SEJ member Tom Yulsman
asks a question of Vice
President Gore in Madison.
Photo: Anne Minard.

The fate of the earth could end up determined by which tipping point is reached first: a physical shift that ushers in abrupt climate change with catastrophic consequences, or a social one, in which public attitudes rapidly coalesce around a mandate to address climate change. Or, neither could materialize, at least not imminently.

Al Gore believes the U.S. is on the brink of a political tipping point on the climate issue. Speaking to the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference in Madison, Wisc., last Friday, the former vice president said, “The potential for change can build up without noticeable effect until it reaches a critical mass. I think that we are very close to that tipping point.” Full Story »

Well, I didn’t expect my return to Scroguedom after six months would be in the form of a personal screed, and on domestic topics no less (as in “household”). However, as the feminist mantra of the 1970s claimed, “the personal is political,” a statement as salient today as it was then.

I’d like to be writing about clean energy or debating health care policy. I wish I could add something astute to the discussion about the future of democracy in Iran. But to do so would mean investing the time to follow these issues closely enough to have something worthwhile to add. And then there’s the time needed to actually write something. I’ve already got four or five unfinished posts languishing on my laptop.

Yet, in the words of my 14-year-old son this morning, who is angry at my asking him to pitch in around the house prior to the arrival of weekend guests, and who can’t understand why I won’t just drop everything to pick him up from the lake with his friends later today, I don’t have a “real job” — so why can’t I be like a good stay-at-home mom and craft my life exclusively around his? Full Story »

Merry Christmas to the readers of Scholars & Rogues! This is a personal greeting – and I thus hereby issue a disclaimer that it does not speak on behalf of nor represent the intentions or persuasions of all of my blogger colleagues here at our joint endeavor.

But I’d like to offer this wish of seasonal cheer, no strings attached. No agenda, no proselytizing, no offense. Just the outpouring of a full and warm heart on the 25th of December.

It is Christmas Day, and my heart’s naïve hope is that it could stand for what it is ought to be in the broadest cultural sense – an occasion to wish peace on earth and good will to all. Whether or not one believes in the incarnation of Jesus Christ as God come into human history, the nativity myth is filled with simple beauty, and the ancient yuletide traditions it has become associated with have for centuries celebrated the triumph of light over darkness in a bleak world. To say “Merry Christmas” is, for me, to affirm that light and share its spirit with others, whether or not we embrace the same religious practices or none at all. Full Story »

“Clean” Coal’s Dirtiest Secret: Part IV – final in a series

Coal River Mountain from Kayford
Mountain

Coal River Mountain is one of the highest and wildest peaks in West Virginia. Unlike much of the surrounding region, it is unscarred by surface mining. But Massey Energy and WV Governor Joe Manchin are out to change that. Subsidiaries of Massey propose to blow away 6,600 acres of Coal River Mountain — nearly 10 square miles — and the governor’s office has issued the permits. If the operation goes forward, one of the last remaining summits in the Coal River Valley will be leveled.

Despite an acclaimed local campaign to build a wind farm atop Coal River Mountain that would provide green jobs, tax revenues and sustainable energy for up to 150,000 homes for decades to come, state politicians know who lines their campaign coffers. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has rejected the public input of a majority of state citizens who support the wind project, in favor of Massey’s plans to begin imminent blasting.  But opponents are not giving up.  If anything, the fight for Coal River Mountain has only heightened attention and galvanized action. Full Story »

This article, third in a series on mountaintop removal coal mining, was originally titled “The poor are always downstream.” It must now be amended to add “when there is still a stream to be down from.”

In an act that puts a grossly ironic twist on its name, the Environmental Protection Agency has approved a repeal of the 25-year-old stream buffer zone rule, which prohibits surface coal mining within 100 feet of a flowing stream. The change, proposed by Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM), was finalized when it received written sanction from EPA on Tuesday.

The controversial move comes amid extensive opposition, one more last-minute effort by the Bush Administration to further erode a host of environmental regulations before its imminent departure.  This one promises disproportionate harm to some of the nation’s poorest citizens, if it’s allowed to stand. Full Story »

Over at Daily Kos, Kagro X has joined the cacophony of incredulous voices — including mine –commenting on the apparent fact that Sarah Palin did not understand that Africa is a continent and not a country:

“Think about what this means, and what almost happened to this country. Frankly, the people who knew this about her and were still directly responsible for ‘vetting’ her, putting her on the ticket, attempting to foist this idiot on the American people, and protecting her while there was still a chance (however theoretical) that she could become Vice President and possibly President of the United States ought to be arrested and tried for treason.”

While it is remarkable, indeed surreal, that a vice-presidential candidate could have been selected lacking knowledge of the world’s most basic political geography, it is also a testament to how grave the inadequacies of our education system are. Palin might be an anomaly as a governor, but as a citizen she most surely is not. Full Story »

New month, new president, new era, new Scrogue on the banner. If only Molly Ivins could have lived another 22 months. The proudly liberal Texas commentator, who died of cancer on Jan. 31, 2007 at 62, would have added so much irreverent wit to the punditsphere during an election season that took fodder to a whole new level — I can’t help but think of the fun she would have had with a moose-hunting, former beauty queen governor. She would also have had the rather twisted pleasure of seeing Shrub shrivel up in an ignominious end to one of the most debased presidencies of all time.

Ivins – populist wisecracker, incorrigible riler of conservatives, feisty foe of George Dubya Bush – was an ardent defender of democracy. And surely with the historic election of an African-American president outside the conventional boxes, she would have concurred that we were witnessing the democracy she cherished struggling back onto its wounded feet. Full Story »

It’s 7 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, the polls have closed here in Colorado, and I’ve just come home from a final neighborhood canvass — part of the Obama campaign’s last-ditch effort to round up any stragglers and make sure they get to the polls.

Most already had. And in more than one case, the person answering the door was not too happy to see me. One woman had gotten six phone calls today, and I was the third Obama volunteer to come to her door. Another man opened the door, looked at me and said, “Please do not ask my anything about voting,” and quietly shut the door in my face. Full Story »

I got this cartoon today from a Republican friend of mine in bright-red Orange County:

I know, I know, it’s supposed to be a bit of Halloween humor, and I’m not supposed to take it so seriously. But ever since John McCain seized on Barack Obama’s comment about spreading the wealth around, there has been a barrage of such sentiments that I find ugly.

Implicit in this “joke” is the assumption that any income redistribution through progressive taxation gives undeserved benefits to people who don’t work hard or make a contribution to society. The flip side to this pretentious smugness is a suggestion that rich people got that way through greater effort or superior character.  Frankly, I find that offensive.  And usually inaccurate. Full Story »

Mountaintop removal coal mining at Kayford Mountain, Boone County,
W. Va. Photo: Vivian Stockman, courtesy of SouthWings Air

Part II: Almost Heaven Level: The Mechanics of Moving Mountains

In the heart of Appalachia, knobs, gaps and hollers define the undulating green landscape. Life is old, travel is slow, and it’s a daunting job to get a bus full of journalists up the steep, rutted dirt road through Cabin Creek Hollow to Larry Gibson’s cabin on Kayford Mountain. But no photos or descriptions of the devastation we are about to witness can do justice to a close-up look at a mountaintop removal mining operation. That is why we are here. That is what Larry wants to provide for reporters on this Society of Environmental Journalists field trip to the coalfields of southern West Virginia in October 2008, in hopes that we will be a conduit for the story he spends his life telling. Full Story »

Part I: An Ugly Overview
A few days ago I stood on the rim of what was once Kayford Mountain in southern West Virginia. Razed, stripped and gutted, the mountain is now a 7,500-acre blast zone devoid of vegetation, a massive gray scar that looks like the surface of the moon.

Journalists survey a mountaintop removal mine operation at Kayford Mountain, WV. Photo: Dennis Dimick

Some 470 mountaintops in central Appalachia look like Kayford. Once blanketed in hardwood forest, their ancient slopes laced with clear streams and inhabited by more species than any place outside the tropics, nearly a million acres of these mountains have become casualties of America’s addiction to cheap energy. Full Story »

2 Timothy 1:7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

James Dobson and the Christian Right activists at Focus on the Family seem to have forgotten that scriptural promise.  Then again, there is a great deal of the Bible they seem to have forgotten, or chosen to blatantly ignore.  Their real “focus” is on scare tactics to frighten conservative evangelicals away from any flirtation with voting for Barack Obama, who may as well be the devil incarnate masquerading beneath a veneer of seductive charisma.

The latest instrument in this campaign of emotional intimidation is a “Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America,” [download PDF at website] produced by Focus on the Family Action, the PAC arm of Dobson’s organization.  Full Story »

In yet another incredible interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric Tuesday evening, Sarah Palin tackled a response to Couric’s question as to whether climate change is “man-made.”

In a manner imitable only by Tina Fey, Palin gave this response after Couric pressed the question:

“You know, there are man’s activities that can be contributed to the issues that we’re dealing with, with these impacts.  I’m not going to solely blame all of man’s activities on changes in climate because the world’s weather patterns are cyclical, and over history we’ve seen changes there.”

It was what Palin said next that made me hit replay twice to make sure I heard her correctly:

“But it kind of doesn’t matter at this point as we debate what caused it.  The point is, it’s real, we need to do something about it.”

Well, at least the governor of Alaska sees that imperative as her state’s permafrost is melting, glaciers are galloping backward, and polar bears are drowning – though the latter is no motivator for Palin, who opposes listing them as an endangered species so they’ll pose no impediment to accelerating oil and gas development. But to suggest that the cause of the unprecedented heating-up of our planet is irrelevant? Full Story »

“This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country.” 

That’s John McCain’s take on why the House failed to pass a bipartisan Wall Street bailout bill today, according to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s economic adviser.  The McCain camp cites Nancy Pelosi’s “strongly worded partisan speech” that “poisoned the vote” as the deal-breaker.

So, let me see if I understand this correctly.  McCain’s campaign theme is “Country First.”  McCain, in step with President Bush, championed the passage of this compromise bill.  And a host of House Republicans refused to get on board because they were upset at Pelosi’s rhetoric, so they sulked, rejected their own president’s impassioned insistence, and voted no. (Identify them here.)

Legitimate concern about the bill’s specifics aside, if that is indeed why it failed, McCain is shooting himself in the foot to suggest that such pettiness reigns among Republicans that they cannot– or will not – rise above partisan sensitivities for the nation’s welfare.

Full Story »

That’s the debate I’ve been having with an old college friend whom I’ve recently reconnected with. He’s become a Catholic since we knew one another back in the ‘80s, and is a deep-thinking, deeply principled man. He will not be voting for Barack Obama in November. Nor will he be voting for John McCain. He will vote, but he will cast a blank ballot. He urges me, if I am serious about my moral commitments, to do likewise. Neither candidate, in his opinion, cares enough about ‘life issues’ to merit an affirmative vote.

The New York Times reports that other Catholics are struggling with what do with in the upcoming election. The most troublesome issue for many remains abortion. Some, like Joe Biden, believe we must make accommodations for differing views in a pluralistic society, despite his own embrace of personhood at conception. Others, like my old friend, see Biden’s support for legal access to abortion as no different from espousing the Holocaust – if not in deed, then in complicity.

Can a Catholic possibly vote for a Democratic candidate who has regularly received a 100% approval rating from Planned Parenthood and indeed, as a state senator, voted against an Illinois version of the Born Alive Infant Protection bill passed by Congress? Can I, as a person of faith who believes all life is sacred? I am going to answer ‘yes,’ and in so doing, proclaim myself also a utilitarian and a realist, with all the moral conundra that pragmatism involves. Full Story »

If this isn’t more evidence that Sarah Palin was chosen as a showy campaign bauble, rather than a serious candidate for second-in-command of the United States of America, then I guess my naivete rivals that of her most zealous supporters.  Just read an AP story up at MSNBC.com that says — surprise — Palin will be heeling right at McCain’s side, following her quick trip home, for the next couple of weeks on the campaign trail. And so far, she’s turned down any further interviews with the press following her chat with ABC’s Charlie Gibson tomorrow.

Perhaps I sound uncharacteristically snide in making an (intentional) animal comparison, but I’m sorry, the disingenuousness of the McCain campaign has just done my civility in at the moment.  The doublespeak continues: on the one hand, her extensive executive experience is supposed to make her perfectly competent to wrangle with President Putin, her neighbor across the Bering Sea — not to mention affairs of state in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea — yet when it comes to talking on her own to voters, or especially to journalists, well, that’s far too dangerous territory to navigate by herself. Full Story »

Now this is truth that needs telling.

Even though Obama’s tax plan would cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans, polls show that more than half — 53 percent — believe John McCain when he says a vote for Obama is a vote to raise taxes. Unless you’re in that lofty top 5 percent, you’re in for a break. How much? Go here to have yours instantly figured out, using computation by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.

Once you’re there, take a look at the graphs that show exactly who will get what benefits under an Obama vs. a McCain administration (you’ll need to click the link that shows how your result was calculated).  It’s clear whose pockets the McCain campaign is in.

And while you’re at it, be sure to Digg the site — obamataxcut.com — so the McCain operatives can’t squelch it. A link is available when you get there.

Isn’t it ludicrous even to ask such a question? Apparently not, in the presidential race of 2008.

I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks absorbing and reflecting on the drama of the conventions. I got so whupped up alongside the head with the Palin pick, followed by incredulity at the delirious embrace by her party, that I’m only just now managing to mobilize some reactions. One of the strongest is that I don’t want – and we don’t need – “just a regular Joe – or Jane” – at the helm of this nation, whether as president or vice president. Full Story »

I’m a recent addition to the S&R line-up since my first guest appearance at the DNC, and I hope I can run with these clever, yappy dogs. I’ve been worried that I’m not enough of a pitbull – unlike Sam, whose ‘reality check’ radar functions more forcefully than mine, or Brian, whose critical slant isn’t compromised by pesky emotions. I, on the other hand, found myself inspired by the multitude of earnest political conversations buzzing around Denver last week (even while ABC reporters were getting arrested trying to unveil connections between lobbyists, big money and Dem lawmakers), and moved deeply while listening to Barack Obama energize 80,000 people inside Denver’s football stadium last Thursday night.

I felt like I’d been to church. Full Story »

… I have no doubt she would be getting roundly condemned by the Republicans, and especially conservative evangelicals, about her “poor choices” — and her daughter’s. Since when did the “values voters” crowd decide to rally behind not just a working mom, but one with so many competing family concerns? They would be vilifying her if she were Obama’s VP pick, accusing her of neglecting her large family, her special-needs child, and her teenage daughter who would clearly prompt the question, ‘if she can’t keep things in order at home, how can she run the country?’ Full Story »