Author Archives: publik23

Happy Birthday to Me

by publik23 Posted on October 19, 2013

Mother Jones

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Happy birthday to me! I’m 55. I think this post just about sums things up.

Yesterday the Cardinals ruined my pre-birthday festivities. I hope the Irish are a little more accommodating today.

UPDATE: Oh, and happy birthday to Jim Henley and Grover Norquist and Amy Carter too. And especially to Michael Steele, who is also 55 today.

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Happy Birthday to Me

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In wake of Colorado floods, officials start counting oil and gas spills

by publik23 Posted on September 20, 2013

In wake of Colorado floods, officials start counting oil and gas spills

By

Lauryn McDowell

What’s in the water?

As floodwaters recede following epic storms that hit the region around Boulder, Colo., a week ago, officials are trying to get a grasp on the extent of oil and gas pollution triggered by the deluge.

Oil spills and washed-out chemical tanks only add to the devastation of the unseasonable drenching, which killed 10 people. Another 200 are still unaccounted for, though that number is falling as phone and internet services come back online.

Nearly 1,900 oil and gas wells were shut down ahead of or amid the flooding, but that wasn’t enough to prevent contamination. On Friday, the state’s oil agency said [PDF] it was “tracking five notable releases” of oil and gas and “11 locations with visible evidence of a release, such as a sheen.” It also reported “as many as two dozen tanks overturned.”

More from the BBC:

Officials from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) said they were trying to assess the damage from oil and gas spills in the north-central area of the state. …

Some 125 oil barrels (5,250 US gal) spilled from a tank south of the town of Milliken and another Anadarko storage tank near the St Vrain river released 323 barrels.

“In both cases, it appears the oil left the site in floodwaters,” COGCC said in a statement, despite Anadarko’s attempt to deploy absorbent booms around the tank near Milliken.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) described the spills a “major public health issue” and told BBC that “the industry, at a minimum, must disclose all chemicals that may be contaminating soil and groundwater.”

The Denver Post reports that nobody yet knows the extent of the pollution:

State inspectors … have fanned along the river to assess environmental damage from toppled oil and gas facilities after the floods.

The flood that began late last week toppled dozens of oil and gas storage tanks and swamped other production facilities at sites in the flood plain. Earlier this week, oil drums, some empty, some full, could be seen floating in the river as far east as Kersey.

What effect will all this have on the state’s fracking industry? It’s telling that some of the wells that were shut down for the floods are already being reopened.

“There’s been massive amounts of growth [in oil and gas drilling in Colorado] in the last two years and it’s certainly expected to continue,” Caitlyn McCrimmon, a senior research associate for Calgary-based energy consultant ITG Investment Research, told the AP. “The only real impediment to growth in this area would be if this gives enough ammunition to environmentalists to rally support for fracking bans, which they had started working on before this.”

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: Business & Technology

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In wake of Colorado floods, officials start counting oil and gas spills

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80% of Antibiotics in the U.S. Go to Factory Farms

by publik23 Posted on August 7, 2013

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80% of Antibiotics in the U.S. Go to Factory Farms

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"Green Billionaire" Launches Big-Money Blitz Against Virginia GOPer

by publik23 Posted on August 5, 2013

Mother Jones

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Tom Steyer, the former hedge fund manager turned climate activist and big-spending political player, already has one notch in his belt, helping elect Massachusetts’ Ed Markey to the US Senate earlier this year. Now he’s aiming for notch No. 2: pummeling Republican Ken Cuccinelli and electing Cuccinelli’s opponent, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Virginia’s next governor.

Politico reports that Steyer’s super-PAC, NextGen Climate Action, will run its first wave of TV ads in Virginia this week. NextGen and its consultants are also laying the groundwork for a statewide get-out-the-vote effort this fall targeting Virginians who care about the climate. GOTV efforts are especially important in this year’s Virginia gubernatorial race because it is an off-year election and the year after a presidential race. Voters are following politics less closely, and turnout is expected to be low.

That Steyer would choose the Cuccinelli-McAuliffe race as his next target is no surprise. Cuccinelli, who is currently the state attorney general, is one of the loudest members of the GOP’s chorus of climate change deniers. He has frequently attacked the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to curb greenhouse gases, and he led a witch hunt into the research of prominent climate scientist Michael Mann, a professor at Penn State University.

If Steyer’s goal is to use his wealth and today’s lax campaign finance rules to force candidates to discuss climate change and to oust those candidates who don’t take it seriously, then attacking Cuccinelli is a no-brainer. “I would say there’s a very clear choice on this topic between these two candidates, and I think the citizens of Virginia deserve to understand both what the truth is and what the implications of that are,” Steyer told Politico.

Here’s more on Steyer’s big Virginia blitz:

While Steyer’s first overt move in Virginia comes in the form of paid television advertising, he told Politico repeatedly that he views get-out-the-vote efforts as a better overall investment, along with digital advertising and other, less-traditional independent expenditure methods.

“Our going-in assumption is that the bulk of what we’re doing is field—is enabling the citizens to literally speak to each other,” Steyer said. Referring to the Prop. 39 fight, he explained: “Our sense in California was that technology enabled a lot of viewers to just skip our ads.”

He added on a wry note: “The other thing that’s true, as I’m sure you know, is the traditional way for consultants to get paid is through a percentage of the TV buy…So it’s like you say, you know, ‘There’s a flood in Afghanistan.’ And they’ll say, ‘We need a bigger TV buy.'”

The billionaire freely acknowledged that he was a newcomer to Virginia, but in a whirlwind tour of Richmond last week, he introduced himself to a number of prominent figures in the state political and clean-energy communities.

Steyer met in Virginia’s capital city Thursday with a collection of climate activists and another group of about 20 energy executives. One of those executives—Mike Healy of Skyline Innovations, who invited Steyer to Richmond in the first place—delivered a letter signed by several colleagues asking that Steyer use his financial firepower in the governor’s race.

The consensus in that meeting, Steyer said, was that the advanced-energy sector could pack a much bigger punch in state politics if it were better organized politically and more deliberate about pushing the message that green policies can translate into jobs. (And, it goes without saying, if a deep-pocketed out-of-state figure would be willing to deliver a nuclear-level strike against a politician like Cuccinelli.)

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"Green Billionaire" Launches Big-Money Blitz Against Virginia GOPer

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Yes, Liberals Rule the Ivory Tower—But Why?

by publik23 Posted on April 20, 2013

Mother Jones

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This winter, The New Yorker‘s Jane Mayer dug up a 2010 speech by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a Tea Party favorite, where he charged that during his days at Harvard Law School, the faculty included twelve Marxists “who believed in the Communists overthrowing the United States government.” While Mayer easily dismantled Cruz’s facts, he was just giving voice to the same basic charge of academic bias leveled by William F. Buckley in his classic 1951 book, God and Man at Yale, one widely shared on the political right.

There, academia is viewed as a liberal bastion. Furthermore, it is seen as a place of deep ideological bias against conservatives and even, as Cruz’s words suggest, of outright radicalism. Finally, it is seen as a brainwashing mill, intent on wiping away Little Johnny’s religion and values, and turning him into, gasp, a liberal.

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Yes, Liberals Rule the Ivory Tower—But Why?

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New Conservative Pet Rock is Born, Dies Before Any of You Even Got a Chance to Hear About It

by publik23 Posted on April 17, 2013

Mother Jones

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At 2 pm on Sunday I was over at a friend’s house playing Settlers of Catan, a game I first of heard at 2 pm on Sunday. This obviously says something about my gaming acumen (Wikipedia informs me that 15 million copies have been sold since 1995), but at least I still have my political acumen, right?

Not so fast. About halfway through the game, another friend’s iPhone alerted him to some breaking news: Democrats were blocking a resolution to honor Margaret Thatcher. “Idiots,” he muttered, and I couldn’t object. I’d never heard of this, even though I usually try to keep up with conservative pet rocks. We eventually joked that there must have been some fine print in the resolution (“…an inspiration to us all. Oh, and Obamacare is hereby repealed.”) and continued playing. I lost.

Still, I kept wondering what was up with the Thatcher resolution. Politicians of all parties can be petty, but this really didn’t sound like something Democrats would bother with. Today, I finally learned what was going on. It’s a Senate thing (the House has already passed a resolution), and apparently it started making the rounds in conservative circles last Wednesday when a Heritage Foundation blog reported that “Democrats have a hold on the resolution.” But The Hill reports today that it was all the result of a phrasing dispute between Mitch McConnell for Team R and Bob Menendez for Team D:

According to Democratic aides, the two senators were working together on language late last week, when Menendez made suggestions about a proposal from McConnell. These aides say Menendez was looking to remove language that could have been seen as “swipes” against other countries, and proposed those changes to McConnell.

….By late last week, there were reports that Menendez was “blocking” McConnell’s resolution….But Democratic aides say they are not aware of any formal attempt to bring McConnell’s language to the Senate floor, and that they thought they were still engaged in an effort to negotiate a final resolution. They also said they never heard back from McConnell’s office about their suggested changes, and were “surprised” to read accounts that Menendez was blocking the resolution formally.

….As a result of the dispute, Democratic aides said that at least for now, Menendez is no longer working with McConnell on a resolution. Instead, Menendez introduced his own proposal on Tuesday, one that is longer than a resolution the House approved last week. While it does not mention the Falkland Islands dispute or nuclear weapons in Europe, Menendez’s resolution does say that Thatcher “stood shoulder to shoulder with United States leaders against the Soviet Union and the threats posed by communism.”

….GOP aides said that as of Tuesday, McConnell was expected to continue pressing for a vote on his proposal. That proposal does mention the Falklands Islands and U.S. weapons in Europe, while Menendez’s resolution is silent on those issues. As of Tuesday, it was unclear which proposal, if any, would get a vote, or whether Senate leaders would look to find some compromise. The Menendez spokesperson said Menendez would not block McConnell’s resolution if it came up now.

So I was right the first time: politicians of all parties can be petty. But only a truly in-depth investigation of this incident will reveal just which politicians are being the most petty.

As for the resolution itself, the Senate passed McConnell’s version late today by unanimous consent. But I have no doubt that it will become a permanent part of conservative legend that Democrats once tried to block a resolution honoring Margaret Thatcher after she died. A hundred email chains and a thousand fundraising pitches will bloom because of this.

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New Conservative Pet Rock is Born, Dies Before Any of You Even Got a Chance to Hear About It

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New Hampshire House Votes to Repeal Stand Your Ground

by publik23 Posted on March 28, 2013

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By a slim five-vote margin, New Hampshire’s House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill to repeal the state’s Stand Your Ground law, the controversial self-defense statute that essentially allows anyone who feels threatened by someone else to shoot first rather than retreat.

No one in New Hampshire has claimed Stand Your Ground as a legal defense since the law was enacted in 2011. The proposed repeal will likely face an even tougher fight in the state’s Republican-controlled senate.

Florida became the first state to adopt Stand Your Ground in 2005. By 2011, with a boost from the National Rifle Association and the American Legislative Exchange Council, 24 more states, including New Hampshire, had passed similar laws.

Meanwhile, study after study shows SYG laws don’t deter crime and are associated with more murder and manslaughter. Between 2005 and 2010, justifiable homicides by civilians using firearms doubled in Stand Your Ground states, while falling or remaining the same in others. And they’re not applied equally to white and black shooters, as MoJo‘s Hannah Levintova pointed out: “homicides involving white shooters and black victims are 11 times more likely to be deemed ‘justifiable” than those where the scenario is reversed.”

The interactive map below shows how Florida kicked off a campaign to spread Stand Your Ground nationwide.

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New Hampshire House Votes to Repeal Stand Your Ground

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Arizona One Step Closer to Using Gold Bullion as Currency

by publik23 Posted on March 20, 2013

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On Monday, an Arizona House of Representatives committee took its most serious step yet to prevent the state from descending into a post-apocalyptic Thunderdome—it passed legislation too allow gold and silver bullion to be used in private transactions and tax payments. Per Bloomberg Businessweek:

These doomsayers are pushing forward legislation that would declare privately minted gold and silver coins legal tender, no different under state law than the U.S. dollar printed by the federal Department of Treasury.

The measure is Arizona’s latest jab at the federal government, which prohibits states from minting their own money. It also reflects a growing distrust of government-backed money.

“The public sees the value in it,” said Republican Rep. Steve Smith, of Maricopa. “This is the type of currency we have had over the history of mankind.”

As I explained back in 2011, there has been a renewed push by state legislators, motivated by former Rep. Ron Paul’s candidacy, to return their states to so-called “sound money” systems. Currently, Utah is the only state that has passed such a bill—but without a system for storing and transferring gold, it hasn’t really gotten off the ground.

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Arizona One Step Closer to Using Gold Bullion as Currency

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9 CPAC Events We Initially Thought Were Parodies

by publik23 Posted on March 14, 2013

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Once a year, conservatives from across the country gather in some manner of subterranean hotel ballroom or windowless conference center to talk about what matters most to them and why. It’s called the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, and it’s usually a complete and utter zoo; Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz will be there, along with Rep. Paul Ryan and his former running-mate, Mitt Romney.

But CPAC isn’t just a showcase for the party’s brightest stars and biggest ideas; it also offers a close-up view of the underbelly of the conservative movement—the hacks and hucksters that helped lead Republicans astray in November in the first place. (Last year I found a booth dedicated to exposing the secret alliance between George Soros and Fox News.) Here are some of the panels and speeches at this year’s conference that promise to entertain:

“Dick Morris, author and political commentator“: Morris lost his gig as a Fox News commentator, with cause, after predicting that Mitt Romney would win the presidential election in a landslide. He also projected that Republicans would pick up as many as 13 seats in the Senate, including races in New York and Oregon. (Quick, name last year’s Republican Senate candidate in Oregon!) Dave Weigel wasn’t the only person to dismiss Morris as a “con artist.” Naturally, he was slated to speak on Thursday morning.

“Benghazi and its aftermath: US Middle East and Southwest Asia policy,” moderated by John Solomon: It’s not entirely surprising that CPAC would devote an on-stage panel to what Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called “the worst tragedy since 9/11.” But Solomon is most famous—or infamous—for his work as a journalist, ably chronicled here by Mariah Blake.

Wayne Allyn Root as a featured speaker: Here, I’ll just quote from a 2012 article by the former Libertarian Party presidential nominee:

I am President Obama’s classmate at Columbia University, Class of ’83. I am also one of the most accurate Las Vegas oddsmakers and prognosticators. Accurate enough that I was awarded my own star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. And I smell something rotten in Denmark. Obama has a big skeleton in his closet. It’s his college records. Call it “gut instinct” but my gut is almost always right. Obama has a secret hidden at Columbia—and it’s a bad one that threatens to bring down his presidency. Gut instinct is how I’ve made my living for 29 years since graduating Columbia…

If anyone should have questions about Obama’s record at Columbia University, it’s me. We both graduated (according to Obama) Columbia University, Class of ’83. We were both (according to Obama) Pre-Law and Political Science majors. And I thought I knew most everyone at Columbia. I certainly thought I’d heard of all of my fellow Political Science majors. But not Obama (or as he was known then- Barry Soetoro). I never met him. Never saw him. Never even heard of him. And none of the classmates that I knew at Columbia have ever met him, saw him, or heard of him…

I can only think of one answer that would explain this mystery.

Here’s my gut belief: Obama got a leg up by being admitted to both Occidental and Columbia as a foreign exchange student. He was raised as a young boy in Indonesia. But did his mother ever change him back to a U.S. citizen? When he returned to live with his grandparents in Hawaii or as he neared college-age preparing to apply to schools, did he ever change his citizenship back? I’m betting not.

“Should we shoot all the consultants now?,” featuring Pat Caddell: Finally, a Democrat! Except it’s Caddell, a former Jimmy Carter pollster who now plays the part of the Good Democrat on Fox News. In the run-up to the 2012 election, he repeatedly argued that President Obama should remove himself from the presidential race and be replaced by Hillary Clinton. We don’t think Pat Caddell should be shot, but it’d be tough to find a consultant who offers worse advice.

“Stop THIS: Threats, Harassment, Intimidation, Slander, and Bullying from the Obama Administration,” with Ben Shapiro: In which the Breitbart.com reporter behind the “Friends of Hamas” smear accuses someone else of slander.

Screening of Hillary the Movie: This 2008 film is something of a historic artifact, given its central role in the 2009 Citizens United Supreme Court decision. It’s also totally nuts. Among other things, the movie alleges that the former First Lady murdered a cat.

“The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution,” featuring Bill Norton of the National Center for Constitutional Studies: Come find out how the Founding Fathers were descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel!

Donald Trump, chairman and president of the Trump Organization: Trump, whose birther crusade made him a (short-lived) front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2011, was last seen all-but-endorsing liberal activist Ashley Judd for Senate in Kentucky. His entire political existence appears aimed at trolling us all:

Mitt Romney: Congratulations!

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9 CPAC Events We Initially Thought Were Parodies

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We Have a New Pope

by publik23 Posted on March 13, 2013

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And the new pope is….

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, age 76, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who is now styled Pope Francis. A dark horse!

He was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001. The TV talking heads say he is, relatively speaking, a reformer, though I’m not sure what that means in real terms. I guess we’ll find out. And with that, I’m off to lunch.

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We Have a New Pope

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