August 30, 2012

FYI, Michelle Obama is appearing on Letterman tonight!

You can tell that he really likes her and they always seem to have a good time. Here's a preview:

http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/michelle-obama-on-david-letterman-video/

August 23, 2012

Sensata workers protest at Romney campaign event in Bettendorf, Iowa

Workers facing outsourcing by Bain Capital at the Sensata Technologies plant in Freeport, Ill., and supportive community members protested Aug. 22 outside presumptive Republican nominee for president Mitt Romney’s campaign event at a manufacturing facility in Bettendorf, Iowa.

Inside the event, workers raised a banner urging Romney, the former Bain CEO, to help save their jobs and asked him directly whether he would intervene to stop their jobs from being outsourced. Romney didn’t respond — making this the second time he has ignored questions about Sensata at campaign events.

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Aug. 13, Romney’s campaign staff called the police on Sensata workers trying to deliver their letter at the campaign’s headquarters in Madison, Wis.

Meanwhile, public support for the workers’ campaign continues to grow. In July, the Freeport City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on Romney to come meet the workers and use his influence at Bain to intervene on their behalf. Aug. 21, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., joined the workers to deliver a petition with more than 35,000 signatures to Bain’s offices in Evanston, Ill.


http://rockrivertimes.com/2012/08/22/sensata-workers-protest-at-romney-campaign-event-in-bettendorf-iowa/

August 12, 2012

Meet Paul Ryan: Climate Denier, Conspiracy Theorist, Koch Acolyte

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential pick, is a virulent denier of climate science, with a voting record to match.

A favorite of the Koch brothers, Ryan has accused scientists of engaging in conspiracy to “intentionally mislead the public on the issue of climate change.” He has implied that snow invalidates global warming.

Ryan has voted to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from limiting greenhouse pollution, to eliminate White House climate advisers, to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture from preparing for climate disasters like the drought devastating his home state, and to eliminate the Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E):

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Paul Ryan Argued Snow Invalidates Global Warming Policy. In the same anti-science, anti-scientist December 2009 op-ed, Ryan argued, “Unilateral economic restraint in the name of fighting global warming has been a tough sell in our communities, where much of the state is buried under snow.” Ryan’s line is especially disingenuous because he hasn’t been trying to sell climate action, he’s been spreading disinformation. [Paul Ryan, 12/11/09]


http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/11/677051/meet-paul-ryan-climate-denier-conspiracy-theorist-koch-acolyte/

August 12, 2012

Drought crop damage worsens, ethanol waiver urged

(Reuters) - The worst drought in more than 50 years has caused more damage than expected to corn and soybean crops, the government said on Friday, heightening calls for a suspension of ethanol quotas to head off another global food crisis.

While benchmark corn and wheat futures closed lower in Chicago, experts say food prices appear set to keep rising after a 6 percent jump last month, escalating a food-versus-fuel debate centered on a law that dictates that about 40 percent of the corn crop must be converted into ethanol.

Hours after the Department of Agriculture said the corn yield would likely fall to its lowest since 1995, worse than forecast, the governors of two poultry-producing states asked the Obama administration to waive the ethanol requirement, the first formal request for relief.

Pressure is also building internationally, as poorer countries bear a larger burden of rising food costs. The top United Nations food official, José Graziano da Silva, wrote in the Financial Times that an "immediate, temporary suspension" of the mandate could help head off another world food crisis.


http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/10/us-drought-idINBRE8781E320120810

August 3, 2012

The Exxon Valdez’s Eco-Friendly Afterlife

At some point before the weekend, the ship once known as the Exxon Valdez will come to its final resting place on an oil-stained beach in Alang, India, where it’ll be recycled in the world’s largest and most notorious shipbreaking yard.

Environmentalists inside and outside of India are outraged. The Valdez -- now renamed (I am not making this up) the Oriental Nicety -- like almost all ships scrapped in India, is filled with hazardous substances including asbestos and PCB-laden oils. Under Indian law and international treaties to which India is party, that should render it illegal to import. And yet, not only is it being imported, it’s one of hundreds of ships that are brought into Alang every year for recycling. Despite an order from the Indian Supreme Court on this week requiring that the Valdez be the last such ship imported into India, nobody -- except, perhaps, anti-shipbreaking activists outside of India -- believes that’s going to happen.

The reason is simple: India’s growing economy requires growing volumes of steel, and shipbreaking is one of the easiest, cheapest and arguably greenest means of getting it. Depending on economic conditions, shipbreaking supplies India with 8 percent of its annual steel supply. It has become such a key part of India’s steel industry that India’s steel prices are known to move on the basis of just how many ships are being dismantled on Alang’s beaches. Environmental crackdowns drive the price up; a slow shipping season usually means bankrupt shipping companies, more ships to break, and falling prices.

The Oriental Nicety, which spilled millions of gallons of oil into Alaskan waters in 1989, is the kind of ship that Alang loves. It’s big, with large empty spaces in which laborers can work, cutting it apart. The Indian press reports that the ship was purchased for US$16 million (a rumor very much in line with current market prices), with the purchaser assuming, via industry standard, that at least 70 percent of the 200,000-plus metric tons of ship would be steel. By those numbers, a rough back of the envelope calculation suggests a purchase price of around US$115 per ton.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-02/the-exxon-valdez-s-eco-friendly-afterlife.html