Environment

Come On Irene: A Michele Bachmann Sing Along

Come on Irene!

Poor old Michele B
Sounds deranged on the radio, breaks a million rules of logic, so …
Fox Newsers cry and sing along and blame storms on …
God yeah God, oh God! now I must say more than ever
Go Toora Loora Toora Loo-Rye-Aye
and they can sing just like they’re loon ah tics

Come on Irene
I know what you mean. At this moment you mean anything,
But now I digress, my thoughts I confess verge on kooky
Ah come on Irene.

Dum duh Dum ..

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Why My 9-Year-Old Niece Is Smarter Than Our Genius President

While the evidence suggests that President Obama is not terribly bright and has just benefited from succeeding a downright moron, and while voluminous evidence to which I am privileged suggests that my 9-year-old niece Hallie is extremely intelligent, consider just this one way in which Hallie would make a wiser president than Barack.

Infants live in the moment, and toddlers can’t plan much beyond the next day or so, but as we grow we become able to consider longer periods of time.  read more

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Uranium Safe to Eat With a Spoon!

Carefully ignoring Fukushima, Los Alamos, Vermont, and Nebraska, a comforting new announcement informs us that “nuclear energy is safe.”

A series of soothing television ads and videos tells us that mining uranium in Virginia would produce jobs and protect us from scary foreigners.

Virginia newspapers carried an article from the Associated Press this week that did not pretend to be read more

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Harvey Wasserman on How We'll Survive and Succeed

TRANSCRIPT:

DAVID SWANSON: Okay, we’re recording, this is David Swanson, I’m speaking with Harvey Wasserman, long time wonderful activist, author, author among other of wonderful books of “Solartopia,” and Harvey, you were emailing me yesterday a little bit about success stories. Do you want to elaborate?

HARVEY WASSERMAN: Well, when we first started the anti-nuclear movement back in 1973, read more

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BP Is Messing With the Wrong Woman

A year ago BP began filling the Gulf of Mexico with oil.

Last week BP blocked a woman from entering its annual meeting.

Which will prove the bigger mistake?

BP may have chosen the right country to hit with the worst oil disaster in world history. If there’s any population that will take seeing its land and water destroyed for corporate profit lying down, it’s got to be us. We’re split between gratitude and indifference: should we thank BP or just stay out of its way?

BP may have read more

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EPA vs. military: Rep. Hurt should look closely at costs

By David Swanson | Charlottesville
Published: January 26, 2011, DailyProgress

Congressman Robert Hurt is outraged because the cost of the Environmental Protection Agency “has gone wild” (“New job, fresh focus,” The Daily Progress, Jan. 22).

We spend $10 billion per year protecting an environment in serious danger of collapse. In contrast, we spend $700 billion per year on a military that could be cut by 85 percent and still be the largest in the world.

I’m confused: Is the congressman representing read more

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An Ocean Full of Oil

By David Swanson

Earlier this year, we put millions of barrels of oil, billions of cubic feet of gas, and 1.5 million gallons of chemical dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico. Of those dispersants, designed for use on the surface, 800,000 gallons were sprayed directly into the oil gusher on the dark ocean floor, potentially multiplying the damage while keeping it out of sight. Already people are dying.

Frontline on PBS is now airing The Spill, read more

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Is Anyone Dead on Your Highway?

By David Swanson

It’s over a decade since I last heard Ralph Nader speak in Charlottesville, Va., and I was curious to see what kind of crowd would greet him Monday evening. The answer was one of the biggest rooms on campus packed, and mostly with students, enthusiastic students who gave standing ovations, and laughed and responded throughout a 90-minute speech.

There are not many — if any — other speakers who can get young people in the United States to turn out for a political read more

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Pre-Oil Pelicans

By David Swanson

Way back in January, the ocean was still ocean, oil still oil, and combining the two had not yet occurred to us.  The Conch Republic, the Florida Keys, was — in retrospect — a secure and pristine paradise.

The danger was of sunburn, not of crude oil on your skin or toxic chemicals in the air you breathed.

While I was there with my family, we enjoyed the sand, sun, and sea.  But we wanted to see more pelicans.  We wanted to see lots of pelicans.

So we read more

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$5 Friday: SaveTheWildUp.org

For $5 Friday I just gave $5 to http://savethewildup.org

As my friend (and book editor) Crystal Yakacki explains (like many websites, this worthy group’s website does not explain itself to newcomers and just gives the latest developments):

“The UP is the upper peninsula of Michigan, one of the most beautiful places in the world. The native people there, and local neighborhoods, have been trying to protect a sacred site from a mine by Kennecott Eagle that will not only destroy the sacred read more

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