Obama White House going solar!

by Lawrence

Jimmy Carter started it all by installing solar panels on the White House and pushing hard for renewables and energy independence.

Then came Reagan/Bush and 30 years of a Republican-driven agenda and the U.S. went from being on the forefront of the renewables industry to being a laggard.  

continued at Daily Kos....

Tipping Point? ACLU "disgusted" by Obama admin.; Labor too? UPDATE

by Vtdblue

Given the light shone on the White House's disdainful views of organized labor after the recent pyrrhic Lincoln primary victory in Arkansas, we may be reaching a critical, and potentially perilous tipping point in Democratic support for the president.  This loss of support clearly now ranges well beyond "educated white progressives," and now includes increasing percentages of the traditional activist Democratic base. Yesterday the ACLU Executive Director, Anthony Romero appears to have opened a talk at the progressive America's Future Now conference with this statement, as tweeted by Marcy Wheeler:  "I'm going to start provocatively . . . I'm disgusted with this president." I see this as further evidence that president Obama and his White House advisers have entered a Beltway bubble that may end up costing it and the Democratic Party (and by extension, US) dearly both this fall and in 2012.

continued at Daily Kos....

Jimmy Carter, Solar Energy, and "The Road Not Taken"

by change the Be

Over at reddit, I saw this link about the story behind the solar panels that Carter put on the roof of the white house. [ the lead comment by the reddit reader was : "To every person, especially Republicans, who made fun of President Jimmy Carter for installing solar panels on the roof of the White House to raise awareness of our dependency on oil...Fuck, You. "] http://www.boston.com/... Now, a documentary film has been made about the panels, using them as a backdrop to explore American oil dependency and the political lack of will to pursue alternative energy. Swiss directors Christina Hemaner and Roman Keller follow the route of the panels in the hour-long film "A Road Not Taken." having once dabbled in the vegetable-oil conversion process for a diesel vehicle, and currently a user of micro-solar-technology (in the form of a mag lens used for smoking), this story piqued my interest.  Currently, I do not own an automobile..(bicycle!)

continued at Daily Kos....

Gergen is Right About Oil in Gulf--Updated Thrice

by banger

Since this happened I've been commenting in various places that there seem to be no "there" there when it comes to this Administration. It has, as a crisis team, performed remarkably poorly. The Administrations response to this crisis in the Gulf of Mexico is stunning in its punyness as David Gergen points out in a CNN story. Although this disaster is not an existential threat, it could be argued that if the U.S. government had fought World War II in the same way it has fought the oil spill, we might well be speaking German now. I'm not a Gergen fan. He is, however and intelligent and engaged insider in Washington whose opinions reflect his milieu and counts for something.

continued at Daily Kos....