The data in this post has been rendered out of date due to improved methodology and updated results posted here. The description below is valid, but the data is not.

The role of the United States in climate disruption is far greater than most people realize. Not only does the U.S. emit more carbon dioxide (CO₂) than any other nation besides China, not only does the U.S. have one the highest per-capita emissions in the world, but the U.S. economy also accounts for a massive amount of emissions released by the rest of the world too. S&R has investigated just how much CO₂ the United States economy is actually responsible for, and the results suggest the real emissions are 20% greater than official estimates. Full Story »

The Washington Post reports that Al Gore and his Alliance for Climate Protection are launching one of the most expensive advocacy programs ever. The We campaign will run over the next three years and cost $300 million, of which about half has already been raised. The goal of the campaign is to change ingrained habits and behaviors directly if possible, but primarily through legislation.

“This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to be timid about enacting the bold changes that are needed until there is a change in the public’s sense of urgency in addressing this crisis,” Gore said. “I’ve tried everything else I know to try. The way to solve this crisis is to change the way the public thinks about it.” Full Story »

After the debacle of last September’s murder of Iraqi civilians, many Americans held out hope that Blackwater, former Navy Seal and right wing evangelical Erik Prince’s guns-for-hire to the Busheviks operation located in the Great Dismal Swamp of eastern North Carolina had been exposed and might be forced into decline and eventual disenfranchisement.

A new article in Mother Jones warns us not to be sanguine – or naive about such a happy possibility occurring. Like Phillip Morris, Blackwater has simply devised another name and plans to continue business – and, like Altria (not to be confused with nutria, although such plagues abound all around us, it seems), that business will be same as it ever was. Full Story »

The American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson has an op-ed in the Washington Post today outlining the nature of the coming recession, and how our economic response is going to have to change if we’re to fix it.

“Wait,” you’re thinking, “is he saying we’re in recession? Surely not! I know it’s a worry, but no one’s actually said it’s official yet.”

Let’s take a look at the facts, then: Full Story »

Both the city of San Francisco and California State Secretary Debra Bowen have sued electronic voting machine maker ES&S for selling uncertified and untested voting machines to California counties. The lawsuits come on the heels of Bowen ordering thousands of the machines decertified for basically being crap in a box. Bowen is seeking $15 million in damages from her own lawsuit, and the City by the Bay’s additional suit could pile millions more on top of that.

How did this ever come to pass? Full Story »

There were periods when I didn’t think that. Are things ever going to settle down? When is some normalcy going to settle in in your life? It never really does.

— Vietnam War veteran Mike Kentes, who attended the Nov. 13, 1982, dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, says he believes he is better for his service although did not realize that until later in life.

I often wonder, if I hadn’t served, what would I have missed? I think my life became richer. You learn about yourself. . . . I know who I am.

— Vietnam War veteran Hugh M. Jordan, who attended the Nov. 13, 1982, dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.

— Ho Chi Minh, founder and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, to the French in 1946.
Full Story »

In response to my criticism of a policy paper decrying paper audit trails for electronic voting, report author Daniel Castro claimed that I wasn’t addressing all the tenets of his argument and wanted me to take a closer look at his work (the paper can be found here). I’ll answer each of his comments in turn: Full Story »

Advice for Sen. Hillary Clinton: Don’t make promises you can’t (won’t? forgot to?) keep.

Sen. Clinton, who now doubles as a presidential candidate, showed up four years ago in Buffalo, N.Y., in my back yard bringing with her a company that promised it might create up to 100 news jobs.

New York state has “lost 26,344 manufacturing jobs and 810 manufacturers since August of last year.” Western New York has been hit particularly hard, losing 3,000 manufacturing jobs — the good-paying kind — in the past year.

So anyone who promises to create jobs in and around Buffalo is literally promising to throw life preservers to men and women drowning in a job-loss nightmare.

So as a candidate for re-election to the Senate and in midst-dance about whether she’d run for president, Sen. Clinton brought to town Tata Consultancy Services and its promises of job creation.

A reporter for the Buffalo News called the local office of Tata recently and just asked, so, how my workers you got? “Ten.” Yep. Just 10. (Here’s a tip to politicians. Don’t give precise numbers. They can be checked.) And the PR hit gets worse …
Full Story »