Thanks Pete

Just say no, O

Why Obama May Be About to Give a Giant Handout Out the Billionaire Koch Brothers

The brothers control nearly 25% of the tar sands crude that is imported into the US and own mining companies, oil terminals, and refineries all along the Keystone XL route.
Right now, President Obama is faced with the most crucial environmental decisions he is going to face before the 2012 election: whether or not to approve the permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,700 mile fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the continent, the Canadian tar sands. The Keystone XL isn't just an XL environmental disaster -- the nation's top climate scientists say that fully exploiting the tar sands could mean "essentially game over" for the climate -- it also happens to be an XL sized handout to Big Oil and, you guessed it, the Brothers Koch. You want fries with that?
President Obama can deny the permit, right now, and shut down this flow of cash to the Kochs. In doing so, he'll show that our national interest isn't always determined by the 1%, in this case a few big oil companies and the Koch Brothers, but by the 99% of us who have to pay the price for their greed.

It's up to you Mr. Prez.  Cow-tow to the interest of a few  or take the health and concern of the people as the only priority.

Let's hope the decision is the latter.  Sure the Koch Bros have mucho bucks to influence all in DC.  Let's hope the "Yes We Can" guy comes back to his senses and says no to the Bros.

Story of...

The latest (Story of Broke) is coming November 8. Just a little tease:

The next "Stuff" covers the terrible Court decision making a corporation equal to you or me. But since they have much more money, their influence is of course greater.

Until now...Now we have the hope of Wolf-PAC.

Our politicians are bought. Everyone knows it. Conservatives know it. Liberals know it. The Democrats are bought. The Republicans are bought. They don’t represent us. They represent their corporate donors who fund their campaigns and promise them well paying jobs after they leave office. We have taxation without representation. Our democracy is in serious trouble.
So what can we do to regain our ability to make our votes count and take back our democracy? We have to concentrate all of our resources into one single attack – making sure we take corporate money out of politics. The only way to do that is to bypass the corporate owned Congress and the Supreme Court – and pass a Constitutional amendment. We must pass an amendment saying that corporations are not people and they do not have the right to spend money to buy our politicians.
The objective of Wolf PAC will be to raise money and raise an army for the sole purpose of passing this amendment. We need a Constitutional revolution to get unlimited corporate money out of politics. Please join us and help retake our democracy.

We need a green leader

Not green as in "inexperienced" but green as someone concerned about Mother Earth. Someone concerned about food supplies. Someone concerned about our environmental health. clearly we have few elected leaders that fall into that category.
The Ungreening of Obama

Barack Obama was green when he entered the Oval Office. He was a relative newcomer to politics. He was also the most successful fundraiser in presidential history, hauling in more green than the two Democratic and Republican candidates in 2004 combined. And he was, more or less, an environmentalist.
Back in 2004, Amanda Little dug around in Obama's past and declared in Grist magazine that he was a "bona fide, card-carrying, bleeding-heart greenie" going back to his days as an undergrad "trying to convince minority students at City College in Harlem to recycle," and then as a community organizer in Chicago fighting for lead abatement in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood. As the junior senator from Illinois, Obama got high marks from the League of Conservation Voters for his introduction or co-sponsorship of 100 environment-friendly bills from mercury reduction to raising fuel economy standards on cars.
Running for president, Obama promised to paint the town green. He proclaimed his "intergenerational" perspective, his recognition that "we are borrowing this planet from our children and our grandchildren." After years of supporting the coal industry back in Illinois, he turned around to identify climate change as "one of the greatest moral challenges of our generation" and supported cutting carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. He put sustainable energy policy at the center of his economic renewal, pledging to derive one-quarter of all U.S. energy from renewables by 2025 and to improve the efficiency of federal buildings and all new construction. There would also be tighter regulations on emissions and a much greater commitment to conservation. These promises also had a price tag: $150 billion alone for renewable energy investments.
Obama did indeed keep some of these promises. Dealing with the enormous economic crisis gifted to him by his predecessor, Obama emphasized green jobs in his stimulus package, with $78 billion in clean energy investment and $500 million specifically for job training around energy efficiency. He boosted funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, put more money into the national park system, and worked to improve water quality standards. In July, the administration brokered a major deal with auto manufacturers and environmentalists to raise the fuel economy standard, saving consumers money at the pump and reducing carbon emissions. On some of the big issues, like climate change legislation, the president came up against considerable congressional opposition. Given the flaws of the cap-and-trade mechanism at the core of this legislative initiative, which would have established a dubious market in carbon credits, it was a bittersweet failure.
This record would suggest a president who desperately wants to be Mr. Green but faces the dual political challenge of climate change skeptics and pollution industry lobbyists. You might fault him for his backbone but surely not his heart. Here was a politician who'd seen the (green) light.
But recent moves by Obama suggest a different interpretation of his environmental record....
The real problem is not with Obama but with politics in general. The environment doesn't obey four-year cycles. Global warming could care less about democracy. And, in turn, snail darters and polar bears don't vote. Politicians who seek reelection want jobs now, not potential jobs, not future jobs, not if-everything-works-out-according-to-this-alternate-calculation jobs. Obama did invest in the new green economy, and that investment hasn't yet produced the 500,000 new jobs a year that he promised. And, because of the rush to produce results, the administration got sucked into a scandal involving the solar manufacturer Solyndra, which involved pumping money into a dying firm.
Ideally, our elected representatives would acknowledge that environmental issues should rise above politics, that the fate of the world should not be held hostage to lobbyists and election cycles. We have to take the long view. Of course we need jobs, and we need them sooner, not later. But the only job we create when we imperil the environment is the job of gravedigger. And when the grave you're digging is your own, there's certainly no future in that profession.

The brave 35

35 Congressmen Move to Kill $122 Billion in Subsidies to Big Oil

Who likes oil subsidies? Nobody! Nobody but the oil companies, that is. But as we know, these subsidies, which American taxpayers annually spend billions of dollars on, are extremely difficult to kill. But 35 US congressmen and women are going to try: They've just drafted a motion to the so-called 'super committee' charged with reducing the deficit, asking it to remove $122 billion worth of oil subsidies from the federal budget.

In the current budgetary environment, the United States can no longer afford to give away billions of dollars every year to corporations earning billions of dollars in profits and costing American taxpayers twice: at the pump and through the tax code. We urge the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to consider eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels as an excellent source of deficit reducing savings. According to a coalition of organizations, eliminating subsidies to the fossil fuels industry could reduce our national debt by up to $122 billion over ten years.

Why do I call them brave?  Because they knew they will be targeted by the oil companies, lobbyists and Koch Bros.  They knew when they drafted that motion that their next political opponent will be rolling the the oil-backed dough.

#RobinHood

October 29th

On October 29, on the eve of the G20 Leaders Summit in France, let's the people of the world rise up and demand that our G20 leaders immediately impose a 1% #ROBINHOOD tax on all financial transactions and currency trades. Let's send them a clear message: We want you to slow down some of that $1.3-trillion easy money that's sloshing around the global casino each day – enough cash to fund every social program and environmental initiative in the world.

Let us all become Robin Hood - not just the Hollywood figure like my profile picture.  

Morello as comic artist

When the seas rose, genetic codes were smashed. Now, human settlements are ringed by a dense wilderness, from which ferocious new animal species prey on the helpless. The high ground belongs to the rich and powerful, who overlook swampland shantytowns from their fortresslike cities. Iron-fisted rule ensures order and allows the wealthy to harvest the poor as slaves. Welcome to the world of Orchid.

Rise up

Know your food

This Blog Action Day, Say No To GMOs & Factory Farming

Let's link together two food and environmental issues getting some much needed light shone upon them this October: 1) labeling of genetically modified food -- currently mandated in the EU and many other nations, but not in the United States; and, 2) factory farming -- behind the 20% rise in global meat consumption over the past decade, and an utter disaster for both animal welfare and the environment as a whole.
Even though the US produces the greatest number of GMO crops in the world (94% of soybeans, 90% of cotton, and 80% grown in the US are genetically modified), this fact is, I'd argue, deliberately hidden from the public by the companies developing and promoting these crops. Claiming that genetically modified crops are no different than conventional bred hybrid crops, companies like Monsanto have actively lobbied to prevent labeling of GM foods in the US -- even though a CBS News poll has shown that 87% of Americans want GMO ingredients labeled. No doubt part of the reason for the opposition to labeling is related to another stat coming from the same poll: 53% of Americans would not buy genetically modified food if they knew that's what it was.
It all comes down to control and commodification of nature. GM seeds can be patented; conventionally-bred seeds cannot.
Factory farming comes from the same disrespect of nature and disregard for our fellow conscious, living beings with which we share Earth.

Not only a disrespect of nature but a complete disrespect of our own bodies.

Know what you are eating - how it was grown - how it was picked...

Coffee Lover

Starbucks Fears Climate Change Could Harm World's Coffee Supply

Starbucks lovers, beware. It looks like your precious coffee could be on the endangered list thanks to climate change.

"What we are really seeing as a company as we look 10, 20, 30 years down the road - if conditions continue as they are - is a potentially significant risk to our supply chain, which is the Arabica coffee bean," said Starbucks Sustainability Director Jim Hanna in a phone interview with the Guardian.

In addition to Central America's farmers already feeling the effects of global warming on their crops, Hanna told the Guardian of his plans to visit Washington to speak to members of Congress at a Union of Concerned Scientists event to speak about climate change and coffee.

The move comes after rumors circulated this week that Starbucks might be considering juice bars. Though there's no formal confirmation of switching from coffee to juice, this could symbolize the coffee chain's attempt to secure its future business in the face of unpredictable weather, by varying its offerings and looking beyond coffee.

But I need my coffee!  Juice and tea are great but it is not the same.  I hold the "deniers" responsible!!!

Sun-dried everything

Looked past the corny jokes at the beginning. Any one want to build one for me?

Tom Hayden's Analysis

Olbermann Interviews Hayden: Insight into Occupy

There's, to me, three or four scenarios, because this can't last. One - one scenario is that it keeps growing as it has unpredictably - with no end in sight. Two is, somebody orders the police to crack down - I'm glad Mayor Bloomberg seems to be listening to the advice of his girlfriend, who's on the board of that Zuccotti Park neighborhood association. Three, it escalates to civil disobedience and arrests - non-violent, peaceful arrests on a scale never known before, probably, in my lifetime - it would have to be 20,000 to 100,000.
And imagine though, Keith, if 10,000 or 20,000 people peacefully sat down in the streets of New York and said, "If you don't do anything about Wall Street, arrest us."
"And by the way, we're going to demand jury trials of our peers." The whole system would break down, and the message would not be lost.
Or - a final scenario, of course, that's always possible - at the last minute, the president could sense an emergency that requires action and do some things that he has not done before, things that he alone can do, that are - don't require the Senate, or the House or the dinosaur elements in Washington.
One would be to end these wars. That would be a trillion and a half dollars.
Two would be to let the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire, that's another trillion.
Three would be to name his own Special Advisor on Wall Street reform, and start appointing people and doing things within the executive branch.
And then four - just lay down the gauntlet, and say "Look, folks. I have tried with the Republicans in Congress. It hasn't gotten us anywhere. This is going to be the campaign of 2012, please give me a mandate."
Something will happen, because these encampments will fester. The one in Los Angeles is interesting; it's not like New York. In LA, it's right up against City Hall. So, you have the beautiful City Hall, the grass is now covered with - by my count yesterday - 250 tents, 500 people, and it's just a circle of shame around the center of power.
You can't go to City Hall on any business to get your development permit or your tax break or whatever it is that you want without passing through these tents of people who are staring at you, who go into the building, who lobby, who go back out to rallies. It's quite serious and it's amazing that the authorities haven't done anything negative, which is good. But also, it's amazing that they've done nothing positive, which is, kind of proves the point.

Olbermann called Hayden's comments "extraordinarily insightful and useful." Couldn't agree more.

Too real and scary for halloween

Scary Chipotle Short Film on Plight of Farmers

"Abandoned" features a cover of the Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings classic "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" sung by Karen O, lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and tells the story of three boys who are exploring and vandalizing an abandoned farmhouse. One of the boys eventually comes to the frightening realization that the abandoned home may represent the plight of his own family farm.

Wall Street again

Biofuels, Speculators Driving Food Price Surges

The Global Hunger Index (GHI), released Tuesday by The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide, points to climate change, growing demand for biofuels, and increasing commodities futures trading in global food markets as the causes of price increases in food, which it says were also at the root of the food crisis of 2007-2008.

And Hannity, Rush, Cain and others wonder why we are upset at Wall Street.  It is the playing with lives that is the issue