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Obama takes Maine in a wicked pissah

Looks like Obama has won Maine in something of a blowout. This was a state that was widely expected to go to Clinton, and in which she had a commanding lead in the polls through late last year. At this point she’s got to be wishing everyone could just go to sleep until the Texas […]

DOE erases ‘most successful’ weatherization program from website

Late last week, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) raked Energy Secretary Bodman over the coals -- the best possible use for that fossil fuel! Within days of uncompassionately zeroing out the low-income weatherization program at a time of record energy prices, Bodman's DOE altered the DOE website.

Until a few days ago, the website of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Weatherization Program describe the effort as "this country's longest running, and perhaps most successful energy efficiency program" (click on "cached text" -- thank you, Google). Having run EERE, I can certainly attest to the accuracy of that description. Once Bush/Bodman whacked the program, that phrase was whacked too (click here), like something out of the Ministry of Truth -- Minitrue -- in the book 1984.

You can see how Samuel "deer in the headlights" Bodman responded to Markey in this video clip.

Just for the record, as the website notes, over 30 years, the DOE weatherized the homes of "more than 5.5 million low-income families," reducing:

... heating bills by 31% and overall energy bills by $358 per year at current prices. This spending, in turn, spurs low-income communities toward job growth and economic development.

So what does the administration do? Zero the program out during an economic slowdown that itself has been driven in part by record energy prices. You just cannot make stuff up!

Below is Markey's press release and a picture of the website before and after:

National Geographic’s ‘Six Degrees Could Change The World’

I haven't read the book -- who has time? Oh, but TV or a YouTube video -- well, that's another matter:

This Sunday, February 10th at 8pm EST on the National Geographic Channel, "Six Degrees Could Change The World," which offers a hypothetical look at how the world might change, degree by degree, if we don't curtail our emissions:

Hungry humpheads and sustainable fish in U.K. groceries

28 cases of ciguatera fish poisoning have been documented since November. Fish such as grouper, snapper, and amberjack eat toxic algae, and people who eat the contaminated fish can suffer from nausea and vomiting. In serious cases, neurological problems can last for months or years ...

... a federal judge rejected President Bush's exemption of the U.S. Navy to rules regulating sonar ...

... scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography suggested that wind may be behind the sardine and anchovy booms and busts off the California coast over the last century ...

A trio of Obama wins

As expected, Obama won Nebraska, Washington, and Louisiana. The victories were widely predicted, but the sheer size of them, the overwhelming Obama stompery, was something of a surprise.

Huckabee wins Kansas

Like the headline says. Wonder where he comes down on those coal plants.

Friday music blogging: Once

Last night I finally got around to watching Once, the little Irish indie flick that got so much critical acclaim last year. It is, in fact, a remarkable film — worthy of the buzz. I’m not sure what you’d call it. A “musical”? Not exactly — the movie’s entirely naturalistic. There’s no spontaneous breaking out […]

Obama takes the stage in Seattle to rally support for Saturday’s state caucuses

Barack Obama's speech in Seattle today made this 26-year-old feel positively old. I and a few other Gristers hopped a bus over to the rally in Key Arena and were greeted by a stadium overflowing with supporters, many of them high school and college students. I overheard an usher say "I dont see this kind of support for [Seattle's basketball team] the Sonics anymore." (The venue holds 18,000 people: by speech time it was over capacity, with people crowded on the floor, spilling into the aisles, and climbing up the walls into off-limits box seats; several thousand had been turned away at the door.)

Georgia governor eases water-use restrictions

Despite an ongoing drought, and despite a recent court ruling that removes Atlanta’s right to much of a heavily relied-upon water source, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is lifting a near-total ban on garden watering and swimming-pool filling in the state. “Swim, kids, swim,” said Perdue, who didn’t announce a start date for the eased restrictions. […]

‘Fix it or ditch it’

Here’s the new TV ad from Friends of the Earth, telling Senate Democrats to “fix or ditch” the Lieberman-Warner climate bill: