships that save fuel costs, solar-based water purification in Afghanistan that reduces the need for dangerous convoys, and solar and geothermal power at U.S. bases.

The changes eventually could spread to civilian life. The size of the military’s investment will create economies of scale that help bring down the costs of renewable energy, and military innovations in energy technologies could spread to civilian uses, just as the Internet did. In addition, military innovations could help reduce the nation’s overall emissions of heat-trapping gases from fossil fuel use.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the Defense Department looks at energy changes as “one of America’s big strategic imperatives — to reduce our reliance on foreign sources of fossil energy, to make us better war fighters and to get us more down the road to energy independence. We also feel the military can lead in this regard.”

The Navy plans to test a biofuel blend in its main attack aircraft the F-18 Hornet in the near future. The Army hopes to have 4000 electrical vehicles by 2013, which would be one of the largest all electrical fleets in the world. The Air Force plans to use 25% renewable energy by 2025, and have half its planes running on biofuels by 2016. The Navy already has its first hybrid amphibious assault craft in operation, the USS Makin Island. It’s maiden voyage saved $2 MILLION DOLLARS in fuel costs.

In Afghanistan, the military is increasing its reliance on solar and wind energy to reduce the number of fuel convoys necessary which are always at great risk of attack. It is also employing solar powered water purification systems. By 2020, the Navy expects that half of all its bases will generate all of their energy requirements.

As for that biofuel that the Navy is developing, this is how it is being made:

The Super Hornet is Navy aviation’s largest energy user. It’s being put through a series of tests, including the one planned on Thursday at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in southern Maryland. The Navy is using an aviation biofuel made from camelina sativa plant, a non-food plant in the mustard family. The plant can be grown in rotation with crops such as wheat instead of letting fields lie fallow, so it provides farmers with another crop without taking land away from food production.

Not a bad way to help both our military and our farmers.

More importantly, by taking the lead in converting to alternative energy sources, the military is also taking the lead in spurring innovation in green technologies and in the development of alternative energy and the infrastructure necessary to produce it at a lower cost.

That will eventually make alternative energy cheaper and likely to become ever more attractive to the civilian sector of our economy as fossil fuel prices continue to rise. Much like NASA spurred technological innovation in all sorts of areas back during the 60’s and 70’s, the Pentagon hopes its efforts will lower the cost and increase the efficiency of the alternative energy technologies our country and our world needs.

Not to mention the fact that these developments will have the added benefit of reducing carbon emissions which drive climate change. You see the military isn’t waiting for Congress to get its act together on climate change legislation. It’s preparing for the future now:

[Amanda J.] Dory [Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense] … said that the Defense Department sees climate change trends that will cause resource scarcity, environmental destruction and other problems, even under conservative projections.

“The Department of Defense doesn’t have the luxury for waiting for 100 percent certainty before making decisions,” she added. “The department is used to dealing with both complexity and uncertainty.”

Imagine that. People capable of dealing with both complexity and uncertainty. Unlike say, Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or the people too lazy to stop listening to their simple minded and wrong-headed bs everyday and actually learn about what’s really happening in the world.

And finally let me just say: Wow! Here is another “Big Guvmint” program that will have spin-off effects that will benefit all members of our society, whether they are black or white, Asian or Hispanic, Religious or Secular Humanists, Tea Partiers or the “Other 95%”, Wingnuts or Moonbats, for years to come.

Something tells me that “President Palin” wouldn’t approve of these actions. Something also tells me that Muslim Kenyan Pretender Obama had something (probably a lot, actually) regarding these efforts by the department of Defense to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

But whatever the reason, to me this is change I can believe in. Just don’t tell the Republicans in Congress about it, okay?

To see why the president might be considering tackling immigration reform this year you need look no further than Arizona. I refer you to Man Eegee’s write-up because he does a much better job than I could. The Arizona legislature has passed a law (awaiting the Republican governor’s signature) that makes it possible to arrest people without a warrant on the mere suspicion that they are an undocumented worker.

E. A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, WITHOUT A WARRANT, MAY ARREST A PERSON IF THE OFFICER HAS PROBABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE THAT THE PERSON HAS COMMITTED ANY PUBLIC OFFENSE THAT MAKES THE PERSON REMOVABLE FROM THE UNITED STATES.

Obviously, a lot can hinge on what constitutes ‘probable cause,’ but the certain byproduct of such a law would be routine harassment of Latinos, including full citizens of this country.

Not content to be intolerant, the Arizona government also decided to demonstrate their insanity yesterday.

The Arizona House on Monday voted for a provision that would require President Barack Obama to show his birth certificate if he hopes to be on the state’s ballot when he runs for reelection.

The House voted 31-22 to add the provision to a separate bill. The measure still faces a formal vote.

It would require U.S. presidential candidates who want to appear on the ballot in Arizona to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president.

Phoenix Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema said the bill is one of several measures that are making Arizona “the laughing stock of the nation.”

It was quite a two-fer.

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

As Iceland’s erupting volcano strands thousands of air travelers across Europe and worldwide, a less publicized but arguably more costly catastrophe is mounting 15,000 miles away: piles of gourmet produce and cut flowers, some of Kenya’s chief exports, are rotting in limbo. Meant to be shipped to upscale grocery stores throughout Europe, lilies, roses, carnations, carrots, onions, baby sweet corn, and sugar snap peas are going bad in heaps, on the vine, and in the ground because airport warehouses are already full and there’s no local market for the expensive produce in a country where half the population lives on less than a dollar a day.

As food prices continue to rise worldwide, reducing food waste will be a critical element in alleviating hunger and poverty worldwide. Already, Nourishing the Planet has highlighted the many ways that growing indigenous vegetables for local markets and improving storage techniques can help to both reduce food waste and improve access to food, in Kenya and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

To read more about food waste and ways it can be prevented, see:  Reducing Food Waste, Finding Creative Ways to Grow Food in Kibera, Farming on the Urban Fringe, and Investing in Better Food Storage in Africa. Also, stay tuned for an entire chapter on the subject, written by Tristram Stuart, in State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoy our diary every day we invite you to get involved:

1. Comment on our daily posts-we check comments everyday and look forward to a regular ongoing discussion with you.
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If it’s true that the president is going to move to immigration reform about a month from now, then things are about to get crazier than we’ve ever seen them, and where it all shakes out for the Democrats is anybody’s guess. My instincts tell me that this is a bridge too far. I don’t think Obama can get any immigration bill passed right now. I don’t think too many Democrats want any part of an immigration fight with their polling numbers looking historically bad. And I don’t think the Tea Partiers will be able to avoid having their heads explode.

However, the Republicans cannot afford to alienate the Latino community and still expect to win statewide and national elections in this country in the coming decades. The sensible (few) among them know this, but they have no control over the majority or the rabidly racist base of their party. Any immigration debate is going to do severe damage to the Republican Party and open all kind of internal strife.

Whether reforms pass or fail, the mere attempt in this political climate is likely to take a wrecking ball to Congress. Where all the pieces land is impossible to predict.

On the upside, this will be a major promise that Obama keeps. The Democrats will be rewarded with continued and increasing loyalty from the Latino community. Even if I think Obama is crazy to think he can pass reforms in the remainder of this Congress, we do desperately need to pass them soon. And the next Congress isn’t likely to be easier. So, fasten your chin straps. This is gonna be rough. It’s the right thing to do. But it isn’t what I would call ‘prudent.’

Every once in a while it’s instructive to get a picture of what we’re fighting for when we do political advocacy. So, I put together my best guess of who will be running what in the U.S. Senate at the beginning of the next Congress. Before you look at it, here are my assumptions.

1. Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah will be ousted in at the state party convention in favor of Mike Lee.
2. John McCain will survive his primary and, whether Blanche Lincoln and Arlen Specter survive or not, the Republicans will win those seats.
3. Harry Reid will lose to Sue Lowden and Dick Durbin (not Chuck Schumer) will become Majority Leader.
4. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio will win both the primaries and the general election.
5. Elaine Marshall and Lee Fisher will win both the primaries and the general election.
6. Andrew Romanoff will defeat Michael Bennet in the primary and go on to prevail in the general.
7. Jerry Moran will prevail in the Kansas primary and go on to win the general election.
8. David Vitter will survive.
9. Despite current polls, Paul Hodes, Alexi Giannoulias, and Robin Carnahan will be elected.
10. Michael Castle will win in Delaware, John Hoeven will win in North Dakota, Richard Blumenthal will win in Connecticut and Dan Coats will win in Indiana.

Committee assignments are based on best-guess with a lot of informed opinion. For example, all new senators are ranked by the seniority they would have. Jeff Sessions is supposed to exchange the ranking chair on Judiciary for the ranking chair on Budget. If Lincoln loses, Stabenow would probably get Agriculture, etc.

I didn’t bother trying to predict who would take over open seats on the coveted Appropriations and Finance Committees, but it’s highly unlikely that those seats will go to any freshman. Although, the Republicans will have five seats to fill on Appropriations, so you never know.

Just a few interesting notes.

In this scenario, Tom Coburn becomes the Ranking Member on the Intelligence Committee. Tim Johnson of South Dakota would become chair of the Banking Committee (currently chaired by Dodd). As mentioned above, Jeff Sessions would become Ranking Member of Budget, while Chuck Grassley would become Ranking Member of the Judiciary, and Orrin Hatch would assume that position on Finance. Maria Cantwell would take the gavel at Indian Affairs. Lamar Alexander would replace Bob Bennett as Ranking Member of Rules. The rest of the chairs and ranking members would remain the same.

These predictions are actually quite optimistic. I have the Republicans losing seats they currently hold in New Hampshire, Ohio, and Missouri. That helps offset the loss of Democrat-held seats in North Dakota, Delaware, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Indiana. It’s only a net loss of three seats, leaving the split as 54 Democrats, 44 Republicans, and 2 Independents caucusing with the Democrats.

The addition of moderates John Hoeven and Michael Castle might add a touch of bipartisanship, but it would be offset by the addition of superradicals Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. The rest of the Republican freshman class would also be a particularly nasty and reality-challenged bunch.

You tell me how you see things differently and how these changes will affect what gets done (or doesn’t) in Washington DC.

In her recent article Chomsky: The Crazed Republicans will Sweep Midterms about Noam Chomsky’s dire predictions regarding the coming elections in the United States of Omertica Diane G. wrote:

It is amazing how people want to blame the Politicians and the Government, (in some ways correctly) and yet reserve no anger for the Wall Street and Financial Goliaths who are truly to blame.

Diane and Mr. Chomsky are both wrong.

It is not “amazing”.

The corporations run the media and the media run the “people.” Including those who are somehow mystified at the misplaced blame inherent in this state of affairs.

I watched MSNBC’s so-called documentary about Timothy McVeigh last night, and I have never witnessed a more masterful overall piece of hypno-disinformation.

Read on.

Unless of course you are too busy responding to hypnomedia advertising to be able to distinguish the woods from the fake trees.

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***Disclaimer. This is not a “pro-McVeigh” article. It is an anti-hypnomedia article. If you cannot discern the difference between the two, I suggest you go climb that fake tree above. Bring microwave protection, because you are already fairly badly poisoned.

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Permit me to deconstruct the MSNBC doc.

Please.

First of all, the hundreds of images of “McVeigh” used computer-generated facsimiles of his face superimposed on the body of an actor. Now…this is not necessarily a bad idea, but the images that were chosen made him look like a character out of a bad slasher film. Interestingly enough, there appear to be no still images of this computer face available anywhere on the net (Too easy to see the negative intent when not part of a well-produced hypnomedia event? I think so.), but there are plenty to be seen in various available vids. Go to  about 1:10 of this one to see the horror face.

Then look at McVeigh’s face in the flesh.

I have traveled through the hard streets of NYC and many other relatively dangerous places in the world for going on 45 years with thousands of dollars worth of musical instruments hanging off of my shoulder without encountering very much real trouble, and the main contributing reason for that fact is that I am very observant regarding bad actors around me. Had the real Timothy McVeigh walked onto a subway in which I was traveling at 1 AM in New York City I would have counted him as a possible ally had anything unpleasant gone down. Had the face that MSNBC used walked into the same subway I would have seriously considered changing cars at the next stop. For real. This is no small matter in a “documentary.” It is subliminal editorializing at the highest level. Computer imaging is no longer a primitive art. They could just as easily have made him look like a young, white Obama than presenting him as a close relative to the slasher from the “Friday The 13th” series.

But of course…they didn’t.

Now on to the “facts” in the case.

Ain’t none.

Not really.

Not in this doc there weren’t.

Not beyond a simple “He’s guilty!!!” verdict.

There are so many unexplained and/or glossed-over parts to what happened. I will mention just a few.

1-How did McVeigh finance his months and months of casing federal buildings and his acquisition and storage of the bomb materials? Please. Without a job and with little or no saved money? Please. Gasoline, food and motels alone would have broken his bank, and add to that 7000 pounds of materials, rented storage spaces and a truck? C’mon. Not even a mention in this doc. You’ve heard of the magic bullet? He must’ve had a magic wallet. Please.

2-There are so many holes in McVeigh’s essentially “lone bomber” (w/two reluctant helpers) story that I do not know where to begin. Try this site just for starters. “Elohim City”, “Andreas Strassmeir” and “Carol Howe”…none of which were mentioned in the doc unless I missed something…are interesting leads. Round up the usual suspects? Not in this doc they didn’t.

3-Why did he try so hard to get caught? I mean…really. He was as methodical and practical as it is possible to be right up until the explosion, and then he drove away in a car w/no license plates? Naaaaahhhhh…this is not a “mistake”, it’s a sure-thing attempt to be arrested.

There is so much more that is missing from the doc. I’ll go no further. But I will say this…he essentially committed suicide by allowing himself to be arrested that day. Why? It sounds like mind control to me. Lee Harvey McVeigh? Yup.

And this isn’t even the heavy part of the hypno-disinfo load.

The real payload is in the ads.

Bet on it.

Here we have this nastily tabloided-up, relatively badly produced (Inexpensively produced, at the very least.) hit piece on a supposed lone mass murderer. Ten minutes or less at a time we see him…his freaked-up image, anyway…with commentary by low-level reporter and law enforcement types and a voice-over that is supposed to be McVeigh’s. Could be. Could not be. Could only partially be. Given the treatment of his image, I go for the third of those options, myself.

And in between every segment of the doc?

Lavishly produced ads for all of the things that make being a middle class American worth living. The corporate version thereof, naturally

Ineffective and poisonous pharmaceuticals by the satchelful.

Credit card scams.

Insurance scams.

Cars that must be bought on credit.

Etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.

All in glorious living color/HiDef (If you have been hyped into laying out the bucks for that scam.) fucking dream TV images.

OOOOOOOEEEEEE!!!

You got yer bad guy and yer ad guy.

One looks like Freddie Kruger on a good day and the other looks like Reverend Ike’s “Have it now with ice cream on top!!!” spiel.

Hmmmmm…

Guess which one is going to have a bigger impact upon the post-dinner sleeple crowd.

Hmmmmm…

And y’all watch MSNBC with some sort of trust!!!???

Wake the fuck up.

McVeigh might have been some kind of Manchurian Candidate, a total sociopath, an Oswald-like patsy, a revolutionary hero or a Frankenstein-like combinaton of all of the above and more. It doesn’t actually make much difference what he “was.” After all…he is dead at the present time. The only thing that matters now is how he is subliminally presented to the American people.

And this is just one brick in the growing hypnomedia/mind control edifice with which we are being presented in the (almost) United States of Omertica today.

Wake the fuck up.

NEWSTRIKE!!!

MEDIASTRIKE!!!

CULTURESTRIKE!!!

VAYA!!!

This really is the only way.

Take that structure down.

One mind at a time.

Step away from the TV with your mind(s)in the air!!!

Before it is too late.

Please.

Later…

AG

Time for some FinnMan blogging:

Click to embiggen.

Yeah, I know I’m lucky.

So, what do you want to talk about?

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Let us pause to remember the life of Dorothy Height, the greatest civil rights leader that most Americans have never heard of. The Washington Post has a good epitaph.