Outrage Overload

There is too much to be outraged about these days, and today is no exception.

I am feeling a little overwhelmed by it all, which makes me just want to take a break from it all, but there are some things I feel the need to mention.

First on my mind are the Democratic presidential candidates who have decided that they are against democracy:

Five Democratic hopefuls pull names off Michigan ballot

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff

October 10, 2007

WASHINGTON - Five Democratic presidential contenders yesterday yanked their names off the Michigan ballot, delivering a group snub to a state feuding with the national Democratic Party over its decision to move its primary to mid-January in violation of party rules.

The removals reinforce the authority of the Democratic National Committee to impose order on a tumultuous campaign in which dozens of states have pushed up their nominating contests in hopes of attracting more money and attention from the presidential candidates. The DNC has threatened to unseat the delegates of states that defy the primary rules set by the party.

The candidates' decisions provide a symbolic boost for New Hampshire, which is anxiously trying to protect its historic status as host of the first-in-the-nation primary. DNC rules allow for early contests in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, and Nevada, but Michigan and Florida defied the DNC by scheduling their primaries for Jan. 15 and Jan. 29, respectively.

[...]Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware - joined by John Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, and Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio - declared yesterday that they would not be candidates in the state's primary. Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Chris Dodd of Connecticut - who, like all of the Democratic candidates, have pledged not to actively campaign in the state - chose to remain on the ballot.

Congratulations to these losers: Obama, Biden, Edwards, Richardson, and Kucinich. Their stance against democracy has effectively made it much easier for me to decide who I will be voting for in the primary election because I won't be voting for any ot them.

I am not happy that Clinton and Dodd have stated that they won't campaign in Michigan, but their stance is the much lesser of two evils in this case. As an Ohioan, I will show my solidarity with Michigan (a rare thing for an Ohioan to do) by not voting for anyone who Michigan voters can't vote for.

The DNC and their anti-democratic rules can rot for all I care. They won't be getting a dime from me. My money is much better spent elsewhere like MoveOn.org or some other entity that is willing to fight for democracy and fight against an archaic and unfair system that places Iowa and New Hampshire above all other states.

By the way, before I move onto another topic, there's this article about Kucinich:

Kucinich remains on Michigan ballot after trying to withdraw

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan voters will have a choice of four candidates in the Democratic presidential primary, even though Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich tried to join four other Democrats who have decided not to be on the ballot.

[...]But Kucinich twice filed incorrect paperwork with the Michigan secretary of state's office, and had not filed a notice of withdrawal with his notarized signature by Tuesday's 4 p.m. deadline, said the office's spokesman, Ken Silfven.

A campaign manager first signed the paperwork, then the campaign sent in another withdrawal notice signed by Kucinich. But the signature had not been notarized as required.

Either Kucinich's staff is absent-minded or they are being very crafty by pandering to Iowa and New Hampshire while still remaining on Michigan's ballot. Either way, I am still not voting for him.

So it guess it is down to Dodd, Clinton, and Gravel for me. At this point, I am leaning towards Dodd, but Clinton or even Gravel could steal that away by coming out against the anti-democratic Iowa-and-New-Hampshire-always-go-first nomination process. (C'mon, Gravel! What have you got to lose?)

We need a national primary. Period. Anything else is a crime against democracy.

Quickly, (because I don't have a lot of time right now) here are the other things that have recently caused me to be outraged:

Dems Fail Litmus Test

The Washington Post reported today that Sen. Harry Reid ☼ has informed private-equity funds that the Senate will not be closing the obscenely inequitable tax loophole that allows mega-billionaires to be taxed at 15 percent – lower than most working Americans. Harry says there simply isn't time in the busy Senate schedule. Seriously. And the Post points out that if there isn't time in 2007, there almost certainly won't be in 2008 either – "Congress tends to be leery of tax increases in election years."

I'm sure this has nothing whatsoever to do with the private-equity firms and hedge funders putting "more than 20 lobbying firms" to work for them in the Halls of Congress. Nor is Reid's about face a sign of the Wall Street Execs "increasing their campaign donations to members of Congress." It's simply a jam-packed schedule – who has time to address the shafting of revenues for public infrastructure investment? Rebuilding the shredded social contract? funding health care, education, or new sustainable energy programs? Making up for lost revenues due to insane Bush tax cuts?

As I posted previously, this was a litmus test for Democrats – to see whether the party > is capable of truly taking a stand for working people. They have failed it. Rick Perlstein blogged today of Democratic capitulations on this issue and FISA.

Steamier Earth Likely, Due to Global Warming

John Roach
for National Geographic News

October 10, 2007

[...]Scientists expect the rising humidity to cause heavier rains, stronger hurricanes, and increased human heat stress.

[...]Climate scientists have long predicted that a warmer world will allow more water to evaporate, thus making the planet more humid.

Indeed, several studies have shown trends of increasing surface humidity around the planet, but until now scientists were uncertain what was driving the trend.

The new study combined a fresh data set of surface humidity with climate models, "and actually attribute[s] those trends to human influence," said study co-author Nathan Gillett, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.

Partisanship Accusation Expanded in Alabama

By PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, Oct. 10

The son of Alabama’s current Republican governor boasted that a Republican judge would “hang Don Siegelman,”

Sorry, I don't have more of a quote for that last one. I can't access the link right now.

One more thing before I go, this last subject I am outraged about not because former President Carter said these things, but because not enough people are saying it with him:

Carter: US has abandoned 'basic principles of human rights'

Associated Press
Thursday October 11, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Former US president Jimmy Carter last night told CNN the US tortured prisoners in violation of international law, following an assertion last week from George Bush that the US "does not torture".
The 2002 winner of the Nobel peace prize accused Mr Bush of making up his own definition of torture and the hawkish vice president, Dick Cheney, of being a "militant".

"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Mr Carter told CNN.

Salt Water Power?

David Sirota points out this interesting article:

Salt water as fuel? Erie man hopes so

Sunday, September 09, 2007
By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

For obvious reasons, scientists long have thought that salt water couldn't be burned.

So when an Erie man announced he'd ignited salt water with the radio-frequency generator he'd invented, some thought it a was a hoax.

John Kanzius, a Washington County native, tried to desalinate seawater with a generator he developed to treat cancer, and it caused a flash in the test tube.

Within days, he had the salt water in the test tube burning like a candle, as long as it was exposed to radio frequencies.

His discovery has spawned scientific interest in using the world's most abundant substance as clean fuel, among other uses.

Whether or not salt water could be a viable fuel to replace fossil fuels is yet to be seen. The larger issue here is that there are all kinds of discoveries going on in the scientific world, and we need to support science and research that may lead to green energy and, by doing so, avoiding a global catastrophe from global warming.

To do that, we need to defeat the Republicans in their Global War on Science. Republicans don't support science or green energy (or peace or human rights or privacy, for that matter), and, therefore, they don't support this world. They don't support human life. They don't support you.

So... you know... Don't support Republicans. It's that simple.

Arctic Ice Melting Faster

More bad news about global warming for Republicans to ignore or deny while our world falls further into danger because of their ignorance and disdain for truth and science:

NOAA Scientists Say Arctic Ice Is Melting Faster Than Expected

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 7, 2007; Page A06

The Arctic ice cap is melting faster than scientists had expected and will shrink 40 percent by 2050 in most regions, with grim consequences for polar bears, walruses and other marine animals, according to government researchers.

Of course, without all that ice to reflect energy from the sun, the earth will get warmer which will melt more ice which will make the earth warmer which will...

See a pattern? A very destructive pattern?

The End of Oil?

I hate to get my hopes up, but this sounds pretty exciting:

Reclusive green-tech startup whispers a eulogy for the battery

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine.

An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 800 kilometres roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline.

By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 80 kilometres of gasoline-free commute. And the popular hybrids on the road today still depend heavily on fossil fuels.

This could mean the end of oil and a major step in the fight against global warming. I hope that this is real and that it moves to the market as quickly as possible.

...oh, and I hope that the oil industry doesn't buy them out.

Global Warming Makes North Pole Swim Possible

A new mark in the horror of global warming has come to pass:

19 mins, -1.8C: the first swim at the North Pole

Had it been just one degree further down the thermometer, not even the polar bears could have managed what Lewis Pugh achieved in the early hours of yesterday.

Mr Pugh, a maritime lawyer and environmental campaigner from London, swam a kilometre (.62 miles) at the Geographic North Pole to highlight the effects of global warming. At -1.8C (28.76F), it is believed to be the coldest water a human has ever swum in.

Clad only in his Speedo trunks, cap and goggles as required by the rules of the Channel Swimming Association – which also forbid any buoyancy aids, swimming caps that offer any thermal protection or trunks cut above crotch level – Mr Pugh spent just under 19 agonising minutes in the melted sea ice navigating a path in a crack between broken floes.

The feat would not have been possible ten years ago, when the water was entirely frozen over, even in summer.

Pugh is a smart guy. By learning to swim in such harsh conditions, he is really getting ready for the effects of global warming.

That sounds like a solution straight from the Bush administration. They would probably rather teach everyone how to swim than stop global warming because it would be cheaper in their minds.

In reality, it is cheaper to stop global warming than it is to deal with all the damage that it would cause, but, hey, Republicans only care about fiscal responsibility when it supports their politics.

Mars Rovers Keep Going And Going On Solar Power, So Why Can't We?

This recent article about the Mars Rovers got me thinking:

NASA: Mars rover ready to enter crater

WASHINGTON, June 28 (UPI) -- National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said the Mars rover Opportunity is ready to descend into that planet's massive Victoria Crater.
The latest trek presents a high degree of risk for the long-lived robotic explorer, but NASA and the Mars Rover science team expect it to provide valuable data.

Although NASA has planned the descent to enable an eventual exit, scientists said Opportunity might become trapped inside the crater or lose some capabilities. The rover has operated more than 12 times longer than its originally intended 90 days.

Now when NASA designed the Mars Rovers, they did not consult ExxonMobil about powering the rovers with fossil fuels. No, NASA wanted something more sustainable and advanced.

It seems to me that we could learn from NASA's good example. The Mars Rovers prove that we have the ability to convert to renewable and enviromentally-friendly energy sources, and the threat of global warming provides the necessity.

What are we waiting for?

Green Google

Google is setting a good example to the "old dog" companies who refuse to learn planet-saving new tricks:

Google turns on solar panels, plans $10 million in grants

Google activates the solar panels covering the roof space on its campus and says it will provide $10 million in grants for hybrid cars.

Nancy Gohring
PC World
Tuesday, June 19, 2007; 9:32 AM

Google Inc. on Monday turned on the solar panels covering nearly all the roof space on its corporate campus and announced that its philanthropic arm plans to dole out over US$10 million in grants to support hybrid cars.

The announcements follow one last week made from Google's offices in Mountain View, California that launched an industry-wide initiative around improving the energy efficiency of PCs and servers.

I really need to invest in Google stock. (I hope that, someday, I will be able to afford it.)

PG&E Studies Tidal Power

I have been talking about tidal power for years. It is long past time for a power company to seriously consider it and move us closer to energy independence and, eventually, an end to global warming.

PG&E backs new study of bay's tidal power

Cecilia M. Vega, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

In September, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom held a news conference on the shores of the San Francisco Bay -- the perfect photo op with the iconic Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop -- and announced a plan to study whether it would be possible to submerge giant turbines below the choppy waters as a means of generating alternative energy.

On Tuesday, Newsom stood at the same Crissy Field location in front of the same backdrop and announced another study on how to harness the tides in the bay to create power.

It's the third city-backed study on tidal power in two years

Glaciers Flowing Faster

The WoT and WoD have not made much progress since their inception, but let us check in on the War on Global Warming. There might be some good news there:

Hundreds Of Antarctic Peninsula Glaciers Accelerating As Climate Warms

Science Daily — Hundreds of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula are flowing faster, further adding to sea level rise according to new research published this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Climate warming, that is already causing Antarctic Peninsula increased summer snow melt and ice shelf retreat, is the most likely cause.

Using radar images acquired by European ERS-1 and -2 satellites, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) tracked the flow rate of over 300 previously unstudied glaciers. They found a 12% increase in glacier speed from 1993 to 2003. These observations - that echo recent findings from coastal Greenland - indicate that the cause is melting of the lower glaciers, which flow directly into the sea. As they thin, the buoyancy of the ice can lift the glaciers off their rock beds, allowing them to slide faster.

::Sigh:: Or not.

More Proof of Global Warming

How much more proof do we need before deceivers like Glenn Beck stop denying the truth?

Vast Regions Of West Antarctica Melted In Recent Past, NASA Finds

Science Daily — A team of NASA and university scientists has found clear evidence that extensive areas of snow melted in west Antarctica in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures. This was the first widespread Antarctic melting ever detected with NASA's QuikScat satellite and the most significant melt observed using satellites during the past three decades. The affected regions encompass a combined area as big as California.

Global Warming Worse Than We Thought

It may seem like every war waged by George W. Bush has been a prolonged disaster, but there is one war he wages that is going extremely well and is ahead of schedule: The War on Ice.

Arctic ice cap melting 30 years ahead of forecast

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent | May 1, 2007

WASHINGTON --The Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than expected and is now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.S. ice expert said Tuesday.

This means the ocean at the top of the world could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020, three decades sooner than the global panel's gloomiest forecast of 2050.

No ice on the Arctic Ocean during summer would be a major spur to global warming, said Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Center in Colorado.

"Right now ... the Arctic helps keep the Earth cool," Scambos said in a telephone interview. "Without that Arctic ice, or with much less of it, the Earth will warm much faster."

That is because the ice reflects light and heat; when it is gone, the much darker land or sea will absorb more light and heat, making it more difficult for the planet to cool down, even in winter, he said.

NY Times Gives Platform To Global Warming Distorters

The "liberal" New York Times published a blatantly biased attack piece on Al Gore and his movie An Inconvenient Truth. RealClimate.org does the debunking (so that I can be lazy):

Broad Irony

The first rule when criticizing popular science presentations for inaccuracies should be to double check any 'facts' you use. It is rather ironic then that William Broad's latest piece on Al Gore plays just as loose with them as he accuses Gore of doing.

We criticized William Broad previously (Broadly Misleading) for a piece that misrepresented the scientific understanding of the factors that drive climate change over millions of years, systematically understating the scientifically-established role of greenhouse gases, and over-stating the role of natural factors including those as speculative as cosmic rays (see our recent discussion here). In this piece, Broad attempts to discredit Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" by exaggerating the legitimate, but minor, criticisms of his treatment of the science by experts on climate science, and presenting specious or unsubstantiated criticisms by a small number of the usual, well-known contrarians who wouldn't agree even if Gore read aloud from the latest IPCC report.

This RealClimate.org article is really good. Click the link. Read the whole article. Educate yourself. It is worth it.

If the NY Times were really liberal or had higher journalistic integrity they would not have printed Broad's right-wing propaganda. To recompense for this error, they should retract Broad's article and print the RealClimate.org article.

That probably won't happen, but that is why the real liberal media, the countless liberal and progressive blogs (like mine), are trying to restore truth and balance.

Truth has a liberal bias as Stephen Colbert would say. While he was being ironic, many on the Right have, whether ignoranly or deliberately, come to that absurd conclusion, and decades of the Right repeating "the liberal media" myth has turned that myth into a religion for right-wingers and an influential scare tactic to the traditional media. By incessantly claiming the traditional media has a liberal bias, the Right has managed to pull an already balanced media off to the right. Through that and other similar tactics, they have moved the entire political debate further to the right by deceitfully demanding that the Right is the Center, the Center is the Left, and the Left is crazy and outside the mainstream.

Such deceit has wrought heavy damage to our country to the point that there became a need for blogs like DailyKos, MyDD, TalkingPointsMemo, Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, CrooksAndLiars. They, in turn, inspired many, many smaller blogs like mine. Our numbers are growing, and as our cause grows we will acheive success in repairing the political damage to our country and, eventually, the environmental damage to our world.