Politics
On Sunday evening Van Jones joined hundreds of San Francisco Bay Area residents to call voters to urge them to vote no on Proposition 23. “We’re getting the moment back for this movement,” Jones said.
Come join two Anti-Prop 23 rallies this weekend–one in Oakland and one in Richmond.
President Barack Obama is asking congress to approve over fifty billion dollars in long term infrastructure investment to repair our nation’s roads, trains and navigation systems. The initial support is just the beginning of a six-year program of transportation improvements, which will have a long-range focus to reconstruct airport runways, highways, sidewalks, mass transit systems, as well as building many new high speed rail projects. This is a very smart move, and most welcome news on Labor Day, as unemployment numbers hover in the double digits.
One of the more pernicious and deceptive propositions on California’s ballot this November is Prop 23. The proposition would suspend AB 32 (Global Warming Solutions Act), the landmark greenhouse emission reduction law that was passed by the legislature and signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. The Orwellian name given to it by oil-slick proponents is “California Jobs Initiative”; but opponents have dubbed it the “Dirty Energy Proposition”, both because it is being bankrolled by Texas Oil companies and because it would stall clean energy investments and green jobs creation.
Last week the FBI just released its massive files on Howard Zinn, whom they began spying upon in 1949. Not sure why the eminent historian merited 423 pages of monitoring by our federal government; it seems to me like a grossly misguided use of resources.
A bird is engulfed in toxic oil sludge at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast on June 3, 2010. Images are from AP photographer Charlie Riedel. It seems that our nation will be scraping the putrid remnants of the Bush/Cheney administration off our shoes for many decades; not just in the form our tattered economy, torture and illegal wars, but also the horrific oil spill in the gulf.
Washington state senators join forces with senators from Oregon and California to permanently ban offshore drilling in all federal waters off their coasts. Following the oil spill nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, Washington state’s two senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, are co-sponsoring a legislative ban on offshore drilling in federal waters. And they are not alone. Joining the two Democrats are California senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Oregon senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden. The senators…
Under a new law signed by Governor Christine Gregoire, only baby bottles and sippy cups free of the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) can be sold in Washington state. The measure overwhelmingly passed the House and Senate last month. So why did the Washington State Legislature fail to pass the same bill last year? Good question. And why the sudden change of heart now? Perhaps the reason for Washington state’s about-face was because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed its…
With this legislation (Senate Bill 6557, the State of Washington hopes to send a signal to the Federal government that it is serious about its commitment to protecting its marine resources from continuous industrial pollution.
Quebec has taken a long hard look at itself, and decided it doesn’t like what it sees. Its policies simply aren’t working. Overall waste generated has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, with waste going to landfill rising by over 10% in the same period. One of its key targets was to get 60% of the province’s waste food into composting by 2012 has had to be abandoned: the current figure is only 12% and the target just cannot…
Following action by Nike, the nation’s leading utility company, and others, Apple resigned from the US Chamber of Commerce this week, and in force.
Even as the world prepares for the grand climate meet at Copenhagen this December, a large part of South India has gone under water. And while talks have already begun on coming up with an equitable deal and the very fear that there may be none, over 300 people have already lost their lives while millions are displaced and missing in this global warming related freak weather event, predicted well in advance by the IPCC in its Fourth Assessment Report…
Greenpeace’s “Solar Generation” activists installed solar panels on President Obama’s Grandmother’s house in Kenya last week.
Just a couple of weeks ago, soya traders agreed to extend a moratorium on buying soya linked to Amazon destruction. However, as discussed in January, 80% of Amazon deforestation is from cattle farming. With continued involvement of major international organizations and companies — Greenpeace, McDonald’s, Nike, Wal-Mart, and Carrefour — a giant leap in protection of the Amazon was made a few days ago.