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From Kinky to Kicky

Kinky is as Kinky does Texas guber-candidate Kinky Friedman is trading his Caddy for a biodiesel ride and wants Willie in his cabinet. Plus he’s got his own action figure and a rockin’ ‘stache. Almost makes us want to pack up for the Lone Star State. Almost. Photo: Brian Kanof MyCage.com It’s hard out here […]

More on canvassing

A while back, we ran a story by Nathan Wyeth about the crappiness of progressive canvassing operations. It prompted a long and lively discussion on the blog.

For those interested in the topic, check out Greg Bloom's new story in In These Times. It's about how canvassing operations burn young workers out, fight their attempts to unionize, and generally serve as a sweatshop for the creation of donor rolls. Bloom also blogs at MyDD, and his latest post is a follow-up to the article.

Fighting solutions

First, see the op-ed by a fellow at the hyper-libertarian Atlas Economic Research Foundation: "Global warming foes fight global warming cures."

Second, see Dave's talking point.

Repeat as necessary.

(via deSmog)

Sunstein on global warming incentives

There's a smart op-ed in today's WaPo by University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein (via Dessler).

The basic point is simple: The two countries that are contributing most to global warming (the U.S. and China) will be among the least harmed by it, according to most projections, and thus have the least incentive to do something about it.

(In case you're wondering, India and Africa are going to take the brunt of it, via damage to agriculture and especially vulnerability to disease.)

The dynamic more or less insures inaction, unless one of three things happens.

First, we could decide that even though we will be better off relative to other countries, the absolute losses will be too much to risk. Sunstein alludes to that here:

Rehabilitated turtle returned to ocean home

On Wednesday, more than 150 admiring beachgoers said goodbye to "Little Crush" as it was returned to its salty underwater home. This rehabilitated green sea turtle washed ashore five months earlier, underweight and ill from ingesting more than 70 man-made items discarded in the oceans. After being treated by a team of Walt Disney World animal-care specialists, it regained its health and was released into the ocean.

Little Crush (so named for his resemblance to Disney's turtle character in Finding Nemo) was also equipped with a satellite transmitter enabling researchers to keep tabs on its ocean voyages. According to 11-year-old Alex Custer, the ceremony was "awesome."

Little did Alex and those other 150 beachgoers know that Little Crush is not heading into a ocean of possibilities; he's heading into a sea of danger. He'll have to run a gauntlet of commercial fishing gear and may -- if he's like many other sea turtles -- end up hooked on a longline or captured in a net.

Alex and the beachgoers also likely don't realize that our government ignores its own laws and officially sanctions and allows the catching (and killing) of thousands of endangered and threatened sea turtles by commercial fishing operations every year. Not quite the Disney ending we'd (all) hope for.

Six Nations, Under Siege

Native Canadians fight for land rights Suburban sprawl has encroached on the once-pristine wilderness of southern Ontario’s Six Nations Reserve — and the residents of Canada’s First Nations that live there have had enough. Since February, hundreds of Native protestors have blocked roads, lit bonfires, confronted police, raised traditional First Nation flags, destroyed national flags […]

In Clemente Conditions

Radioactive, cancer-causing tritium leaks into California groundwater Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that can cause cancer, miscarriages, and birth defects, has leaked from a nuclear power plant near San Clemente, Calif. Groundwater tested at up to 330,000 picocuries of tritium per liter; we don’t know what a picocurie is, but California’s public-health goal for […]

Smoky Chokey

National parks aren’t breathing easy From California to Maine to Alaska — sea to shining sea, as it were — almost a third of America’s national parks suffer poor air-quality conditions, says a new study by the National Parks Conservation Association. Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury threaten wildlife, plants, visitors, and staff, and can […]

Dodge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

Court rules with EPA on power-plant pollution controls Imagine that gavel sound from Law & Order, and here we go: In 1999, the U.S. EPA sued Cinergy Corp. for modifying several coal-fueled power plants without following Clean Air Act pollution-control requirements. (Moment of silence for the days when eco-laws were enforced.) One month before President […]

Still have glimmers of childlike wonder and hope?

Well, time to give 'em up. Dolphins are stupid.

(Thanks to reader ET -- or should I say, "thanks.")