Author Archives: Eliza Kurth

These Preppers Are Ready for Zombies, Nukes…and the Debt Ceiling

by Eliza Kurth Posted on October 10, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

At least someone on the Right is taking the debt ceiling seriously: preppers. With the federal government seven days away from reaching its borrowing limit, survivalists—and the $500-million-a-year industry that caters to them—are on high alert, taking to message boards, podcasts, and YouTube to urge their countrymen to stock up on freeze-dried food and ammunition, absent fast congressional action.

Mac Slavo, writing at SHTF Plan, short for the prepper mantra “Shit Hits the Fan,” put it bluntly in a post on October 4: “The end result is going to widespread financial and economy destruction, a meltdown of the U.S. dollar, and a collapse of our very way of life as tens of millions of Americans will be instantly impoverished.”

Continue Reading »

See the original article here – 

These Preppers Are Ready for Zombies, Nukes…and the Debt Ceiling

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on These Preppers Are Ready for Zombies, Nukes…and the Debt Ceiling

Rand Paul Slams John McCain Over…MoJo Map?

by Eliza Kurth Posted on September 13, 2013

Mother Jones

Last week my colleague Tasneem Raja and I published a map highlighting Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s long, loud history of proposing American military interventions in foreign countries. (His 2000 “rogue-state rollback” strategy, for instance, called for American-backed regime change in North Korea, Iraq, and Libya.) Apparently, it struck a nerve with McCain’s colleagues. On Friday, in an interview with Buzzfeed‘s McKay Coppins, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of the party’s loudest anti-war voices, highlighted our guide while taking a dig at McCain’s push for military intervention in Syria:

“There was a funny article the other day in Mother Jones—did you see it? About one of my colleagues?” he asked.

He was trying to do the polite, senatorial thing by not mentioning his “colleague” by name. But when his vague prompt was met with a blank look during an interview with BuzzFeed, he scrapped the pretense of diplomacy and charged forward.

“It ranked the different countries on how eager Sen. John McCain wanted to be involved militarily,” he explained, not even attempting to contain his amusement. “So, like, for getting involved in Syria, there’s five Angry McCains. For getting involved in the Sudan, there’s two Angry McCains. And there’s a little picture of him. You know, he was for getting involved to support former Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi before he was for overthrowing Gaddafi. He was for supporting former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak before he was for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood before he was for supporting the generals.”

You can read Coppins’ full piece here.

See original article here: 

Rand Paul Slams John McCain Over…MoJo Map?

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Rand Paul Slams John McCain Over…MoJo Map?

Can these three billionaire superfriends save the climate?

by Eliza Kurth Posted on September 9, 2013

Can these three billionaire superfriends save the climate?

By

Jim Gillooly/PEI

, 

Helloaloe

, &

Fortune Live Media

Bloomberg, Steyer, and Paulson are teaming up for the climate.

A trio of powerful billionaires is preparing to launch a big bipartisan climate initiative next month, Ryan Lizza reports in The New Yorker. The players: Michael Bloomberg, outgoing mayor of New York City; Tom Steyer, a former hedge-fund manager who’s now devoting himself fulltime to the climate cause; and Hank Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs and former treasury secretary under George W. Bush.

Not enough influential rich guys for you? OK, here are two more: Robert Rubin, another former treasury secretary and Goldman Sachs alum, will serve as an adviser to the new initiative, as will George Shultz, former secretary of state under Ronald Reagan.

No details yet on what the presumably well-funded climate initiative will aim to achieve.

Steyer is also moving forward with climate projects of his own, including a new anti-Keystone ad campaign that launched on Sunday. The first ad features Steyer standing on a ship along the Gulf Coast, emphasizing the fact that much of the oil piped through Keystone XL will be exported. “Here’s the truth: Keystone oil will travel through America, not to America,” he says. Watch the ad:

Steyer hired Obama campaign veteran Jim Margolis to make the ads, Lizza reports:

Margolis came up with a million-dollar campaign consisting of four ninety-second commercials that will appear sequentially over four weeks, starting on September 8th, during the Sunday-morning political chat shows. He and Steyer call it the Keystone Chronicles. Each week, Steyer will appear in a new location. After the Gulf, he’ll go to Arkansas, near the site of a recent spill of Canadian crude. Then he’ll appear at a clean-energy manufacturing plant to discuss jobs. The series will end with Steyer in New York, on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, with the Manhattan skyline behind him, speaking about Hurricane Sandy and the impact of climate change. “It gives it a more documentary feel, in the sense that each one is different and you have to watch each week to see what he’s doing next,” Margolis said.

Climate activist (and Grist board member) Bill McKibben doesn’t mind having prosperous allies. Said McKibben of Steyer, “After years of watching rich people manipulate and wreck our political system for selfish personal interests, it’s great to watch a rich person use his money and his talents in the public interest.”

Can these rich guys change the game? We’ll be watching closely to find out.

Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

View original: 

Can these three billionaire superfriends save the climate?

Posted in alo, ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Can these three billionaire superfriends save the climate?

8 Tips For Healthy, Fun & Successful Road Tripping!

by Eliza Kurth Posted on August 10, 2013

Taken from:  

8 Tips For Healthy, Fun & Successful Road Tripping!

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on 8 Tips For Healthy, Fun & Successful Road Tripping!

House Republicans Defund the Nonexistent ACORN, Yet Again

by Eliza Kurth Posted on July 30, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

In the Friday the 13th film series, psycho killer Jason Voorhees lumbers around destroying lives with his machete. He is seemingly indestructible, reanimating even though he dies at the end of almost every movie in which he appears. The sexy teens (the flawed protagonists of this horror-flick franchise) are thus charged with brutally killing Jason again and again, time after time, no matter what.

That’s how House Republicans view ACORN, the defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (a longtime boogeyman for the right). It’s Jason, and John Boehner is a sexy teen. For years, conservatives accused the defunct organization of a fictional large-scale voter fraud plot. In actuality, ACORN was a New Orleans-based nonprofit that advocated for low-income families on issues such as predatory lending and public education.

The Huffington Post reports:

The House GOP quietly blocked funding for ACORN last week, even though the anti-poverty organization has long since been both defunded and disbanded.

The legislative assault on ACORN, which shut down in 2010, was included in a Department of Defense appropriations bill that cleared the House on Thursday…Section 8097 of the bill reads, “None of the funds made available under this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries.”

…

The House GOP votes to defund ACORN all the time. Nearly every bill that clears the House Appropriations Committee includes a section barring the use of funds for ACORN, although the specific language varies among different bills.

ACORN, which was dissolved in 2010, could not be reached for comment.

After the 2012 presidential election, Public Policy Polling found that 49 percent of Republicans believed that ACORN had stolen the election for Barack Obama, a drop from 52 percent who believed ACORN had stolen the 2008 election for Obama. “This is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn’t exist anymore,” PPP determined. Nearly eight months after that poll was released, ACORN still does not exist.

Continue at source: 

House Republicans Defund the Nonexistent ACORN, Yet Again

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on House Republicans Defund the Nonexistent ACORN, Yet Again

Can NSA Analysts Listen to Your Phone Calls?

by Eliza Kurth Posted on June 16, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Declan McCullagh at CNET draws our attention today to testimony from FBI director Robert Mueller at a House Judiciary hearing on Thursday:

Mueller initially sought to downplay concerns about NSA surveillance by claiming that, to listen to a phone call, the government would need to seek “a special, a particularized order from the FISA court directed at that particular phone of that particular individual.”

Is information about that procedure “classified in any way?” Nadler asked.

“I don’t think so,” Mueller replied. “Then I can say the following,” Nadler said. “We heard precisely the opposite at the briefing the other day. We heard precisely that you could get the specific information from that telephone simply based on an analyst deciding that…In other words, what you just said is incorrect. So there’s a conflict.”

Nadler was unavailable for comment, and this is apparently the sum total of the information we have. It’s not clear precisely what “information from that telephone” means, or whether this applies to all calls or only to non-U.S. calls. It’s also possible that Nadler was confusing the ability of an analyst to get subscriber information for a phone number with the ability to listen to the call itself. Another possibility is that this applies only to phone content that’s already been acquired by warrant and is currently in NSA’s database. Or perhaps it applies to real-time wiretapping, but only if an analyst concludes that the target is a non-U.S. person already covered by a “programmatic” (i.e., broad-based) Section 702 warrant.

Alternatively, it could be that NSA analysts have the ability to listen in on phone calls on their own say so. We won’t know for sure until Nadler or someone else clears this up. Stay tuned.

NOTE: For more, check out Julian Sanchez’s Twitter feed, which provided much of the background for this post.

UPDATE: Sanchez now has a more detailed blog post about all this. It’s worth a read.

Visit source:

Can NSA Analysts Listen to Your Phone Calls?

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Can NSA Analysts Listen to Your Phone Calls?

Boulder and other Colorado cities try to fight fracking

by Eliza Kurth Posted on June 10, 2013

Boulder and other Colorado cities try to fight fracking

By John Upton

Shutterstock

Boulder tells frackers to piss off — for the next year, at least.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) loves fracking — he once even drank fracking fluid to prove it — but other elected officials in the state are not so gung ho. A handful of Colorado cities are trying to limit or ban the practice — and are finding that it’s not so easy to do.

Boulder is the latest Colorado municipality to take on the frackers. Last week, its city council unanimously passed a one-year moratorium on fracking within city limits and on city-owned open space, and council members are considering options for a more long-term policy. From the Boulder Daily Camera:

Several council members … said they are warm to the idea of bringing forward a ballot measure in November to approve a longer-term ban — a process that would involve study sessions and public hearings in coming months. …

Several residents asked the City Council to go further by approving a longer fracking moratorium, an all-out ban or turning the issue over to voters. …

[But a]n analysis by Boulder City Attorney Tom Carr determined a one-year moratorium was the safest option because it addresses public health and safety concerns while protecting the city against potential lawsuits.

Boulder is right to be worried about lawsuits. The city of Longmont, Colo., where voters passed a fracking ban in November, has been sued by both the state government and the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. The industry argues that the fracking ban constitutes an illegal “taking” of mineral property and that only the state has the authority to regulate such practices.

Fear of lawsuits prompted the Fort Collins City Council last month to ease its recent ban on fracking. Prospect Energy, which had been fracking within city limits before the council passed the ban in March, will be allowed to resume its operations. From a May 22 article in the Fort Collins Coloradoan:

Mayor pro tem Gerry Horak said the council had little choice on the matter.

To continue the ban on Prospect Energy would invite a lawsuit the city would have little chance of winning, he said.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association is taking the lead in fighting frack-averse cities. You might recall that this association tried to convince Fort Collins to shy away from a fracking ban by providing the city council with a petition full of fake signatures. The Coloradoan now brings us the news that the city’s police department is investigating whether any crimes were committed in producing that seemingly bogus petition.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

View this article – 

Boulder and other Colorado cities try to fight fracking

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Boulder and other Colorado cities try to fight fracking

How Solar Power Can Benefit Your Property

by Eliza Kurth Posted on May 12, 2013

How do you make use of the sun? Do you let it wake you within the morning? Or do you take pleasure in lying out in it on a summer’s day? Do you use it to power your house or small business? If not, today may be the day to have began to use solar energy for homes, so keep reading to discover more.

If you are looking into purchasing a solar panel energy system be sure that any one that you consider has been certified independently. If it has not, then there really is no guarantee that it will work as well as the company says that it does. Additionally, you may not get the tax cuts or grants that you deserve because of it.

If you are creating your own solar panel systems, anticipate to build multiple arrays for the highest-efficiency. A solar panel can only create a specific level of energy–usually a fairly low number–which means that you may need greater than 1 panel. Many panels inside the suitable spots is really a recipe for achievement.

Do not assume that you simply need to reside inside the desert to utilize solar panels on your roof. In case your roof expanse gets a minimum of 5 hours of direct sunlight on an typical day, there’s probably a solar panel installation which can produce electrical energy for the home or constructing.

Make sure to watch the light on your solar panel inverter often. Verify it no less than a couple of occasions per week, while sunlight is hitting your panels. The light must be green. If it is not, your panels may not be functioning appropriately, and it really is time to call in a technician.

If you are considering installing a solar panel system, it is important that the panel faces in the sun’s direction. Although this seems obvious, you would be surprised how many people forget this step. If your panel does not have sun, it won’t power up. If you live in the Northern hemisphere, your panel should face South towards the horizon.

Purchasing a small scale solar panel device is greater than not owning one particular at all. For a lot of people today, it can be far as well high-priced to install a device that would charge their entire residence, but starting small is far better than not putting in something. There are plenty of options available in relation to size, so verify them out.

In case you are organizing on meeting with a consultant to install a solar panel system, you will need to make sure you’re ready. Have a list of all electrical appliances as well as their wattage and also the number of hours you use them on hand. Any very good consultant will ought to know this info just before a solar panel might be installed.

Diligently calculate the dollar/watts ratio of any solar panel before producing the final purchase. Technologies is moving rapidly and also you must judge your decision determined by the requirements in the present marketplace. The panels that give extra wattage will be the panels that ordinarily price additional, but a high-wattage yesterday might not be as substantial today.

Now that you just understand how to use solar power in your personal life, you’ll need to obtain began. Take these guidelines and start out placing them into action. The sooner you do, the sooner you are going to be saving revenue on power bills even though helping to help keep the Earth a location where absolutely everyone can reside. Do not forget to look for solar charging review on the internet to help you make the correct selection of acquiring solar panels where everyone can live.

Check out solar power for homefor more information to help you make better decisions before you choose your solar panel brand. You can also get more information about the latest released top 10 best solar panels review 2013 at Instapark Solar Panel.

Posted in solar panels | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How Solar Power Can Benefit Your Property