CONFESSIONS OF A REPENTANT CLICKTAVIST: WHY WE BADLY NEED FARMERS & GRANDMAS

by todbrilliant

I love Bill McKibben. And I love his team of whip smart writers and thinkers at 350.org. Right now, Bill is in Cancun at COP16 to observe and report. Recently, he had this to say -

"...after fifteen years of empty promises, it's pretty clear that Washington is playing the world for suckers . . .if we actually want to stop global warming, then we have to build a movement big enough to force change. Otherwise we're suckers too."

Right on, Bill. You see, Bill and 350 are building that movement, one big enough to combat the fossil fuel industry and, hopefully, all the crooked motherfuckers in Washington D.C. (sorry, but this includes our President, if only by willing association, if not slavish devotion) who see to it that the U.S. bullies the developing world into climate compliance. For Bill’s efforts in movement building, I commend him. Yet, as a fellow observer of the Climate Wars, I’m forced to wonder aloud whether any of us have really begun to build anything yet.

continued at Daily Kos....

A bit of perspective on President Obama (well, mine).

by erratic

A lot of people here are really pissed with President Obama right now. I certainly sympathize. He's made a number of decisions as President that don't make sense to me, decisions that I wouldn't have expected him to make. And he's failed to do things that I thought he would, or in the way I thought he would. I'm upset about Guantanamo, about his choices for the Fed, about his failure to play hardball with the republicans.

But from my perspective, I still have full respect for President Obama. I honestly still love just writing that. I respect his intelligence and experience, his tactical awareness, his decision-making skills. I believe he's doing the best he can, that he's committed to so doing, and there's still no one I'd rather have for president. But this isn't a diary about praise, it's a dairy about perspective.

And the perspective that I remember best is on election night, sitting at a crowded bar, waiting for the Pennsylvania returns...

continued at Daily Kos....

How to support President Obama

by erratic

(Note that this isn't a diary about whether to support President Obama, or why. If that's what you want to discuss, go do it somewhere else.).

It really is very simple. And I'm not saying that everyone should do this, just the people who would like to support President Obama. The rest of you, why don't you wander off and comment somewhere else, or even take the initiative to write your own diary? I can assure you, your comments will be irrelevant and unnecessary here. We're starting from the operating concept of "Be the change you want to see". Which means, it is incumbent upon you to initiate those changes you wish to see in the political landscape of America the Beautiful.

For all that many whine about the poor directions the White House is going in, few have shown effective or significant political pressure. This strikes me as ridiculously innocent, since anyone who has spent 5 minutes with a politician know s that they love being forced by a public majority to take significant beneficial action. I've been involved in such projects, and it's very satisfying for all involved.

continued at Daily Kos....

Opposition to GE Salmon grows as time ticks down

by calalum

The FDA is set to approve genetically engineered (GE) salmon for human consumption. It would be the first time that a genetically engineered animal would be approved for people to eat, yet consumers are not rolling over on this one. Over 360,000 consumers, other federal agencies, and members of congress are all saying no to GE salmon and the FDA's flawed approval process. There is still time for the Obama administration to put the breaks on the FDA and demand a more comprehensive review, but the clock is ticking.

continued at Daily Kos....

White House hid the truth on spill: The truth and the oil is still out there.

by Phil Radford II Greenpeace

The President's National Oil Spill Commission released preliminary findings today from its investigation into BP's oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more about how the White House hid the truth on the spill, and what we know now.

continued at Daily Kos....

On winning the climate war

by converger

There's been a lot of tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth lately about the utter helplessness of the Obama Administration to even pretend to do something about the accelerating climate catastrophe.

And it's true. But, ummmm.... nobody is talking about what we do now.

I have a few suggestions.

continued at Daily Kos....

Big Win: White House Goes Solar!

by Bill McKibben

Just in time to give the Global Work Party a White House-sized boost, the Obama administration announced this morning that they are going to put solar panels on the First Family's living quarters, returning to a tradition begun by president Jimmy Carter and abandoned by Ronald Reagan.

continued at Daily Kos....

Some thoughts on offshore drilling

by Thunderthief

Some thoughts on offshore oil drilling.... crossposted at my blog, http://lurkerspace.blogspot.com/

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Makes Me Sick

by Forrest Brown

UPDATE: We're at 22,000 signers. Can you help us hit 30,000 today?

Good morning, I'm Forrest Brown, senior organizing fellow at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

We just sent out an email to PCCC members letting them know that BP blocked workers cleaning up the oil disaster in the Gulf from wearing protective respirators.

Keith Olbermann reports that workers are breathing in toxic fumes day after day -- and some have already landed in the hospital with nausea, chest pains, and headaches. Yet BP seems more worried about controlling what images the public sees than about the health of workers.

Shame on them. Watch Keith Olbermann’s report on this issue -- then join us, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and  22,000 others in demanding action from the White House. Click here.

Then read the coalition statement below.

continued at Daily Kos....

Arsenic anyone with that tea...Time Bomb Poison..The Oil !

by Vetwife

I guess, till I die be posting about this horrible
sickening situation in the gulf and the hits keep coming.

Today I find out the Arsenic levels are up to the point
that it WILL get into our food chain

Where is the outrage?  Why are people concerned with elections and the Stanley Cup and Soccer and going about life and singing about God Bless America, especially the part of Oceans white with foam, when it is actually black with oil and arsenic and of course disbersements.  Below

continued at Daily Kos....

Not Just a Media Clampdown on the Gulf

by scorpiorising

The addition of a $40,000 fine and felony charges for media caught closer than 65 feet to oil recovery operations, is not just a clampdown on the media, it is also a sign of growing resistance from residents and activists, everywhere.

The White House Thursday enacted stronger rules to prevent the media from showing what's happening with the oil spill in the Gulf Coast.

CNN's Anderson Cooper reported that evening, "The Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers and reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches -- 65 feet."

continued at Daily Kos....

Weekly Mulch: Can Washington Stand Up to the Energy Industry?

by The Media Consortium

By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger

President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders spent this week trying to stand up to the oil industry. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama pushed BP to siphon $20 billion into a escrow fund that will cover liability claims, and Congress grilled BP CEO Tony Hayward and other oil bigwigs as to how they were protecting the country’s coastal waters.

continued at Daily Kos....

"BP's Interests are Not the same as America's Interests"

by Unenergy

I've been thinking about the outrage shifting, the blame game going on right now and just want to give you my thoughts on what is happening with respect to spin and the Gulf Gusher disaster. In July 2009, at a lecture to the Stanford Business School, the CEO of British Petroleum Tony Hayward explained to attendees that BP was going in the wrong direction before he took over as CEO because, "we had too many people that were working to save the world." This is the Youtube Video : BP's CEO Tony Hayward

continued at Daily Kos....

BP could face fines of up to $60 billion in Deepwater Disaster

by erratic

According to The Guardian, which reliably has interesting stories on US and global news from a different (and often more informed) perspective than the US news machine, has received confidential information about additional fines being considered. According to the article BP faces extra $60bn in legal costs as US loses patience with Gulf clean-up , The oil disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico could present BP with much higher costs than previously thought as a result of US government penalties of up to $60bn (£40bn), according to City analysts. The penalties are in addition to BP's already huge bill for the clean-up mission, which stood at $760m yesterday, and potentially unlimited damages payable by the company to fishermen and other affected local communities. BP also faces billions of dollars of lost earnings as a result of its damaged reputation in the US, which could result in it being barred from bidding for future contracts.

continued at Daily Kos....

UPDATE: Oil Action - Let's Not Kill the Arctic Too!

by greendem

If you are like me, you are feeling completely depressed and hopeless about the situation in the Gulf of Mexico. And new pictures like this are just heartbreaking. The yellow oil containment booms being easily overtopped by slime are starting to look more like police Crime Scene Tape to me. There was a crime committed against the USA and our Planet.  Big Oil and 20 years of Conservative deregulation were responsible. What can we do? I have been doing some research, and this seems like a start. By July the Obama administration needs to make a decision about whether it will allow Shell Oil to begin installing oil rigs off America's Arctic coast.

continued at Daily Kos....

My message to whitehouse.gov

by EyeOfSouthGwinnett

Here's what I just sent:

continued at Daily Kos....

We'll never win - on BP, Obama, and effective change

by erratic

because it's never over. We'll never achieve that ideal utopic moment, when everything's perfect, and justice and freedom and well-being prevail. It doesn't exist. I know because I've been to various Utopiae, and they always have problems. When I read the complaints about the Obama Administration's failures, the compromises and betrayals by Dems in Congress, the cynical gutting of progressive ideals and values, I think back to where I was a few years back, during the years of W, remember how ecstatic I would have been, to be where we are now. We'll never win, because there's always more to be done. Humans aren't hardwired for contentment, they're hardwired for recognizing enemies and threats and danger and disaster. That's the world we evolved in - saber-toothed tigers and droughts and lightning strikes and war and desperation disease and theft. We build our stabilities and contentment at the expense of others - by taking from them, or attacking them, or enslaving them, or exploiting them. Our leaders gain power by casting others as threats we must unite against.

continued at Daily Kos....