McCain has flopped from opposing  wind energy to supporting wind energy. Has McCain really flipped or has he only embraced a pseudo flop to publicly pander for renewable energy votes while he more quietly takes actions to block wind energy progress? McCain can be very clear and specific when talking about nuclear energy, or coal, or off-shore oil drilling, yet he can not even muster up one "yes" vote out of 8 chances on renewable energy tax credits legislation.  His actions are consistent with blocking wind energy, which is a competitor for oil industry subsidies and may transform oil barons into barren businesses no longer needed.  

Bushie's new rules will hasten the extinction of many species by redefining when and how protection is provided to endangered and threatened species covered by our Endangered Species Act.  Bush is changing the law by rules because he failed to obtain these changes by legislation.  Bush is using administrative rule changes even though one court rejected a similar rules maneuver by Bush.

If you are already convinced that Bushie is up to his evil-doer ways, then please skip to bottom of diary to the links provided to post a comment to oppose these rules or to send an email to Kempthorne.  Thanks.

Top Story

• Court says ok for jurors to consult Bible passages during death sentencing deliberations:  Court concluded that the following passage did not influence the jury's decision:

  And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he smite him with throwing a stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he smite him with an hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him. Numbers 35:16-19 (King James).

Our government is setting us up for a life of water wars between communities and between people and wildlife.  We need to stop thinking that solutions to water shortages in a climate change world can be solved by resolutions used in the past in a pre-climate change world. Resolutions beneficial for isolated droughts, isolated dust storms, isolated flooding or isolated extreme storms will not prepare us for multiple extreme events of greater intensity, frequency and widening geographic scope.  Instead, we need to discuss how to prep for living in a climate change world where our finite water supplies will become so stretched that water wars will be commonplace unless we take action now to develop a national water supply policy designed to minimize or avert climate change impacts on our water resources.

Bush is killing Endangered Species law (ESA) by a proposed administrative rule because he does not want ESA to be "used as a back door" to regulate GHG.  Thus, Bush is using a back-door administrative process to change the law because similar attempts to obtain legislation from Congress failed. Bush's new rule would hasten the extinction of many species by wiping out the independent scientific review currently used to determine harmful impacts on species and replacing it with a unilateral government review devoid of scientific data.  It's an approach of ignorance is blissful for profits. After all, it was the scientific data which compelled the conclusion for the first time that climate change impacts may trigger listing a species as threatened, which recently happened with the polar bear. Moreover, Bush knows his proposed rule is illegal because a court rejected a similar rule a few years ago.

Top Story

War In Georgia: The Oil Angle:  Russia may have tried to bomb the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs through Georgia and "is the only means by which countries in the region like Azerbaijan can get their oil into the international market without relying on Russia."  

This also explains why Dickie is so mad:  Cheney: Russian aggressive action 'must not go unanswered'.

Today is International Day of the World's Indigenous People, which is designed to celebrate indigenous people and to serve as a reminder of the many cultural, educational, health, human rights, environmental, social and economic problems still unresolved. While the world community has documents recognizing indigenous rights, it is often a paper right only, as governments and corporations continue the injustices of assaults, land seizures, environmental degradation of spiritual lands and human rights abuses.

Cross-posted on THE ENVIRONMENTALISTand published at Reuters

Invasive Species  Photo by K. Borden

Senator Boxer is fighting to protect US waters from invasive species that spread deadly diseases to people and wildlife, impair water supply infrastructure, harm ecosystems, cause twice the annual economic damage of all natural disasters, and are linked to half of the decline of endangered species.   When large ships are not transporting cargo, the ships pump coastal waters and all the living organisms into their ballast tanks while at foreign ports to obtain balance.  When closer to our shores, the ballast water is exchanged with ocean waters, but the exchange does not eliminate the invasive species, which then are discharged into our waters.

Top Story

• It's electric: 0-100 kmh in 3.9 seconds.

  HOLLYWOOD stars anxious to prove their green credentials are paying more than $100,000 for a sexy electric sports car now rolling out in the US. The sleek Tesla Roadster is modelled on the Lotus Elise, and goes from 0-100kmh in 3.9 seconds. With a top speed of 200kmh, the two-seater has a range of 370 kilometres between recharges of its lithium ion batteries.

One reason Possum will be a better progressive Democrat in Congress is because he believes and lives a life of "enough good."

Top Stories

• Have Doctors Found a Way to Kill HIV? "Researchers in Texas say they may have found a way to kill the HIV virus. The idea would be used, not only to control the disease for people already infected, but actually prevent infection for anybody who might be at risk."
• In order to avoid political gridlock, Obama Now Open to Off-Shore Drilling:  Obama willing to compromise if "necessary for a broader overhaul in the nation's energy policy."
• McCain suggests military-style invasion modeled on the surge to control inner city crime:   "And some of those tactics — you mention the war in Iraq — are like that we use in the military. You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control. And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement, etc, etc."

Sen. Barbara Boxer has been investigating a cover up directed by the WH and Cheney's office to hide from the public an EPA finding that global warming endangers our lives and public health --- both now and in the future.  Even the WH admitted that GHG endangers us. Yet, Bush has obstructed the EPA from fully disclosing how we are endangered and prevented the EPA from complying with the law by regulating GRG.

This cover up has teeth because it affects if we live, where we live and the quality of our lives.  It involves WH secrecy, violation of laws, altering sworn Congressional testimony and imposing GAG orders. Yesterday, the fruits of the investigation thus far caused Democrats to demand that EPA Administrator Johnson resign and that a DOJ perjury investigation be conducted.

This is a picture of mud cakes, a new "food staple" which also measures the "unofficial misery index" in Haiti.

Global policies are hitting them hard, ... and how does Bush respond when people try to flee? Read this entire informative but short diary: Hunger burns are called "swallowing Clorox".

Ok, diary preview says I need to add some words.

Global policies are hitting them hard, ... and how does Bush respond when people try to flee? Read this entire informative but short diary: Hunger burns are called "swallowing Clorox".

Top Story

• The torture tool of wood prisoner boxes used in Iraq.

  Considering that the average summer temperature in Baghdad is 111 F, and that temps can easily go above 120 F, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to be inside these boxes.

   

Cross-posted on THE ENVIRONMENTALIST and published by Reuters

Today it was revealed that EPA administrator Stephen Johnson told Bush last December that there is "compelling and robust" evidence that our recent temperature increases are caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions which endanger the American people.  Bush did not open the email with this dire warning contained in a 38-page document because the US Supreme Court ruled that if the EPA finds that greenhouse gases endanger the public, then the government must regulate them.

Undaunted by Bush's cover-up, last week, the EPA issued a refreshingly honest, detailed 283-page report which details how global warming endangers Americans.

Two days ago, the EPA Inspector General issued another report that Bush's voluntary programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industries is a flop.

Top Story

Happy 90th Birthday to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

Cross-posted on THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

 A recent study has concluded that NF3 (nitrogen trifluoride), which is used in the manufacture of computers, cell phones, TVs and solar panels, can be identified as the "missing greenhouse gas."  The study warns that NF3 may "cause more global warming than coal-fired power plants" because NF3 is 17,000 times "more potent than carbon dioxide."  NF3 remains in our atmosphere for 550 years but it is not regulated by Kyoto or other agreements yet production of NF3 is significantly increasing.  

Top Story

• EPA devalues life to weaken pollution rules so that it is cheaper to kill more people with pollution:  The EPA decided that the "value of a statistical life" is $6.9 million, which is nearly $1 million cheaper than the value of a life 5 years ago.  The practical import is the cost benefit analysis the government does when writing regulations: The less the value of a life, the less the need for government regulations, such as restrictions on pollution.

  When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule. The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution. Consider, for example, a hypothetical regulation that costs $18 billion to enforce but will prevent 2,500 deaths. At $7.8 million per person (the old figure), the lifesaving benefits outweigh the costs. But at $6.9 million per person, the rule costs more than the lives it saves, so it may not be adopted.