Over at AlterNet they have just released a new article, We’re Literally Blowing Up Our Clean Energy Future, and the scary thing is they are right.
Click for more protest images
Blasting has begun on West Virginia’s coal river mountain, which is common place in this part of the country, but coal river mountain is special. It’s special because it has the potential to become a wind farm that can provide 700 long term clean energy jobs, provide 85,000 households with electricity and give back $1.7 million in tax dollars. However now, with all the blasting, it has the potential to become a “6,000-acre dirty energy wasteland” to quote the article.
Coal river mountain is home to some of the last few headwater streams that have not yet been polluted due to mining. To make matters worse all the explosions are going off just 100 yards away from the largest coal sludge impoundment in the country. What is that? Well its about eight billion gallons of coal slurry being held back by a natural damn. If this mountain damn were to go, and they have before, hundreds of people would have about 5 minutes to escape with their lives. What kind of politician thinks this is okay?
…hard to fathom why any political leader paying attention would allow a coal company to obliterate intact mountain ranges, sacrifice precious drinking water or risk losing people to a tsunami of coal sludge, when the mountain could be a wind farm instead?
It is time we took action! Help save Coal River Mountain.
More info on Coal Sludge and how people are trying to help.
Filed Under: Clean Energy, Environment, Politics by Aron Brown
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Abortion may be wrong, but its a choice.
As you may have guessed from the cartoon, I do not support abortion, I think it is a terrible thing to do. However I am Pro-Choice.
Does this seem weird? Probably, but I can’t bring myself to understand the pro-life side of things. Yah I get the whole, “It’s a human being” thing and again I agree. What I don’t get is how people can decide that they are right and others are wrong.
Now I am not saying that slavery is wrong, but it’s a choice, so those of you trolls that are thinking about combining what I said with the image caption, don’t try it. The difference here is that a slave is a human being where as the hard truth of the mater is that a fetus is a parasite by definition.
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Filed Under: Medicine, Politics, Values by Aron Brown
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Yesterday the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took the first big steps in the right direction by calling out climate change deniers. According to MooingChoir over at The Daily Kos “The Prime Minister has had enough of the parallel obstructionism in the US and Australia. His critique doesn’t just extend to Australia. He also calls out prominent US Republicans.” You can read the rest of MooinChoir’s article: Smack! Australian Prime Minister calls out US Republican Climate Deniers for more information on the actual details.
Here are some highlights from what the Prime Minister had to say:
The challenge we face, and others around the world face, is to build momentum and overcome domestic political constraints.
The truth is this is hard, because the climate change skeptics, the climate change deniers, the opponents of climate change action are active in every country.
They are a minority. They are powerful. And invariably they are driven by vested interests.
Powerful enough to so far block domestic legislation in Australia, powerful enough to so far slow down the passage of legislation through the US Congress. And ultimately – by limiting the ambition of national climate change commitments – they are powerful enough to threaten a deal on global climate change both in Copenhagen and beyond.
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Filed Under: Clean Energy, Economy, Environment, Politics by Aron Brown
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Things seem to be heating up over at Steve Gorelick’s blog: Media and Mayhem.
Two of his most recent articles: I’d Laugh If I Wasn’t Screaming: The Revolt of “The Soldiers of The Selfish Revolution”©, and I Have Heard From One of the “Soldiers of the Selfish Revolution”© reveal just how corrupt people in this society are!
Now I’m not saying I agree with every aspect of what Steve had to say, but he makes some very good points. I want to give a brief recap on his first article:I’d Laugh If I Wasn’t Screaming: The Revolt of “The Soldiers of The Selfish Revolution”©.
Today, in a compelling demonstration of just how compassionate and altruistic some people can be, thousands of people with health insurance gathered on Capitol Hill to protest a bill that would provide some coverage for those who are not covered.
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Filed Under: Politics, Values by Aron Brown
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On fox news this morning they were talking (actually arguing) with Anthony Weiner, a Democratic New York Congressman, about the differences between the Republican health bill, and the democratic health bill.
At this point I haven’t heard enough about the new Republican bill to say whether or not I like it more than the Democratic bill, I just want to bring to every ones attention the way Politicians twist words and numbers in order to make us think that what they are doing is going to help.
The one major claim from the discussion is that the Republican bill does not provide information on what to do with people on medicaid, medicare, or welfare. I again can’t verify whether or not these claims are true I have not looked into the republican bill yet. Congressman Weiner goes on to say how this will cost the American people untold amounts of money because these people would not be covered by health insurance and therefore we have to pay for their emergency room visits. (more…)
Filed Under: Politics by Aron Brown
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