August has passed without any major town hall eruptions, but that doesn’t mean it is a quiet time in American politics. Midterm-election campaigns are heating up, and it’s becoming clear that these races could determine what gets accomplished in the next Congress.
This includes what we do -- or don't do -- on clean energy and climate solutions.
Comprehensive climate legislation may be off the table right now, but the tenor and outcome of these elections will still have an enormous influence on our energy future. They will decide when we succeed in generating millions of green jobs and cleaning up our energy supply.
I urge all of you who care about these issues to get active in this campaign season. Candidates need to know that clean energy and global warming matter to voters - matter so much, in fact, that some lawmakers will lose their jobs because they didn't act boldly enough.
Go to campaign events, write to your candidates, and let them know that clean energy is a top priority for you. Whatever you do, don't sit this one out. We need your voices, and here is why.
"When we look into the abyss, searching for monsters, the abyss looks into us as well"
.
Right now we are staring the abyss in the face and there are indeed monsters there. This abyss is the elections this fall. The chance that radical Republicans will take over the House and perhaps the Senate has grown. The affect of constant lies from Fox News and Talk Radio have energized the Republican base. The limp leadership from the White House and from Majority Leader Reid has demoralized the Democratic base.
The passing of many of the Lefts long term wish list items, barely and with tons of ridiculous and galling compromise has created a situation where the Right is fired up and the Left is angry at its own leadership. The conditions are in place for a wave election and the wave is not likely to go the way that we Liberals are going to like in any fashion.
(Perfect example of how these privileged extremists would sacrifice a civil society to fulfill a dream to perpetuate his illusions of grandeur.It's time to raise this guy's Stupid Tax. It's people like these from whom we need to be protected. - promoted by Fong)
Hello Square State. We haven't posted here before, but we thought you'd enjoy this. Before Don Beezley was the Republican nominee in House District 33, he told the unvarnished truth about his vision for Colorado, and his vision is, in a word, bizarre.
I don't believe in municipal or county government. It strikes me as 100% superfluos [sic] in all its functions. Police and courts can be handled at the state level, supplemeted [sic] with private solutions. Nothing else the cities or counties do is valid except for recording property titles. If someone (non-libertarian) wants to argue about streets, the state level could handle that too.
That's right friends, Mr. Beezley does not believe the government should provide roads. Mr. Beezley also has thoughts on Coloradans with disabilities:
I used to own small restauarants [sic] shortly after ADA was passed. When building out a new one, the existing bathrooms were off in dimensions by a few inches. Rather than risking a lawsuit under the newly energized ADA, I spent $5,000 to redo the bathrooms (on a small budget with no money). Prior to that, it had been a pleasure to help a disabled person out with a tray, a door or whatever. After that, I could only think, "you better use my d*** bathroom!" when someone rolled in. ADA took other human beings from being someone with a challenge whom it might be a joy to help, and turned them into a burden. An enemy. [our emphasis]
In the movie Witness, there is a scene where a little Amish boy, who has witnessed a murder, takes the gun of the detective who is there to protect him from a chest of drawers. He is caught by his grandfather who sits him down for a talk. The grandfather asks if the boy would use this gun to kill. The boy says that he would only kill a bad man. The grandfather asks "How will you know who is the bad man?" This is the central point of our system of justice, we don't just assume that someone is a bad man before punishing them, we have an elaborate process designed to require proof of actions before we punish.
Unfortunately our trauma with terrorism has eroded this system. Today, as you read this, there is a list of people around the world who are targeted for death. They are suspected of being involved with terror plots, and some of them are your fellow citizens. If they are found anywhere in the world by our forces they will be killed. Not captured and brought to trial, not attempted to be captured, but killed out right.
The anti-Muslim whirlwind continues to be reaped in the United States. For all that the Sarah Palins and Rudy Giuliani's of the world think that the fight over the Park51 Islamic Center is confined to Manhattan the reality is that it is spreading and getting more and more violent. This weekend the site of new Islamic center outside Nashville was fire bombed. No one was hurt but some very expensive construction equipment was destroyed. Then when some of the members of the group building the mosque were looking at the site, they heard shots fired and reported it to local police.
Amendment 63 - as marketed by reactionaries from the Jon Caldara camp at the Independence Institute is misleading; asserting it promotes choice for Colorado's concerned citizens. Let's really look at what Amendment 63 will do in light of the federal coverage mandate by 2014.
Insurance coverage vs Health Care?
The US adopted a federal insurance based system in 1973, ratcheting the controls of the insurance industry to write, regulate, and request federal funding to support their industry. As such, a private system of health care management organizations - HMO's and PPO's - and insurance coverage products were created. The feds would pay a share to the insurance industry, employers would pay additional funds to the insurance industry, the taxpayer would pay a share to the insurance industry. That's a lot of shares - to the tune of 17% GDP - that kept a lot of shareholders and insurance executives happy for decades. Further, the industry was self-regulating doing what's best for the taxpayers.
Health Care transitions
HCR is transitioning the nation from an insurance industry controlled system to a care based system with options that will range from private insurance to State and federal care based opportunities. Reforms are creating a variety of choices for citizens to choose from, based on an individual's socio-economic situation. In otherwords options to fit within a budget - no freebies outside qualifying benchmarks.
This week we're going to handle a request and keep going on the sourdough breads. Sourdough Pumpernickel is one of the great sandwich breads of all time. The dense crumb and complex flavors make this bread more than just the base for some meat and cheese, it makes it part of the overall meal.
After reading the Denver Post article of 8/24 regarding Silt, I had to stop and gather my thoughts. When television news became the easy way to get your news, we knew at a certain level that it was quick sound bites but we also knew we could trust Cronkite, Burroughs, and a few others. But we knew that for in-depth intelligent analysis you went to the paper. Unfortunately, at least with local news that's no longer the case. This article has little to no investigative merit. The reporter seems to take peoples word for how things are, to be the truth.
The article says Mayor Moore "treats his town's $1.7 million budget the same way he does the well-worn wallet he pulls from his jeans". He is also quoted as saying the town was "over budget by $275,000". First off, what is the budget figure. $1.7M is the projected revenue but $2.0M was the projected expenditure. Now Mayor Moore voted for this budget knowing we were going into the town's reserves. This had been discussed at Board meetings from Sept thru final approval in Nov 2009. In Colorado you must legally have a balanced budget and our budget is balanced by using our reserves. If Mayor Moore objected to using the reserves, he had 3 months to state those objections and he could of voted against the Budget in November.
The article then says the personnel cuts ousted anyone who disagreed with Moore. This is simplistic. The quotes from the "opposition" all specify them not him. Attorney Duran, Administrator Suerth and Community Planner Carmoney all had disagreements with at least 2 of the newly elected trustees or Mayor, and/or their families. The Deputy Town Clerk had a run in with at least 1 of the newly elected trustees. When it was suggested that since New Castle and Rifle have gone to contract labor with their Building Inspectors and we should eliminate that position also, the newly elected trustees didn't want to hear it. In my opinion, he hasn't done anything to annoy them.
This evening Andrew Romanoff held a birthday party in part to help retire his campaign debt and for some reason, Ken Buck, in a classless, antagonistic move crashed the party. Attendees who wanted to take the opportunity to question Buck's policies (and sanity) say Buck wouldn't answer any questions.
Who the f#(k does this prick think he is to walk into a hornets nest and then thumb his nose at honest questions?
What a coward. I wonder if Buck will ever prove Norton's questioning his manhood wrong. So far it seems that's the only thing she's been right about.
(excellent analysis of how the Oil and Gas industry is blocking energy reform - promoted by wade norris)
I worked on Capitol Hill for a long time, and I do not consider myself naive about the inner workings of Washington. But even I was surprised by two revelations this week exposing the amount of money the oil industry is spending to buy political influence.
The first eye-opener came from recently released lobbying numbers. The OpenSecrets blog reported that the oil and gas industry poured $174 million into the political system in 2009. That's eight times more than the green groups.
What did the oil and gas industry get for its money? A handful of Senators who blocked all attempts by the Senate to pass a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill that would have made fossil fuel industries start cleaning up their global warming pollution.
This week's second revelation made that difference abundantly clear. Jane Mayer wrote an investigative piece in the New Yorker about the brothers David and Charles Koch who run Koch Industries -- the biggest corporation you've never heard of -- and who have spent more than $100 million on anti-government causes.
Koch Industries owns oil refineries and 4,000 miles of pipeline, and was named one of the top 10 air polluters in the nation in a 2010 UMass-Amherst report. The Kochs' political donations are often aimed at promoting their libertarian views, but they also directly benefit their own profit margins. They have donated millions of dollars to nonprofit groups that fight environmental regulation and seed doubt about climate science. In fact, a Greenpeace report called them a "kingpin of climate science denial." And though green groups tend to paint ExxonMobil as the worst of the worst when it comes to lobbying against climate legislation, Koch outspent even ExxonMobil.
One of David Koch's pet projects is the group Americans for Prosperity, a group he founded and funds but positions as a grassroots movement. An ad for one of its training sessions for Tea Party activists says, "The voices of average Americans are being drowned out by lobbyists and special interests. But you can do something about it."
But when Americans for Prosperity hosts at least 80 events protesting climate legislation, is it really acting in the interest of average Americans or the interest of oil industry donors?
When it funds an attack ad against Representative Betsey Markey from Colorado because she supported climate legislation last summer that would have brought 30,000 jobs to her state, who is it benefiting?
And when the group pledges to spend an additional $45 million before the midterm elections, is that money really coming from grassroots activists, or from deep corporate pockets? These fat cats pretend to fraternize with the ordinary folks who dangle tea bags from their tri-cornered hats, but, in fact, they are just using activists to put a populist face on their industry agenda.
Manipulating other people's fears about the economy when you are a billionaire -- I would call that the depth of cynicism. But considering those billionaires are getting in the way of climate solutions, clean energy and green jobs in America; I have to instead call it dangerous.
Those who read my posts (and there are a lot more of you than I ever thought there would be) know that I am not really a fan of divisive politics. This comes from the teachings of my Mom, who spent her political career reaching out to Republicans to get things done in Washtenaw County. Her argument was always that while you might hammer your opponents in today's fight, you're probably going to need them to get tomorrows work done. It is generally good advice, but it is predicated on the premise that your opponents want to get things done and really are working for the best solution for everyone.
Sadly Mom's good advice can not be used right now. There has been too big a shift in power in the nation for us to look at the Republicans as any kind of honest partner in anything. The efforts of the folks like the ultra-wealthy Koch brothers have shifted our discourse so far to the right that things which would have had politicians thinking about spending more time with their families in the past can be said with a straight face and taken as serious.
Minority Lead McConnell, can we talk a minute? You are an educated man, so it is probably pretty hard to say some of things you say when defending the tax policies of the Bush Administration and arguing for their continuation. Perhaps your time in Washington has taught you the skill of being able to say any kind of nonsense but really, Senator, you have to know in the back of your mind that enacting legislation to extend the tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy (that 2% of the nation who makes more than $250,000 a year) is going to bring our nation to its knees.
I don't know you Senator, but I have to think that you don't really want to face what 3.2 trillion dollars in additional debt will do to our nation. You would have to cut or end social safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. While that might appeal in an ideological sense, the reality of starving elderly baby boomers, indigent children wearing rags in the streets of our nation is one that even you will not want to see on a daily basis.
John Salazar (D?-Pueblo/Gunnison), brother of Colorado's semi-beloved, former Senator and current Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, has been recently found to be aiding and abetting a land swap deal for one of the Koch Brothers up here in Colorado.
[S]ome staffers at the Bureau of Land Management worry that Koch will be getting land with much higher value because of its potential for energy development. They also complain that there was very little opportunity for public input and scrutiny of the deal. There were no public hearings specifically devoted to gathering public comment, as there are with most proposed government land swaps.
"I'm not very pleased about it. It doesn't look like a very good deal for me or other people in this area," said Tony Prendergast, a former Forest Service ranger.
This week we're going to make French Style Sourdough Bread. The idea for this bread comes from a great bakery deli just tucked away off the main campus of the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), Zingerman's Deli. They make a Chocolate Sourdough bread that is out of this world. It also cost $10 bucks plus shipping so I decided to see if I could replicate the recipe and share it with you.
