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Books I'm Currently Reading
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Books Read for 2007
Books Read for 2006
Books Read for 2005
Books I Read in 2004
  • "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them" by Al Franken
  • "The Rumsfeld Way: The Leadership Wisdom of a Battle-Hardened Maverick" by Jeffrey A. Krames
  • "Bushwacked" by Molly Ivins
  • "Crimes against Nature: How George W. Bush and his Corporate Pals are Plundering the Country and Hijacking our Democracy" by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
  • "In Denali's Shadow" by Jon Waterman
  • "The Open Space of Democracy" by Terry Tempest Williams
  • "Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century" by Bev Harris
  • "The Official Report of the 9-11 Commission"
  • "The Age of Sacred Terror" by Benjamin Nelson
  • "An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood" by Jimmy Carter
  • "Desire and Ice: Searching for Perspective atop Denali" by David Brill
  • "The Trouble with Islam" by Irshad Manji
  • "Against all Enemies" by Richard Clarke
  • "Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle" by Moritz Thomsen
  • "A Season on the Mat: Dan Gable and the Pursuit of Perfection" by Nolan Zavoral
  • "Islam Unveiled" by Robert Spencer
  • "Who Killed Daniel Pearl?" by Henri Levy
  • ""So long, see you tomorrow" by William Maxwell
  • "The Iron Road: A Stand for Truth and Democracy in Burma" by James Mawdsley
  • "Crazy Horse" by Larry McMurtry
  • "My Invented Country: a Memoir" by Isabel Allende
  • "National and Joint Force Planning" Air Command and Staff College
  • "The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World" by John Robbins
  • "Vagabonding" by Rolf Potts
  • "The Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World" by Jan Goodwin
  • "Modern Mongolia: a Concise History" by Tsedenambyn BatBayer
  • "Me Against my Brother: at war in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda" by Scott Peterson
  • Books I Read in 2003

  • "Teach Yourself Korean"
  • "Homelands: Kayaking the Inside Passage" by Byron Ricks
  • "Living History" by Hillary Clinton
  • "Looking for Mr. Kurtz: Living on the brink in Mobutu's Congo" by Michela Wrong
  • "Bucking the Sun" by Ivan Doig
  • "A Problem from Hell: America in the age of Genocide" by Samantha Power
  • "Spirit of the Mountains: Korea's San-Shin" by David Mason
  • "Women of Mongolia" by Martha Avery
  • "No Gun Ri: A Military History" by Robert Bateman
  • "We Wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch
  • "Thin Air" by Greg Child
  • "The Gate" by Francois Bizot
  • "Gobi: Tracking the Desert" by John Man
  • "War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet" by Eric Margolis
  • "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power" by Daniel Yergin
  • "The Koreans" by Michael Breen
  • "See no Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism" by Robert Baer
  • "The River's Tale: a Year on the Mekong" by Edward A. Gargan
  • "Reading the Korean Cultural Landscape" by Je-Hun Ryu
  • "Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag" by Kang Chol Hwan
  • "Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos" by Robert Kaplan
  • "Burying Mao" by Richard Baum
  • "The New Emperors: Deng and Mao" by Harrison Salisbury
  • "Soul Mountain" by Xingjian Gao
  • Books Read in 2002

  • "The Bridge at No Gun Ri" by Charles Hanley, Sang Hun Choe, Martha Mendoza
  • "Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader" by Dai-Sook Suh
  • "Black Tea and Yak Butter: a Journey into Forbidden China" by Wade Blackenbury
  • "My Dark Places" by James Ellroy
  • "Metaplanetary" by Tony Daniel
  • "Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment" by Richard Bernstein
  • "Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam" by Andrew Pham
  • "Deadly Feasts: Tracking The Secrets Of A Terrifying New Plague" by Richard Rhodes
  • "Koreas's Place in the Sun" by Bruce Cummings
  • "On Writing" by Stephen King
  • "Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia" by Greg Child
  • "The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History" by Dan Oberdorfer
  • "What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East" Bernard Lewis
  • "A Newer World: Kit Carson John C Fremont And The Claiming Of The American West" by David Roberts
  • "The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology " by Simon Winchester
  • "By any means Necessary: America's Secret Air War in the Cold War" William E. Burrows
  • "Hotel Honolulu" by Paul Theroux
  • "Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus" by David Kaplan
  • "Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War " by Mark Bowden
  • Books Read in 2001

  • "The War Against America: Saddam Hussein and the World Trade Center Attacks: A Study in Revenge" by Laura Mylroie
  • "The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910" by Peter Duus
  • "Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden " by Peter I. Bergen
  • "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America" by Yossef Bodansky
  • "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia" by Ahmed Rashid
  • "John Adams" by David McCullough
  • "The Cold 6,000" by James Ellroy
  • "American Tabloid" by James Ellroy
  • "Compass Points: How I Lived" by Edward Hoagland
  • "The Girl who loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King
  • "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser
  • "The Loop" by Nicholas Evans
  • "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx
  • "Return to Mars" by Ben Bova
  • "A Case of Rape" by Chester B. Himes
  • "Darwin's Radio" by Greg Bear
  • "My Secret History" by Paul Theroux
  • Books Read in 2000

  • "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild
  • "North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic " by Alvah Simon
  • "Love thy Neighbor: A Story of War" by Peter Maas
  • "Flash 4"
  • "Mawson's Will: The Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written" by Edmund Sir Hillary
  • "The Age of Spiritual Machines" by Ray Kurzweil
  • "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond
  • "Parachutes and Kisses" by Erica Jong
  • "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham
  • "Passage to Juneau : A Sea and Its Meanings" by Jonathan Raban
  • "Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
  • "Trespassing" by John Hanson Mitchell
  • "Sacred Land, Sacred View"
  • "Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson
  • "Plainsong" by Kent Haruf
  • "On the Rez" by Ian Frazier
  • "River Horse" by William Least Heat-Moon
  • "Why They Kill" by Richard Rhodes
  • "Fire on the Mountain" by John McLean
  • "Travel in a Stone Canoe" by Harvey Arden and Steve Wall
  • "Sir Vidia's Shadow" by Paul Theroux
  • "Moments of Doubt" by David Roberts
  • "The Lost Explorer" by David Roberts and Conrad Anker
  • "Last Days" by John Roskelly
  • "History of the English" by Paul Johnson
  • "The Life of Thomas More" by Peter Akyroyd
  • "The Songlines" by Bruce Chatwin
  • "In a Dark Wood" by Alston Chase
  • "Eiger Dreams" by John Krakauer
  • "Basin and Range" by John McPhee
  • "Geronimo" by Alexander B. Adams
  • "Operation Shylock" by Philip Roth
  • "In Suspect Terrain" by John McPhee
  • "Loon Magic"
  • "Centennial" by James Michener
  • "The Spanish Armada"
  • "Rising from the Plains" by John McPhee
  • "Assembling California" by John McPhee
  • "The First Immortal" by John Halperin
  • "The Eternal Frontier: an Ecological History of North America and its Peoples" by Tim Flannery
  • Books Read in 1999

  • "In Search of the Old Ones: Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest" by David Roberts
  • "Once They Moved Like The Wind : Cochise, Geronimo, And The Apache Wars" by David Roberts
  • "The Ends of the Earth : From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia, a Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy" by Robert Kaplan
  • "Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey
  • "Down the River" by Edward Abbey
  • "Abbey's Road" by Edward Abbey
  • "The Colorado Plateau"
  • "An Empire Wilderness : Travels into America's Future" by Robert Kaplan
  • "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry
  • "Streets of Laredo" by Larry McMurtry
  • "Widow for one Year" by John Irving
  • "The Ghost Writer" by Philip Roth
  • "Cold Oceans: Adventure in a Kayak, Rowboat , And Dogsled" by Jon Turk
  • "Zuckerman Unbound" by Philip Roth
  • "The Ninemile Wolves" by Rick Bass
  • "The Tracker" by Tom Brown, Jr.
  • "Cowboys and Cave Dwellers: Basketmaker Archaeology in Utah's Grand Gulch " by Fred Blackburn
  • "Dead Man Walking" by Larry McMurtry
  • "Killing Mister Watson" by Peter Matthiessen
  • "Gerald's Game" by Stephen King
  • "Lost Man's River" by Peter Matthiessen
  • "The New Wolves" by Rick Bass
  • "Winter: Notes from Montana" by Rick Bass
  • "Desert Notes" by Barry Lopez
  • "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell
  • "Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation"
  • "Bone by Bone"by Peter Matthiessen
  • "Black Lamb, Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (1941)" by Rebecca West
  • "The Serbs : History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia" by Tim Judah
  • "Turkey in Europe" by Charles Elliot
  • "The Croat Question" by Jill Irvine
  • "War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror, and the Struggle for Justice" by Aryeh Neier
  • "To End a War" by Richard Holbrooke
  • "Seasons in Hell: Slaughter and Betrayal in Bosnia" by Ed Vulianny
  • "Burn this House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia" by Jasminka Udowicki and James Ridgeway
  • "Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water" by Mark Reisner
  • "Martin Dressler" by Steven Millhauser
  • "End game: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, Europe's Worst Massacre Since World War II" by David Rohde
  • "Forging War: The media in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina" by Mark Thompson
  • "One for the Road" by Tony Horwitz"
  • "Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey" by V. S. Naipaul
  • Books Read in 1998 and before (coming as I find time to type them in)
  • Thursday, November 30, 2006

    50 marathons in 50 days

    Dean Karnazes web site: http://enduranceis.typepad.com/

    I'm flying to Indiana tomorrow to run my 42nd marathon state. The following weekend I'll be in Kentucky to run my 43rd... Both are trail marathons... I try to run trail marathons when at all possible these days... Easier recovery...

    Marine Life Leaped From Simple to Complex After Greatest Mass Extinction

    The greatest “great dying,” 251 million years ago, erased 95 percent of species in the oceans (and most vertebrates on land). But new research suggests that it was followed by an explosion of complexity in marine life, one that has persisted ever since.

    My only question is how does this match up with the great flood and a world only 6,000 years old?

    Monday, November 27, 2006

    Electrons to Enlightenment

    I've enjoyed listening on line to this series from "To the best of our Knowledge"

    Electrons to Enlightenment: A Five Part Series on Science and Religion.

    They talk of an interesting sounding documentary on Cosmic Africa that sounds like it would be worth a look.

    Sunday, November 26, 2006

    Iraq War Links for today

    Newsweek: Why the most Dangerous Man in Iraq, Moqtad Al-Sadr will decide our fate.

    Booman Tribune: Bobble Head Generals and Iraq Fallout.

    EPA IS HASTILY DISPOSING OF ITS LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

    Bushevics are scurrying to hide the evidence.

    Washington, DC — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is frantically dispersing its library collections to preempt Congressional intervention, according to internal emails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Contrary to promises by EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock that all of the former library materials will be made available electronically, vast troves of unique technical reports and analyses will remain indefinitely inaccessible.

    Saturday, November 25, 2006

    Iraq War Links for today

    Death Squads infiltrate Iraqi Police.

    Iraq: Handicapping the Baker Report, Part Two

    Maureen Dowd says: After the Thanksgiving Day Massacre of Shiites by Sunnis, President Bush should go on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and give an interview headlined: “If I did it, here’s how the civil war in Iraq happened.”

    The Last Throes of the Insurgency

    Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska (R) has this excellent piece: Leaving Iraq, Honorably.

    Friday, November 24, 2006

    Eric Schlosser in Sierra Club Magazine

    Cheap Food Nation

    Eric Schlosser: "Changing your eating habits can send ripples far and wide."

    WHENEVER A WELL-KNOWN ATHLETE gets caught using anabolic steroids to run faster, pedal harder, or hit a baseball farther, there's a universal chorus of disapproval. Most Americans regard steroid use in sports as an unhealthy form of cheating. Under federal law, all performance-enhancing synthetic hormones are class III controlled substances; obtaining them without a prescription is a felony. Steroid users may suffer from a wide variety of physical and mental ailments, some of them irreversible--and the long-term effects of the drugs are unknown.

    Meanwhile, for the past two decades, a number of the same steroids abused by athletes have been given to U.S. cattle on a massive scale. Without much publicity or government concern, growth hormones like testosterone are routinely administered to about 80 percent of the nation's feedlot cattle, accelerating their weight gain and making them profitable to slaughter at a younger age. The practice is legal in the United States but banned throughout the European Union, due to concerns about its effect on human health. A recent study by Danish scientists suggested that hormone residues in U.S. beef may be linked to high rates of breast and prostate cancer, as well as to early-onset puberty in girls. Hormone residues excreted in manure also wind up in rivers and streams. A 2003 study of male minnows downstream from one Nebraska feedlot found that many of them had unusually small testes. When female minnows in a laboratory were exposed to trenbolone--a synthetic hormone widely administered to cattle--they developed male sex organs.

    Dollar falls to 19 month low against Euro

    Watch for more of this in the near future. A budget deficit that has ballooned from $4T in 2000 to $9T today and a trade deficit of $800B/yr and climbing is the reason. Tax cuts for the top 1%, constant war, and a dim bulb prez contribute to our demise.

    Things that can't go on forever Don't!!

    Dollar falls to 19 month low.

    Global Warming and Peak Oil Links

    NASA's Dr. James Hansen speaks the truth on global warming despite the attempts of administration Luddites to suppress him.

    The Oil Drum: Europe: Analysis and Discussion of the European Energy Gap and Peak Oil

    The Oil Drum: Discussions about energy and our future.

    TheOilDrum.Com

     Posted by Picasa

    Thursday, November 23, 2006

    Navajos' desert cleanup no more than a mirage

    LA Times:

    Church Rock Mine, N.M. -- Most of the mining companies that drilled, dug and blasted for uranium on the Navajo reservation during the Cold War did nothing to repair the environmental damage they left behind. For a time, tribal leaders staked their hopes for a cleanup on Superfund, the landmark legislation that forces polluters to pay for remediation of toxic sites.

    More than 1,000 abandoned mines are scattered across the Navajo homeland, which covers 27,000 square miles in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.

    Backstory: The unvarnished Gore Vidal

    From the Christian Science Monitor:

    It was just an ordinary day in the journalistic trenches when I got the call. "Gore Vidal has a new book out ... would you like to interview him?" said the voice on the other end of the phone, a well-known Los Angeles publicist.

    "Isn't he the guy famous for saying, "It's not enough to succeed. Others must fail?" I asked.

    "That's the one," she said.

    "The one who said, 'I had never wanted to meet most of the people I had met, and the fact that I never got to know most of them took dedication and steadfastness on my part?"

    "That's him," she answered.

    "Sounds like a lovely opportunity," I said. "I'll take it."

    OK, it didn't happen quite that way. But like everyone - like some people, anyway - I thought I knew who Gore Vidal was, at least on the surface: literary lion, scold, verbal jester, and political screed writer. To double-check my memory, I went on Wikipedia (just to make sure the upstart website was up to snuff):

    Author of 25 novels, six plays, 200 essays, and several screenplays. Check. An early novel, "The City and the Pillar," and a later sexual farce, "Myra Breckinridge," credited with pushing the envelope of sexuality in modern literature. Check. Historical novels ranging from the Roman Empire ("Julian") to the birth of the American republic ("Burr") garnered wide respect among historians, and his "United States: Essays 1952-1992" won the 1993 National Book Award. Tried politics in the distant past. Check, check, and check.


    Wednesday, November 22, 2006

    Tomgram: Mark Danner, How a War of Unbound Fantasies Happened

    Tom Dispatch makes one of the longest pieces ever done in the New York Review of Books available on-line. The print version will come out in the December 21st edition. If you are interested in understanding how we blundered into the Iraq Quagmire, spend some time reading this excellent piece: Iraq the War of the Imagination.

    Missing Votes in FL-13 Favored Dems

    The group of nearly 18,000 voters that registered no choice in Sarasota's disputed congressional election solidly backed Democratic candidates in all five of Florida's statewide races, an Orlando Sentinel analysis of ballot data shows.

    Among these voters, even the weakest Democrat - agriculture commissioner candidate Eric Copeland - outpaced a much-better-known Republican incumbent by 551 votes.

    The trend, which continues up the ticket to the race for governor and US Senate, suggests that if votes were truly cast and lost - as Democrat Christine Jennings maintains - they were votes that likely cost her the congressional election.


    Tuesday, November 21, 2006

    Live forever

    Kurzweil: Computers Will Enable People To Live Forever

    Saturday, November 18, 2006

    John Muir: Conservationist

    The Scot who saved nature

    John Muir, 1838-1914

    The Scotsman

    Restore Hetchy Hetchy

    Clear Evidence 2006 Congressional Elections Hacked

    Clear Evidence 2006 Congressional Elections Hacked

    Results skewed nationwide in favor of Republicans by 4 percent, 3 million votes.

    A major undercount of Democratic votes and an overcount of Republican votes in US House and Senate races across the country is indicated by an analysis of national exit polling data, by the Election Defense Alliance (EDA), a national election integrity organization.

    These findings have led EDA to issue an urgent call for further investigation into the 2006 election results and a moratorium on deployment of all electronic election equipment.

    "We see evidence of pervasive fraud, but apparently calibrated to political conditions existing before recent developments shifted the political landscape," said attorney Jonathan Simon, co-founder of Election Defense Alliance, "so 'the fix' turned out not to be sufficient for the actual circumstances." Explained Simon, "When you set out to rig an election, you want to do just enough to win. The greater the shift from expectations, (from exit polling, pre-election polling, demographics) the greater the risk of exposure--of provoking investigation. What was plenty to win on October 1 fell short on November 7.


    Run, Al, Run

    From an interview of Al Gore in GQ via Suburban Guerilla:


    Q. Really? How about all the warnings?

    A. That’s a separate question. And it’s almost too easy to say, “I would have heeded the warnings.” In fact, I think I would have, I know I would have. We had several instances when the CIA’s alarm bells went off, and what we did when that happened was, we had emergency meetings and called everybody together and made sure that all systems were go and every agency was hitting on all cylinders, and we made them bring more information, and go into the second and third and fourth level of detail. And made suggestions on how we could respond in a more coordinated, more effective way. It is inconceivable to me that Bush would read a warning as stark and as clear [voice angry now] as the one he received on August 6th of 2001, and, according to some of the new histories, he turned to the briefer and said, “Well, you’ve covered your ass.” And never called a follow up meeting. Never made an inquiry. Never asked a single question. To this day, I don’t understand it. And, I think it’s fair to say that he personally does in fact bear a measure of blame for not doing his job at a time when we really needed him to do his job. And now the Woodward book has this episode that has been confirmed by the record that George Tenet, who was much abused by this administration, went over to the White House for the purpose of calling an emergency meeting and warning as clearly as possible about the extremely dangerous situation with Osama bin Laden, and was brushed off!

    And I don’t know why—honestly—I mean, I understand how horrible this Congressman Foley situation with the instant messaging is, okay? I understand that. But, why didn’t these kinds of things produce a similar outrage? And you know, I’m even reluctant to talk about it in these terms because it’s so easy for people to hear this or read this as sort of cheap political game-playing. I understand how it could sound that way. [Practically screaming now] But dammit, whatever happened to the concept of accountability for catastrophic failure? This administration has been by far the most incompetent, inept, and with more moral cowardice, and obsequiousness to their wealthy contributors, and obliviousness to the public interest of any administration in modern history, and probably in the entire history of the country!

    Blogged with Flock

    China’s Path to Modernity, Mirrored in a Troubled River - New York Times

    For centuries, the Yellow River symbolized the greatness and sorrows of China’s ancient civilization, as emperors equated controlling the river and taming its catastrophic floods with controlling China. Now, the river is a very different symbol — of the dire state of China’s limited resources at a time when the country’s soaring economic growth needs more of everything.

    “The Yellow River flows through all these densely populated parts of northern China,” said Liu Shiyin, a scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Without water in northern China, people can’t survive. And the economic development that has been going on cannot continue.”

    Blogged with Flock

    Friday, November 17, 2006

    Al Jazeera

    Al Jazeera English

    is now on the airwaves.

    Blogged with Flock

    Michael Hayden on Iraq

    The Director of the CIA offers a refreshingly candid view of the Civil War in Iraq:


    Violence in Iraq Called Increasingly Complex - washingtonpost.com

    Blogged with Flock

    Climate Controlled White House

    Daily Kos: Science Friday: Let The Games Begin

    With Democrats now in control of the House Science Committee and the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works the investigations into the White House abuse of climate change science can begin.


    Blogged with Flock

    Wednesday, November 15, 2006

    CIA Acknowledges Two Interrogation Memos: Papers Called Too Sensitive for Release

    After years of denials, the CIA has formally acknowledged the existence of two classified documents governing aggressive interrogation and detention policies for terrorism suspects, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

    But CIA lawyers say the documents - memos from President Bush and the Justice Department - are still so sensitive that no portion can be released to the public.

    The disclosures by the CIA general counsel's office came in a letter Friday to attorneys for the ACLU. The group had filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York two years ago under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking records related to U.S. interrogation and detention policies.

    CIA Admits to Memo From Bush on Interrogation Techniques

    Blogged with Flock

    Kucinich Calls for Cutting Off Iraq War Funds

    "I want to say that there's one solution here, and it's not to engage in a debate with the President, who has taken us down a path of disaster in Iraq, but it's for Congress to assume the full power that it has under the Constitution to cut off funds. We don't need to keep indulging in this debate about what to do, because as long as we keep temporizing, the situation gets worse in Iraq.

    "We have to determine that the time has come to cut off funds. There’s enough money in the pipeline to achieve the orderly withdrawal that Senator McGovern is talking about. But cut off funds, we must. That's the ultimate power of the Congress, the power of the purse. That's how we'll end this war, and that’s the only way we’re going to end this war.

    "We need to shift our direction."

    Dennis Kucinich

    Blogged with Flock

    Tuesday, November 14, 2006

    Senator Boxer plans Senate Hearings on Global Warming

    Automakers and manufacturers, beware: There's a new environmental policy boss in town, she scowls a lot, and two of her favorite phrases are "global warming" and "extensive hearings."

    McClatchy Washington Bureau | 11/14/2006 | Boxer plans Senate hearings on global warming

    Blogged with Flock

    Salt Lake City Embraces Green Building

    Private developers who tap Salt Lake City green must build green. City Council members Tuesday night unanimously adopted an ordinance requiring builders of commercial structures, apartments and condos to meet national environmental building standards if they are funded by city loans, grants or tax rebates. The ordinance also endorses Mayor Rocky Anderson's executive order mandating that municipal buildings - such as a new police and fire administration building, fire station, east-side police precinct and Sorenson Unity Center - also meet Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) standards. Anderson signed that LEED order in July 2005.

    Salt Lake Tribune - SLC embraces green building

    Blogged with Flock

    Monday, November 13, 2006

    High Country News: When a gas pipeline blows, you get out fast

    Not only is coal methane gas drilling devastating to the environment there is no accountability for the drillers when it comes to safety.

    Sunday, November 12, 2006

    Liberalism is the True Conservatism

    Daily Kos: Liberalism is the "True Conservatism"


    Washington Monthly: Why Conservatives Can't Govern


    Saturday, November 11, 2006

    Confessions of an Angry Hustler

    Ted Haggard's bitter boy toy tells all

    Blogged with Flock

    Global growth in carbon emissions is 'out of control'

    The growth in global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels over the past five years was four times greater than for the preceding 10 years, according to a study that exposes critical flaws in the attempts to avert damaging climate change.

    Data on carbon dioxide emissions shows that the global growth rate was 3.2 per cent in the five years to 2005 compared with 0.8 per cent from 1990 to 1999, despite efforts to reduce carbon pollution through the Kyoto agreement.

    Much of the increase is probably due to the expansion of the Chinese economy, which has relied heavily on burning coal and other fossil fuels for its energy.

    Independent Online Edition > Environment

    Neither intellect nor faith will save humanity

    The Scottish journalist Muriel Gray wrote a beautiful account Richard Dawkins' dialogue with Bishop Holloway in the Glasgow Herald:


    Holloway, as we all know, is the church leader who questioned his faith and found it wanting, and Dawkins of course is not simply world famous for his pioneering and award-winning scientific work, but also for his aggressive views concerning organised religion. A couple of audience members before the session began admitted they were worried that the two men might come to blows, or that a fundamentalist audience member might use the event to launch an offensive verbal attack on Dawkins. Instead the hour that seemed like five minutes was one filled with two startlingly intelligent men, each brimming with humanity, drawing personal pictures of just how awesome, mysterious and wonderful existence is. The sheer joy of hearing Holloway still trying to draw poetry and meaning from a religion he is not quite ready to dismiss completely out of hand, as Dawkins listened eagerly, trying to assist him without dismissing his desires as ignorant, was breath takingly inspiring. And all this was book-ended with Dawkins’s views on birthing universes, black holes, and the future of the human species when we start to form ourselves from silicone and alloys instead of vulnerable flesh. Now that’s what I call entertainment.

    Read the rest here:

    Neither intellect nor faith will save humanity - [Sunday Herald]

    Quebec is lightyears ahead of the USA

    Teach sex and evolution or close, Quebec evangelical schools told

    Friday, November 10, 2006

    Impeach Bush/Cheny

    ImpeachForChange

    For War Crimes. Send the criminals to jail where they belong.

    Rummy: Kung Fu Fighter



    Career opportunies for Donald.


     Click on the picture to enlarge. It's worth seeing in detail.

    Hat tip to Last Left Turn. Posted by Picasa

    Should Bush be Impeached?

    Not a "scientific poll" but 355,379 responses!!!!

    Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? * 355379 responses
    Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial.
    87%
    No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."
    4.4%
    No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just be a political lynching.
    6.6%
    I don't know.
    1.9%

    Live Vote: Should Bush be impeached? - Politics - MSNBC.com

    President Pelosi sounds real good to these military ears.

    Protests in Oaxaca, Mexico

     Protesters aid an injured cameraman who was shot during, and later died, when clashes erupted between unidentified gunmen and protesters who are demanding the resignation of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico on Friday Oct. 27, 2006. The journalist, who worked for an unidentified independent media organization, was shot in the abdomen and died later at a hospital, said a police official who was not authorized to give his name. The name and hometown of the journalist was not immediately available.(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

    Many more photos here. Posted by Picasa

    Self Portrait with Queens Quarry Scar and Garden of the Gods

      Posted by Picasa

    Pelosi's Hometown Disputes Liberal Image

    "They think we are tree-huggers and granola eaters," Mary Graves, 47, a self-described mainstream Democrat, said with a laugh. "I explain that I'm just tolerant and love diversity and having everyone get along and respect each other."


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    Richard Pombo is a rep no more

    A Requiem from Gristmill: "A Blogful of Leafy Green Commentary"
    Rep. Richard "Dick" Pombo is gone

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    Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman

    Transcript:

    War Crimes Suit Prepared Against Rumsfeld

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    A defense to-do list for the new Congress

    Joseph Galloway has a defense to-do list for the new Congress.

    For the Democrats who will soon take charge of the House of Representatives and perhaps the Senate, too, here's a preliminary laundry list of some of the things that need doing:

    -A comprehensive investigation of the pre-war intelligence on Iraq and how it was perverted, how the mine was salted, and by whom.

    -A thorough investigation of what pre-war advice was offered by senior American military commanders on troop strength, equipment requirements and strategy and tactics. Did even one general ignore the bullying from on high and ask for more troops, and how did Rumsfeld respond?

    -Why did the Pentagon send American troops into battle without enough armored vests, armored vehicles, rifles, ammunition, food and water? Who's responsible for that debacle, which cost so much in blood and money?

    -Where did our money go? Billions of dollars of taxpayer money disappeared down various rat holes in Iraq, forked over to contractors without even so much as a handwritten receipt. Who got the money? What did they do for it? This is a fertile field that can be drilled for years, with a steady stream of indictments, trials and prison sentences.

    -What about those no-bid Defense Department contracts that were parceled out to the Halliburtons and KBRs and Blackwaters in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other more costly weapons and equipment contracts that went to big defense industry conglomerates accustomed to writing very generous checks to the Republicans?

    -Why did an administration that was hell-bent on going to war, with the inevitable and terrible human casualties among our troops, consistently underfund the Veterans Administration, which is charged with caring for our wounded and disabled?

    -What's been the effect of the grotesque politicization of the selection and promotion system for senior military commanders by the office of the secretary of defense? What failures have resulted from that ill-conceived action? What responsibility do those generals and admirals chosen by Rumsfeld bear for the failure to prepare for and conduct effective action against an inevitable Iraqi insurgency?

    -Who at the top bears responsibility for the torture and mistreatment of prisoners and detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and the Guantanamo detention camp? A score of Pentagon investigations got to the bottom of the chain of command but declared that the top, in Rumsfeld's office and the White House, was innocent.

    -Who's responsible for breaking our understrength Army and Marine Corps with endless combat duty tours in Iraq and Afghanistan? Who refused all suggestions that the force was too small for the mission, and that 50,000 or 100,000 more men and women were needed in uniform? Who stubbornly refused even to consider the inevitable consequences of an Army so tied down trying to man these wars that it no longer could react to an emergency anywhere else in a dangerous world?

    Simply put, the jig is up. President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld have come to the end of their free ride. No longer can they act without thought or ignore the boundaries of the Constitution, the law and common sense.


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    My House from the Barr Trail

     I took this picture on this beautiful November morning while taking Sam the Wolfdog for a walk on the Barr Trail. Posted by Picasa

    Ed Bradley: Gone at 65

    Woody Creek - Every day that he was at his home here, CBS journalist Ed Bradley would drive his Porsche to the Woody Creek Store and pick up a copy of The New York Times.

    Bradley succumbed to leukemia Thursday at age 65 after battling the disease for several years. For nearly 30 years, he sought solace in the Colorado mountains as a break from his fast-paced life chasing the big story around the world.

    "Whenever I leave Woody Creek, before I go down to the airport, I always go down to the river and just sit for a minute or two, as long as I have, because it gives me sustenance to go back and do what I do," he told members of the Denver Press Club when he received its Damon Run yon award in 2003.

    DenverPost.com - Aspen mourns a friend

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    Books For Burma

    Books for Burma is a project to bring educational resources to the people who need them - refugees and exiled activists who for political and financial reasons are unable to obtain or continue their formal education.

    Free Suu Kyi.org

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    Wednesday, November 08, 2006

    The Rush Limbo

    How low can Limbaugh go?

    The Pretenders

     The president, vice president and secretary of defense, meanwhile, marched to their Maginot line to defend the fortifications of the "war president" and his war paradigm ("alternative interrogation techniques" ... "terrorist surveillance program" ... "terrorists win, America loses"). Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld behaved as though they were the latest in a straight line of descent from heroes past, inheritors of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill. Mythologizing themselves as they struggled to gain support for "victory," they sought to distract from catastrophe by casting deepening failure as inevitable success. Envious of the "Greatest Generation," they claimed its mantle. But elevating themselves into the latter-day versions of the leaders from World War II was delusional imitation as the highest form of self-flattery. Posted by Picasa

    Bill Maher outs Ken Mehlman on Larry King

    Hypocrisy runs deep in the Republican Party. "Hating yourself is the greatest love of all."

    onegoodmove: A Losers Lament

    Stephen Colbert and the Losers Lament. Pauvre, pauvre Repugs. Sniff.

    Tuesday, November 07, 2006

    Gore Vidal: ‘The Most Important Election in My Lifetime’

    On the eve of the publication of his new memoir, “Point to Point Navigation” (Doubleday), iconic author and historian Gore Vidal sat down to an exclusive video interview with Truthdig editor Robert Scheer and offered this plea to America regarding the Nov. 7 elections:

    “This is the most important vote that you’ll probably ever cast. Because should this gang of thugs continue in the two houses of Congress, there isn’t any chance of getting the ”Constitution back....

    Monday, November 06, 2006

    Prominent Male Hooker Forced To Step Down Amid Accusations Of Sex With Sleazy Evangelical Leader

    A prominent male hooker, Dirk Blackman, was forced to give up his position as the head of a large national prostitution ring when it was revealed that he had repeatedly had sex with sleazy evangelical leader Ted Haggard.

    ...

    At first Blackman denied that he had sex with that "theological conman," saying that Haggard had been sent to his Denver hotel room and that he had only gotten a quick sermon. Yesterday Blackman admitted that some of the charges were true, but denied that he had ever supported social security privatization.

    Today Blackman is entering the William F. Buckley Clinic for the Sexually Obsessed With Hypocritical Conservatives.

    Assimilated Press: Bush To Personally Execute Saddam Hussein

    In an extraordinary move that has no precedent in modern history, the White House announced today that President Bush would personally perform the execution of Saddam Hussein which will take place in a specially constructed execution chamber next to the Oval Office. The weapon of choice has yet to be finalized but the President is said to favor the use of a standard major league aluminum baseball bat. The President's aides had tried to convince him that a high caliber hand gun would be swifter and more humane but they were quickly overruled by White House political strategist Karl Rove who felt that the President's base would prefer a slower and more painful death for Hussein

    Sunday, November 05, 2006

    Bill Moyers | America 101

    Bill Moyers | America 101: Education is the key to making America great again.

    Lance runs the New York City Marathon

    The New York City Marathon: "Cycling champion Lance Armstrong calls the ING New York City Marathon “the hardest physical thing I’ve ever done”"

    Paul Hipp: METH AND MAN ASS | The Huffington Post

    Paul Hipp has an outrageous song: METH AND MAN ASS about a preacher from Colorado Springs on The Huffington Post.

    TrekEarth | Serpentine Bench Photo

     Gaudi's famous Serpentine Bench -- located in Park Guell, Barcelona. Posted by Picasa We are going to Barcelona for 10 days in February. Why? Well, though there is a marathon in the cards we also will partake of the fantastic city.

    Saturday, November 04, 2006

    Bush Names Exxon Chief to Chart America's Energy Future

    Bush Names Exxon Chief to Chart America's Energy Future: "Even for an administration dedicated to putting industry lobbyists in charge of the very agencies they have devoted their careers to undermining (coal and oil lobbyist J. Stephen Griles as Deputy Secretary of the Interior is one of dozens of examples), President Bush has recently outdone himself. He has named Lee Raymond, the retired chief of ExxonMobil, to head a key study to help America chart a cleaner course for our energy needs. Raymond currently chairs the National Petroleum Council (NPC), one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington...


    Environmentalists are outraged about the appointment of Lee Raymond. During his long tenure at ExxonMobil, the company spent $19 million on front groups designed to discredit the science on global warming. It also resisted funding clean energy alternatives and lobbied aggressively to drill in the Arctic Refuge."

    Staring into the abyss

     
    "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you," - Nietzsche.

    (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP.)

    Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan Posted by Picasa

    Top 10 Ways we know we have lost in Iraq

    Juan Cole as always, Informed Comment.

    Time for Rumsfeld to go

    An editorial scheduled to appear on Monday in Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times, calls for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

    The Ross Report

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