State of Mind
COAL:
We can’t afford the fiction of “clean” coal anymore. Coal is dirty. It cannot be cleaned within the foreseeable future by any known technology – all lies, wishful thinking and futuristic theory certainly not withstanding.
We will kill all life as we know it on this planet if we do not reduce our current rate of carbon emissions. Trust the science, not the propaganda spin of the coal merchants. Time is running out for human survival on this earth – and if not this one, which one? Coal burning accelerates our suicide.
Earth is in the midst of its Sixth Great Species Extinction. Do we want to go the way of the dinosaurs? Do we want to watch our sons and daughters, grandchildren, spouse, friends or ourselves die in our own waste and secondhand smoke?
Stop coal energy production at once. Lead and start mass development of alternative clean energy resources today: wind, water, solar. Protect life from ignorance, superstition, lack of vision, and selfish greed.
We have to change our basic survival assumptions if we are going to cope with this self-inflicted disaster. Bite the bullet: stop it now. Coal is a fuel for dead men on a dead planet.
Spokane Considers Community Bill of Rights by Mari Margil YES! Magazine
Thousands of people voted to protect nine basic rights, ranging from the right of the environment to exist and flourish to the rights of residents to have a locally based economy and to determine the future of their neighborhoods.
Of all the candidates, bills, and proposals on ballots around the country yesterday, one of the most exciting is a proposition that didn’t pass.
In Spokane, Washington, despite intense opposition from business interests, a coalition of residents succeeded in bringing an innovative “Community Bill of Rights” to the ballot. Proposition 4 would have amended the city’s Home Rule Charter (akin to a local constitution) to recognize nine basic rights, ranging from the right of the environment to exist and flourish to the rights of residents to have a locally based economy and to determine the future of their neighborhoods.
A coalition of the city’s residents drafted the amendments after finding that they didn’t have the legal authority to make decisions about their own neighborhoods; the amendments were debated and fine-tuned in town hall meetings. READ MORE:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/05-8
How a Public Jobs Program Could Put America Back on Track By Julianne Malveaux, The Progressive.
The same nation that created a Works Progress Administration in the 1930s should create another one in the 21st century.
Eighty years ago this week, the stock market crashed and ushered in the Great Depression. We need to apply the lessons from that era to our own to relieve the needless suffering of the Great Recession.
In just two days, between Oct. 28 and 29, 1929, the stock market plummeted by 25 percent. Between September and November of that year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 40 percent of its value. By July of 1932, the Dow had lost nearly 90 percent of its value.
By then the Great Depression was raging, with unemployment rates rising to 25 percent.
To combat unemployment and alleviate poverty, the federal government engaged in a massive public works and jobs program through the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Private markets weren’t about to create jobs, and the public sector became the employer of last resort. The job creation from the WPA provided survival and sustenance for millions of American families. Where is the contemporary WPA? READ MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/143710/how_a_public_jobs_program_could_put_america_back_on_track
Thousands of Right-Wingers Rally at Capitol to Hear Lies About Health-Care Reform, Courtesy of Bachmann and GOP Leaders By Adele Stan, AlterNet.
Days before a health bill is expected to pass the House, Republicans rallied their flock with the help of FOX News, Michele Bachmann and leading conservative groups.
Thousands of right-wingers rallied yesterday on the lawn on the U.S. Capitol building to hear a parade of Republican lawmakers warn them of an alleged threat to their freedom embedded in the secret channels of the health-care reform bill unveiled last week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Lawmakers expect to vote on the bill this Saturday.
Congressional star power was provided on the podium by the likes of Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who called for the rally from the hallowed platform of Sean Hannity’s FOX News program. Other big names on the Capitol podium included House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio; Joe “You Lie” Wilson, R-S.C., (who got a huge ovation from the crowd) and Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., who promised that he was doing all he could to ensure that “not one Republican” votes for the health-care reform bill.
Actors Jon Voight and John Deszo Ratzenberger (the guy who played Cliff on Cheers) provided the glamor quotient. READ MORE:
Jon Stewart Gets Teary-Eyed Over the Plight of Glenn Beck’s Internal Organs
Posted by AlterNet Staff, AlterNet
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