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Kempthorne nominated for Interior Secretary

It's official: Bush has nominated Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to succeed Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior. More on Kempthorne here and here.

That was remarkably fast. I wonder what the back story is.

Update [2006-3-16 15:0:19 by David Roberts]: Via Ezra Klein, this amusingly concise statement from LCV:

WASHINGTON, DC – League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Senior Vice President for Political Affairs and Public Education Tony Massaro today issued the following statement after President Bush nominated Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne to be his Secretary of Interior.

"During his career in Congress, Governor Kempthorne earned a paltry 1% lifetime LCV score. Enough said."

Indeed.

Car news: fast and furious

So much car news, so little time! Yes, this post is long, but it's highly informational and a kick in the pants (if I do say so myself). And at the end you get to read the Worst Ethanol Metaphor Ever! Trust me, it's worth it.

Let us begin. From Uganda comes this highly punctuated bit of car news:

A local school has rewarded its best performing students with vehicles. St. Lawrence London College lavished their top three students in last year's A-Level exams with a car each, and cash awards. Incredible!

The principal said the annual award would encourage other students to work hard. Preposterous!

Meanwhile, Lexus is unveiling the priciest hybrid on the market: the $54,900 GS 450h. Ridiculous!

And in more hybrid news: Volvo plans to launch a hybrid truck engine. The new engine would cut fuel consumption by 35 percent, say the Volvans. Says prototypically-Swedishly-named Volvo bigwig Leif Johansson:

We are talking about half of the overall heavy truck market and perhaps as much as 75 percent of the bus market and 100 percent of construction equipment.

In a separate article, he added that the prospect of this hybrid engine "makes us weep with pleasure." Hilarious!

Careful about what stickers you put on your bike, people

Recent bike-related news offers an answer to the oft-posed question, "I'm a police officer -- when the hell am I going to need to know about pop culture?" The answer, of course, is when a sticker on a bicycle bearing an indie band name you're oblivious to prompts the destruction of said bicycle with the jaws of life in order to extract a nonexistent explosive device.

To be fair, the band's name -- "This Bike is a Pipe Bomb" -- isn't quite like affixing a "NIN" or "The String Cheese Incident" sticker to your seat post, but still.

‘Eco-terrorism’: A new debate is born

Check out these letters to the editor in the Toronto Star. The first one is from the head of the U.S. Humane Society:

The Star allowed the so-called "Center for Consumer Freedom" to cross the line when the group falsely accused the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) of supporting "the eco-terror problem." The suggestion that the HSUS supports any illegal action, or that it has ties to eco-terror groups which it has repeatedly denounced, is patently untrue and outrageous.

The HSUS has repeatedly and publicly criticized individuals and groups who resort to intimidation, vandalism, or violence in the name of supposedly protecting animals. We believe harassment, violence and other illegal tactics are wholly unacceptable and inconsistent with a core ethic of promoting compassion and respect.

This is exactly what CCF wants: For this to be the subject of conversation. It doesn't matter if the allegations against HSUS are absurd. It doesn't matter how convincingly HSUS demonstrates their absurdity. The point is that HSUS's "connection to terrorism" is now a "debate." And as any good mainstream media reporter knows, every debate has two sides, even if one side is full of shit. You can expect to see "he-said she-said" stories on this issue pop up more and more often in mainstream media outlets.

The more the public sees mainstream groups tied to terrorism, the more those groups can expect to be marginalized. It's all going according to plan.

Houston kids living near a Superfund site tell their stories in pictures

Kids in Houston's Fifth Ward neighborhood are growing up surrounded by toxic waste, illegal dumps, and a Superfund site. Fortunately, they've also got Rhonda Adams in their midst, who's started a program through the Museum of Cultural Arts, Houston that encourages local youth to learn about the environment and their neighborhood and record what they see in photographs, drawings, and collages. Check out photos of the kids and their artwork.

Critical Mass

Massachusetts proposes tough standard for perchlorate in drinking water In a not-so-subtle jab at the Bush administration, Massachusetts has proposed a strict drinking-water standard for the toxic chemical perchlorate, which can disrupt metabolism, growth, and development, particularly in children. There is currently no federal limit on perchlorate in drinking water, though the U.S. EPA has […]

South Central Community Farm update

Over on Counterpunch.org, I've published an update on the situation at South Central Community Farm in Los Angeles. The piece is based partly on a Gristmill post from last week, with loads of new info on nefarious dealings by city officials. Check it out.

Spiritual activism conference

I had hoped to have my interview with Rabbi Michael Lerner up by now, but life has not cooperated. It should be up soon.

I'd feel guilty, though, if I didn't mention one thing: Lerner's Spiritual Activism Conference runs in D.C. from March 17-20.

Here's what it's about:

Oil and security

I was reading Atlantic Monthly on the bus this morning and noticed a pair of stories that inadvertently illustrated an interesting point: Western national-security experts are still wedded to the idea that "threat to our country" means "aggression toward our country," which seems woefully misguided to me in today's world. Let me illustrate.

(Unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber to access the pieces online, so you'll have to take my word for it.)

First we have a piece called "Worse Than Iraq?" It's about the horrific and deteriorating situation in Nigeria:

Poverty and race

This isn't strictly environmental, but no discussion of poverty in America makes sense outside of the context of race. Also, I think this op-ed deserves the widest possible exposure. It's easy, if you live in a cosmopolitan area, to think we're past stuff like this.

Think again: I give you "Why do blacks continue to support Democrats?" [*see update] by conservative Washington state columnist Adele Fergusen:

One of these days before I die, I hope to see a shift in the attitudes of so many of my black brothers and sisters in this great country we share, from perpetual victimhood, to pride in their achievements on the road from slave to American citizen.

Remember Ronald Reagan's story about the kid who had to shovel a huge pile of manure? He went about it with such joy he was asked why and said, "With all that manure, there's got to be a pony in there somewhere."

The pony hidden in slavery is the fact that it was the ticket to America for black people. I have long urged blacks to consider their presence here as the work of God, who wanted to bring them to this raw, new country and used slavery to achieve it. A harsh life, to be sure, but many immigrants suffered hardships and indignations as indentured servants. Their descendants rose above it. You don't hear them bemoaning their forebears' life the way some blacks can't rise above the fact theirs were slaves.

Click on over and get a gander at Adele.

(via TP)

Update [2006-3-15 19:30:2 by David Roberts]: The Kitsap Business Journal, in a fit of what is either prudence or cowardice, seems to have taken down the column. I looked around for a cached version but couldn't find one. So you'll just have to trust me.