Morning No: Sabotage-Related Program Activities

by: Natasha Chart

Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 06:00

- The worst of the downturn could be yet to come, because the banking sector is more concentrated than when it was already too big to fail and, also, it's riddled with fraud and excessive risk-taking.

- How corporate cash has corrupted the environmental movement and the big conservation groups.

- Dave Roberts runs across a bill that's bipartisan, and supported in both House and Senate, which would provide energy efficiency retrofits for rural homeowners at very little cost and the possible gain of rural buy-in to a clean energy economy. Let's pass it yesterday.

- Eight counties in California have unemployment rates over 20%, and the unemployment rate went up in 30 states in January.

- House Democrats ban no-bid contracts for private contractors extended through congressional earmarks. Now that's earmark reform I can get behind.

- Last Thursday, Yolo County Sheriffs ripped off a student protester's shirt and held her hostage until other students protesting California's higher education cuts agreed to disperse.

- Reproductive rights empowerment fail. What happened to trusting women?

- Days after the Taguba report on Abu Ghraib abuses came out, the Dept. of Defense asked for extra permission to torture.

- The short-sale program, HAFA, is unlikely to help homeowners with 2nd mortgages.

- On the need for empathy in social media communications.

- Median wealth for single black women is $5. Five dollars. Wtf? Via VLaszlo in Quick Hits.

- Dear Obama administration, while you're sabotaging 'your' side by embracing Bush's policies, please remember that pragmatism isn't a synonym for lack of principle. That is all.

- How to be a prolific short story writer.

- The Onion: Nation shudders at large block of uninterrupted text.

- Also, Amanda Marcotte dug up this Beastie Boys/Battlestar mashup, and it just had to be shared.

Natasha Chart :: Morning No: Sabotage-Related Program Activities

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Morning No: Sabotage-Related Program Activities | 5 comments

"House Democrats ban no-bid contracts for private contractors" (0.00 / 0)

Hmm. Doesn't this actually result in the air force tanker deal having to be stopped again, now that Boeing is the sole bidder? Afaik the 35 billions for that purchase are an item in the Pentagon budget. Doesn't this qualify as an earmark?

by: Gray @ Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 13:14:06 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Coming Attractions (0.00 / 0)

I'm planning a weekend diary on this one:

- How corporate cash has corrupted the environmental movement and the big conservation groups.

Which was also covered on Democracy Now!: "The Real Climategate: Conservation Groups Align with World's Worst Polluters".

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 13:31:50 PM UTC

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I look very much forward to it! One thing that makes me jittery about these (0.00 / 0)

(extremely important) stories is that this much of Hari's message will be lost,

"I think we need to, first of all, stress something really important: we are not talking about all American environmental groups. It is really important for people to know, if they want to know where to give money to, where to campaign with. Greenpeace, 350.org, Friends of the Earth do not accept corporate donations and, as a result, do not have a compromised position on the climate science."

The NYT pieces, which for better or for worse(!!!,)on Green, Inc., have a wider reach than either the Nation or Democracy Now just sort of hype-ly addressed the negatives here while failing to address alternatives. Which is just horrific and utterly irresponsible. The absolute last thing that should happen here is for all environmental groups to be painted with a destructively large brush.

by: sb @ Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 15:09:18 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well, Readers Of Open Left (0.00 / 0)

have heard about the different approach represented by Friends of the Earth and 350.org for some time now. So I hope to advance the story a bit beyond what attentive readers already know.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 16:00:49 PM UTC

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