Will an "emergency" military vote tomorrow fund more nukes?

As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, a shocking vote tomorrow (Thursday, May 27) may rush $9 billion worth of taxpayer guarantees into building three new nuclear power plants---two of them on that already tortured Gulf of Mexico.

Environmental groups (NIRS.org, PSR.org) are posting alerts and circulating at least one letter asking House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) to stop the handout. The public is being urged to contact Obey and other Representatives on the committee (202-225-3121). Shrouded in murky haste, the vote is currently scheduled for 5pm.

The bailout may be attached to an emergency appropriations bill meant to provide funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. How that "emergency" relates to building new nuclear power plants remains a mystery.

Insider accounts say the bill may provide $9 billion in loan guarantees for two reactors to be built at the site of the South Texas Nuclear Plant, currently home to two aging reactors. Funding may also go to a new reactor proposed for Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, where two two-decade-old reactors are also licensed.

Fear, war, greed, disaster, and journalism

The Independent Film Channel is airing a series of four programs this week that illustrate the kind of media we need in this country. The four programs, titled "Fear," "War," "Greed," and "Disaster," feature the reporting of four independent unembedded journalists: Max Blumenthal, Nir Rosen, Charlie LeDuff, and Andrew Berends. The 30-minute episodes premiere Monday, May 24 through Thursday, May 27 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.

I've had a chance to preview the "War" episode, featuring Nir Rosen, and highly recommend it. Rosen is a freelance, unembedded writer, photographer, and filmmaker who has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia. The IFC show is, necessarily, self-referential, but the reporting included is of the sort that ought to be routine and not need to call attention to itself. That independent online and cable video always presents serious journalism as a novelty is precisely what's wrong with our communications system; there ought to be serious journalism in all news media all the time.

The learning curve of peace

"Why are we violent, but not illiterate?"

This question, originally posed by writer Colman McCarthy, was asked at the Midwest Regional Department of Peace conference, which was held last weekend outside Detroit. It cuts to the core of our troubles. The answer is agonizingly obvious: "We're taught to read!" Could it be we also need to be taught, let us say, calmness, breath and impulse control, practical applications of the Golden Rule? But until we know enough to ask these questions, violence, like ignorance, is just a fact of life.

Oh, humanity. In Russian, the word "mir" means "earth"; it also means "peace." We know the answers. They're hidden in our language. We long for peace with every fiber of our being, yet we spend countless trillions annually pursuing its opposite, as though determined in our perversity to be the worst we can be, to squander our enormous intelligence chasing fear and rage to their logical conclusion and annihilating ourselves.

Editorial cartoon for every week ever

Don't Ask, Don't Tell if George Washington was gay

As Congress at last debates the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, we might ask ourselves: "What if George Washington was gay?"

The question is posed by "Thomas Paine's" shocking new PASSIONS OF THE POTSMOKING PATRIOTS (www.harveywasserman.com).

The answer, of course, is that---under today's laws---he would have been drummed out of the Revolutionary Army, and we might still be a colony of the King.

Because he "could not tell a lie," a gay General Washington would have been obliged to turn himself in. Under current policy, the Continental Congress would have sent him packing back to Mt. Vernon.

Like many gays in today's military, Washington was irreplaceable. Possessed of an iron will and Vesuvian temper, it's hard to imagine anyone else holding the ragtag Revolutionary army together. His 1776 crossing of the Delaware to surprise the mercenary Hessians in Trenton was one of the great military strokes in all history.

Will the BP oil spill be the spark?

“The fact that 11 human beings were killed in the Deepwater Horizon explosion (their bodies never found) has become, at best, an afterthought. BP counts its profits in the billions, and, therefore, it’s important. . . This is the bitter reality of the American present, a period in which big business has cemented an unholy alliance with big government against the interests of ordinary Americans who, of course, are the great majority of Americans. The great majority of Americans no longer matter.”
-Bob Herbert, “More Than Just An Oil Spill,” NY Times, May 22, 2010

Just about a week ago I was on a conference call with leaders of about a dozen national and regional groups which have made the climate crisis a top priority of their work. The two main things we talked about were the prospects for decent climate legislation in the Senate and how we should be responding to the catastrophic BP oil spill.

‘Overcoming the Bush Legacy’: New language is not enough

When former US President George W. Bush left the White House, he left behind one of the most unpleasant legacies in history. He redefined the US’ role in world affairs, tainted the country’s reputation, and left his successor with a political inheritance that seemed almost irrevocable. This, of course, says nothing of the terrible toll Bush’s policies inflicted on millions of innocent people, many of whom have so unjustly suffered and perished, and many more who are still held hostage to unyielding pain.

While reputable author and world renowned journalist Deepak Tripathi agrees with this grim view, he doesn’t think all is lost. He believes that there is still a chance, an opportunity even to redress the injustice and reverse the terrible mistakes that were made.

A compelling writer and a meticulous researcher, Tripathi’s work is both gripping and comprehensive. His latest book, Overcoming The Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan serves as a glaring reminder of what military power can do when it goes unchecked, and when it is combined with religious fanaticism or misguided political ideology.

U.S. laws rated worst value per dollar

A new international survey rates U.S. federal and state laws the worst legislative value in the world. The study considered laws' impact on human lives, and the price paid for laws in campaign contributions, issue advertising, lobbying, and bribes. While these expenses have provided an unequaled return on investment for some U.S. and international corporations, their value for the U.S. public turns out to be negative, and more severely negative the greater the expense. The study was conducted by an imaginary U.S. media outlet over a period of 60 seconds, during which it extracted its rostrum from its rectum.

In related news, the Sun News of Myrtle Beach, S.C., began an article on Friday with these words:

"Brad Dean arranged a meeting last year with gubernatorial candidate Gresham Barrett in which he gave Barrett an envelope of cashier's checks from local corporations linked to a former chamber board chairman, Dean and Barrett confirmed Thursday. There is no indication that Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, did anything illegal by delivering about $84,000 in campaign contributions to Barrett."

Prison time for activist over green jobs banner? We’re not making this up

Despite the Gulf disaster, no one from BP has been arrested and sent to jail. Despite safety violations at coal mines, no one from Massey Energy has been handcuffed. But today I write to inform you that one of America’s best global warming activists is probably facing several months of jail. He’s been convicted by a D.C. jury, and now he awaits sentencing. Why? Because he peacefully dropped two banners on Capitol Hill that said: “GREEN JOBS NOW” and “GET TO WORK.”

I’m not joking. Ted Glick of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network was convicted by a jury May 13th of peacefully dropping the banners inside the U.S. Senate Hart Office Building last September. The DC U.S. Attorney’s office clearly had decided to make an “example” of Ted because of his previous two – count’em, two -- convictions related to peaceful acts of climate civil disobedience. Can you believe it? You can see a three-minute video of Ted’s September “crime” at:

Video

His own little 9/11 moment

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