Category: News

Google is probably planning to enhance its navigation service, Google Maps, since it has recently purchased the online travel guide Ruba, which is a dedicated community to provide visitors with journey reviews and visual guides created by other travelers. No details have been revealed about this acquisition, other than a blog post notify… (read more)

You had to wonder when it would happen.  That moment when someone would take us from talk of how to prevent climate change to acknowledging that it was here already, here to stay, and that it had — and would continue — to irrevocably foreclose on many of the opportunities humanity has taken for granted for millennia.

Figures it would be Bill McKibben. His first book, The End of Nature was one of the earliest to introduce global warming into popular culture. His latest book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Hot New Planet, lays out our grim new reality relentlessly (excerpt here). Yet it is not, fundamentally, a pessimistic book.

McKibben’s premise, that we’re already on a new and different planet just as surely as if we’d boarded a spaceship en masse and arrived at a new world, is presented convincingly.

This new world is less friendly, less accommodating, less commodious, just when we needed the old Earth to be more benign.

If you are a regular reader of Climateprogress, you already know we’re now inhabiting an alien place but McKibben’s book is still a must read.

For one thing, he has a knack for expressing complex scientific issues in ways that are accessible to the general public, often in sound bites, and in the age of Twitter this is increasingly the lingua franca of social discourse and cultural exchange – for good or ill.

Here are a few gems:

We’re running Genesis backward, decreating.

Decreating.  My spell check wants to reject that word, yet it is too apt to discard.  It is precisely what we’re engaged in.

Or take this example of ultimate irony McKibben uses with great skill to drive home how lemming-like our behavior has been on our trip to Planet Eaarth.  It appeared in Australian papers back in June of 2009:

New construction plans for the World’s largest coal export facility had been quietly altered to raise the structure two or three meters for fear of rising sea levels.

And yes, it’s true that lemmings don’t actually commit mass suicide, but some myths are too valuable to discard – besides, it appears that people do.

In describing how we’ve completely overshot any hope of preserving the old Earth, McKibben almost makes this stuff funny:

We have, in short, goosed our economy with one jolt of Viagra after another, anything to avoid facing the fact that our reproductive days were passed, and hence constant and unrelenting thrust was no longer so necessary.  (I suspect global warming is the planetary equivalent of the dread “erection lasting more than four hours” that we’re warned about …)

Or take this passage, where he skillfully lampoons the whole consumer excess that brought us to Eaarth when he notes the effect of $4.00 a gallon gas:

Suddenly, in fact, you felt a little less confident that you were an Explorer, a Navigator, a Forrester, a Mountaineer, a Scout,  a Tracker, a Trooper, a Wrangler, a Pathfinder, a Trailblazer. You all of a sudden were in Kansas or maybe in New Rochelle – not Durango, or Tahoe, or Denali, or the Yukon. Discovery and Escape and Excursion suddenly seemed less important than the buzz-killing fact that it took a hundred bucks to fill the tank.

Yes, he actually entertains us while mapping out our collective trip to perdition. No mean feat.

He holds out hope for a world that is richer in some ways than the one we left behind.  A world where community matters, where the scale is manageable, and where connections between people and the land are stronger, if less global.  A world, McKibben points out, that is not like Freidman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded. The time when we could grow green and maintain and expand our current globalized consumer economy came and went, according to McKibben.  On the less commodious Eaarth, the investments to do so are simply too staggering; the paucity of natural capital upon which to do it, too scant; and the share of capital spent just coping with what we’ve wrought, too high.

To a lot of global warming luminaries his message will feel like a cold mackerel slapped across their collective cheek.  Growth is civilization’s drug of choice, and like any addict, we will fight with tooth and claw to keep partaking of it.

But McKibben makes his case convincingly.  He invokes the much maligned  Limits to Growth and the Club of Rome (which, it turns out wasn’t wrong in its prognostications, merely off by a couple of decades), Jared Diamond’s Collapse and the relentless litany of facts that describe the detritus of the old Earth that is even now washing up on our shores.

But McKibben doesn’t advocate obsessing on our collapse – which he says gives us only two choices: “Either you’ve got your fingers stuck firmly in your ears or you’re down in the basement oiling your guns” – rather he calls on us “… to choose, instead, to manage our descent.”  To “… aim for a relatively graceful decline” (emphasis is McKibben’s).

While McKibben is standing on firm ground for most of Eaarth, he does make one misstep.  In recommending a world that is more local — in which provision of food, energy, raw materials and goods are distributed, not centralized — McKibben maintains that political power must be similarly dispersed.  He suggests that our institutions should be scaled to our technologies.  Yet managing a “graceful decline” or even a steady state economy will be the greatest collective challenge humanity has ever taken, and it is one we must take together. To presume that the actions of thousands of small entities can effect such a change — or that we can count on every one of them to do it — is to ignore most of human history.  Any strategy that invests most of the responsibility for change to a bunch of individual and essentially autonomous entities runs smack into Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons.

If humanity is to make a transition as profound as McKibben says we must, then we need even stronger institutions at both the national and international level.

The world, including many who have been tireless advocates of climate action, will likely reject McKibben’s diagnosis and his prescription — hoping against hope that we can return to Earth and have what we’ve always had by slapping a green veneer over the massive consumption machine that is our contemporary economy. But they fool only themselves. We are now on planet Eaarth, and much of out talent, capital and time will be spent coping with this harsher, less forgiving new world.

Regular CP book reviewer John Atcheson, has more than 30 years in energy and the environment with government, private industry, and the nation’s leading think tanks.  He is working on his own novel about climate change.

Related Post:

• Bill McKibben on ‘Eaarth’ Day

Traveling is tiring!
Sunday morning we made it to Washington, DC for my nursing conference. Like I said, 7,000 critical care nurses; truly amazing.
As some of you may remember, I won an all-expense paid trip from a scholarship at my hospital. I was more than grateful to receive this wonderful opportunity. Also, I was way, way more than grateful to be staying at the GRAND HYATT!!
We walked passed many hotels in DC on our voyages to the monuments, and we both concluded that no other hotel was as swanky and awesome as ours…

More photos from DC later.
Let’s get to the good stuff, besides nursing/nation’s capital.
Triathlon training!
Yesterday I started week 4 of the couch to 5k program. It was definitely the most difficult run yet. We had to run 3 minutes, walk 90 seconds, run FIVE minutes, walk 2 and a half minutes, and then repeat that AGAIN. Let me tell you, during that last 5 minute run, I was dying. I read all of these blogs of people running marathons and they run forever, but five minutes for me is a huge, huge deal. I kept telling myself, “Pain is temporary, Quitting lasts forever.” It actually worked, too because just the thought of quitting and feeling bad about myself is enough motivation to help me tolerate being hot and out of breath! Since the beginning of the program, I have definitely advanced because there is no way I could have run for 5 minutes straight during week 1!! no way!

After my run, I had one goal in mind: clip-in pedals+shoes for my bike!
I thought about it constantly during my trip.

The bike shop was helpful and the dude let me try on a bunch of shoes. I decided on black so they won’t look so dirty!

He installed everything for me, then gave a small demonstration and set me on my way outdoors! I was so nervous!! I felt like a bird leaving the nest, thinking, “wait, you’re not coming with me? waaah.” But I put on a brave face and went to the back of the building with less cars.
For the first minute or two, I could not clip in. I just couldn’t “find it,” but once I got over the initial panic of feeling like a loser, I clipped in fine and began to ride. WOW!! I LOVE THEM. So much more efficient and comfortable!!
After riding around for a bit, I asked if he would watch me ride and tell me if my seat should be adjusted. He happily obliged and raised my seat probably over an inch more.

Does this make me hardcore now??? 🙂

I’m about to go on my first ride with my new pedals this morning. My goal is 12 miles under 60 minutes.
Wish me luck!

ps: I would also like to officially ANNOUNCE that I have officially gone vegetarian! It’s been a gradual process and for the past probably month I have been following a vegetarian diet, but now I am making more of a constant effort. I think that visiting the farm, and reading, “Eating Animals” definitely solidified my decision to actually label myself. As you may remember, I did not want to label myself before. So yes, *stands up* hello, I’m Nicole, and I’m a vegetarian. *sits down*

The U.S. Senate has approved the financial regulation bill (59 votes for and 39 against) performing one of the objectives of President Barack Obama. President Barack Obama acknowledged that “Americans should not pay for the mistakes of Wall Street. Our goal is not to punish the banks, but to protect American citizens,” Obama acknowledged. So, four Republicans, 53 Democrats and two independents joined to pass what is considered the biggest reform in the system of regulation of U.S. institutions since the Great Depression of the 30s.

The Democratic majority leader Harry Reid in the Senate said that “the Financial-Bill that passed today (Thursday night) contains a message for Wall Street… make it clear that they can not return to bet with other people’s money.” He tells them that the days when companies were “too large to permit collapse are over,” he explained.

Republicans have sought to delay and soften the project in recent months in the negotiations and discussions behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, saying it was a government move to tighten the purse to the private sector. This law will give more power to the Federal Reserve as a chief of police to possible risky investment decisions taken by banks. Meanwhile, also creates a new independent entity, Office of Consumer Financial Protection, which will establish the rules for mortgages, student loans and credit cards to prevent abuse.

Among the key points of the reform, which strengthens the supervisory role of state agencies and provides more checks on Wall Street, are the following:

Financial regulation. The rule creates a single regulatory board and gives the Federal Reserve new powers on major financial companies.

Crisis Management. The law focuses the regulatory authority and gives the government more powers for intervention, fragmentation and/or liquidation of banks or financial institutions to collapse, without mechanisms to rescue at the expense of taxpayers.

Financial stability. The new Supervisory Board of the Financial Stability Forum, comprised of various regulatory agencies and chaired by the Treasury secretary, will monitor the risks caused by large and complex financial institutions. This nine-member board may recommend that the Federal Reserve to impose stricter rules on capital, or fragmentation of signatures.

Consumer Protection. An Office of Consumer Financial Protection to monitor banks with more than 10,000 million in assets.

Derivatives. Places limits on the operations that banks can do with “derivatives”, such as packages of mortgage insurance and default swaps to which they blame for much of the financial crisis.

High-risk funds. The “hedge funds” that operate more than 100 million dollars will be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Related posts:

1. All 41 GOP Senators United to Oppose Financial Reform Bill
2. Senator Grassley Forgets GOP, Backs Derivatives Curbs With Democrats
3. Wall Street Protesters Fired Up Over Big Banks

Financial Reform Won’t Alter Capitalism’s Icarus Trajectory
Perhaps the most troubling reality in the 21st century is that our economics now dictates our cultural values, rather than the reverse, where we the people would decide how resources, production and mutual prosperity should be systematized to achieve the best society for all. By Stuart Whatley

Perhaps the most troubling reality in the 21st century is that our economics now dictates our cultural values, rather than the reverse, where we the people would decide how resources, production and mutual prosperity should be systematized to achieve the best society for all.

Related Entries

• May 21, 2010 Making Sense of the Financial Reform Bill
• May 20, 2010 Live Chat: Robert Scheer on Rand Paul

James Carville Takes On Obama On Oil Spill: He’s ‘Risking Everything’ With ‘Go Along With BP Strategy’
Democratic strategist James Carville and MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews, two reliable supporters of President Barack Obama, have issued withering critiques of the administration’s handling of…

HUFFPOST HILL – MAY 21, 2010
Dems want Wall Street reform signed by July 4th, but the fireworks won’t stop until the midterms. Everyone will be taking a hit of that…

Joseph A. Palermo: And Carter Thought He Faced National Malaise
The spectacle of British Petroleum literally killing off the Gulf of Mexico before our eyes while the Obama Administration apparently believes that BP is honorable…

Richard Blumenthal Wins Connecticut Democratic Nomination, Linda McMahon Wins Republican Nomination
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut Republicans have endorsed former World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Chris Dodd….

Fox?falsely suggests?financial reform to blame for market drops

Fox & Friends repeatedly falsely suggested the stock market declines in the U.S. and Asia were solely in response to the Senate passing financial reform, despite the fact that guest Stuart Varney said the drops were “not about” the legislation. Indeed, the declines are largely blamed on economic instability in Europe.

Fox & Friends blames market drops on financial reform 

Carlson: “At first blush the markets don’t like it at all.” Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson stated on May 21, “[w]ell the Senate makes a historic move in other news, and at first blush, the markets don’t like it at all. The Senate passed the president’s financial reform bill last night. This morning, Dow futures down 3. European markets are off about 20 and the Asian markets are down about 10.”

Doocy: “So far this morning, the markets haven’t really reacted positively to” financial reform. Co-host Steve Doocy reported later in the program, “[i]n a late night session, the U.S. Senate has approved an historic crackdown on financial reform. And so far this morning, the markets haven’t really reacted positively to it. The Dow futures are down about 10. European markets are off about 1 1/2 percent and the Asian markets already closed down a little better than 2 percent because of the sell off here in the United States yesterday.”

Varney told Fox & Friends the market decline was “not about” financial reform

Varney: Stock market drop was “not about” financial reform. During the program, Doocy stated, “Meanwhile, yesterday, the stock market crashed as the Senate passed that bill that clamps down on Wall Street. A coincidence?” Doocy then asked Fox business analyst Stuart Varney, “Are these connected or are they two separate things?” Varney stated:

VARNEY: Largely separate. Largely separate.The big decline in the stock market, 1,000 points down, by the way, in a couple of weeks, that’s everything to do with the American situation that is a slow recovery with no jobs, some say the failure of Obama’s economic policies, and Europe, collapse in Europe, chaos in Europe. This financial regulation reform bill, that really hasn’t had that big of an impact on the stock market. It’s not about that.

Varney: Friday’s activity is a “replay of yesterday.” Later on America’s Newsroom, Varney stated that Friday’s drop is a “replay of yesterday in many respects” and that “[e]verybody’s nervous because you’ve got chaos in Europe, a weak U.S. economy”:

VARNEY: If it were open for trading right now, the Dow would be below 10,000. It will be off around 85, 90 points. You’re seeing a replay of yesterday in many respects. Oil is down, gold is down, the stock market is down, but you’ve got Treasury bond prices way up. Now that’s a technical thing but it means there’s a flight to safety. Everybody’s nervous because you’ve got chaos in Europe, a weak U.S. economy, flooding to safe havens like the U.S. treasury market. That’s what’s happening now.

Reports: Current market declines primarily due to European economic instability

WSJ: Market decline is ”an accumulation of worrisome developments, primarily out of Europe.” The Wall Street Journal reported May 21:

New worries about the health of the global economy flared Thursday, driving U.S. stocks to their first official correction since the bull market began last March, roiling credit markets and causing big swings in currencies.

[…]

There was no one particular piece of news that drove Thursday’s market swoon. Instead, investors said it was an accumulation of worrisome developments, primarily out of Europe, where officials are struggling to convince the market they have the Greece crisis under control. Worries mounted that the troubles may spread beyond Europe to stymie growth elsewhere. And China’s effort to tighten monetary policy has made investors increasingly nervous about growth slowing in that country.

Concerns are building that the progress made in pulling the global economy out of recession is slipping away. That contrasts with the sentiment this time last year when central banks and governments seemed to be working effectively together to stabilize the markets and economy.

NY Times: ”Stocks on Wall Street were unsettled in early trading on Friday following declines in Europe and Asia.” The New York Times reported on May 21 that, “[s]tocks on Wall Street were unsettled in early trading on Friday following declines in Europe and Asia amid continued fears that the debt crisis could undermine the economic recovery in the euro zone and perhaps beyond”:

The decline in Europe came even as German lawmakers voted to approve their country’s share of the nearly $1 trillion rescue deal to save the euro and contain the debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell below 10,000 within minutes of the opening bell, declining 143.59 points, or 1.4 percent, before regaining some ground. Shortly before 10 a.m., both the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Nasdaq composite index crept into positive territory.

The last time that the Dow closed below 10,000 was Feb. 8, when the index finished at 9,908.39. The reason for the decline back then: Greece’s debt crisis.

“Certainly when you saw Europe stall you knew it wasn’t going to be pretty,” said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners, speaking soon after the opening. “I expect there to be more of the same today,” with riskier assets selling off.

NY Times: “[B]iggest factor unnerving markets” was fear that European economic stability “might spill to the United States.” The New York Times also reported in another May 21 article that “traders and analysts said the biggest factor unnerving markets was the continuing prospect that European governments might not have done enough to stem the panic over Greece and other heavily indebted nations, and that their problems might spill to the United States, affecting the pace of economic recovery.” From the article: 

Stock markets in Asia fell sharply in early trading on Friday after continuing declines on Wall Street and in Europe.  

Fears that the fragile economic recovery in the United States might be threatened by the financial and political crisis inEurope gripped Wall Street on Thursday, sending the stock market into a sharp decline and leaving anxious traders wondering where the pain might stop, The New York Times’s Mark MacDonald reported.

[…]

Nagging worries that Europe’s debt crisis could spread, compounded by uncertainties over financial regulation on both sides of the Atlantic, have set investors on edge the world over.

[…]

But traders and analysts said the biggest factor unnerving markets was the continuing prospect that European governments might not have done enough to stem the panic over Greece and other heavily indebted nations, and that their problems might spill to the United States, affecting the pace of economic recovery.

Some economists warn, for example, that weakness in Europe’s economies combined with the ongoing appreciation of the dollar against the euro could hurt American exports.

The Times also reported that ”uncertain progress of financial reform in the United States” and in Germany, the labor strike in Greece, and violence and political tension in Asia were also partially responsible.

Bloomberg: Stocks fell “on concern that Europe’s debt crisis will slow global economic expansion.” Bloomberg reported on May 21 that, “[s]tocks fell for a seventh day and oil declined on concern that Europe’s debt crisis will slow global economic expansion. The euro erased gains that drove it to its strongest in a week.”

EXCLUSIVE Watch Hot New Twilight 4 Eclipse Leaked Preview Video Clip Here

(Sevensidedcube) Twilight Eclipse is very close to fans, and is almost here, still every new Twilight Eclipse Clip from movie makes fans day and they’re happy to get close to movie before it’s release. In this movie preview clip we get a bigger picture about Twilight Eclipse actually, the clip is about Edward fighting for love of Bella with Jacob.

Watch the new leaked Twilight Video and let us know what you think, who will Bella (Kristen Stewart) actually choose in movie? Will she end up with Jacob (Taylor Lautner) or she remains with the older love Edward (Robert Pattinson). We will see this but it’s not easy to predict Eclipse’ future as there will be the new movie called Breaking Dawn.

Volves or Vampires we’ll know this summer as Twilight Eclipse official movie theather release date is June 30 2010. Enjoy the Eclipse movie preview at the end of the post thanks to comingsoon.net. We’ll be here with Twilight news and updates in future too.

Related posts:

1. Twilight 3 Eclipse Official Poster Is Out
2. Watch Twilight Eclipse Hd Full Official Movie Trailer
3. Twilight Eclipse Shows 10-second Preview

Greek general strike: Is the Gaza flotilla caught in the middle?
Several friends of mine just left for Greece in order to join an eight-ship flotilla that plans to sail from Athens to Gaza at the end of May. The eight ships will be carrying humanitarian supplies designed to help break a four-year siege of the Gaza strip — or at least that was the plan. […]

Can Small Farms Survive?

Cross-posted from Food Politics. Many of us have been heartened to learn that the number of small farms in the U.S. is increasing for the first time in a century.  The latest Census of Agriculture reports more small farms in 2007 than in 2002. But the USDA, which tracks such things in reports such […]

Eco Factor: Wave power generator captures wave energy to produce electricity.

Aquamarine Power’s attempt to enhance its wave power technology resulted in a new wave power generator that produces 250% more electricity than its predecessor. Dubbed the Oyster 2, this wave power device is a buoyant, hinged flap which is attached to the seabed to capture energy found in nearshore waves and converts it into clean sustainable electricity.

(more…)

US Rejects Brazil, Turkish Iran Offer — Chooses The AIPAC Route
The Obama administration is essentially ignoring the Iranian nuclear deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded today by announcing that the United States has reached an agreement on sanctions with the other permanent members of…


Iran – United States – Brazil and Turkey – Hillary Rodham Clinton – Israel

Peter Beinart Unbound?
Anyone who actually writes anything about Israel that perfect strangers are likely to read had better believe he’s got the wisdom, pointillist clarity and courage to unmask others’ astigmatism, myopia and bad faith. Too often, though, the would-be Truth-teller, no…


Israel – Peter Beinart – Middle East – Warfare and Conflict – New York Review of Books

Think Twice on Iran
The conventional wisdom in Washington seems to be that the Iran-Brazil-Turkey deal to take about half of Tehran’s enriched uranium out of the country in exchange for access to fuel for a medical isotope reactor was merely a ploy to…

The LiberalOasis Radio Show: Pleasant Conversation With A Conservative Edition

Today’s LiberalOasis Radio Show podcast features our interview with Politics Daily’s Matt Lewis about the conservative reaction to the Kentucky and Pennsylvania primary elections. Plus, Traci Olsen and I discuss the Wall Street reform, the elections and the series finale of “Lost.”

You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3).

Rand Paul Cancels His Meet The Press Interview
Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul has been lampooned in recent days for his radical anti-government views. First, he expressed opposition to parts of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Today, he attacked President Obama’s criticism of BP as “un-American,” and refused to say whether or not the minimum wage is […]

Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul has been lampooned in recent days for his radical anti-government views. First, he expressed opposition to parts of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Today, he attacked President Obama’s criticism of BP as “un-American,” and refused to say whether or not the minimum wage is legal. MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell joked that Paul is the “gift that keeps on giving.”

But he is giving no more. He “simply does not want to answer direct questions about the proper role of the Federal government in regulating the private sector,” the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent noted. “He visibly bristles when asked to clarify his views on these matters,” Sargent added.

After his upset victory Tuesday night, Paul agreed to appear on NBC’s Meet The Press Sunday for what would surely be wide ranging interview that would delve into these issues:

But Meet The Press’ executive producer Betsy Fischer revealed an hour ago that Paul was “trying to cancel” his big interview:

The Washington Post reports that Paul has indeed canceled because “he’s had a long week.” A Paul spokesperson explained, “Rand did Good Morning America today, set the record straight, and now we are done talking about it. … No more national interviews on the topic.” Paul joins Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar as the only guests to cancel a Meet the Press interview in recent history.

As MSNBC host Joe Scarborough told ThinkProgress today, referring to Paul’s embarrassing interview with fellow host Rachel Maddow, “if a politician can’t handle an interview, they can’t handle the Senate.”

Texas Board Of Education: Jefferson Davis And Obama?s Middle Name Are Essential For Students To Learn
Today, the right-wing Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) will give final approval of content for state social studies curriculum. The standards will “dictate what is taught in all Texas schools and provide the basis for textbooks and student achievement tests over the next decade.” Yesterday, this unqualified board — which includes a woman who […]

Today, the right-wing Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) will give final approval of content for state social studies curriculum. The standards will “dictate what is taught in all Texas schools and provide the basis for textbooks and student achievement tests over the next decade.” Yesterday, this unqualified board — which includes a woman who thinks public education is a “tool of perversion” and a chairman whose real profession is a dentist — continued to inject their right-wing ideology into the state’s standards, pushing for inclusion of more conservatives, more Confederate glorification, and more distortion of progressive viewpoints.

Whether To Require Students To Learn Obama’s Middle Name: Republican David Bradley is one of the leaders of the SBOE’s far-right faction. Yesterday, he suggested that if students were going to learn about Barack Obama as the first African-American president, they should also learn his middle name — Hussein. However, fellow Republican Bob Craig objected, saying, “The intent of what you’re doing is pretty obvious, but I don’t think it is necessarily correct,” pointing out that other presidents like Kennedy and Reagan don’t have their middle names in the standards. Bradley eventually withdrew his amendment, and the board decided to list Obama as he is on the White House website: Barack H. Obama.

Elevating Confederate Leader Jefferson Davis To The Level Of Abraham Lincoln: There was “prolonged debate” yesterday over whether to “include Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address with a lesson on Abraham Lincoln’s philosophical views.” Far-right Republican Cynthia Dunbar said that excluding Jefferson would be an attempt to “whitewash” history. (TFN Insider adds, “But that’s what Davis’s address does! The address doesn’t even mention the reason southern states seceded: slavery.”) Eventually, the SBOE votes to keep in Davis and require students to “contrast” his speech to Lincoln’s speeches.

Requiring That Historical Figures — Except Conservative Ones — Must Be Dead For Students To Study Them: Yesterday, SBOE voted to strip United Farm Workers of America co-founder Dolores Huerta from a third-grade list of “historical and contemporary figures who have exemplified good citizenship.” Several officials argued that she is a socialist and therefore should be excluded. But perhaps the most blatantly biased objection came from Bradley, who said:

I am very reluctant to include persons who are still alive. By definition of “history,” you must be dead, because you never know when you might embarrass us later.

Watch the debate here:

Of course, the board has had no problem including Wallace Jefferson, the Republican chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, or right-wing figure Phyllis Schlafly.

This week, ThinkProgress spoke with Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau, two progressives who are running for seats on the SBOE. They both promised to try to undo any textbook changes the right-wing board approves.

James Cole nominated for No. 2 job at Justice Department
The White House nominated James M. Cole as deputy attorney general Friday, turning to a veteran Washington lawyer to fill a critical position that has been vacant for months.


United States Department of Justice – United States – Government – Justice Department – American International Group

Va. Politics: Bob McDonnell pick called ‘Jew counter’
Del. Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) said he and Del. David L. Englin (D-Alexandria), both of whom are Jewish, are scheduled to appear Friday morning on WTOP’s Politics Program with Mark Plotkin to denounce anew Fred Malek’s appointment to the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform and Restru…


Bob McDonnell – United States – Virginia – Politics – Republican

Corporate PACs betting on Republicans to regain control of Congress
Corporate America is gambling on the minority in its political giving this year, assuming that Republicans will win big in the November midterm elections, an analysis of campaign finance reports shows.


Political action committee – United States – Republican – Congress – Politics

My seventh hosted Point of Inquiry episode is now up–it’s with Michael Specter of The New Yorker, and yes, it is about denialism. You can stream it here, and download/subscribe here. Here’s the write up:
This week, we learned that J. Craig Venter has at long last created a synthetic organism—a simple life form constructed, for the first time, by man. Let the controversy begin—and if New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter is correct, the denial of science will be riding hard alongside it.
In his recent book Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, Specter charts how our resistance to vaccination and genetically modified foods, and our wild embrace of questionable health remedies, are the latest hallmarks of an all-too-trendy form of fuzzy thinking—one that exists just as much on the political left as on the right.
And it’s not just on current science-based issues that denialism occurs. The phenomenon also threatens our ability to handle emerging science policy problems—over the development of personalized medicine, for instance, or of synthetic biology. How can we make good decisions when again and again, much of the public resists inconvenient facts, statistical thinking, and the sensible balancing of …

While I’ve been on the hunt for the actual BlackBerry Pearl 9100 here in Canada, I’ve also been keeping my eye on ShopBlackBerry.com, which is RIM’s official accessory shop. I was curious to see exactly what accessories are going to be available from RIM for the new Pearl 3G 9100. Previously our friends at Accessorize Mobile have shown us the new OtterBox and Case-Mate accessories for the Pearl 3G, but we weren’t too sure what to expect on the OEM side of things. Continue reading to get a closer look at some of the new Pearl 3G accessories from RIM…

RIM has updated ShopBlackBerry.com to include the new Pearl 3G accessories, which will include three styles of skins, leather holsters, pouches, batteries and chargers. To my surprise RIM did not list the new USB power brick yet (so maybe it isn’t launching with the Pearl 3G?). As expected RIM did list the new “premium skin” which is a hybrid two layered skin, as well their normal “tough skin” and the new “embossed skins” which feature neat designs in the back. You can see all the new Pearl 3G accessories over at ShopBlackBerry.com.

You’re reading a story which originated at BlackBerrySync.com, Where you find BlackBerry News You Can Sync With…

This story is sponsored by the new BlackBerry Sync Mobile App Store. Grab your free copy today at www.GetAppStore.com from your BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Pearl 3G Accessories Now Listed on ShopBlackBerry.com

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A couple of big rulings on file-sharing in the US came within hours of each other and, despite the similarities of the two cases, but in keeping with recent history, they’re completely at odds. On the one hand, notorious BitTorrent search engine IsoHunt is basically forced to shut down in the US, on the other, equally notoriou… (read more)

Accompanied by actors Mike Myers and Antonio Banderas, the production of DreamWorks Animation, Shrek yesterday unveiled his stars on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, just one day before the premiere of “Shrek Forever After,” the fourth and final installment in the saga that is shown.

“Shrek Forever After,” coming to theaters in the U.S. today, in its cast reunites Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas, who lent their voices for the characters of Shrek, Donkey, Fiona and Puss in Boots respectively.

“Shrek Forever After” will be screened at four thousand 359 rooms, two thousand 373 in 3D, and according to experts, the film easily exceed $ 100 million in opening weekend.

With this landing, DreamWorks plans to keep the top of the ticket sells, which for two weeks is in the hands of Iron Man 2, starring Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson.

“Shrek Forever After” show Shrek the ogre in the mid-life crisis:  now, as a father of three children, mourn the loss of his wild days of youth where everyone feared him.

The evil sorcerer Rumpelstiltskin capitalize on this sentiment to make a deal with Shrek and as a result, the past will be altered so that Shrek will never be born and thus never marry his beloved Fiona.

Related posts:

1. Watch Shrek 4 Forever After HD Movie Trailer
2. Shrek 4: Shrek Forever After, The Final Installment
3. It’s All Ogre for Shrek

As you may know already, Bmw won the Nurburgring 24 Hour race last weekend and it appears that the Bavarian manufacturer wants to celebrate it with a limited edition of the M3 GTS.

Dubbed M3 GTS-R, the car will feature wider rear wheel arches leading into the side sills, a new set of y-shape design in 5-spokes which will be much lighter than the competition spec wheels, a new double lip front spoiler as well as an adjustable rear carbon fiber spoiler. The roof will be made of carbon fiber, as well as the front hood and rear deck lid. The lightweight glass will remain the same as on the standard GTS. Regarding the power, expect more as the German engineers are working hard on obtaining more from the 4.0-liter V8 engine which delivers 420 hp on the standard M3. The engine will be mated to the DCT transmission and the car could also use the incoming M5’s KERS regenerative braking and boost function. The design concept of this M3 will be finished in Stealth Frozen matte black with matching wheels.

[via m3post]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots